From: ab45@prism.gatech.edu (Anne M. Balsamo)
Subject: WHO: Anne Balsamo, Georgia Tech School of Lit, Comm, and Culture
Date: Thu, 30 Jan 92 21:28:33 -0500



Hi. My name is Anne Balsamo.  I'm a new faculty member in the School of
Literature, Communication, and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology.
My teaching responsibilities are primarily in a program called
STAC (Science, Technology and Culture).  This is the first year that
STAC has been up and running as an undergraduate degree program. A master's
degree and a Ph.D. degree are planned for next year.  I teach courses in
the introduction to science/tech and culture, sci/tech and ideology, 
science in the age of postmodernism, and sci/tech and gender.  This program
is interdisciplinary across the fields of cultural studies, communication,
film and media studies, and technologies of communication.

My work is situated within feminist cultural studies, with particular
emphasis on cultural studies of science and technology.  My diss. was a
multi-faceted investigation of the relationship between the body,
technology, and cultural identity. I looked at everything from female
bodybuilding, to cosmetic surgery, to reproductive engineering, with
a ethnographic investigation of male strippers included as a male-
centered study of masculine identity.  It was an obvious move from
these body/tech encounters to an interest in the body/computer interface
and from there to the theoretical and conceptual issues surrounding the
development of "virtual" realities or embodied virtuality. A final chapter
of the diss/manuscript deals with the sub-culture of cyberpunk/cyberspace
and the bio-politics of virtual bodies. (It will be published in an
upcoming issue of a phil of tech journal--if anyone is interested i could
send them a copy of the paper.)  The analytical framework I use includes
paying attention to the way that scientific fact and technological know-
ledge is constructed through the discourse of scientists/technologists.
Which is to say that I am fascinated by the exchanges that are posted
to sci-virtual worlds.  I am not trained in a scientific or technological
area per se, but I have some computer programming competence and tech-
ical journalistic background.  Not only do I learn a great deal in
reading the newsgroup, I also have the opportunity to read the discourse
of virtual reality as it is beg produced in one of the emergent
spaces of social exchange in contemporary culture, i.e., on a network.
The next phase of my research will consider in greater detail the cultural
and legal issues surrounding electronic communication, authoring programs,
and networking.

I have to admit that I've been lurking (?) for quite awhile, too timid
to post anything until the Virtual/Interactive Arts symposium announcement.
I have received at least a ozen inquiries about the symposium that have
given me the opportunity to correspond with other readers of this news
group. The talk I'm giving for the symposium really addresses the popular
culture surrounding VR/Cyberspace/cyberpunk (Mondo 2000, films, comics,
siggraph, Leary, sci-fi).

I'd be very interested in corresponding with others who are interested in
the cultural/social aspects of virtuality.

Thanks for the opportunity to introduce myself.

Anne Balsamo
School of Literature, Communication & Culture
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30306
ab45@prism.gatech.edu.