Following the tradition established by my colleague Matt Kirschenbaum, this post serves as a public declaration of my forthcoming research leave.  I’m delighted to be taking part-time research leave beginning May 1st and running through September 1, 2013. Why am I taking leave? As both Neil Fraistat and Trevor Muñoz mentioned on twitter this week, I’ve signed a contract with Rutgers University Press to publish my first monograph. Based off my dissertation, the book will explore the creation and dissemination of Native American representations through the lens of sports mascotry between ~1928 and 1954. You can look for it in bookstores in 2014. The full draft of the manuscript is done; Reviewers comments are in. It is time to get down to the business of revisions. Effective May 1:

I’ll be available Mondays and Tuesdays for Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH)-related business. Meetings, emails, prospective projects, grant work, you name it. Mondays and Tuesdays, I’ll be taking care of that business. Wednesdays through Sundays, I’ll be working on the book.

So, what does this mean for those of you who might care:

1) I will not be on campus or available for meetings except on Mondays and Tuesdays. Exceptions will be made for special circumstances but those will be few and far between and entirely at my discretion.

2) Email will be answered on a first-come, first-served basis. Usually I try to acknowledge email within 24-48 hours. I’ll continue to try to do so, but it is more likely that email response time could stretch to a full week.

3) Commitments. I’ll keep the commitments I have: the NITLE seminar, teaching at DHSI, teaching at the Leipzig summer school, the workshops I’ve already committed to, DevDH.org, and the next iteration of DHWI.  Commitments that start before September 1 will be considered, but it is likely I’ll be unable to participate.

4) Advising. For the projects and colleagues I’m already advising (you know who you are), I’ll keep advising you as efficiently and speedily as possible. New projects, groups, organizations, and colleagues are welcome to ask for advice….but I may not be able to get to you. For those I’m already advising, I’m asking for you to give me as much lead time as possible (ideally 2 weeks) when you have questions or need assistance.

5) Service. Between now and September 1, I will be limiting all service to the existing committees and searches I am on. If you’d like me to consider new service, you can send the invite; it is likely that I won’t be able to begin new service until September 1.

I’m looking forward to starting leave and will be around to answer questions if you have any….but only on mondays and tuesdays.