Collin Bright

For Christmas ’06, my grandma bought me a purple and silver metallic CD player and the album Release Therapy by Ludacris. This was my first audio device, or album, and it led to my obsession with music. From digging through crates for vinyls and CDs to [allegedly] downloading music off Limewire, my childhood was shaped by the exploration of worlds captured within sounds. I found and still seek solace within these worlds when my own becomes plagued by fear, loss, heartbreak, and worry. Through records, I am introduced to stories, communities, and history that define spaces and time periods. These stories assist my conceptualization of the world and how I’ve come to understand my position in it.

Michael L. Broderick

When not walking through old graveyards, or collecting wild edibles in the woods of greater Appalachia, I am an Associate Professor of Culture and Ecology at James Madison University in the Shenandoah Valley. My areas of interest include critical approaches to food & culture, narrative & storytelling, post-humanisms & new materialisms, material ecology, vibrant matter assemblages, and aesthetic & performative approaches to understand our shared social world. I am currently finishing up a full-length album exploring the landscapes of grief, loss and beauty. In one word: duende.

You can find some of my most recent work in Qualitative Inquiry, Text and Performance Quarterly, and Liminalities. Please feel free to reach out. You can find me at: broderml@jmu.edu