Using shite gifts for academics

This poem investigates the intersection of canonical English literature – particularly Medieval and Renaissance – with contemporary popular culture – in this case the social media institution of Facebook. It examines the use of the then-popular Facebook application, Shite Gifts for Academics, which trades in a tongue-in-cheek “gifting” of some of the clichés of academic life – e.g. by presenting a Facebook friend with “an overbearing male colleague” or, in the case of my poem, a “dorky medievalist.” The poem is set at the biennial Australian and New Zealand Medieval and Early Modern Studies conference (ANZAMEMS) and comments on the culture surrounding Australian research culture of that time.