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Monthly Archives: December 2018

Monday Missive - December 24, 2018

December 26, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Dickens and the Creation of A Christmas Carol — While I was on the plane flying back from a conference at Oxford University earlier this month, I watched a film that was perfectly suited for the season.  Titled The Man Who Invented Christmas, this 2017 film tells the story of how Charles Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol.  The film stars Dan Stevens as Dickens and Christopher Plummer as Ebenezer Scrooge.

In the film, Dickens moves among three overlapping worlds.  Part of the film deals with his day-to-day life as an author, which involves interactions with family members, friends, and business associates.  Another part of the film dramatizes his interior world, which is where he interacts with his fictional characters, especially Scrooge.  A third part deals with his stressful childhood, which is at the root of an ongoing tension between Dickens and his father. The director, Bharat Nalluri, brings these three worlds together, culminating in the publication of A Christmas Carol on December 19, 1843.

For me, this film brought up memories from my own childhood.  My father was a great admirer of Dickens, and he often read Dickens’s books aloud to my brother, sister, and me during the evenings after we finished our homework.  For many years, he read A Christmas Carol to us on Christmas Eve.  While I was watching The Man Who Invented Christmas, I kept flashing back to my treasured memories of sitting on the couch in our living room, listening to the magic combination of Dickens’s words and my father’s voice.  The film ends with Dickens’s reconciliation with his father, and this ending made me miss my father.   As the credits started to roll, I silently thanked my lucky stars that Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and that my Jewish father introduced to me to this classic story.

I wish you all the best for the holiday season.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Alan Rauch recently received a Helm Fellowship from the Lilly Library for a research project titled “Women, Science, and Translation in the Nineteenth Century.”

Ralf Thiede just received a contract from Routledge for a book tentatively titled Language, Mind, and Power:  Why We Need Linguistic Equality.  Dan Boisvert is the co-author of this book.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

January 9 — First day of classes for the Spring 2019 semester.

January 16 — Last day for students to add or drop a course with no grade.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women 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/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

Quirky Quiz Question — The film The Man Who Invented Christmas opens in 1842 with Charles Dickens touring a foreign country.  What country is he touring?

Last week’s answer: Oakland

As far as I know, this winter’s commencement marked the first time that our graduating students did “The Wave.”  In sports circles, however, there is a great deal of debate about when “The Wave” made its first appearance.  The first documented example of sports fans doing “The Wave” occurred on October 15, 1981, during a baseball playoff game between the Athletics and the Yankees.  What is the name of the city where the Athletics play?

Monday Missive - December 17, 2018

December 18, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Commencement— Last Saturday the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences held its winter commencement ceremony.  Jen Munroe, Lara Vetter and I took responsibility for lining up our graduating students in alphabetical order before they filed into the Dale F. Halton Arena.  Thanks to Jen’s organizing efforts, our students made quite an impression when they they all participated in a makeshift “wave” while they were waiting to enter the arena.

For 78 of our students, this ceremony marked their transition from current students to graduates.  A total of 6 of our graduate students are listed in the commencement program, and 72 undergraduate students are listed.  I am especially impressed with how many of our BA students fall under the heading of “Graduation with Distinction.”  Of the 72 students, 12 earned the distinction of Cum Laude (GPA between 3.4-3.7), 6 earned the distinction of Magna Cum Laude (GPA between 3.7-3.9), and 5 earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (GPA between 3.9-4.0).  This total comes to 23 students. I am very proud of all of our graduating students, but I want to mention by name the 5 students who earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude.  Their names are Desiree Michelle Brown, Susan Collins, Meredith Nora Harris, Mary Ellen Mercer Kurtz, and Susanna Ellen Parkhill.  Susanna also graduated with English Honors and University Honors.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Meghan Barnes recently wrote a piece titled “Tough Choices” for the homeless literacies program. You can check it out by clicking on the following link: https://www.urbanministrycenter.org/tough-choices/

Clayton Tarr recently published an article titled “For British Eyes Only: Arrested Development and Neo-Victorian Television Comedy” in Neo-Victorian Studies.   Clayton’s article is available under “current issue” at the following link:  http://www.neovictorianstudies.com/

Ralf Thiede published a review of Tales of Literacy for the 21st Century in the current issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

Lara Vetter‘s A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose recently received a very positive review in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 37.2 (2018).

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

January 9 — First day of classes for the Spring 2019 semester.

January 16 — Last day for students to add or drop a course with no grade.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women 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/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

Quirky Quiz Question — As far as I know, this winter’s commencement marked the first time that our graduating students did “The Wave.”  In sports circles, however, there is a great deal of debate about when “The Wave” made its first appearance.  The first documented example of sports fans doing “The Wave” occurred on October 15, 1981, during a baseball playoff game between the Athletics and the Yankees.  What is the name of the city where the Athletics play?

Last week’s answer: The League of Nations
The effort to establish an international organization to help the nations of the world work out their differences without resorting to war led to the formation of the United Nations after World War Two.  However, before the establishment of the United Nations, an effort was made to establish a similar international organization following World War One.  What was the name of the organization that was a predecessor to the United Nations?

Monday Missive - December 10, 2018

December 10, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

International Accord — My Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary provides the following definition for the word accord:  “to bring into agreement; … to be consistent or in harmony.”  This word popped into my mind as I was leaving the Oxford Education Research Symposium last Friday afternoon.  Of the many conferences that I have attended over the decades, this one is by far the most international in nature.  This year’s Oxford Education Research Symposium featured 26 presentations, and the presenters came from the following countries:  Australia, Canada, Greece, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam.  While I listened to their presentations, it became clear to me that these diverse presenters agreed on many issues.  Moreover, they all took a respectful approach when responding to the other presenters.  This approach gave the conference a positive and harmonious feel.

In this time of escalating international tensions, I came away from the conference with a sense of hope that scholars from so many different parts of the world can still reach agreement on the value of education and the importance of research.  I was especially pleased to see the professor from Israel and the professor from Saudi Arabia sitting together throughout the conference.  They did not let their religious differences or the conflict between their two nations interfere with their ability to discuss their research findings or interact as colleagues.

This time of the year, people often express a desire for peace on earth, but current events make such expressions for world peace seem more and more out of reach.  Still, my recent experience at Oxford University gives me cause for hope.  If professors and researchers from so many different countries can reach accord, then perhaps there is still a chance that the diverse nations of the world can figure out how to coexist in harmony.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Boyd Davis recently had a co-authored article accepted for publication.  Here are the details: van Ravenstein K and Davis B. “When More Than Exercise Is Needed to Increase Chances of Aging in Place: Qualitative Analysis of a Telehealth Physical Activity Program to Improve Mobility in Low-Income Older Adults.” JMIR Aging (forthcoming). doi:10.2196/11955

Consuelo Salas recently led a workshop titled “Creative Research Methods: An Approach to Studying Food” at the Cultural Rhetorics conference.  Also, Consuelo and Atkins Library librarians Kim Looby and Natalie Ornat were recently awarded a SoTL grant for their collaborative project “Multi Discipline Collaboration in the Teaching of Inquiry and Critical Thinking.” In their two-year project Salas, Looby and Ornat will study the effectiveness of their collaborative teaching of the research process within Salas’ LBST 2301 courses.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and meetings:

December 12 — The English Department’s Holiday Party will be held on Wednesday, December 12, from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge.  Please sign up on the potluck list located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

December 15 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center (SAC) on Saturday, December 15, at 3:00 pm.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women 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/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

Quirky Quiz Question — The effort to establish an international organization to help the nations of the world work out their differences without resorting to war led to the formation of the United Nations after World War Two.  However, before the establishment of the United Nations, an effort was made to establish a similar international organization following World War One.  What was the name of the organization that was a predecessor to the United Nations?

Last week’s answer: Christchurch

Oxford University is home to a number of semi-independent colleges.  What is the name of the college where Lewis Carroll taught?

Monday Missive - December 3, 2018

December 04, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Off We Go to Oxford University — Nearly every week I write about our English Department in my Monday Missives, but I have not yet given a conference presentation about our department.  That’s about to change this week.  I am heading off to Oxford University where I will deliver a presentation at the Oxford Education Research Symposium on Wednesday.  The rather grandiose title of my presentation is “The Future of the Humanities in Post-Secondary Education.”

My presentation is in response to the recent surge of articles proclaiming the demise of humanities departments at universities.  The Atlantic, for example, recently published an article titled “The Humanities Are in Crisis” in which the author, Benjamin Schmidt, argues that academia is currently experiencing a tectonic shift involving the STEM disciplines supplanting the humanities.  While I do not question Schmidt’s data, I do question the notion that the humanities and the STEM disciplines are necessarily in a competitive relationship.  As I see it, a more constructive framework is to think of the humanities and the STEM disciplines as overlapping circles on a Venn diagram.

During my presentation, I will discuss several examples of how faculty in our English Department incorporate insights from the sciences in their teaching and research.  Drawing on these examples, I will argue that the humanities and the STEM disciplines can have a complementary relationship.  Using the success of our own English Department as a case in point, I will suggest that humanities departments can still prosper in contemporary academia so long as they do not isolate themselves in academic silos.

I think it is fitting that I will be giving this presentation at Oxford University, for it was at Oxford that Lewis Carroll, a mathematics professor, wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, one of the great works of British children’s literature.  The term “STEM disciplines” had not yet been coined when Carroll was teaching at Oxford University, but today he would be associated with the STEM disciplines.   Since Carroll showed that it is possible to bridge the STEM disciplines and the humanities, I think it should be possible for the rest of us to follow suit.  For those naysayers who think such bridging is impossible in contemporary academia, I will close with a quotation from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Meghan Barnes recently presented the following two papers at the Literacy Research Association:  “Mediating the Two-Worlds Pitfall through Critical, Project-Based Clinical Experiences” and “Absent Dialogue: Challenges of Building Reciprocity through Community Engagement in Teacher Education.”

Liz Miller is the lead guest editor of a recently published special issue in the journal System. The issue is titled “Interdisciplinarity in Language Teacher Agency: Theoretical and Analytical Explorations”  and includes nine articles, one of which is co-authored by Liz. Her article is titled “Language Teacher Agency, Emotion Labor and Emotional Rewards in Tertiary-Level English Language Programs.”  She also had a chapter on “Interaction Analysis” appear in the Palgrave Handbook of Applied Linguistics Research Methodology.

Becky Roeder gave an invited talk titled “The Role of PALM in the Low Back Merger: Theory and Evidence” for the colloquium series in the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian & African Languages at Michigan State University

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and meetings:

December 10 — The English Department’s Holiday Party will be held on Monday, December 10, from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge.  Please sign up on the potluck list located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women 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/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

Quirky Quiz Question — Oxford University is home to a number of semi-independent colleges.  What is the name of the college where Lewis Carroll taught?

Last week’s answer: Gene Siskel
The famous film critic Roger Ebert described The Night of the Hunter “one of the most frightening movies” ever made. Ebert’s fame was tied to a television program that he did in collaboration with another film critic. What is the name of Ebert’s collaborator?

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