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What I Studied in Graduate School

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Lower case ‘a’ from Adobe Caslon Pro, superpos...
Lower case ‘a’ from Adobe Caslon Pro, superposed onto some guides. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Asked to summarize my research projects...

Curiously, beyond the theses and dissertation, all my work is in economics of media and narrative. I ask what works and why when offering stories to audiences. What connects with an audience and can we model what audiences want from narratives? (Yes, you can model data on narratives and what "sells" and what wins awards and what nobody wants.)

Yet, my degree research projects all relate to design of writing spaces, as knowing what works is also key to knowing what could be "sold" to users.

MA: How poor LMS UI/UX design creates online spaces that hinder the writing process and teacher mentoring of students.

Also: The cost of LMS design and compliance with legal mandates for usability.

Ph.D: The experiences of special needs students in online settings, from commercial spaces to games to learning spaces and which spaces are best designed.

Where do people voluntarily embrace media-text creation and what are the traits of those spaces?

Also: Compliance testing costs and why colleges push students with special needs into online courses.

MFA: Typographical choices and audience reactions to those choices in cinema and television.

Other Research Papers: Women and minority inequality within design fields and why diversity has actually gone "backwards" since the 1920s and 30s.

Now, I need to pitch these two interests, the "economics of design" and the "rhetoric of design-narrative" to potential employers more effectively.
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