Monthly Archives: April 2016

Valuing Community – At the conclusion of the “As You/We Like It” event held last Saturday, Andrew Hartley talked about how the performance of Shakespeare’s plays builds a sense of community that encompasses both the performers and the audiences of the plays.  As Andrew so eloquently stated, these plays, when performed, provide us with common experiences.  Not only do these plays draw us together to enjoy shared theatrical events, but they give us language that we can use to express our shared interests and concerns.
Andrew’s comments caused me to think about the word community.   This word can be traced back to the Latin word communitas, which refers to the values, beliefs, and traditions that we have in common.  The sense of belonging to a community involves more than just being in the same physical space with others.  It also involves a true sense of being engaged with others and sharing experiences with others.  In many ways, healthy communities undermine the whole concept of otherness.  I think it is significant that organizers of event on Saturday added the word we to the title of Shakespeare’s play “As You Like It.”   Otherness is all about you, whereas community is all about we.

For me, the sense of belonging to a community is tied to being a member of our English Department.  In just the past two weeks, I have participated in several department events that have reflected our community values and spirit.  I am thinking of Juan Meneses’s excellent faculty talk and the lively conversation that ensued.  Juan’s presentation was well attended, and those who came readily engaged in a stimulating dialog with Juan and with each other.  I came away from this presentation with sense of being part of a community of scholars.  I am thinking of the memorial service we had on campus for Sara Endres, our student who passed away last semester.  Several of our faculty members and students joined Sara’s family and friends to celebrate Sara’s life and to plant a tree in her memory.  I came away from this event with a sense of being part of a caring community.  I am thinking of the Shakespeare event in which our colleagues Andrew Hartley, Kirk Melnikoff and Jen Munroe shared their insights into Shakespeare’s plays.  I came away from this event with a sense of belonging to an engaged and generous community that reaches out to the public.  I am thinking of the English Department’s spring party in which so many members of the department gathered to enjoy companionship and to recognize the careers and accomplishments of Lil Brannon and Connie Rothwell, both of whom are retiring at the end of this academic year.  I came away from this event with a sense of belonging to a celebratory community.

Michelle Cahill, our visiting creative writer, came to the spring party.  She told me afterwards how much she enjoyed the party and how pleased she has been with her participation in our department.  “You have such a friendly department,” she said.  “I already feel like I am part of a community.”

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:

Maya Socolovsky recently published a review of Market Aesthetics: The Purchase of the Past in Caribbean Diasporic Fiction by Elena Machado Saéz.College Literature 43.2 (2016): 470-472.

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

April 27  — Janaka Lewis will be presenting from the new project titled “Freedom and Play:  Studies in Black Girlhood” on Wednesday at 12:30 pm in Garinger 123 for the Africana Studies Brown Bag Series.
May 4  —  The English Department’s Student Awards Ceremony will take place on Wednesday, May 4, from 12:30-2:00 in the Halton Reading Room at Atkins Library.

Quirky Quiz Question —  At the English Department spring party, both Lil Brannon and Connie Rothwell were honored as they complete their last semester before retiring.  After I presented them with their retirement gifts, they both talked about their experiences in the department.  Both of them mentioned a retired colleague who now lives in McClellanville, SC, and writes poetry.  What is the name of this retired English professor?

Last week’s answer: William Randolph Hearst

When I read Sam Shapiro’s review of the new Orson Wells biography, I was reminded of Wells’s classic film Citizen Cane. The central character in this film is based on a famous American newspaper publisher.  Do you know the name of this newspaper publisher?  Here is a hint–one of Charlotte’s skyscrapers bears the name of this publisher.

National Poetry Month — April is National Poetry Month, so it seems very fitting to me that Michelle Cahill is joining the English Department for the month of April. Michelle is a highly regraded poet from Australia and a regular instructor for the Kingston Writing School in London. During her month here, she is teaching an Advanced Creative Writing course. She will also be giving a reading on Tuesday, April 12, at 4:00 p.m. in the Dale Halton Reading Room of the Atkins Library.

By joining our department as a visiting poet, Michelle is adding her name to an already impressive list of poets who have associations with our English Department. Among our current creative writing faculty members are a cluster of published poets, including Chris Davis, Allison Hutchcraft, and Lance Phillips. The rest of our creative writing faculty members also help with the teaching of poetry writing. These faculty members include Bryn Chancellor, Beth Gargano, Aaron Gwyn, Paula Martinac, and Coleen Muir.

Over the history of our English Department, many published poets have contributed to our creative writing program. This list includes Peter Blair, Lucinda Grey, and Robert Grey. It is also worth noting that for many years our department was the home to The Southern Poetry Review.

For more information about National Poetry Month, please click on the following link: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home

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 recently has an article titled “Virgilian Fandom in the Renaissance” published in Transformative Works and Cultures; the essay appeared in a special issue on “The Classical Canon and/as Transformative Work.”

Paula Connolly recently learned that the second chapter of her book Slavery in American Children’s Literature, 1790-2010 (Iowa UP, 2013) on Confederate Children’s Literature—“Slavery Debates for Children: 1830-1865: Proslavery Responses”—has been reprinted in Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism.

Jen Munroe participated in the “Histories of Sustainability” seminar at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in New Orleans, LA (Mar 23-27). Her paper was titled “Recipes as Alernative Histories of Sustainability.” At that conference she also presented at the Digital Humanities Salon about her ongoing ,work on a database for early modern recipe transcription with the Early Modern Recipes Online Collective. Jen also presented a paper titled “The Dangers of ‘Speaking for’: Violence against Women and Nonhumans in Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus” as the Renaissance Society of America Conference in Boston (March 31-Apring 2).

Ralf Thiede recently delivered a paper at the SouthEastern Conference on Linguistics in New Orleans. His paper was on the “Cognitive Linguistics and Literature,” describing how authors can intentionally distribute the reader’s processing load across cognitive domains that interface with language. Ralf is also serving as SECOL’s vice president and will assume the presidency a year from now.

Heather Blain Vorhies recently presented “Are We Splitting Hairs to Our Detriment? Approaches to Graduate Genre Instruction in the Writing Center” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Houston, Texas.

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

April 8 — The First Annual Transcribathon event will take place this Friday (April 8) from 10:00 to 3:00 in the Student Union 340 C-F. This event will be hosted by our own students–the Early Modern Paleography Society. At the event participants will be working collectively to transcribe an entire manuscript recipe book. Everyone is invited and no experience is necessary.

April 12 — Visiting poet Michelle Cahill will give a reading on Tuesday, April 12, at 4:00 p.m. in the Dale Halton Reading Room of the Atkins Library.

April 14 — The English Department is sponsoring a screening of F. W. Murnau’s classic silent film Nosferatu in Storrs 110, on Thursday, April 14, at 6:30. Ethan Uslan will provide “live” piano accompaniment. Sam Shapiro will introduce the film and Murnau.

Quirky Quiz Question — The silent film Nosferatu is based on a novel by Bram Stoker. Does anybody remember the title of this novel?Monday Missive