One of the most fulfilling projects I have gotten involved with in my second year at VCU is Digital America. Digital America is an online academic journal that focuses on digital culture. The journal is interdisciplinary in nature and publishes traditional academic works as well as more experimental pieces.
This semester we have published some really amazing pieces. I am really impressed by the quality of writing that I have seen in our submissions. A lot of our contributors are undergraduates. Additionally, I have learned so much from Meghan Rosatelli,Digital America's Director. Meghan has created such a positive learning environment. She really inspires the team to do the best work possible.
I am super excited that Digital America will be launching a comics section. This special section will be about comics and digital culture. I am really interested in having both original art and comics criticism in the new section. If you are interested in contributing to this section please contact me or submit directly to Digital America  here. I look forward to hearing from many different types of scholars/writers/thinkers.

This website enables me to showcase my work online and maintain a cohesive web presence. As someone who has worked in public relations, I understand how important it is to establish a branded online identity. My academic areas of interest include comics/graphic novel studies as well as the digital humanities.  As someone who studies comics and has written about fashion blogging practices I recognize that these subjects are usually thought of as belonging to pop culture. It has become important to me to share with others why topics like these deserve serious critical inquiry. It is also important for me to relate any relevant parts of my research in a way that is accessible to nonacademic audiences. Since I am also a freelance writer I want to remain appealing to nonacademic publications.
It is important that this website has a blog that I update regularly. Along with traditional academic publishing, blogging is a way to establish myself as knowledgeable in my field. It can be a place for less formal writing or interesting bits of research that may not end up in finished projects. The blog will update visitors of the website to any changes or updates in my academic career. It is also a way that I can connect with other creative people such as comic artists, who may or may not see my work published in more traditional academic journals or conferences. This is important because I am particularly interested in contemporary artists that are currently producing comics.  On a more pragmatic note, having a blog that is updated regularly helps with your rankings on Google and might make it easier to find my work online. 

Is anyone out there? I hope deciding to add a blog to this website was not a terrible idea. Anyway, I am starting off this blog with an image of one of my favorite graphic novels.