The original run of Unreality House went from November 2011 to May 2012, after which it went largely on hiatus for several months while I rethought the project. While my own writing on the project was on hiatus, I was proud to publish posts by guest writers including Mira Gonzalez, Gabby Gabby, Mallory Whitten, Lily Dawn, and Beach Sloth.

In January 2013, I relaunched Unreality House with a new look and have returned to writing on the site myself. Multiple characters from the project’s initial run will return to the fictional house—now a B&B—in Tarrytown, Minnesota.

Since April 2012, I’ve been writing about “Guilty Pleasure” pop songs each week for Portable. A playlist of all the songs I’ve written about is available on Spotify.

In 2013, I’m pleased to be serving as a visiting critic in the Jerome Foundation Fellowship program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). I’ll be meeting throughout the year with fellowship recipients Susannah Bielak, Amanda Hankerson, Michael Hoyt, Melissa Loop, and Lauren Roche; the fellowship year will culminate in an exhibition for which I’ll write the catalog essays.

For links to more examples of my freelance writing, see my Mediabistro page.

It’s true, I wrote this book. Yeah, I don’t quite believe it either.

I studied sociology from 1999-2007 at Harvard University, ultimately earning an A.M. and a Ph.D. in the subject. Along the way I served as a research assistant, a teaching fellow (head teaching fellow, thank you very much), a non-resident and resident tutor (senior resident tutor, thank you very much), and a senior thesis advisor. After I defended my dissertation in January 2007, I joined the Harvard faculty for a semester, teaching two courses in sociology. I currently teach sociology at Rasmussen College, and in fall 2012 I’m teaching in the Media and Cultural Studies program at Macalester College. (See below.)

My peer-reviewed research publications in sociology include the book Reconstructing the University (with David John Frank, Stanford University Press, 2006) and papers in Sociology of Education (also with David John Frank) and Poetics (with Jason Kaufman). When I had an active research agenda I attended multiple conferences, including the Harvard-Oxford-Stockholm Graduate Student Conference at the University of Oxford and the annual conference of the International Toy Research Association (seriously) at the University of London.

In fall 2012, I taught a new undergraduate course called “New Media and the Written Word” at Macalester College. In spring 2013, I’ll be teaching another new course: “Kids, Culture, and New Media.” You can follow my students’ weekly responses on our class Tumblr.

From the syllabus, here’s the course description:

The rapidly increasing pervasiveness of online digital media has opened a new chapter in the long-running debate about the role of media in children’s lives. What does it mean, for children and for society, that kids can now be creators as well as consumers? How is the Internet changing ideas about the nature of childhood? This course examines topics related to children and new media in a multidisciplinary social-historical context, with an emphasis on linking debates on children and new media to larger issues regarding technology and society. Through readings, discussions, and activities, students will learn to think critically about kids’ increasingly connected lives.

Photo by Sean Dreilinger (Creative Commons)

We’ve just published our first book: Future Cities, a compilation of short fiction that includes stories by many of our regular contributors—including me—as well as other writers.

Name: Jay Gabler
Twitter: @JayGabler
Website: jaygabler.com

What’s your job?
“I’m arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet, and I contribute as a freelancer to a variety of publications. I also teach media and cultural studies at Macalester College.”

Other than your job, what are your claims to fame?
“In 2011, I co-founded a creative writing blog called The Tangential. I also write the hyperfiction project Unreality House. I’m the author, co-author, or co-editor of four books including Sociology for Dummies. I was Facebook user #15,751, and I’ve been on Vita.mn’s list of the Top Ten Twitter-ers for two years running. This year I’m a visiting critic at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.”

What’s your relationship status?
“In a relationship.”

Where are you most likely to be seen?
“According to Foursquare, over the last six months my favorite joints have been the Walker Art Center, the Guthrie Theater, Dunn Bros., and Jamba Juice.”

Where are you least likely to be seen?
“In a canoe, a kayak, or a tent.”

With what people are you most likely to be seen?
“Dana Hanson, Tangenitalia, and members of my family.”

Where were you born?
“I made my official debut at what is now Fairview Hospital in Minneapolis—though my parents were then living in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul. We moved to Duluth when I was six years old, then when I was 11, my parents bought from my grandfather the house my dad grew up in, near the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul’s Merriam Park neighborhood.”

In what neighborhood do you live now?
“Uptown Minneapolis, near Lyn-Lake.”

What’s your ride?
“A red Taurus and a red Schwinn.”

What’s the best way for someone to start a conversation with you?
“Disagree with one of my reviews.”

In 1960, sociologist Talcott Parsons was one of the most influential academics in America. A staunch defender of the status quo, he believed that capitalist democracy should and would spread across the globe. C. Wright Mills was a young and charismatic upstart, a Marxist who believed that the “power elite” who controlled America should be overthrown and a more equitable society established.

This new play imagines a meeting between these two real-life historical figures in Parsons’s Harvard office. The two have an intense discussion that begins as an debate over academic theories and ultimately becomes an argument about the very fundamentals of human nature. What kind of society are humans capable of? Can inequality ever be eliminated? Do we need to be protected from ourselves? Though the play is set in Cold War, pre-Civil-Rights-Movement America, it resonates with the struggles of today, from the tents of the Occupy movement to the cries of the radical groups who very literally brought down America’s ivory towers in 2001.

Show creator Jay Gabler has a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard, where he taught Sociology 10: the very class Parsons himself taught to a generation of students. As the author of Sociology for Dummies and a longtime theater critic, Gabler is uniquely well-suited to tell this story on the stage. Gabler will play Parsons (above, left), and his younger brother Joe Gabler (right) will play the idealistic Mills. This play will leave viewers with a lot to think, and talk, about.

Hear Jay Gabler talk about Ivory Tower Burning in an interview for Minnesota Public Radio

Hear Jay Gabler talk about Ivory Tower Burning in an interview for The Society Pages

Hear Jay Gabler talk about Ivory Tower Burning in an interview at Twin Cities Theater Connection

Read Jay Gabler’s comments on Ivory Tower Burning—and his recommendations for other Fringe shows—in Pollen

Jay Gabler (writer, director, co-star), 36, is arts editor at the Twin Cities Daily Planet and a co-founder and co-editor of the creative writing blog The Tangential. He lives in Minneapolis.

Joe Gabler (co-star), 27, works in sales at SPS Commerce. He lives in St. Louis Park.

Joe Gabler’s costume provided courtesy of Blacklist Vintage, 25 E. 26th St. in Minneapolis.

During my five-plus years at the Daily Planet, I’ve written or cowritten over 1,000 articles and blog posts. I’ve collected representative samples of each major type of article:

Arts Orbit Radar, a weekly arts event preview newsletter.

Who is that?, a Q&A series with local notables

Theater reviews

Interviews

Visual arts reviews

Photography

Movie reviews

Essays

Book reviews

Music reviews

News reporting

Photo by Sarah Harper

Twitter. Me personally, The Tangential, The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis, Unreality House, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities Daily Planet arts coverage.

Tumblr. Me personally, The Tangential, The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis, Unreality House, Twin Cities Daily Planet, Twin Cities Daily Planet arts coverage, MCST 294-03 (my course at Macalester College).

Foursquare. Me personally, The Tangential.

Instagram. jaygabler, thetangential.

YouTube.

Vimeo.

Google Plus.

Last.fm.

Goodreads.

Harvard University, A.M. in sociology, 2002. Qualifying paper: “The Child, Knowing: Trends in the Subject Matter of Children’s Non-Fiction Books, 1960-2000.”

Harvard University, Ed.M. in human development and psychology, 1998. Concentration in gender, culture, and relational development.

Boston University, B.S. in early childhood education, 1997. Magna cum laude, yo!

St. Agnes High School, 1993. Straight outta Frogtown.

Nativity of Our Lord Elementary School, 1989. You may remember my performance as Prof. Silias Scavenger in the melodramatic musical Tied to the Tracks.

Teaching kids. From 1995 to 2006, I designed and taught science classes—mostly for preschoolers—at the Science Museum of Minnesota. I’ve also done a lot of mannying and baby-sitting.

Arts administration. I’ve never actually danced ballet, but from 1998 to 1999 I was administrative coordinator of the ballet school at Ballet Theatre of Boston (now José Mateo Ballet Theatre).

Retail. In college, I worked at a Disney Store in Boston. Want some shirts folded? I’ve got you covered.

The Twin Cities Daily Planet and The Tangential currently eat up most of my volunteer hours—at the rate of 20-30 each week—but since 2010, I’ve also been contributing my time as an alumni interviewer for applicants to Harvard College. I’m also joining the board of the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition for a two-year term from 2012-2013.