Students have written their first posts on their individual blogs about ideas they have for their conference projects. Conference projects for this class are somewhat unusual for a Sarah Lawrence class (where classes are already unusual!) because they will be a) public and b) classmates will be following each others' projects and giving regular feedback. There's some really interesting projects-in-the-making and classmates have offered some feedback and proposed other questions and ideas. It's a good start to developing an online conversation which I hope to see grow as the semester progresses.
There are a few common themes emerging: 1) An interest in online "branding" and image making, including personal branding, cyber-celebrity, fashion bloggers, and PR and marketing. All of these either suggest or directly address commoditizing and shaping consumer culture; 2) Political engagement and stances, including social justice activists, sexual harassment, and feminism. These invite looking at overlaps between online and offline and the ways in which the medium of the internet reproduce, challenge, and form new norms and practices; and 3) Communities & fandoms. These dig into the interaction that social media both facilitates and requires, and how relationships are created, shaped, augmented, and altered.