2021, 2024
Maria Dikcis
Dissertation Abstract
"Ink, Wave, Signal, Code: Multiethnic American Poetry's Media Ecologies After 1965"
This project investigates the influence of diverse print, recording, broadcast, and digital technologies on multiethnic poetry in the United States, from the cultural nationalist movements of the 1960s to our Internet-saturated present. Recent scholarship linking poetry to media studies has predominantly attended to Anglo-American or European traditions and their relationship with pre-WWII technologies such as radio and film. My intervention traces an alternative genealogy that illuminates the vital contributions of Latinx, African American, and Asian American poets to our understanding of the transformative potential of emerging media conditions. Specifically, I explore how multiethnic poets repurpose mimeograph desktop publishing machines, vinyl records and CDs, television sets, and computer interfaces in order to articulate their racial aesthetics and politics. I argue that in their experimentations with these media as producers, consumers, and distributors, multiethnic poets challenge conventions of political and cultural authority by reimagining racial identity, not just poetic form, as a construction that adapts to evolving technological paradigms. For these poets, race retains a social existence rendered visible across the layers of convergent media, from their physical hardware and interfaces to their intangible networks and affects. My research thus encompasses both textured readings of specific poems and poetry collections, and also a holistic appraisal of the larger media environments in which they unfold.
This project investigates the influence of diverse print, recording, broadcast, and digital technologies on multiethnic poetry in the United States, from the cultural nationalist movements of the 1960s to our Internet-saturated present. Recent scholarship linking poetry to media studies has predominantly attended to Anglo-American or European traditions and their relationship with pre-WWII technologies such as radio and film. My intervention traces an alternative genealogy that illuminates the vital contributions of Latinx, African American, and Asian American poets to our understanding of the transformative potential of emerging media conditions. Specifically, I explore how multiethnic poets repurpose mimeograph desktop publishing machines, vinyl records and CDs, television sets, and computer interfaces in order to articulate their racial aesthetics and politics. I argue that in their experimentations with these media as producers, consumers, and distributors, multiethnic poets challenge conventions of political and cultural authority by reimagining racial identity, not just poetic form, as a construction that adapts to evolving technological paradigms. For these poets, race retains a social existence rendered visible across the layers of convergent media, from their physical hardware and interfaces to their intangible networks and affects. My research thus encompasses both textured readings of specific poems and poetry collections, and also a holistic appraisal of the larger media environments in which they unfold.
Position Description
City Bureau is a Chicago-based media lab reimagining journalism as a direct service to democracy. They equip people with skills and resources, facilitate critical public conversations, and produce information that directly addresses people’s needs. The Communications Manager will focus on multimedia storytelling to strengthen City Bureau’s research and storytelling capacities. The role involves researching and crafting compelling content that spotlights the impact of City Bureau and their national Documenters Network, effectively engaging stakeholders, supporters, and the public. The Communications Manager is pivotal in translating various dimensions of City Bureau’s local and national impact into engaging digital content, by amplifying stories of more than 15 dynamic partners doing local community work in a variety of ecosystems.