Monthly Archives: November 2016

Harry Potter’s World Exhibit – A few weeks ago I received an email from Abby Moore, the Education Librarian at the J. Murrey Atkins Library.  She informed me that a traveling exhibit titled “Harry Potter’s World:  Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine” is making a stop at the Atkins Library from the end of November through January 6, 2017, and she wanted to meet with me to brainstorm programming ideas related to this exhibit.   We met for an hour and kicked around lots of ideas for Harry Potter talks, events, and projects; Abby and her colleagues decided to implement many of them, the details of which will be announced soon.  In the meantime, however, the opening ceremony is already scheduled.  It will take place on Wednesday, November 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 in the Halton Reading Room of Atkins Library.  For more information about this exhibit, please click on the following link:  http://library.uncc.edu/HarryPottersWorldExhibit

This traveling exhibit was organized by the National Library of Medicine.  By exploring the connections between the medical sciences and and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the National Library of Medicine underscores the fact the medical sciences and the humanities overlap in significant ways.  This overlap can also be seen in the research of several of our faculty members.  Paula Eckard, for example, is currently working a new book that is tentatively titled The Medical Narratives of Thomas Wolfe.  At its core, this project relates to the new field of narrative medicine.  Similarly, Boyd Davis is working on several funded research projects in which she examines the importance of storytelling when working with patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.  A third example is the research that Jen Munroe is doing on the history of medicine as it is reflected in the writings of early modern women from Great Britain.  As this examples demonstrate our English Department is very much a player in the world of medical science.

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:

Amand Loeffert, one of our graduate students, recently published a co-authored article titled “Fifteen Years of Harry Potter Movie Magic” in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.  Her co-author is Julia Morris, who graduated from our MA program in 2015.

Paula Martinac recently learned that she has been awarded a 2017 Regional Artist Project Grant to support her work on a novel that is tentatively titled Clio.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about two upcoming events:

December 2 —  The English Department meeting will take place on Friday, December 2, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.  Gray’s Bookstore will be providing a faculty/staff appreciation luncheon in the lounge (Fretwell 248C) immediately following the meeting.

December 8 – The Department Holiday Party will take place from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge on December 8. A sign-up sheet for donated goodies is on the front reception desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — In the Harry Potter series, the students at Hogwarts study science, but the J. K. Rowling often substitutes her own terms when referring to these subjects.  For example, she uses the term herbology when referring to botany.  What is the name of the professor at Hogwarts who teaches herbology?

Last week’s answer: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

When I went to the event that the students in Sarah Minslow’s class organized, I was very impressed with their efforts to communicate the difficulties facing refugee children.  I came away thinking that nobody should live the life of a refugee, and that reminded me of the following line from a song:  “You don’t have to live like a refugee.”  Who recorded this song?

Boyd Davis recently learned that the Duke Endowment has funded her joint project titled “Increasing Physical Activity for Older Adults Aging in Place.”

Katie Hogan recently presented a paper titled “Decolonizing the Rural in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Montreal.

Liz Miller recently published an article titled “The Ideology of Learner Agency and the Neoliberal Self” in the International Journal of Applied Linguistics.

Lara Vetter attended the Modernist Studies Association conference last weekend where she presented a paper titled “Late Modernism and the Dystopian Turn.”

Partnering with the J. Murrey Atkins Library — The Department of English and the Atkins Library have a long history of collaborating on various projects. This spirit of collaboration is clearly reflected in the upcoming special event to celebrate the Atkins Library’s Two Millionth Volume. This event will take place in the library on Thursday, November 17th, from 4:30 to 6:30, and it will celebrate the acquisition of a very rare copy of Olaudah Equiano’s famous slave narrative, Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Julian Mason (a former chair of our English Department) and his wife, Elsie Mason (a former librarian who worked for many years at Atkins Library), are donating this volume to Atkins Library. During this event our own Paula Connolly will discuss this work from a literary perspective. For more information about this event, please click on the following link: http://library.uncc.edu/RSVP

This spirit of collaboration is also reflected in the Library’s current exhibit celebrating the 150th birthday of Beatrix Potter and the 100th birthday of Roald Dahl. Curated by the Special Collections Department of the library, this exhibit is a joint project of the library and the English Department. Valerie Bright, Sarah Minslow and I have provided the library with some of the books and artifacts that are included in this exhibit. If you are interested in seeing this exhibit, it is located on the main floor of the library near the Harry Golden exhibit.

The English Department works in partnership with many university programs and units, but as I see it, the Atkins Library is one of our key partners given that our core missions overlap in so many ways. In a way, the loving relationship between Julian and Elsie Mason parallels the the relationship between the English Department and Atkins. In both cases, it’s a perfect match.

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:

Susan Gardner, one of our emeritus faculty members, was recently appointed an affiliate for the Women’s Studies Program at the University of New Hampshire. She has also became involved with the Lakota Language Consortium’s Ella Deloria Publication Project.

Kirk Melnikoff gave the invited talk “*As You Like It*: ‘much virtue in [the] if'” this past Friday at Queens University.

Quirky Quiz Question — Julian Mason has a long-standing interest in early African American literature. He edited the definitive edition of the works by one of America’s first African American poets. Can you name this poet?

Last week’s answer: Steven Spielberg

A Week of Volunteering — My commitment to volunteering in the community can be traced back to my parents.  Both of my parents were members of the Inter-Canyon Volunteer Fire Department in the front range west of Denver.  My father served as the president of the fire department for a number of years, and my mother was among the first women to sign up as a volunteer fire fighter.  She was handicapped, so she could not do some of the activities associated with fire fighting.  However, she learned how to drive the giant tanker truck that transported water to the scene of the fires (there are no fire hydrants in the mountains).  This truck dated back to World War Two, and it had an amazing number of gears, but the truck was no match for my mother.  She not only drove the tanker truck, but she also stood up to the sexism of the men who resisted having women join the department.  As a young boy, I was very proud of my parents for serving in the volunteer fire department, and this pride lives on even though both of my parents are deceased.  In my own volunteer work in the Charlotte community, I try to measure up to the example set by my parents.

Given how highly I value volunteer work in the community, I am always pleased with the volunteer work that our students, staff and faculty regularly perform in the community.  However, last week I went from being pleased to bursting with pride in English Department’s volunteer work.  In an effort to recognize everyone in the English Department who stepped up and volunteered in the community last week, I will attempt to mention by name the people who did significant volunteer work.  If I miss somebody, please accept my apologies in advance.

It all started on Tuesday evening when Alan Rauch gave his presentation on dolphins as part of the Personally Speaking Series.  Several members of Sigma Tau Delta volunteered at this event.  They greeted the attendees, distributed the programs, and helped in many other ways.  Here is the list of the students who volunteered at this event:  Kelly Brabec, Hannah Brown, Sara Eudy, Eileen Jakeway, Chelsea Moore, and Carissa Wilbanks.

On Wednesday, Angie Williams volunteered to help with the preparations for Verse and Vino, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation’s main fundraising event.  This is the second year in a row that Angie has volunteered for this event.

On Saturday morning, Sara Eudy volunteered to speak at Explore UNC Charlotte.  She gave a presentation to prospective students on the experience of being an English major and taking coursework in the humanities.

Also on Saturday, a large number of our students volunteered at EpicFest, the Charlotte Meckleburg Library’s literary festival for children of all ages.  Students from the English Learning Community, Sigma Tau Delta, the English Graduate Student Association, and the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization all volunteered at this event.  Here is a list of the students who helped make EpicFest such a tremendous success:  Cristtiah Baltazar,Julie Benavides, MaKalea Bjoin, Darrion Boone, Katie Clark, Nadia Clifton, Diane Gromelski, Kelsey Helveston, Katie Hughes, Amanda Loeffert, Samantha Martin, Shanon Murray, Emma Parrish, and Courtney Singleton.

All of these volunteers did an excellent job of representing our English Department and making a real difference in our community.

Honors Trip — This past Friday and Saturday, Kirk Melnikoff took a group of Honors students from both English and Theatre to a production of King Lear by the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, VA. The next morning, students attended a directing workshop led by the actresses who played Goneril and Oswald. The trip was made possible by the English Department, by the Shakespeare-in-Action Initiative, and by the Honors College.

Arrival — Paramount Pictures contacted our linguistics program ahead of their November 10 release of the movie Arrival, based on Ted Chiang’s novella Story of Your Life.  Ralf Thiede incorporated the material in LBST 2213 “Language, Mind, and Power,” which he co-teaches with Dan Boisvert from Philosophy.  The linguist, Dr. Louise Banks (played by Amy Adams), needs to twist her mind into a rather alien way of thinking to comprehend the extraterrestrials and finds herself pushing the envelope a bit too far for her mental comfort in the process.  You can have your own minds twisted, because in exchange for incorporating the movie into his lecture, Ralf got 30 free passes to an early screening tonight (Nov. 7) at 7:30 in the beautifully renovated Stonecrest Regal Theatre (7832 Rea Rd, Charlotte, NC 28277).  To download your own, go tohttp://www.gofobo.com/UNCCLing (passcode: UNCCLing).

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:

JuliAnna Ávila recently published an article “Inequitable Variations: A Review of Research in Technology, Literacy Studies and Special Education” with Jessica Pandya in Literacy(United Kingdom Literacy Association journal).

Paula Connolly recently gave a lecture at Washington University in St. Louis titled “Seeing Slavery in American Children’s Literature.”

Quirky Quiz Question — The film Arrival deals with the encounter between extra-terrestrials and humans.  Two other films that deal with such an encounter are E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Who was the director of both of these films?

Last week’s answer: Wicked

One of my favorite witch characters is Elphaba Thropp.  Can you identify the work in which this character appears?