This week I ordered a book called Big Fiction by Dan Sinykin. This particular researcher is a big help to my thesis because he’s already done groundwork about issues within the publishing industry, and having his work as basis for mine will be incredibly helpful. I read an article by him and Lee Konstantinou called “Literature and Publishing, 1945–2020” that discussed the heavy influences that neoliberalism has on contemporary publishing. They are asking questions about who’s writing gets recognized. I’m already a fan of what I can read via open access. Writing-wise I’m still going somewhat slow because I haven’t managed to organize where I want everything to go yet. That’ll be my goal for next week.

I’ve also started on my third trashy romance novel via BookTok’s recommendation. The other two made me drag my feet, maybe the third time is the charm? This one is sadder than the others, and while the protagonist is childish, the way she narrates as if she’s speaking with regret and introspection makes me want to see where this goes. I’m really hoping the payoff is worthwhile and I cry over it. I haven’t read or watched something sad in a really long time.

I guess part of being in an accountability club is admitting my faults and my fears, so here I go:

There have been plenty of academic and social stressors, but this blog, in hopes of making myself feel a bit better, I want to highlight the things I have done.

• Read a bit more of “Teaching to Transgress” by bell hooks
  • I went to one of my fav independent bookstore (Montclair Book Center) and they told me it’d cost $50+ to order it :0 (I didn’t buy it, but I did use the opportunity to pick up “All About Love” by Bell Hooks (which I was glad to learn wasn’t solely about romantic love)). Instead of paying $50, I downloaded a free copy on my Kindle
• Two or three weeks ago I found this reading: Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity By Erica Buchanan-Rivera.
  • Rivera talks a lot about environment and how your identity matters to the space you create as an educator:

I guess part of being in an accountability club is admitting my faults and my fears, so here I go:

There have been plenty of academic and social stressors. I won’t dwell on them too much. This blog, in the spirit of making myself feel a bit better, I want to highlight the things I have done.

• Read a bit more of “Teaching to Transgress” by bell hooks
  • I went to one of my fav independent bookstore (Montclair Book Center) and they told me it’d cost $50+ to order it :0 (I didn’t buy it, but I did use the opportunity to pick up “All About Love” by Bell Hooks (which I was glad to learn wasn’t solely about romantic love)). Instead of paying $50, I downloaded a free copy on my Kindle
• Two or three weeks ago I found this reading: Identity Affirming Classrooms: Spaces that Center Humanity By Erica Buchanan-Rivera.
  • Rivera talks a lot about environment and how your identity matters to the space you create as an educator:

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• Through Rivera, I found The Hundred Languages of Children by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, and George Forman. It’s an early ed framework more than anything, but I’ve discovered that it’s quite influential.
• I’ve kept readings from my Writing Theory & Practice class in mind
  • Alexander & Gibson on uncovering understanding of identity & its construction—the more difficult process
  • Huber on how there is no singular voice, but many we encompass when we write. Understanding all are imperative to understanding the self—voice as a flame
  • Chung on expressive writing and how everyone wished to be heard, how processing helps the self become more embodied, conscious/mindful, and open.
    • (This are all just rough summaries of the readings)

Two weeks ago, during my meeting with Dr. Z, we made a plan to start writing blogs after a work week at College Steps (my inspiration for this thesis project). I can’t say writing them have led me to too many discoveries, but it has reaffirmed one thing: when we ask students questions about themselves, task them with creating projects with those things in mind, and tell them to share them with the class, there’s a sort of glimmer in the air that simply wasn’t there before. I hear their voices. I learn more about them. We learn more about each other. There’s a new sense of connection. And it’s all motivating (for them as students and as people to continue forth & for a motivation for inspiration—if that makes any sense).

I don’t know what my project will be yet. The question that I am going to ask (and yes, that is making me panic!), but I have a strange feeling that when I figure it out, it’ll be great.

(In other words, help me!)

Adamari Peralta 10/19/2026

How joyous. I didn’t get any real work done besides the presentation for this week. I did do thinking on how many characters I forgot for my disability list. I wrote at the top “basically all X-Men” but only had two on my list. When making my presentation, I looked up “Marvel disabilities” and apparently someone did group photos of action figures they have with disabilities. And I forgot a ton of people. Noted, some I wasn’t going to include cause the list would be forever long. Like Dr. Strange has nerve damage but so far I haven’t found another character like that, so he is the only one on the list. If I wanted to include that. But Cable is disabled with his disease that makes him have a metal arm, forgot about him. Not even sure what category that is, science gone wrong? Amputee?? Callisto has an eyepatch, forgot about her. Forge, another idk if it is science gone wrong or amputee, but has metal limbs as well.

So, while I thought about the X-Men, I somehow forgot about them at the same fricken time. I saw those action figure group pics and went “… OH SO TRUE”. Disappointed in myself. Literally watched all of the X-Men cartoon this summer cause Natalia decided, thanks to Marvel Rivals, she likes Gambit and Rogue. This is why I said the list wasn’t finished.
When going on Reddit, I saw names and went “who…” but then looked the character up and remembered that character after seeing them. I will show it in my presentation, but I knew I forgot about people. Cause apparently I need to see them to be reminded of them. I guess those X-Men aren’t in Marvel Rivals so I don’t be thinking of them much, but man oh man did I forget a ton of people it seems.
Also, I got no clue who some of those people in the photos are. Not to mention I do know Jubilee but I have no clue why she is considered disabled. Which is why I was using Reddit or other social media lists, as the people would sometimes explain why they are there or put the show/movie/comic they are talking about.
But yeah so. I guess good on me having presentation week so I could realize an entire group of people I included but forgot at the exact same time. Joyous.

Anyway, Presenation

I couldn’t find if we needed to do a reaction paper or not. I spent a couple minutes trying to find that out. I couldn’t find that on the syllabus but to be honest I also couldn’t find the end-of-semester e-portfolio that we do so maybe I was in the wrong place there. If we do need that paper I will obviously do it, I just wasn’t sure how to do it since there aren’t readings? And that is usually part one of that paper, talking about the readings.

But yay! Presenting week!

I am actually excited this isn’t sarcasm. I love presenting.
I do wish there were more time in the week to get more work done but sadly I do not have time powers. So sad.

Hello Dear Reader, has it been an eventful week.
So, the great lock in has begun. *YAY* 
I'm at the point where the bibliography is starting to come together and actually look like a bibliography (and not just a bunch of mismatched links thrown onto a google doc). I have about 15 functioning sources that I have at my disposal, and the summaries are loading. I'm also totally stealing Hunter's idea and breaking it up by sections (still alphabetically, of course) so there's a bit more cohesion. I've really got 3 sections for the break down right now: The Linguistics, The Psychology, and The Politics. As I have read more, I'm realizing that there is a lot of overlap between pairs, i.e. psychology and linguistics, but very little domestic scholarship on the three all together. 

This has lead me down a rabbit hole of foreign scholarship. Isn’t it weird that a lot of relevant work is coming out of Russia.

Anywhoseits…

On top of landing on several FBI/CIA watchlists, I’ve also began the first draft. Now is it a lot? No. Is it official? Also no. But, do I have a really academic sounding title? You bet your bottom dollar I do.

“The Language of Violence: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Censorship in Online Discourse Spaces“

Now, you try to tell me that doesn’t sound like I might know something. (This is all an act, I’m trying to gaslight confidence into myself.)

Again, right now I’m still doing as much research as I can(and putting my swiftread subscription to good use) so aside from some insane notes I don’t have a bunch to show right now, but I guess I’ll definitely need to have something by the 9th.

Wish me luck, Dear Reader.

Hello everyone. Finally being done with the presentation really eases my stress.

Another week has passed and some progress had been made on this project. Last week I continued to work on my Literature review. I focused on reading some of the literature I’ve been stacking up over that last two weeks. My brain may have slowly turned to mush on the way but we made it through. I think I found some literature that really connects to the points I want to make on the project. I feel like my system of organization has helped me really stay on point and not get lost in the sauce for lack of a better word. Having to code through each article and really break it down is very time consuming though. Like I feel like I am getting through this stuff at a snails pace some nights. I wonder if there was a better way of doing things, but it is what it is. Overall I have added 7 more things to the list of sources. This literature review really has been a grind, but I’m happy that I am finding my way to the end of the tunnel.

This coming week I want to start getting to the finish line with the literature review. I know it wont really be done until I submit this project in the spring, but I want to close the book on this part and put some time into the ethnographic side of my project sooner than later. I also want to look at the proposal sheet and begin nailing down some things on that front. Its crazy to think that we are more or less half way through the semester. Time flies when your working hard I guess.

One last thing I want to mention is how I looked back through my main points, I kind of felt like I was missing something when thinking of the student and tutors experience. But I just couldn’t articulate it. While I in a meeting for work, I feel like I found a little inspiration to reassess some of the ideas I had before. I want to look into where tutors draw the line. While tutors are doing everything in their power to get to the student, I want to begin to think about when and how the line is drawn and the responsibility solely rests on the student. I don’t know where this inspo will really go, but I may have a new thread to use down the line.

Another eventful week down. Another one to go.

This past week was actually pretty darn great!

I had an amazing observation from my Principal on Tuesday, and honestly, I have to say, that I’m really proud of myself. I was commended for how well I work with my co-teacher lolllll.

Anyways, in terms of my project updates, a few things have changed:

My IRB application has been resubmitted, and I have observations coming up next weekend, so I’m hoping to get full approval asap.

My literature review is now complete. I am so glad that all of the long Saturday time crunches are starting to ease up a bit. I am also excited to present Monday. (I totally forgot about my presentation, and only remembered last night.) However, my slideshow was completed last Monday, and I forgot about that too!

Before Class – Monday, October 19

In preparation for my M.A. thesis presentation, please briefly review the following two teaching observation frameworks:

1. Danielson Framework for Teaching (2022): Familiarize yourself with the four domains, paying particular attention to Domain 3 (Learning Experiences).
2. York College Teaching Observation Form: Review the observation categories and consider how the instrument evaluates teaching practices in higher education.

As you review both frameworks, consider the following question:

What differences do you notice in how each framework defines and evaluates effective teaching?

You do not need to complete a written response. Please come prepared to share your initial observations during our class discussion.

– It is okay if you are unable to read the frameworks. I will provide time during my presentation to briefly review them, so that I can address any misconceptions.

Some misconceptions that I anticipate are:

1. The Danielson Framework is only intended for K–12 education. Classmates may assume it cannot provide meaningful insight into college instruction because it is primarily associated with K–12 settings.

2. Both frameworks evaluate the same instructional practices. Classmates may assume that two teaching observation instruments necessarily measure effectiveness in similar ways.

3. A more detailed framework is automatically a better framework. Classmates may equate greater pedagogical specificity with greater validity or usefulness.

4. An observation captures everything about an instructor’s teaching. Classmates may overlook instructional planning, professional responsibilities, and decisions that are not directly observable.

5. Teaching writing is evaluated the same way as teaching any other subject. Classmates may not initially consider discipline-specific practices such as modeling revision, providing writing feedback, and facilitating peer review.

Good news! Part I of my thesis is officially complete! Somewhere along the way, I also made the executive decision to remove Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy as one of my core readings. Why? Because, in plain words, I was doing entirely too much. Sometimes less really is more, and making that decision allowed me to tighten my focus and make the writing process much more manageable.

Now, I am shifting gears into my autoethnographic writing, which requires a completely different mindset from the analytical work I have been doing. Thankfully, my memoir writing independent study with Professor Giunta has been incredibly helpful in making that transition. It is exciting to move from examining other people’s experiences to reflecting more deeply on my own.

For now, I am right on track with where I wanted to be, and considering how ambitious this project has been, I am taking that as a win! One section down, two to go!

It was such a busy week, the horrors persist but so do I.

So right now I am like knee deep in the research phase.

Was this week crazy productive? No.

Is the research going well? It’s not bad.

Am I confident I’m gonna get it done? Yes.

I am at that weird point where I’m starting to knock out the articles I thought were going to be really helpful, but they weren’t. On the other hand, I am starting to see my paper coming together. (I am getting subheading ideas *evil laughing*)

I really have two big goals for this week and next:

1. Sources- Finish reading through the sources I have right now. It is a mix of looking through rhetorical and psychological studies so I have been casting a really large net. I have really just been going through any and every source I can find and *legally* downloading them. So, the next steps look like getting at least 10-15 more solid sources with an additional 5-10 supplementary sources.
2. Examples- I have been collecting real world examples of the phenomena I’m writing about for the passed few years. So the plan is to go through those and pick which ones I can use and which I would need to get rid of.

After I complete those steps, I need to start planning out my actual methodology, but I am excited for that so we’re still in the green.

Hopefully, I’ll have something really good to share next time. Until then, Dear Reader.

I did not get much done this week. I probably won’t get much done in for the rest of October. There is a conference in the middle of Novemeber that Guitar has me doing some work for, and he wants a finished paper by the 21st. It is the queer gaming thing I have mentioned in other classes, and it has taken me 10 hours to sort through the PlayStation and HALF the Xbox list. I still got the other half of Xbox and Steam to sort through. It might not seem important to go through all these list, but the Xbox one I did get through was interesting. There was a whole category for trans and nonbinary games, but I would say only like five at MOST out of the 60ish games should actually be on that list. So many games were on the trans/nonbinary list because the creator was trans or nonbinary. Which I don’t think should count at all. Just cause the creator is one thing doesn’t make the creation the same thing. Also, so many games have the main character that you play as be “nonbinary”. I say it doesn’t count, the game just defaults to using they/them to not offend anyone. It makes the player more acceptable to the game if the default is they/them instead of standard. I don’t really think it is to be queer I think it is to sell to more people. If the character isn’t even directly nonbinary I think it shouldn’t count. But yeah only a select few games have important enough queer story lines for me to think they belong on the list.

BUT, because of that deadline and the amount of research I have to do for that, I didn’t really find the time to do things for thesis. I am hoping to cram stuff in Novemeber and December for thesis, cause October is gonna be packed with queer gaming stuff. I can’t exactly lock in for extra time with thesis just yet. I am trying, trust, but not enough time in the week/day/month for all the research I need to do.

So, I didn’t get around to looking at more literature as I had planned/hoped to do. I did get started on a list of disabilities/characters though. I would like to go through more lists, but I feel like this is a good start/all the characters I could come up with for now. I wanted to look around the internet some more for some ones I might have missed/not thought of. I looked through three lists so far and have included ones I thought of, ones I think are popular enough, and ones that connect to my research. Apparently, some Agents of SHIELD show has a ton of characters I haven’t heard of/die? One list mentioned the character and did a parenthesis if they did and almost every character mentioned from that show died so. Idk what is going on in that show but it seems everyone just be dying so not sure if that is even good Marvel lore to include. But, considering I have seen almost all the Marvel movies and a bunch of the other shows and didn’t know those guys, they must be niche comic characters. And I figured it would be better to stay to the more popular ones, espeically the ones not found in a show that kills off everyone. I didn’t think that show was popular enough but if these characters do keep poping up maybe I will include them? I don’t want to have a 50 paged list though, so sticking to the more popular characters has to be the way to go. And if I don’t know them, with my decent Marvel knowledge, then they aren’t going on the list. Anyway, the list.

Amputees/missing limb

• Bucky, metal arm  
• Nebula, multiple metal parts  
• Echo: Maya Lopez, prosthetic leg 
• Misty Knight, metal arm 
• Ulysses Klaue, arm turns into gun 
• Razor Fist, kinda like the name suggests this guy has knives/razors for hands 
• Eitri, Thanos ruined Eitri’s hands in Avengers: Infinity War by forcing them into a vat of molten Uru metal, which solidified and encased his fingers into useless metal blocks
• Yo-Yo Rodriguez, loses both her arms and gets metal prosthetics  

Deformities/Disfigured

• Thing 
• Dr. Doom 

Visually Impaired

• Visually Impaired 
• Daredevil, blind 
• Cyclops, without special eyewear that has him see in red, his eyes are portals to a punch dimension 
• Alicia Masters, blind 
• Nick Fury, eye patch 
• Thor, eye patch/fake eye  
• Odin, eye patch  
• Stick, blind (skilled and experienced grandmaster of various Asian martial arts)  
• Gordon (as shown on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., eyeless Inhuman teleporter), blind  

Hearing Impaired

• Hawkeye: Clint Barton, hard of hearing  
• Echo: Maya Lopez, deaf 
• Makkari (member of the Eternals) deaf 

Science gone wrong

• Dr. Morbius: As a human, was dying from a rare blood disease very similar to the one that killed Harold Ramis but combined with severe bone depletion. Morbius experimented on himself and accidentally became a scientifically created vampire but with certain draw backs 
• Lizard. Amputee that used Lizard DNA to regrow his arm, but the science went wrong and transformed him into a lizard  
• Man-Thing: Man-Thing used to be a brilliant Scientist.  Now he is something of an empathic plant monster that can sense emotions, especially fear. He’s mute. 
• Aldrich Killian, A limp that requires him to use a cane for walking, severe scoliosis or stooped posture, resulting in hunched and awkward body movements.Driven by a fierce desire to overcome his physical limitations, Killian founded Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.)  to develop Extremis—a techno-organic virus designed to rewrite the body’s genetic code to heal crippling injuries and illnesses. Killian used himself as a primary test subject. The Extremis serum completely cured his disabilities, corrected his posture, and eliminated his need for a cane. When he later reunites with Pepper Potts in 2013, he covers up the radical transformation by lying and attributing his new look and perfect mobility to “5 years of physical therapy 

Mobility Issues

• Professor X: Paralysis from waist down, wheelchair 
• Iron Patriot: James Rhodes: permanent paralysis from the waist down. His mobility issues stem from a severe spinal column fracture sustained during the airport battle in Captain America: Civil War. Moves using advanced bionic leg braces and his War Machine armor 
• Jonathan Pangborn, paralyzed from an industrial accident, healed through magic at Kamar-Taj, and later stripped of his powers by Karl Mordo, which made him paralyzed again. 
• Bullseye: Ben Poindexter, had spinal surgery after Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) slammed him into the corner of a wall in the climactic fight scene of the season finale of season 3. Moves fine in Daredevil Born Again  

This is the list for now. After like two or so more lists, I plan to look at how the internet views these characters to see if how Marvel handled the disability sits well with people. Like I doubt people enjoy the representation of these people with mobility issues getting fixed up. So the list is still a work in progress, but it is the only progress I have for this week so it is getting posted.