Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

NOMAD Release

Katie D.

October 15, 2009 - 7:16 PM

If you have been reading my blogs over the past year, you are already very much aware of what the NOMAD magazine is, and what it has meant to me. If you missed all this, please see these blogs to catch up: Nomad Completed and Undead Update.  The short version is that NOMAD is a journal of undergraduate writers in Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon, and that publishing therein is a year-long process of creating a project and working in collaboration with graduate student mentors. There is a different theme each year, and each year roughly ten students are published after a grueling process of writing, editing, peer-reviewing, and presenting their papers and answering questions at a conference.

If this sounds like a huge commitment of time and energy, then you've got the right idea. This project was incredibly demanding, and filled a large part of my free time last year. Then after months and months of work, I had to wait through the whole long summer before seeing the final product.

But now it's here, sitting next to me! My first true publication: the first scholarly article written expressly for publication. My essay is entitled "La Llorona Cries for Me: Chicana Feminist Redefinitions of a Latin American Ghost." NOMAD 2009 had "The Undead" as the topic of papers. Thirteen of us went through this process, and we now have the physical proof of our labors.

Memorabilia of this momentous process adorns my room. I have multiple posters announcing NOMAD events from this last year. The most notable, of course, is the poster inviting the community to attend our conference and paper readings. Those posters might be a permanent part of my home decorating from now on, creepy undead pictures or not.

Added to this collection, I now have a copy of the journal, signed by all the contributors. It even has a sticker that says "Autographed Copy" on the front.

That's right: we signed autographs.

The journal is going up on a prominent shelf in my bedroom and will be staying on display for the rest of my life. Also on display is the poster announcing the release of NOMAD 2009, advertising yesterday evening's event.

This brings me to the event itself. The Release Party was held upstairs in the Duck Store, with snacks and mingling aplenty. After we gathered, Leah Middlebrook, the interim director of Comparative Literature, spoke about the NOMAD program, the value of collaborative efforts and the importance of encouraging undergraduate students to pursue research and publication in their areas of interest. After recognizing the contributors, their mentors, and other contributing faculty, she announced next year's NOMAD theme: trash.

That's right: trash. Garbage, refuse, waste. Trash.

Here's the thing. Comparative Literature is a discipline that is all about crossing boundaries. It explores "texts" in their contexts. That means applying psychoanalysis to literature, feminist theory to film, literary criticism to song, and postcolonial theory to paintings. "Text" is a flexible term, and any and all contextualizing and comparative efforts are encouraged.

Therefore, when a topic like "the undead" or "trash" is unveiled, it is an opportunity for students to stretch their imaginations and explore some unconventional topics. What's the point? The point is that each piece of art, each artifact that society creates, is a small representation of that culture, holding within it an essential piece of psychology, history, reform, or whatever. Nothing stands on its own. Nothing is without context. So students of comparative literature learn to look at every text we encounter as something more complicated and important than the brush strokes or metaphors alone.

A topic like "Trash" is a challenge. It is deliberately obscure, I think. Scholars of Comparative Literature seem to delight in the obscure, the unexpected. But after the announcement, I imagine that every person in the room had some kind of idea about what they could write, what texts and bits of garbage they could rake out for the purpose of the next publication.

I am excluded from re-participating in NOMAD because it is such an honor, and such an opportunity to work closely with a graduate student mentor. The comparative literature department wants to expand the participants to younger students or other writers who have not yet had the chance. I have an idea for a piece that I might expand into an essay for publication elsewhere. Here are some ideas for "Trash" that flashed through my mind at the moment of announcement:

-An examination of "Trashy Romance Novels" and their place in US culture

-"Found Art," such as is posted on certain websites, where people take pictures of discarded or lost items of beauty, such as love notes from trash cans or beautiful graffiti in inaccessible places. Why do we create art that no one sees? Why would art be thrown away? What does it mean when it is rescued?

-(this one is my favorite) Oscar the Grouch! Who is this guy, anyway? In the context of a children's show, what is this puppet's purpose?

So there you are, readers. I could turn any one of these into a 12-15 page paper, have it peer edited, and present it as original research. And roughly twelve of my literary peers will do so in the next year.

But back to the release party. After the announcement, we mingled for a while. We talked about our papers, we talked about our classes. We spoke with professors and briefly with UO President Richard Lariviere. People had us sign their copies of the journal. We ate snacks. We talked about nerdy literary things.

I thought again about the process I underwent in writing this paper. It was a huge step for me: it was the first essay I had essentially created for myself, from topic to public reading. It was also the first time I had had editing help from someone trained in literary criticism. I learned a lot about writing and about my own style. Most importantly, I learned again about how important it is to me to link literature and art with social movements and social justice. That is the most interesting element to me: that somehow we create art that reacts with the culture that created it, and together art and culture change societies. That was what my "La Llorona" essay was about: how a social movement (Chicana feminists) were re-interpreting an ancient myth to fit a set of modern cultural changes in the interests of human rights and social justice.

I think I'll be spending the rest of my life working in the areas of social justice and written art. So I've begun! With an autographed copy of NOMAD in hand, I am ready for the next challenge, the next project.

Here we go.