A: I am mostly a poet who pushes her work toward the intersection of writing and visual art. However, I work a lot with feminist and LGBTQIA+ themes and gothic monsters in text and film.
Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: So fun story, I wanted to call it Scatter; or, James Joyce Always Makes me Think of Boobs, but my dissertation director said that by having “boobs” in the title, I could hurt my chances of getting a job. So we changed it to Scatter; or, A Series of Minor Inconveniences.
A: I have work forthcoming in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. IX: Virginia published by the Texas Review Press, and my collection, Fracture; or, James Joyce Always Makes me Think of Boobs is under contract with Clare Songbirds Publishing House.
In her spare time, Hylton is a roller derby fiend.
Q: What and where was your previous position?
A: I was an Associate Professor and the Director of the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Arkansas Monticello.
Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: What a groovy question. I know I’m going to immediately think of something else, but the first thing that pops to mind is the personal narrative.
Q: What was the last book you read?
A: I just reread Straight Man by Richard Russo because it always makes me laugh.
Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU so far?
A: How kind everyone is to each other. It’s a really awesome work environment.
Jen
Boyle, professor in the Department of English and co-creator of the Digital
Culture and Design program, is a prolific scholar as well as a dedicated
professor. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from Brown University,
the Folger Institute, and the Dibner Library for History of Science and
Technology, as well as CCU’s 2018 HTC Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecturer.
Boyle
took a moment to discuss her teaching, scholarly, and home lives during the
time of COVID-19.
While
she’s familiar and experienced in the online teaching environment, other
elements of Boyle’s professional roles – such as coordinating both the B.A. in
digital culture and design and the minor in new media and digital culture —
have posed challenges.
“Currently,
I am teaching 2 sections of ENGL 231: New Media, Film, and Digital Culture; the
media unit of WGST 105 for three weeks; and DCD 488 Capstone,” said Boyle. “I
teach online quite a bit (I just completed a COOL grant to retool my ENGL 231
class for the online environment!), but other aspects of my work as a program
director have been more challenging in the online environment. For example, I
do a lot of one-on-one advising with students. I am using Zoom to create
conversation possibility spaces, despite being remote. I think when people hear
“digital” in our program or professional titles that it means we
embrace the virtual everywhere, when in reality, our studies and teaching
instruct us on the limits of online interactions. One of the positives that may
emerge from this very difficult time is a more nuanced conversation about what
we can do with digital spaces — and what we can’t do.”
Boyle
talked a bit about her academic field and current projects, including how they
impact the classroom.
“I teach and write about media transformation and
theories of mediation. My books and digital installations explore ‘new’ media objects and performance, bodies and technology, and
the mediated flows of objects and information through networks, from the
seventeenth century to the digital present,” said Boyle. “I am currently
writing a textbook (under contract with Palgrave Macmillan) on approaches to
teaching with new media and working with archival and regional collections as
an alternative learning model. The textbook will be both in print and a digital
open resource that professors and universities can utilize to import project
based new media curriculum.”
And,
during all that time at home? What’s Boyle been up to?
“I am reading and writing, BUT, also catching up on all those films and series I have been wanting to work into my classes (minor binging: Black Mirror; BBC detective series; movies I missed),” said Boyle. “I am also cooking–a lot! Cooking is one of those activities that is solitary but always connected in some way with the idea of togetherness, of breaking bread with others. Even when that fuller scenario is not possible, cooking keeps me connected to those ideas, those future get togethers.”
