ALI RACHEL PEARL
Curriculum Vitae [click for PDF]
CONTACT INFO
USC Thematic Option Honors Program
3616 Trousdale Pkwy, Suite 410
University Park
Los Angeles, CA 90089
alisonpe [at] usc [dot] edu
EDUCATION
PhD University of Southern California, English Literature, 2019
Graduate Certificate: Digital Media + Culture
MA University of Utah, English Literature, 2012
BA University of Colorado Denver, English Literature, 2009
Honors with distinction & Latin Honors: magna cum laude
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
Postdoctoral Fellow, Thematic Option Honors Program, University of Southern California, 2019—2022
Editor-in-chief, Gold Line Press, University of Southern California, 2017-2018
Nonfiction editor, Gold Line Press, University of Southern California, 2017-2018
Fiction editor, Gold Line Press, University of Southern California, 2016-2017
ACADEMIC HONORS & AWARDS
Digital Humanities Summer Institute Scholarship, 2015 & 2016
HASTAC Scholars Fellowship, 2012—2020
Dornsife College Graduate Merit Fellowship, University of Southern California, 2012—2019
Teaching Assistantship, University of Utah, 2011—2012
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-Reviewed
“Protesting in the Streets of Instagram.” Ada: A Journal of Gender, Media, & Technology. Issue 14. 2018. https://adanewmedia.org/2018/11/issue14-pearl/
“Street Ghosts: Surveillance & The Unrepresentable.” Hyperrhiz: New Media Cultures. Issue 15. 2016. http://hyperrhiz.io/hyperrhiz15/gallery/pearl-street-ghosts.html
Editorially Reviewed
“Out in this Desert, V.2.” Kenyon Review Online. February 2020. Nonfiction
“Trees, Familial.” The Journal. 2018. Nonfiction
“Aphanizomenon Flos-Aquae.” Cosmonauts Avenue. 2018. Poetry
“Out in this Desert, V.1.” Halophyte. Issue 0. 2017. Nonfiction
“Black Hole.” Geometry. Issue 1. 2017. Nonfiction
“Blood/Lines.” DIAGRAM. Issue 16.3. 2016. Interactive short fiction
“What Is Not The Moon Will Only Make You Farther.” Hobart. 2016. Nonfiction
“In the Town of Milkcarton Kids.” Redivider. Blurred Genre Contest Winner. Issue 13.2. 2016. Fiction
“Living in Unwitting Denial.” (“On Tinder, Off Sex” online) The New York Times. 2015. Nonfiction (Translated into Portuguese for Diario de Noticias)
“[Double] Negative[s].” Pilot Light. Issue 5. 2014. Critical essay
“Manifesto for the Desert.” LIES/ISLE. Issue 7. 2013. Hybrid genre
“Proliferation of Cognate.” The Fiddleback. Issue 3.3. 2013. Nonfiction
“Tribute to Jake Adam York.” The Volta. Issue 26. 2013. Nonfiction
Book Reviews
Review of Xhenet Aliu’s Domesticated Wild Things. The Journal. Issue 38.1. 2014
“13 Notes for Reading Mario Benedetti’s The Rest is Jungle & Other Stories.” Quarterly West. Issue 77. 2013
TEACHING
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow, Thematic Option Honors Program: Writing Seminars I & II, University of Southern California, 2019-2022
Self designed, self-taught courses:
“I Pledge Allegiance,” a multimedia course on international, national, and personal conceptions of allegiance as it relates to race, class, gender, and identity, featuring work by Claudia Rankine, Louise Erdrich, Mohsin Hamid, Justin Torres, and Bong Joon-Ho
“Undergrounds,” a multimedia course on literal and figurative underground communities, undocumented immigrants, fugitives, refugees, exiles, and marginalized groups, featuring work by Jordan Peele, Fred Moten, Assata Shakur, Colson Whitehead, and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
“Thicker than Water: Breaking & Making Family,” a multimedia course on redefining kinship outside of the context of heteronormativity and white supremacy, featuring work by Tommy Orange, Nicole Chung, Justin Torrez, and Ava DuVernay (Spring 2020)
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Personal & Cultural Rebellion,” a multimedia course on the ways in which rebellion has redefined personal and national narratives, featuring work by Toni Morrison, Jimmie Fails, and Christina García (Spring 2020)
Assistant Lecturer, Thematic Option Honors Program: Writing Seminars I & II, University of Southern California, 2014—2016 & 2017—2019
Self designed, self-taught courses:
“On the Edge: Defining & Traversing Place,” a multimedia course on borders, refugees, and immigration, featuring work by Mohsin Hamid, Ryan Coogler, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Micha Cárdenas (Spring 2019)
“Déjà New: Re-Writing History,” a multimedia cultural studies course on race and history featuring work by Toni Morrison, Layli Long Soldier, Kara Walker, and Alan Yang (Spring 2018)
“Los Angepocalypse”, a multimedia cultural studies course on Los Angeles, race, and the apocalypse featuring work by Octavia Butler, Karen Tei Yamashita, Paul Beatty, and Salvador Placensia (Spring 2016)
“Violence in the Deserts of the American West”, a literary cultural studies course featuring work by Cormac McCarthy, Joan Didion, Claire Vaye Watkins, and Michael Ondaatje (Spring 2015)
Assistant Lecturer, Writing & Critical Reasoning, University of Southern California, 2013—2014
Course titles:
“Los Angeles & the American Dream: Writing & Critical Reasoning” (Spring 2014)
“Race & Class in Los Angeles: Writing & Critical Reasoning” (Fall 2013)
Instructor, Intermediate Writing, University of Utah, 2011—2012
SERVICE
Service to the Profession
Creator & facilitator, Pearl Jam Student Programing, Thematic Option Honors, USC, 2020-present
Policing Working Group, American Association of University Professors, USC, 2020-present
Dornsife Diversity Equity & Inclusion Caucus, USC, 2020-2021
Co-Organizer, Critical Code Studies Working Group 2018, Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS), 2018
Nonfiction reader & social media director, Gold Line Press, University of Southern California, 2018—2019
Fiction reader, Gold Line Press, University of Southern California, 2012—2016
Fiction reader, Quarterly West, University of Utah, 2011—2012
Fiction editor, Copper Nickel, University of Colorado Denver, 2007-2009
Community Involvement
Co-Organizer, Making Our Neighborhood: A Multimedia Arts, Education, & Storytelling Project, Los Angeles 2021
Co-Creator, Los Angeles Node of the Design Justice Network, 2020
After School Tutor, 826LA, Los Angeles, CA, 2012-2020
Curator, Verse X Universe Poetry Reading, Los Angeles, CA, 2018
Volunteer, Legal Aid Pop Up Clinic, Los Angeles, CA, 2017
Writing Mentor, Teens Write Program, SLCC Community Writing Center, UT, 2011-2012
Teaching Assistant, Bad Dog Arts, Salt Lake City, UT, 2011-2012
PRESENTATIONS
“Action Research for Everyone: A Model for Entering Disciplinary Conversations,” Conference on College Composition and Communication, University of Southern California, December 18-19, 2020 (virtual presentation)
“The Post-Pandemic Panopticon: Critical Questions for Facial Recognition Technology in Higher Education,” Society for Research into Higher Education, Digital Technology And The Post-Pandemic University, University of Cambridge, October 21, 2020 (virtual presentation)
“Writing the Future: Racial Embodiment in VR,” Electronic Literature Organization Conference, Université du Québec à Montréal, August 13-17, 2018
“Archival Futures,” HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, November 2-4, 2017
“Possibilities and Realities of Digital Humanities Across Disciplines,” HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities, Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, November 2-4, 2017
“Recounting its Presence on the Syllabus: White Imaginaries and Creative Writing Professionalization,” Thinking Its Presence 2017: The Ephemeral Archive, University of Arizona, October 19-21, 2017
“Digital Shrapnel: Violence, Time, Memory, and Forgetting in ‘From then on Fire,’” Electronic Literature Organization Conference, University Fernando Pessoa, July 18-22, 2017
“Disrupting Masculinity: On Kate Durbin’s ‘The Supreme Gentleman,’” Friends of English Southland Graduate Conference: Critical Recursions, UCLA, June 9-10, 2017
“Street Ghosts,” Electronic Literature Organization Conference, University of Victoria, June 10-12, 2016
“Street Ghosts: Surveillance & the Unepresentable,” (dis)junctions 2015: Strange Bedfellows, UC Riverside, November 2-3, 2015
“Letters from the Desert,” “(Dis)Embodiment: Digital Performance Remix,” &Now Festival of New Writing, California Institute of the Arts, March 25-28, 2015
“The Politics of Archiving the Street,” Abiding Cities, Remnant Sites, The Graduate Center, CUNY, November 13-14, 2014
“The Digital Failure Manifesto,” “Digital Interventions: Crossing the Critical/Creative Divide,” &Now Festival of New Writing, University of Colorado Boulder, September 26-28, 2013
“Exploring the Labyrinth: Typography and Reader Engagement in House of Leaves,” AAAS Pacific Division, University of San Diego, June 13, 2011
“(di)visions of the page: (dis)connecting digital and analog,” &Now Festival of New Writing, University of California, San Diego, October 13-15, 2011
RESIDENCIES
A-Z West Artist Residency, October—December 2016
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Participant, Monthly Pedagogy Meeting & Workshop, Thematic Option Honors Program, University of Southern California, 2014—2016 & 2017—present
Participant, Feminist Digital Humanities: Theoretical, Social, & Material Engagements, Instructors: Jacque Wernimont & Elizabeth Losh, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, University of Victoria, June 13-17, 2016
Participant, Advanced Criticism & Authoring of Electronic Literature, Instructors: Sandy Baldwin & Aaron Reed, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, University of Victoria, June 15-19, 2015
Participant, Introduction to Electronic Literature in DH: Research & Practice, Instructors: Dene Grigar & Davin Heckman, Digital Humanities Summer Institute, University of Victoria, June 8-12, 2015
LANGUAGES
English: native speaker
Spanish: conversational/intermediate in reading, speaking, & writing
ACADEMIC MEMBERSHIP
American Studies Association (ASA)
Design Justice Network (DJN)
Electronic Literature Organization (ELO)
Humanities, Arts, Science, & Technology Alliance & Collaboratory (HASTAC)
Humanities and Critical Code Studies (HaCCS)
Media as Sociotechnical Systems (MASTS)