Monday Missive

Monday Missive - March 26, 2018

March 26, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Memories of Julian Mason — Julian D. Mason died on March 20, 2018, at 2:28 p.m., but his devotion to our English Department and the larger university will not soon be forgotten.  Julian joined the faculty of our department in 1966, and he served as the English Department Chair from 1978 to 1984.  He continued to teach in the department until his retirement in 1989.  During his years as a faculty member, he introduced courses on Southern literature, founded the American Studies Program, and helped create the forerunner to our current Africana Studies Department.  For those of us who had the privilege of knowing Julian, he left us with a treasure trove of memories.  I contacted some past and present members of our department who knew Julian well, and I asked them to send me a paragraph about one of their memories of Julian.  What follows are the responses I received.

Julian cared deeply about educating students and helping them pursue their goals.  Paula Eckard is one of Julian’s former students, and she comments on Julian’s impact on her education in the paragraph that she sent to me:

Julian’s Southern literature class was the last course I needed for my bachelor’s degree in English.  I knew it would be challenging, and it was.  Each week he gave me writers I could relate to:  William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Lee Smith, Thomas Wolfe.  For the first time in my adult intellectual life, I felt like I had found home.  These were my people.  Their language was my language, and their stories were ones I knew from living in the South.  Julian must have sensed this awareness in me, too, and set about to persuade me to enroll in the English Department’s M.A. Program. Toward the end of the semester, he pulled me aside and said, “You should go to graduate school so you can teach.” “Why?” I asked, not really comprehending the import of what he was saying, “I am a nurse, not an English teacher.”  He replied, “Well, I think you would be good at it.”  Those words changed my life.  The work I do today, every rich aspect of it, is the direct result of Julian’s encouragement and belief in me.  His love of literature, sense of excellence, and generous humanity continue to inspire me and others who were fortunate enough to study with him at UNC Charlotte.

Julian also took an interest in helping faculty members develop their careers.  Sandra (Sandy) Govan comments on this side of Julian in her paragraph:

I am about to depart for CLA–the College Language Association–conference in early April.  I mention this fact only because it was at a CLA conference where I first met Julian.  During the Q & A of a session that had just concluded, Julian was peppering a presenter with pointed questions.  Or, I was and he was supporting my critical commentary.  It’s a bit hazy now.  Anyway, after the session we chatted a few moments about how the presenter could have done a decidedly better job.  The next time I met him was at the 1982 MLA conference held in LA.  This is a far more distinct memory because the first thing Julian did was offer to take me to lunch (and food was always important in our relationship) before he set about convincing me to leave the University of Kentucky, a flagship school, to come to UNCC–at that time a picket boat.  A prescient man, Julian assured me the status of the school would change and that I could be part of that change.  He also assured me that I would not be a “first” nor an “only”–as in. the only African American faculty member in the English Department because Mary Harper was already ensconced here and. the department has a strong connection to developing Black Studies Program–now Africana Studies.  He told me I could plant a flag in each camp; and for awhile, I did.  But probably my clearest “most best” memory of the man were the steps he willingly took to assure that I came to Charlotte and to make certain that I would be happy here.  It wasn’t the salary bump he offered; it wasn’t the way he tested my interviewing skills.  Rather, the wily Julian took me to my first grand Motown concert!  Despite a hearing problem in one ear, the Chair of the English Department took me to see Diana Ross at Ovens Auditorium–large, loud, cavernous Ovens.  Now that, I submit, is a department chair willing to go that extra mile.  I would be remiss if I didn’t add in closing that despite his retirement. Julian and Elsie remained close to me.  Here in this 2018 NCAA tournament season you should know that Julian (who once played percussion in the pep band that accompanied UNC to b-ball games) and I shared a love of basketball.  And over the retirement years, we continued to share an appreciation of basketball, books, poetry, chocolate, and golden cake with chocolate icing.  

Julian also helped Anita Moss during the early stages of her career as a member of our English Department as she explains in her paragraph:

Julian was invariably generous to his colleagues.  In 1977, I returned to the department after completing my doctoral coursework from Indiana University, but I still needed to take my doctoral exams.  That meant expensive and exhausting trips to Indiana.  One day Julian asked if I knew that the graduate director at Indiana University would probably allow him to administer the exams, a solution saving me time and money.  Julian took his valuable time to administer the exams and later proudly announced that I had passed with distinction.  I believe Julian was genuinely pleased at the accomplishments of his colleagues.  My other memory concerns Julian as sleuth.  Once there was an outbreak of  crime in the English Department– stolen purses out of offices, toilet paper thefts in the restrooms, a streaker who once raced totally nude down the corridor in Garinger, and a hateful trickster who filled the locks of our offices with super glue.  During this period Julian took to wearing his Sherlock Holmes hat as he made his inquiries and observations, and engaged in deep thinking.  I do not know whether or not any of the miscreants were apprehended. 

Anita’s memory of Julian as sleuth has points in common with Jay Jacoby’s memory of Julian as trickster:

Julian had a playful, impish side.  I learned this the hard way at the first faculty party I attended.  It may have been held at Julian and Elsie’s home.  As what I would now consider an act of faculty hazing, Julian came up to me to offer some freshly picked scuppernongs (the official state fruit of NC, I later learned).  Julian seemed to take devilish delight as I popped a scuppernong into my mouth, smiled at the sweetness of the fruit, and then winced at the bitterness of the fruit’s leather-tough skin, which was not meant to be chewed or swallowed.  I can still see the smile playing on Julian’s lips as he offered me a napkin into which I could discretely dispose the remains.  It was Julian’s way of welcoming this Philadelphia Yankee to the South. I have to share another memory—one which reveals Julian’s sensitivity toward students.  At a faculty meeting, he chided several of us who insisted that student papers be typed.  He reminded us that there were some students who didn’t own typewriters, and that we should accept handwritten work.  I can’t imagine anything like that happening today.

Julian played important roles in helping to develop new programs although he never glossed over the problems involved with starting something new.  Ann Carver comments on this side of Julian in her paragraph:

Julian was on leave at the Library of Congress when I was hired (1969).  When he came back to our department, I had been appointed chair of the faculty-student committee charged with creating a Black Studies Program.  One afternoon soon after Julian’s return I was grading papers in my office when Julian marched in and, without any preamble, began firing questions at me about African American poets from Phillis Wheatley and Jupitor Hammon to Claude McKay, Melvin B. Tolson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, Sonia Sanchez, and Amiri Baraka.  Somewhat taken aback and wondering what in the world was going on, I fired the answers to his questions right back.  It was like a Ph.D. oral exam.  When Julian had determined to his satisfaction my knowledge and qualification, at the same time demonstrating to me his own, he sat down and offered his support and assistance in the arduous task of creating a Black Studies Program.  Julian’s support was unwavering and his help invaluable.  I turned to Julian many, many times when facing a particularly difficult problem.  That is how I came to appreciate (and learn to use) Julian’s problem-solving method, which appeared to be negative at first glance but proved to be extremely effective.  First Julian would identify all of the problems, roadblocks, reasons it couldn’t be done.  Then he would turn around and, one by one, analyze the issues identified and develop strategies to overcome them and ultimately succeed.  Julian played an essential role in the creation and institutionalization of a Black Studies Program (now the Africana Studies Department) with intellectual integrity and high academic standards.  Thank you, Julian.

In his paragraph, Sam Watson also comments on Julian’s methodical approach to problem solving:

From his get-go as Chair, Julian’s goal was to meet individually and at length with every member of the the department.  He wanted to know what everyone was thinking and hoping to do.  I was the Director of Composition then, and my meeting with Julian lasted over two days.  Whenever I had a bright idea for something I thought we should do, I would wait for a relaxed late afternoon to go into his office and tell him my idea.  Julian would listen.  His eyes would slowly glaze over, and he would give me several reasons why the idea would not work.  That reaction was invariable.  I once told Julian that if the Arabs hired him to drill for water in the Sahara Desert, before he put a bit in the earth he would insist on plans for a flood control project, just in case.  He agreed that would be a good idea.  But within a week or so, Julian would be in my office explaining how the idea COULD work.  That too was invariable.

A common thread that runs through all of the comments people sent to me is Julian’s efforts to help students and colleagues.  I will conclude with Boyd Davis’s paragraph about how he helped her:

Julian was a man of glorious contradictions. A staunch civil rights activist, and cognizant of all the latest trends in books and scholarship and politics, he absolutely despised computers. Knowing I was already involved with them — and this is pre-World-Wide-Web, mind you — he called me to his office to proudly display why he felt he didn’t need them.  They were trackers, he said, glorified calendars. His desk was covered with small scraps of paper he was recycling and they were covered with notes in his miniscule writing. They did the job, he felt. Then he lobbied the vice-chancellor and dean for desktop computers for everyone in the department who wanted one. I never dared ask him about cellphones. Nobody could have been more supportive of faculty needs or committed to diversity. He took 24 hours (or more) to work through every issue, every question or request and then marshaled whatever help was needed. And because he was a man of incandescent (and sometimes blistering) honesty, he neither minced words of concern nor withheld words of praise.  He pushed me into increasing my research, nudged me into trying different outlets for my writing, showed me how to collaborate with others. Thank you, Julian, then and now.  

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:

Bryn Chancellor was an invited speaker last week at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, VA, where she presented on the panel “Secrets and Betrayals: Fiction.”

Shelby LeClair, a December graduate of our BA program, won the Carol Gay Award from the Children’s Literature Association for her essay “Serious Matters:  How Humor Functions in Young Adult Literature about the Holocaust.”  The Carol Gay Award recognizes an outstanding essay written by an undergraduate student.  Sarah Minslow nominated Shelby for this award.

Ron Lunsford recently presented a paper titled “The Letter of Medical Necessity as Genre:  Who Creates It and Who Controls It” (with Christopher D. Lunsford) at the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference held in Kansas City.

Lara Vetter has been awarded a Beinecke Library Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.  She will spend May of 2019 in residence at Yale University working on a scholarly edition of H.D.’s short fiction.

Greg Wickliff recently presented a paper titled “Evolution, Physiology, and the History of the Conflict between Science and Religion” as part of a panel on Religion and Technical Communication for the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

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

April 7 — The English Department and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are co-sponsoring a screening of Sounder at the Francis Auditorium in the Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street) on Saturday, April 7, at 2:00 p.m.  This event is supported by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council.

April 10 — The English Department will be hosting Leslie Howsam, one of the most renowned historians of the book in North America, to give an open talk titled: “Book History: a Niche for Nerds, or Essential Knowledge?” on April 10th at 4:00 pm in the Atkins Library (Halton Room).

Quirky Quiz Question —  Julian’s Mason was a widely recognized authority on an early African American poet.  What is the name of this poet?

Last week’s answer: The modern Prometheus
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a subtitle that is tied to Greek mythology.  What is this subtitle?
 

Monday Missive - March 19, 2018

March 19, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Frankenstein’s Creature, the Tin Woodman, and Me —  Almost exactly a year ago, a surgeon implanted a biventricular pacemaker in my chest.  In the process, he not only saved my life, but he also turned me into a cyborg, which is defined as “a person whose physiological functioning is aided or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device.” Ever since then, I have become much more attuned to the recent discussions about the concept of post-humanism.  Although this concept is still in its formative stages, most of the commentary and debates about post-humanism deal with the impact of technology on the evolution of humans.  Scholars interested in this topic are asking provocative questions, such as: Is medical technology changing what it means to be human?  Is technology accelerating the evolution of humans?  Are cyborgs fully human?  The debates over these and similar questions are certainly germane to our current intellectual climate, but it seems to me that such questions are not all that new.  Mary Shelley addressed similar questions 200 years ago in her classic novel, Frankenstein, and L. Frank Baum touched on these questions in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which came out in 1900.

In Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein uses science and technology to bring to life a humanoid “creature.”   Victor does not call his creation a human, but Shelley suggests that this creature, despite his hideous appearance, is at his core a human.  The creature is much larger and stronger than normal humans, but he has human emotions.  The creature identifies with humans and longs for human companionship.  Shelley implies that the creature essentially becomes a human through his associations and interactions with humans.

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum introduces a character called the Tin Woodman who is a “man made entirely of tin.”  We learn that he was not always made of tin.  He was once a flesh-and-blood woodman, but he fell under a witch’s curse that took control over his axe.  As a result of this curse, the axe repeatedly chopped off parts of his body, which the local tinsmith replaced with tin parts.  Eventually, his entire body was replaced with a tin version.  The Tin Woodman is especially concerned about the loss of his heart.  He fears that “no one can love who has not a heart.”  As the story progresses, however, we learn that the Tin Woodman is the most compassionate and humane of all the central characters in the book.  Even though his body is entirely artificial, he maintains his core humanity by caring for others.

As I ponder the questions related to post-humanism, I am inclined to turn to Shelley and Baum for my answers.  Frankenstein’s creature and the Tin Woodman are both post-human in terms of their physical bodies, but both have deep desires to connect in meaningful ways with others.  Their sense of humanity is defined, not by their physical selves, but rather by their social associations–so too with me.  As I mark the end of my first year as a cyborg, I know that the device in my chest is not the only reason my story has not come to an end.  My sense of self and my strong will to live are influenced by the people in my life, including my dear colleagues in the English Department.  The device in my chest keeps my heart pumping, but it is the people in my life who have sustained me through this difficult year.  My thanks go to all of you.

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:

Three of our M.A. students presented papers at the Association of English Graduate Students conference at North Carolina State University: Amy Arnott (“Education, Capital, and Punishment in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss“), Melissa LaFrate (“’I Can Make You a Man’: Masculinity and Identity in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein“), and Katherine Tallent (“‘The beauty of his voice wove a magic spell…’: The Magic of Education in Elizabeth George Speare’s The Witch of Blackbird Pond“).

Consuelo Salas recently presented a paper titled “Consumption of Cultural Identity: Buying and Selling Mexican Foodstuffs” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Kansas City, Missouri in a session titled “Languaging Foodways: Community Approaches to Land, Food, and Literacy”

Heather Vorhies recently presented a paper titled “An Un-Curious Partnership: Religion and Medicine in the New Nation” as part of a panel on Religion and Technical Communication for the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

At this year’s Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), our colleagues in the University Writing Program received the CCCC Writing Program Certificate of Excellence Award.  According to the CCCC website, the award recognizes up to 20 programs per year for their contributions to the field.  For more information about this award, please click on the following link:  http://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/awards/writingprogramcert

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

March 24 — The English Department and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are co-sponsoring a screening of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Francis Auditorium in the Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street) on Saturday, March 24, at 2:00 p.m.  This event is supported by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council.

April 10 — The English Department will be hosting Leslie Howsam, one of the most renowned historians of the book in North America, to give an open talk titled: “Book History: a Niche for Nerds, or Essential Knowledge?” on April 10th at 4:00 pm in the Atkins Library (Halton Room).

Quirky Quiz Question —  Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a subtitle that is tied to Greek mythology.  What is this subtitle?

Last week’s answer: Besides Brooklyn, there’s Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
Brooklyn is one of New York City’s official boroughs.  How many boroughs are there in New York City?  For extra credit, can you name all of the boroughs?

Monday Missive - March 12, 2018

March 12, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

From Ireland to Brooklyn — Since Saint Patrick’s Day is just around the corner, now seems to be a good time to celebrate Irish-American culture. For many Saint Patrick Day revelers, Irish-American culture has something to do with visiting a pub and consuming green beer, but Irish-Americans have contributed much more to the American scene than convivial pubs and colorful beer. Irish-Americans have made many memorable contributions to America’s abundant storehouse of immigrant stories. For the purposes of today’s Monday Missive, however, I will limit myself to just two of these stories, both of which are set in Brooklyn, New York. My father grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, and that’s one of the reasons why I am drawn to stories set in Brooklyn.

During my boyhood, I generally read books with boy protagonists, but when I became a teenager, I occasionally read novels featuring girl protagonists, and one such novel was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. First published in 1943, this coming-of-age novel tells the story of Francie Nolan, the daughter of an Irish-American father and an Austrian-American mother. However, the family lives in an Irish-American neighborhood during the early years of the twentieth century, and the central character identifies primarily with the Irish side of her family. Francie is an avid reader, and I liked this aspect of her when I first read the book since I, too, liked to lose myself in books. Although she seems at first to be something of an introvert, she has a fighting spirit that will not be squelched despite the squalid living conditions associated with the tenement neighborhood in which she lives. Francie personifies perseverance, a quality that runs through many immigrants’ stories.

A few years ago, I revisited the Irish-American immigrant experience that I had first encountered in Betty Smith’s novel, but this time the story took the form of a film titled Brooklyn. Released in 2015, Brooklyn is set in the early 1950s. It tells the story of Eilis Lacy, a young woman from a small town in Ireland. Eilis moves to Brooklyn in the hopes of finding a steady job. While in Brooklyn, she meets a young plumber from an Italian-American family, and the two fall in love. For the second half of the film, she is torn between saying yes to a wealthy Irish suitor or saying yes to the Italian-American plumber. For me, this film captures another common dimension of the immigrant experience, which is the blending of immigrant groups. I am not Irish-American, but I have connections to this aspect of the film. Like Eilis, my parents faced some of the problems associated with breaking out of their immigrant communities for the sake of a relationship. My father came from a Polish-Jewish community, and my mother came from a Swedish-Lutheran community. Neither side approved of my parents’ relationship. However, my parents chose love over tribalism, and I am the result.

As we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day, I suggest that we also celebrate the fact that America is a land where millions of immigrants from Ireland and many other countries made a future for themselves and in the process learned how to get along with people from other nationalities and cultural backgrounds. The immigrant story is one of America’s grand narratives, and it is a narrative that is still unfolding today. According to legend, Saint Patrick was himself an immigrant to Ireland, so it seems fitting to me to redefine Saint Patrick’s Day as a day to celebrate all immigrants, both past and present.

Shakespeare in England — Over the spring break, Andrew Hartley took a group of our students to London as part of our Shakespeare in England course. I asked Andrew about the course, and he provided me with the following report:

“The Shakespeare in England course was, again, a great success. In addition to the usual historical sites we generally tour (The Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kenilworth Castle and others), the museums and art galleries, the group got to experience several thrilling productions of Renaissance drama including a candle lit All’s Well at the Wanamaker, a blood soaked RSC Duchess of Malfi, an (almost) all black Hamlet, and an electrifying, contemporary Julius Caesar at the Bridge. We did workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the Globe, the latter allowing the students to rehearse and perform scenes from Hamlet on the actual Globe stage! All told the course was an exhausting but exhilarating experience for all concerned.”

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:

Bryn Chancellor was an invited author at the Tucson Festival of Books, where she presented on three panels; her novel Sycamore also was selected as a Southwest Book of the Year by the Pima County Libraries. In the previous weeks, she also was a guest author at the Bookmarks Moveable Feast in Winston-Salem, NC, and Page Pairings at M. Judson’s in Greenville, SC, and she gave readings at Foxtale Book Shoppe in Atlanta and at McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro, NC.

Paula Martinac recently moderated a panel at the AWP Conference titled “‘Nothing Happens Nowhere’: The Craft of Setting in LGBTQ-Themed Fiction.” Also, she recently learned that her novel The Ada Decades was named one of five finalists for the 2018 Ferro-Grumley Literary Award, which honors “culture-driving fiction from LGBT points of view.” The winner will be announced April 26 in NYC.

Ralf Thiede presented a paper on March 7 titled “Brain Food from Dr. Seuss: How Cognitive Science Dissolves the Divide between Art and Science” at the University of Antwerp. The conference, “Growing Scientists! – Children’s Literature and the Sciences” brought together invited scholars from Poland, Israel, Sweden, the Basque Autonomous Community,and Belgium; Ralf was the only participant from the US.

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

March 24 — The English Department and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library are co-sponsoring a screening of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Francis Auditorium in the Main Library (310 N. Tryon Street) on Saturday, March 24, at 2:00 p.m. This event is supported by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council.

April 10 — The English Department will be hosting Leslie Howsam, one of the most renowned historians of the book in North America, to give an open talk titled: “Book History: a Niche for Nerds, or Essential Knowledge?” on April 10th at 4:00 pm in the Atkins Library (Halton Room).

Quirky Quiz Question — Brooklyn is one of New York City’s official boroughs. How many boroughs are there in New York City? For extra credit, can you name all of the boroughs?

Last week’s answer: William Faulkner

One of the films featured in the upcoming film series is “The Reivers.”  Do you know the name of the author who wrote the novel upon which this film is based?

Monday Missive - March 5, 2018

March 05, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Movie Dates — Movie viewing figures in the development of many relationships, and the relationship between the English Department and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is no exception.  Our English Department has collaborated with the public library on a variety of individual projects over the years, but we have never collaborated on anything as ambitious as the upcoming film series tied to our joint project on “The Child in Southern Literature and Film.”  Supported by a major grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, this film series is being organized by Sam Shapiro, who serves as a Library Coordinator/Supervisor with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and who also teaches films courses in the English Department as a part-time faculty member.  The film series kicks off with a showing of Beasts of the Southern Wild on Saturday, March 10, at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library’s Francis Auditorium.

Beasts of the Southern Wild made its debut in 2012 and went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards.  Set in an isolated community deep in the Louisiana bayou, this film deals with the impact of global warming through the experiences of a six-year-old girl named Hushpuppy.  The film has a dreamlike quality, but the central character is very true to life.  At its core, this film depicts a resilient child attempting to carve out a future in a world beset by problems that are not of her own making.

The film series will run through the middle of May. The next film in the series is To Kill a Mockingbird, which will be shown on March 24.  The third film, Sounder, will be shown on April 7, followed by The Reivers on April 14 and Night of the Hunter on May 12.  All of the films will be shown in the Main Library’s Francis Auditorium and will start at 2:00 p.m.  I hope these dates work for you and that I will see you at the movies.

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 published a co-authored article titled “A Triangulated Qualitative Study of Veteran Decision-Making to Seek Care During Heart Failure Exacerbation:  Implication of Dual Health System in Use,” which appeared in Inquiry:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29482411

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “The Video Game as Political Scapegoat: Anxieties, Contradictions, and Hyperbole” at the Popular Culture Association Conference held in Charleston, South Carolina.  

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

April 10 — The English Department will be hosting Leslie Howsam, one of the most renowned historians of the book in North America, to give an open talk titled: “Book History: a Niche for Nerds, or Essential Knowledge?” on April 10th at 4:00 pm in the Atkins Library (Halton Room).

Quirky Quiz Question —  One of the films featured in the upcoming film series is The Reivers.  Do you know the name of the author who wrote the novel upon which this film is based?

Last week’s answer: He spelled his name Geisel backwards publishing as Theo LeSieg.

Dr. Seuss is one of Theodor Seuss Giesel’s pen names, but it is not his only pen name.  He often used another pan name for the beginner books that he wrote but did not illustrate.  What pen name did he use for these books?  

Monday Missive - February 26, 2018

February 26, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Making Connections at the Seuss-a-Thon —  The Seventh Annual Seuss-a-Thon will take place this coming Saturday, March 3, at Park Road Books from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  This community event is co-sponsored by the English Department and Park Road Books, Charlotte’s only full-service, independent bookstore.  As such, it represents a cultural connection between our department and the larger Charlotte community.  However, there are many other ways in which the Seuss-a-Thon serves as a connecting point.

The Seuss-a-Thon brings children and adults together to share stories, celebrate word play, and collaborate on creative projects.  By reading Dr. Seuss stories aloud to children, the adult participants in the Seuss-a-Thon forge connections with the children who are listening to the stories.  We often think of reading as a solitary activity, but during the Suess-a-Thon reading is a shared experience.

Although the Seuss-a-Thon is organized by the English Department, it involves the participation of people who are not associated with the English Department but who feel connected to the work of our department.  Among this year’s participants are members of UNC Charlotte’s College of Education, including Ellen McIntyre, the Dean of the of the College of Education.  The event includes participants from the Charlotte Teachers Institute and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  State Senator Jeff Jackson, a strong advocate for early childhood education programs, plans to participate.  Many people from the Charlotte community, including authors, teachers, and parents of young children, will be participating.

A number of our students are also contributing to this year’s Seuss-a-Thon.  The members of the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization and Sigma Tau Delta are taking charge of the arts-and-crafts table. These students will be at the Seuss-a-Thon for the entire four hours, helping children create Dr. Seuss-related art projects.

In a way, the Seuss-a-Thon is functioning as a sort of cultural catalyst.  It is bringing together people who appreciate imaginative stories, and in the process, it is creating a time and place for people to make their own connections with stories and with each other.

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:

Nadia Clifton, a recent graduate of our M.A, program, published a book review of Young Adult Literature, Libraries, and Conservative Activism in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  

Boyd Davis is the lead author of two recently published two articles.  One is titled “What We Can Learn from Mismatched and Unexpected Responses to Questions in Interviews with People Who Have TBI,” which appeared in the Journal of Interactional Communication Disorders.  The other is titled “Narrative and Ageing:  Exploring the Range of Narrative Types in Dementia Conversation,” which appeared in the European Journal of English Studies:  http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/i58ZM235YXmYixqnrtH3/full

Cara DeLoach, a recent graduate of our M.A program, published a book review of American Girls and Global Responsibility:  A New Relation to the World during the Early Cold Warin the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

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

March 5–10 — Spring Recess (no classes)

Quirky Quiz Question —  Dr. Seuss is one of Theodor Seuss Giesel’s pen names, but it is not his only pen name.  He often used another pan name for the beginner books that he wrote but did not illustrate.  What pen name did he use for these books?

Last week’s answer: Scott Gartlan

The English Department supports the Charlotte Teachers Institute by offering seminars and participating in other CTI events.  As a result, the English Department is in frequent contact with CTI’s  Executive Director.  What is this person’s name?

Monday Missive - February 19, 2018

February 19, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Educating Educators — Bobbie Cavnar, who received an M.A. in English from our department in 2011, has just been named the nation’s best teacher for 2018 by National Education Association (NEA).  Bobbie is an English teacher at South Point High School in Belmont, North Carolina.   Bobbie received this award on February 9, 2018, in Washington, D.C.  Here is the link to the NEA’s article about Bobbie’s award:  http://neatoday.org/2018/02/12/2018-nea-foundation-gala/

During his graduate studies in our English Department, Bobbie focused on English Renaissance literature, but he also took courses in other areas.  For example, he took my seminar on Children’s Literature Award Winners for which he wrote an excellent paper comparing Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.  All of us who had Bobbie in our classes remember his passion for literature–a passion that he now shares with the students in his high school English classes.  I know that I speak for the entire English Department in congratulating Bobbie on winning this prestigious and well-deserved award.

Bobbie’s latest award underscores for me our English Department’s connections with area educators.  For example, members of our department regularly lead seminars for area teachers through the Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI).  Over the years, Lil Brannon, Paula Connolly, Jeffrey Leak, Ron Lunsford, Alan Rauch, Ralf Thiede, and I have also led CTI seminars.  Next semester both Sarah Minslow and Alan Rauch will be leading CTI seminars.  Sarah’s seminar is titled “‘A Person’s a Person No Matter How Small’:  Teaching Human Rights,” and Alan’s seminar is titled “Animals, Culture, and Society.”

By regularly leading CTI seminars and by welcoming area teachers in both our undergraduate and graduate courses, our English Department has a long and proud record of educating educators.

Third Annual Transcribation —  The Early Modern Paleography Society (EMPS) will hold its Third Annual Transcribaton this Thursday, February 22, from 9:30 to 4:00 in the Atkins Library VisLab.  Breakfast and pizza will be provided.  At this year’s transcribathon, participants will be working on an anonymous cookbook, published around 1720, from the Folger Shakespeare Library.  The book is not very long, and members of EMPS are hoping to finish transcribing it on Thursday.  Also that day, the participants will finish making the ink that was started at last week’s EMPS meeting.  The ink is from an early modern recipe.

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:

Anita Moss recently published an article titled “In a Deep, Dark Wood:  The Forest in Folk Literature” in the current issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal. 

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

February 19 — The Faculty/Staff performance of “Tales From Down There” will be on Monday, February 19 at 7pm in McKnight Hall. This performance will include appearances by the following people associated with the English Department: Janaka Lewis, Tiffany Morin, Angie Williams, Alison Walsh, and Shannon Bauerle. Advanced tickets can be purchased on-line at https://goo.gl/V6SYwq or with cash only at the door.

Quirky Quiz Question —  The English Department supports the Charlotte Teachers Institute by offering seminars and participating in other CTI events.  As a result, the English Department is in frequent contact with CTI’s  Executive Director.  What is this person’s name?

Last week’s answer: Antoni Gaudí

The upcoming panel presentation about the current situation in Catalonia reminds me of a trip my wife and took to this part of the world a few years ago. While we were there, we visited several buildings designed by Catalonia’s most famous architect.  Does anybody know the name of this famous architect?

 

Monday Missive - February 12, 2018

February 12, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Fostering International Understanding — Shortly after the end of World War II, J. William Fulbright, a senator from Arkansas, introduced a bill calling for the establishment of an international exchange program intended to promote “international good will” through the exchange of educators and students “in the fields of education, culture, and science.”   It passed, and in 1946 President Harry S. Truman signed the bill, known as the Fulbright Act, into law.  In the more than seventy years since then, the Fulbright Program has become, to quote from its official website, “the flagship international exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”  I mention this history not only because Liz Miller has just been awarded a 2018-19 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant, but also because the English Department regularly promotes the goals of the Fulbright Program.

For her Fulbright research project, Liz Miller will focus on the topic of second-language acquisition among immigrants in Germany.  This project relates directly to the research she did for her monograph titled The Language of Adult Immigrants:  Agency in the Making.  The research that she plans to do in Germany will nicely complement the research she has already completed on immigrants to the United States, and it will add a valuable international dimension to her research.

A few days after Liz learned the good news about her Fulbright, Juan Meneses brought a guest speaker from Russia to his classes.  Olga Nesmelova, a professor and chair of Russian and World Literature at Kazan Federal University in Russia, visited Juan’s world literature classes last week.  She gave a lecture titled “The Reception of American Literature in Russia,” in which she provided Juan’s students with an overview of how U.S. literature, particularly fiction, has been translated, read by the general public, and studied by academics in Russia throughout the last century.

This week Pilar Blitvich and Juan Meneses will be sharing their unique international insights into the current situation in Catalonia.  Both Pilar and Juan are serving as panelists on a public panel discussion titled “Catalonia:  A Panel Information Session about Spain’s Current Political Turmoil.”  Since Pilar and Juan both grew up in Spain and still have many personal and professional connections in Spain, they are in a particularly good position to comment on the political events that are currently unfolding in Spain.  The panel discussion will take place on February 13, 2018, at 5:15 in the Cone Center, Room 210A.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/events/panelists-discuss-%E2%80%98political-turmoil%E2%80%99-around-catalonia-spain

As these three recent examples demonstrate, many members of the English Department try in their own way to support Senator Fulbright’s goal of fostering international understanding.

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:

Christine Arvidson recently published a poem titled “A Question of Definitions: What Dictionaries Can Tell Us About Unity” in the anthology Voices on Unity: Coming Together, Falling Apart, which is from Mountain State Press.

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

February 19 — The Faculty/Staff performance of “Tales From Down There” will be on Monday, February 19 at 7pm in McKnight Hall. This performance will include appearances by the following people associated with the English Department: Janaka Lewis, Tiffany Morin, Angie Williams, Alison Walsh, and Shannon Bauerle. Advanced tickets can be purchased on-line at https://goo.gl/V6SYwq or with cash only at the door.

Quirky Quiz Question —  The upcoming panel presentation about the current situation in Catalonia reminds me of a trip my wife and took to this part of the world a few years ago. While we were there, we visited several buildings designed by Catalonia’s most famous architect.  Does anybody know the name of this famous architect?

Last week’s answer: Gaffney

South Carolina is not only the home to Dori Sanders’s peach farm, but it is also home to a famous peach-shaped water tower called the Peachoid.  In what town is the Peachoid located?

Monday Missive - February 5, 2018

February 05, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Dori Sanders’s Writings — February is Black History Month (also known as African American History Month), which makes this a fitting time to celebrate the writings of Dori Sanders, one of the Charlotte-area’s most influential African American authors.  Born just south of Charlotte in York County, South Carolina, Sanders has spent the majority of her life growing and selling peaches on land that her family has owned since 1915.  Although Sanders sees herself primarily as a peach farmer, she has written three notable books:  Clover, a children’s novel published in 1990; Her Own Place, a novel for adults published in 1993; and Dori Sanders’ Country Cooking:  Recipes and Stories from the Family Farm Stand, published in 1995.

The growing and preparation of food figures prominently in all three of Sanders’s books, but in Clover food takes on added significance.  In this novel, food functions as a nonverbal language.  The characters use food to communicate their feelings toward each other.  Ten-year-old Clover Hill, the novel’s central character, learns about her extended family through the medium of food.

This week Joanne Joy will discuss the importance of food in Clover as part of the kick-off for the program on “The Southern Child in Literature and Film.”  Joanne will deliver a presentation titled “Lessons at the Southern Table:  The Fusion of Childhood and Food in Dori Sanders’s Clover.”  This event will take place on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room.  For more information about this event, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/event/the-child-character-in-southern-literature-and-film/

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:

Bryn Chancellor’s novel Sycamore has just been released in paperback with Harper Perennial; it includes a P.S. section with discussion questions, an author Q&A, and author recommendations for books about small towns. Central Piedmont Community Colleges’ Levine Campus selected it for this spring’s inaugural Levine Reads program, a campus-wide common read, and Bryn will visit the campus as part of CPCC’s Sensoria arts and literature festival in April to discuss the book with students, faculty, and staff. https://sensoria.cpcc.edu/

Sara Eudy, one of our graduate students, recently published an article titled “The Language of Diaspora:  Multiraciality and Resistance in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” in The Sigma Tau Delta Review.

Allison Hutchcraft and Juan Meneses have published four translations of contemporary Spanish poet Concha García’s poems in the Winter 2018 issue of West Branch.

Becky Roeder was named the Graduate Professor of the Year by the English Graduate Student Association at their 18th annual conference.

Sam Shapiro, one of our part-time faculty members, recently published a book review of Denis Johnson’s short story collection titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden in the book section of The Raleigh News and Observer.  

Daniel Shealy recently published an article titled “‘Lost in the Hurly-Burly’:  Louisa May Alcott’s Jamie’s Wonder Book” in Resources for American Literary Scholarship.  

Lara Vetter‘s A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose, has just received a 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award.  According to Choice, books that receive this award are selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, significance of contribution to the field, and value as an important—often first—treatment of their subject. Only nine percent of the titles reviewed by Choice during the past year, and two percent of the more than 25,000 titles submitted to Choice over the same period, constitute Outstanding Academic Titles.

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

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.”  During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore.  The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00.  The event is free, but registration is required.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question —  South Carolina is not only the home to Dori Sanders’s peach farm, but it is also home to a famous peach-shaped water tower called the Peachoid.  In what town is the Peachoid located?

Last week’s answer: Julian Mason

Every year the English Department gives an award to an outstanding graduate student with an interest in Southern literature.  Do you know the former faculty member for whom this award is named?

Monday Missive - January 29, 2018

January 29, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

The Southern Child in Literature and Film — Our English Department has a long tradition of promoting the study of Southern literature and culture.  In 1977, the English Department officially added to the university catalog an upper-level course titled “Literature of the American South,” and ever since then, members of our faculty have been teaching courses and conducting scholarship on Southern literature.  In keeping with this forty-year history, the English Department is about to launch a series of cultural events under the heading of “The Southern Child in Literature and Film.”  Supported by a major grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council and co-sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, these events will be open to the public and will take place at various venues both on campus and in the Charlotte community.

The kick-off event will take place on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room. This event is tied to a special issue of The Southern Quarterly that I recently guest edited on “Children in the South.”  Three of the contributors to this special issue will give presentations related to their articles.  Johnathan Alexander will give a talk titled “Outside Within:  Growing Up Gay in the South.”  Jan Susina will give a presentation titled “Alabama Bound:  Reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird While Southern,” and Joanne Joy will deliver a presentation titled “Lessons at the Southern Table:  The Fusion of Childhood and Food in Dori Sanders’s Clover.”  For more information about this event, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/event/the-child-character-in-southern-literature-and-film/

This project also involves a film series featuring films set in the South in which child characters play significant roles.  The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is sponsoring this film series, and the films will be shown at library locations.  The details about this film series will be announced soon, but the tentative schedule is listed below:

March 10th:   BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

March 24th:   TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

April 7th:        SOUNDER

April 14th:      THE REIVERS

May 12th:       NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

Several members of the English Department are contributing to the planning and administrative aspects of this project.  Sarah Minslow is playing a key leadership role in all aspects of this project.  Paula Eckard is participating in all of the planning meetings and is coordinating the project’s connections with the American Studies Program.  Sam Shapiro, who teaches film courses for the English Department, is taking responsibility for the film series, and Angie Williams is handling the project’s budget.  We also have two students who are helping with the project–Kelly Brabec and Amy Arnott.  My thanks go to everyone who is helping to make this project a reality.

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 has put together an impressive string of journal publications in the past few months.  Here is the list of her recent articles that she either wrote or co-wrote:

  • “Mediating the ‘Two-Worlds’ Pitfall Through Critical, Project-Based Clinical Experiences,”The New Educator
  • “Beyond Censorship:  Politics, Teens, and the ELA Teacher Candidates,” English Teaching:  Practice and Critique
  • “Encouraging Interaction and Striving for Reciprocity:  The Challenges of Community-Engaged Projects in Teacher Education,”Teacher and Teacher Education
  • “The Absent Dialogue:  Challenges of Building Reciprocity Through Community Engagement in Teacher Education,” eJournal of Community Engagement

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

February 2 —  The 18th Annual English Graduate Student Conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union.

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.”  During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore.  The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00.  The event is free, but registration is required.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question — Every year the English Department gives an award to an outstanding graduate student with an interest in Southern literature.  Do you know the former faculty member for whom this award is named?

Last week’s answer: Katie Hogan and Aaron Toscano

Not only are the current leaders of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Humanities, Technology, and Science Program from the English Department, but so too were the immediate past leaders of these programs.  Can you identify the immediate past leaders of these two interdisciplinary programs?

Monday Missive - January 22, 2018

January 22, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Interdisciplinary Studies in the New Millennium — The theme for this year’s English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) conference is “All Roads Lead to Roam: Interdisciplinary Studies in the New Millennium.” The EGSA’s conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union. In keeping with the conference theme, the thirty papers listed on the schedule incorporate various interdisciplinary approaches, including book history, film studies, gender studies, political discourse, and race studies. I applaud our graduate students for focusing their conference on interdisciplinary studies.

Narrowly defined academic disciplines took root in American universities during the late 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. As various fields of study began separating themselves from other fields of study, knowledge became more fragmented and scholars became increasingly isolated from one another. For many years, however, members of our English Department have resisted this trend.

Our English Department has a long history of supporting interdisciplinary studies programs. The American Studies Program, the first interdisciplinary studies program established at UNC Charlotte, was started by Julian Mason, an English professor, in 1975. Members of the English Department have run this program for most of its history. Paula Eckard, for example, has served as the program’s director since 2002. English faculty members currently play leadership roles in several other interdisciplinary studies programs, including Janaka Lewis, who serves as the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and Alan Rauch, who leads the program in Humanities, Technology, and Science.

The EGSA members made the decision on their own to focus their conference on interdisciplinary studies, but their decision reflects a departmental ethos–an ethos that welcomes interdisciplinary approaches to the study of language usage, literature, and the creation and interpretation of narratives of all sorts. Such is the nature of English studies as it has evolved in our department in the new millennium.

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:

Paula Eckard just brought out a new issue of The Thomas Wolfe Review, a journal for which she serves as the main editor.

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

February 2 — The 18th Annual English Graduate Student Conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union.

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.” During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore. The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00. The event is free, but registration is required. For more information, please click on the following link: https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question — Not only are the current leaders of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Humanities, Technology, and Science Program from the English Department, but so too were the immediate past leaders of these programs. Can you identify the immediate past leaders of these two interdisciplinary programs?

Last week’s answer: Atlanta

Coretta Scott King founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.  In what city is the King Center located?