COLLOQUY

"Truly cutting-edge research finds its way into print, after being evaluated by peers, and this should be respected by universities and administrators enamored with the glitz of digital submission. Wonderful graphics and bird calls do not critical research make! Let's make sure we put our best (virtual) foot forward before requiring theses and dissertations in digital formats."

I feel as though I could begin any number of places here, perhaps by stating that no one with whom I have ever discussed the subject of ETDs has ever suggested that "wonderful graphics and bird calls" do make for critical research; or perhaps by pointing out that the logistics of the "submission process" for ETDs, as pioneered by Virginia Tech, is a long way from "digital glitz."

But I think there are probably more important assumptions lurking here, and I respond not so much to single Eric out personally, but because I suspect his views are shared by others looking in on the discussion here. The suspicion, for example, that any deviation from dissertational decorum must represent some kind of sham, an attempt to smuggle shoddy work past a committee under the smoke and mirrors of "bells and whistles" (to mix a cliche). Can we not acknowledge that hyperlinks, images, sound, video, and three-dimensional models can contribute substantively to the work of the dissertation? Or if we cannot acknowledge that, can we at least acknowledge that the monographic one-inch margined format of most dissertations written today is itself the product of specific historic and institutional circumstances governing academic writing practices? (It's interesting to note that according to UMI, the first doctorate awarded by Harvard was for a six page handwritten thesis.)

Let me close by briefly taking up Eric's contention that "truly-cutting edge research finds its way into print." This teleology seems to come of an unfortunate conflation of positivism and nostalgia. Why assume that the academic establishment is so finely-tuned as to ensure the timely publication of important research? And why assume that print has a monopoly on the cutting-edge? Check out the current issue of the peer-reviewed electronic journal Postmodern Culture, which is devoted to film studies. It features digitized video side-by-side with commentary and analysis of the footage.

No paper cuts there!

-- Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Doctoral Candidate, University of Virginia (posted 2/23, 9:50 a.m., E.S.T.)

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