Faculty Achievement — The Celebration of Faculty Achievement, an event sponsored by the Dean’s Office of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, takes place on Wednesday, December 2, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm in the Harris Alumni Center. This event honors faculty who published books this past year or who received external funding for research between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015. Eight members of the English Department will be honored at this event. Bryn Chancellor, Peter Larkin, Elizabeth Miller, Jennifer Munroe, Lance Phillips, and I will be recognized for publishing books in 2015, while Lil Brannon and Boyd Davis will be honored for receiving externally funded grants. I am very proud of these achievements by members of our faculty, and I am pleased that the department with the most books published in 2015 is the English Department.
Although publishing books and receiving grants are important faculty achievements, I am well aware of the many other faculty achievements that often go unheralded. These achievements include publishing articles, editing journals, developing new classes, helping graduate students with their applications to doctoral programs, organizing events and readings, and working with community organizations. As we celebrate the faculty achievements that are being recognized during the event on Wednesday, I think we should also remember to celebrate the many other achievements of our faculty. In fact, one of the reasons I include the “Kudos” section in my Monday Missive is to recognize such achievements.
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:
Pilar Blitvich just returned from Valencia, Spain, where she co-directed a new conference on Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis (ADDA) http://adda.blogs.uv.es. The conference attracted 145 participants, including linguists, IT scholars, communication specialists, and rhetoricians. ADDA II will be held at UNC Charlotte in the fall of 2017. ADDA III will be held in Finland 2019. In addition to her performing her organization duties, Pilar presented a paper, co-authored by Becky and Liz (Roeder, Miller, Blitvich – order of authors) based on research done on our Language and digital communication concentration. The title of the presentation is “Pedagogy, audience and attitudes: Influencing metalinguistic awareness about text practices.”
Jeffrey Leak authored the opinion piece “UNC Charlotte and the faculty pay raise” published in the Charlotte Observer.
Janaka Lewis has been invited by the Chris Canty Foundation to participate with”Brown All Over” in their Women for Literacy Book Fair from 1-4 this Saturday at the Arboretum Barnes and Noble.
Lara Vetter presented a paper titled “Outside the Margins of Modernism: Spirituality and Women Writers” at the recent Modernist Studies Association conference. She also chaired a roundtable on women’s writing in the World War II era.
Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:
December 10 — The English Department holiday party will take place on December 10, 2015, from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge. As usual, this will be a potluck event. There is a potluck sign up sheet at the front desk.
Quirky Quiz Question — Pilar Blitvich just returned from Valencia, Spain, which is sometimes called the Orchard of Spain. Valencia is especially famous for what type of fruit?
Last week’s answer: Z and Q
In the game of Scrabble, each letter has a point value. What two letters have the highest point values?