Reading, writing, poetry, surfing the internet, swimming, pilates
Publications: "To Bee or Not to Bee: The Semiotics of Forbidden Love in Candyman" The Journal of Horror Studies, 2008; "Going with the Flow: The Allotropical Mechanics of Love as War in Women in Love.”
Interculture, “Death Narratives.” 2.1 (May 2005); “A Tale Told by Stevie: From Thermodynamic to Informatic Entropy in The Secret Agent” Conradiana, Literature and Science Edition, 36.1 (Fall 2004): 1-27. Dissertation: “The Science of Modernist Literature: Degeneration, Dynamics and Demons,”
Texas Tech University, May 2001. “Scientific Gazing and the Cinematic Body Politic:The Demonized Cyborg of Metropolis” Intertexts, 3.2 (Fall 1999): 168-179.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2008 Annual Conferences: The SCMLA, Horror, Health, and the Reproductive Body: "What Happens in Las Vegas: Postmodernist City-Spaces in CSI"; The Tennessee Philological Association, Across the Pond: “The Hobgoblins of Little Minds: Beethoven’s Fifth and Emersonian Transcendenalism in Howard’s End; SCMLA 74th Annual Conference, Memphis, TN, Fall 2007: Film, Open Topic: “A Stately Pleasure Dome Decreed: The Emergent Cognitive Sublime of Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” in Pandaemonium”; 2007 Annual Conference: The Tennessee Philological Association: (Accepted) Chattanooga, TN, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, February 2007: “To Bee or Not to Bee: The Semiotics of Forbidden Love in Candyman”; 2006 Annual Conference: SCMLA 63rd Annual Conference, Dallas, TX, October 2006: “Zero Programming as Transformative Demonization of Fritz Lang’s Maria-Cyborg in Metropolis”; 2006 Annual Conference: Modernism, Fascism, Postmodernism, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, September 2006: “The ‘Accelerated Grimace’ of Modern Decadence: Degradation of Ezra Pound's Vortex in the Economic Circulation of Language”; 2006 Annual Conference: The Tennessee Philological Association,
Henderson, TN, Freed-Hardeman University:Twentieth-Century British Literature, February 24, 2006: "The Allegorical Significance of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Mythological Menagerie in Harry Potter" Chair: Twentieth-Century American Literature, February 25, 2006; 2005 Annual Conference: The Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Chicago, IL, November 2005: Chair, Cinema and Cognition, “Deconstructing Humanist Paradigms of Time and Consciousness in Pandaemonium”
Music
Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Pink Floyd, Janis Joplin, The Eagles, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, jazz, soul, classical, opera
Movies
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (I was a cast director for four casts), The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Woody Allen's Manhattan, Annie Hall, Husbands and Wives, Casablanca, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Animal House, All that Jazz, Silence of the Lambs, Candyman, Howard's End, Sense and Sensibility, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Dogma, The Harry Potter series, The Color Purple, too many to list--I teach Literature and Film!
HOT Myspace Layouts HOT Myspace Layouts
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Television
Star Trek, CSI, House, The Sopranos, Everybody Loves Raymond
All novels by Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, Fyodor Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment, William Carlos Williams' poetry and The Doctor Stories, Graeco-Roman Literature, the Transcendentalists, Dante's Inferno--too many to list
"Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,/
Enwrought with golden and silver light,/
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths/
Of night and light and the half-light,/
I would spread the cloths under your feet:/
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;/
I have spread my dreams under your feet;/
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams."--W.B. Yeats
Stonewall Jackson (an ancestor), Matthew Thornton (another ancestor, signed the Declaration of Independence), all of the founding fathers of our great country, Shakespeare, Dante, too many authors to list here; and of course, my daddy, Harley Ragland (RIP 1999). Academic heroes: Dr. Bruce Clarke, my ex-dissertation chair, to whom I'm eternally grateful for all his help and support for the last 11 years, and who was an original founding member of the band ShaNaNa--he played with them at Woodstock! (He's the one on the far right, a current pic of his band, The Prophets of Rockabilly!)
Dr. Simone Turbeville, retired English Professor--she saved me from myself and got me to go into graduate school; and Dr. Emory Estes, freshly retired English Dept.--Dr. Estes was once on Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff, and he was my Transcendentalist professor while I was a Master's Candidate.
Oh yeah, and one more: a very strange man I still happen to love, despite everything.
Honors:
Who's Who of America 2007-2008; Who's Who of American Women, 2006-2007
Who's Who of Executives and Professionals, 2005-2006
1997 Texas Tech Dissertation Award.
Member: MLA; SCMLA; The Society for Literature, Science, and the
About me: I am an Associate Professor of British Literature at Fisk University in Nashville, TN. My dissertation uses chaos theory in conjunction with deconstruction, Marxist critical theory, and feminism to open up a new way of interpreting three Modernist artists. I am very active in politics; I am a life-long Democrat, but I am open-minded to debate and political speculation. I'm an expert poker player and an ex-private investigator. I'm hypersensitive and hyperanalytical, so people should be aware of that when dealing with me. I am a romantic soul, old fashioned and conservative in some ways and way eclectic and eccentric in others.
I am a native Texan, transplanted to Tennessee in 2003. I love it here!
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Idealistic and thoughtful, you have the mind and ideas to change the world.
And you have the charisma of a great leader, even if you don't always use it!
The purpose of your life: saying truths that other people dare not say
Famous purples include: Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan B. Anthony
Careers for you to try: Political Activist, Inventor, Life Coach
Who I'd like to meet: I am interested in people with whom I can engage in interesting, stimulating conversation and fun times. I like dynamic, energetic, and enthusiastic people who aren't afraid of life, who can grab the bull by the horns and give them a good yank. I also like people who can have a sense of humor about themselves and the world without denigrating others. I grow weary with people who say that they are all spiritual, sensitive, romantic, and free, when they are really just out for their own jollies--such people create havoc for everybody they meet, because they suck as much life from others as they can and then leave nothing but an empty husk behind for others to clean up. We are responsible to every person who we touch. As a professor, I take my job and my life very seriously, and I understand and accept my responsibilities with a clear conscience. Don't get me wrong--I know that I can't save everybody, but I can try to help people toward understanding that they are significant and that they can make a difference in the world. The choice is theirs to make. By the way, I love my students--when I got sick, they gave me a dozen white roses and Krispy Kremes! Now, that's LOVE!:)
Oh, and if I could meet anybody from our history...these guys...
You Are 100% Psychic
You are so very psychic.
But you already predicted that, didn't you?
You have "the gift" - and you use it daily to connect with others.
You're very tapped into the world around you...
Just make sure to use your powers for good!
You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity.
Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is.
You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience.
You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them.
You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher.
Portrait of an INFJ - Introverted Intuitive Feeling Judging
(Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Feeling)
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The Protector
As an INFJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit with your personal value system.
INFJs are gentle, caring, complex and highly intuitive individuals. Artistic and creative, they live in a world of hidden meanings and possibilities. Only one percent of the population has an INFJ Personality Type, making it the most rare of all the types.
INFJs place great importance on havings things orderly and systematic in their outer world. They put a lot of energy into identifying the best system for getting things done, and constantly define and re-define the priorities in their lives. On the other hand, INFJs operate within themselves on an intuitive basis which is entirely spontaneous. They know things intuitively, without being able to pinpoint why, and without detailed knowledge of the subject at hand. They are usually right, and they usually know it. Consequently, INFJs put a tremendous amount of faith into their instincts and intuitions. This is something of a conflict between the inner and outer worlds, and may result in the INFJ not being as organized as other Judging types tend to be. Or we may see some signs of disarray in an otherwise orderly tendency, such as a consistently messy desk.
INFJs have uncanny insight into people and situations. They get "feelings" about things and intuitively understand them. As an extreme example, some INFJs report experiences of a psychic nature, such as getting strong feelings about there being a problem with a loved one, and discovering later that they were in a car accident. This is the sort of thing that other types may scorn and scoff at, and the INFJ themself does not really understand their intuition at a level which can be verbalized. [NOTE: Not true--I've known I was a clairvoyant since I was very young!] Consequently, most INFJs are protective of their inner selves, sharing only what they choose to share when they choose to share it. They are deep, complex individuals, who are quite private and typically difficult to understand. INFJs hold back part of themselves, and can be secretive.
But the INFJ is as genuinely warm as they are complex. INFJs hold a special place in the heart of people who they are close to, who are able to see their special gifts and depth of caring. INFJs are concerned for people's feelings, and try to be gentle to avoid hurting anyone. They are very sensitive to conflict, and cannot tolerate it very well. Situations which are charged with conflict may drive the normally peaceful INFJ into a state of agitation or charged anger. They may tend to internalize conflict into their bodies, and experience health problems when under a lot of stress.
Because the INFJ has such strong intuitive capabilities, they trust their own instincts above all else. This may result in an INFJ stubborness and tendency to ignore other people's opinions. They believe that they're right. On the other hand, INFJ is a perfectionist who doubts that they are living up to their full potential. INFJs are rarely at complete peace with themselves - there's always something else they should be doing to improve themselves and the world around them. They believe in constant growth, and don't often take time to revel in their accomplishments. They have strong value systems, and need to live their lives in accordance with what they feel is right. In deference to the Feeling aspect of their personalities, INFJs are in some ways gentle and easy going. Conversely, they have very high expectations of themselves, and frequently of their families. They don't believe in compromising their ideals.
INFJ is a natural nurturer; patient, devoted and protective. They make loving parents and usually have strong bonds with their offspring. They have high expectations of their children, and push them to be the best that they can be. This can sometimes manifest itself in the INFJ being hard-nosed and stubborn. But generally, children of an INFJ get devoted and sincere parental guidance, combined with deep caring.
In the workplace, the INFJ usually shows up in areas where they can be creative and somewhat independent. They have a natural affinity for art, and many excel in the sciences, where they make use of their intuition. INFJs can also be found in service-oriented professions. They are not good at dealing with minutia or very detailed tasks. The INFJ will either avoid such things, or else go to the other extreme and become enveloped in the details to the extent that they can no longer see the big picture. An INFJ who has gone the route of becoming meticulous about details may be highly critical of other individuals who are not.
The INFJ individual is gifted in ways that other types are not. Life is not necessarily easy for the INFJ, but they are capable of great depth of feeling and personal achievement.
The Tiger and Dragon represent the Protectors of Paradise in Taoist Alchemy, representative of the Yin (feminine) and Yang (masculine) principles, respectively. Yin and Yang represent the integration (the dots) of complete balance, harmony, and union between all elements in the universe.
