Chrystie Myketiak

cs4fn: a flexible model for computer science outreach

There are a variety of initiatives to attract secondary school students to computer science. cs4fn is one such project. It combines a magazine, website and live shows, telling stories about computer science in spirited and creative ways. Here we focus on the use of the magazine and, using sociolinguistic discourse analysis, we analyze comments from students and teachers to understand why they have requested (free) subscriptions to the magazine and how they plan to use it. Our analysis shows that both students and teachers are attracted to the flexibility that cs4fn provides, and use it in a variety of learning contexts. We find that the flexibility of the magazine makes it a valuable tool to engage students and teachers and that they use it to further enthuse others (i.e., other students and teachers). We suggest that cs4fn magazine is a powerful form of outreach and that this approach can be widely disseminated within computer science and other academic disciplines, raising the profile of computing to both students and teachers, and spreading enthusiasm for computer science.

A study in engaging female students in computer science using role models

An effective approach to engaging young women to take computing in higher education is to provide examples of successful female computer scientists. Can a print publication that combines core computing concepts with inspiring stories of women in the field be effective? In this paper, we describe a campaign that distributed a 60-page booklet on women in computing to UK secondary schools. We analyse the initial response from teachers, and draw some general conclusions from the project. Teachers expressed strong enthusiasm for the booklet, and also report the desire for recruitment and retention of girls in their computing programmes. They had confidence in the potential for this booklet to inspire young women to take computing.

The co-construction of cybersex narratives

This article discusses the linguistic practice of cybersex and how it is discursively constructed. The analysis is based on naturally occurring, private cybersex conversations from an online community that is not sexual in scope or purpose. It is argued that cybersex participants co-construct narratives that differ from both standard dialogic and polyphonic narratives. Additionally, participants shift between first-, second- and third-person reference forms. It is reasoned that the distinct narrative and style shifts serve as communicative functions in co-constructing a cybersex scene. Although participants rely on mutual engagement and linguistic reciprocity, there are notable gender differences in who constructs the narrative’s ‘complicating action’ and who supports it through linguistic attentiveness (e.g. backchannelling) and responsiveness (e.g. mirroring). Ultimately, it is argued that although cybersex narratives are co-constructed, they are also reflections and reifications of heteronormative ideologies of sex and gender, particularly with respect to sexual agency.

Fragile masculinity: social inequalities in the narrative frame and discursive construction of a mass shooter’s autobiography/manifesto

Mass shootings, where four or more people are injured or killed, are widely constructed as a contemporary American social problem. This article uses critical discourse analysis guided by thematic analysis to examine the text written and distributed by a mass shooter in California in 2014. Analysis of the narrative frame and discursive construction shows that the author is motivated by a precarious or ‘fragile’ relationship to masculinity that involves positioning himself against both women and other minority ethnic men in a way that underscores multiple social inequalities. This work contributes to the social science of narrative by building on the connections between positioning theory and framing, which are applied to a text that contributes to debates in feminist linguistics and broader discussions of mass shootings. The findings contribute to feminist linguistics by demonstrating how a mass shooter uses language to rationalise his actions through a frame of hegemonic masculinity based on social inequalities, namely gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality and social class. Finally, this work contributes to broader discussions of mass shooters by demonstrating how this mass shooter does not construct or position himself in a way that is exceptional or extraordinary but rather hinges on a fragile form of contemporary masculinity that uses violence as a way to prove self-worth, dominance and superiority.