Monthly Archives: October 2017

A Friendly Takeover — In the realm of corporate business, hostile takeovers are commonplace, but in the realm of our English Department a completely different kind of takeover took place last week.  The students associated with Sigma Tau Delta and the Early Modern Paleography Society (with assistance from our other student groups) organized a “Haunted English Department Takeover” on Friday, October 27.  Many of us on the faculty and staff opened our office doors to trick-or-treaters, and it proved to be a fun and engaging way to kick off the takeover.  After the trick-or-treating, the students held a rollicking, multi-generational costume contest.  The participants included lots of children, many of our students, and a number of faculty and staff members.  I was amazed at the creativity that went into the costumes.  In addition to the trick-or-treating and the costume contest, the organizers provided games, a scary movie, and an abundance of pizza.  I had to leave at 6:00 while the takeover was still in full swing, but when I returned to the office at 8:00 this morning the students had already straightened up the department after the party.

Everything about the Haunted English Department Takeover impressed me, but what impressed me the most was that our students took the initiative to organize this takeover.  By taking the initiative to organize an event for the enjoyment of our extended departmental community, our students developed leadership and community-building skills.  To use a fashionable word in academia these days, they claimed and exercised agency.  They helped add a family-friendly dimension to our department, and they showed that academic pursuits are fully compatible with having fun.  I hope this friendly takeover of the English Department becomes an annual event.

Alumni Association Book Club — The Alumni Association is starting a book club that is kicking off today, and Bryn Chancellor’s Sycamore is being featured. The organizers of this book club are hoping to engage our alumni, faculty/staff and students with Bryn’s book in a new way.  For more information about this book club, please click on the following link:
https://www.pbc.guru/uncc/#join

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:

Boyd Davis co-authored a conference paper titled “Sociocultural Aspects of UH as a Pragmatic Marker in Dementia Discourse” for presentation at the Seventh Aging and Society Research Conference at the University of California at Berkeley.

Allison Hutchcraft recently gave a reading at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill as part of an event organized by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event.

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Quirky Quiz Question — For the Haunted English Department Takeover costume contest, Angie William’s granddaughter (Hallie Edwards) dressed up as Herminone Granger from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.   Hallie’s great costume reminded me of the Halloween chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Does anybody know what unexpected visitor showed up at this party and caused the party to come to a sudden end?

Last week’s answer: Charlotte Public Library and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

The upcoming EpicFest will take place at ImaginOn.  This unique facility is jointly operated by two cultural organizations in Charlotte.  Can you identify these two cultural organizations?

Lending a Helping Hand — The spirit of volunteerism and a commitment to community engagement often go hand in hand.  This pairing was clearly the case earlier this month when a group of students from the English Learning Community (ELC) volunteered at the 6th Annual Charlotte Literary Festival at the Little Rock Cultural Center.  Janaka Lewis helped organize this community event, and she contacted Tiffany Morin, the coordinator of the ELC, to see if any of the ELC students would be interested in volunteering.  Not only did a group of these students agree to volunteer, but they showed up early in the morning to help set up for the event and assist the featured authors with their tables.  A group of ELC students will also help out with the upcoming EpicFest, the public library’s children’s literature/literacy festival that will take place at ImaginOn on November 4. This year’s EpicFest will include a “teen night,” and the ELC volunteers will be helping with this aspect of the festival.  For more information about EpicFest, please click on the following link:  https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/epicfest-2017

Our students are not the only ones who are getting into the volunteer spirit these days.  The members of our staff are also volunteering their time to help others.  Jennie Mussington recently volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Crisis Assistance Ministry, and later this week she is scheduled to volunteer with Friendship Trays.  Angie Williams volunteered at the Staff Fall Festival last week, and she’s scheduled to volunteer for Verse and Vino, the major fundraising event for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library.

As these examples demonstrate, the willingness to lend a helping hand, which is a characteristic of our departmental culture, extends well beyond the confines of our department.

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:

Boyd Davis recently published a a co-authored article titled “Perceptions of U.S. Veterans Affairs and Community Healthcare Providers Regarding Cross-System Care for Heart Failure” in Chronic Illness.

Allison Hutchcraft recently gave a reading at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro as part of an event organized by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Janaka Lewis recently had a chapter titled “Brown Girls in the Ivory Tower:  Reflections on Race, Gender, and Coming of Age in Academia” published in Coping With Gender Inequities:  Critical Conversations of Women Faculty (Thompson and Parry, eds., Rowman & Littlefield 2017).

Consuelo Salas recently presented a paper titled “Undergraduate FYW Program Philosophy: Foundation of an Independent Department” at the Association of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, which took place in El Paso, Texas

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about upcoming events.

Oct. 27 — Sigma Tau Delta and the Early Modern Paleography Society are sponsoring  their “Haunted English Department Takeover” on Friday, October 27, from 4-7 p.m.

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Quirky Quiz Question — The upcoming EpicFest will take place at ImaginOn.  This unique facility is jointly operated by two cultural organizations in Charlotte.  Can you identify these two cultural organizations?

Last week’s answer: The Old Kentucky Home

Thomas Wolfe grew up in his mother’s boarding house in Asheville, North Carolina.  Does anybody know the name of this boarding house at the time that Wolfe lived there? 

Thomas Wolfe Moves In — Paula Eckard will be talking about her book Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature as part of the Personally Speaking Series on November 14, 2017.  In the lead up to her presentation, we have just installed an exhibit on Thomas Wolfe in the main lobby of the English Department.  Among the items included in the exhibit are copies of Wolfe’s books, recent issues of the Thomas Wolfe Review (edited by Paula), samples of Wolfe’s handwriting, a portrait of Wolfe, and an image of his mother’s boarding house in Asheville where he grew up during the early years of the twentieth century.  The items on exhibit are from Paula’s personal collection of Wolfe material.

The exhibit case has its own story.  Alan Rauch acquired the case from a Macy Department store that closed over the summer.   He brought it to the English Department, but the case clearly needed to be refurbished.  Angie Williams contacted Chris Shores from Facilities Management, and he repaired the base of the exhibit case and painted the case’s exterior sides.  Our current Wolfe exhibit marks the debut of our newly refurbished departmental display case.

I urge everyone to check out the Wolfe exhibit and attend Paula’s presentation.  Her Personally Speaking presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

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:

Chris Arvidson‘s co-edited collection titled The Love of Baseball:  Essays by Lifelong Fans was recently featured in Inside UNC Charlotte.  Here is the link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2017-10-13/fall-classic-%E2%80%94-essayists-contribute-tribute-baseball

Bryn Chancellor this past weekend was an invited author at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, where she was part of the panel “A Reckoning: Novels of Unresolved Pasts” and the Authors in the Round fundraiser. She also recently was an invited speaker at the Hoover Public Library Write Club in Hoover, AL, and she gave readings at the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts and Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh as part of the North Carolina Arts Council fellowship reading series.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about upcoming meetings and events.

Oct. 20 — The English Department meeting will take place on October 20 from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

Oct. 20 — The English Learning Community will hold its annual Faculty Meet and Greet on October 20 at 12:30 (immediately after the department meeting) and the faculty/staff lounge.

Oct. 20 — Ralf Thiede will give a faculty talk titled “Managing Language:  Children’s Literature, Brain Development, and Language Acquisition” on October 20 from 1:00 to 2:00 in the Seminar Room (Fretwell 290B).

Quirky Quiz Question — Thomas Wolfe grew up in his mother’s boarding house in Asheville, North Carolina.  Does anybody know the name of this boarding house at the time that Wolfe lived there?

Last week’s answer: As You Like It

What is the title of Shakespeare’s play that includes the line “All the world’s a stage”?

All the World’s Our Stage — The 42nd Annual UNC Charlotte International Festival will take place on Saturday, October 14, at 10:00 a.m. in the in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center.  For more information about this festival, please click on the following link: http://ifest.uncc.edu  As I checked out the information about this festival, I was reminded about the English Department’s many global connections.

A very recent example of the department’s global orientation is the successful fundraiser that many of our students held last Thursday for the victims of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  Students from the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO), the English Graduate Association (EGSA), the English Learning Community (ELC), the Gen-X Learning Community (from the Women’s and Gender Studies Program), and Sigma Tau Delta (the English Honor Society) raised nearly $1,000 to help desperate people who, though American citizens, live almost 1,500 miles away in a place far different from Charlotte.

Another way in which the members of our English Department play on a global stage is by conducting research that crosses national boundaries.  The word international begins with the prefix inter-, which is associated with the words between, among, together, mutually and reciprocally. Many members of our department study how language and literature take on new qualities when evolving within the liminal spaces between and among nations.  I could mention numerous examples, but I will limit myself today to the scholarship of four faculty members whose research deals with the cultural interplay among nations.

Liz Miller has a particular interest in second-language acquisition among recent immigrants to the United States.  Her past research with adult immigrants to the U.S. offers an indirect international perspective given that these individuals speak about their language learning experiences in the U.S. through the lens of their past histories in many different national contexts.  She addresses this topic in her monograph titled The Language of Adult Immigrants:  Agency in the Making as well as in numerous scholarly articles and book chapters.  Her current research with language teachers includes English teachers from the U.K. as well as in the U.S.

Maya Socolovsky’s research has long dealt with U.S. literatures about immigration, migration, and ethnicity, so it all deals with issues of biculturalism, bilingualism, border crossings and questions of assimilation/foreignness in the U.S.. In particular she has worked on Dominican, Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican literature written in the U.S. and focused on how nationhood and belonging are expressed. She is currently looking at U.S. Latino/a children’s literature that depicts the border and migration, and raises questions about the ethics of borders and immigration in general.

As the aforementioned examples indicate, many members of our English Department are also players on a far larger stage.  To paraphrase Shakespeare, all the world’s our stage (and that’s how we like it).

Boyd Davis recently published a co-authored article titled “Views on Ageing in Place from Relocated Low‑income Housing Residents in the US” in the Journal of Nursing Older People 29 (8), 28-32. https://journals.rcni.com/nursing-older-people.  She also co-authored a conference paper titled “Searching for Shared Decision Making in the Talk of Diabetes Primary Care Visits:  A Mixed Methods Study,” which was recently presented in Baltimore at the 15th International Conference on Communication in Healthcare.  Moreover, she just received a formal invitation to join the Australian National University’s Institute for Communication in Health Care.

Alan Rauch was recently quoted in a Charlotte Observer article about the relationship between humans and dogs:  http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article176687566.html

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “Doing Their Supplemental Part: World War I Propaganda and the Female Workplace” at the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, which took place in Dayton, Ohio.

Heather Vorhies recently presented a paper titled “Finding Feminist Theory in Folk Medical Communication of the Early American Republic” at the Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference, which took place in Dayton, Ohio.

Quirky Quiz Question —  What is the title of Shakespeare’s play that includes the line “All the world’s a stage”?

Last week’s answer: American Library Association
What national organization sponsors the annual Banned Books Week?

CLGO Organizes Banned Books Week Events —  The members of the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) organized a series of events related to the annual Banned Books Week, which took place this year from September 24 through September 30.  At the beginning of the week, CLGO set up special displays in the Atkins Library to spread the word about Banned Books Week.

On Tuesday, CLGO hosted their traditional banned books tea party. They served tea, coffee, and sweet pastries, and they dressed up as characters from banned books. Co-president Amy Arnott dressed up as Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, co-president Laura Burgess dressed up as Dorothy Gale from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, vice president Katherine Tallent dressed up as Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, secretary Melissa LaFrate dressed up as the Grand High Witch from The Witches, and treasurer Russ Winfrey dressed up as Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye. Over 30 students came to drink tea with these characters and informally discuss banned books.

On Thursday, CLGO held a round table event called “The Most Dangerous Books.” This event featured Paula Connolly and Sarah Minslow who led a discussion about censorship, free speech, hate speech, and the controversies related to the treatment of race and sexuality in children’s literature.

Our Honors Students Participate in North Carolina Honors Association Conference — UNC Charlotte hosted the North Carolina Honors Association Conference on September 29-30.  At this conference, six out of the total 47 presentations were by our English honors students.

Nicole Kaufman presented on “Race, Gender, and Publishing:  Policing Public Perception in Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road.”  Shelby LeClair gave a presentation titled “Serious Matters:  How Humor Functions in Young Adult Literature about the Holocaust.”  Chelsea Moore delivered a presentation titled “A Country that Hath yet her Maidenhead:  Representations of Landscapes as Female Bodies in Spenser’s The Faerie Queen and A View of the Present State of Ireland.”  Susanna Parkhill gave a presentation titled “Eye Contact Across Gender and Culture.”  Nephdarlie Saint-Syr presented on “The Construction of Minority Identities in Video Games,” and Brianna Thurman presented on “Bell Jars, Physics, and Jumping Off Cliffs:  An Exploration of Adolescent Depression in the Coming of Age Novel.”  For more information about this conference, please click on the following link:   http://nchaconference.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/2/7/102793204/ncha_program__1_.pdf

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:

Meghan Barnes recently published two articles.  One is titled “Conflicting Conceptions of Care and Teaching and Pre-Service Teacher Attrition,” which came out in Teacher Education.  The other is titled “Practicing What We Preach in Teacher Education:  A Critical Whiteness Studies Analysis of Experimental Education,” which appeared in Studying Teacher Education.

Consuelo Salas recently published a book chapter titled “Unlikely Dinner Guests: Inviting ‘Everyday’ People to the Table of Visual Imagery.” It was published in Anita August’s edited collection, Visual Imagery, Metadata, and Multimodal Literacies Across the Curriculum.

Maya Socolovsky recently published an article titled “Text, Terrain, and Temporality: Re-exploring Judaism in Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector” in Studies in American Jewish Literature.

Quirky Quiz Question —  What national organization sponsors the annual Banned Books Week?

Last week’s answer: Gringotts

One of the rides at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter takes visitors on a wild ride into the underground vaults beneath a bank.  What is the name of this bank?