Jessica Speer

what i do

• I work as a Research Specialist at the Social Science Research Center (SSRC) at DePaul University, where I consult with faculty on their research, from research design to strengthening grant proposals. I also do outreach, support collaborative efforts, develop our fellowship programs, edit the weekly newsletter and blog (re/search), plan workshops, trainings, and events, coordinate our certificate program in qualitative research, and work on SSRC's harm reduction-based research on injection drug use and sex work.  
• I volunteer at the Read/Write Library in Chicago, where I am the Programming Coordinator. Programs include Self Preservation, a series of DIY archival workshops and events, Rock, Paper, Scissors, a papercrafting booksale dance party, and a project that gets people to make art about architecture in Chicago. We have a Crafterday the last Saturday of every month. I am proud to have volunteered in the past at the best radio station in the universe, WFMU and at the associated best online music project anywhere, the Free Music Archive.  
• I play music and make noise in various projects, including The Shamblers, New Mexicoe, The Speers, Lady Rollins, and Radiation Spider. Currently, I'm working on my PhDIY in Sound Studies, exploring the role of sound as a document, ephemera, poetry, environment, and as an object of preservation. Coursework includes collecting quiet sounds for hyperlocal radio broadcasting, curating a workshop series on Radical Noticing, co-curating the Bad Rabbit sound and poetry series, and listening a lot. I can't stop collecting spoken word and sound effect records.
• Long-term archival projects include digitizing the collection of DIY record label Colonial Recordings USA and putting them online. There are rumors about other archival projects in the works.