Monday Missive

Making Connections through Literature — Last week my wife and I traveled to Stockholm so that I could research the connections between Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren and Junibacken.  Promoted as a “children’s cultural center with books at its heart,” Junibacken combines the elements of an interactive children’s museum, a children’s theater, and a children’s bookstore. Junibacken opened to the public in June 1996, and Lindgren attended the opening.  I knew before I took this trip that Lindgren played an important role in the creation of Junibacken, but I wanted to learn more about the details of Lindgren’s involvement.  

For me, the high point of this trip was the time I spent interviewing Sanna Pedersen, who serves as the Manager of Public Operations at Junibacken.  We talked for three and a half hours about Lindgren’s life, her children’s books, and her participation in the design of Junibacken.   I had never met Sanna before this interview, but we found it easy to talk for hours since we both share an interest in Lindgren’s contributions to the world of children’s literature.  

As I walked back to the hotel after concluding my interview with Sanna, I thought about the role that literature can play in helping us make connections with other people.   When we share a familiarity with the same stories, we automatically have much to discuss.  In a sense, literature can provide us with a cultural common ground, and that certainly was the case in my interview with Sanna.  However, literature can play a similar role on a far larger scale.  In Sweden, Lindgren’s children’s stories are an important part of the national culture.  Nearly everyone in Sweden has read at least some of Lindgren’s children’s books.  This common literary experience has become one of the connecting points that brings Swedes together but not in an exclusive sort of way.  All one needs to do to join the conversation and become part of this aspect of Swedish culture is read some of Lindgren’s children’s books.  Such is the power and magic of literature.  

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:

Allison Hutchcraft published a poem titled “So I Try to Picture the Priests” in the summer issue of Five Points..

Janaka Lewis recently presented a paper titled “Girlhood Remembrance in African American Literature” at the second MLA International Symposium in Lisbon.

Kirk Melnikoff signed a contract to contribute the chapter “Agents of Book Making: Publishers” to The Oxford Handbook of the Book in Early Modern England (Oxford University Press, 2021).

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:
August 12— Final grades for the second summer session courses are due by noon on Monday, August 12.

Quirky Quiz Question — Astrid Lindgren’s most famous character is a girl named Pippi Longstocking.   Pippi has a pet named Mr. Nilsson.  What sort of animal is Mr. Nilsson?

Last week’s answer: Australia

Sarah Minslow is a native of North Carolina, but she actually holds citizenship in two countries.  What is the name of the other country she is a citizen of in addition to being a citizen of the United States? 

Participating in the Personally Speaking Series — While reading the current issue of Exchange, I experienced a brief moment of disbelief when I started reading Susan Jetton’s article titled “Personally Speaking Series:  Authors Series Uncovers Stories Behind the Books.”  In the first sentence, Susan writes that the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is about to “kick off the 10th season” of the Personally Speaking Series.  For a second, I felt certain that Susan must have made a mistake about this 10th season business since it seems to me that the Personally Speaking Series just started a few years ago.  However, Susan was right.  Dean Nancy Gutierrez started the series ten years ago.  In launching this series, she set out to create a forum for CLAS authors not only to talk about their recently published books but also to share the stories behind the writing of these books.  

I am pleased to report that members of the English Department have participated in this series throughout its ten-year history.  During the first season of the series, Tony Jackson gave a presentation based on his book The Technology of the Novel:  Writing and Narrative in British Fiction.  Since then Aimee Parkison gave a presentation on The Innocent Party, Paula Connolly talked about Slavery in American Children’s Literature, 1790-2010, Jeffrey Leak presented on Visible Man:  The Life of Henry Dumas, Alan Rauch discussed Dolphin, and Paula Eckard spoke about Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature.  During last year’s season, two members of the English Department participated in the series.  Janaka Lewis gave a presentation about Freedom Narratives of African American Women:  A Study of 19th-Century Writings, and Bryn Chancellor talked about her novel, Sycamore.The English Department will again be represented during the upcoming season of the Personally Speaking Series.  Jennifer Munroe will give a presentation on Shakespeare and Ecofeminist Theory, which she co-wrote with Rebecca Laroche.  The exact date of Jen’s presentation is not yet set, but it will be in the spring 2020 semester.  

Although I still find it hard to believe that the Personally Speaking Series is marking its 10th anniversary, I am proud that so many members of the English Department have participated in this innovative series over the years. 

Thank You, Sarah Minslow — Last Friday was Sarah Minslow’s last day as our English Department advisor.  Sarah has done an excellent job as our advisor, and I know that we will all miss her.  I also know that we all wish her the very best as she starts her new position as a tenure-track assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles. 

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

August 12— Final grades for the second summer session courses are due by noon on Monday, August 12.  

Quirky Quiz Question — Sarah Minslow is a native of North Carolina, but she actually holds citizenship in two countries.  What is the name of the other country she is a citizen of in addition to being a citizen of the United States?

Last week’s answer: Morocco

Casablanca is set in a country located in north Africa.  What is the name of this country?

Partnering with Kingston University — On Friday of last week, Provost Joan Lorden officially approved our proposed MA/MFA Dual Degree Program with Kingston University.  Since her counterpart at Kingston University had already signed the agreement, we are now cleared to launch this dual degree program in creative writing.  We will begin the process of launching the program this coming fall semester, and we expect to enroll students in the program starting in the fall 2020 semester. 

The approval of our MA/MFA dual degree program with Kingston University marks the culmination of a long and complex negotiation process involving many administrators from both UNC Charlotte and Kingston University.  It also, however, marks an important moment in our English Department’s long relationship with Kingston University.  UNC Charlotte and Kingston University have been partners since 1981, and members of our department have participated in this partnership in various ways over the years.  

Two members of our English Department have served as the Kingston Resident Director, which is a position that involves advising UNC Charlotte students who participate in our longstanding exchange program with Kingston University.  Susan Gardner served as the Resident Director during the 2006-07 academic year, and Beth Gargano served in this position during the 2012-13 academic year.

Our English Department has also hosted several visiting writers from Kingston University.  The first of these writers was Micah Nathan, who taught an advanced fiction writing course for us during the spring 2015 semester.  In 2016, Michelle Cahill visited the department followed by Howard Cunnell in 2017.  Last year poet and critic Siobhán Campbell visited the department and also participated in our Center City Literary Festival.  Kirk Melnikoff, Allison Hutchcraft, and Bryn Chancellor played key roles in organizing these visits.

Our faculty exchange program with Kingston University has also involved members of our department leading workshops and giving readings at Kingston University.  Over the years, Aimee Parkison, Andrew Hartley, and Allison Hutchcraft have all participated in activities organized by Kingston University’s creative writing program.  I should also note that James McGavran was scheduled to teach a course on memoir writing at Kingston University, but his unexpected death prevented him from teaching this course.

With the implementation of our MA/MFA dual degree program, our longstanding relationship with Kingston University has evolved into a true collaboration.  I am reminded of the famous line from the end of Casablanca in which Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, says, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”  

Allison Hutchcraft’s “Good News!” —  Last week Allison Hutchcraft sent me an email that started with this re message: “Good News!”  I like good news, so I opened her email right away, and I was thrilled to read the following:  “I’m writing with very good news. My poetry collection Swale has been named the 2019 Editor’s Choice by New Issues Poetry & Prose and will be published in the fall of 2020. I am ecstatic. I’ve long admired New Issues and the wonderful poets they publish, and I am honored to be in their company.” 

In my opinion, this news deserves more than one measly explanation mark.  I know that Allison is a very talented poet and all, but I think that her re message needs to be revised.  Here is my edited version:  “Fantastic News!!!!!!!!!”  For more information about Allison’s Fantastic News!!!!!!!!!, please click on the following link:  https://newissuespress.com/

Quirky Quiz Question — Casablanca is set in a country located in north Africa.  What is the name of this country?

Last week’s answer: John Travolta

Welcome Back, Kotter launched the acting career of a now-famous actor.  This actor has starred in such films as Urban Cowboy and Pulp Fiction.  What is the name of this actor?

Welcome Back, Liz Miller — Liz Miller made her triumphant return to Charlotte last week after spending four months in Germany doing research for her Fulbright Research Fellowship.  We chatted for half an hour when she stopped by the department to pick up her mail.  I asked her to write up an account of her Fulbright adventure for this week’s Monday Missive.  Here is her response:

I returned to Charlotte last week, deeply grateful for the four months I was able to spend at the University of Cologne in Germany on a Fulbright Research Fellowship. Dr. Chris Bongartz, whom many of you know from when she taught in our English Department in the early 2000s, was my Fulbright host, and her Ph.D. student, Manu Vida-Mannl, whom some of you met a few years ago when she taught a summer class for our department, got me set up with office space and taught me how to use the English Department’s temperamental scanner and copy machine (some features of university department life are universal!). Dr. Jan Springob, Director of the International Working Group at the Center for Teacher Education at the university and former Ph.D. student of Chris Bongartz, put me in contact with a number of English language teachers in Gymnasium schools (grades 5-13). Because of his quick intervention, I was able to conduct my first interview already by the end of my second week in Germany.

I conducted interviews with eighteen language teachers in the Cologne area as well as seven interviews with teachers of Norwegian in Oslo, these with the help of my colleague Dr. Anne Golden over my several-day visit to the University of Oslo. These twenty-five interviews from Germany and Norway are part of a larger study on the emotional labor of language teachers that I have undertaken with a colleague at the University of Essex. I’m still transcribing and analyzing this latest round of interviews, but I have already learned a lot from these remarkable individuals just from interacting with them.

In many cases, I met the teachers at their schools during their break periods. It came as something of a shock when I realized that I could walk into a school and not have someone check my I.D. or need administrative approval to enter the building. The teachers appear to have far more autonomy in terms of inviting someone into their schools than we are used to in the U.S.  One of the highlights for me followed an interview with a teacher who invited me to hang around a bit longer and meet her fifth grade English class. They were noisy and curious and happy to practice their English by asking me questions such as about my favorite color, favorite animal, favorite sport, favorite “wideo” game (for which I had no answer!), favorite Netflix series, among other topics. There was one particularly sweet moment when a student asked me what my job was, and when I told him that I was a university professor, I heard a number of appreciative “ohs” around the room.

My time in Germany was personally fulfilling too, beyond the research work. I explored Cologne, a lovely city on the Rhine with a famous and amazingly beautiful cathedral, mostly on foot, but I also learned how to get around on their integrated train-tram-bus system. I took advantage of my easy access to other European cities on several occasions and traveled around a bit in Germany. I used my “schrecklich” (dreadful) German nearly every day in basic service encounters. I often missed important details and nuances of meaning in these interactions but could still manage to get business done and occasionally could enjoy some friendly chit chat. On one such occasion, a Korean restaurant owner excitedly showed me photos on her phone that she had taken the week before of Barack Obama’s visit to the city. As someone who does research on adult language learners, it was interesting to once again experience what it “feels” like to be the linguistic and cultural outsider, though, of course, many Germans and other Europeans whom I interacted with are highly proficient in English.

I’m happy to chat with anyone who is considering applying for a Fulbright and share what I learned about the process.

Liz’s return reminds me of a television show from the 1970s called Welcome Back, Kotter, which is about the return of a teacher. There is a line from the show’s theme song that applies as much to Liz as it does to Kotter:  “Welcome back … back here where we need ya.” 

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:

Valerie Bright published an article titled “Pure Belpré and the Planting of Stories” in the Summer 2019 issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.Allison Hutchcraft published two poems in Image. Her poem “Calenture,” originally published in Boulevard, was also featured on Verse Daily this June.

Janaka Lewis published an article titled “Childhood, Race, and Gender in James Baldwin’s Little Man, Little Man” in the Summer 2019 issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.

Quirky Quiz Question — Welcome Back, Kotter launched the acting career of a now-famous actor.  This actor has starred in such films as Urban Cowboy and Pulp Fiction.  What is the name of this actor?

Last week’s answer: Good Eats

My Dad’s preference for grilling over charcoal is shared by Alton Brown of the Food Network.  Brown said that he uses a gas grill for hotdogs and hamburgers, but when grilling chicken, fish, or steak, “it’s charcoal or nothing.”  Brown became famous for a series that ran on the Food Network from 1999 through 2012.  What is the name of this series?

Independence Day — My father was born on July 4, 1928, so I always think about him every Fourth of July.  Some of my most distinct memories of my father from my childhood years relate to his elaborate fire-worshiping ritual, otherwise known as outdoor grilling. On special occasions, such as the Fourth of July, Dad was always ready to shed his identity as a dentist and get in touch with his inner caveman self. Like most men of his generation, Dad seldom cooked in the kitchen, but his reluctance to cook disappeared if it involved grilling meat outdoors. 

For my father, grilling was a primal pleasure. He would have nothing to do with the then newfangled gas grills. He wouldn’t even use lighter fluid. Like our Cro-Magnon ancestors, he would set kindling on fire, although he did use a match instead of flint.  After the fire was burning steadily, he would add the charcoal briquettes. He always maintained that meat that wasn’t cooked over charcoal just didn’t taste as good. 

As the eldest cave boy, I was the apprentice fire-maker. I gathered the kindling and helped Dad build the fire. He explained to me that the first step was to place a layer of wadded-up newspapers on the bottom of the grill. He then showed me how to arrange the kindling in a carefully constructed grid pattern. 

When I asked him why he bothered to arrange the kindling that way, he said it helped the charcoal get started faster because the briquettes would get caught on his grid. This explanation didn’t make any sense to me, but I didn’t say anything. I knew that someday I would be in charge of making the fire, and then I’d put Dad’s grid theory to the test. 

I was 13 when my chance to be a solo fire-maker arrived.  It was toward the end of June, and Dad called Mom to say that he was working late that day.  He and Mom discussed dinner plans, and they decided to have grilled steaks. In order to speed things up, Mom suggested that I get the fire going while he was driving home. The drive took Dad about 40 minutes, which I thought was plenty of time to accomplish my mission. I scrounged up the kindling and wadded up the newspapers like a well-trained cave boy, but then I rebelled. When I placed the kindling in the grill, I deliberately avoided arranging the sticks in a grid pattern.

I had just put the charcoal on the fire when my father pulled into the driveway. He rushed over to the grill to inspect my work and was appalled when he saw that the charred sticks weren’t arranged in a grid. He found a garden tool designed to dig up dandelion roots and used it to push around the burning sticks in a futile effort to arrange them according to his grid method. 

While he was brandishing his red-hot dandelion tool, I noticed that the charcoal briquettes were doing just fine. My error, I decided, was that I had taken too long to build the fire.  For the rest of that summer, Dad and I battled over the grill. About once a week, Mom would tell me to get the fire going, and then I would rush to have it finished before Dad came home. Now that I was the heretical cave boy, I always refused to arrange the sticks in a grid, but I got to be so fast that the charcoal was usually ready for cooking before Dad could even pick up his dandelion tool. Still, he always made a point of inspecting my fire as soon as he got out of his car, and if the sticks were still burning, he would make a feeble effort to rearrange them to his liking. 

The summer of my fiery rebellion was over 50 years ago.  However, every Fourth of July, I remember my Dad and our shared love of grilling outdoors using charcoal.   In fact, this past weekend I grilled chicken kabobs, and in honor of my late father’s upcoming 91st birthday, I used his grid system to light the charcoal.   As my father always maintained, meat cooked any other way just doesn’t taste as good.

News from Recent Graduates of Our M.A. Program — I am always pleased when I hear news from our former students.  I recently received emails from two recent graduates of our M.A. program.  Peter Fields informed me that he just accepted the position of Assistant Learning Specialist for the Athletic Department at the University of South Florida in Tampa where he will work with at-risk student athletes.  Susan Diamond Riley wrote with exciting publication news.  She informed me that Young Palmetto Books, a division of the University of South Carolina Press, is publishing her mystery The Sea Island’s Secret this month.  For more information about the release of her mystery, please click on the following link: https://www.sc.edu/uscpress/books/2019/7974.html

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:

Pilar Blitvich recently learned that her co-edited special issue on im/politeness and globalization (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-pragmatics/special-issue/10SFM39G03G) won the Neal Norrick Award for best special issue of the year (2018). This is one of two awards presented yearly by the editors and the editorial board of the Journal of Pragmatics (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-pragmatics) which is the flagship journal in her field.

Katie Hogan recently presented a paper titled “Reading for Queer Disaster” at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference in Davis, California. 

Allison Hutchcraft presented creative work in a talk titled “Extinction’s Disasters” at the 2019 Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Conference in Davis, California.

Juan Meneses recently presented a paper titled “A Climate Without Borders: The Figure of the Foreigner in Contemporary Fiction” at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment conference in Davis, California. 

Matt Rowney co-organized a round table at the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment Conference titled “Literature from Below: Soil as Narrative, Soil as Substance.”  He presented a paper for this round table titled “Romantic Soil: Dirt and Growth in the Poetry of Felicia Hemans.”

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

July 1 — Final grades for the first summer session courses are due by noon on Monday, July 1.  July 1 —The first day of classes for the second summer session is Monday, July 1.

Quirky Quiz Question — My Dad’s preference for grilling over charcoal is shared by Alton Brown of the Food Network.  Brown said that he uses a gas grill for hotdogs and hamburgers, but when grilling chicken, fish, or steak, “it’s charcoal or nothing.”  Brown became famous for a series that ran on the Food Network from 1999 through 2012.  What is the name of this series?

Last week’s answer: Candide

What is the title of Voltaire’s famous work that includes the passage about caring for gardens.

Three Gardeners — Given that our first summer session is nearly over, I have a sense that we are already half way through the summer of 2019, but this sense is nonsense.  In reality, the summer of 2019 started on June 21, which was just last Friday.  The start of summer, after all, is dictated by the summer solstice, not by the Registrar’s Office and its academic calendar. 

The arrival of summer reminds me of my early attempts at planting a garden after moving to Charlotte in the summer of 1984.  My parents loved gardening, and I grew up helping them in our family’s various gardens. However, when I tried to replicate my parents’ approach to gardening here in Charlotte, I failed miserably.  I remember, for example, planting snow peas in June, just like my parents always did, only to see them wither up and die in the intense heat of July without producing a single snow pea.  I gradually realized that my parents’ approach to gardening worked perfectly in the cold climate and high altitude of my childhood home in the mountains of Colorado, but my parents’ approach was not at all suited to the growing conditions in Charlotte.

The person who attempted to teach me how to garden in the South was an English professor named James Hedges.  Jim, as he was generally known, was an avid gardener, and he often brought home-grown vegetables to share with everybody in the department.  Jim told me what plants grow best in our region.  He also told me when to plant them and how to prepare our dense, clay soil to make it more conducive to cultivating plants.  Jim was a linguist by training, but he also had an expertise in American folklore and occasionally taught courses on this topic.  He knew all sorts of folktales and folklore related to plants. For example, when I mentioned to Jim that pokeweed grew in my backyard, he told me about several folk remedies related to the perceived medicinal qualities associated with pokeweed.  He also told me that I could use the purple juice from the pokeweed berries as an ink, and I actually did this with my son when he was little.  Jim died many years ago, but I still remember how he combined his love of gardening and his scholarly interest in American folklore.

Like Jim Hedges, James Hathaway (the husband of Dean Nancy Gutierrez) has a passion for gardening.   I always enjoy talking with James about his garden and his amazing successes at growing unusual plants, such as rare peppers and exotic flowers.  James is also a poet, and he draws on his interest in gardening in his poetry.  He often writes poems about the life cycle of plants.  His poems usually include specific details that are grounded in botanical science, but they also can be read on a metaphorical level.  His poems tend to be about the rhythms of nature and the interrelationship between life and death, growth and decay, summer and winter.

Jen Munroe also has a passion for gardening.  She has a large, organic garden, and she enjoys including the produce from her garden in the meals that she prepares.  For Jen, gardening relates to her scholarship in the area of ecocriticism.  She often writes about the cultural and historical significance of gardens.  An example is her book Gender and the Garden in Early Modern English Literature.  In this book, she not only examines practical gardening books published in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, but she also discusses how images of gardens figure in the literature from this period.

For all three of these gardeners, their passion for growing plants has connections to their scholarship and writing.    As the examples of Jim, James and Jen demonstrate, gardening is about more than growing vegetables and flowers; it also relates to aesthetics, cultural history, and the living planet that we call Earth.  As Voltaire once wrote, “We must take care of our garden.”

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:

Dina Massachi, a graduate of our M.A. program, recently presented a paper titled “‘Things haven’t been the same since that house fell on my sister’:  MGM’s Sister Witches, and the Post-MGM Ozs That Love Them” at Oz, the National Convention, in Gray, Louisiana. 

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

July 1 — Final grades for the first summer session courses are due by noon on Monday, July 1.  July 1 —The first day of classes for the second summer session is Monday, July 1.

Quirky Quiz Question — What is the title of Voltaire’s famous work that includes the passage about caring for gardens.

Last week’s answer: Alabama

What state serves as the setting for To Kill a Mocking Bird?

Exploring the Diversity of Southern Childhoods — On Thursday and Friday of this week, Sarah Minslow and I are co-hosting a curriculum development workshop for thirty-two K-12 teachers titled Exploring the Diversity of Southern Childhoods. This workshop will take place at UNC Charlotte Center City.  The first day of the workshop will focus on Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, and the second day will focus on the film version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.   The workshop speakers include Janaka Lewis, Ashli Stokes, and Sam Shapiro.   

This two-day workshop is truly a collaborative undertaking. Scott Gartlin and Robin Mara from the Charlotte Teachers Institute have helped with the planning of the workshop, and Angie Williams has provided valuable administrative support.   Peter Stanton and Kristen Morse of the CLAS Office of Research have helped us deal with the details involved with administering a large external grant.  Without the help of all of these people, Sarah and I would never have been able to organize this workshop.

The Exploring the Diversity of Southern Childhoods curriculum workshop is the concluding event related to a two-year initiative funded by the North Carolina Humanities Council.  Titled the Child in Southern Literature and Film, this initiative has resulted in a number of events, including a film series, author presentations, a student performance, and several participatory activities for children.  The Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library has partnered with us throughout the entire two years.  In many ways, this initiative is part of the English Department’s longstanding commitment to combine cultural education and civic engagement.  

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:

Balaka Basu recently presented a paper titled “Social Work and Classism in Novels for Girls” at the Children’s Literature Association Conference held in Indianapolis.

Ralf Thiede recently presented a paper titled “A Developmental Approach to Empathy through Children’s Literature” at the Children’s Literature Association Conference held in Indianapolis.

Lara Vetter recently gave a plenary talk titled ““On Love and the American Canon: H.D., Robert Duncan, and ‘Venice-Venus'” at the Robert Duncan Centennial Conference, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.  She also chaired a session titled “Duncan, H.D. and Beyond.”

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

July 1 — Final grades for the first summer session courses are due by noon on Monday, July 1.  July 1 —The first day of classes for the second summer session is Monday, July 1.

Quirky Quiz Question — What state serves as the setting for To Kill a Mockingbird?

Last week’s answer: Maine

The musical Carousel is set in a part of the United States where it really doesn’t start getting warm until June.  In which state is Carousel set?

June Is Bustin’ Out All Over — As a high school student, I performed in our school’s production of Carousel, and I still know all of the songs from this Rodger and Hammerstein musical.  One of my favorites is “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over.”   This song popped into my head last week, not only because it is now June, but also because department-related news was bustin’ out all over.   So here are just some of the news items that crossed my desk last week.

I learned that Matt Rowney has been selected as a recipient of the Frances Lumsden Gwynn Award.  This award comes with a stipend that Matt can use in support of his research.  I know that I speak for the whole department in congratulating Matt on receiving this award.

I learned about Becky Roeder’s recently aired series of interviews on local dialect variation.  The interviews aired on WBTV’s “On Your Side Tonight” with host Jess Dyer. If you are interested in having a look, the three five-minute episodes aired on May 8, May 15, and May 24 and can be found by searching online for WBTV “How do you say.”  These interviews underscore our department’s commitment to community engagement.

I learned that Janaka Lewis has now officially started her four-week National Humanities Center’s summer residency at the Research Triangle Park.  During her residency, she will work on a project titled “Black Girlhood and the Power of Belonging.”

I also learned that many members of our English Department are taking research trips this month.  I initially tried to keep track of everybody’s travel plans, but there are just too many trips for me to remember.  For the purposes of today’s Monday Missive, I will simply say that the members of our department are going “All over the meadow and the hill . . . Just because it’s June, June, June!”

Saying Goodbye to Heather Vorhies — I was working in my office the other day when Heather Vorhies stopped by to say goodbye.  We talked about her plans for the future, and I thanked her for her for her many contributions to our department.  

After Heather left my office, I reflected on the impact that she had during her five years at UNC Charlotte.  She provided the Writing Resources Center with excellent leadership.  She regularly taught our graduate students in her course titled “Theory and Practice of Tutoring ” and another graduate course on the “Rhetoric of Science.” The students in these courses benefited from her insights.  She also contributed to the English Department through her research.  Her scholarship on the rhetoric of science added to the department’s overall strength in the intersection of the cultural and textual history of science; I know, for example, that many of our faculty members have taken a particular interest in her scholarship on gender and the rhetoric of science.  She also participated in the department’s community engagement activities.  For example, Heather, along with her mother, regularly participated in the department’s annual Seuss-a-Thon. 

I will miss having Heather as a colleague.  I know that I speak for the entire English Department in wishing Heather all the best as she begins a new chapter in her life.

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:

Ralf Thiede presented a talk titled “Embracing Paradoxes in Cognitive Linguistics” at the 86th SouthEastern Conference on Linguistics in Boca Raton, Florida.  At the same conference, Kathryn Morris, one of our undergraduates, presented a talk titled “Changing Channels: Discourse Community in Video Game Chat Servers.”  She was accompanied by Becky Roeder.

Quirky Quiz Question —  The musical Carousel is set in a part of the United States where it really doesn’t start getting warm until June.  In which state is Carousel set?

Last week’s answer: Bill Hill

Shawn Long is the second professor from the Department of Communication Studies to serve as an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Who was the first?

Shawn Long, the Real Deal — I associate certain phrases with particular people, and the phrase I associate the most with Shawn Long is “the real deal.”  Shawn does not use this phrase a lot.  He only uses it when he is paying a person a high compliment.  If Shawn tells you that you’re “the real deal,” he is praising you for your sincere commitment to excellence and your willingness to put others above yourself.  These are qualities that Shawn has long valued.  Although it is not in Shawn’s nature to boast about himself, all of us who have had the privilege of working with Shawn know that these qualities are reflected in his approach to administrative service.  Based on the many years that I have known Shawn, I can say with certainty that Shawn truly is the real deal.

I first got to know Shawn in 2010 when he became the Chair of the Department of Communication Studies.  At the time, I was an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, so I came into frequent contact with him.  He impressed me right away with his deep commitment to the faculty and students in his department.  Some years later, we switched roles.  Shawn became an associate dean, and I became a department chair.   In his work as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and more recently as the Senior Associate Dean, Shawn has collaborated with the English Department on various projects and has helped the department cope with some of the challenges that have come our way.  I could provide lots of specific examples of Shawn’s involvement in the English Department, but for the purposes of today’s Monday Missive, I will focus on two recent examples.  

Last spring Shawn reached out to the English Department about a program that he started called the Multicultural Pre-doctoral Summer Teaching Fellowship.   He shared with me information about Elisabeth Yang, one of the people who received this fellowship.  He asked if the English Department would be willing to provide Elisabeth with an opportunity to develop her teaching.  After consulting with Jen Munroe, I told Shawn that we would schedule her to teach a course during the first summer session and that I would be happy to mentor Elisabeth over the summer.  Elisabeth is currently teaching a liberal studies course for English, and all of us who have gotten to know her are very pleased to have her as a visiting member of our department.  Shawn made this happen.

Another example of Shawn’s involvement with the English Department has to do with providing space for our graduate teaching assistants.  The decision to have our graduate teaching assistants devote the second year of their assistantships to teaching in the English Department meant that we needed to provide them with office space.  I contacted Shawn about this matter, and he provided the funding to create our new Graduate T.A. Office, which is conveniently located next to the office of Lara Vetter, our Director of Graduate Studies.  Shawn made this happen.

Shawn is about to leave UNC Charlotte to become the new Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University in Atlanta, Georgia.  I know that I speak for the entire English Department in wishing Shawn the very best as he takes on this new role.  I am sure that no matter what great things the future has in store for Shawn, he will always be the real deal.

Alan Rauch Receives Award from the Office of Disability Services — Alan Rauch has been selected as a recipient of the Office of Disability Services 2018-2019 Accessibility Excellence Award for Outstanding Faculty/Staff.  Alan is one of only six faculty members across the entire university to receive this award.  The student who nominated Alan wrote, “Professor Rauch has done something that in my 15 years of school has never been done before.  He made me interested in books.”  For more information about this award, please click on the following link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2019-05-28/accessibility-excellence-award-recipients-named

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

Meghan Barnes recently published an article titled “Posing for the Camera: An Analysis of Pre-service Teachers’ Discursive Practices During a Video Analysis Session” in the journal i.e.: Inquiry in Education.  To access this article, please click on the following link: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol11/iss1/9/

Daniel Shealy recently presented a paper titled “Louisa May Alcott’s Forgotten Flower Fable” at the American Literature Association conference in Boston.

Katherine Tallent, one of our former B.A. and M.A. students in literature, will begin work this fall on a Masters of Library and Information Studies degree, with full funding, at UNC-Greensboro.

Quirky Quiz Question —  Shawn Long is the second professor from the Department of Communication Studies to serve as an associate dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Who was the first?

Last week’s answer: WINGS

After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Paul McCartney formed a new band with his first wife, Linda Eastman.  What is the name of this band?

Two Pauls and a Song — I grew listening to rock ‘n’ roll on my portable radio, which I always kept tuned to one of Denver’s rock stations.   I especially liked the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel.  Using whatever money I could scrounge up, I diligently bought every record album that these groups released, and I still own most of them.  I  remember being distraught in 1970 when both the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel disbanded.  

In the years that followed, I took an interest in the lives of the rock stars associated with these groups, and I was pleased to discover that Paul McCartney from the Beatles and Paul Simon from Simon and Garfunkel forged a friendship that persists to this very day.  A special moment in their friendship occurred on October 13, 2005, which was the date of Simon’s 64th birthday.  McCartney called Simon and sang “When I’m Sixty-Four” to Simon over the phone.
McCartney wrote “When I’m Sixty-Four” when he was still a teenager, but the Beatles didn’t release the song until 1967 when they included it on their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  The song has since taken on a life of its own.  It has come to be seen as a celebration of enduring relationships.  A friend of mine recently told me that during her wedding they played “When I’m Sixty-Four” as the recessional.  

I am pleased that McCartney sang “When I’m Sixty-Four” to Simon on the occasion of Simon’s 64th birthday, just as I am pleased that these two figures from my youth have maintained their friendship over the decades.  Simon wrote a song titled “Old Friends,” which Simon and Garfunkel released in 1968 when they included it on their album Bookends.   McCartney and Simon have pursued separate musical careers, but they are old friends.  On some abstract level, I feel like they are my old friends, too.  

I think it is highly unlikely that McCartney will be reading this Monday Missive, but in case he does, I will be in the office all day if he wants to call and sing “When I’m Sixty-Four.” 

Memorial Day — Today is Memorial Day.  Originally called Decoration Day, this holiday can be traced back to the years right after the Civil War when the families of fallen soldiers decorated the graves of their relatives who died during the war.  

For most Americans, Memorial Day is a paid holiday, but not for the staff at UNC Charlotte.  If staff members want to stay home and observe Memorial Day, they need to deduct the hours from their vacation time.  I objected to this practice in the Monday Missive that I wrote three years ago at this time, and I still object to it.  For many staff members, Memorial Day has a deep, personal meaning.  UNC Charlotte got its start as an institution to educate veterans in the years right after World War Two, so it seems especially important to me that the university recognize the significance of this special day to veterans and their families by making it a paid holiday for the staff.

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:

Allison Hutchcraft published a poem titled “Calenture” in Boulevard.

Kirk Melnikoff‘s chapter “Isabella Whitney amongst the Stalls of Richard Jones” has been accepted for publication in Women’s Labor and The History of the Book in Early Modern England (Arden, 2019).

Quirky Quiz Question —  After the Beatles disbanded in 1970, Paul McCartney formed a new band with his first wife, Linda Eastman.  What is the name of this band?

Last week’s answer: The Eagle

What is the name of the name of the Apollo lunar module that landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission?  Here is a hint:  Neil Armstrong said the name of the lunar module when he reported that they had safely landed.