Monday Missive

Summer Research Symposium — Last week the Charlotte Research Scholars Program (CRS) culminated in an event called the Summer Research Symposium. English faculty and students made their presence known at this symposium. The purpose of the CRS is to have undergraduate students become involved in faculty members’ research projects. This year the following five CRS projects came out of the English Department:

Janaka Lewis worked with a student named Ashley Burch on a project titled “Images and Perceptions of Happiness and Success by African American Female Authors.”

Greg Wickliff worked with Christopher Burton on a project titled “John William Draper’s Contribution: Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution at Oxford, 1860.”

Alan Rauch worked with Melanie Carty on a project titled “Private Subscription Libraries in Nineteenth-Century England: Manchester, Leeds, and Newcastle.”

Kirk Melnikoff and Alan Rauch worked with Nadia Clifton on a project titled “A Study of the Princess Augusta Sophia (1768-1840) Collection at the Atkins Library.”

Sarah Minslow worked with Katherine Galindo on a project titled “Using Children’s Literature to Teach the Holocaust in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Middle Schools.”

All of the students who participated in the CRS Program prepared detailed posters about their research projects, and these posters were put on display during the symposium. The students then gave presentations related to their posters. The posters and presentations were judged, and awards were presented at the end of the event. Three of the students who worked with our faculty received awards. In the category of Education, Humanities, Social Sciences and Social Work, the Best Poster Award went to Nadia Clifton. Both Katherine Galindo and Melanie Carty received Honorable Mentions.
Of the nine awards presented, one third of them went to the students who worked with English faculty members. Plans are afoot to put all five of the posters tied to English on display in our faculty lounge in the near future.

My congratulations go to all of the English faculty and students who participated in this year’s Charlotte Research Scholars Program.

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 Connolly has been recently conducting research on nineteenth-century children’s literature as an Invited Visiting Scholar at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Paula Eckard recently published an article titled “Thomas Wolfe and ‘the great engine’ of Johns Hopkins Hospital” published in the Thomas Wolfe Review.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

August 5 — The last day of class for the second summer term.

Quirky Quiz Question — The students who participated in the Summer Research Symposium created posters. Those of us in English are not used to creating posters, but in other fields posters are well established. In fact, some artists are famous for their posters. What is the name of the French painter who became famous for posters related to the cabaret scene in Paris?

Equestrian Connections — I have been reading the reviews of Aaron Gwyn’s Wynne’s War, and they all comment favorably on Aaron’s ability to capture the special relationship between humans and horses. Horses figure prominently in Aaron’s novel. In fact, a horse is introduced in the very first sentence: “He saw the horse before the rest of his team and thumbed the selector on his rifle to SAFE.” When Scott Simon interviewed Aaron on NPR, he asked Aaron how he came to have such a deep understanding of horses, and Aaron answered, “I grew up on a cattle ranch, so I was around … horses a good deal.” In thinking about Aaron’s experiences with horses, I realized that Aaron is not the only member of our department who has equestrian connections.

Like Aaron, JuliAnna Ávila developed an interest in horses as a child. I asked her when she first became interested in horses, and she told me, “My interest goes back to being lifted onto a horse at age ten, bareback. ” She recalled “tearing across the Arizona desert when I rode her. I never fell off, which seemed like a sign.” Currently JuliAnna owns a horse named Angel, and she rides Angel on a regular basis. Julianna is especially interested in the style of riding associated with the California vaquero tradition, and she has started researching the cultural, historical, and geographical aspects of this tradition.

Lil Brannon and Cy Knoblauch also have a longstanding interest in horses, but their interest is tied to their daughter, Susan Knoblauch. In addition to being a nurse, Susan is a nationally ranked competitor in the sport of show jumping. For years, Susan competed with her horse Carneval, but she recently sold Carneval. Susan and Cy are currently in Belgium where Susan just purchased a young stallion that Susan will soon began training.

Given the department’s connections to horses, maybe we should change our name to the Department of English and Equestrian Studies.

Sanskrit — The 2014 issue of Sanskrit came out this summer, and just took a look at it. Sanskrit is the literary-arts magazine that is produced by the University’s Student Media Board. Although Sanskrit has no official connections to the English Department, our students and faculty certainly played a role in the production of this issue. Two of the editors, Notrina Simmons and Leah Chapman, are English majors. Three of our faculty—Chris Davis, Kirk Melnikoff, and Aimee Parkison— served as “Literature Jurors.” Like previous issues, the 2014 issue of Sanskrit is a professional production, and I am proud that our students and faculty helped make this issue a reality.

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:

Pilar Blitvich recently returned from Great Britain where she participated in the 8th International Politeness Conference. She co-organized a panel on the language of aggression and conflict and presented a paper as part of this panel. Earlier this summer she presented a paper at the EPICS conference in Seville. Her paper related to the “language violence against women.”

Maya Socolovsky presented a paper on Julia Alvarez’s novel Return to Sender at the International Latina/o Studies Conference in Chicago.

Quirky Quiz Question — As I was contemplating the department’s equestrian connections, I started thinking about famous fictional horses. See if you can identify the original sources in which these three fictional horses appear:

1. Shadowfax
2. Silver
3. Spark Plug

This summer session I am teaching a graduate seminar on “Children’s Literature Award Winners.” Most of students in the seminar are teachers, and they often share their classroom experiences during our discussions. It has been a pleasure for me to discuss children’s literature with these teachers, for they are often able to talk about how their students would likely respond to the books that we are studying. As their comments reveal, these teachers have a tremendous dedication to their students and to their profession despite the general lack of support that our teachers face on a daily basis. This lack of support, however, does not extend to the English Department.

Over and over again this summer I have been impressed with the efforts of our faculty to serve area teachers. Here are just a few examples. For the first summer session, JuliAnna Ávila developed and taught a special online graduate course for teachers on Children’s Literature and Childhood Trauma. This summer Paula Connolly and Alan Rauch have already started working with the teachers who are participating in their Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) seminars, and Alan represented CTI at the July Intensive Session of the Yale National Initiative to Strengthen Teaching in the Public Schools. For the past few weeks, Ron Lunsford has been working with area teachers who teach AP English courses. This second summer session, Lil Brannon is working with area teachers as part of her work with the UNC Charlotte Writing Project, which is now housed in the English Department. Through such efforts, English faculty members have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to our area teachers. I am hoping that our political leaders will follow suit.

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:

Balaka Basu recently presented a paper titled “Anne’s Grandchildren: WWII and the Continuing Story of the Anne Universe” at the L. M. Montgomery 11th Biennial Conference, which took place in Canada. Also, she served as the editorial advisor for a recently published volume of Short Story Criticism.

Aaron Gwyn’s Wynne’s War just received a glowing review from The Wall Street Journal.

Meg Morgan published a chapter titled “Leaders Becoming Transformed” in an edited volume called Sharing Our Intellectual Traces: Narrative Reflections from Administrators of Professional and Scientific Communication Programs.

Quirky Quiz Question — Balaka Basu’s recent conference paper (see above) relates to Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. In what province in Canada is this classic novel set?

Orange is the New. . . If you have been in the English Department lately, you have surely noticed the change in the main office’s color scheme. The three people who spend the most time in our front office area are Monica, Jennie and Angie, so it seemed fitting to me that they pick the new color for the office. All I asked is that they pick a cheerful color. They selected a cheery shade of orange. Eddie Seegars, the painter, is applying the third coat this afternoon, and we expect to have this project finished up in the next week or so.

I know that for people who grew up surrounded by beige or white walls, our new orange walls must seem a bit on the dramatic side. For me, however, orange walls bring back the days of my youth. My mother’s favorite color was orange, and the mountain house where I grew up had orange walls in the kitchen and dining area and a bright orange front door. My mother died some years ago, but yesterday was her birthday. If she were still alive, I would have called her yesterday and I would have been sure to tell her about our new orange walls. I am sure she would have been pleased.

New Display Case — For a number of years, we have had a display case in main office, and we have used this case to display recent books by members of our department. I am aware, however, that not all members of our department write books. Some faculty members publish in fields in which most scholarship appears as articles in journals. In an effort to celebrate the recent journal publications, I have arranged for a new display case to be installed near our current case. This new case will be used to display recent articles by members of our department. If you have a recent article that you would like to have displayed, please provide me with a copy of it in the next week or two.

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:

Daniel Shealy published an article titled “Louisa May Alcott’s World” in the most recent print edition of Exchange: The Magazine of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Angie Williams recently completed an obstacle course race along with Shannon Zurell from the Honors College. Officially called the Ridiculous Obstacle Course Race, the event took place at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Quirky Quiz Question — The office’s new color scheme brings to my mind a classic fiddle tune about a train. Can anybody guess the name of this tune?

Some families take relaxing, leisurely vacations, but that’s is not how my family rolls. We just returned from a whirlwind, four-day visit to New York City during which we filled nearly every New-York minute with adventures of one sort or another. We visited friends and ate at a wide variety of restaurants, including a revolving restaurant located at the top of high-rise hotel. We saw Les Misérables and Pippin on the same day. We toured the Intrepid, a 1940s aircraft carrier that is now a museum where the space shuttle Enterprise is on exhibit. As a fan of both the NASA and Star Trek, Nancy loved being able to see the Enterprise up close.

The underlying theme of our vacation related to Gavin’s study of architecture. He especially wanted to visit two of New York’s most notable examples of landscape architecture: The High Line and Teardrop Park. The High Line is a linear elevated park that follows the course of an abandoned railway. Here is the link to the official website: http://www.thehighline.org/ We spent an afternoon walking along the High Line, and Gavin pointed out a number of famous buildings located on either side of the park. The next day we visited Teardrop Park, a small park designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh: http://www.mvvainc.com/project.php?id=2 Famous for its distinctive rock work, Teardrop Park evokes a sense of wilderness right in the middle of lower Manhattan. Gavin then introduced us to one of his favorite buildings—the new academic building at Cooper Union: http://www.cooper.edu/about/history/41-cooper-square. We also visited several of New York City’s iconic skyscrapers, including the Chrysler Building and the Flatiron Building. I’ve loved the Chrysler Building since I was a boy, but this visit marked the first time I actually entered the building and observed the lobby with all of its art deco flourishes.

For Nancy and me, one of the great pleasures of visiting these architectural landmarks with Gavin was listening to him talk about the significance of these sites. As a professor, I often play the role of the educated expert, but I know that young people have their own areas of expertise. Over the years, I have learned much from my son and my students. I have always liked the phrase “community of learners,” for it implies that the act of learning transcends the divisions between parents and children, teachers and students, the mature and the young.

Amazing News about Sponsored Awards — Last week I received a report from the University’s Office of Research and Economic Development. This report lists the number of externally funded grants generated by each department during the previous 12 months (fiscal year to date) as well as the number of grants from the previous fiscal year. According to this report, the English Department brought in 10 sponsored awards between 7/1/2013 and 5/31/2014. Compared to the other departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, we came in third, right behind Physics and Optical Science with 21 awards and Biology with 12. We also doubled the number of awards compared to the previous fiscal year. We went from 5 to 10. No other department in CLAS had such a big jump during this reporting period. Needless to say, I am very proud of the department and all of our faculty members who proving that English professors can write grants as well as books and articles.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

July 1 — The first day of class for the second summer term is July 1.

July 2 — The last day to add or drop a class for the second summer term is July 2.

Quirky Quiz Question — It was about 11:00 at night when Nancy, Gavin and I exited the theatre where we saw Pippin. As we slowly made our way to Times Square to catch the subway, I kept humming to myself the 1963 hit “On Broadway.” What is the name of the group that made this song famous?

I just returned from Columbia, South Carolina, where I attended the Children’s Literature Association Conference on “Diverging Diversities: Plurality in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.” Our children’s literature faculty, graduate students and former graduate students were not only well represented in terms of numbers, but they also gave excellent presentations.

Anita Moss delivered a paper that she and Boyd Davis co-authored on “Diversity from Trauma and Dementia in Literature for Children and Adolescents.” Daniel Shealy gave a presentation on “Louisa May Alcott’s Lost Wonder Book,” and Paula Connolly read a paper titled “Integrating the New Republic: Representations of Race in Early American Children’s Literature.” Sarah Minslow presented a paper on “Victorian Attitudes Towards Otherness: Exclusion and Diverging Diversities in Edward Lear’s Nonsense,” and I presented on “Dr. Seuss’s Globalism.” Balaka Basu participated on a panel on “Building a Career in Children’s Literature” and was honored during the awards banquet for winning a Children’s Literature Association Faculty Research Grant.

Several of our graduate students and former graduate students presented papers. Brook Blaylock delivered a paper on “Exploring the Ghost of Voodoo Haunting: The Narrative Construction of Nick Lake’s In Darkness.” Julia Morris presented a paper titled “Inequality of Education and Its Damage to Women and Children in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions.” Traci Cruey, who just graduated from our MA program in May, read a paper on “The Girl in the Tower: The Patriarchal Worlds of Disney’s Tangled and Naploi’s Zel.” Finally, Joanne Rohan, who graduated from our MA program a few years ago, presented a paper titled “Soupy Grits and Turnip Greens: Negotiating Culture and Gaining Acceptance at the Southern Table in Dori Sanders’ Clover.”

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:

Aimee Parkison recently returned from Athens, Greece, where she taught a course on flash fiction at the International Creative Writing Summer School, which is affiliated with Kingston University.

Alan Rauch’s Dolphin recently received a glowing review from the Times Literary Supplement.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here are some dates to keep in mind:

July 1 — The first day of class for the second summer term is July 1.

July 2 — The last day to add or drop a class for the second summer term is July 2.

Quirky Quiz Question — This year’s Children’s Literature Association Conference took place very near the campus of the University of South Carolina. Among the members of the English Department, who graduated from the University of South Carolina? There is more than one correct response.

Charlotte Research Scholars — For many faculty members in the English Department, summer is when they focus on their research. This summer, however, a number of faculty members in our department are involving undergraduate students in their research. These faculty members are participating in the Charlotte Research Scholars (CRS) program. Started in 2012, this program provides high-achieving undergraduate students with opportunities to work alongside faculty members on research projects. Initially, CRS emphasized the sciences, but now the program draws students from across a wide range of disciplines, including English. As part of this summer program, Sarah Minslow and Greg Wickliff are leading writing workshops for the CRS students. The faculty members from English who are serving as CRS mentors this summer are Janaka Lewis, Kirk Melnikoff, Sarah Minslow, Alan Rauch, and Greg Wickliff.

Janaka is the research mentor for a student named Ashley Burch. The title of Ashley’s project is “Images and Perceptions of Black Women in African American Literature.” In addition to assisting with Janaka’s research, Ashley is conducting her own research on representations of success and perceptions of social and physical mobility for African American women writers in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Kirk and Alan are jointly mentoring English student Nadia Clifton as she researches the remarkable collection of plays, pantomimes, and operas (ranging from the 17th to the early 19th centuries) that are part of the Princess Augusta Sophia Collection in Special Collections at the J. Murrey Atkins. Nadia is learning about book history and textual bibliography as she works through the collection guided by a spreadsheet (designed by Alan and Kirk) that includes categories for marginalia, binding, royal monographs, ownership stamps, along with conventional bibliographic data.

Sarah is working with Kate Galindo to assess the use of children’s and young adult literature to teach the Holocaust in Charlotte Mecklenberg Schools (CMS) middle schools (grades 6-8). The study of this literature is the core of Sarah’s War and Genocide in Children’s Literature course. For this project, Kate will complete a literature review to establish what critics see as the essential aspects of the Holocaust that should be taught to middle school students and what children’s literature critics see as the general guidelines of writing about war and genocide for young audiences. Kate and Sarah will also administer a survey for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) middle school teachers that will be emailed to all History/Social Studies and English teachers. Kate and Sarah will begin developing a curriculum guide for middle school teachers that relates to teaching the Holocaust and other genocides using children’s and young adult literature.

Alan is mentoring Melanie Carty on a project titled “Private Subscription Libraries in 19th-Century England: Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle.” These libraries represent a cross-section of industrial or recreational cities in the early nineteenth century, where the interest in science and technology amongst members was strong. Melanie will examine the records of these libraries between 1800 and 1830 in an effort to determine: 1.) who readers were; 2.) what books were being purchased; 3.) what books were being borrowed/read; and, 4.) how books were being used. As the project moves forward, she will develop a strong sense of library history and practices, as well as a deep understand of book history, to say nothing of how knowledge was disseminated in the Regency Period.

Greg is working with Christopher Burton on a project titled “John William Draper and 19th-Century American Science.” They are conducting primary research for an article about John William Draper’s June 1860 paper given at Oxford on Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Draper’s paper is one of the earliest responses to Darwin’s book by a member of the scientific community.

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:

Allison Hutchcraft has three poems published in the Summer 2014 issue of The Kenyon Review, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. One of her poems is also featured on The Kenyon Review website, which can be found here: http://www.kenyonreview.org/journal/summer-2014/selections/allison-hutchcraft/

Lauren Klein, an English major, was selected as a winner of the United Nations Academic Impact Contest for an essay titled “Many Languages, One World.” Lauren wrote her winning essay in Russian.

Juan Menses has been appointed editor of H-Empire, an interdisciplinary online network under the H-NET Commons academic platform.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

June 21 — Jeffrey Leak will sign copies of Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas at Park Road Books at

2:00 pm on Saturday, June 21, 2014

. Please click on this link for more information: http://exchange.uncc.edu/event/jeffrey-leak-book-signing/

Partnerships — The University’s website includes links to recent press releases, and last week one of these releases caught my attention. Titled “Charlotte Teachers Institute Partners with Discovery Place and Gantt Center,” this release relates directly to two faculty members in the English Department: Alan Rauch and Paula Connolly. Both Alan and Paula are leading seminars for the Charlotte Teachers Institute (CTI) in 2014, and both are drawing on the resources of Charlotte museums. Alan is leading a seminar on “The Intersections of Science, Technology and Culture,” and his seminar will meet at Discovery Place. Paula’s seminar is called “Visual Storytelling in Children’s and Young Adult Literature,” and she is holding her seminar at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture. For more information about these partnerships, please click on the following link: http://publicrelations.uncc.edu/news-events/news-releases/charlotte-teachers-institute-partners-discovery-place-and-gantt-center

Alan and Paula are by no means the only faculty members in the English Department who have partnered with Charlotte-area institutions and organizations. Two other examples that immediately come to mind are Jeffrey Leak and Lil Brannon. Through his work as the Director for the Center for the Study of the New South, Jeffrey often collaborates with the Levine Museum of the New South, and he has held several programs at the Levine Museum. About a year ago, he worked together with the museum’s administrators and staff in co-sponsoring a conference. Through her work with the Charlotte Writers Project, Lil has collaborated with a number of Charlotte organizations. Recently Lil received a substantial grant from the National Writing Project to fund a collaborative program involving the Charlotte Writing Project and Discovery Place. Titled “Making STEAM,” this program encourages Charlotte-area students to write across numerous disciplines, including science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM). Through such partnerships, the faculty members in our department have an impact that extends well beyond the boundaries of our campus.

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:

Brittney Chalmers, one of our graduate students, is spotlighted in the Graduate School’s newsletter (The Graduate Source) for being the recipient of 2014-15 John Paul Lucas, Jr. Scholarship for Educational Leadership.

Aaron Gwyn’s Wynne’s War received a rave review from the Chicago Tribune. Here is the link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/books/chi-wynnes-war-aaron-gwyn-20140606,0,4346196.story

Jeffrey Leak will be a guest on WFAE’s Charlotte Talks on Thursday, June 19. He will talk about his new book Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

June 21 — Jeffrey Leak will sign copies of Visible Man: The Life of Henry Dumas at Park Road Books at 2:00 pm on Saturday, June 21, 2014.

Quirky Quiz Question — The above mentioned news release about the Charlotte Teachers Institute seminars reminds me that English faculty have led more CTI seminars than the faculty from any other department at UNC Charlotte. Who is the English faculty member who led a CTI seminar in 2013?

June — Did you ever see the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel? I always think about Carousel around this time of the year because it features the famous song “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over.” When I was a junior in high school I performed in Carousel. The director made sure I had one of the few non-singing roles. I played the part of the stodgy banker who ends up shooting Billy Bigelow, the central character in the play. Nevertheless, I have great memories of being in the play, and I believe that the experience of performing a role in this play has carried over to my teaching career. When I teach, for example, I often act out scenes from the books that I am covering.

Another way in which performing and teaching can go together is when professors have their students take a performative approach to the texts that they are studying. Several professors in the English Department take such an approach in their classes. I know that that Kirk Melnikoff and Jen Munroe have their students act out scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. Similarly, Beth Gargano has her students perform versions of fairy tales. Lil Brannon encourages the students in her English education courses to engage in role playing. I am sure that there are other examples, and I would love to hear about them. Sometimes stories need to bust out from the pages of books. As I see it, June is a great time for stories to be bustin’ out all over.

Kudos— As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department. For those people who think English faculty sit back and relax over the summer, the following listing will prove them wrong. Here is the latest news:

Paula Connolly recently received a Caleb Loring, Jr. Fellowship from the Boston Athenaeum for 2014-2015 (for a 4-week residency). Also, her book Slavery in American Children’s Literature just received a glowing review from the Journal of American History.

Amanda Dykema, a former graduate of our M.A. program in literature, received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland last weekend. She has accepted a two-year Visiting Assistant Professor position at Rhodes College.

Aaron Gwyn recently published an essay in the Huffington Post titled “Nine Classic Contemporary Westerns You Need to Read” Here is the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-gwyn/9-classic-contemporary-we_b_5397760.html?utm_hp_ref=books

Jeffrey Leak presented a paper titled “Robert Hayden: A Man of Few Poetic Boundaries” at the Ninth Biennial MESEA (Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) Conference, which took place at Saarland University in Saarbruken, in Germany.

Malin Pereira presented a paper titled “Crossing Race, Class, and Nation: Natasha Trethewey’s Mixed Race Interrogations in Beyond Katrina and Thrall” at the Ninth Biennial MESEA (Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) Conference, which took place at Saarland University in Saarbruken, in Germany.

Daniel Shealy presented “‘Playing with Edge Tools’: Teaching Louisa May Alcott’s Moods” at the American Literature Association conference on 24 May in Washington, DC. Also, his book Little Women: An Annotated Edition just received a glowing review from The Lion and the Unicorn.

Lara Vetter delivered a keynote address entitled “H.D., World War II, and Forms of Mysticism” at a conference on Women Modernists and Spirituality at the University of Stirling, Scotland, UK, on May 23, 2014.

Quirky Quiz Question — Carousel takes place in the state of Maine. Maine is also the home of several prestigious colleges, including the college where Nathanial Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were once students. What is the name of the college?

Today is Memorial Day.  Although it is a federal holiday and there are no classes today, the University does not close on Memorial Day.  While thinking about what I should say about Memorial Day in today’s Monday Missive, a series of associations came to mind.

Memorial Day is intended to commemorate members of the military who lost their lives in the line of duty.  I am fortunate in that no one in my immediate family died while in service, but I had a high school friend who died in the Vietnam War, and I always think about him on Memorial Day. Angie’s son, Josh Edwards, served in Afghanistan along with his best friend, whose name was also Josh.  Angie’s son survived his tour in Afghanistan, but his best friend, Josh Blaney, was killed in action.  Angie has a photograph of the two Joshes in her office, and every time I see that photograph, I am reminded of the high cost of war.

Memorial Day got its start shortly after the Civil War.  Initially it was called Decoration Day because on this day people decorated the graves of soldiers who died during the Civil War.  In a sense, Memorial Day is one of many reminders of the continuing impact of the Civil War on our culture.   In reflecting on this aspect of American history, I am reminded that both Daniel Shealy and Paula Connolly have taken a scholarly interest in this topic.  Daniel is currently working on a book about the pivotal role that the town of Concord, Massachusetts, played in the Civil War, and Paula has written extensively on the impact of the Civil War on American children’s literature, especially as it pertains to the issue of slavery.

Of course, Memorial Day is also associated with the beginning of summer. For many people Memorial Day means backyard cookouts, family gatherings, and NASCAR events.   For me, the kick-off of summer has associations with planting tomatoes. My father always waited until the end of May before he put his tomato plants outside, which made sense for him, given that he was gardening in the mountains of Colorado where it often snowed in May.  In Charlotte, we don’t get snow storms in May, but I still waited until yesterday to plant my tomatoes.    

My last association with Memorial Day has to do with my birthday, which is tomorrow.   Since Memorial Day and my birthday are always so close together, the two days blur together in my addled brain.  However, I will always remember that on my second birthday I got a wonderful birthday present, although I did not recognize it at the time.  My sister, Anna, was born on my second birthday.  According to my parents, when they brought Anna home from the hospital, they told me that she was my birthday present, and I reportedly said, “But I wanted a truck.” 

So those are my associations with Memorial Day.  Whatever you are doing on this Memorial Day, I hope it’s a day to remember.

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:

Balaka Basu received a 2014 Faculty Research Grant from the Children’s Literature Association for a project titled “Playing the Game:  Reading Digitally with Children’s Literature.”

Ron Lunsford presented a paper titled “Manipulative Arguments in Political Speech” at EPICS VI:  Sixth International Symposium on Intercultural. Cognitive and Social Pragmatics, which took place in Seville, Spain, from May 12-15, 2014.  

Liz Miller recently learned that her co-edited volume titled Interdisciplinary Approaches to Theorizing and Analyzing Agency and Second Language Learning has been accepted for publication by Multilingual Matters. Her co-editors include Ping Deters, Xuesong Gao and Gergana Vitanova.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is a date to keep in mind:

May 27 — Aaron Gwyn will read from his new novel, Wynne’s War, at Park Road Books at 7:00 pm.

Quirky Quiz Question — The subject of Balaka Basu’s recent faculty research grant (see above) relates to her larger research project on the relationship between games and children’s literature.  She is currently on a research trip related to this project.  Where is the world is Balaka Basu?