Kerry holds a BA in English from Reed College, has completed graduate coursework at Texas State University, and will receive her MA in Publishing & Writing from Emerson College in summer 2009. Kerry is currently working on a proposal for her Emerson Master's Project, in which she hopes to analyze successful business models for online publishing (if any exist). Below are excerpts from some of her academic work.
Written for electronic publishing course with John Rodzvilla in fall 2008. Interviewed Mac Slocum of O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing for the paper. Excerpt:
It's not enough just to put something out there anymore—you have to be able to accommodate and respond to what people think about it. The interactive experience requires both access and community. There's nothing unique about an experience if it doesn't involve a specific community, targeted at the person having the experience. And community adds value—Metcalfe's law, as explained by Peter Morville in Ambient Findability (published, naturally, by O'Reilly) asserts that the value of a network, or community, grows exponentially with its size (the number of connected users in the network). The more people contributing and collaborating, the better your (self-improving) community "product" will be. Publishers have to let go of owning copies and move toward curating communities.
For a book publishing course with David Emblidge in spring 2008. Interviewed John Walsh of Harvard University Press and Phil Zuckerman of Applewood Books for the piece. Excerpt:
Digital printing, print on demand, and the Espresso Book Machine prompt even die-hard book lovers to question: are publishers really necessary anymore? One could argue that they're needed to ensure that only high-quality, well-edited, fact-checked work is published, but one could just as easily argue (given recent memoir and author identity scandals, like Margaret Seltzer, J.T. Leroy, and James Frey) that publishers aren't always successful in fully vetting their manuscripts. So what are publishers really good for—besides warehousing huge print runs of books that nobody bought—now that we can easily print books without them? Only time can tell how publishers will evolve to meet the demands of consumers and use the capabilities of technology, but one thing's certain: progress or perish.
Written for a magazine publishing course with Leslie Brokaw in fall 2007. Interviewed Dissent editor Maxine Philips for the piece. Excerpt:
Dissent magazine covers international political and cultural issues from a mostly progressive viewpoint. Founded in New York in the 1950s to express dissent with two predominant political trends (mainstream McCarthyism and leftist anti-communism) and hope for a socialist future, Dissent remains largely a voice of the left but doesn't hesitate to incorporate alternative opinions. The pages of Dissent cover topics ranging from elections to academia to labor issues, and include book reviews of scholarly texts, nonfiction books, and sometimes even high-profile novels. Current Dissent writers come from many different backgrounds—politics, journalism, law, academia, and more—and the magazine features a somewhat scholarly tone that's still accessible to the general population. Not a vehicle for any particular political viewpoint, Dissent allows for the informed discussion of important topics, both contemporary and historical.
For Language Problems in a Multicultural Environment course with Octavio Paz at Texas State University, spring 2007. Excerpt:
"I don't know the word for not fitting in anywhere," comments Akeelah Anderson at the outset of the film that tells her story. These words immediately identify Akeelah as different from her peers, family, and community, and the rest of the movie explores how Akeelah can start to negotiate her "different" identity in order to "fit" (at least superficially) in two worlds: her urban black neighborhood in south central Los Angeles, and the white-dominated world of spelling bees. Her eventual success in spelling bees represents a workable negotiation of her dual identities, but this paper will demonstrate that Akeelah's spelling conquest does not ultimately offer a solution for reconciling the differences between black and white identities or discursive practices.
Undergraduate thesis advised by Nigel Nicholson, presented and defended at Reed College in May 2005. Abstract:
This thesis explores various modes of interpreting Vladimir Nabokov's 1957 novel, Pale Fire. It rejects theories of interpretation that focus on questions of authorship in favor of a more reader-based approach that stresses active interpretation and points to Nabokov as the ultimate progenitor of the text. Using the satiric implications of the novel's unique form, this thesis criticizes generalizing any aspects of Pale Fire at the expense of addressing the significance of other textual elements. By pointing out the shortcomings of Charles Kinbote's critical commentary on John Shade's poem, this thesis exposes the vast depths of meaning underlying all the connections and contradictions that exist between elements of Nabokov's text, as well as with elements from outside of it. The thesis suggests that Kinbote is a model of bad reading whose techniques should be avoided by actual readers of Pale Fire and proposes instead the importance of noticing, not neglecting, multiple meanings. Using various examples of connections within and outside of the text, the thesis proves that generalized interpretations holding to specific ideological tenets are incapable of accounting for the multiple meanings in Pale Fire. At the same time, however, this thesis proposes that no serious examination of the text can completely avoid using some sort of individualized ideological framework. The ultimate point of Pale Fire cannot be established without an active, alert reading experience that engages the text, its criticism, and the historical and literary tradition preceding it.
For Jay Dickson's Joyce and Woolf class at Reed College, spring 2005. First paragraph:
James Joyce's "The Dead" is a story that addresses the social relations and the political and cultural dynamics between England and Ireland. Music is a crucial component of the story that represents various social groups—the upper class through operatic and orchestral pieces, the lower classes through old folk songs—and serves to either bring these groups together or help demonstrate why they remain apart. The relationship between the married couple Gretta and Gabriel Conroy in "The Dead" is deeply affected by a specific folk song, "The Lass of Aughrim," that deals directly with class relations, and the emotions with which they respond to the song are emblematic of the strained relationships between different classes and political groups in Ireland. This paper will identify various ways in which music is important to "The Dead" and demonstrate how it paradoxically supports different kinds of order and eventually becomes a symbol of the unrecognized unities between opposing political and social factions.
For a course on Dickens and Eliot with Michael Mirabile at Reed College, fall 2004. First paragraph:
A major theme of Bleak House concerns the edges of society and the peripheral figures that can be found there, figures who are powerless to transform dominant social institutions that affect their lives in negative ways. Bleak House also deals with issues of domesticity and the home's function as a type of unifying institution, powerful enough to bring together fundamentally different individuals under the jurisdiction of shared need, respect, and compassion. Phil Squod is one of the more peripheral characters in this novel about periphery, yet his role in facilitating certain events—particularly events of a domestic nature—in the novel is crucial. An examination of his character in terms of his past origins and present actions both illuminates the essence of the drifting, peripheral character and gives rise to modified conceptions of domesticity and the home. Phil's dual positioning at the edges of society and the center of the "home" that is George's Shooting Gallery is what enables him to play two different roles in the action of the story. In this paper, I will explore both of Phil's roles in an effort to determine the paradoxical centrality of the peripheral figure in Bleak House. I will also investigate the extent to which Phil's functioning as a domestic figure redefines Victorian ideals about domesticity and the home.