Monday Missive – August 15, 2016

August 15, 2016 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Orchestra-Maze2
Tuning Up the Orchestra — In the days of my youth, I played the bassoon in a community orchestra.  One of my pleasant memories from this experience was the ritual involved in tuning up the orchestra before a performance.   I remember the musicians assembling on the stage.  I remember the initial sounds of a few instruments going through scales.  And then more and more instruments would add to the growing cacophony of sounds.  And then the oboe player would play an A, and all of the musicians would tune their instruments to the oboe.  And then they would put down their instruments, the conductor would appear, and the performance would begin.

I flashed back on this memory today while sitting in my office listening to the sounds wafting through the department.  Like the musicians assembling on the stage, the faculty members are assembling in the lobby and chatting in the mail room.  The photocopy machine is making its rhythmic sounds as faculty members keep it busy running off course syllabi.  Students keep ringing the bell at the front desk, asking for help finding offices.  I regularly hear Sarah Minslow’s cheery voice as she greets students and brings them to her office for last-minute advising appointments.  These are the sounds I associate with the beginning of the semester, and they remind me of the sounds that the members of an orchestra make as they prepare for their next performance.  Our next performance starts in a week, and I am confident that by then we will all be tuned up and ready to go.

Kudos— As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department.  Here is the latest news:

Eric Linne, a graduate of our M.A. program, recently learned that his new novella titled MillVille will be released in serial form online in the Charlotte Agenda.  Beginning this Tuesday, they will be publishing two chapters a week for five weeks.

Sarah Minslow presented two papers at international conferences this summer.  In June she presented a paper titled “They All Fall Down:  Representations of Child Soldiers in Literature and Film” at a conference on Children’s Lives in Historical Contexts, which took place at Kings College London.  In July she presented a paper titled “Representing War and Genocide in Children’s Literature at the Children and War, which took place at the University of Salzburg.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is an important date to keep in mind:

Here is a list of upcoming meetings and events that will take place this month:

–University Convocation   Thursday, August 18

8:30am coffee, 9:30-11 Convocation McKnight Hall

–Day of Convocation       Monday, August 22  

11:00-5:00pm (faculty arrive at 10:15) Halton Arena

–Classes Begin                Monday, August 22 (at 5:00pm)

–CLAS All Faculty Mtg & Breakfast     Friday, August 26

8:30-10:00am  Fretwell 100

–English Department Mtg   Friday, August 26  
11-12:15pm  Fretwell 290B (English Department Seminar Room)

Quirky Quiz Question — Like an academic departments, orchestras have their own hierarchies.  In a traditional orchestra, who is second in command behind the conductor?

Last week’s answer: Chris Bongartz
Manu Vida is a graduate student of a former faculty member from our English Department who now teaches at the University of Cologne.  Does anybody know the name of this former member of our English Department?