The Old Man of the Mountain — My undergraduate degree is from Franconia College, which was a small and now defunct experimental college located in northern New Hampshire. During my college days, I often traveled between Boston and Franconia, and I always went through Franconia Notch on these trips. In my native state of Colorado, we would have called Franconia Notch a canyon, but in New Hampshire they like the term notch. On my many drives through Franconia Notch, I always looked up and marveled at an amazing rock formation known as the Old Man of the Mountain. This famous stoney profile collapsed on May 3, 2003.
This past weekend, I paused to remember the Old Man of the Mountain, which brought up memories of Franconia College. It’s all gone now. The Old Man has been reduced to broken rocks, Franconia College has long since closed, and the buildings where I studied have disappeared without a trace. But my memories persist. I can remember in detail the adventure-filled trips I took to Boston, the hikes I took through New Hampshire’s beautiful White Mountains, and the stimulating courses I took at Franconia College. As we come to the close of another semester, we should be mindful that we are helping shape the memories of our students. Someday they will look back on their college days, and I hope that their memories are as precious to them as my memories are to me. Here’s to you, Old Man of the Mountain.
Community Engagement — When I think about the English Department’s efforts in the area of community engagement, I tend to think of members of the department participating in programs and events sponsored by organizations and institutions in the Charlotte area. However, community engagement also involves bringing people from the Charlotte area to our campus. Last week members of our department sponsored two such examples of community engagement. On April 28, Greg Wickliff hosted ten members of the Charlotte chapter of the Society for Technical Communication at an exhibit of student work related to our courses in technical and professional writing. I attended this event, and I was very impressed with the interactions between our students and these working professionals. On May 2, Lil Brannon hosted a day-long gathering of Charlotte-area teachers that took place in our seminar room. This event was the orientation to the Invitational Summer Institute for the UNC Charlotte Writing Project. While I did not participate in this event, I was in the office while it was taking place, and I sensed the the energy and enthusiasm of the participants.
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:
Balaka Basu just returned from NEMLA in Toronto, having co-chaired a panel called Queer/Geek: Theorizing the Convergence of Fandom, Camp, and Other Deviances, for which she co-wrote an introduction called “Eve Sedgwick’s Unicycle.”
Maya Socolovsky recently presented a paper titled “Documenting the Undocumented: The Drama of Epistolary Writing in Julia Alvarez’s Return to Sender” at the U.S. Latina/o Literary Theory and Criticism Conference, which took place in New York City.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:
May 9 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place May 9, 2015 at 10:00 AM in the Halton Arena: https://exchange.uncc.edu/event/commencement-college-of-liberal-arts-sciences-may-2015/
May 11 — Final grades for the Spring 2015 term must be submitted by Monday, May 11 at noon.
Quirky Quiz Question — I am not the only person who was inspired by the Old Man of the Mountain. A famous America author wrote a story about this rock formation titled “The Great Stone Face.” Who wrote this story?
Last week’s answer: Richard Armitage