Monday Missive

Of War and Literature — With the publication of Wynne’s War, Aaron Gwyn joins an impressive list of authors and poets who have responded through their writing to war and al of war’s complexities and high costs. As is the case with Aaron’s novel, many war stories combine intensely personal stories and far larger stories of geo-political conflict. This summer marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War One, and there are many great works of literature that respond to this war. In my view, Wynne’s War and its depiction of the complexities of the current war in Afghanistan pairs up well with some of the war novels that deal with the complexities of the First World War. Here is a list of a few literary works about World War One that I recommend:

C.S. Foster’s The African Queen (1935)
Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms 1929).
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside (1921).
Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
Jeff Shaara’s To the Last Man (2005)
Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun (1939)
Candace Ward’s World War One British Poets (1997)

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:

Liz Miller recently presented a talk to the Linguistic Circle at the University of Edinburgh titled “Adult Immigrants’ ‘Theories of Agency’ as Dialogical Performatives.”

Meaghan Rand received her Ph.D. in the Urban Literacy (English) at the recent commencement ceremony. Tony Scott directed her dissertation, and Lil Brannon participated at the ceremony to “hood” her. She currently is a full-time Lecturer in the FYW program.

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

May 20 — Last day to add or drop a class with no grade for the first summer session.

Quirky Quiz Question — Aaron Gwyn’s Wynne’s War deals with the current war in Afghanistan. The publication of this novel reminds me that Angie William’s son served a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Does anyone know his first name?

Commencement — Last Saturday the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences held its first stand-alone commencement ceremony, and for nearly 90 of our students, this ceremony marked their transition from current students to graduates. A total of 14 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, 15 earned the distinction of Cum Laude (GPA between 3.4-3.7), 7 earned the distinction of Magna Cum Laude (GPA between 3.7-3.9), and 5 earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (GPA between 3.9-4.0). This total comes to 27 students, which means that 36.5% of our graduate seniors earned this special distinction. I am very proud of all of our graduating students, but I want to mention by name the 5 students who earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude. Their names are Kristin Nichole Brown, Yekaterina N. Dolmatova, Mary-Elizabeth Greene, Sarah Elizabeth Story, and Breanne Elaine Weber.

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:

Monica Alston recently completed all of the training workshops to earn certification in the Grants and Contract Administration Program. She will receive her certificate this afternoon during a special ceremony for the staff who have completed this rigorous training program.

Ron Lunsford recently learned that a book he co-edited some years ago titled Linguistic Perspectives on Literature has just been re-released by Routledge Library Editions.

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

May 19 — Classes for the first summer session begin on May 19.

May 20 — Last day to add or drop a class with no grade.

Quirky Quiz Question — The recent re-release on Ron Lunsford’s book Linguistic Perspectives on Literature underscores for me many ways in which members of our department combine linguistics and literature. Another example of this approach is the recent publication of a special issue of the Southern Journal of Linguistics on “Linguistics and Child Literature.” Who is the member of our department who served as the guest editor of this issue?

Two long-time friends of the English Department are about to retire.  Jo Ann Fernald (the Director of the Office of Disability Services) and Pamela King (the Director of Sponsored Research for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) are both retiring at the end of this academic year.  Like many of you, I have had extensive contact with both of these colleagues, and I have long been impressed with their professionalism and dedication.   Over the years, Jo Ann has helped me better serve my students who have various disabilities, and I know that she and her staff have helped countless students succeed in their studies at UNC Charlotte.   My connections with Pam King go back to the day she interviewed for her current position.  I was working in the Dean’s office at the time, and I remember thinking that she would be a perfect person for the position.  In her ten years at UNC Charlotte, Pam has not only provided leadership and expertise in the area of sponsored research, but she has also played a major role in cultivating the College’s support for research.  I’ve long been impressed with her willingness to help all faculty members with their grant proposals even if their grants were for comparatively small amounts of money.  Both Jo Ann and Pam are looking forward to their new adventures, and I know that we all wish them well, but they should also know that they will be missed.

Graduate Program News — Pilar Blitvich and I recently talked about encouraging developments in our graduate program, and we thought we should share some of this news the department.  In addition to our regular seven TAships, tied to the WRC/FYWP, this year we were able to secure two exceptional student awards, which waive the student’s first-year tuition costs, and two New Time Limited Assistantship funds ($10,000 each). Furthermore, our three prospect courses (taught by Jen, Kirk, and Ralf) also generated Taships.  Moreover, we were able to offer a Dean’s Graduate Scholar Award to an incoming English Education student.  We are also very pleased to report that Robin Kello was awarded the Russell Robinson Scholarship.

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 published a co-authored article titled  “Despierten, Latinos” (Wake up, Latinos): Latino Identity, US politics, and YouTube” in Journal of Language and Politics.  She has also had a number of other articles and book chapters recently accepted for publication. 

Kaitlyn Chapman, an undergraduate student in Jen Munroe’s interdisciplinary honors course on food systems and sustainability, won first place for the Honors College for her poster at the recent Undergraduate Research Conference. 

Nicholas DeArmas, one of our graduate students, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program in rhetoric and composition at the University of Central Florida with full funding. 

Alan Rauch recently learned that Scientific Americans : The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early-twentieth-century U.S. Literature and Culture by John Bruni was just published in the series that Alan edits (with Martin Willis)  for University of Wales Press (distributed in the US by University of Chicago Press) called Intersections in Literature and Science.  It is the first book in the series.  Also,  Alan was the sole guest on Charlotte Talks on April 25th (http://wfae.org/post/alan-rauch).  He discussed his book Dolphin.

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

May 10 — The CLAS Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 10^th beginning at 10:00 a.m.  Please forward the letter to all EPA and SPA staff members in your departments.April 30 — The English Department meeting will take place in the Library (Atkins Room 130) from 11:00-12:30.

May 12 — Final grades for the Spring 2014 semester must be submitted by Monday, May 12th at noon. 

Quirky Quiz Question — Alan’s news about being a recent guest on the radio show titled Charlotte Talks underscores for me the importance of this show in terms of Charlotte’s cultural scene.  Who is the host of this show?  For extra credit, who are some other English faculty members who have recently been guests on Charlotte Talks?  

Earth Day – Today is John Muir’s birthday, and tomorrow is Earth Day. These two dates belong together, for John Muir (1838-1914) played a key role in the early days of the conservation movement.  Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks.  He was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, President Theodore Roosevelt, and many other major figures who shared his commitment to preserving the natural environment.  Throughout his career, Muir enjoyed writing about his experiences as a naturalist and his observations of special places, such as the Sierra.  As we look forward to celebrating Earth Day, we should note that the English Department has faculty members who share Muir’s interest in promoting the natural environment.  Two who come immediately to mind are Greg Wickliff and Jen Munroe.

Greg regularly teaches a summer course called “Writing about Place.”  In this course, Greg has his students immerse themselves in a particular place and then write about that place in terms of its natural resources as well as its human inhabitants, both past and present.  This summer, Greg is having his students write about Badin, North Carolina.  Located on the Yadkin River, this small twon is about forty miles east of UNC Charlotte.  It is also a significant archeological site, and research indicates that humans have lived in this area for more than 12,000 years.

Jen has established herself as a leader in the University’s sustainability initiatives, but she has also made a name for herself in the area of eco-criticism.  Her scholarship in this area is reflected in her books Making Gardens of Their Own:  Gardening Manuals for Women, 1500-1750 (2007), Gender and the Garden in Early Modern English Literature (2008), and Ecofeminist Approaches to Early Modernity (2011).   Last month Jen received a contract for a new co-authored monograph titled Shakespeare and Ecofeminist Theory.  It will appear as part of the Arden “Shakespeare and Theory” series. 

The celebration of Earth Day helps us remember the importance of preserving and understanding our natural environment, but only so much can be accomplished in one day.  Through teaching and scholarship, Greg and Jen help sustain throughout the year the goals we associate with Earth Day.  I am sure John Muir would approve.

Leadership — I am pleased to report that we now have three more faculty members who have completed the leadership program offered by the ADVANCE Faculty Affairs Office.  These faculty members are Pilar Blitvich, Liz Miller, and Aaron Toscano.  By participating in this program, these and the other faculty members who have already gone through this program are positioning themselves to play leaderships roles in the department as well as the wider university.  Jeffrey Leak, for example, is a previous participant in the ADVANCE Program, and he is now one of two candidates for the position of Faculty President.  In my opinion, one of the great strengths of the English Department is the willingness of our faculty and staff to serve in leadership roles.

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:

Andrew Hartley was the subject of a feature article that ran in last Sunday’s Charlotte Observer.  Here is the link to the article: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/18/4850175/unc-charlottes-andrew-hartley.html#.U1VPiRlmWTg

Lisa McAlister, one of our current graduate students, recently presented a paper titled “Relational Knowledge and the Knowledge of Power between the Human and the Nonhuman in Early Modern Culture: The Knowledge of Experience and the Knowledge of Experiment” at the joint University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and King’s College London (UNC/KCL) Graduate Student Conference.

Liz Miller will be a guest speaker—via Skype—in a doctoral class at Pennsylvania State University this evening.

Jacqueline Plante, one of our former M.A. students, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a fellowship that includes five years of funding.  She plans to study twentieth-century poetry and digital humanities.

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

April 24-26 — The Shakespeare in Action Initiative is sponsoring a workshop titled “Devising Shakespeare:  The Shrew Project.”  The workshop will take place in the Black Box Theater in Robinson Hall, starting at 7:30 (Thursday-Saturday).  Andrew Hartley, Kirk Melnikoff, and Jen Munroe all helped organize this event.

April 30 — The English Department Student Awards Ceremony will take place in the Dale Halton Room in the Library from 12:30-2:00.   

Quirky Quiz Question — I first took an interest in John Muir when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin.  Muir lived in Madison and attended the University of Wisconsin, although he never graduated.  We have several faculty members in the English Department who have degrees from the University of Wisconsin.  Name one of these faculty members.

I just got back from presenting a paper at the 5th Annual Public Intellectuals Conference.  This conference has a cap of 25 participants, and it’s unlike any other conference that I regularly attend.  Everyone sits around a conference table for two days.  Each participant gives a presentation for about 15 minutes, and then the entire group discusses the presentation for another 15 minutes.  The conference is amazingly interdisciplinary in nature.  This year the participants included scholars from English, history, sociology, psychology, communication studies, political science, and philosophy.   The experience of interacting in a scholarly way with academics from such diverse backgrounds underscored for me the value of approaching problems and topics from a variety of academic disciplines.

From my perspective, one of the great strengths of our English Department is our receptivity to interdisciplinary studies.  This strength is reflected in the active participation of our faculty in the American Studies Program, the Center for the Study of the New South, the Gerontology Program, the IDEAS (Infrastructure, Design, Environment, and Sustainability) Center, the M.A. Program in Liberal Studies, the Minor in Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies, and the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.   There are more faculty from the English Department represented among the directors of such programs than from any other department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Jennie Mussington and Her Super Powers — A month or two ago I was channel surfing when I came upon a show on the History Channel called Stan Lee’s Superhumans:  Real Humans with Super Abilities.  I watched for a few minutes and saw a young man jump over a car racing toward him at 60 miles per hour (do not try this at home or the parking deck).  I know only one person with super human abilities, and that person is Jennie Mussington.  Jennie has an uncanny ability to win contests.  Over the years, Jennie has won five TVs, a Jeep, a camper, a bicycle, a trip to San Francisco to watch a 49ers game, sports memorabilia, and lots of smaller prizes.  This past weekend she won $104 from a local radio station. Jumping over moving cars is impressive, but I am even more impressed with Jennie’s super powers. 

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

Boyd Davis‘s proposal to the Veterans Administration, “Story-Call: E-mobile Support for Community Caregivers of Veterans with Dementia,” has been selected for funding. This is a 3-year project.

Susan Gardner, together with Vail Carter (UNC Charlotte’s first Native American graduate), gave a presentation at UNC Pembroke this past weekend. The title of their presentation is “Why Is Telling Our Lives a Subversive Thing to Do?”  

Janaka Lewis recently presented a paper titled “A Black Woman’s Guide to Freedom and Southern Conduct” at the College Language Association Conference in New Orleans.  

Kirk Melnikoff led the workshop “Digital Resources for the Early Modern Book Trade” at the annual Shakespeare Association of America meeting in St. Louis.

Juan Meneses has an essay in the recently published collection The Paradox of Authenticity in a Globalized World (Palgrave). The title of the essay is “‘Like in the Gringo Movies’: Translatorese and the Global in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666.”

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

April 15 — Elly Bavidge from Kingston University in London will give a presentation titled “London on Film” in the English Department Seminar Room from 3:30-4:30.

April 30 — The English Department Student Awards Ceremony will take place in the Dale Halton Room in the Library from 12:30-2:00.   

Quirky Quiz Question — The faculty in the English Department serve as the directors of several interdisciplinary programs/centers.  Name the directors of the following interdisciplinary programs/centers:

American Studies Program

Center for the Study of  the New South

M.A. Program in Liberal Studies

One Book. One week.  One community— The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is sponsoring a week-long,  community-wide reading of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.  This project will take place from April 13-19, and it involves many related events at the various library branches and other places in the community.  I am scheduled to lead a book discussion at the the Beatties Ford Road Branch of the library on April 17 from 6:00-7:30.  For more information about these various events, please click on the following link: www.cmlibrary.org/onebook

Fahrenheit 451 came out in 1953, the height of the McCarthy era, and the book’s anti-censorship theme had direct connections to the wave of censorship that was sweeping America at the time. However, the problem of censorship is not, unfortunately, a relic of days gone by.  Just last month In our neighboring state of South Carolina, the state’s legislators voted to cut state funding to the University of South Carolina Upstate and to the College of Charleston to punish these institutions of higher learning for assigning LGBT books.  The two books these legislators are attacking are Out Loud:  The Best of Rainbow Reading and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. As Ray Bradbury makes so clear in Fahrenheit 451, the suppression of books is really about the suppression of ideas and ultimately the suppression of people.  Bradbury’s classic is 60 years old, but the theme of his book is still very relevant to our world and our time.

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:

Liz Miller recently attended the annual conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics in Portland, Oregon. She co-organized a colloquium on “Socially Mediated Agency and Second Language Learning: Theory, Analysis, Pedagogy” which included scholars from Finland, Sweden, France, Spain, Canada and the US. She also presented a paper titled “Social Sustainability: Is there a Definition in the House?”.  This past weekend she presented a poster titled “Starting the Conversation: Social Sustainability as Discursive Object” at the second annual conference of the Integrated Network for Social Sustainability, hosted at the Center City building in Charlotte. She also spoke on the same topic to the full assembly.

Becky Roeder and Matt Hunt Gardner (U Toronto) recently presented a paper titled “A Tale of Two Phonologies: English in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia” at the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics.

Erika Romero, one of our M.A. Students, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at Illinois State University, with full funding.  She plans to study children’s literature.

Ralf Thiede recently presented a paper titled  “Grammar for Writing: Discovering the Language of Power and the Power of Language” at the Southeastern Conference on Linguistics.

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

April 11 — The EGSA Professional Day will take place throughout the afternoon.

Quirky Quiz Question — The central character in Fahrenheit 451 is Guy Montag.  What is Guy’s job?

Divine Discontent— Last Thursday marked the first day of spring, and for me the arrival of spring always brings to mind the opening chapter of The Wind in the Willows.  In this chapter, Mole is spring cleaning when he is overcome by the mood of the season:  “Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.”   This weekend, I felt a sense of kinship with Mole.  I spent much of the weekend reading a dissertation written by a graduate student in the College of Education.  I am a member of the student’s dissertation committee, so I really had no choice in the matter.  Still, when the sun came out yesterday afternoon, I joined Mole as he “bolted out of the house.”  I grabbed my shovel, dug up one end of my garden, and planted some radish seeds and lettuce seeds, and my sense of discontent subsided a bit.  As we head into the final stretch of the spring semester, I hope that you are able to carve out a little time to share with Mole “the delight of spring without its cleaning.”

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:

Kirk Melnikoff ran a workshop on “Digital Tools and Resources for Exploring the Early Modern Book Trade” at the Renaissance Association of America’s Annual Meeting in New York City.

Paula Rawlins, one of our former M.A. Students, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Georgia, with four years of funding.  She plans to study contemporary Southern literature.

Aaron Toscano presented a paper titled “Outsourcing Technical Writing: Multiple Technical Writing Futures” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Indianapolis, IN.

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

April 3 — Henrietta Goodman will read and discuss her poetry on Thursday, April 3, at 6:00 pm in the English Department Lounge.   She is a 1991 graduate of UNC Charlotte’s English Department and is the author of two widely acclaimed books of poetry: Take What You Want (2006) and Hungry Moon (2013).

April 11 — The EGSA Professional Day will take place throughout the afternoon.

Quirky Quiz Question — In the beginning of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, Mole bolts out of his home and ends up having a picnic that consists of “coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscressandwidgespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater.”  With whom does he share this picnic?

Graduate Research Symposium — This past Saturday I attended the 2014 Graduate Research Symposium. Two of our graduate students delivered presentations at this event. Laura Erturk gave a presentation titled “The Construction of Race and Identity in the American Stand-up Comedy of George Lopez and Margaret Cho.” Brook Blaylock gave a presentation titled “Now and Then: The Twin Voices of Narrative and Cultural Identification in Nick Lake’s In Darkness.” Both Laura and Brook gave polished and thoughtful presentations. During the awards ceremony at the end of the day, Laura received an award for delivering one of the top presentations in the humanities category. In addition to Laura and Brook, we had a number of other graduate students who served as volunteers throughout the day-long symposium. These students were Traci Cruey, Sarah Davis, Jessica Morton, Erika Romero, and Jennifer Vogt. All of these graduate students impressed me with their high level of engagement and professionalism.

Mary Turner Harper — For those of you who have long-time associations with the English Department, you will remember Dr. Mary Turner Harper. A specialist in African American literature, she taught in our department during the 1970s and ’80s. She is interviewed in this week’s edition of Inside UNC Charlotte. Here is the link: http://inside.uncc.edu/inside-unc-charlotte-looks-legacy-mary-harper-and-herman-thomas

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:

Lil Brannon received $20,000 grant from the National Writing Project for Preparing Teacher Leaders in the Teaching of Writing. Also, she just returned from the Conference of College Composition and Communication s where she received the Braddock Award and gave a paper titled “Critical Creativity and Rhetorics of the Body Politic.”

Paula Connolly recently learned that her book Slavery in American Children’s Literature has been selected as one of the four books that will be featured during the 2014-2015 Personally Speaking Series. She is scheduled to give her presentation on March 24, 2015.

Juan Meneses presented a paper titled “Futurities of Resistance: Thatcher and Contemporary Neoliberalism in Ian McEwan’s The Child in Time” at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference.

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

March 26 — Last day for students to withdraw from a course with the grade of W.

April 3 — Henrietta Goodman will read and discuss her poetry on Thursday, April 3, at 6:00 pm in the English Department Lounge. She is a 1991 graduate of UNC Charlotte’s English Department and is the author of two widely acclaimed books of poetry: Take What You Want (2006) and Hungry Moon (2013).

Quirky Quiz Question — I am looking forward to Henrietta Goodman’s poetry reading on April 3rd. Thinking about this reading, I am reminded that we now have another talented poet in the department who is teaching creative writing courses for us as a part-time faculty member. What is the name of this part-time faculty member?

St. Patrick’s Day — I am going to be out of the office tomorrow, so I decided to send you my Monday Missive on Sunday instead.  As I am sure you know, Monday is also St. Patrick’s Day, which of course has lots of Irish connotations. Those of us without Irish connections, however,  can still get in on the fun.  I remember last year seeing a Muslim woman student wearing an emerald green scarf on St. Patrick’s Day.  

Over the history of the English Department, we have had several faculty members who have published scholarly works on famous Irish writers.  Perhaps the most notable example is Fred Smith, who served as Chair of the English Department from 1984 through 1990.  Fred published a great deal about the famous Irish writer Jonathan Swift. Fred’s book titled The Genres of Gulliver’s Travels was widely praised when it came out in 1990.  

Whether you have Irish connections or not, I wish you all a happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Children’s Literature Association Conference — Three of our graduate students have recently had papers accepted for presentation at the upcoming Children’s Literature Association Conference, which will take place in Columbia, South Carolina, in June.  These students are Brook Blaylock, Traci Cruey, and Julia Morris.   Also, Joanne Rohan, one of our former graduate students, had a paper accepted.   There will be plenty of faculty members to keep an eye on these students when they present their papers.  Balaka Basu, Paula Connolly, Sarah Minslow, Daniel Shealy, and I will also be giving presentations at the conference.  I should point out that the paper selection process was very competitive, so the fact that so many students and faculty from UNC Charlotte received acceptances reflects well on our department.

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

Balaka Basu received a Faculty Research Grant from the Children’s Literature Association to support her project titled Playing the Game:  Reading Digitally with Children’s Literature.

Paula Connolly‘s book Slavery in American Children’s Literature just received a rave review in Slavery and Abolition:  A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies.  

Sarah Minslow presented a paper titled “Teaching War and Genocide in Children’s Literature” at a conference titled Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing, and Teaching Genocide at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Maya Socolovsky presented a paper titled“Material Commodities and Judaism in a Wireless World: Exploring Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector,” at MELUS, Oklahoma City, OK. 

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

March 20 — In honor of Women’s History Month, please join English/AFRS 2301 and 4050-5050 for “A Celebration of Women’s Literature” featuring poet and playwright Murhl Bussey.  The evening will feature an open mic session (you may bring a short piece written by a woman author to share) and a reading of an excerpt of Bussey’s play “The Devil’s Playground.” The event will be held on Thursday, March 20 at 6 pm in McKnight Hall, Cone Center.

March 21 — Becky Roeder will give a presentation titled “Understanding Accent:  The Canadian Shift as Default” in the Conferecne Room from 1:00-2:00.  This presentation is sponsored by the Development Committee.  

Quirky Quiz Question — After publishing extensively on Jonathan Swift, Fred Smith switched his research to another Irish writer.  This writer is especially famous for his play Waiting for Godot.  What is the name of this writer?