As someone interested in rhetoric, new media, and in joining a digital publishing community, I’ve spent the last few years eye-balling various online journals.  I’ve anxiously watched as a number of journals released shout-outs for editorial assistants, reviewers, or editors, but never found myself getting excited enough about any particular journal to send in that familiar “Hello, I’m interested in working for your awesome journal” query.

But then I found Harlot.

I began following the journal in the summer of 2012 when one of my much-admired professors, Kristin Arola, published an award-winning video in the journal.  After watching the video and reading various other pieces, I thought “Wow, this journal is doing some cool stuff.”

My interest in Harlot continued to grow as I encountered creative multi-media pieces like Abigail Lambke’s “The Oral Aural Walter Ong,” quirky sci-fi analyses like Rita Malenczyk’s  “Scully and Me: Or, The X-Files, Revisited” and big-statement pieces like Elizabeth Kuechenmeister’s “‘I Had an Abortion’”: A Feminist Analysis of the Abortion Debate.”  These works, along with my growing admiration for the journal editors’ dedication to publishing articles that don’t fit tidily into traditional academic venues, led me from simply reading Harlot to wanting to join the staff.  At last I was ready to send in that long overdue email inquiry.

Luckily for me, the Harlot crew responded to my query with a generous “welcome aboard!” and I’m now working on cool social media projects with folks like Paul Mulhuaser and Kaitlin Dyer.  Over the next year, we hope to expand the journal’s social media presence as well as craft and curate educational materials for teachers.  Working on these projects, as well as getting to know both the Harlot editors and contributors, is an exciting process and already titillating my inner rhetor-teacher-tech-nerd.

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Lori Beth De Hertogh is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Composition program at Washington State University.