Monday Missive

Monday Missive - January 15, 2018

January 16, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Coretta Scott King — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King, both cared deeply about the lives of children.  They both fought for the integration of schools, and they both worked to create a society where children could grow up without being judged “by the color of their skin.”  On this year’s Martin Luther King Day, I think it is important that we also honor Coretta Scott King and her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.  Her untiring efforts to advocate for equal educational opportunities for all children is an inspiration for those of us who work in the field of education.

In 1969, a small group of children’s librarians from New Jersey, led by Glyndon Flynt Greer and Mabel McKissick, decided to honor Coretta Scott King by naming a new award after her.   Called the Coretta Scott King Book Award, the award is given to African American authors of outstanding books for children and young adults.  Initially the award recognized only children’s authors, but in 1974 an illustrator award category was added.  In 1982, the American Library Association (ALA) designated the Coretta Scott King Book Awards as officially recognized ALA awards.  For a complete list of the books that have won these awards, please click on the following link:  http://www.ala.org/rt/emiert/coretta-scott-king-book-awards-all-recipients-1970-present

The librarians who founded the Coretta Scott King Books Awards have made a difference.  Not only have they help draw attention to excellent children’s books by African American authors and illustrators, but they have also helped to make sure that we remember and honor Coretta Scott King along with her legendary husband.

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:

Hiroaki (‘Henri’) Hatayama, who received an MA in English from our department, has just been elected as the new President of J. F. Oberlin University in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo.

Janaka Lewis recently had a chapter titled “Chesnutt’s Ghost” published in the book Approaches to Teaching the Works of Charles W. Chesnutt (MLA).

Alan Rauch recently has a review of The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge published in the Canadian Association of University Teachers Bulletin.  

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

Last week’s answer: Victor

The name Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist who is the main character in Mary Shelley’s novel.  Does anybody know the first name of this scientist? 

Monday Missive - January 8, 2018

January 08, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Celebrating Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Contributions of Women to Scientific Discourse — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus first saw print two hundred years ago this month. Written when Shelley was still a teenager, Frankenstein has long been classified as a Gothic novel, but in more recent years it has come to be seen as a pioneering work in the genre of science fiction. The term science fiction had not yet been coined when the book came out in 1818, but Frankenstein is clearly informed by the scientific discourse of its day. Like many contemporary works of science fiction, Frankenstein employs the conventions of fiction to delve into the motivations of scientists and to explore the possible ramifications of scientific research. As a woman writer and as the daughter of the famous feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was keenly aware of gender-based biases, and she incorporated reflections on gender-related issues in Frankenstein. In some ways, Frankenstein is part of a larger conversation about the role of women with respect to scientific discourse.

Several faculty members in our English Department have a professional interest in Shelley’s Frankenstein. Matthew Rowney, for example, is using Frankenstein as the touchstone text of his Approaches to Literature class this semester. He will be applying the various theoretical approaches the course investigates to the novel. In conjunction with this class, he is arranging for a showing of one of the films towards the end of the semester. Alan Rauch is also using Frankenstein in his teaching. This semester he is including the novel as a required text in Writing about Literature. Alan’s interest in Shelley’s novel extends to his scholarship. Some years ago, he published an article titled “The Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”

Members of our department are also interested in topic of women’s contributions to scientific discourse. For example, this semester Jen Munroe is teaching an Honors Seminar (that includes some graduate students as well) titled “Gender, Science, and Nature,” which considers the gendering of “science” in the 17th century in England and reorients our understanding of the “rise of science” from the early through later 17th century to include women’s contributions as well as men’s. Jen has written extensively on this topic. Her published essays that deal with this topic include “Mary Somerset and Colonial Botany,” “First ‘Mother of Science’: Milton’s Eve, Knowledge, and Nature,” and “‘My Innocent Diversion of Gardening’: Mary Somerset’s Plants.” Moreover, she is addressing this topic in her current monograph project titled Mothers of Science: Women, Nature, and Writing in Early Modern England, which is an ecofeminist literary history of science that proposes a revaluing of the relationship between women’s everyday practices, nature, and writing in seventeenth-century England. Heather Vorhies is also interested in this topic. She recently taught a graduate seminar that looked at the Rhetoric of Science and that included women writers, and she is currently working on a scholarly project related to the contributions of women to medical communication during the early American republic.

For anyone who is interested in the connections between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and women’s contributions to scientific discourse, I recommend Debra Benita Shaw’s Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance and Jane Donawerth’s Frankenstein’s Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction.

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 featured in an article titled “So You Want to Be an Author: Eight Charlotte Writers Tell How They Landed a Big Time Agent,” which recently appeared in The Charlotte Observer. Here is the link: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article193234679.html

Katie Hogan is the author of the following two papers presented at the MLA Conference held in New York City: “Moving Beyond the Urban/Rural Divide in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home,” and “‘Examine Everything: On Being (a Former) Director of WGSS in a Neoliberal University.”

Lara Vetter presented a paper titled “Sexuality and the Inhuman in Storm Jameson’s In the Second Year” at the MLA Conference held in New York City. Her paper was on the Gender and Women’s Studies Society panel on “Gender, Representation, and Fascism.”

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

January 12 — The English Department meeting will take place on January 12 from 11:00 to 12:15 in the English Department Conference Room.

January 15 — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (university closed)

Quirky Quiz Question — The name Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist who is the main character in Mary Shelley’s novel. Does anybody know the first name of this scientist?

Last week’s answer: UNC Chapel Hill

The university libraries figured prominently in the relationship between Amy Dykeman and Alan Rauch, but a library also played a key role in the relationship between Dick Davis and Boyd Davis.   Dick and Boyd first met in the library at the university where they both earned their doctoral degrees.  Can you name this university?

Monday Missive - January 1, 2018

January 02, 2018 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Family Losses — I often think of our English Department as a large, extended family–a family that includes not only official members of the department but also many people who are affiliated with the department through their connections with the department’s faculty, staff, and students.  In recent days, our extended departmental family has experienced two losses.  Alan Rauch’s wife, Amy Dykeman, died on December 23, and Boyd Davis’s husband, Richard Davis, died on December 25.  Such losses have a way of bringing up memories.  Here are some of my memories related to Amy and Richard.

I met Amy when she came to UNC Charlotte to interview for the position of Dean of the J. Murray Atkins Library.  Within a few minutes of talking with her, I could tell that she cared deeply about the humanities.  During her years as the Dean of our library, she cultivated a special relationship with the English Department.  She promoted the development of the library’s holdings in literature and other areas related to the mission of the English Department.  As the Dean of the library, she presided over the acquisition of the library’s one millionth volume–a rare first edition of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.  Amy helped arrange for Julian and Elsie Mason to donate this volume to the library.  Because Julian taught in our department for many years and served as Chair during the late 1970s and early ’80s, the acquisition of this volume underscored for me Amy’s standing as a friend of our department.  Even after Amy stepped down as Dean because of her illness, I often saw her and Alan at Visarts, a video rental business then located near Amy and Alan’s home.  Amy loved films.

The last time I talked with Amy was at Visarts.  I was there with our son, Gavin.  She chatted with us and recommended a British comedy that she thought Gavin would enjoy watching.  I don’t remember the title of the film, but I remember renting it on her recommendation.  Amy was right.  Gavin enjoyed the film.  This memory sticks with me, for it captures Amy’s love of culture and her impulse to share her knowledge.  I think that Amy was born to be a librarian, and we were fortunate that she played such an important role in leading our library.

I first got to know Richard, who was generally known as Dick, at a gathering at Boyd and Dick’s home.  The gathering was tied to the hiring of Blair Rudes, a linguist who taught in our department for a number of years.  At one point during this event, the conversation turned to linguistics, and I had only a vague idea what everybody else was talking about.  Fortunately, Dick came to my rescue.  We ended up talking at length, during which I found out that he had taught American history at Queens College for many years before pursuing a career with the MecklenburgCounty government.   Dick and I discovered that we shared a concern about censorship, and we talked about this topic while everybody else was talking about linguistics.

The last time I talked with Dick was at one of the department parties that my wife and I host twice a year.  Dick was already in declining health, but he came to the party anyway.  He took up station on our back patio and watched the children play on the slide that is still located in our backyard.  At the time, we had an old golden retriever named Maggie.  Maggie found a friend in Dick, and she sat down next to him.  I remember seeing him pat Maggie as they both kept an eye on the children swooping down the slide.  They both seemed content in a quiet way.  From what Boyd tells me, Dick always cared about children and enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren.   Two of his grandchildren read their new books to him on the day that he died.  As I see it, this is a fitting conclusion to a story about a man who cared deeply about the members of the younger generation and their future.

I know that I speak for everyone in our departmental family in expressing our condolences to Alan and Boyd over the loss of their loved ones.

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:

Sarah Minslow published a chapter titled “Developing Morality by Exploring Social Justice in the Works of Walter Dean Myers” in Critical Insights:  Social Justice and American Literature edited by Jeff Birkenstein and Robert C. Hauhart.

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

January 8 — The first day of classes for the Spring 2018 semester is January 8.

January 12 —  The English Department meeting will take place on January 12 from 11:00 to 12:15 in the English Department Conference Room.

Quirky Quiz Question — The university libraries figured prominently in the relationship between Amy Dykeman and Alan Rauch, but a library also played a key role in the relationship between Dick Davis and Boyd Davis.   Dick and Boyd first met in the library at the university where they both earned their doctoral degrees.  Can you name this university?

Last week’s answer: Oh, The Places You Will Go
Dr. Seuss is the author of one of the most popular books given to recent graduates.  What is the title of this book?

Monday Missive - December 18, 2017

December 18, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
Commencement Report — Last Saturday the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences held its winter commencement ceremony, and for 86 of our students, this ceremony marked their transition from current students to graduates.  A total of 12 of our graduate students are listed in the commencement program, and 74 undergraduate students are listed.

I was especially impressed with how many of our BA students fall under the heading of “Graduation with Distinction.”  Of the 74 students, 11 earned the distinction of Cum Laude (GPA between 3.4-3.7), 4 earned the distinction of Magna Cum Laude (GPA between 3.7-3.9), and 6 earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (GPA between 3.9-4.0).  This total comes to 21 students. I am very proud of all of our graduating students, but I want to mention by name the 6 students who earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude.  Their names are Brittney Elder, Samantha Ashley Holt, Jordan Thomas Kearney, Shelby Lauren LeClair, Alicia Nicole Mullis, and Brianna Nicole Thurman.

English Martin Scholars — The first two Martin Scholars to graduate from UNC Charlotte are English majors Chelsea Moore and Nephdarlie Saint Cyr. Both earned Honors in English. Their achievements were celebrated December 13th at a dinner at Macaroni Grill hosted by the Honors College and made possible through the generosity of the Martin family.  Pictured with them are English honors director Kirk Melnikoff and two English faculty who supported them, Aaron Toscano and Balaka Basu.

Martin Scholars enjoy funding up to the full cost of attendance at UNC Charlotte.  As merit scholarship recipients, they are supported by a faculty fellow, Jeffrey Leak, and the Honors College Associate Director for Scholar Advising, Karen James. The program’s chief administrator is Malin Pereira, Executive Director of the Honors College.

Kirk Melnikoff, Nephdarlie Saint Cyr, Jeffrey Leak, Chelsea Moore, Aaron Toscano, Balaka Basu

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:

Sarah Minslow was recently awarded a Certificate of Merit for Excellence in Advising in the “New Advisor” category from the National Academic Advisors Association (NACADA).  She will be acknowledged formally at the NACADA South Regional Conference in Charleston, SC, in May.

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

December 19 — The CLAS Faculty Achievement Celebration will take place in the Harris Alumni Center from 3:30 to 5:30.

January 8 — The first day of classes for the Spring 2018 semester is January 8.

Quirky Quiz Question — Dr. Seuss is the author of one of the most popular books given to recent graduates.  What is the title of this book?

Last week’s answer: John Ronald Reuel

Tolkien used his first three initials when he published his creative works.  Does anybody know what J.R.R. stand for?

Monday Missive - December 11, 2017

December 11, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

There and Back Again — The subtitle for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is There and Back Again. This phrase seems apropos for today’s Monday Missive since I just returned from Oxford, where Tolkien wrote The Hobbit. I went to Oxford to participate in the Oxford Education Research Symposium and to present a paper titled “LeVar Burton and the Evolution of Language Arts and Literacy Education in the Digital Age.” While I was there, however, I had dinner at The Eagle and the Child, which is the pub where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the other members of a group called the Inklings gathered every week to discuss their writing projects.

The Oxford Education Research Symposium is known for bringing together scholars from around the globe to share pedagogy-related research. At this symposium, participants came from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, India, Israel, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain,Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Many of these participants gave presentations on the impact of digital technology on educational programs in their countries. For the most part, they emphasized the educational benefits made possible by using digital technology. One of the participants, for example, discussed how he used Smartphones with indigenous students in northern Canada to record and share community stories. Although nearly all of the participants expressed support for the use of digital technology in educational settings, they often sounded a note of caution. Several of the participants mentioned a book titled The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. As one of the participants pointed out, Carr’s book provides evidence that “online reading” does not always result in the same levels of comprehension associated with reading from the printed page.

My return flight back to Charlotte was delayed by seven hours on account of the snow storm that hit London on Sunday. While I was sitting for hours in the Heathrow Airport waiting for my flight, I had plenty of time to reflect on what I learned about the educational use of digital technology. Like most of the symposium participants, I think that digital technology can be used to great advantage in a teaching context. However, I urge all of us in the English Department not to view digital technology as some kind of pedagogical panacea. Digital technology provides us with tools but not necessarily with answers.

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:

Lara Vetter’s book A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose (2017) was reviewed in the most recent issue of The Review of English Studies.

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

December 13 — Bill Hill’s retirement reception will take place in Robinson Hall from 3:30 to 5:00. RSVP here, or call 7-0051.

December 16 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center (SAC) on Saturday, December 16, at 3:00 pm.

December 18 — Final grades for the Fall 2017 term must be submitted by Monday, December 18 at noon.

December 19 — The CLAS Faculty Achievement Celebration will take place in the Harris Alumni Center from 3:30 to 5:30.

Quirky Quiz Question — Tolkien used his first three initials when he published his creative works. Does anybody know what J.R.R. stand for?

Last week’s answer: Sullivan

What is the name of the composer who frequently collaborated with William Gilbert?

Monday Missive - December 4, 2017

December 04, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
A Semester to Remember — As the fall 2017 semester draws to a close, I think we should take a moment to celebrate the English Department’s record of achievement over the span of one semester.

The semester began with the announcement that the English Department is the 2017 recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Also at the beginning of the semester, we learned of Kirk Melnikoff’s designation as a finalist for the 2017 Bank of America Teaching Award.  Over the course of this semester, several members of the English Department received significant external grants.  Bryn Chancellor and Allison Hutchcraft both received fellowships from the North Carolina Council for the Arts, and Sarah Minslow and I received a major grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council to develop community programing around the theme of “The Child Character in Southern Literature and Film.”  Just last month, Paula Eckard made the English Department proud with her excellent presentation on her book Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature for the Personally Speaking Series.

Although these are just a few of the highlights from the 2017 fall semester, they provide ample evidence that the English Department has had a remarkable semester.  To rewrite a line by William Gilbert from H.M.S. Pinafore, give three cheers, and one cheer more, for the English Department’s impressive score.

Honors Colloquium — The English Honors Program held its Second Bi-Annual English Honors Colloquium on November 30, 2017.  During this event, six of our honors students delivered presentations based on their honors theses.  The students who participated are Desiree Brown, Melissa Glass, Jordan Kearney, Elana Moore, Bruce Owen, and Brianna Thurman.

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 presented a paper titled “Teacher Research as Reclaiming Education:  A Critical Analysis of Two Inquiry-Based Projects” at the Literacy Research Association Conference in Tampa, Florida.   She also wrote a blog post for Duke TIP’s Teachers Workshop blog. Her blog post is geared toward middle/high school teachers. Here is the link: Speaking and Listening: Skills We Shouldn’t Skip.
 
Boyd Davis recently had a chapter titled “Other Interviewing Techniques in Sociolinguistics” published in Data Collection in Sociolinguistics (Rutledge, 2017).
 
Alan Rauch presented a paper titled “The Animal Image: The Art of Misrepresentation and the Misrepresentation of Art” at the 31st annual meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA) in Phoenix, Arizona.

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

December 13 — Bill Hill’s retirement reception will take place in Robinson Hall from 3:30 to 5:00. RSVP here, or call 7-0051.

December 16 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center (SAC) on Saturday, December 16, at 3:00 pm.

December 18 — Final grades for the Fall 2017 term must be submitted by Monday, December 18 at noon.

December 19 — The CLAS Faculty Achievement Celebration will take place in the Harris Alumni Center from 3:30 to 5:30

Quirky Quiz Question — What is the name of the composer who frequently collaborated with William Gilbert?

Last week’s answer: Charlynn Ross
Bill Hill is UNC Charlotte’s first tenure-track faculty member hired to teach in the area now known as communication studies, but he is not UNC Charlotte’s first full-time faculty member to teach in this area.  A year before Bill arrived, a lecturer was hired to teach communication studies courses.  This lecturer eventually became the director of the University Center for Academic Excellence.  Does anybody know the name of this former lecturer?

Monday Missive - November 27, 2017

November 27, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Mark West and Bill Hill

Learning from Bill Hill — At the end of this fall semester, Bill Hill, the Senior Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will retire.  Bill and I arrived at UNC Charlotte within two years of each other.  Bill came in 1982, and I came in 1984.  At the time, the English Department housed speech (as communication studies was then called), so we both started off as assistant professors in the same department.  Over the years, our careers followed along similar paths.  We both served as program directors, department chairs, and associate deans.  However, Bill has always been a few steps ahead of me.  The experience of serving alongside Bill has been one of the great pleasures of my career, but it has also been a learning experience.  Bill’s approach to being an administrator has provided me with an example that I have long attempted to emulate.  Here are three of the lessons that I have learned from Bill about good administrative practices.

Perhaps because of his background in college debate, Bill always looks at administrative issues from multiple points of view.  After all, in debate tournaments, one has to be able to argue both sides of an issue.  Bill is very good at building strong arguments for particular positions, but he never dismisses opposing positions.  Drawing on his many years as a debate coach, he helps those of us who work with him to frame our arguments using sound logic, provide evidence to support our positions, and take a respectful attitude toward colleagues whose positions differ from our own.  His belief in the value of open debate is one of the key reasons he has developed such a good rapport with administrators across our campus.

Another one of Bill’s strengths as an administrator is his patient and methodical approach to building programs.  I watched from a ring-side seat as Bill built communications studies from a few courses, to a semi-autonomous program, to a free-standing academic department, and I was very impressed with the effectiveness of his step-by-step approach.  He carefully followed the curricular-planning process, and he always kept the members of the English Department fully informed along the way.  When the Communication Studies Department split from the English Department in 1995, it was seen as the natural evolution of a gradual and transparent process.

Bill grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show, and he often quotes the following line that Barney Fife says in this show: “Nip it in the bud.”   For Bill, this line captures his desire to solve problems when they first surface rather than wait for the problems to grow into crises.  This approach is one of the reasons Bill always seems so even-keeled, for when problems are addressed before they spin out of control, there is no need for crisis management.

I will miss going upstairs to talk with Bill about the various issues that I face in my role as the Chair of the English Department.  However, even after Bill retires, the lessons that I have learned from him will continue to guide me.  I am sure that I will often ask myself, “What would Bill do?”

I know that I speak for the entire English Department in wishing Bill a happy retirement.

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

Dec. 1 — The English Department holiday party will take place on Friday,  December 1, from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge. Please sign up on the potluck listed located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

Quirky Quiz Question — Bill Hill is UNC Charlotte’s first tenure-track faculty member hired to teach in the area now known as communication studies, but he is not UNC Charlotte’s first full-time faculty member to teach in this area.  A year before Bill arrived, a lecturer was hired to teach communication studies courses.  This lecturer eventually became the director of the University Center for Academic Excellence.  Does anybody know the name of this former lecturer?

Last week’s answer: Utah

“Pieces of April” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  What is the host state for this annual film festival?

Monday Missive - November 20, 2017

November 20, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Family, Friends, Food, and Film — I associate Thanksgiving with spending time with my family, connecting with friends, preparing and consuming food, and perhaps seeing a film at some point during the long Thanksgiving weekend.  All of these associations relate in one way or another to the film Pieces of April.  I didn’t see the film when it first came out in 2003, but my wife and I rented it a few years later when it came out on DVD.  It has since become my favorite Thanksgiving film.

Pieces of April focuses on a young woman named April Burns (played by Katie Holmes) who lives with her boyfriend in a tiny, dilapidated apartment located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Although April feels alienated from her family, she wants to reconnect with them.  She invites them all over for Thanksgiving dinner even though she is a totally inept cook, and her family members accept the invitation.  In many of the scenes, April is desperately trying to prepare the meal, which is made more difficult when her oven breaks down.  She copes with this problem with the help of her eccentric neighbors who allow her to use the ovens in their kitchens for the short periods of time when they are not using their ovens.  In other scenes, April’s family members are riding together in a cramped car to New York City. Their tensions play out in comical ways as they get closer and closer to April’s apartment.

What I love the most about this film is its portrayal of a family.  In many ways, this family is completely dysfunctional, but they still care about each other on some deep level.  They do not communicate well using words.  However, they are finally able to connect by using food as a sort of communications medium.  Food also provides a tangible way to bring April’s friends and neighbors into the family fold.  The film’s culminating dinner brings together quite a wide variety of people, but at least for that one meal, they transcend their differences.  Such is the power of food.

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving.

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 gave the following three presentations at the NCTE Conference held in St. Louis: “Challenges of Social Justice Pedagogy:  That Time I Did Exactly What I Tell My Students Not to Do,” “Reciprocal Community Relationships:  Challenges of Inviting Community Voices into Teacher Education,” and “Teacher Research as Reclaiming Education:  A Critical Analysis of Two Inquiry-Based Projects.”

Bryn Chancellor last month was an invited author at Litchfield Books’ A Moveable Feast in Pawleys Island, SC; she also gave readings at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro and McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro as part of the North Carolina Arts Council fellowship reading series. Her novel Sycamore also was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2017 and rights recently were optioned to FilmNation (The Big Sick, Arrival) for their new television department.

Katie Hogan presented a paper titled “Rural Queer Echohistories as Movement-Building and Freedom-Making” on Saturday, November 18, at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Allison Hutchcraft gave a reading at Lenoir-Rhyne University as part of their Visiting Writers Series and was part of a panel discussion “NC Writing Today.”

Janaka Lewis presented a paper titled “Black Girlhood and the Power of Belonging” at the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora conference in Seville, Spain, on Nov. 10 and a paper titled “Reconstructing Black Girlhood, from Stories to Selves” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Baltimore last week.

Consuelo Salas recently presented a paper titled “Food-Based Pedagogies: Opening the Classroom Space” at NCTE Conference in St. Louis in a session titled “Foodways Literacy and Language Learning.”

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

Dec. 1 — The English Department holiday party will take place on Friday,  December 1 from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge.  Please put this special event on your calendar and make sure to sign up on the potluck list located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

Quirky Quiz Question —Pieces of April premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  What is the host state for this annual film festival?

Last week’s answer: John Benjamins

The Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict is published by an international academic publisher with offices in Amsterdam and Philadelphia.  Does anybody know the name of this publisher?

Monday Missive - November 13, 2017

November 13, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Service to the Profession — Last week Pilar Blitvich showed me a copy of the latest issue of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, a journal that she co-edits.  As I thumbed through the issue, I was impressed with the international nature of this journal.  Both the articles and the contributors have connections with many different countries.  The fact that Pilar plays such a key role in editing this international journal underscores for me the importance of service to the profession.  This type of service work often goes unnoticed, but it is crucial for the integrity and sustainability of academia.  Such service includes writing letters related to tenure and promotion cases at other universities, serving as referees for academic journals, and contributing to the governance of professional organizations.  The members of our English Department take service to the profession seriously, and a number currently play leadership roles in this area, including Pilar, Paula Eckard, and Ralf Thiede.

In addition to serving as the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict since 2009, Pilar Blitvich serves as the Co-Editor in Chief of an academic book series on pragmatics and discourse analysis.  She is also the co-founder and convenor of the Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis International Conference.  Paula Eckard has served as the Editor of The Thomas Wolfe Review since 2013, and before that she served as the President of the Thomas Wolfe Society from 2011 to 2013.  Ralf Thiede is currently serving as the President of the SouthEastern Conference on Linguistics, a position he will hold until June 2019.  Before he became the President of this organization, he served for five years as the Editor of its main publication, The Southeastern Journal of Linguistics.  As these three examples illustrate, members of our English Department are leaders in their fields as well as on our campus.

International Education Week — UNC Charlotte is celebrating International Education Week from November 13 -17.  As part of this week-long celebration, Sarah Minslow’s War and Genocide in Children’s Literature course will be hosting their Promoting Peace Project on Wednesday, November 15.  This year they are participating in Facing Difference Challenge, an initiative designed “to help educators worldwide empower young people to reflect and take action toward building understanding, empathy, and peace.”  Sarah and her students will be located in tents set up between Atkins and the College of Heath and Human Services.  For more information about International Education Week, please click on the following link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2017-11-08/university-observe-international-education-week

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, one of our part-time faculty members, was recently did a one-hour interview on WCHL (“The Hill”) radio in Chapel Hill, with D. G. Martin, the host of Carolina Bookwatch.  They talked about baseball, books, writing, and  editing.  Here is the link to the interview:  http://chapelboro.com/wchl/weekend-shows/whos-talking/october-14-2017-6

She was also interviewed by Brendan Omeara for his podcast “Creative Nonfiction Podcast.” Here is the link to the interview:http://brendanomeara.com/

Balaka Basu has just taken on the role of Associate Editor for the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  

Consuelo Salas recently co-facilitated a roundtable discussion in a session titled “Double Agents: Infiltrating Writing Center Pedagogy at Multilingual Border Institutions” at the International Writing Centers Association conference in Chicago, IL.

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

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/

Nov. 17 — The English Department meeting will take place on November 17 from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

Quirky Quiz Question —The Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict is published by an international academic publisher with offices in Amsterdam and Philadelphia.  Does anybody know the name of this publisher?

Last week’s answer: Andrew Carnegie

During Verse & Vino, the organizers played a short video about the history of our public library.  According to this video, the library’s first major building was built in 1901 with funding provided by a famous philanthropist.  Does anybody know the name of this philanthropist?

Monday Missive - November 6, 2017

November 06, 2017 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Connecting with the Public Library — For the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the beginning of November is a special time of the year, for this is when two of the public library’s signature events take place.  On November 2, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation held Verse & Vino, the library’s biggest fundraising event.  On November 4, the public library held EpicFest, a free, daylong festival celebrating children’s literature and literacy.  I am pleased to report that members of our English Department contributed in significant ways to both of these events.

Peter Larkin, one of our part-time faculty members, is also a member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation.  In his role with the Foundation, Peter is one of the community leaders who helps makes Verse & Vino a reality.  Angie Williams also helps make Verse & Vino happen by volunteering each year with the preparation for the event.  This year the organizers of Verse & Vino celebrated prominent “local authors who have new books for adults published in 2017.”  These authors included two of our faculty members (Bryn Chancellor and Andrew Hartley) and a graduate of our M.A. program (Mark de Castrique).

EpicFest relies heavily on volunteers to staff activity tables and help make this festival run smoothly.  Chauna Wall, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, informed me that our students played a crucial role in helping out with EpicFest.  Members of our various student organizations as well as students in several of our classes stepped up and volunteered their time.  Approximately half of the of the total number of community volunteers who helped with EpicFest this year were our students.

One of the reasons the English Department and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library have so many connections is that we share core values.  We both embrace the importance of literature and literacy, and we both are committed to engaging in meaningful ways with the larger community.  The English Department and the public library are more than collaborators–we’re partners.

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:

Paula Eckard recently presented a paper titled “Teaching the Familiar and Fantastic in Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel”  at SAMLA 89 in Atlanta, GA in a session titled “Teaching the Bildungsroman: Reinventing Great Books for the 21st Century.”

Paula Martinac recently served as the judge for the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Award of the Charlotte Writers’ Club.

Malin Pereira has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry, housed at James Madison University.

Alan Rauch recently presented a paper called “Death and Recovery in Victorian Literature” at the Victorians Institute Conference at Furman University.

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

Nov. 7 —  The Early Modern Paleography Society. EMPS will collaborate with EMROC (Early Modern Recipes Online Collective), a group of international scholars that is creating a database of recipe transcriptions, for EMROC’s 3rd Annual Transcribathon. The event will take place in the Atkins VisLab THIS TUES, Nov 7, 2-5pm.

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 — During Verse & Vino, the organizers played a short video about the history of our public library.  According to this video, the library’s first major building was built in 1901 with funding provided by a famous philanthropist.  Does anybody know the name of this philanthropist?

Last week’s answer: A troll

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?