1. What is your interest in this position?

I am a doctoral student who has completed coursework and exams. Now working on my dissertation, I find organizations like AoIR to be where much of the productive collaboration and idea generation takes place among scholars. I have become aware of the organization’s reach and membership over the last few years and have been extremely impressed. I would like to support the work going on and the positive experiences so many of my colleagues and I have had with AoIR and membership and the Executive Committee seems like the best way to make a positive impact.

2. What are your qualifications for this position?

As a graduate student slowly approaching the end of this phase, I have begun testing the waters as a professional and practitioner. I think I straddle the line between student and researcher providing useful insight that would represent the graduate students well.

I am an adjunct instructor at a college in Chicago while continuing my schooling. My masters was in Internet research and my doctoral work is based heavily on this area as well. I presented papers both at last year’s AoIR conference and at the associated Website Histories preconference which were received well and created for lively discussion. I have presented papers at other conferences, am a co-author of published work, and served on the University of Illinois at Chicago Communication Department committee for conferences which helped to organize a multi-university conference for graduate students. With this in mind I think I would be especially qualified to work with the graduate students throughout their relationships with AoIR.

3. What are two or three short-term goals you would like to achieve through membership of the executive?

First, I think there ought to be more focused materials for graduate students. A mailing list where graduate students can communicate among themselves (while always having the option to communicate over the primary list) would allow for collaboration and support among those persons experiencing similar aspects of academic life. Emphasizing a list like this would increase the perceived utility of the organization. More sections focused on graduate students at the conference would also be a great boon.

Second, I would like to help AoIR better present itself to graduate students. I am surprised how often I speak with a graduate student who does work with the Internet but has never heard of AoIR. I would very much like to increase awareness of the organization throughout the student community. This valuable resource would be good for fellow students to have and these new members/supporters would serve AoIR quite well.

4. What is your long-term vision for AoIR?

One of the best parts of AoIR is that it is so multidisciplinary. This is a trend that should continue. I sometimes hear hesitation from those who do highly technical work or those who do much more qualitative work (especially in the humanities) because they think that it is just for counting people or tracking usage data. But this isn’t the case at all. I would like to see AoIR known as the premier organization for Internet research regardless of specific field or method. Ultimately it ought to be the first thing any academic, or practitioner, thinks of when deciding to research materials online.

5. What else should voters consider when deciding whether or not to vote for you?

Being a student has played a large role in my life. This would be an excellent opportunity for me to represent students from diverse areas of the world and research in an organization dedicated to an important goal. As to my personal qualifications, I ask that you not select me simply for my good looks or charming wit (though you should still feel free to), but because I am a dedicated individual who will work hard to support the organization and its student contingent by relying on my experience and working with those who have so much of their own.