Sammy's Dot

The domain name and blog title, “Sammy’s Dot” was taken from Ursula Le Guin’s short story “The New Atlantis”, published in The Compass Rose. The full quote is

Of course he’s never been able to publish any of his papers, in print; he’s not a Federal employee and doesn’t have a Government clearance. But it did get circulated in what the scientists and poets call Sammy’s-dot, that is, just handwritten or hectographed. It’s an old joke that the FBI arrests everyone with purple fingers, because they have either been hectographing Sammy’s-dots, or they have impetigo.”

(“The New Atlantis” is one of my favourite short stories ever.)

Offline, I go by Gwen Potter. I’m an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University and (I like to think) an occasional writer. My interests include the politics of environmentalism and “green” behaviour, as well as the ways that social media and technology are used in the environmental movement(s). Before stumbling into FES, I did a B.Sc. in psychology, and I continue to be fascinated by the social and psychological factors that influence individuals’ environmental behaviour, particularly when it comes to collective action.

Sammy’s Dot is, I hope, going to be my external brain: a place to collect the early drafts of my thoughts on these topics, as well as other interesting things I come across.