Our Students — The official enrollment numbers for spring 2014 are not yet in, but the preliminary numbers for our undergraduate English courses are encouraging. As of today, the combined enrollment for all of our undergraduate courses, including the General Education LBST courses taught by English faculty, comes to a total of 2,014. This figure is a significant increase over last spring’s total of 1,824. It is also an increase over the fall 2013 semester total of 1,919. The enrollment figures for our undergraduate courses are clearly increasing. Here are our undergraduate spring enrollment numbers over the last five years:
Spring 2014: 2014 undergraduate seats
Spring 2013: 1824 undergraduate seats
Spring 2012: 1679 undergraduate seats
Spring 2011: 1768 undergraduate seats
Spring 2010: 1766 undergraduate seats
As these figures show, the student demand for our courses is growing, and that is a very hopeful sign. However, these numbers only tell part of the story. Our students are not numbers; they are real people with unique personalities, diverse backgrounds, and varying ambitions. In my view, one of the strengths of our English Department is that we do not treat our students as interchangeable units. This strength was brought home to me this past weekend when I attended Eric Linne’s book-release party. Eric recently graduated from our MA program, and he just published a YA novel titled Reversal. At one point during the party, Eric talked about the evolution of his book, and he gratefully acknowledged the help he received from many of the faculty members in our department. I came away from the party feeling not only proud of Eric but also proud of our dedicated faculty.
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:
Jim McGavran published an article titled “Felicia Hemans’s Feminist Poetry of the Mid-1820s” in the December 2013 issue of Women’s Writings.
Juan Meneses recently presented a paper titled “‘Because Our Fathers Lied’: National Allegiances and the Great War in Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way” at the MLA Conference held in Chicago. His paper was included in a session titled “Secrets and the Silences of Memory: The Great War in Modern Fiction.”
Sarah Minslow recently presented a paper titled “The Value of Literary Fiction” at the MLA Conference held in Chicago. Her paper was included in a session titled “Children’s Literature and the Common Core.”
Malin Pereira was on two panels at the MLA Conference held in Chicago. She presided on the panel titled “Myth-busting the Job Search” and was a panelist for the “Pre-convention Workshop for Job Seekers in English.” She also worked for the job counseling center for ADE.
Alan Rauch recently presented a paper titled “Scholarly Journals: Academic and Commercial and Independent Perspectives” at the MLA Conference held in Chicago.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:
January 17 — Last day to add classes and drop with no grade.
January 24 — The English Graduate Association Conference will take place on January 24 from from 8:30 to 5:30 at Center City. Here is a link to more information about the conference: https://english.uncc.edu/node/141
Quirky Quiz Question — As my Kudos section indicates, the UNC Charlotte was well represented at the MLA Conference in Chicago. This got me thinking about the connections between North Carolina and Chicago. What is the name of the famous Chicago poet who retired to the mountains of North Carolina and lived there for many years?