AnthroBone in the Field

ZiNetwork Invitation & Bonus Mini-Zine!

2023-10-02T17:47:00.006-04:00

Dear TBD ZiNetwork Participants:

Happy Fall, y'all! I'm writing to invite you to join the ZiNetwork, a new regional zine interest group to connect maker-activists in Kentucky and Appalachia! 📓

Simply send a message with your preferred email address to tammylynnclemons+ZiNetwork(at)gmail(dot)com to be included in the "ZiNetwork" list and receive group communications.

This invitation is for folks who are interested/experienced in zine making, fests, library collections, pedagogy, and/or history in Kentucky and/or Central Appalachia. There are currently 34 participants who engage in these activities, 23 of whom responded to the interest survey: https://bit.ly/KY-Appal-ZiNetwork-Survey.

Based on preliminary survey responses and correspondence with some folks so far, there is an overwhelmingly preference for email distribution lists. I created a basic Google Contact label for facilitating group communication as a short-term solution for sharing information without anyone having to create new accounts for now.

Meanwhile, the ZiNetwork interest survey will remain open for a little while longer as we continue reaching out to folks who may be interested in participating. Feel free to share this invitation, the survey link, and the one-page mini-zine invitation (below) with any relevant individuals, groups, and programs.

I look forward to the possibility of including you in the ZiNetwork conversation and community!

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*Dr. AnthroBone

📓 The ZiNetwork is supported by a 2023 Kentucky Foundation for Women Art Meets Activism Grant and community partner Sarabande Books. Visit https://anthroboneinthefield.blogspot.com/2023/08/-ZiNetwork-Survey-KY-Appalachia.html to learn more!

P.S. For printing hard copies of the mini-zine, be sure to check "Actual Size" and "Choose paper source by PDF size" in the "Page Sizing & Handling" section of the print settings before printing so the dimensions are correct for folding.

ZiNetwork Survey: Zine Interest Group for Kentucky & Appalachia

2023-08-14T16:50:00.003-04:00

Dear Regional Zinesters & Other DIYers:

I am honored to announce the launch of a regional “ZiNetwork” (or zine interest group) to connect maker-activists in Kentucky and Appalachia with support from a 2023 Kentucky Foundation for Women Art Meets Activism Grant and community partner Sarabande Books. This project builds upon existing but geographically dispersed zine producers, activities, and resources to establish formal opportunities for regional feminist zine-related networking, skill-sharing, and artmaking.

The first phase of this project is a survey to gather contacts and feedback from people who want to connect and collaborate with other zinesters in the region. Please complete and/or share this survey with anybody in/from the region who is involved in DIY publishing: https://bit.ly/KY-Appal-ZiNetwork-Survey.

I look forward to learning more about different folks' zine-related interests and experience in Kentucky and Central Appalachia as well as sharing ongoing developments. The ZiNetwork is part of a larger participatory creative scholar-activist project that I will share more about soon.

Thanks for helping connect the regional zine threads . . .

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*Dr. AnthroBone

P.S. Here is a brief intro to my personal zine interest/experience and why I'm working on this project:

I am a native Kentuckian with deep Appalachian roots and a Generation-X zinester with an interest in regional zine-related practices, productions, and communities. I learned about and began producing zines in the late 1980s and early 1990s as a high school student in a rural community. I continue engaging with this activist medium through zine-related artwork, research, and education.

My dissertation fieldwork included encounters with zine-making workshops hosted by the Appalachian Media Institute (Appalshop) in Whitesburg, Kentucky and zine projects focusing on the regional history and practice of movement-building, local food, and field guides at High Rocks Educational Corporation in West Virginia. There are also substantial zine collections and strong representation of contemporary zine cultures at my undergraduate and graduate alma maters Berea College, Harvard University, and the University of Kentucky. I have included zines in graphic novel workshops for teaching artist residencies in public schools, and I recently presented a Zine Lunch! Virtual Workshop on “Place-Based Cultural Mapping Zines." (I also highly recommend checking out Sarabande Books' extensive archive of online workshops!)

10 Tips for Starting, Continuing, & Finishing Writing Projects

2021-05-31T11:40:00.012-04:00

Dear Dissertators and Other Aspiring/Practicing Writers,

Digital/analog dissertation-in-progress

Graduate school presents countless opportunities and challenges for getting started and/or keeping going on writing projects, and it can be difficult to be kind to ourselves when we aren't as productive as we intended. One of my favorite quotes from NCFDD founder Kerry Ann Rockquemore is: “Let go of any past writing shortcomings and release yourself from the negative feelings associated with not writing, producing, or finishing your work.” In the spirit of practicing the processes of starting and continuing, however many times or as often as necessary, this post summarizes some of the most useful tips I've gleaned from various writing tools and personal experience over time.

Write every day! For real… even if it's only for you to write about what you're feeling, what you're confused about, or what you need to write more about. As Dr. Lili Milanes, a friend and relatively recent fellow UK anthropology graduate, says, "Writing is always the answer."
Be generous about what counts as writing! Writing gurus agree on this (including Dr. Rockquemore), though sometimes with different takes on the theme. Separate writing from reading/researching BUT include all the minutia that brainstorming, outlining, drafting, revising/refining, etc. entail that results in completed drafts. Tara Gray's 12 very helpful writing steps include highlighting/outlining KEY statements and reverse outlining, and Cornell Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Jan Allen suggests compiling a separate "to-do list" of items that are not relevant to the current task. (Also see Jan Allen's book, The Productive Graduate Student Writer.)
Practice creating concrete "SMART" goals, even if (like me) you don't really know what that means at first. S.M.A.R.T. stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable (or sometimes Action-oriented, Attractive, or Attainable), Realistic, and Time-framed, and the concept is common in writing and other professional development workshops (for example, see Kerry Ann Rockquemore & Anthony Ocampo's "Dealing With the Curse of the Blank Page" in Insider Higher Ed). Frankly, I'm not very good at identifying and setting SMART goals, but observing, documenting, and reflecting on my writing process has been useful in discerning what works and translates into "SMART" goals so I can keep practicing on future projects.
Tracking goals/time helps show the big picture of work over time. I created a spreadsheet template I've used to document contract labor, TA labor, grant projects, etc. It can be adapted for both writing projects and managing/documenting time for hourly contract labor. (The first three sheets are templates for the summer, fall semester, and spring semester, which include formulas for calculating and adding time logged. The last sheet is a reference that converts time increments to decimals.) I also really like the PomoDone app, which integrates with several productivity/to-do apps. (I also reviewed PomoDone in the previous App Report: Other Apps for Research and Writing.)
Daily check-ins on goals and progress, whether for yourself or to share with a writing/accountability group, is another way to track not only what you're working on but also your writing process and what does/n't work and why. NCFDD has a couple of good daily check-in templates that I have continued using for other projects. Any method for setting, documenting, and following up on writing goals and reflecting on the process will do.
Use a note-taking app to manage notes, research data, deadlines, etc. and use Word documents to piece together outlines, jottings, citations, etc. and work on actual drafts. As I've previously written in another App Report, OneNote is my go-to for many, many personal and academic documentation/organization projects, but I recommend using whatever you're already used to.
Alternate between multimodal methods of writing, analyzing, etc.(including digital/analog, recording/transcribing voice notes, digitizing handwritten notes). Typing/inputting handwritten notes is a good way to "write" without writing and, for me, usually inspires writing more on the digital document. Similarly, when I reach a block working on my computer, I print what I have so I can review and write on the paper document for a while. And the cycle continues… Another multimodal approach to "writing" is using AI-based automated transcription like Otter.ai for recording thoughts for follow-up. (Here's a nerdy interview about how I used Otter.ai for part of my dissertation research and writing.)
Focus on revising distinct sections one at a time rather than the whole chapter (unless you're proof-reading/copy-editing the entire final document for external review). I'm pretty terrible at this as well as refraining from revising as I write, but I keep working on it. (Again, Tara Gray has tips on this…)
All tips/tools do not always work, even when they have in the past. I have found that there is a point at which certain "tricks" that I use to motivate myself and document my progress (such as tracking my time) become onerous and oppressive in terms of meeting "productivity" goals that are external to my own values and progress. I'm learning that letting go of routines that don't work are just as important as using them when they do, and I can also pick them back up again if/when they are useful again.
Realistic positive affirmations are helpful even for pessimists! I have a posterboard above my desk where I collect inspirational quotes that resonate with my personality and work ethic.

Future-Dr.-AnthroBone's Dissertation RQ & Inspirational Images/Quotes

When Jan Allen spoke to UK grad students at the May 2020 Dissertation Writing Camp,* she talked about the common themes/experiences of fear, anxiety, despair among grad student writers in general. If these are existing struggles, grad school can make the feelings of doubt, unworthiness, and paralysis overwhelming at times. I have several tiny habits and tools I try and stick to every day no matter how little I feel like I accomplish otherwise, and they have really helped in my overall outlook and motivation over time. But the struggle is daily, the struggle is with ourselves, and the struggle is ultimately what it's all about. We do it by doing it every day and forgiving ourselves and trying again even when we don't.

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*Dr. AnthroBone

P.S. Shout-out to the folks who organize and participate in the semesterly Dissertation Writing Camp at UK, which was so helpful as I began, continued, and finished the process of writing my dissertation. Here's a super-nerdy spotlight featuring a much earlier writer on this journey (starting at 52 seconds) ...

I have taken advantage of many resources that have been available to me through UK and other academic networks and knowledge bases. However, I have always wished that I knew that I could participate in the Writing Camps from the very beginning of my program instead of waiting until I felt I was "officially" working on my dissertation. Friends and colleagues who participated on various writing projects along the way benefited from the routinization of a daily writing habit sooner. So consider this a BONUS TIP if you are just beginning or part-way through your graduate program!

* I shared earlier versions of these writing tips and the list of UK-access resources with UK Writing Camp participants and organizers, and I'm re-posting these updates in solidarity with current and future dissertators and life-long writers.

App Report: Retrospective on Useful Accounts with UK Access

2021-05-28T16:33:00.011-04:00

Dear UK Colleagues (& Those With General Nerdy Interest),

Custom-designed Chuck Taylor All-Star Converse
("Chucks") by & for Dr. AnthroBone, Class of 2021

I'm pleased to report that I finally finished and defended my dissertation, completed my PhD, and graduated from the University of Kentucky (UK) this semester! There is much to reflect upon and write about this experience, and I will share various lessons learned in the future. Meanwhile, as I depart UK, there are several free websites and resources related to writing/professional development through UK's institutional membership that I have taken advantage of over the years that I hope are also valuable for continuing graduate students.

Aurora/Beyond the Professoriate: From the institutional login page, select UK from the short drop-down menu of participating schools. This is career tool includes a large database of interviews/webinars and other resources on both faculty and professional careers, including a jobs board. There are general resources as well as some streamlined for STEM and Social Sciences/Humanities, and there's a handy note-taking tool for saving useful information gleaned from videos/webinars.
Dissertation Planner: The UK Libraries site includes several apps and other resources for grad students. The Dissertation Planner (no login required) is a good set of general resources for all stages of the dissertation process that I have found useful in thinking about how to manage the smaller pieces of a large (yet focused) project. There is also a “Data Management Tool” that is available through UK LinkBlue login.
National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD): Last winter, I completed the (at-your-own-pace) 12-week online "Dissertation Success" Curriculum with daily writing goals and accountability. The curriculum focuses on establishing a daily writing practice of 30 minutes a day minimum (which I found extremely helpful to jumpstart/maintain momentum) with an online community of peers in the DS Forum (which I found inspiring at first and then more overwhelming than helpful). There are short videos that introduce helpful strategies each week, and the focus is on writing in the various forms it takes for an academic manuscript or dissertation. (I found NCFDD founder Kerry Ann Rockquemore's cheerful, sincere encouragement and the mesmerizing lemon trees outside her office window such a comforting companion that I rewatched some of the videos after I completed the program!) I also participated in multiple 14-Day Writing Challenges, watched some great webinars on the NCFDD website, and draw inspiration and practical tips from the weekly "Monday Motivator" e-newsletter.
Pivot Funding Database: Click on "Use login from my institution" and select UK. This is a great tool for searching, filtering, and "tracking" funding opportunities from a wide range of sources and disciplines. I totally forgot about this until recently, so I updated my account and did some day-dreamy searches for my (then future) post-doctoral-self before losing UK access upon graduation.
Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAAA): I'm not sure whether UK institutional access is still open for this (or how to find out), but grad students who participated in the virtual "Publish & Flourish" workshop in October received a free year of TAAA membership and a free e-book by presenter Tara Gray. (There is an excerpt of her 12 very helpful writing steps on the publisher site.) I also downloaded several other e-books and templates from the TAAA website, which also includes some worthwhile dissertation-related resources. Overall, this is a tremendous resource for anyone who wants to publish a journal article and/or is considering publishing parts of their dissertation research as books.
VersatilePhD: The first time you access the site through logging in to MyUK, clicking the "My Info" tab, then "Versatile PhD" from the left-hand menu, which will open a separate window to login or create an account through UK. It includes job listings, discussion forums, networking directory/"meet-ups," webinars, and more. I haven't used this much yet, but it looks useful for exploring post-doc career opportunities.

This is by no means a complete list, but these are just some of the valuable UK-access tools I have enjoyed and benefited from. Take advantage of those university resources while you can, and feel free to share other useful accounts/sites through UK in the comments. I'll post again soon with additional updates.

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*Dr. AnthroBone

P.S. Some of my summer writing projects include sharing posts about additional apps, methods, writing tips, and other resources for academic research and writing. For now, I updated the AnthroDashboard to reflect a couple of additional UK-related resources I became aware of recently.

Let Go & Shine! A Musical Soundscape for Refining & Shining

2021-03-12T09:05:00.006-05:00

Dear Listeners on the Edge,*

Whatever you're/we're holding onto that's bogging you/us down, it's okay to let it go. Whatever rough cut gems and unfinished stories remain, you/we can polish and share what is. This Bonus Track "Let Go & Shine" playlist has its own story, but it stands alone here as a musical soundscape for whatever you/we can use some inspiration and encouragement for refining and shining!

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*AnthroBone

AnthroBone letting go and shining
on a day off from the field,
Hillsboro, West Virginia, July 2, 2017

* Cf. Cave, Mark, and Stephen M. Sloan, eds. 2014 Listening on the Edge: Oral History in the Aftermath of Crisis. Oxford / New York: Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=W8C6BwAAQBAJ

Being a "Kidd": Lessons from Ruby May

2019-08-02T14:35:00.000-04:00

Dear Grandmother-Loving Kids of All Ages,

I'm an audiophile from way back when I was a kid and my Mamaw sometimes let me borrow her very state-of-the-art cassette recorder before many people owned such technology. She was organized and forward-thinking about using audio for self-documentation, and she saved and labeled numerous cassettes of her original music as well as some recordings of me as a child. I've written previously about some of the ways that I use and engage with sound as an anthropology graduate student, but I also enjoy producing creative audio projects as a media artist. This year my partner and I received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women to produce short audio pieces about each of our paternal grandmothers and their influence on our lives. Thus, I am proud to premiere my new audio production, "Being a 'Kidd': Lessons from Ruby May" about my Mamaw as my primary creative inspiration and benefactor.

[If experiencing playback problems, you can listen directly on SoundCloud.]

My project originated as a response to one of the essay questions for a "Future is Female" (#thefutureisfemale) scholarship application, which asked, "Who is your most important female role model?" I did not win the scholarship, but I was inspired to share further the winning role that my Mamaw Ruby May Kidd Clemons has played in my life.

"Practicing Tape '95'"
recorded by Ruby Clemons

The complete audio credits for this production are detailed on the SoundCloud track description, but it includes several excerpts from existing sound recordings in addition to the narrative voiceover. I digitized a couple of cassette tapes for this production, including a recording of me playing Beethoven's Für Elise on the piano in the 1980s and a "Practicing Tape" of my Mamaw's songs that she recorded in 1995. Other audio includes a brief sample of an original song that I wrote (not yet released in its entirety); excerpts from a 2007 oral history interview with my Mamaw for the "Appalachian Quilting Heritage in Montgomery County" project (Call # 2008OH03.4); audio excerpts from video footage of the 2009 Clemons family reunion; and a 2013 voicemail message from my Mamaw. (Special thanks to the Kentucky Historical Society for permission to include snippets from the oral history recording.)

Producing this piece has already ignited sparks/ideas for additional audio projects in memory of my Mamaw Ruby Clemons, who passed away in 2015 but will remain "forever young." She continues to inspire me to live the same way, and I hope her example is an also inspiration to others to always be a kid.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

p.s. As a Bonus Track, this is a video I produced documenting the 2009 Clemons Family Reunion, which features my Mamaw (being both a homemaker and a kid) as well as my Papaw, Howard Clemons, who passed away this year and was an equally important role model in my life.

The World is on Fire: Photo/Essay

2018-12-08T10:29:00.007-05:00

Dear HumanKind & EarthKin of Appalachia and the World,

In November 2016, I was conducting part of my dissertation fieldwork and participating as a “formerly young” member of a month-long youth theater lab in Eastern Kentucky. I briefly returned home to vote in the US presidential election, and while driving back into town on election day, I took this photo of burning mountains next to the highway using a low-resolution camera on an old smartphone that my grandmother bought me. My ethnographic research includes interviewing and spending time with youth media makers and arts educators in media education programs and public regional events in Central Appalachia. This research also focuses on intergenerational mentorship relationships and networks that enable and support creative aspirations and livelihoods.

The participatory theater lab and the performance of our collaborative final production were both a way to process the various political and ecological wildfires impacting people's lives, and the continued uncertainty of how to move forward with hope and solidarity amidst numerous destructive forces that literally threaten the lives of people, ecosystems, and democratic principles and practices. The play combined different modes of storytelling and different metaphorical and literal themes around the subject of fire. Our stories focused on the emotional and intellectual fires burning internally in response to the political uncertainty that lies ahead, raising questions about identity, ancestors, responsibility, firearms, and collective action. Throughout the workshop and the final production, family and community members were inquisitive and supportive of these young people's (and even of this "formerly young" person's) voices and perspectives even while fires raged outside and elsewhere.

I have become increasingly aware of and pay attention to the political ecology of the very local contexts of my field sites and how they are connected to, interact with, and affected by global systems and contexts. These local contexts include ""natural"" disasters like water contamination, floods, drought and forest fires, which also invoke the often unspoken specter of climate change as well as social, political, and economic uncertainties like racial and gender tensions, the 2016 presidential election, unemployment and poverty, and the "post-coal" transition. Many regional discussions and programs emphasize the promise of technology and development for redesigning the economic landscape, which also connect to the global media ecology and the human and natural resources that support it.

This blurry, smoky forest fire photo, which I took through my windshield with limited but sufficient technology, represents these and other interconnected issues that affect the daily lives and mobilities of young people in the Appalachian region. Many rural youth, if they have access to transportation at all, must drive long distances to hang out with friends or participate in media arts opportunities; and while social media and other online platforms can help bridge geographical distance, rural access to high-speed internet varies in availability and cost and young people have different access to digital devices and technologies.

Fire is a potent symbol for both creative and destructive powers whether human, ecological, planetary, or beyond. This photo reminds me that, even when the world on fire, we can still take positive action to deflect and dampen the flames that threaten destruction while trying to fan the flames that hearten and give hearth. Fear is a natural response to fires that are out of control, and I personally know that fear as well as anyone else. However, it serves a fleeting purpose, which is to motivate, and to dwell too long on the dangers without mindful deliberation and action is to be consumed by it.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

p.s. I submitted this photo and essay/caption for the 2018 American Anthropological Association (AAA) Photo Contest. "Voting" was based on likes on the photo uploaded on the AAA FB page, but I didn't invest much effort in self-promotion. This was also the original photo and essay that I submitted for my Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize in Visual Sociology application. Most importantly, I share this image and essay because I hope they help show and tell an important story that is still relevant today.

Friend in the Field Cameo Appearance in Anthropology News

2018-08-10T11:08:00.002-04:00

Dear Fans of "Material Culture Vignettes of Field Bags,"

When Anthropology News (AN) first sent out its call for contributions to "What's in Your Bag, Anthropologists?", I immediately knew that I would send a response about Friend in the Field #1: my trusty green backpack. The call asked anthropologists to share a high-resolution photo and a 150-200-word essay to illustrate and describe the packing contents of their bags for the "summer fieldwork season." I'm honored and excited that my nerdy ode to my backpack/field tools was included in the inaugural post for this feature!

Source: www.anthropology-news.org
(Can you find AnthroBone's field bag?)

Thanks to AN and my co-authors for sharing this platform with me to celebrate such "Friends in the Field."

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

P.S. Thanks also to archaeologist and oral historian Zada Komara for sharing the AN post and her appreciation of "material culture vignettes of field bags."

P.P.S. For a slightly different groove on the need to "pack light," check out this Bonus Track, "Bag Lady" by Erikah Badu.

----------------
AN Citation: Clemons, Tammy, A.J. Faas, Taylor R. Genovese, Carol Hendrickson, Alejandro Ponce De Leon, Brooke Scelza, Nancy White, Laura Zanotti, Doug Bafford, Susan Mazur-Stommen, Claire-Marie Hefner, Michael T. Balonek, Ashley Stinnett, and Natalia Maksymowicz Mroz. 2018. “What’s in Your Bag, Anthropologists?” Anthropology News website, July 18, 2018. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/an.929

Technoscapes: Moving Through Time & Space

2018-06-02T15:43:00.000-04:00

Dear Visual & Social Beings & Thinkers,

As a kid in the 1980s, two of my favorite activities were riding bikes and visual technologies that enabled access to other worlds. I also have a lifelong interest in Latin American cultures and traveled to Central and South America in college and graduate school. I am currently conducting dissertation research with youth media makers in Appalachia and how they use visual art and media to envision possibilities for themselves and the region. So when I saw this photo by Rachel Tanur, I was immediately drawn into the narrow focus of the “Cuban Boy with Bike and Game” and shared a similar captivation as she captured on his intent face.

"Cuban Boy with Bike and Game"
Photo by Rachel Tanur
(Also see her complete gallery)

Aesthetically, I love the contrasting texture and neutral tones of the brick street and building with the vibrant colors and sleekness of the quite new-looking bicycle. I also love the seeming contrast of the human-powered transportation technology of the bicycle juxtaposed with the electronic video game; however, both represent different forms of mobility in relation to Appadurai's notion of different -scapes or movements of people, technologies, etc. The boy is also wearing neutral tones, but his physical and visual connection to both devices and his level of concentration prevent the camouflage of his presence in the doorway. The continuous line from his elbow, his knee, his hands, to the game and the handlebar of the bike make it seem as if they are all one entity.

The fact that there are no other people around furthers the metaphor and illusion that he is in his own little world. Does he notice Rachel? Do they speak? There is also mystery as to what game he is playing, on what device, how he got it, why he is playing in that location, and where the bike will take him next. The game could be an escape from chores or even harsher realities, but it also connects the boy to larger global systems, including capitalism, in spite of the fact that he lives in Cuba. Of course, we do not know his exact geo-political location based on the content of the photo, but we are still given clues about the Global South context in which he bridges assumptions about technological access and engagement. Similarly, young people in the Appalachian region and the media content they produce also challenge assumptions about who they are and how their people and place are represented.

There is also an important temporal dimension to this photo given the time period it was likely taken (mid-late 1990s?) and the rapid acceleration of technology and electronic devices globally. Tanur captured this particular moment and this particular game, but the underlying theme of ubiquitous technology and its association with youth can be applied to almost any time period. Therefore, it provides an interesting opportunity for the viewer to imagine and insert newer games or information/communication technologies into the picture with ease. I could list examples from the current moment of 2018, but it would be more productive to invite viewers to fill in the blanks appropriate to their own temporal present: ___, ___, ___, etc.

As a feminist scholar who teaches media literacy and production to teenage girls, I also reimagine the scene with a Cuban girl instead and ponder what she might hold in her hands so intently. Technologies are often gendered, and digital technologies are usually represented as a masculine area of expertise and occupational possibility. Access to physical mobility is also a gendered experience, so the image of a “Cuban Girl with Game and Bike” would disrupt multiple narratives about circulations of knowledge, technologies, and gendered bodies. What assumptions would this image challenge, and what questions would it raise? Would it have mattered to her that Rachel was a woman photographer interested in her story? The window of possibilities that Rachel Tanur captured with this photo and the technology that produced it are simultaneously time-specific and timeless, place-based and placeless, gendered and genderless.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

p.s. This photo essay was part of my submission for the biennial Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize in Visual Sociology. The application consisted of two commentaries, one based on one of Rachel Tanur's numerous photos and one about an original photo submission, each giving "a sociological analysis of the selected visual material, based on theoretical and applied social science methods."

I was not selected as a winner, but all submissions in response to Rachel Tanur's photos are archived online. This is a re-post of my essay about her photo “Cuban Boy with Bike and Game” (with a couple of minor corrections).

p.p.s. Speaking of the '80s, this Bonus Track is a classic clip from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), a story about a boy and his bike, and one of my favorite movies (both at the time, and of all time). And yes, I totally meant to do that...

App Report: Soundscapes for Working and/or Chilling

2018-05-20T16:57:00.001-04:00

Dear Soundscapists, Sound Escapists, and Escapers of Sound,

Cassette tape recorded circa 1985-86 by my
6th-grade self & labeled/preserved by my Mamaw

As an anthropologist, my workflow fluctuates between social engagement in the world (i.e., participant observation, conducting interviews, attending meetings/events, presenting research) and more remote and potentially solitary efforts (i.e., writing funding proposals and reports, conference abstracts, field notes; scheduling/transcribing interviews). Depending on the activity, soundscapes such as audio notes, background music, and community radio play various important roles in both defining my work environment and informing/documenting the content of my research. So this App Report focuses on some of the tools and methods I use in different fields and contexts.

Soundscaping | Sound Escapes | Escaping Sound

Soundscaping
Since the advent and evolution of sound recording technologies, audio documentation has long been a standard method of ethnographic and folklife fieldwork. (For example, see the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Folkways, Berea College Sound Archives, Lomax Kentucky Recordings, Ethnographic Sound Archives Online, Folkvine, NatuAural, and Soundscapes: Toward a Sounded Anthropology.) I previously posted about sensory postcards as a soundscape methodology (Droumeva 2015) that privileges the auditory sense over visual representation of a place and time. My partner and I also have a multimedia documentary blog about her grandparents' Bluegrass music that incorporates soundscapes of their self-documentation. Audio recordings are an important part of my dissertation fieldwork, and following are some of the most useful apps/software that I use on a regular basis or have experimented with.

iPhone:

OneNote: I use the built in audio recorder in OneNote for mobile note-taking when I'm in the field. I create a OneNote page for each day on my desktop computer and sync so it will be available to edit on my iPhone. I use it for capturing reflections or notes to myself for later follow-up. I haven't been brave enough to attempt recording full-length interviews in OneNote, but I have sometimes used it to capture and embed brief soundscapes of a particular place and moment in dated field notes. (I've written more extensively about using OneNote for research and writing in a previous App Report.)

Voice Memos: The native iOS audio recording produces excellent sound quality, and I use it as either a primary or backup recorder for conducting interviews. It's easy to use, reliable, and displays full-screen visuals of sound levels and active recording status. The main downside is that it only records in Apple's propriety .m4a format, which doesn't work in Audacity for editing or in OneNote for direct playback and transcription. (See MIKSOFT Mobile Media Converter for converting .m4a to .mp3 or other formats.+)

Voice Recorder and Audio Editor (TapMedia Ltd): The interface for this simple iOS audio recorder looks like an old-school cassette recorder that my Mamaw Clemons used to have, which thrills my kid-self. It doesn't show audio levels but displays the steady rolling of the "tape" reels and total recording time. I haven't used this app as much as Voice Memos, but I like the user-friendly buttons, especially the ability to pause/un-pause while recording, and the option to select the default audio format (.aiff, .caf, .m4a, .wav, and .mp3). These audio files are not backed up in "iTunes Media" the same way that Voice Memos are, but they can be retrieved from the device through iTunes (the app shows up under "File Sharing" when connected) and then copied over to another device or cloud drive.

Android:

RecForge II: I now have an Android tablet that I'm still learning how to use. So far I love having a mobile tool between the bulk of a full-size laptop and a phone-size screen; however, I was disappointed to discover that there isn't a native Android audio recording app. I did some research on the best free apps and found RecForge II. I haven't used it much, but the sound quality is good and it displays recording status and sound levels. While it technically offers the option to select different default file formats, I tried to use it as a backup recorder recently and learned the hard way that there are some limitations to this feature on the free version. "Recording audio in mp3, ogg, wma, flac and opus is interrupted every 3 minutes", BUT there is "no limitation to wav format". I was fortunate that the backup wasn't necessary in this case, but I wish I had paid better attention before trying to use it for a formal interview.

Sony Audio Recorder: I also downloaded and tested this free basic app on the Android tablet. It records in .aac or .wav formats, and the user interface is super-simple and displays the sound levels, recording progress, and list of recordings.

Sound Escapes

When I'm researching, writing, or performing administrative tasks, I work best when there is minimal background noise or distractions. However, that doesn't mean that I don't listen to music while I work sometimes; in fact, I find ambient/electronica or instrumental jazz both relaxing and motivating as background music as well as a good soundtrack for taking a break and moving around. Following are some of my favorite apps, playlists, and channels for working and chilling.

Background Ambiance:

AccuRadio: This is one of the earliest and longest running online streaming services, and I first started listening to their AccuHolidays channel when a colleague and friend turned me on to it in 2001. (You can listen to the master mix of all holiday music or listen to genre-specific channels.) Later I discovered AccuRadio's non-holiday plethora of genre and sub-genre channels and have considered it my best all-around go-to music site ever since. There are iOS and Android apps, but I tend to listen to AccuRadio from the web app on my laptop. It has a "Chill" station that is great background music for focusing, and there's also a page of "Workplace Moods" that compiles several awesome workout and chill stations that we like. You don't have to have an AccuRadio account to listen, but I eventually created one so that I could access my listening history, save favorite channels, and blend channels into custom stations. Here are a few of my custom Blend stations for your listening pleasure/productivity:

The only downside I've encountered is that the website version of AccuRadio will automatically log out of the account after a couple of weeks, but that's about it...

Chillhop Music: This is the ultimate YouTube music channel for chill/study background grooves. I don't even remember how I came across it, but it's another go-to soundtrack for quiet, energetic focus. Chillhop features individual tracks by artists on their label as well as extended mixes that last an hour or two. Another bonus is that they frequently broadcast these extended playlists live and archive them on the YouTube site (and the live comments feed is a fascinating ethnographic detour if you have time to go down that rabbit hole).

Soma FM: This is another fortuitous find that includes various unique selections for invoking an intellectual ambience. There are so many good ones... Some of my favorites are Lush (electronica with all-female vocals), Mission Control (recordings of actual NASA communications overlaid with ambient music), Secret Agent (byline: "The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life."), but Soma FM has lots of other ambient and space-related specialties as well. There is a free iOS app (only third-party apps are available for Android), but they do request donations as "a listener-supported, commercial-free internet-only radio station."

Radio Fields:

One of my Mamaw's many media artifacts

Fieldwork is an important aspect of my research and relationships as an anthropologist, and it involves spending time in my different field sites as well as virtual interactions within and outside of these geographical spaces. Both traveling and working remotely can be solitary experiences, so I also try to engage sensorially with my field sites en route by listening to local community radio stations when they are in range or online when I'm not physically in the field.

TuneIn: Some local radio stations have their own mobile apps or online streaming sites, but I use the TuneIn app (iOS & Android) to listen to community stations from my different field sites when I'm not there in person. There is a premium version that's commercial-free, but you don't have to have an account to use it, and the free version is fine if you don't mind listening to ads. I haven't explored it much beyond this purpose, but it seems to have a wide-ranging offering of local, regional, and national radio stations as well as genre-specific TuneIn channels to choose from. (Like this Chill station...)

Escaping Sound

Sometimes music can be a good way to block other sounds, but absence of disruptive sound is one of the best elements for a focus-friendly work environment. I'm fortunate and grateful to live in the woods, which is respite from town sounds while providing a peaceful soundscape of trees, breezes, birds, frogs, insects, pets, and far-off neighbors. However, living in a dome can be its own aural challenge because the open, round shape works like a giant megaphone. The acoustics are great for listening to music and watching movies, but there is literally no barrier to block out competing sounds when I'm trying to concentrate.

So I am currently looking for a good set of headphones that can help create a more defined workspace when necessary. A GradHacker blog post from a couple of years ago explored "Hearing without (Necessarily) Listening: The Soundtrack to Your Work Life" and different ways of "Thinking about our research soundscapes." The author mentions "noice-cancelling headphones" but doesn't really explain what they are, how they work, or where to get them. It was also unclear whether these are standalone headphones to dampen loud sounds (like one would wear using lawn equipment, etc.) or if they are special headphones for listening to audio without outside distraction. Luckily, I found a helpful discussion board with some explanations and user recommendations of different types.

I'm keenly aware of the great privilege of having a wilderness sanctuary to live and work in when I'm not in the field, going to meetings, etc. I'm grateful for my home and its different seasonal soundscapes that support my work. I also appreciate having various digital tools for recording data and producing soundscapes for working and chilling, and I hope this App Report is useful to others as well.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

+ Audacity is a free audio editing software that can also be used to convert files to different formats, but I will discuss this tool more in-depth in a future app report on editing/production apps.

Me and my Mamaw Ruby Clemons
at Clemons' Shoe Store in
Camargo, Kentucky circa 1978

p.s. I was exposed to audio recording at an early age by my maternal grandmother Ruby Clemons who, despite her constant disclaimers of being technologically challenged, always had the latest recording/playback devices. Her "formal" living room was really her home recording studio with a piano, guitars, harmonicas, music books, tape recorders, speakers, etc. So, long before I got my first "boombox" cassette player/recorder for Christmas in 6th grade, I was allowed to play with my Mamaw's equipment if I asked first. I credit her for influencing and supporting much of my creative, academic, and sustainability aspirations. My engagement with sound documentation and preservation is an excellent example of her example in my life.

I'm an only child, and borrowing my Mamaw's cassette recorder was a common method of entertaining myself. Every day after school, I'd get off the bus in front of her shoe store and hang out with her watching soap operas and playing behind the counter. The cassette depicted above is labeled for my piano solo of Beethoven's "Für Elise," but it also includes bonus tracks of rounds and other songs that I learned in music class and recorded so I could play them back to sing with myself. There is also the super bonus of an a capella Madonna medley of song choruses from her numerous 1980s hits. I wanted to share an audio clip of 6th-grade AnthroBone from this infamous recording, but I'm having trouble locating it the digital version in our vast hard drive archive.

I plan to post a couple of new multisensory postcards in the near future, but meanwhile I offer this alternative Bonus Track from Postmodern Jukebox, another favorite source of audio treats that requires more direct attention because it is so much more than background music. Pianist Scott Bradlee posts regular re-arrangements of pop songs from different eras utilizing "vintage" musical styles and genres from other decades. There are many amazing examples of his various remixes and collaborations, but I chose this remix of his remix of Macklemore's "Thift Store" that he synched with some old movie clips. Mucho meta-media mixing!

----------------

Disclaimer: For the record, I share my experience and opinions as an independent user of the audio-related apps and websites in this post. I am not formally affiliated with nor have I received any compensation for endorsement of any of the companies/products listed here.

Friend in the Field #1: Backpack

2018-03-30T15:23:00.000-04:00

Hall of Fame Inductee #1

Dear Forever-Trekkers in the Field,

Several years ago, one of our best friends gave me this Eagle Creek Travel Gear backpack, which has been a loyal Friend in the Field ever since. She wasn't using it anymore, and I really needed one after I returned to graduate school full-time and stayed in Lexington during the week and went home on the weekends. I commuted to campus by bike, so my otherwise awesome single-strap leather mailbag was just not practical and resulted in too many unfortunate mishaps.

Even for a hand-me-down, this is the fanciest day-pack I've ever had, plus it's green, one of my favorite colors.+ It has many, many useful and well-placed pockets, including a really roomy front pocket and two water bottle pockets on either side. The main large pocket includes a zipper flap in the middle to create a separate sleeping bag compartment on the bottom. The compartment is also accessible through a separate zipper flap behind the detachable fanny pack so I don't have to remove everything out of the top to get to it. The shoulder straps include a waist strap for extra stability, all of which make this an incredible backpack for daily use and travel.

When I was commuting to campus, this backpack became my saving grace. I could organize an enormous range of books, notebooks, various electronic technologies, writing implements, water bottle, Emergen-C, and other daily life necessities, and I could safely secure it to my body with the waist strap when I was in transit. I also used it for all of my school-related necessities when I came home on the weekends.

When I did exploratory field research in South America in Summer 2013, I knew my green friend would be an important ally and asset for both my long-distance flight marathons to and fro, as well as my daily travel, which was mostly on foot. Backpacks can be friends in the field. However, be warned that their benefits can also come with unanticipated costs. For example, I learned both during two overnights in the Miami airport and one in the La Paz airport in Bolivia. Such horrific tales were both exacerbated and ameliorated by my dear green backpack. I intentionally chose to sleep overnight in Miami airport on the first leg, but unfortunately had to repeat this sad situation when I missed my flight returning from South America. However, I was better prepared the second time and had a much better night's sleep than the first night I did it.

Peachy recognizes the inherent value of a good
backpack as a makeshift pallet for napping.

En route, I tried to sleep in one of the immovable chairs in a waiting area with my suitcase as an ottoman and my entire backpack as a pillow. This was very uncomfortable, and the foot traffic of the few other passengers and custodial staff was not restful. During my return overnight in the Miami airport, I flipped the fanny pack down to reveal the soft surface of the lower sleeping bag compartment, which I was able to use as a very comfortable makeshift pillow. I camped out on the floor with my back against the wall in a remote corner in one of the gate waiting areas and used my winter coat as a blanket and visual screen for the fluorescent lights.

My airport overnight in La Paz, Bolivia was also intentional, but far more miserable than my two nights in Miami combined. It was a long and harrowing night precisely because of the amount of baggage I was carrying while I experientially learned about altitude sickness, or soroche. I'll let my field notes tell this tale...

Field Notes excerpt July 15, 2013

Aside from this unpleasant experience, my overall trip there was amazing and inspiring, and I hope to return someday. Even after I adapted to the high altitude in Bolivia, I mostly opted for a small shoulder bag for my wallet, notebook, and film festival information. As a standalone day-pack, my green friend was otherwise perfect for pedestrian purposes when I walked to class every day in Peru or when I didn't have anything else significant to carry. (Additional "lessons learned" from my South America trip are available on the "TravelTips" page.)

AnthroBone (and her green Friend) in the Field
heading out on Hike Day at High Rocks Summer 2017

I have since used my green friend again as a day-pack doing fieldwork in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. It is especially handy and appreciated during participant observation, volunteering, and working as staff at Camp Steele, one of two two-week summer camps at High Rocks Educational Corporation. Backpacks are a must-have to keep up with camp schedules, class materials, and sources of sustenance (i.e., water, snacks, aspirin). Also, those who have ever camped or worked there know that any excuse is welcome to minimize the number of unnecessary trips up the Zen Trail that connects the main administrative and teaching buildings to the campground above. All that is to say that I was able to pack and organize most everything I needed for the day without having to return to the cabin or tent where I slept.

In general, I take my backpack everywhere I go as my centralized mobile headquarters, and it's becoming more weathered and faded with heavy-duty use, reminding me that nothing lasts forever. I plan to share a more complete list of my essential go-to in-the-field tools that it typically transports (in the spirit of other student anthropologists' contributions to the "What's In Your Fieldwork Bag?" genre. For now, let us celebrate the first Friend in the Field Hall-of-Famer that helps carry my load.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

p.s. One of my favorite comedic routines, George Carlin's "A Place for My Stuff," is relevant to both the subjects of backpacks and fieldwork. Being mobile and prepared while traveling away from home can be a challenge, but can also become a familiar practice of making a "place for my stuff" whenever and wherever I go. George Carlin says it a lot better (and funnier) while critiquing consumerism in this Bonus Track from his 1981 album by the same name.

+ The long-lived, long-loved backpack my dear friend gave me is green, one of my most favorite colors. This is also evident in many other favorite items that may someday grace the Friends in the Field Hall of Fame but will have to wait for now.

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UPDATE 08.10.18:

Check out this cameo appearance of Friend in the Field #1 in Anthropology News!

Friends in the Field: Hall of Fame Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

2017-09-03T13:45:00.000-04:00

Dear Ethnographers, Cultural Producers, and Artifact Collectors,

I've been meaning to finish and share this post for a while, but life has been enormously all-consuming this year. One way that I work through difficult times is reminding myself to be grateful for what I have instead of dwelling on what I lack. So I thought the beginning of the fall semester would be an auspicious time to formally introduce AnthroBone's "Friends in the Field Hall of Fame" in celebration of some of the awesome resources I have access to that support me and my work.

For anthropologists, the "field" is more than just a place or a "site" where one conducts research and likely resides for a period of time. We also participate in and influence "fields of cultural production" through knowledge production and power relations with other people as well as with material objects (Bourdieu 1983). My dissertation research focuses on young people in Central Appalachia and how they use media to envision futures for themselves and the region, so I spend a lot of time thinking about fields of cultural production.

I also think a lot about fieldwork and its own processes of cultural production and the role and importance of material artifacts in the work that we do, both in terms of the productions and content we document and analyze as well as the artifacts that we employ to conduct this work. The physical objects we choose to use and carry along on our journeys are culturally significant artifacts that have their own "social life" and agency alongside and beyond their commercial value and utilitarian purposes (Appadurai 1996). I am also fascinated by the range of cultural productions that anthropologists generate in the field, such as field notes, drawings, photographs, soundscapes, and video vignettes, and the way they creatively express something profound about both the topic of exploration and the researcher.

I am consciously anthropomorphizing these various "friends in the field" because they are more than just physical objects. I have real relationships these material artifacts, which also have important relationships with one another spatially, methodologically, and conceptually. So after far too much time, I formally acknowledge these Friends in the Field by cutting the virtual ribbon for the grand opening of their very own Hall of Fame.

I plan to post profiles of individual Friends in the Field in the future, but for now, here's a sneak peek of what is to come. Anthropologists and other ethnographers will recognize some of these friends among theirs as well and have their own stories to tell.

Artist renderings by AnthroBone (aka Tambone aka Tammy Clemons)

In gratitude to Friends in the Field for sharing the load of my trials, tribulations, and triangulations while conducting fieldwork, this Hall of Fame is dedicated to the many valuable material artifacts that make my work possible, usually productive, and most often pleasurable.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

Source: https://web.archive.org/
web/20050628083205/
http://www.theory.org.uk:80/

p.s. I would be remiss if I cited Bourdieu and Appadurai without acknowledging that material artifacts are not innocent bystanders but active witnesses of the political economies, production processes, and social relations that create them. Likewise, I am accountable as a consumer in these processes even though the majority of my material possessions are hand-me-downs from family, friends, flea markets, and thrift stores. Everything comes from somewhere, and the true cost of stuff, no matter how useful, often goes unaccounted with no acknowledgement of the where, who, and how of its existence.

Therefore, this inauguration of the Friends in the Field Hall of Fame features the original Story of Stuff production as a reminder of how the many local worlds we live in are also constructed by complex global processes.

References
Appadurai, Arjun

1986 Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value. In The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. A. Appadurai, ed. Pp. 3-. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bourdieu, Pierre

1983 The Field of Cultural Production, or: The Economic World Reversed. Poetics 12(4-5):285-487.

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UPDATE 03.30.18:

I finally posted the inaugural Hall of Fame inductee, Friend in the Field #1: Backpack! More to come...

App Report: Other Apps for Research & Writing

2017-04-18T16:36:00.003-04:00

Dear Anthro & Other Academic Appsters,

In my first App Report,* I expounded on the wonder of OneNote as a useful all-around and academic notebook app for research and writing. Because of my extended enthusiasm about OneNote and related "powertoys" (and the resulting length of that post), I promised to follow up with additional resources that I have gradually gathered, including some useful apps that I use regularly or am starting to explore. I have previously discussed some of these briefly in my AnthroDashboard of general resources, and I also shared some lessons learned with a previous version of EndNote. I have posted questions and exploratory comments about some of these in other social media venues without much response, so I thought I would share them to invite a wider discussion about academically useful apps. This is a fairly long and detailed list, so I've also included links below to skip ahead to particular sections.

General Apps | Mobile Apps | Windows 10 Apps | EndNote Update

General Apps

I've come across quite a few collections of apps for academics that have introduced me to some useful concepts and tools. For example, the UK libraries website includes a "tools and apps" page of resources for publishing, research, and scholarly communication. This is how I learned about Browzine (see below) and a "Data Management Planning Tool” that includes sample plans and templates for specific funding agencies the require them. MIT has an “Apps for Academics” page of resources, and Guilford College has a list of "Digital Pedagogy and Scholarship," though the latter is a little dated with some now-defunct apps. The GradHacker blog includes several posts summarizing apps for productivity (and its counterpart anti-distraction strategies), reference managers, and cataloguing your home library. Some of these are also a little dated but still include useful tips and apps that are still around. There is a decade-old post on “Fieldnotes 2.0” on Savage Minds that is a helpful way of thinking about the development and application of digital for fieldwork, and it lists several valuable apps that are still around, some of which are specific to qualitative research.

Following are some apps related to accessing scholarly journals and other information sources as well as productivity tools for managing time, projects, and tasks.

Browzine: I have tinkered with both the mobile (iOS) and desktop web versions of this UK libraries app. It provides access to UK e-journals and looks useful so far, but I haven't compared it to trying to access them on the UK libraries webpage on a mobile browser. I played with it a little recently and found a lot of great journals, but not all of the ones we have access to through UK are available in this platform. So far, I prefer the mobile app interface, which is both more visually appealing and more user-friendly. The desktop web version is annoying because you have to log in twice if you go your Browzine account first and are then prompted to log into your UK LinkBlue account. I accidentally figured out how to bypass this double login by going directly to the LinkBlue login page for Browzine instead of the app website. You still have to log in each time you restart your computer, whereas, you can just stay logged into the mobile app. The UK libraries website includes a comprehensive "Browzine Research Guide" that includes detailed instructions and support for using the program.

Feedly: I’m curious about this feed aggregator in general, whether or not I would install it as a mobile app. I like the idea of a single interface for compiling and browsing custom content, but I don’t necessarily want to connect my social network accounts to it. Mainly I’d like a way to see the news and blog content in a one-stop shop. I have not yet used Feedly, but I’ve played with Feed Informer, which has some nice functionality, but there’s not an iOS version (or at least not an official one). I used Feed Informer to create the "NewsFeed" page on this blog, and it's a handy way to review several news, blog, and academic sources that I like to keep up with, if I could actually remember to look at it regularly. So if anyone has used Feedly and has strong opinions about it, please let me know what you think.

Pomodoro: This time management system goal-setting and time-logging can be adapted for different projects and work styles. There are a large number of Pomodoro (or related) work timer apps, but I would like to find one that is 1) free, 2) can export usage data for self-reporting, and 3) also has a desktop (Windows 10) version. I have played with the Pomodone app, which integrates with Wunderlist and other project management apps, and I like what I've seen so far on the Windows and web versions. Currently, there is not an iOS mobile version, but you can subscribe to the "waiting list" for if/when there is a future release. I know that’s a lot to ask, but I would prefer a single system for keeping track of work time. I have a hodge-podge system that works fine for this, which I can share with others, but I’d love to learn about other resources/approaches.

Wunderlist: I've used the web-based, Windows 10, and iOS versions over the past month or so and like the potential so far. I wish it were more compatible with Microsoft Outlook and OneNote, and the app versions have some limitations that the web version doesn't. I'm curious about others' experiences with this and other project management apps like Trello and Todoist.

Mobile Apps
About four months ago, I got a new-to-me iPhone SE and have been researching and selectively installing some useful apps. In general, it has way more features and potential apps than I need or actually want to have cluttering my device or my mind. I also don’t want to download a lot of superfluous distractions (like games or too many social networking apps), functions that can already be accomplish with installed apps, too much that requires online access to work, or that requires logging into an account. I would love some feedback about whether some of the ones I’m exploring have been useful for anyone else as well as any additional recommendations, especially related to academic research, fieldwork, and productivity.

Adobe Acrobat Reader: This is perhaps the most obvious and basic must-have app because PDFs are such a universal and ubiquitous file format. Adobe also offers numerous other mobile apps related to document viewing and production as well as visual production and editing. Acrobat Professional is the only other Adobe product I really use on my laptop, but I use it frequently to create and edit PDFs. So far, Reader seems sufficient for my mobile needs.

Google Hangouts/Voice: Both of these communication apps have been indispensable for keeping up with family while conducting fieldwork in the US and abroad. I have mostly used both of these programs as online apps, and they both have some overlapping and distinctive features that I wish were better integrated into a single service. When I was in South America, I mostly had regular internet access and was able to use the Voice account associated with my Gmail account to make "international" phone calls with my laptop. Other great benefits include the ability to custom choose a phone number for your account (with a valid mobile number), to receive voicemail messages, and to send and receive text messages. You can also enable transcription of voicemail, which is reliable enough that I sometimes use it to make voice notes to myself for fieldwork and follow-up tasks. I've never had any luck with the dialer on the actual Voice account page and have used the classic dialer from my Gmail when calling from my laptop instead. Now that I have a new laptop with a webcam, I've been using the video call/chat feature of Google Hangouts more often. I also have a Skype account that I have used for formal meetings, but Hangouts is more convenient and user-friendly since so many already have Gmail accounts. I installed both on my iPhone and really like the ability to make calls from Hangouts when there is wireless but no cell service. The Voice app is also handy for accessing the voicemail and text features for my Google number.

Office Lens: This free document scanning app by Microsoft is one of the first apps I installed on my phone, and it has become indispensable for me in just four months. It lets you distinguish whether you’re scanning a document, photo, whiteboard, etc., and it automatically lines up and crops the edges pretty well with the option to edit before you save. I’ve used it to scan handwritten meeting and field notes quite a bit since I got my new-to-me phone. Office Lens is included on the list of OneNote Featured Apps and is directly compatible with OneNote, though I haven't mastered this feature yet. I also haven't figured out to save documents directly to PDF.

SuperBetter: A few years ago, I was fortuitous enough to watch an interactive TED talk by game designer Jane McGonigal about SuperBetter, a game that she invented when she was struggling to recover from a severe concussion. The basic structure is to create a Secret Identity; identify an Epic Win you want to achieve (or challenge you want to overcome); and then to complete various Quests, collect Power-Ups, and battle Bad Guys. Ysou can also invite Allies to support you or become a Hero for someone else. All of these activities award points in different areas of resilience (physical, mental, emotional, and social) for which McGonigal creatively cites and integrates supporting findings from scientific studies. I have used SuperBetter pretty consistently since 2014 as a motivational and documentation tool for dealing with both self-care issues and grad school goals. I've custom-created several Quests, Power-Ups, and Bad Guys specific to my academic work and as well as some for physical and mental well-being. I highly recommend watching the video (preferably with potential allies) before creating an account for this inspiring and useful tool. I have mostly used the web version until recently when I downloaded the iPhone version. The app needs some improvements, and the phone app is not as robust as the web version, but it's been a solid ally for me for several years.

FireFox Focus: This is a special private version of the Firefox browser that makes it easy to block various trackers and to erase browsing history. I installed this as a safeguard against someone getting into my phone, and I like it's simple functions and settings. Unfortunately, Apple does not allow changing the default apps for browsing, mail, calendar, etc.; however, you can turn Safari integration on or off.

Microsoft Office Apps: I am a long-time (20+ years) user of Microsoft Office desktop programs such as Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. So this seemed like another obvious set of mobile apps to install. However, I've been frustrated by some of the limitations I've encountered, especially the default program limitations on the iPhone. This means that you can install Outlook, but not set it as the default mail, calendar, or contacts program. I've installed and uninstalled it several times thinking that I could make it work but then quickly remember other reasons why I don't like the mobile version. For example, neither the mail or calendar views are customizable, which means that Outlook displays about four email messages (with automated preview that can't be turned off) compared to about eight messages on the Apple Mail app. Similarly the Outlook calendar doesn't include a full-month view, and individual upcoming appointments take up more than half the screen. Also, there is no direct way to sync a mobile and desktop versions of Outlook directly through USB but only through an online Microsoft Exchange account. (UK offers this option for campus email, but I didn't choose it when I first set mine up.) All that said, I make do with the default Apple programs and sync them with my desktop Outlook through iTunes, which is less than ideal but currently the best option. Otherwise, I downloaded the mobile versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for basic document access, though they also have some limitations. For example, you only have read-only access to documents unless you log into a Microsoft account. UK students have these automatically (aside from the mail server), but again, I choose to use a different platform for most of my online communication and archiving to the cloud. So I reluctantly signed in for full functionality that apparently is unavailable for non-Microsoft-account-holders who install the "free" Office apps. Other than my adoration and admiration of OneNote in its various incarnations, I've been largely disappointed with the Microsoft Office apps for iOS.

Wiley Anthropology: Wiley Publishing offers several discipline specific "spotlight" apps, including one for their anthropology publications. The app is not tied to an account and so does not provide full-text access to articles, but you can read abstracts, save your favorite journals, add articles to a reading list, and see when new articles are published. Most of the journals featured in this app are also available as full-text in Browzine, but there are a few extra Wiley journals related to biological anthropology and archaeology. The benefit of the Wiley app is having an automatic filter for the discipline of anthropology where this takes several steps in Browzine. Another great feature is the ability to add up to two custom feeds. While somewhat limited, it’s still a worthwhile free app for anthropologists, and Wiley’s other disciplinary spotlight maps may be worth checking out as well.

Screenshot comparison of Browzine bookshelf
and Wiley Anthropology Spotlight favorites.

Visual Production: The irony here is that I am a visual anthropologist and media artist researching how young people in Appalachia use media production, and yet I have no good leads or recommendations for mobile apps in this area. I’ve seen a few photo/video editor and collage apps that look interesting, but again, I don’t want something that’s just fun to play with or is too complex to use. In terms of desktop video editing software, I'm most familiar and proficient with Adobe Premiere, and there is a mobile app called, "Adobe Premiere Clip," but I haven't tried it. If anyone has some favorite apps in these visual production genres, I would love some help narrowing down a few good examples that provide the basics from the too numerous options.

Windows 10 Apps
InstaNote: This meeting documentation and referencing app is available on Windows 10 and Android, but not yet iOS. It looks both enticing and troubling in its capacity to retroactively retrieve recorded audio. It's supposed to be compatible with OneNote and other Microsoft programs, but it's interface is a little clunky. I haven't played with it but would love feedback from anyone who has tried it and/or found it useful.

EndNote Update
I promised a follow-up on my previous post about EndNote, and I'm both sorry to say I've already encountered some new challenges and glad to report some work-arounds. First of all, I was disappointed to learn that there is an EndNote app for iPad but not currently for iPhone. However, the EndNote online account does include a mobile version of their web page where you can login with your email and EndNote Web password on your phone. There is no option to remain logged in, so you have to enter your account information again if you close and later reopen your browser. The EndNote mobile webpage is basically a more visually condensed version of the online account, which is already less robust than the desktop program, but it's better than nothing and is best viewed in landscape format.

iPhone SE screenshot of EndNote mobile web page

iPhone SE screenshot of
Browzine EndNote option

The Browzine app includes an option for saving articles and citations directly to an EndNote Web account without having to log in again after the first time you enter your account information.
I also have some lessons learned from using EndNote X8, the new desktop version of the program that is now available via UK Download site. The really bad news is that my master .enl library file somehow got corrupted shortly after I upgraded from X7 to X8.

I learned from their tech support that using EndNote directly from Google Drive is not recommended because of the way it updates files. However, this was never a problem since I installed and began using EndNote when I started grad school in 2011. I only use Google Drive as a another back-up archive for my libraries, including all of the other libraries that still open for me, and I have always opened and accessed the library locally from my hard-drive instead of the online version.

The partly good news is that because I had already synched my complete library of more than 1000 references to my online account, I was able to recover and download a complete backup library to replace the corrupt one that I lost. The recovery also maintained my Group Sets even though this feature is not available on the web version. However, I still lost all of the "absolute links" to the PDF files I had attached to most of my citations because I chose to link to an existing folder of documents instead of reproduce them in EndNote's default location. So choosing not to save PDFs as "relative links" to Endnote's data file bears the risk of losing the PDF index of attachments because they are not backed up to the online MyEndNote system.

So while I was able to retrieve all of my citations, I will most likely have to reattach all of the PDF files manually for the majority of the references I've collected since 2011. Their tech support has offered to help see if the corrupt library and its original attachment links are retrievable, but I'm not sure whether there is still hope. At any rate, I have learned the benefit of backing up the PDFs in the recommended way, but I am still not persuaded to duplicate my entire vast library of documents. Instead, I think I'll try to find another way to back up my .enl library and .data files in addition to the backup I keep in Google Drive.

I know this is a pretty long list of apps, some of which are directly related to academic research and writing while others are more broadly related to general productivity. I really hope to hear about others' experiences or recommendations, so thanks in advance for any app reviews and tips! Feel free to post comments here or contact me directly.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

* P.S. The word "report" in "App Report" should be pronounced en français a la "The Cobert Report." Therefore, "App Report" should be pronounced similarly to the French word "apropos." Anywho, that's how I hear it in my head... I plan to share additional App Reports (same pronunciation) as I come across other resources in the future, and I welcome any suggestions or questions related to any apps that others find useful or want to learn more about.

P.P.S. "There's an App for That" Bonus Track... You're welcome.

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Since I wrote this post, I had a compatibility issue with EndNote X8 and the Bridge for EndNote and OneNote plug-in that I finally decided to purchase from OneNote Gem. I uninstalled X8 and reinstalled X7, and it has worked fine. The main difference is the ability to share libraries with X8. I plan to share some additional apps and lessons learned in the near future!

Also, Microsoft since acquired and discontinued Wunderlist and replaced it with their "To Do" app.

Disclaimer: For the record, I share my experience and opinions as an independent user. I am not formally affiliated with nor have I received any compensation for endorsement of any of the companies/products listed here.

App Report: OneNote for Research & Writing

2017-04-10T15:33:00.007-04:00

Dear Nerdy Wordy Academic App-O-Philes,

Recently a fellow PhD graduate student in the University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology posed an email inquiry to our grad anthro list-serve about “writing apps for dissertating,” and there was a lively email discussion among several ABD PhD Candidates from the same or similar cohorts about several go-to applications they use. Given my nerdy love for digital tools and archives, I joined the conversation and offered some of my experience and satisfaction working with OneNote.

How to Get OneNote | General Tools | Academic Tools | How I Use OneNote

The email discussion began as a question about writing programs for tackling such a large project as a doctoral dissertation, but responses branched out to include recommendations for information management such as qualifying exam citations, other research sources, multi-format data, field notes, etc. The single most cited program was Microsoft OneNote, which over the years, has pretty much become my all-time favorite software program ever. (I say "software program" intentionally to sound old-fashioned as I'm not fully persuaded that the term "application" is a sufficient umbrella term for so many different types and sizes of "apps" and their actual applications to the work that want or need to do.)

Aside from that aside, I have used OneNote in an evolving manner since I started my doctoral at UK in 2011. Early on, I only dabbled with it for managing course assignments and didn’t use it consistently enough for it to enhance my productivity much. However, the more I played with it and the more features that were released or I learned about, the more I realized its potential for managing a wide range of information, projects, and goals. Now it is the program I use most frequently on my laptop.

How to Get OneNote

OneNote is now pretty standard on any newer laptop with Windows, and it is also available for free download from Microsoft. For UK students, it can be downloaded as part of the Microsoft Office suite that is available from UK Download or from a UK-based Microsoft account. Logging into Microsoft also enables synching notebooks with OneDrive, but I only started experimenting with this feature and use another cloud service instead. If you use other Microsoft programs, I recommend using the one that comes with the Office suite because it’s a little more robust than the free version in terms of updates and features.

I've collected an array of resources and tools that have enhanced my proficiency with the program and the productivity of my workflow. Many of these are general resources that might be handy for any OneNote user, and I've also come across and created some instructions and templates for using OneNote specifically for academic research.

General OneNote Tools

Keyboard Shortcuts Windows - OneNote: Like other software, OneNote includes both universal and specialized shortcuts for implementing common and recurring functions. This is a handy list for learning and referencing shortcuts that are specific to OneNote 2016.

OneNote Featured Apps: OneNote integrates with several other accounts, applications, and services. This is a basic list of compatible apps endorsed directly by Microsoft on the OneNote website. Another useful app integration that isn’t included on this list is the Microsoft Flow template for creating new OneNote pages from new Wunderlist tasks. OneNote also integrates directly with other Microsoft Office products like Outlook and Word, which does not require a Microsoft account or login to use on desktop versions of Office. Finally, there are many instructive comments and discussions in the Microsoft Uservoice for OneNote Suggestion Box

OneNote PowerToys: When OneNote was fresh on the software scene, Microsoft had a developer competition for “PowerToys” to expand or enhance the program for “power users.” Apparently, Microsoft didn’t continue this much beyond the inaugural competition, so this collection of PowerToys is a little outdated. However, it still has some useful overall tips for OneNote and is how I found some of the other resources included on this list.

OneTastic: This amazing and extensive library of OneNote add-ins was developed and is maintained by Omer Otay who is a principal software engineer at Microsoft and one of the developers of OneNote. The overall OneTastic program is available as both trial and purchased download, and I found my trial experience worthwhile enough to pay $15 for full access.

Macroland: This is useful compilation of downloadable macros for OneTastic. Different terms and access apply to downloaded macros depending on whether you install the free version or paid subscription. If you choose the trial version, spend plenty of time exploring and downloading macros you think you might use, because you will still be able to use them (but not download more) after the trial ends.

OneCalendar: This free OneTastic tool produces a visual outline of all edited pages using a monthly calendar format. If you have multiple notebooks that you work from regularly, this is a helpful way to open a specific page you worked on in the past.

OneNote Gem: This is another incredible and comprehensive library of OneNote add-ins that are available as both trial and purchased download. OneNote Gem is a bit more expensive than Onetastic, but it includes different suites of add-ins that are general and function specific, and robust features are included in categorized tabs in the OneNote menu.

Bridge for EndNote: This plug-in offers the extremely useful option of inserting EndNote citations into OneNote in a sort of minimalized version of the Cite-While-You-Write (CWYW) feature for Microsoft Word. This indispensable tool for academic work, and there is a free month-long (?) trial, but the full purchase price for this plug-in alone is $17.

Gem for OneNote: This suite of add-ins includes several specialized menu tabs with various productivity features. I paid $33 for this thinking when my trial for Bridge for Endnote expired because I thought it was included, which it unfortunately wasn’t. It does include an “EndNote” feature under the “Link” tab, but it is misleading and refers to standard endnote formatting instead of integration with the EndNote citation management program. However, I have found several features extremely useful and some that work a little reliably than their OneTastic counterparts. For example, the “Link” tab also includes functions for compiling list of attached media files and other files () from a particular page or notebook.

Gem for OneNote Menu Tabs & Features

Templates: OneNote Gem offers free downloads of several useful OneNote templates that are designed for specific purposes (work, school, personal, etc.), including some how-to templates from earlier versions that are no longer available from Microsoft. I found the School notebook template was good for semester coursework, but the Work notebook template was more useful for organizing research projects.

OneNote Tagging Kit: OneNote already includes a basic set of tags for categorizing and following up on different types of notes or tasks, and while it includes a customization option, it might not be flexible or comprehensive enough for in-depth coding in an academic research project. I’m still exploring this as I continue to compile and organize field notes, websites, photos, audio recordings, etc., and the OneNote Tagging Kit is a free add-in that I discovered as another way to label and sort through large amounts of data. I’m still playing with it in comparison to the built-in tagging function, so it may or may not be the best tagging option for academic work.

Academic OneNote Tools

As I’ve expanded my use and proficiency with OneNote, I’ve also explored how other people have used it for their own academic programs and projects. I found a couple of different sample notebooks for organizing coursework and research projects that I was able to modify into my own formats. For example, I found an in-depth blog post on "How I Used OneNote for My PhD,"which includes a great overview for using it to collect and organize dissertation-scale data for analysis.

I also came across an academic workshop that directly discussed OneNote's application potential for conducting research entitled, "Using OneNote as a Meta-tool across the Qualitative Research Process" (Fernandes & Barbeiro 2015). The workshop link includes an outline of their presentation content, and their project website also includes a helpful “OneNote in Research” demonstration, which is a sample online notebook that outlines how it can be used for academic research. The page includes a link to an online version as well as a download version; however, be careful about downloading it as my system identified it as potentially dangerous. You should still be able to browse around the online version safely to get a sense of how it's organized and learn some of OneNote's key features and applications. I have mostly used the desktop version on my Windows 10 laptop, which I much prefer to aesthetics of the online version.

OneNote in Research includes several useful examples and instructions for maximizing the program for planning, conducting, and organizing academic research

In addition to research-oriented uses, Microsoft offers several support resources for teachers to use OneNote for creating, organizing, and distributing curricula and content directly to students. For example, OneNote offers a "Class Notebook" add-in as well as additional OneNote resources for teachers.

Please note that all of these Microsoft teaching resources require logging into a Microsoft account to access and use.

How I Use OneNote

OneNote is an especially helpful tool for organizing information. As I've acquainted myself with its functions, I've come to enjoy and rely upon what has become an extension of my childhood and teenage love for Trapper Keepers to organize important artifacts like my sticker collection and composition books to record my thoughts, doodles, lists, and notes.

Yes, I still have my rainbow Trapper Keeper
and all of my middle school sticker collections.

Now I rely on OneNote primarily for organizing any major project, including my dissertation field research, grant proposals, conference abstracts, and even computer maintenance and personal wellness routines. I do not use OneNote so much as a writing software as an organizational management system for vast amounts of information in different formats. I use it in conjunction with Word, which I use for more the formal writing process and polishing drafts.

In earlier versions of OneNote, several notebook templates were automatically available for customizing and organizing content. For some reason, these built-in templates are much more limited and Microsoft no longer includes a OneNote section in its online library of Office templates. However, in addition to the free OneNote Gem templates noted above, I have compiled copies of these older templates along with a few that I custom-created in a public folder on Dropbox.

OneNote still includes a set of basic page templates that you can also use to custom build your own page templates for recurring entries and tasks. As illustrated in the screenshot below, you can access page templates from the “Insert” tab. Then in the lower right-hand corner of the menu that appears, you can set the template that automatically opens in the current notebook section or you can create a custom template based on the page that is currently visible. The “Field Notes” template shown here is also available for download in the public Dropbox folder.*

It’s important to understand a little bit about the file structure that OneNote uses to create and retrieve notebooks so that you can locate them either in their default locations or a customized location.

The default location for new notebooks and Quick Notes is in the Documents folder of the logged in user (e.g., C:\Users\UserName\Documents\OneNote Notebooks), and the back-up location is in a program folder with other data that is associated with OneNote (C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneNote). I have changed these locations to Google Drive folders that are stored both locally on my laptop and synched to my online account.

To view or change the default location for new notebooks, Quick Notes, and notebook back-ups, click on “Options” under the “File” menu tab.

Then click on the "Save & Backup" menu and choose "Modify" to change the default folder locations.

Because of the way that Google Drive handles updating documents, some caution against using it for OneNote files and Microsoft recommends using Dropbox or OneDrive instead, which include incremental updates. I briefly chose Dropbox to manage my backup all of my notebooks, but I quickly bumped up against my limit of free storage space. (My OneNote files are especially large because I record and organize so much audio and visual media.) So I ended up moving them all back to Google Drive where I have unlimited storage (and presumably lifetime access) through my UK account. Now I am careful to close OneNote (and keep it closed) before synching Google Drive.

This is an ongoing storage conundrum, but it's important to understand what the benefits and limitations of different cloud services and how to manage a numerous and diverse archive of documents and data effectively. As I’ve written before, backing up data is crucial and should be carefully considered, implemented, and re-evaluated often. Plus, many funding agencies require detailed data management plans for proposal submissions. There’s a new GradHacker post on “The Necessity of a Dedicated Backup System” on developing and managing backup plans, and one person actually comment "what's the big deal?" It’s a very big deal, and effectively and efficiently dealing with OneNote data is a big part of that for me.

In terms of the basic organizational structure of OneNote files, notebooks are saved as individual folders of the same name in the default location. Then each notebook folder contains separate files in *.one format that are also named for their corresponding pages in the notebook (subpages are contained within the *.one file of their parent page rather than as separate files). Every notebook folder also contains a table of contents file (“Open Notebook.onetoc2”) that organizes and opens all of the pages in the OneNote program.

As long as you know where to find all of them, you don’t really have to deal with the individual OneNote files outside of the OneNote program. However, depending on the size of your OneNote files and the number of add-ins you install, they can sometimes bog down the program and make it run slower or sometimes freeze. I learned that I could circumvent this somewhat by creating more notebooks with more section tabs and not trying to embed too much information or too many pages into a single notebook section.

I have several different notebooks set up with different topic tabs, pages, and subpages of information that can be organized, tagged, and retrieved in multiple ways:

By semester for coursework, conference presentations, etc.
By semester or summer for fieldwork, conference, presentations
Funding proposals
Personal
Dissertation Fieldwork
Dissertation Proposal
Dissertation Writing

As noted above, I have included a customized notebook template for funding proposals as well as a field note page template for collecting notes and recording media, in the public Dropbox folder. I plan to share additional notebook templates soon.

I have also recently experimented with using OneNote for transcribing audio interviews. I used ExpressScribe for a couple of years and was disappointed to learn about malware associated with the free program. Then I discovered TranscribeSharp, which is another free transcription software that was developed by a dissertating graduate student, and I have used it for several interviews for my dissertation research. It has some helpful features and some annoying bugs, but I’ve managed to use it pretty reliably and just restart it when it glitches or freezes. I do find the TranscribeSharp hotkey commands a little cumbersome when transcribing in Word, and I tried and failed to remap them using AutoHotkey.

Both TranscribeSharp and OneNote have different pros and cons that I may discuss in more detail another time, but OneNote proved to be a sufficient way to organize and transcribe interview audio. The main benefit of OneNote is that you can embed the audio file and sync paragraphs to different segments of the recording. This awesome feature can be a little tricky at times, and the other downside of transcribing in OneNote is the default shortcuts or hotkeys for keyboard playback, forwarding, and rewinding. Like the TranscribeSharp shortcuts, they were a little unwieldy to work with. However, I did succeed when I attempted to remap the keyboard shortcuts for audio playback in OneNote, so I’ve included an executable file for this feature, a text file with a brief description, and the original AutoHotkey script another public Dropbox folder.

I am starting to use OneNote mobile and other smartphone apps as tools for conducting fieldwork. I used an earlier version of OneNote mobile on my old Samsung Jack smartphone to record and organize field notes, and I am now learning to use the version on my new-to-me iPhone SE. I’ve been using the daily fieldnote template I created and synching it with my online account through UK, which works well enough. However, unlike my UK Google Drive account, my Microsoft cloud storage space doesn't last forever, and I've looked and haven't yet found a way to sync OneNote between my phone and my laptop using a USB.

I really appreciated the email conversation about “writing apps for dissertating” and enjoyed reading how other people have used it for their own work. Other recommendations included Scrivener, Evernote, and Mendeley that have many loyal users as well. I hope some of these comments will be shared publicly here so that other graduate students can benefit from different people’s knowledge and experience. While I use and love OneNote, ultimately I think that continuing to work with software you’re comfortable with and learning new and more efficient ways to use it might be the best “universal” solution.

I plan to post another app report about other programs, especially mobile apps, that I use or am exploring. I'm also working on an update on EndNote and some lessons learned from the new X8 version. Please share any comments and tips about how you use OneNote or similar programs for research and writing.

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

* The field notes OneNote page template is based on two other templates: one from the Kentucky Folklife Program's Community Scholars Program (2009) and one by Lorena Gibson (2013). The Wunderground icon is a link for capturing historical weather data for the day and location.

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UPDATE 03.05.18:

Disclaimer: For the record, I share my experience and opinions as an independent user/fan of OneNote. I am not formally affiliated with Microsoft nor have I received any compensation for endorsement of OneNote. I plan to share some additional OneNote-related apps, resources, and lessons learned in the near future!

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UPDATE 02.23.19:

I'm glad that several folks have found this post useful since I originally shared it almost two years ago. There have been several significant changes in OneNote, add-in availability, and my overall experience with both. I plan to share some of these updates more in-depth soon, but for now it's important to note that Microsoft plans to phase out OneNote 2016 in favor of OneNote for Windows 10.

I briefly tried the Windows version, but for my current purposes, I'm sticking with OneNote 2016 for now because that's what I'm most familiar with, it does what I want it to do, and I have plenty of time until support ends. I'm also not happy about the forced cloud storage for notebooks in the Windows version and prefer to have multiple forms of local storage for my primary data management plan with secure cloud back-up.

Custom tags and searching are important to my academic research, and it would be great to also have the ability to print/export tag summaries as well as general search results. Even though the Windows version now has custom tag capability that syncs with cloud-based apps, there isn't really a simple way to import/export those across programs. However, I recently had to switch over to a different laptop and figured out how to transfer all of my custom tags from my old laptop using the registry editor.

All that is to say that I plan to post another OneNote related update soon with some new add-ins, tips, tricks, and lessons learned. So stay tuned! Meanwhile, check out some of the free online webinars available the Learn OneNote Conference site, which includes general productivity strategies as well as educational tools.

Exploring Mountains with Multisensory Methods: Sensory Postcards of Appalachia & the Andes

2016-10-30T17:55:00.008-04:00

Dear Human Senses and Creative Beings,

My dissertation research focuses on the cultural productions of young visual media makers in Central Appalachia and how they envision, construct, and act upon possibilities for young people in the region. For the past four summers, I conducted preliminary field research at youth media education programs in South America and Central Appalachia, and I have observed and documented numerous visual productions and performances they have produced. However, since I returned to grad school in 2011, I haven't had as much time to engage in some of my own creative interests, which include multiple modes of storytelling, such as filmmaking, community theater, music/audio, and graphic design. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to combine these interests and activities in a public presentation of "sensory postcards" derived from my preliminary fieldwork.

The University of Kentucky (UK) Graduate Appalachian Research Community (GARC) hosts an annual Appalachian Research Symposium that "is intended to foster a supportive community in which students from various fields can present their Appalachian-based research and creative work." With the exception of 2015, I have presented at the GARC Symposium every year since I started my doctoral program in 2011. This event is one that I look forward to each year because it affords a level of creativity and experimentation that graduate school doesn't always offer.

This year, I came across an article in Ethnography Matters on "Sensory Postcards: Using Mobile Media for Digital Ethnographies" (Droumeva 2015), and I was fascinated by her methodologies and her work with soundscapes. I was inspired to think about some multisensory materials I'd collected from my own fieldwork and to revisit some audio recordings from the previous three summers. I took a little bit of a different take and presented on "Exploring Mountains with Multisensory Methods: Sensory Postcards of Appalachia & the Andes" at the 2016 GARC Symposium.

Presentation Abstract: As a research methodology, ethnographic fieldwork is an experiential process of observing, collecting, and analyzing information from a variety of sources and senses. Many supposedly mundane moments can embody and express “thick descriptions” (Geertz 1973) and deeper understandings of these cultural and environmental contexts. Sensory postcards represent “a form of multimodal inquiry that engage sensory ethnography as an access point into … life, place and human geographies, as well as power relations and models of situated learning” (Droumeva 2015). As media artifacts, these “postcards” can “evoke a ‘moment in time’ sensibility while de-emphasizing the visual component” and emphasizing “instead the temporality of sound, allowing the listener to engage their imagination in constructing a scene without video filling in the blanks” (Droumeva 2015). This presentation will summarize and illustrate some of the basic principles of sensory postcards as an ethnographic method through multiple examples of ambient media artifacts produced during fieldwork in mountain geographies and communities in the Appalachian region of the U.S. and the Andean region of South America. For example, postcards will invite the audience to experience and interpret sensory landscapes of rural and urban settings in Peru, Bolivia, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Discussion will include other possibilities for researchers and their collaborators to apply multisensory methods in ethnographic fieldwork as well as the potential of mobile media production both as field tools and as social contexts for research.

Following are the set of slides and methodological media artifacts that I composed and presented. Please note that headphones, HD, and full-screen viewing are recommended for a fully immersive experience and legible ambient environment information. The slide show combines Google slides with YouTube content, so the slides with videos may appear in lower resolution before clicking on the screen to play the media.

You can also access the slideshow or just the YouTube playlist in a new window.

Postcard Playlist:

Audio walk to Faro la Marina, lighthouse in one of several sea-side public parks in the Miraflores district of Lima, Perú (June 25, 2013)
Audio walk through Plaza de Mayo during a parade with young people from a local school in Sucre, Bolivia (July 23, 2013)
Audio excerpt of a brief interruption to an interview with a young woman leader in Whitesburg, Kentucky (June 13, 2013)
Audio walk while feeding the chickens at Stompin Crick Farm outside of Hillsboro, West Virginia (July 14, 2015)
Audio walk while feeding the pigs at Stompin Crick Farm outside of Hillsboro, West Virginia (July 14, 2015)

These sensory postcards experientially present various ethnographic moments of particular field sites, and they provide some intimate context for these places. After presenting each postcard, I asked participants to tell me what they heard and what they thought they heard. Then I told them why and where I was, and the relevance of each piece.

For example, Lima, Perú is a city of more than 10 million people, which is the largest city I've ever been in. The traffic is extremely congested, fast-paced, and seemingly chaotic, which is far more intense than any traffic I've ever experienced in my home state of Kentucky or my brief residence in Boston. The street noises become more serene and more diverse as the walk progresses toward the sea-side park. The urban soundscape challenges some of the assumptions that people may have about Peru or South America more broadly, and it provides a palpable experience of the precarity of being a pedestrian in this context. The visual representation of the newspaper clipping illustrates the park and the popular parapete (parasailing) rental business that is centered there.

The parade in Sucre, Bolivia was one of numerous parades that I encountered while I was there. Before going there, I read in a travel guide and other literature that parades are culturally commonplace, serve a variety of official and informal purposes, and can even break out spontaneously depending on the occasion. For example, I once encountered a personal birthday celebration parade after dark. The youth parade in the soundscape completely overtook the Plaza de Mayo with young people cheering and waving to onlookers. In contrast, the photo shows the same plaza on a calmer day with a family enjoying a walk in the park with their child.

The postcard in Eastern Kentucky is an interview excerpt from an ethnographic research project on young women leaders in Appalachian for which I served as a research assistant to my doctoral advisor. The young woman is a prominent leader in a well-known non-profit and various regional organizations. The brief audio clip is actually an interruption in our conversation that reveals her leadership skills in action in what may otherwise seem like a mundane moment. Instead of ignoring the interruption as irrelevant, this excerpt makes the work she discusses in the interview more concrete and places the listener in the busy environment of the building where she works. The image is taken from the top of Pine Mountain at a popular scenic overlook above the town where the interview took place.

The two soundscapes in West Virginia both occur on the same farm when I helped take care of the livestock for a family who was on vacation. The immersive sounds of the chickens and pigs as I fed them represent reciprocity with a research collaborator and the daily commitment of care and physical labor that it entailed. There are no people sounds other than my footsteps, which is also an interesting juxtaposition as a rural soundscape in the US in contrast to the urban soundscape of Lima. The photo shows the family's farm gate and the agricultural/entrepreneurial activities they engage in outside of their full-time jobs.

I hope these multiple multisensory moments transport you somewhere new and interesting or at least help you experience these places in a new way. I plan to utilize sensory postcards as a method in a more intentional way in my fieldwork, so look and listen for more multimedia content in the future...

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

P.S. My dissertation research methodology includes young people as research collaborators in representing their identities and cultural productions in public venues like the GARC Symposium. I was pleased and proud to collaborate with the Appalachian Media Institute to help organize screenings of AMI films produced by the 2015 summer documentary cohort of interns. So as a bonus track, I also want to acknowledge and share the multimedia work that they presented at the 2016 GARC Symposium.

P.P.S. I also created a new standalone page of TravelTips that includes some lessons learned when I traveled to South America and England in 2013. I plan to update it with additional lessons from domestic travel and research in the near future...

Activating Library Mind

2016-10-19T18:07:00.000-04:00

Dear Academically-Inclined HumanKind,

I have meant to correspond more regularly, but this past spring semester entailed a time-consuming yet rewarding milestone for my current graduate student career: I am finally a PhD candidate, AKA ABD (all but dissertation), in the University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology. As follow-up to this process, I promised some folks that I would share some of the tools and strategies that I found useful along my long and windy way. None of this is intended as an exhaustive list of resources or a comprehensive how-to tutorial, but nonetheless it may serve as an occasional guidepost or light for someone else's path.

Departmental T-shirt by Karen, Katie, & Lydia

My first and best advice is to begin thinking immediately about how you want to organize, store, and manage what will eventually become the bibliographic library for your qualifying exams (or comprehensive exams in other departments or universities). Quals (or comps) are inherently difficult by design, so even a perfect organizational system will not study for, complete, or successfully defend your exams. However, the sooner you start and the more integrated your management system, the less stress you'll have about whether you have everything you need and how to find it when it really counts. Developing a system early on will also serve you well throughout coursework, developing research and funding proposals, and presenting your work.

While this post focuses primarily on some of the pragmatic tools and tricks that I use rather than the actual quals processes, there are some helpful resources on those issues. For example, I found collections of personal insights and resources by other grad students, like the Thesis Monkey blog with "Tools to help you write your thesis, help with procrastination and ...monkeys!" I also read several helpful articles on the topic on the Inside Higher Ed Gradhacker blog, such as 5 Strategies for Organizing Notes for Comprehensive Exams, Surviving Studying for Comprehensive Exams, Deconstructing the Written Comprehensive Exam, Surviving the Oral Comprehensive, and Surviving and Thriving During Quals. 

As you can see, "survival" is the primary metaphor/reality here: take it seriously while trying not to take yourself too seriously! Therefore, for
much-needed comedic relief, I highly recommend subscribing to the series of Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) Comics. They are slightly more geared toward the "hard sciences" and laboratory research and settings, but they are absolutely relevant and applicable to the social sciences and the comedy/tragedy of grad school and academia in general.

Source: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=31 (1/21/1998)

As I read through other people's experience and advice, I realized that I already practice many of the suggested preparatory strategies, which was encouraging as I quickly shifted to full-time reading and writing for my qualifying exams after I defended my dissertation proposal. However, now that I'm on the other end of this process, I'm not sure that there really is such a thing as being (or feeling) fully prepared for the exam process. That said, I have always enjoyed activating what I think of as "library mind," which is a quite natural and comfortable state of being for me, and it definitely proved valuable as I created and organized my bibliographies and prepared for my written essay questions and oral defense.

Library mind includes a lifelong love of books, libraries, and documentation. So I have spent a lot of time in archives as a researcher and even as an employee. Library mind also includes tackling some of the seemingly mundane organizational and administrative tasks of creating and maintaining systems of informational structure and retrieval. Obviously, these are all very nerdy interests and endeavors, and grad school is a pretty nerdy place, but not all nerds actually enjoy this aspect of the process. Therefore, I hope that some of the resources I've collected and my experience are helpful to others. For example, Gradhacker has a good general introduction to archival thinking and digital archival methods, which is one interesting way to think about organizing as an ongoing process. I use a combination of computer folders and sub-folders, EndNote, online cloud drives, and external flash drives to organize and back-up my enormous archive of documents. We also have larger household external drives for additional back-up of older documents and large files we don't need access to often. 

By the by (as my dear friend M is wont to say), backing up all of your grad school-related documents is an essential part of library mind that will preserve and protect your hard work and your peace of mind. Do not... I repeat... DO NOT reproduce my cautionary tale of simultaneous flash drive and laptop crashes and losing about three months' worth of reading notes, EndNote citations, and document downloads. Even with an active library mind and a pretty good back-up plan, my limited internet access at the time prevented regular synching of documents on my laptop and Dropbox. Thus, I continue to suffer these losses to this very day and can only emphasize the importance of double and triple back-ups of everything. Besides, grad school in general and qualifying exams in particular are already hard enough as it is...

Regardless of your discipline, department, particular exam process, or previous experience, begin preparing for exams during year one by choosing and using a comprehensive bibliographic citation management system. There are many options, and many other techy people have tested and compared their relative features, advantages, and disadvantages. I happen to use EndNote, which I will discuss in greater detail, but I am by no means arguing that it is the best one for everyone. One of my cohort members is a Mac user and uses Mendeley, which is a free citation management system. The main point is to choose one early on and stick with it to avoid the hassle and distraction of tinkering with new toys when it becomes crunch time.

I use EndNote because I had previous professional experience using it for a very large document, plus all UK students have free access to EndNote (among many other useful applications) with their LinkBlue ID and password: https://download.uky.edu/(installation instructions are available on the UK Analytics & Technology help page). Different UK departments and student organizations sometimes offer EndNote training workshops as well. When you open the program for the
first time, it may tell you that a newer version is available, so I would recommend updating to the newest version first. You can also create an online EndNote account to back-up, sync, and have cloud access to library databases. The main drawback of the web version is that it only backs up Groups and not Group Sets, which I will discuss more later.

I created my anthropology bibliographic Endnote database when I began my first semester at UK in Fall 2011. I began by entering some of the assigned readings and my paper/project citations from my courses throughout the fall and spring semester of my first year. In addition to the citation information for each source, I was able to include any reading notes or summaries that I wrote for class or research projects. I created a Group for each course and then organized these into Group Sets by semester, and then I created additional topical Groups as I collected additional sources through personal reading and recommendations from my doctoral advisor and committee. Endnote helped me draft a preliminary reading list at the end of my first year, and I continued using it to build and refine what would eventually become the bibliographies for my qualifying exams. 

In order to use EndNote effectively and efficiently, I figured out how to make it do what I wanted and needed it to do. One of the basic bibliography-building functions is the ability to export your entire Library, Groups, or Group Sets as a text document by clicking on the "File" menu and then "Export...". 

The Export dialog window will give several file format options for saving the file, including .txt, .rtf, .html, and .xml. 

While there is no option to save directly to a Word file within EndNote (that I'm aware of anyway), I usually save as a rich text document to maintain formatting and then use Word to open it and save it as a .doc or .docx file. 

That said, EndNote and Microsoft Word otherwise integrate well with the "cite while you write" or CWYW feature.

I used to be familiar with the "cite while you write" or CWYW feature in earlier versions, but I just recently starting to play with it again. EndNote simultaneously builds a bibliography by adding each new citation to the end of the document. You can create a separate section for it by inserting a page and header before the first citation. You may need to edit the formatting manually in Word. Below is a sample CWYW citation with two works where EndNote inserts the authors' last names and publication years inside parentheses (I added the punctuation at the end).

I learned a couple of tricks to make in-text citations in the document appear how I want them to. For example, when the author's name is an institution or organization, EndNote will automatically treat it as would a person's first and last name (i.e., "University of Kentucky" would become "Kentucky, University of" in the bibliographic reference, and "Kentucky" would be included as the author's last name for the in-text citation). All you have to do is insert a comma after the name in the author field of the EndNote reference so that the full organizational name appears in CWYW citations.

Because the default in-text citation format is author's last name and year, it took me a while to figure out how to include page numbers or parenthetical expressions such as e.g., cf., etc. So another valuable CWYW trick is the option to add a prefix, suffix, and/or page number to individual citations from the manage citations view.

A word of caution about using the CWYW add-in for managing citations in a Word document: be careful if you are copying and pasting text with CWYW citations from multiple documents. EndNote may generate an additional list of references in the bibliography at the end of the document, which means some duplicate references and some references in one list and not the other. To fix this, simply select and delete all of the end references and then click on "Update Citations and Bibliography." EndNote will integrate existing and pasted sources and insert a refreshed alphabetical references at the end.

Another useful organizational feature of EndNote is the ability to attach actual source documents to references. I have a master file of all my electronic articles, book chapters, and some books, and I have tried to make sure that every document I've collected is attached to an EndNote reference. However, I learned a frustrating but valuable lesson about clicking on that inviting paperclip icon.

EndNote's default setting is to create a new copy of the document in a new folder, which means that every document is duplicated in a data folder wherever you've saved your library! Unfortunately, I had created and attached a lot of additional PDFs before I figured out the fix: after clicking the paperclip to attach a document, you need to UN-check the default box for creating a new copy of the file.

If you've already created duplicate files, you'll need to manually remove them from the data folder even if you've unattached the copied file from the EndNote citation.

Having a well-organized EndNote library and electronic archive of sources was an important part of preparing for my qualifying exams. For the written exams, I also organized my physical library of books and articles that I needed to access. For example, I already had my course textbooks and assigned readings organized in one place, so I just pulled the books that were on my bibliographies forward to the edge of the shelf and pushed the ones I didn't need back a couple of inches.

I also pulled the course folders with articles I needed and put them in a single open file box with the relevant articles turned horizontally instead of vertically. I organized additional articles I had read and printed by general topic with post-it flags. For the rest of the books I had purchased or checked out from the library, I created a new shelf organized by the topical focus for each of the four exam days.

While all of this preparation was necessary and important, I must in all honesty say that nothing could quite prepare me for the actual process of writing and defending my qualifying exams. Writing continuously from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. for a week (well, four days with one day off in the middle), was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. It was not only intellectually difficult and psychologically challenging, but it was physically grueling as well. I initially tried to sit and work in different positions and locations, but the time constraint prevented me from even taking sufficient stretching breaks while I sat mostly sat glued to my desk and laptop.

All of this is to say that qualifying exams are an inherently uncomfortable process, regardless of preparation or ultimate success. Knowing this and that other grad students have run the gauntlet and (usually) survived does offer some comfort, but it's mostly symbolic and retrospective. Again, my best advice is to start early and keep on keepin' on...

Source: www.giphy.com

To end on an upbeat note, I hope to make more regular and less dense posts about other topics and resources that may serve others well. I have continued to update the AnthroDashboard, and I plan on creating a knowledge portal with links to all of the scholarly e-resources that I access regularly. Meanwhile, activate that library mind, y'all!

Be Kind, Be Kin,

*AnthroBone

Dear HumanKind (& EarthKin)

2015-10-14T16:24:00.003-04:00

First of all, I am endlessly inspired by the depth and breadth of your curiosity, creativity, ingenuity, diversity, complexity, and your work ethic. Since I was a young kid, I've always marveled at the consciousness and experience of being alive and being human. I've also pondered the fact that a seemingly infinite line of ancestors had to successfully survive and procreate to eventually produce me at a particular time and place.

Five Generations of TLC's Family Fan

This spiritual and intellectual fascination has led to some pretty amazing personal journeys, projects, and relationships, but such conscious engagement with you is also bittersweet and often paradoxical. Alongside my childhood wonder for existence developed an awareness that the human capacity for and demonstrations of cruelty, destruction, complacency, and injustice are as far-reaching and powerful as the most beautiful and magnificent of human potential, ideals, and accomplishments. Throughout my life, I have both embraced and railed against different social structures and cultural expectations that I encountered, all in an attempt to understand and mitigate the tensions and constraints of shared identity and belonging.

I admit that long before I every consciously chose to become an anthropologist, I designed and conducted social experiments and observed you in my everyday life and wondered what types of cultural norms and cues which people responded to. For example, if you went to high school with me and thought I dressed weird, it was sometimes part of a large and ongoing experiment to see who would talk to me depending on how I was dressed on any given day. I played with and performed different identities before I knew that's what I was doing or had the language to describe it. It was not out of disrespect but genuine curiosity, befuddlement, and amazement that I performed and parodied alternate versions of supposedly natural social configurations.

Manchester Opera House in Manchester, England (August 2013)

Over time, I've developed a little more self-awareness and sophistication in how I participate in and observe the fascinating and infinite array of human qualities, activities, aspirations, and impacts on Planet Earth. Training in the discipline of anthropology (among numerous other learning processes I've engaged in) has helped me situate aspects of daily life into larger understandings of human history and what even constitutes reality. However, I'm still human after all, and I have a particular gift of being a clumsy one in both comedic and tragic ways; so I'm still, and will hopefully always be, very much a student and less of an expert on anything.

I also have to admit that I am quite often disturbed and disappointed by what I observe about human values, behavior, and consequences in the world. Attempting to understand the range of human experience and expressions from an anthropological lens does not exempt me from feeling frustrated, lonely, and hopeless about humanity. In fact, sometimes this lens magnifies my own pessimistic tendencies rather than alleviating them. So I will occasionally occupy the status of misanthrope as I wrestle with the sadness and sickness that we're capable of inflicting on ourselves and one another. However, my critical stance does not represent antagonism but rather an honest and loyal attempt to challenge humans to imagine and embody their (our) best selves.

Outside el Museo de Arte Indigena
in Sucre, Bolivia (July 2013)

For a long time, I've been thinking about writing you this letter (and what may result in an ongoing series of letters) because I couldn't think of any other way to say what I need to say. Granted, I'm not always sure what I want to say, much less need to say, so I just want you to know that this is as much about me as it is about you. Again because I'm human, sometimes it will be impossible to talk to or about "you" without implicating myself. I will try to denote this consciously through the use of "(y)our" when my own thoughts and actions are clearly embedded in my reflections about all of us.

Likewise, rather than anthrocentrically limit my appeal to "you" human people, I want to expand my communication with and advocacy for non-human EarthKin who share our terrestrial home and the same life-imbued and life-giving material existence as human beings. Sometimes I will address my letters to "HumanKind" or "EarthKin" individually and sometimes to both collectively, depending on the message and its primary audience. I have a feeling that some of my missives may include urgent calls for HumanKind and EarthKin to get along already, though I'm aware in advance that addressing such disconnects is a much more complicated matter than words alone can resolve.

Early morning view from Pine Mountain on the way down to Whitesburg, Kentucky (June 2015)

Growing up, I had several pen pals in various parts of the country and the world with whom I maintained written snail-mail correspondence based on different kinds of affinities. For example, in middle school I became pen pals with a young woman from Chicago and another from England that I met through a sticker trading exchange. Later through my high school Spanish classes, I became pen pals with a young man from Puerto Rico who I corresponded with in Spanish. I've also maintained many close yet long-distance family relationships and friendships through letter-writing throughout the years, so this form of communication seems natural. The multimedia format and hypertextual capabilities afford some especially interesting variations on an old theme through a new media and broader audience.

I hope this initial letter leads to a more interactive instead of one-sided correspondence, but at the very least, I hope that some of what I think about and learn is useful to others. These letters will have an anthropological emphasis insofar as this is currently the world and worldview that I occupy as a doctoral student in the discipline. Just know that I'm sincere in my desire to understand one another better and that I value both your past and your potential. Also know that every letter will not always be quite so serious and more often than not will likely devolve into plain silliness.

Thanks for being my new pen pal. I look forward to future conversations...

Be Kind, Be Kin,
*AnthroBone

p.s. Both my academic and creative work involve audiovisual art and media, so here is an inaugural audio Jem for the HumanKind & EarthKin soundtrack.