Paul Mulhauser: A Box Turtle On Staten Island
Paul Mulhauser earned his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from WSU in Spring 2009. He is currently an Assistant Professor at CUNY's College of Staten Island.
Tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from (i.e., where did you grow up)?
I am going to reveal a little about myself – maybe too much. First, I used to enjoy saying where I was from; it had a rugged, pioneering cachet.
I was born in Anchorage, Alaska, and lived there eighteen years. When I first went to college, I attended Loyola University in New Orleans. Though I enjoyed my time there, I had a $2,000 phone bill for the first semester – damn those high-school sweethearts. I returned to Anchorage where there wasn’t as much cachet in saying where you’re from but did end up being that guy who attended three proms since Ailene, my sweetheart, was a couple years my junior. There is some cachet in that, right? I came to WSU following that same sweetheart. We were married in Pullman a few years ago.
Tell us about your dissertation. How did the project develop and what was the outcome? What do you plan to do with the project from this point?
What I appreciate about academics is how I can say something like “I study the rhetoric of sperm donation, egg donation, and surrogacy company websites” without my audience blinking an eye or thinking me strange. My dissertation project on those websites developed from an essay I wrote for a class Barbara Monroe taught when I was an undergrad. She asked students to write a literacy autobiography – to understand just what literacy does, can, or should mean. I wrote about a literate moment where I finally understood what radiation could do. I was six and watched cartoons. My favorites were Amazing Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk. Each superhero origin story had radiation involved—either gamma radiation or a radioactive spider bite. At any rate, I tried bathing in front of a microwave – turning it on and letting the fan wash the radiation all over me. This is what began my interest in the mixings of science and culture.
Currently, I am working on getting pieces of my dissertation published and plan on researching how web designers and companies think about and negotiate their representations for websites.
You spent all of your undergraduate and graduate years at WSU. What made you want to stay rather than go elsewhere for your MA or your PhD? What advantages did this choice give you?
As I mentioned earlier, my sweetheart, Ailene, was my initial reason for staying during my undergraduate years. And to be honest, my MA was a kind of experiment. I really didn’t know much when I began. I had a clue what I planned on studying – even my interest in digital technology had yet to develop. The courses I took and the feedback I received during my MA, however, transformed my experiment into a passion. A major reason for my development was the atmosphere in the courses I took and the opportunities the Department offered. There are three things that stand out.
1. I remember mispronouncing Foucault in a course during a presentation. I said “Fow Calt.” I appreciated Debbie Lee’s response after I presented. She said, “I think it's pronounced Foo coe.” I appreciated the compassion in the response. Though it wasn’t exactly the same, it was more of a “You say tomāto. I say tomăto” response instead of a “YOU SAY FOO COE!” response.
2. Barbara Sitko and Patricia Ericsson were thinking about my work outside of class even before I asked them to be on my committee. They supplied me with extra readings – articles and hyperlinks and even had suggestions for where I could search for more information.
3. The Avery Microcomputer Lab (AML). Learning from Lynn Gordon how to computer in ways I never thought I’d be able to – to manage and to instruct students in computering – was invaluable. Working in the AML showed me the wizard behind the curtain – the wizard being my own technophobia. It helped me understand how to use programs as well as see the rhetorical moves being made in the uses of these programs. Before my AML experience, these were things I wasn’t seeing, wasn’t aware of, or was aware of in a very limited way. Now I feel confident in being critical of not only how programs are used but also of how the programs themselves function – what they allow and how they present information.
What advice would you give to graduate students writing their dissertations and applying for jobs in the near future?
Okay – this is the deal. In September when the first job list comes out until the end of October, forget about working on your diss. You are going to be busy teaching and writing job letters, CVs, and sending transcripts and recommendation letters. I think I sent out 35-40 during this period. Don’t panic ’cause what you’ve written in your exams will save you. These are the twenty, forty, or sixty pages that you would have written if you didn’t have exams or the job search. But you have them for this rainy day or – to be accurate – this rainy sixty days.
What kinds of changes do you anticipate in moving from a small town like Pullman to Manhattan?
I can write about a few changes I have experienced so far in moving to Staten Island. First, my name has changed. I am no longer Paul as a west-coaster might pronounce it. I am “Pool.” Second, traffic lights and turn-only lanes are more like suggestions rather than orders or rules. Since learning that, Ailene and I have not been honked at for a week. It happened nearly every day the first week we were on the island. Third, “curb your dog” is the 11th commandment and it includes more than solid waste. I was chastised a few days ago for letting Huebert (our Schnauzer) hydro-fertilize a lawn. Though we haven’t really cared for the honking or the curbing, we do live in a neighborhood where we can walk less than a one-quarter mile to get groceries, coffee, and haircuts. We can walk less than a one-quarter mile to eat at a Japanese restaurant, Chinese restaurant, Mexican restaurant, Turkish restaurant, Italian restaurant, or Indian restaurant. Also, there are fauna and flora we have never seen before. We’ve seen cardinals, blue jays, grackles, snapping turtles, tulip trees, wild rhododendrons, mushrooms the size of hubcaps, and wild rats the size of Huebert (15 pounds).
This semester I’ll be teaching two courses – English 111 (Intro to College Writing) and English 630 (a graduate course on writing across the curriculum).
What did your wife get you for a graduation gift?
Ailene got me a 10 month-old three-toed box turtle for graduating. His/her name is Shim. We won’t know if it is a she or a him for about three years, so Shim is shis name.
Can you explain your affinity for these kinds of turtles (i.e., you once told me they were the perfect metaphor for technology???)
For me, box turtles are a sort of digital pet. They need a power source to charge, they carry their home/their database with them, and can go a long time without re-charging. They store themselves easily and can fit in a shoebox or – if you are Shim, an iPod case. Last – though not fitted with Bluetooth technology – they are wireless.