I worked as a theatre administrator, dramaturg, and director in my pre-PhD life, and founded the Chicago company Caffeine Theatre, mining the poetic tradition to explore social questions. I've also made a lot of dance and want to make more puppets. Now I am a doctoral candidate in English interested in Native American studies and working to connect many strands of the humanities. Tech for me is a way to make and a way to communicate. I'm a Twitter-addict and a fan of tech platforms that encourage people to interact with one another. (Technology revolutionized dramaturgy, for instance, because of the way it opens up conversations between theatres and audiences, and allows dramaturgs to collaborate with one another across distances.) I think academics are advocates for knowledge remix, and I think of myself as an advocate for scholarship and for art. I'm also an Obermann (Civic Engagement) Fellow and Twitter correspondent for @UIDSPH, and currently working with my Interpretation of Literature students on a resource guide for interdisciplinary responses to poetry at http://derekproject.wordpress.com/