The Freedom Riders — On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we honor Dr. King and his legacy. However, I believe that we should also honor the many other people who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement, including the brave young people known as the Freedom Riders. In 1961, hundreds of college-aged students from different races sat together on interstate buses and bus terminals in the South in an effort to challenge the Jim Crow travel laws that were still in force in many southern states at the time. Often met with violence, these Freedom Riders played an important role in challenging the legality of racial segregation. My dissertation advisor was one of the Freedom Riders, so I heard many stories from him about this chapter in the history of the Civil Rights Movement.
More recently, one of my students, an English major named Amber Monroe, brought up the topic of the Freedom Riders during a meeting that she scheduled with me last semester. As a student in my Children’s Literature course, she knew that I had some experience conducting interviews with authors. In our meeting, she explained to me that she was interested in learning more about the Freedom Riders and wanted to conduct an interview with an expert on this topic. I agreed to work with her, and after several meetings, she decided to request an interview with Ann Bausum, the author of Freedom Riders: John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement. Bausum’s book is intended for children, and this appealed to Amber since she wanted to know more about nonfiction for children. Amber prepared a list of questions, consulted with me several times about conducting interviews, and then sent Ann Bausum a formal written request. About two weeks ago, I received an email form Amber in which she excitedly told me that the interview was great success and that she now plans to use her interview findings as part of a larger research project. Needless to say, I am proud of Amber, and I am very pleased that a student with her initiative and curiosity has chosen to major in English.
Remembering Blair Rudes — The other day I was thumbing through the most recent catalog from the University of Toronto Press, and I was so pleased to see an announcement for a new paperback edition of Blair Rudes’ Tuscarora-English/English-Tuscarora Dictionary. Blair taught linguistics in our department for a number of years. He died in 2008, but his scholarship on the languages of Native Americans is still having a major impact in the fields of linguistics and Native American studies. I am excited that his ground-breaking dictionary will now be available to a wider audience.
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:
Boyd Davis has just been asked to be on the Editorial Board to review and add terms/definitions, particularly in the area of dementias for the 10th edition of Mosby’s Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions (Elsevier).
Allison Hutchcraft attended the 33rd annual Key West Literary Seminar and Writers’ Workshop Program, for which she received a scholarship. The theme of this year’s seminar was “How the Light Gets In.”
Becky Roeder recently presented a paper titled “City, Province, or Region? What Do the Vowels of Victoria English Tell Us?” at the American Dialect Society Conference held in Portland, OR. She also recently published an article titled “Talking about Accent: The Canadian Shift and Canadian Raising” in Contact Magazine: Teachers of English as a Second Language Association of Ontario.
Sam Watson, a retired member of the English Department, recently published a poetry collection titled So Far As I Can Say.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:
January 23 — The first department meeting of the spring semester will take place from 12:00-1:30 in the English Conference room. Please note that this meeting will take place an hour later than our customary start time for department meetings.
Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to conducting scholarship on Native American languages, Blair Rudes served as a consultant on Native American languages for major film. What is the title of this film?
Last week’s answer: Samuel Clemens lived in Hartford, Ct. His house there is now a museum.