In the JStor Database!

When I first got access to the Wesley Theological Seminary student portal, I tried to access the library from a distance.  The page didn't work or it didn't load, and I haven't looked at it since.  Tuesday, after I registered for classes, I tried it again.  After looking up a few of my favorite feminist theologians, I did a search on my own name.

And it came up with results!  Nine of them!  I couldn't get a great shot of the screen, but I did want to preserve it anyway.  

From there, I went down a bit of an internet rabbit hole.  I looked up JStor to make sure I was remembering what kind of data base it is.  And then, at the official JStor site that's not moderated by a library, I found 111 entries when I entered my name.

It quickly became apparent that not every entry was me.  But the search did bring up some entries that the Wesley search didn't including my first publication, The Dictionary of Literary Characters.  I wrote a few entries in grad school, but I can't for the life of me remember which characters I chose.  At the time, I thought of it as an academic publication that would open the doors of hiring to me.

Throughout the subsequent years, I would continue to try to pry open those doors by way of academic publishing, and the JStor search has some of those remnants.  I wrote an essay about Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, for example.  There was a moment when I thought I might be a source referred to in later articles written about the book, but I couldn't access those 3 sources.

The larger search also includes mention of papers at conferences, including the James Joyce conference when it was at the University of Miami.  That was a cool experience--my thesis advisor was at the conference, and he remembered me.  I'm not sure why I think I'm so forgettable.  We spent hours together working on my thesis.  I have no idea how many advisees he had, but it wasn't that many.  Of course, he would remember me a scant 12 years later.

The search results included the lectionary pieces that The Christian Century published.  I have a few other theology/spirituality type essays out there, but those didn't appear in the search results.

I had more poems in the search results than any other type of writing, which shouldn't surprise me.  I've had more poetry publications than any other type.  

This morning I did a quick check on Submittable; the latest manuscript I submitted to Copper Canyon Press has been under consideration much longer than my last two attempts.  Dare I hope?