KICKIN' IT WITH DR HAYES

April 2026 was definitely one for the books. For the past year, I have been delving into the world of postdigital scholarship, thanks in large part to the wonderful Dr. Juliana Raffaghelli, who introduced me to it through her fantastic paper on postdigital positionality. Then, I had the chance to meet Dr. Sarah Hayes, the person who quite literally wrote the book on the subject.

​

Spending time with Dr. Hayes has been one of the most academically rewarding experiences I have had. While I knew she was a brilliant writer and deep thinker, I had no idea how much I would be able to relate to her. For example, she is also an artist and spent a good amount of time working with textiles while living in Glasgow. She is also incredibly down to earth, someone with whom you can share a beer and talk about almost anything, from getting deep into Heidegger’s philosophy and why his concept of enframing might help explain our current relationship with reality, to talking about the Talking Heads, movies, or whatever mundane thing happens to be in the news. Yes, Dr. Hayes is an extremely chill scholar, but she is also one of the most insightful and prolific writers in the world of postdigital scholarship.

​

Below is the video flyer we used for our screening event at Texas State University. Making this event happen required a pretty amazing coalition of people, including Dr. Di Mauro Jackson and the Department of World Languages & Literatures, Dean John Fleming from the College of Fine Arts and Communication, Oleksandra Sehin and the Education Abroad Office, the folks from the TXST UFCU branch, and the Graduate Student Organization of Adult, Professional, and Community Education. I also had the chance to work again with the great Cheri Hatcher, who assisted with both this event and the workshop we held the following day at the San Marcos Public Library, courtesy of Deborah Carter, San Marcos’ rockstar librarian and adult education scholar. The two events were extremely meaningful and unforgettable. We even had the chance to Zoom in Dr. Raffaghelli live from Italy during the screening, where she officially launched the ETH-TECH Art Contest, which you can learn more about here.

​

Before our events in Texas, I also had the chance to attend the AERA conference alongside Dr. Hayes, Dr. Sara Tolbert, and, the one and only, Dr. Petar Jandrić. Naturally, I brought my camera with me, and I was able to capture some excellent interviews and moments that will become part of our next module, focused on “the Postdigital.”

This will probably be the last module for EIB, as my doctoral experience is coming to an end. That said, I will try to close it out with a bang. I am also very proud to say that Dr. Hayes is now an official member of my dissertation committee, so I am looking forward to a very enriching Fall 2026 semester and year ahead.

​

More soon.