Tag Archives: intro

Introduction: JJ

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Hi all! My name is JJ. My family is from Iran but I was born in Australia and we all moved to the US when I was one (so no Australian accent unfortunately). I am a first year MALAS (Masters in Liberal Arts and Sciences) student and I graduated from SDSU last semester as an interdisciplinary studies major with a minor in philosophy. I love learning about how everything is related with each other and strongly believe nothing is produced in complete isolation.

I love social theory and hope to become a sociology professor one day. Dr. Choi in the sociology department has been a major influence in the way I think. I am interested in (but know embarrassingly little) about Postmodernism. I am considering writing my thesis regarding the social construction of reality and what it means to have “invisible” (non-linguistically defined) experiences.

I currently work as an A/V technician for the Student Union. I love the job because, simply said, it’s a lot of fun. Being behind the scenes and working with fancy equipment on major events as a student feels like a huge privilege. I also work as a Gen S instructor for first year students living on campus. This is my first semester so it is a very new job to me but so far I’m really enjoying it!

On the side, I love to cook. My favorite thing to cook is steak but I love making intricate salads as well. One of my favorite parts of cooking is looking at what’s in the fridge and figuring out how to make something that tastes great–kind of like an episode of master chef.

I am really looking forward to this class because I love learning about context. I know very little about books as a concept and am excited to learn more about it!

Introduction – Alin Kilicoglu

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My name is Alin and I’m an international student from Germany. Back home I study Education at the University of Siegen, which is in the western part of the country. I’m now in my fourth year, and I hope to become a teacher in the future, because I really enjoy working with people and sharing knowledge.

One of the reasons I chose education is that I believe learning can open doors and change lives, and I’d love to support students in discovering their own strengths. I’m especially curious about how different cultures approach teaching and learning, which is also why studying abroad is so exciting for me.

Outside of class, I enjoy traveling and exploring new places, spending time with friends and reading. I also like cooking and watching movies. Being here gives me the chance not only to improve my English but also to connect with people from different backgrounds, which I really value.

Introduction

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Hi everyone! My name is Nina, I am a fourth year English and Comparative Literature major, however this is only my second year at San Diego State, I transferred here from Southwestern College after earning my Associates for English.

My goal is to finish earning my Bachelors this year and to hopefully enter an MA program next fall. With my degree I’d like to become a High School English teacher, however currently I am working at SeaWorld as an Educator, Narrator and Tour Guide.

I am so excited for this course and am looking forward to visiting special collections, I am glad to have the opportunity to be able to learn not only from Professor Pressman, but also from everybody in the class through these blog posts and group discussions.

Since this is a class all about books, I’d like to recommend my favorite book that I read this summer, Remarkably Bright Creatures, by author Shelby Van Pelt. It is a thoughtful and beautiful book about a Giant Pacific Octopus!

Intro: Vide!!

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Hi everyone!

I’m Vide! My name means “void” in French, “see” in Latin, and “willow” in Swedish. I usually go with the French pronunciation (like “veed”), because I think it sounds best with my last name. There’s no one “correct” pronunciation, though, and I also answer to just V. I’m good with pretty much any pronouns, but I tend to default to he/they.

I’m in the second year of my MFA in fiction writing. Last semester, I took Digital Humanities with Dr. Pressman, and started creating electronic literature. I started a work of interactive fiction in Twine, called “Bread and Circuits,” and submitted a demo version to the annual SDSU E-Lit Competition, where it received an honorable mention!

“Bread and Circuits” landing page.

After a whole semester immersed in the electronic world, I’m excited to spend more time living on the analog side! That’s not to say that there wasn’t plenty of analog book exploration last semester. We even got to visit Special Collections a few different times. The most memorable book I got to see (and touch! and take pictures of!) was a copy of The Malleus Maleficarum (the “hammer of witches”). It was written by an inquisitor of the Catholic Church during the Inquisition, who suggested brutal ways of prosecuting witches. It was controversial even in its own time for its brutality, but it was still used during and even after its time to inflict horrors on people.

And there are doodles in the margins…

a page of The Malleus Maleficarum with margins full of calligraphy doodles
pages of The Malleus Maleficarum with small stylized drawings of human hands pointing to important passages.
a page of The Malleus Maleficarum with notes in the margins
a page of The Malleus Maleficarum with small stylized drawings of human hands pointing to important passages
marginalia in The Malleus Maleficarum

It’s just something about those calligraphic figure-eight doodles (do those have a name?) covering that first page. This book is 500ish years old. Who drew the, and when? Was it a bored student? A priest testing a quill nib? An inquisitor, just doodling figure-eights in his spare time between torturing people?

When we get to Special Collections, make sure you look in the margins. There’s a lot to unravel.

Also, if you need help with WordPress, feel free to reach out to me!

Vide

Trinity Buck

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Hi everybody! I am beyond excited and honored to be back in one of Dr. Pressman’s classes! I am so excited to learn more about books!! especially in the time we are in right now, where books are being banned and voices are being hidden. Books really are time capsules in a way that technology will never be. I really believe in physical things like photographs, physical art, and books, because they are easier to preserve than anything online.

My name is Trinity, and I am a senior at SDSU! I am currently working on my early fieldwork hours because I am going to be applying for my teaching credential very soon! I want to either be a Middle school or High school English teacher! I also play the drums and sing in an all-girl pop-punk band called Girls Got Nerve! My best friend and I started this band together, and it is our pride and joy. Our mission is to spread female empowerment and motivate other girls to be themselves, be confident, know their worth, know they’re the prize, and value their female friendships. We love to spread positivity and just have fun and not care what people think! In my free time, I make sustainable merch for the band from thrifted items, write songs, play the drums and guitar, and play shows! You guys should follow us on insta: @girlsgotnerve to see our shows coming up!