Blog Posts, Uncategorized

Stalking My Professors

In today’s blog post, I will be doing what I never thought I would be asked to do in a class. Stalk my professors. I’ll begin with Professor Mary Abdoney. 

She was born on June 16th, 1976 in Florida (The day after my birthday!) She is caucasian, attended H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, and graduated in 1993. She studied at both the University of South Florida with a Master of Library and Information Science and as an undergrad at the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology. She worked as a Graduate Intern at USGS Center for Coastal Geology from 2000-2001 and immediately began working at Eckhert College in July of 2001 until May of 2005 as the Science & Interlibrary Loan Librarian as well as an Assistant Professor. According to the WLU Library webpage, she is an Associate Professor, Instruction Coordinator & Science Librarian here at Washington and Lee, but that was a no brainer. Prof Abdoney has been at W&L for 14 years and has tenure since 2012. That’s quite impressive. 

Aside from her worklife, she is a strong feminist which is evident from her hilarious twitter retweets. She supports LGBTQ rights and gun control, retweeting that libraries can place “reasonable limitations on constitutionally-guaranteed rights,” as if to ask, why can’t our government? She also supports defunding the police (as she should). After marrying her husband, she did not take his last name, which I think is very rad. 

She is married to Ned Norland and her love for him is evident on flickr with very cute images of them both. As well as her cats. All 4, 5, maybe 6? Abdoney must have a green thumb because her garden is poppin. She can grow some hearty looking cucumbers which were most likely established in 2010, the summer she started the garden duh. Need a new sweater? Call up Prof Abdoney I bet she could sew you one, she seems to be pretty talented. Her child and cats, if I do say so myself, are quite adorable as well. 

Now onto Professor Teaff… What will I find… 

Describing herself as “quiet and quirky,” Professor Teaff was born on June 16, 1974 (birthday twins with Prof Abdoney and almost me!) Teaff attended Gloversville High School in her hometown of Gloversville New York. From Facebook, I can assume that she started college at Fulton-Montgomery Community College in 1994, then transferred to State University of New York at Potsdam till 1996. She received both an associates degree of arts and a bachelors of arts. She also studied at Virginia Commonwealth University for Graduate Studies from 1997-1998. She then went on to study at the University of South Carolina to get her graduate degree and Masters in Library and Information Science from 2003 to 2006. At some point in the beginning of graduate school, she began working at W&L and has ever since.

Similarly to Professor Abdoney, Professor Teaff is an advocate for LGBTQ rights. She is also a supporter of the non profit, Project Horizon Inc. On her facebook, she has a vivid photo of her with an umbrella as her profile picture, maybe to capture her personality. I think she also expressed herself by dying her hair many bright and cool colors. Professor Teaff also has an adorable cat named Blue whom she loves to read with in her free time. Possibly the most “quirky” aspect of Professor Teaff, is her love for spiders which she includes in her twitter bio and is featured on WLU Library Instagram and Facebook. She is also known as “spider chick” on Facebook. I can imagine that Professor Teaffs’s Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter feed is full of color, book recommendations, and animal posts. Social media makes it easy to read into one’s political and cultural standings as well as their interests. 

As you can see, both Professor’s digital selves are very evident from their socials and even business profiles online. I would imagine if both Professors like certain tweets and posts that stick to their political ideology, they will see more like it due to tailored ads and posts. Furthermore, everything is captured and recorded on the internet. This relates back to your “digital footprint,” and the fact that “with each Facebook post, email, Instagram photo, comment on a blog, YouTube video, Skype call, etc. you are leaving a trail that can be seen, searched, or tracked,” and is there forever. (Huffpost, Eric Sheninger) Especially those with professional lives and jobs at stake, having a clean and reputable profile online is crucial. 

Clearly after stalking not one but two of my professors, I found information I did not know before, or even realized was accessible online. I will definitely be conscious of my digital use and the information I let run wild online about me. It is almost too easy to find out just about everything from where someone lives, where they were born, and their secret quirks online with a few clicks. In the age of such a focus on social media, I will put more focus on what I care to say online and what is said about me as well. 

Sources:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/quite_contrary1976/with/5446852668/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryabdoney/

https://twitter.com/marymarylibrary?lang=en

https://www.mylife.com/mary-abdoney/e337122642

https://registry.theknot.com/mary-abdoney-ned-norland-september-2012-va/2533077

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/your-digital-footprint-ma_b_8930874?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cDovL2RjaTE4MC53bHVkY2kuaW5mby9zY2hlZHVsZS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHwEg6qTqeqIp-zj3Hp5eQTumAMlw-SN-R-q-qvS2vYTFE6O8nDdO_8REkg3uNyWIjqZmogstrthkCN0HoH-yEkzhDoO8PV8iFVLt1yUSdDcXLHwTVDSqi0a-mvdkvBrvv4ksK3LX-0Q7fJVk7g9r0QJrBxa_YCyynv19kvAhTr0

https://www.facebook.com/spiderchick

https://elizabethanneteaff.weebly.com