whitney anne trettien

240.422.9048, trettien[shift+2]mit.edu, www.whitneyannetrettien.com

RESEARCH INTERESTS

History of the book and printing; early modern literature; dictionaries and grammar books; the relationship between technology, language and literature; intellectual history; medieval and baroque automata; digital poetry and literature; methodologies in media history, including ethnography and media archaeology; periods of media in transition.

EDUCATION

SM, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (2007-2009)

Comparative Media Studies; GPA: 4.0

Masters thesis (in progress): "'Earth like a changing-wheel': Seventeenth-century Digital Poetry"; Supervisor: William Uricchio; Committee: Ed Barrett, Kurt Fendt, Chris Funkhouser

BA (summa cum laude), Hood College, Frederick, Maryland (2003-2007)

Double major in English and Philosophy with Honors Program; GPA: 4.0

Philosophy Honors thesis: "The Seduction of the Self: Mirroring in Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary"; Supervisor: Karen Hoffman; Committee: Stephen Wilson, David Hein

English Honors thesis: "'The sound of the printed letter': Orthography, Orthoepy and English Dictionaries in Print Culture"; Supervisor: Martin Foys; Committee: Mark Sandona, Karen Hoffman

Hood Start program, Hood College, Frederick, Maryland (2001-2003)

GPA 4.0; nondegree coursework while attending Frederick High School

HONORS AND AWARDS

• HASTAC Scholar (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory 2008)

• Truman Scholar (Maryland, 2006)

• Portz Award for Most Outstanding Honors Student in Maryland (2006)

PUBLICATIONS

Chapter on remediating literature, co-authored with Martin Foys, forthcoming in Textual Culture, Cultural Texts, 1000-2010. Rochester, NY: Boydell and Brewer, 2009.

"Rethinking Interactivity in the Digital Archive." Carnivalesque: Early Modern Edition 44 (24 Oct 2008): http://mercuriuspoliticus.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/carnivalesque-44/

"HyperStudio Develops Resources for Exploring History and Historiography." In Media Res (Spring 2008): 19.

"This Ain't Your Gramma's Embroidery!: An Interview with Jenny Hart." Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins (7 Dec 2007): http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/12/this_aint_your_grammas_embroid.html

Cost of Freedom: The Anthology of Peace and Activism. Co-edited with Michael Annis, Mike Palecek. Denver, CO: Howling Dog Press, 2007.

"Horton Hears a Heil: Analogs for America in Dr. Seuss's Horton Hatches the Egg and Horton Hears a Who!" Hotel 5 (2006, McGill University).

"Kant's Invention of Autonomy: Misconstruing Evil and the Individual." University of Minnesota Undergraduate Journal of Philosophy 1 (2006, University of Minnesota): 27-46.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

"'Earth like a changing-wheel': Seventeenth-century Digital Poetry"

• Art, Fact, Artifact: The Book in Time and Place (College Book Arts Association Biennial Conference, January 2009)
• Under review for Media in Transition: Stone and Papyrus, Storage and Transmission (MIT, April 2009)

"'The sound of the printed Letter': Orthography, Orthoepy and English Dictionaries in Print Culture"

• Departmental Honors Thesis Presentations (Hood College, April 2007)

"The Seduction of the Self: Mirroring in Kierkegaard's The Seducer's Diary"

• Departmental Honors Thesis Presentations (Hood College, April 2006)

"Kant's Invention of Autonomy: Misconstruing Evil and the Individual"

• Pacific University Philosophy Conference (Pacific University, March 2006)
• Annual Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference (SUNY-Oneonta, March 2006)

"On Being a Farang: Linguistic Post-Colonialism in Bangkok"

• Presentation to the Second Century Foundation on my experiences teaching English in Thailand (Frederick, Maryland, March 2006)
• Maryland Collegiate Honors Council Annual Conference (Frostburg State University, March 2006)

"Chaunticleer so free / Soon murier than the mermayde in the see: The Sign of Melodye in the 'Nun's Priest's Tale'"

• Hood Regional Medieval Conference (Hood College, March 2006)

Other conferences attended:

• The Gift of History: A Symposium in Honor of Natalie Zemon Davis (Harvard University, November 2008)
• Interrupt: Language-Driven Digital Arts Festival (Brown University, October 2008)
• The English Institute (Harvard University, September 2008)
• International Medieval Congress (Leeds University, England, July 2006)

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant, Digital Poetry, forthcoming by Ed Barrett (MIT Press) (Sept. 2007 to present)

Responsible for gathering, sorting and archiving research on digital poems

Research Assistant, HyperStudio Lab for the Digital Humanities, MIT (Sept. 2007 to present)

Project lead, "The Serial Experience Project" (SEP); Principal Investigators: James Buzard (MIT), Joseph Childers (UC-Riverside), Kurt Fendt (HyperStudio)

Project lead, "US-Iran Relations Project"; Principal Investigators: janet Lang (Brown), John Tirman (MIT), Malcolm Byrne (National Security Archive)

Project lead, "Tories, Timid or True Blue?"; NEH-funded, Old North Foundation

Contributed to the Art of Probability Project (Shankar Raman, MIT) and Comédie-Française Registers Project (Jeff Ravel, MIT)

Responsible for various outreach activities, including helping to organize HyperStudio's humanities+DIGITAL Workshop (November 2008) and blogging

Research Assistant, Cotton Map Project; Principal Investigator: Martin Foys (Summer 2006)

Responsible for translating Old English and Latin source texts, then tagging them to a digital edition of the Cotton Map, a little-studied Anglo-Saxon mappamundi, using XML

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching Assistant for Ed Barrett, "Digital Poetry" (21W.772) (Fall 2008)

Tutor, Writing, Latin, ESL, Logic (August 2008 to present)

Logic tutor, Hood College (Jan. 2006 to May 2007)

ADDITIONAL PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Indexer and proofreader, Virtually Anglo-Saxon: Old Media, New Media, and Early Medieval Studies in the Late Age of Print, by Martin K. Foys (December 2006 - February 2007)

Employee, C. Burr Artz Public Library (June 2001 to March 2007)

Organizer, ACORN, Baltimore, MD office (Summer 2006)

Co-owner/operator, Moonslush.com, an online fashion store (1999 to Summer 2006)

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND ACTIVITIES

• Host and curator, History Blog Carnival (February 2009)
• College Book Arts Association, Member (2008)
• HASTAC, Member (2008)
• Blogger, d i a p s a l m a t a, (ongoing)

SKILLS

• Reading knowledge of Latin, Old English, German and some Ancient Greek
• Proficient in Inform 7, FileMaker, FinalCutPro, HTML/CSS, XML
• Knowledge of Processing, Python

EXTRACURRICULAR INTERESTS

Classically-trained flutist and pianist, playing since 1991; I have given recitals of Debussy, Gershwin and Mozart. I am also very active in social justice movements, having worked as a volunteer for ProLiteracy, tutoring ESL; Women in Black (Frederick, MD chapter), organizing "Eyes Wide Open" events; and the Frederick County Green Party, which I founded. I have also written extensively on the peace movement. In my spare time, I collect dictionaries.