Writing by Publication: Songbirds and Satellites
I named this dissertation research blog at a time when I was thinking a lot about the divergent qualities of objects that people designate as particularly appealing to children. “Songbirds” refers to the nature-study curriculum movement of the early twentieth century; “Satellites” to the postwar emphasis on engineering, national defense, and exploration.
Posts were a mix of research reports, reviews of contemporary culture that resonated with my research questions (but didn’t fit into my chronological remit), and reflections on current events that were connected to my dissertation.
2011
- “In A Different Sea” (Songbirds and Satellites, November 9, 2011)
- “Young and Hot: Saci Lloyd’s The Carbon Diaries” (Songbirds and Satellites, September 6, 2011)
- “Deep in the Wonder Book of Knowledge” (Songbirds and Satellites, July 21, 2011)
- “Cream O’ The Crop” (Songbirds and Satellites, June 1, 2011)
- “Going (Retroactively) Digital: Self-Archiving for Fun and Profit” (Songbirds and Satellites, April 25, 2011)
- “Pasteur for Kids” (Songbirds and Satellites, April 4, 2011)
- “Nuclear Fears, Soothed by Poop, Turtles” (Songbirds and Satellites, March 25, 2011)
- “The Future Is Not Going To Be Like The Past: Mark Hertsgaard’s Hot: Living Through The Next Fifty Years On Earth” (Songbirds and Satellites, February 25, 2011)
- “Killing Dollies, in the Name of the State” (Songbirds and Satellites, February 10, 2011)
- “Shades of Science Fairs Past: Kids at the American Museum of Natural History” (Songbirds and Satellites, February 2, 2011)
- “Sputnik Moment: Science as Destiny” (Songbirds and Satellites, January 27, 2011)
2010
- “Drowning in Toys” (Songbirds and Satellites, December 17, 2010)
- “Science vs. Childhood on ‘Fringe'” (Songbirds and Satellites, November 29, 2010)
- “In the Dusty Toy-Bin of History at the Strong Museum” (Songbirds and Satellites, November 12, 2010)
- “Being a Kid After the Bomb” (Songbirds and Satellites, October 29, 2010)
- “Sweet Science Propaganda from They Might Be Giants” (Songbirds and Satellites, October 22, 2010)
- “Archival Gleanings from the Chemical Heritage Foundation” (Songbirds and Satellites, October 14, 2010)
- “Velcro’s Generation of Idiots” (Songbirds and Satellites, October 8, 2010)
- “The Skinned Trilogy on the Market: Teenage Robots and ‘Humanity’s Future'” (Songbirds and Satellites, September 27, 2010)