please RT! if you've ever contacted a journal or publisher to have your name changed on a publication, a friend and colleague of mine wants to hear about your experience! drexel.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... #phdchat #academicchatter

As part of a New Year’s resolution to have a creative hobby I started doing some found object collaging. While I am not at all confident in the collages themselves I do really like some of the little guys I have made. The inspiration for a few of them may be a bit obvious 😅

In the inaugural “Media Necromancy” talk @skeuomorphpress.org, @drtlwagner.bsky.social asks “what does it mean to take seriously obsolescence as a fundamental part of queer archival work?”

I found the old 35mm slide for the cover for Neuromancer and had it scanned in for your pleasure. Enjoy!

I fear that I may have found my new favorite media artifact courtesy of a library book sale. I’m a bit afraid to pop it in a DVD player

I working on my slides for this and oscillating between the format of a media studies presentation and an information science presentation. The jury is still out on which side will win 👾📼🏳️‍🌈

Last summer I was the Rose Library’s LGBTQ Collections Fellowship at Emory University. The blog for the archive just posted my write up as part of the fellowship. It is part of a bigger project of mine, but here is a sneak peak of some of what I am exploring: scholarblogs.emory.edu/marbl/2026/0...

Sorry to say it y'all, but music peaked with the Battletoads (NES) Pause Music: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPX...

I gave a Rotman Lecture last fall about the my dissertation and book, specifically about the Kinseys (the man and the Institute) and the influence taxonomy has on the labels we use to describe ourselves (gender, sexuality, etc. It was recently uploaded to YouTube: youtu.be/KDwF_3ilkwM?... 🗂️🗃️📚📃📜

Join The Political Librarian tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. CST for a webinar with PhD student Evan M. Allgood and Assistant Professor Travis L. Wagner. They will discuss what federal directives targeting DEI mean for libraries, archives, and public memory. Watch live ▶️ bit.ly/3NE9pin

the "nostalgia" thread here may have particular salience to the #dhmakes & book lab crowds?

Strongly considering changing my entire aesthetic to the character from Sega Bass Fishing

I'm running a graduate reading seminar titled "Queering Information" this semester and we had our first meeting. The students came energized and engaged! I know it is likely to slow a bit as the semester grinds on, but if this keeps up it is going to be a true high point of my semester.

What is the German word for the upsetting feeling you get when accidentally locking eyes with someone who is mid vape pull?

Then later in February @drtlwagner.bsky.social will kick off a new "Media Necromancy" speaker series—we’re still chatting with folks about ideas, but are hoping for 1-2 more talks in this series over the spring semester, with more next year skeuomorph.ischool.illinois.edu/our-research...

Please consider submitting to this conference if you're a community preservationist! The first Save the Games was a terrific place for the industry and community to meet together on their work

I’m found this unopened package of Kool-aid in a comic book from 1996. I’m pretty sure if I drank it I would immediately be dropped into eXistenZ

My New Year's resolution to take the stairs more isn't going well so far. Meanwhlie, my additional resolution of blocking/reporting every scammy AI add I get on my social media is going off without a hitch.

I got a device that lets me play Game Boy cartridges of all kinds directly on my computer. Recently, they updated the software to allow the Game Boy camera to work as well. I used it to take this era-appropriate image. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out how to get Zoom to read it as my camera.

I love locations that aren’t on the map in RPGs

Halo 2 Skin for Windows Media Player 10

My partner and I watched Emmet Otter’s Jugband Christmas and I am happy to report that it led to me discovering my new favorite band The Riverbottom Nightmare Band m.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ3c...

New article out by me and @ashleyblewer.com titled “Each character you create requires a full 15 blocks!” Preserving Video Game Memory Cards in the Age of Cloud Storage." In it, we examine the sociotechnical challenges of preserving video game memory cards. Read it here: tinyurl.com/53pnv64b

I’m passing on a question from @drtlwagner.bsky.social & their students: Do you know of existing/in process book history work on clip art? I know Shep’s history of print emoji & anecdotally I know some early clip art remediated printer’s ornaments—as does the "font" Wingdings—anyone digging in more?

Truly stoked to have my favorite academic partner in crime continue teaching with us! I’m gonna insist all of our students take classes with Ashley!

Really excited to be both presenting as part of this series and to be helping @ryancordell.org conceptualize the series as well! More from me hopefully in the coming months on this intersection between queerness, archives, and format obsolescence!

📄'How do LGBTQ+ library catalog users talk about subject searching?'🔽 doi.org/10.1108/JD-1... #Library #Research #Catalogue #Metadata #LGBTQ

Proposing a society level resolution for the new year: Bands should only be able to cover “Hunger Strike” by Temple of the Dog

We did a thing! Thanks to the EveryLibrary team and to all of the wonderful contributors! p.s. a webinar series highlighting some of the articles is coming in early 2026. www.everylibraryinstitute.org/everylibrary...

Move over media archaeology we are trying to actively revive these skeletons 🧙📼💀

A new article is out in Cataloging and Classification Quarterly, where my colleague Karen Wickett and I explore how the LCSH "Conduct of Life" enacts, often anti-queer, ideological work on information objects. Read the article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Just found out that Jimmy Cliff passed away. I guess it is time to give this song a ton of spins and watch the movie that gives it its namesake. There's truly nothing quite like it. youtu.be/BpQrLUopf-k?...

I think I have found what is officially the best name for a backup band ever: youtu.be/lc-pIH0CBxM?...

In my IS 308: Race, Gender, and Information Technology class, I asked students to make zines today about inclusive tech issues, and they insisted that I should also participate. I thought that was a fair request and took a swing at making my own (though I didn't finish)

Next in New Currents, @drtlwagner.bsky.social & Alison Harding use traditional analyses to examine work created using generative AI in ""Remember, love knows no boundaries and comes in many forms": The conceptualization of queerness within AI-generated fan works"! Read it in #TWC46:

Hit an important Google Scholar citation mark today 😈 #hailsatan

New survey researching how recent policy shifts within the U.S. in higher education are impacting DEI reparative metadata/cataloging efforts in academic libraries & archives in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico. 📚 #critcat uncg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Students in my Information Organization and Access course have an assignment where they make their own taxonomy on a topic of their choosing. One student did TV shows, and included I Think You Should Leave, and I felt obligated to include this comment.

Stoked to share my op-ed in The Hill that I wrote as part of The OpEd Project 2025–26 Public Voices Fellows at UofI. In it, I talk about historical trends in automation and how it might inform current understandings of anti-trans legislation. Check it out here: thehill.com/opinion/civi...

The folks at University of Illinois have very kindly invited me to give a little talk next week (10/22)! Stop by if you're in Urbana, or zoom in if you're not. Many, many thanks to @drtlwagner.bsky.social for facilitating, and details can be found here: ischool.illinois.edu/news-events/...

Excited to announce my new article titled 'In A Way I’m Coming Out to All of You Tonight'": Activist Media, Digital Curation Pedagogy, and the future of Queer Archives' in the most recent issue of Synoptique focused on "Teaching Media Archives"

Found this incredible set of cels out of a 90s issue Excalibur (a spin off of X-Men) and fully intend to use it as the cover photo next time I teach Digital Preservation

Turns out the easiest way to turn off the perpetually useless AI overview on Google is to switch browsers. Time to live the Duck Duck Go life, I guess.

For most of undergrad/grad school, I stopped playing video games. The joy of returning was being able to play a decade of indie/AAA games in a row. To a lesser extent, I am doing this with anime, but have the benefit of expedient access to older stuff without needing to use extralegal means.

New article with a former doc student from UMD. We examine how ChatGPT interprets the creation of queer fanfiction across fandoms that feature openly queer and/or "shipped" queer characters. It took time to publish, but I think the findings hold up: journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/tw...

New obsession is tracking down and playing a copy of the board game Dragon Strike which includes a corresponding VHS tape of footage corresponding to the game

New publication in Archival Science focused on how archival practitioners working with queer collections construct and manage finding aids. This work was done in collaboration with a set of MLIS students, one who joined our PhD program yesterday Read it here: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Nothing prepares you for the chaos of students returning to U of I. We’re talking “Master Blaster Runs Campustown” levels of chaos.

There are a lot of weird and wacky things about Urbana-Champaign, but one of the weirdest and wackiest is Emoji Cream, which is an ice cream truck run out of a van that cranks trap-infused versions of classic ice cream jingles.

Congratulations to #iSchoolUI Associate Professor Maria Bonn, Teaching Assistant Professor Haileleol Tibebu, and Assistant Professor Travis L. Wagner on being selected for this year’s cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship! ▶️ bit.ly/419ThZK