Monthly Archives: March 2016

Left to right: Maggie Owen, Tracy Gaiten, Nafis Bilal, Chelsea Moore, Megan White (not pictured, Emily Haigler)

A Welcoming Place — I just returned to Charlotte after serving as an external program reviewer for another department in an out-of-state university. As I entered the foyer to our English Department this morning, I experienced a pleasant sense of coming home.

The space itself is welcoming, but even more important than the space are the people. We are fortunate to have a cadre of enthusiastic work-study students to welcome people as they enter the English Department. In many ways, these students represent our department, and they always do an excellent job of greeting visitors, helping their fellow students, and lending a hand to the faculty and staff of the English Department. I always appreciate their cheerful greetings and their willingness to help keep the department running smoothly. As I set out to write today’s Monday Missive, I decided to thank these students in a more public way. Please join me in thanking Nafis Bilal, Emily Haigler, Tracy Gaiten, Chelsea Moore, and Megan White. Our thanks should also go to Maggie Owen, another student who works in the English Department through the University Professional Internship Program. These students help make the English Department a welcoming place.

National Council for Black Studies Conference — Four of our English graduate students participated in a round-table presentation at the National Council for Black Studies Conference, which took place in Charlotte last week.  These students were Shanon Murray, Melissa Ligh, Kaneisha Gaston, and Kristen Reynolds.  The round-table presentation was titled titled “Reading Contemporary Black Poetry: Lessons from University of North Carolina at Charlotte Graduate Students.” They presented their insights on poems by Yusef Komunyakaa, Patricia Smith, and Claudia Rankine.

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 recently learned that her co-edited collection “From speech acts to lay concepts of politeness: A multilingual and multicultural perspective” is under contract with Cambridge University Press. She has also been invited to join the editorial board of the Journal of Pragmatics, the flagship journal in her field.

Juan Meneses recently presented the paper titled “Counterstories: Visual Spectacle and the Global Novel” at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference, which took place last weekend at Harvard University

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

March 22 — This year’s English Major Day will take place on March 22 (Tuesday) in Fretwell 290B. This annual event will feature three workshops. The first workshop is titled “The English Major as Preparation for a 21st-Century Career,” and it will run from 11:00 to 12:15. The second workshop is titled “Publishing a Book,” and it will run from 12:30 to 1:45. The third workshop is on “Preparing for Graduate School,” and it will run from 2:00 to 3:15. Please encourage your students to participate in this event.

March 28 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization is sponsoring a presentation titled “Diversity in YA Literature,” which will feature an author panel and book signing. The YA authors who are participating are Renee Ahdieh, Alexandra Duncan, and Lori Special. The event will take place on Monday, March 28, from 3:30 to 5:00 in the Student Union 340B.

Quirky Quiz Question — Can you name the member of our staff who hires and supervises our cadre of excellent work-study students?

Last week’s answer: The Pleiades

Seven Sisters Constellation

Founding Mothers — Given that March is Women’s History Month, now is an especially apropos time to celebrate the women who played key roles in the early history of our Department of English.  Since the establishment of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1965, the English Department has benefited from the leadership and dedication of many women, but there are seven women whom I see as the department’s founding mothers.  Listed below are the names and a little information about each of these women.

Margaret Bryan joined the department in the early 1970s and played a central role in developing and teaching the department’s writing courses.   She believed in the integration of literature and writing, and this approach is reflected in a textbook that she and Boyd Davis co-authored titled Writing about Literature and Film.

Ann Carver helped establish Shakespeare Studies as a strength of the English Department.  She often brought UNC Charlotte students to Great Britain to study Shakespeare and attend Shakespeare plays.  She encouraged students to study Shakespeare’s plays in a performance context, and this approach is still reflected in the way in which Shakespeare is taught in the department today.

Boyd Davis joined the English Department in 1971, and she is still teaching in the department today.  She has played a central role in making applied linguistics one of the department’s core strengths, and she has been a mentor to all of our current faculty members in linguistics.  She has also served as the department’s leader in obtaining external funding for research projects.

Mary Harper played a key role in developing and teaching African American literature courses in the English Department.  She also helped establish the department that is now known as the Africana Studies Department.  Her leadership prepared the way for other faculty members to teach courses in African American literature.  These faculty members include Sandra Govan, Malin Pereira, Jeffrey Leak, and Janaka Lewis.

Kay Horne served as the main administrative assistant in the English Department for approximately two decades, during which time she worked with several department chairs.  Her wisdom and administrative know-how helped make the English Department a well-run unit.  She has served as a role model for the department’s subsequent administrative assistants, including Eleanor Stafford and Angie Williams.

Anita Moss became a member of the English Department in the mid-1970s, and she immediately set about to build the department’s offerings in the area of children’s and young adult literature.  As a result of her leadership, the English Department became known internationally for its children’s literature program.  She also played a pivotal role in hiring the faculty member who is serving as the department’s current chair.

Anne R. Newman taught many of the English Department’s core literature courses, especially American literature courses.  She developed a course on the Literature of the South, which she taught repeatedly.  Her pioneering curricular work in Southern literature set the stage for other faculty members to teach in this area, including Paula Eckard.

These seven women all knew each other and supported one another. Like the Seven Sisters from Greek mythology, these women make up a constellation of stars.

National Council for Black Studies Annual Conference — The Africana Studies Department (with support from the English Department) will host the fortieth annual conference of theNational Council for Black Studies (NCBS) from March 17th through 19th at the Omni Hotel (132 E Trade St, Charlotte, NC 28202). The theme is Forty Years of Black Studies in the Local, National and Global Spaces: Past Accomplishments and New Directions.  As part of this conference Janaka Lewis will be giving a presentation on “Black Women and Lessons of Freedom” at NCBS this Friday at 3pm.

The conference is open and free to UNC Charlotte faculty, staff, and students. Registration is required for attendees who are not affiliated with UNC Charlotte. This can be completed at http://www.ncbsonline.org/.

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:

Alan Rauch recently presented a paper titled “Environmental Sensibility and Despair in Hudson’s Green Mansions” at the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference, which took place in Asheville.

Maya Socolovsky recently presented a paper titled “Running and Reading: Border Crossings and Migrant Workers in U.S. Latino/a Children’s Picture Books,”  and was part of a roundtable panel presentation on “Global Diasporas and Multi-ethnic Studies at The Society of Multi Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), Charleston SC.

Lara Vetter‘s article “H.D., India, and Gendered Narratives of Imperialism” recently appeared in Review of English Studies 67.278 (2016).

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:
March 18 — Dr. Chris Bongartz, who many of you may remember from her time in the English department at UNCC, will be visiting Charlotte and is scheduled to give a talk for us this Fridayafternoon.  Here are the details:

Title: “The Role of Narratives in Bilingual Teaching”

Date: Friday, March 18

Time: 4:15-5:30

Location: 290B Fretwell

March 22  —  This year’s English Major Day will take place on March 22 (Tuesday) in Fretwell 290B.  This annual event will feature three workshops. The first workshop is titled “The English Major as Preparation for a 21st-Century Career,” and it will run from 11:00 to 12:15.  The second workshop is titled “Publishing a Book,” and it will run from 12:30 to 1:45.  The third workshop is on “Preparing for Graduate School,” and it will run from 2:00 to 3:15.  Please encourage your students to participate in this event.

Quirky Quiz Question —  The Seven Sisters form a famous constellation.  What is the name of this constellation?

Last week’s answer: Emily Dickinson

Myles Hassell taught courses in technical and professional communication in the Department of English, but he had a wide range of interests.  He and Joan collected antiques, and he had a passion for the history of New Orleans.  He also enjoyed literature. He wrote his English M.A. thesis on a famous nineteenth-century American poet who wrote the following poem:

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

In Memory of Myles Aric Hassell — Myles Hassell, a Lecturer in the Department of English, died unexpectedly from a pulmonary edema on March 2, 2015.  A few days before his death, Myles and I had a long conversation during which he informed me that he had prevailed in his battle against cancer.  He thanked me and the members of the department for supporting him during this struggle.  He talked about how much better he felt, and he wanted to touch base with me about some new ideas he had related to his teaching.

For most of his life, Myles lived in New Orleans.  After graduating from East Jefferson High in Metairie, LA, Myles followed his love of music as a writer, lead vocalist, and guitar player in a band called The Local Traffic, performing shows in the greater New Orleans area. He received both his B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of New Orleans, where he also earned his M.B.A.  He taught as an instructor at UNO in traditional, blended, and online learning environments for many years.  His workplace experience included caseload management for the Louisiana Division of Family Services; employment counseling for Snelling Personnel Services; and retail, national account, and government sales of office machines and systems, representing manufacturers such as Pitney Bowes, Canon, and Sharp. As an entrepreneur for over 15 years, he composed extensive support materials for business textbooks and study guides.

Myles and his wife of 24 years, Joan Hassell, moved to the Charlotte area after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their home in New Orleans.  After teaching at UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler  MBA program, he started teaching in UNC Charlotte’s Department of English as an adjunct faculty member in 2012; in 2014 he became a full-time Lecturer in the area of technical and professional communication.

In 2015 Myles was diagnosed with cancer, but he continued to teach throughout his treatment process. Even though I encouraged him to take a medical leave, he wanted to keep teaching.  We talked on numerous occasions about his treatment process, and I could tell that he was absolutely determined to win his battle against cancer.  He succeeded.  His passing should not take away from his hard-fought victory.

During what proved to be our final conversation, I was struck by Myles’s courage, optimism, consideration, collegiality, and dedication to his students.   He will be missed.