In this interview, James Savage, a Term Associate Professor of English and Writing and Rhetoric PhD candidate, discusses his dissertation I'll Be There: Stories, Collected Memories, Half-Truths, Counter Memories, and Somewhat Just Memories of James Foley. We also discuss teaching at GMU and writing support.
Okay, so for my first question, can you just talk a little bit about your dissertation and what it is?
I like to start with the personal when I describe it. It's a dissertation that combines personal experience and theory, storytelling and academic concepts at the same time.
It starts for me with the personal. My friend James Foley and I met when we were corps members as part of Teach for America. We were friends for many years, and he became a conflict journalist.
He started to pursue a career in videography and conflict journalism, and he went to war zones all over the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, and then Libya and Syria. Eventually, he was captured, and then he was killed by ISIS, beheaded, in a video that went around the world in August of 2014.
His murder started this project for me, in a sense. I really wanted to write about that story. I didn't know how to, even though I have a writing background; Jim and I loved writing and bonded over writing throughout our friendship.
There was a lot of media attention, as you may remember, and it was really hard to figure out how to process the story with all the things that we were seeing in the media and with ISIS themselves trying to create an image of Jim through the beheading videos.
Then, friends and family and others started making movies and doing all these things responding to his death. I came to the PhD program in Writing and Rhetoric really to try to understand that story. I have worked here at Mason as an English professor and taught writing here, and a lot of my colleagues were in the Writing and Rhetoric program already. I followed them in with this particular kind of project already in mind.
Memory is one of the canons of rhetoric, and, through that investigation, I found memory studies and some concepts related to memory, such as collected memory and just memory. My project tries to tell Jim's story using some of these memory concepts or memory frameworks, including counter memory, just memory, and multi-directional memory.
What classes or research experiences led you to that approach?
I do have a colleague, Dr. Anna Habib, who defended her dissertation a few years ago, and I followed her lead in the sense that I knew that the program was open to dissertations that were personal and academic at the same time. That was a big help for me in even joining the program in the beginning.
Then, I took a few courses outside of the program, including one in visual culture, where I was introduced to a theory that became really central to my project, Nguyen's Theory of Just Memory. Also, I took a class with Alison Landsberg, who's in the Department of History and Art History here and teaches in cultural studies. She taught a class on memory and became one of my dissertation committee members. The concepts that I encountered in that course, really solidified the project for me and allowed me to realize exactly the concepts that I wanted to use to pursue the telling of the story of Jim.
What are some of your proudest accomplishments while here at Mason in the PhD program?
Well, I love Mason for many reasons. I love my colleagues here. Specifically, I teach ENGH-100: Composition for Multilingual Writers. I really value the team of people that I've been working with on that curriculum and in teaching that course as colleagues and as friends. I'm just proud of the work that we've done together.
I also had the opportunity over these last few years to teach HNRS-122: Reading in the Arts: The Art of Memory. It combined my research interests and my personal interests. We read memory scholarship and we told personal stories. I've taught that class four semesters, and, each time, I'm really proud of the work that the students do, not only the intellectual exploration that goes into reading some of those scholarly texts on memory, but also trying to apply those concepts to their own stories.
What are your plans for after you defend your dissertation?
Well, I would love to publish this story as a book, maybe as a critical memoir.
As I was writing this dissertation, I did always have a broader audience in mind, and hopefully after I defend, at the end of the month, and receive my PhD, that will be the next step.
What's something fun that you've done during the PhD program, especially as you've done this emotionally intense work?
As I said, I really love working at Mason, and I love working with my colleagues here. Those friends and colleagues sustain me. The support that I've received from my committee, including Dr. Doug Eyman, the chair of my committee, has just been fantastic.
Beyond that, though, I really spend a lot of time with friends who knew Jim. Every year we've gathered, most of the time in New England where Jim is from, to remember him but also just to connect with one another. These are friends that I've known since I knew Jim. Many of them I met at the same time that I met Jim in Teach for America. We've continued our friendship, and we'll also connect over the phone or travel together in other ways.
These friendships, these meetups, and the ability to talk to one another and continue to laugh and to grieve together has been something that's sustained me throughout the project and something that I've really loved.
Finally, is there anything else you'd like to share about your dissertation, your experience in the PhD program, or being here at Mason?
I do want to say that I think that all writers need support, no matter what it is that you're writing, and I do feel like Mason has been a great environment for me and has supported me through this process. I really appreciate that support, and I hope to pass that on to others as I continue to work here at Mason and be a part of this community.