Sometimes I find myself asking the same thing, and so this space will attempt to answer such a question. If “I” in the above question actually represents you, the reader, then perhaps it is because you are interested in how masculinity manifests itself in the repetitive silence of literature. Or perhaps you are using the beta version of this domain as an “interested party,” one which may well judge grade me based upon the effectiveness of such a space as this. If it is the former, I welcome you to join me along for the ride; if it is the latter, please be assured that keeping one’s online presence up-to-date is a priority to me, and that this very “about me” is sure to be revised accordingly.

However, if the “I” of the question “how did I get here” refers to me, Kyle Flanagan, then I don’t know that I am qualified to answer such a question. In consideration of the work I have done and hope to do, it might serve useful to learn some significant things about me and how they relate to my academic interests and how I pursue them.

As a product of French immersion school I began to formally learn English as a pre-teen once I moved to the United States. The way in which I learned my mother tongue as a second language provided me with the chance to acknowledge it in skeptical and confused ways, placing a focus on spaces and silences perhaps out of necessity. Furthermore, my foundation of French and the roles which gender plays in it made me curious to look for similar ways in which gender factors into English.

I attended Michigan State from the fall of 1999 through the spring of 2001, completing my associate’s degree after two years at Harold Washington College in Chicago. I then completed my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Brooklyn College, returning to Michigan State University to work on the completion of my PhD. Each school and program has heled shape my research and thought-formation methods, affording exposure to a variety of faculty and methodologies alike.

In between degrees I worked three separate careers – in the service, pornography, and aviation industries, each one contributing to my interests and academic work. As a server and bartender I learned to pick up on non-verbal cues and expectations, often delivered in a gender role oriented setting. While working in a gay porn shoppe I discovered the semantic nuances of the titles of the works and how they were pivotal to the sales and distribution and expectations of the works themselves. It was almost fortuitous that my last career before entering academia was as an operations turnaround coordinator, a position which required a precise attention to detail and procedure.

All of these life experiences and more have helped to inform not only my academic pursuits but have also contributed to my research and formulation practices. I believe that it isn’t what is said but rather how it is said, and often the unconscious and silent repetition of masculine language perpetuates an expectation which reaches off the [URL] page and into the IRL life.

Works

“Bye, By, Buy: How Derrida and Stromae are *NSYNC in their Différance”

“Truth Doesn’t Make A Noise: How Silence and Repetition Expose the Ambiguity of Contemporary Masculinity”