Monday Missive

Monday Missive - March 11, 2019

March 11, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Writing about Place — As a fiction writer, Bryn Chancellor stresses the importance of place in many of her stories.  The title of her debut novel, Sycamore, underscores this point.  The title is the name of the small town in Arizona where the novel takes place.  For Bryn, settings involve the natural world, the built environment, and the history of a place.  For Bryn, settings can be deceptive.  The places she describes have their secrets, and in the case of Sycamore, one of the secrets involves a mysterious death.

In some ways, Sycamore reminds me of Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio.  Both are set in small towns where things are not always as they seem.  The residents of Sycamore and the residents of Winesburg have complex responses toward their towns, vacillating between feeling a sense of belonging and feeling a sense of isolation.

Bryn will talk about Sycamore and the secrets of this small Arizona town during her presentation for the Personally Speaking series on Tuesday, March 26, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

Bryn is not the only member of our English Department who is interested in the relationship between place and writing.  Nearly every summer, Greg Wickliff teaches a course titled “Writing about Place.”  I recently contacted Greg and asked him for more information about this course.  Here is his response:  “In my summer ‘Writing about Place’ course, students explore (at a distance) an experience of place through language and to a lesser extent, through photography. A sense of place, enduring or transient, can be deeply meaningful to us, whether we feel we inhabit it as a native, as a willing visitor, or even as a captive. Writing about place is the subject of diarists and travelers, of anthropologists and historians, of the young and the old. As writers of non-fiction, students in this course reflect upon their impressions of specific places  – researching their histories and imagining their futures – preserved, threatened, stagnant, or revitalized. Because this summer course is an online-only one, we also seek to understand how places that are or once were physical and real, become through our writing, virtual constructions of words and images.”

Bryn and Greg have different academic specialties.  Bryn teaches fiction writing while Greg teaches professional and technical writing.  However, for both Bryn and Greg, the act of writing about places is not just an exercise in description.  They are both interested in how writing about places can evoke memories, stir up emotions, and communicate the personal meanings that we often gain from interacting with physical places.  In a sense, Bryn and Greg are standing on common ground, and that common ground is called the English Department.

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

Bryn Chancellor last week served as a speaker and literary table host for Poets & Writers’s gala benefit “In Celebration of Writers” in New York City.

Juan Meneses recently presented a paper titled “The Limits of Citizenship:  A Foreign Counter” at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference, which took place at Georgetown University.

Lara Vetter recently published an article titled “The Violence of Translingual Identity in Kazim Ali’s Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities and Julia Alvarez’s The Other Side / El otro lado” in MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S. 44.1 (2019): 110-131.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 12 — Sam Shapiro is presenting a 90-minute program on the “art of adapting books into film.”  He is focusing primarily on Katherine Anne Porter’s novella Noon WIne.  Here is the link to Charlotte Lit’s website, with further information: https://www.charlottelit.org/event/shapeshifting-adapting-the-novella-for-screen/?mc_cid=a38f543029&mc_eid=69ee4ca45f

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

March 23 — Grace C. Ocasio will lead a poetry workshop, read from her two previous books, and read from her now under-contract collection (Family Reunion/Broadstone Books) at Press 53’s The High Road Festival on Saturday, March 23, in Winston Salem.

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — Bryn Chancellor’s familiarity with Arizona stems from the fact that she lived in the state for much of her youth.  She earned her B.A degree from Northern Arizona University and her M.A. degree in English from Arizona State University before earning her M.F.A. from Vanderbilt University.  Like Bryn, another person associated with our English Department has significant connections to the English Department at Arizona State University.   Who is this other person?

Last week’s answer: Lincoln College, Oxford University

Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) received many honorary doctoral degrees, but he never completed the PhD in English that he started after graduating from Dartmouth College.  What is the name of the university where Dr. Seuss pursued his graduate studies?

Monday Missive - March 4, 2019

March 04, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Bridging Generations at the Seuss-a-Thon — The eighth annual Seuss-a-Thon will take place on Saturday, March 9, at Park Road Books (4139 Park Road) from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  This community event is co-sponsored by the English Department and Park Road Books, Charlotte’s only full-service, independent bookstore.   At the Seuss-a-thon, many members of the English Department and other literacy advocates will participate in a four-hour marathon of reading Dr. Seuss books aloud to listeners of all ages.  The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (with help from Monica Burke and Kelly Brabec) will run a Dr. Seuss-themed crafts table, and his books will be on sale for the day.

One of the pleasures that I gain from organizing the Seuss-a-Thon every year is observing how the event brings together participants from multiple generations.  I am especially pleased when the event spans three generations within one family.  I am already aware of one example of such generational bridging that will take place.  Heather Vorhies, her daughter (Aniela), and her mother (Janice Blain) are all planning to participate.  Heather will read I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!, and Janice will read One Fish, Two Fish.

I am also aware of another special example of generational bridging that will take place at this year’s Seuss-a-Thon.  At last year’s event, our dearly missed friend and colleague Anita Moss read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?  I still remember how much energy and expression she put into her reading.  She had a special way of looking directly at the children in the audience and asking them the question that runs as a refrain throughout the book:  “Mr. Brown can do it.  How about you?”  Well, nobody can read Dr. Seuss books quite like Anita, but her daughters are also very talented at reading Dr. Seuss books, and both of them will be participating in this year’s Seuss-a-Thon.  Pam Hausle will read Horton Hatches the Egg, and Heather Smith will read Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?   In a sense, Anita’s presence will be felt at the Seuss-a-Thon thanks to the magic of Dr. Seuss and the love of her daughters.

I will be there.  How about you?

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

Janaka Lewis recently gave an invited Black History keynote presentation titled “Where Are We in Our Stories?” and read excerpts of her books to the staff, parents and students at the CT Walker Traditional Magnet School in Janaka’s hometown of Augusta, Georgia.

Tiffany Morin published a review of Growing Up with Vampires:  Essays on the Undead in Children’s Media in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  

Alan Rauch recently received a research grant from the Lilly Library at Indiana University to conduct a research project titled “Science, Women, and the Mother Tongue:  Translating Knowledge for Young Readers.”

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

March 26 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Bryn Chancellor will take place on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Bryn’s presentation on her book Sycamore will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: https://clas.uncc.edu/community/personally-speaking/sycamore-novel

March 30 — The Center City Literary Festival will take place on Saturday, March 30, at UNC Charlotte Center City. The children’s part of the festival will run from 10:00am to 1:00pm, and the adult part will run from 6:00pm-9:00pm.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://centercitylitfest.uncc.edu/

Quirky Quiz Question — Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) received many honorary doctoral degrees, but he never completed the PhD in English that he started after graduating from Dartmouth College.  What is the name of the university where Dr. Seuss pursued his graduate studies?

 

Last week’s answer: University of Chicago

John Dewey developed many of his ideas about education at a famous laboratory school associated with the university where he was then teaching. What is the name of this university?

Monday Missive - February 25, 2019

February 25, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Experiential Learning — A few years ago, a colleague in the English Department noticed me wandering down the department’s hallways and talking to everybody whose doors were open.  This colleague diagnosed me with a rare condition called “Restless Chair Syndrome.”  I think it might be related to Restless Leg Syndrome.  However, as far as I know Restless Chair Syndrome has not yet made it into the The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, so I am not certain it’s a real thing.  Nevertheless, I cannot deny that I dislike sitting behind my desk for long periods of time.

During one of my recent wanderings, I saw JuliAnna Ávila in the hallway, and we ended up having a conversation about John Dewey, the educational theorist who is often credited with founding the experiential education movement.  JuliAnna and I discovered that we share an interest in Dewey, and we both feel that Dewey’s writings on education are still relevant in the contemporary world of pedagogy.  After my conversation with JuliAnna, I took my copy of Dewey’s Experience and Education (1938) off the shelf and thumbed through it.  In this classic work, Dewey argues that experiential learning involves interacting with the natural and social environment and then reflecting on the meaning of that interaction.  For Dewey, guided experiences are conducive to what he called “genuine education.”

Initially Dewey’s ideas on experiential learning had their greatest impact on the education of young children.  Drawing on Dewey’s theories, elementary school teachers began incorporating outdoor activities and other types of interactive experiences in their lesson plans.  In more recent years, however, the experiential learning movement has taken root in higher education, including our English Department.

Our creative writing program is an example of an area in our department in which experiential learning has a foothold.  Bryn Chancellor, for example, has pioneered an approach to teaching fiction writing in which she has her students incorporate the experience of walking in their writing process.  I contacted Bryn and asked her how she involves this type of experiential learning in her fiction writing course, and she sent me the following response:

This spring’s advanced fiction writing class is focused on the art and craft of perspective. As we go, we also are exploring our own perspectives, in particular how writing in varied physical settings can change the way we see, respond, and reflect, as well as how we might mine raw sensory material for our work. For each of our three hour-long campus walks, we meet in Fretwell’s lobby and I hand them their “excursion maps,” which include maps, instructions, and writing prompts. For the first walk,“Inside Out: Seeing Buildings and Spaces Anew,” students were randomly assigned to explore the McMillan Greenhouse and Facilities parking lot, Rowe Arts and the lake, Storrs and the gardens, or Kennedy and Belk Plaza. For the second, “The Edges of Nature,” students wandered the wonderful trails of the Botanical Garden. For the upcoming third, “The Neighborhood Swerve,” we will jaunt off campus. Time and again, I have seen how the simple experience of slowing down and paying attention to new spaces opens up students’ (and my) writing in unexpected, joyful ways.

Allison Hutchcraft also incorporates experiential learning in her creative writing courses.  In an email she sent to me about this aspect of her teaching, she writes:

I often take my creative writing and poetry classes to UNC Charlotte’s outdoor gardens and McMillan Greenhouse, where students practice sensory description and—in the spirit of William Carlos Williams’s question “What do I remember / that was shaped / as this thing is shaped?”—making metaphors. The various garden paths, look-outs, and benches offer students the chance to wander and explore while writing, after which we reconvene to share our work. In my Documentary Poetry course, we investigate intersections of psychogeography, history, and poetry, studying Kaia Sand’s “Remember to Wave,” which documents public poetry walks Sand led through the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Together, we consider various historical photographs of UNC Charlotte from the Special Collections before taking our own “poetry walk” through campus, documenting both what we see and what, through the archival materials, we “remember” of campus while it was built. Our walk concludes in the gardens, where we share our observations aloud in an ad-hoc reading. That day may be one of my most treasured teaching memories: standing with students on a wooden bridge in the Van Landingham Glen as the sun was setting, the poets reading aloud in a round.

Both Bryn and Allison believe in the value of taking their students out of the classroom. As the above quotations make clear, Bryn and Allison encourage their students to explore the world around them and then reflect on these experiences in their creative writing.  The experiential activities that Bryn and Allison are incorporating in their creative writing courses reminds me of the following quotation from John Dewey:  “We learn from reflecting on experience.”

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

Sarah Minslow recently presented a paper titled “Visual Art in Children’s Literature of Atrocity” at the War, Art and Visual Culture Conference in Sydney, Australia.

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “Video Games as a 21st-Century Technological Veil: Critical Theory, Ideology, and Hyperreality” at the Southeastern Association on Cultural Studies Conference in Asheville.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

March 9 — The Eighth Annual Seuss–a–Thon will take place on Saturday, March 9, at Park Road Books from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  This community event is co-sponsored by the English Department and Park Road Books, Charlotte’s only full-service, independent bookstore.

March 21 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) will hold their annual Graduate Student Colloquium on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”

Quirky Quiz Question — John Dewey developed many of his ideas about education at a famous laboratory school associated with the university where he was then teaching.  What is the name of this university?

Last week’s answer: Marshville, NC

For the students who participated in Collegium for African American Research, one of the highlights was having the opportunity to hear Alice Walker speak.  Walker is perhaps best known for her book The Color Purple, which was also made into a movie.  In what state was this movie filmed?

Monday Missive - February 18, 2019

February 18, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Going on an Expotition — Toward the end of Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin gathers up his friends sets out on an expedition to discover the North Pole.   Pooh, however, is not familiar with the word expedition, so he replaces it with the following new word that he invents on the spot: Expotition.  Apparently for Pooh, this new word is a proper noun, for it is always capitalized in the book.  For Pooh, an Expotition has to do with going on adventures and discovering new things.  I am please to report that many members of our English Department have been going on their own Expotitions over the past few weeks.  Although none of them discovered the North Pole as far as I know, they all had interesting experiences during their various Expotitions.  Here are summaries of three recent Expotitions involving members of our department.

Expotition #1 — Malin Pereira took three undergraduate students (Kevin Bonilla, Diana Nava, and Xavier Neal) to the Collegium for African American Research (CARR) held at the University of Central Florida from January 30 to February 2.  Malin’s teaching assistant, Shanon Murray, also participated in CARR.  The students participated in a round-table discussion titled “The Relevance of Zora Neale Hurston to American College Students Today.”  They also had an opportunity to hear a presentation by Alice Walker, the keynote speaker.  These students are taking Malin’s course on African American Literature:  Harlem Renaissance to the Present.  For these students, this experience gave them an opportunity to make connections between the insights they gained at CARR and what they are learning in Malin’s course.

Expotition #2 — Tiffany Morin took the members of the English Learning Community (ELC) last week to see Charlotte Ballet’s performance of “Shakespeare Reinvented:  A New Take on the Works of William Shakespeare through Contemporary Dance” by the Charlotte Ballet.  Part of the Charlotte Ballet’s Innovative Works Series, “Shakespeare Reinvented” has a direct connection to the English Department through Andrew Hartley, who was one of the collaborators on this production.  For the ELC students, going to this performance provided them with a memorable experience and it helped them become more familiar with the cultural resources available in Charlotte.

Expotition #3 — Alan Rauch took the drive down Providence Road to the Sandra & Leon Levine Jewish Community Center on four occasions between January 16 and February 13 in order to deliver a series of salons on the topic of “Jewish Identity and Assimilation.”  Sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Charlotte, these salons attracted over forty people for each of the four presentations.  For Alan, leading these salons provided him with an opportunity to share his deep knowledge of Jewish heritage with an important segment of the Charlotte community.

As the aforementioned examples demonstrate, the reach of the English Department extends far beyond the walls of the Fretwell Building.  It seems clear to me that Pooh is speaking our language when he says to Piglet, “We’re going on an Expotition, all of us, with things to eat.  To discover something.”

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:

Janaka Lewis‘s Freedom Narratives of African American Women:  A Study of 19th-Century Writings was recently named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

Quirky Quiz Question — For the students who participated in Collegium for African American Research, one of the highlights was having the opportunity to hear Alice Walker speak.  Walker is perhaps best known for her book The Color Purple, which was also made into a movie.  In what state was this movie filmed?

Last week’s answer: Clue

CLGO’s board game night reminds me of the board games that I played as a boy.  One of my favorite games from my childhood includes a character named Professor Plum. What is the name of this board game?

Monday Missive - February 11, 2019

February 11, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Games People Play — For the members of the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) this spring semester is barely long enough to fit in all of the events and projects that they have planned.  The biggest of these events is their annual Graduate Student Colloquium, which will take place on March 21 in Cone 111 from 9:30 to 2:30. The title for this year’s colloquium is “Modern Authors, Historic Influences:  Framing Children’s Literature in Historical Context.”  However, they are also planning a series of other activities, including a board game night, which will take place this Friday (February 15) in the English Department Seminar Room (Fretwell 290B).  Their game night will start at 4:15 and will continue until there are no more moves.

I think it is fitting that CLGO is holding a game night in the English Department Seminar Room since our English Department has deep connections to the diverse world of games and gaming.  Aaron Toscano, for example, is currently on a Reassignment of Duties (RD) to complete a book that he has tentatively titled The Rhetoric of Video Games:  A Cultural Perspective.  In this book, Aaron is analyzing the connections between video games and American culture.  As he recently stated, his book uses “a cultural studies approach to explain how video games are products of American culture even though the industry is global.”

Our English Department also has members who love games that involve word play.   The most notable example is Jay Jacoby, a retired faculty member who currently plays in competitive Scrabble tournaments throughout the southeast.  Last year he did especially well at a tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he won $145 in prize money.  Jay’s interest in Scrabble stems from his fascination with words, a fascination he developed over the course of his twenty-seven years as a professor in our English Department during which he taught a wide variety of courses on writing and Jewish-American literature.  When I asked Jay about his love of playing in Scrabble tournaments, he wrote, “I really do enjoy the competition and the camaraderie–I’ve met tons of people from all over and we are all word freaks.”

I am sure that the sense of camaraderie that Jay associates with Scrabble tournaments will also come into play during CLGO’s upcoming board game night.  Let the games begin.

Report from the Levine Scholars Program’s Finalist Dinner — Last night I represented the English Department at the Levine Scholars Program’s Finalist Dinner, and I am pleased to report that two of the finalists have expressed an interest in majoring in English.  I ate dinner with these two finalists and their parents, and I shared with them information about our faculty and programs.  However, I was not the only person at the table who was singing the praises of the English Department.

Two of our current students also participated in this dinner, and they did a fantastic job of answering the finalists’ questions about the department.  Eddie Angelbello, a current Levine Scholar who will be graduating at the end of this semester, shared his story of how he went from being a physics major to becoming an English major.  He talked about how much he enjoyed all of his English classes, but he was especially enthusiastic about his creative writing classes.  Shanon Murrary, one of our graduate students, was also sitting at our table.  She serves as a graduate assistant for the Levine Scholars Program, so she was able to provide the finalists with lots of information about the program.  However, she also talked with them about our department, and she did an excellent job of responding to the finalists’ questions about our literature courses.  After observing Eddie and Shannon interact with the two finalists, I came away from the dinner convinced that the best promoters of our department are our excellent students.

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:

Grace Ocasio recently gave a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

Ralf Thiede recently learned that he had an article accepted by the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly for a special issue of Cognitive Science and Children’s Literature.  His article is titled “Synesthetic Entrainment in Interactive Reading Sessions of Children’s Books.”

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

February 12 — The Early Modern Paleography Society (EMPS) will meet on February 12 from 1:00 to 2:00 in the English Department Conference Room (Fretwell 280C).  Participants will examine and try the earliest manuscript recipe for chocolate in England.

Quirky Quiz Question — CLGO’s board game night reminds me of the board games that I played as a boy.  One of my favorite games from my childhood includes a character named Professor Plum. What is the name of this board game?

Last week’s answer: MacArthur Fellowship

Sandy Govan is widely recognized as a leading authority on the works of the science fiction author Octavia Butler.  Butler was the first science fiction writer to receive the prestigious fellowship that is unofficially known as the “Genius Grant.”  What is the official name of this fellowship?

Monday Missive - February 4, 2019

February 04, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

African American History Month — Throughout the history of UNC Charlotte’s English Department, various members of our department have taught courses and conducted scholarship on African American literature and culture, but there are two retired faculty members who played especially important roles in this part of our department’s history:  Mary Harper and Sandra Govan.  Given that February is African American History Month, I have decided to make note of their lasting contributions to our department in today’s Monday Missive.

Mary Harper joined the English Department in 1971, and she taught in the department until her retirement in 1993.  In addition to teaching courses on African American literature, she forged lasting relationships with other academics and cultural leaders both on and off campus.  For example, she worked with Bertha Maxwell Roddey and Herman Thomas to establish the department that is now known as the Africana Studies Department.  She also played a key role in establishing the Charlotte Afro-American Cultural Center, which is now called the Harvey B. Gannt Center for African-American Arts + Culture.  For more information about her role in founding this center, please click on the following link:  http://www.ganttcenter.org/donate/harper-roddey-society/

Sandra (Sandy) Govan joined the English Department in 1983, and she taught in the department until her retirement in 2009.  During her career as an English professor, she broadened the range of courses taught on African American literature, and she expanded the types of works taught in these courses.  For example, she regularly taught works of science fiction by African American authors, such Octavia Butler.  She also developed our graduate courses in African American literature, and she served as the the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement ProgramCoordinator.  Throughout her career, however, she remain committed to teaching undergraduate students.  Her excellent record in the area of undergraduate teaching was recognized in 2001 when she was named a finalist for the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.

The leadership of Mary Harper and Sandra Govan prepared the way for other English faculty members to teach courses in African American literature and culture.   These faculty members include Malin Pereira, Jeffrey Leak, and Janaka Lewis.  In a very real sense, the history of our English Department and African American History Month are interconnected stories.

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

Bryn Chancellor published a short story, “The Moon, the Pyramids, the World,” in NELLE, a literary journal published through the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

February 7 — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

February 8 — The English Department meeting will take place from 11-12:30, in the conference room (Fretwell 280C).

Quirky Quiz Question — Sandy Govan is widely recognized as a leading authority on the works of the science fiction author Octavia Butler.  Butler was the first science fiction writer to receive the prestigious fellowship that is unofficially known as the “Genius Grant.”  What is the official name of this fellowship?

Last week’s answer: Sarah Minslow
The keynote speaker at this year’s EGSA conference is a professor from UNC Charlotte’s Global Studies Department. Our department also has another ongoing connection with the Global Studies Department. A member of our department regularly teaches a course that is cross listed with Global Studies. Who teaches this course?

Monday Missive - January 28, 2019

January 28, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Agency and the EGSA Conference — Toward the beginning of last semester, my coffee cup and I wandered into the faculty/staff lounge in search of coffee, for a coffee cup without coffee is about as bad as a bookshelf without books.  Anyway, there I ran into the officers of the English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) all huddled around a table.  I asked what they were up to, and Sara Eudy, the president of the EGSA, informed me that they were discussing possible themes for their upcoming conference.  I chatted with them for a few minutes about their plans for the conference, and then my replenished coffee cup and I wandered back into my office.

At the time, I was not sure what conference theme they would settle upon, but I was very pleased to see them making the decision on their own.  In the end, they came up with the following theme:  “A World of Difference:  Re-Imagining the Global in the 21st Century.”  Over the course of last semester and into the beginning of the current semester, the members of the EGSA have been diligently organizing their annual conference, and they are now ready to go.

This year’s EGSA conference will take place on Friday, February 1, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Popp Martin Student Union.   The conference will feature thirty presentations in addition to the keynote address by Emek Ergun from UNC Charlotte’s Department of Global Studies.  The presenters represent twelve different universities from across the southeast.  The EGSA conference promises to be an informative and thought-provoking event, and I urge everyone to attend for at least part of the day.

Over the past nineteen years, the members of the EGSA have taken on the challenge of organizing their annual conference.  They usually feel a bit intimidated at the beginning of the planning process, they always rise to the occasion.  They often consult with members of the faculty and staff of the English Department during the planning stages, but they make their own decisions and take responsibility for solving the logistical problems inherent in running a day-long conference.  For these graduate students, the experience of organizing this conference involves claiming and exercising agency.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

February 1 — The 2018 Faculty Recognition Event will take place on February 1, 2019, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in the Harris Alumni Center. 

February 7 — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Quirky Quiz Question — The keynote speaker at this year’s EGSA conference is a professor from UNC Charlotte’s Global Studies Department.  Our department also has another ongoing connection with the Global Studies Department.  A member of our department regularly teaches a course that is cross listed with Global Studies.  Who teaches this course?

Last week’s answer: Harriett Jacobs

One of the books that Janaka examines in Freedom Narratives of African American Womenis a classic autobiography titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  This book was originally published under the pseudonym of Linda Brent.  What is the real name of the author of this autobiography? 

Monday Missive - January 21, 2019

January 22, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Honoring the Foremothers of the Civil Rights Movement — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. played a pivotal role in America’s civil rights movement beginning in 1955, when he led the Montgomery bus boycott, and continuing until his death in 1968.  However, King was not a lone voice in the wilderness.  He was part of a larger movement that had its origins in the nineteenth century.   Today, as we honor King’s many contributions to the civil rights movement, I think that we should also honor the people who helped give birth to this movement, many of whom were African American women.

In her book titled Freedom Narratives of African American Women:  A Study of 19th Century Writings, Janaka Lewis examines the writings of several African American women who wrote about the meaning and importance of freedom.  The writers that Janaka covers in her book include Harriet Jacobs, Ellen Craft, Charlotte Forten, Elizabeth Keckley, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Anna Julia Cooper, and Lucy Craft Laney.  As Janaka points out in her book, these women writers actively participated the national discourse about the changing definitions of freedom and citizenship.  In the process, these women helped set the stage for the rise of the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century.

Janaka will talk about Freedom Narratives of African American Women later this month as part of the Personally Speaking Series.  Her presentation will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  The presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

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

Bryn Chancellor recently published an essay titled “String, Too Short” in Brevity: A Concise Journal of Nonfiction.

Juan Meneses recently introduced the Irish Ambassador to the United States, Daniel Mulhall, who gave a talk titled “A Virtuous Circle:  Ireland, the E.U. and the U.S.” as part of the UNC Charlotte International Speakers Series.

Jen Munroe‘s co-edited volume titled Ecological Approaches to Early Modern Texts: A Field Guide to Reading and Teaching was reviewed in the most recent volume of Sixteenth Century Journal.

Lara Vetter‘s A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose was reviewed in the most recent volume of the Modern Language Review.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

February 1 — The 2018 Faculty Recognition Event will take place on February 1, 2019, from 3:30 to 5:00 pm in the Harris Alumni Center. 

February 7 — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Quirky Quiz Question — One of the books that Janaka examines in Freedom Narratives of African American Women is a classic autobiography titled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  This book was originally published under the pseudonym of Linda Brent.  What is the real name of the author of this autobiography?

Last week’s answer: deepest Peru
The CLGO’s “Celebration of Paddington Bear” brings to mind Paddington Bear’s origin story.  According to this story, in what country was Paddington Bear living before he moved to London? 

Monday Missive - January 14, 2019

January 14, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive

Coming of Age Day — Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan.  Celebrated on the second Monday in January, Coming of Age Day is a national holiday honoring all young adults who reach the age of 20 at any point during the year.  In Japan, 20 is considered the age of majority, which means that young people gain the right to vote and drink alcoholic beverages on their 20th birthday.  Throughout Japan, local governments hold a ceremony called Seijin-shiki on Coming of Age Day.   During this ceremony, young people are introduced to the rights and responsibilities associated with adulthood.

Although the United States does not have a national holiday that is comparable to Japan’s Coming of Age Day, the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood is still an important aspect of American society and culture.  This transition is reflected in several of the courses that the English Department is offering this semester.  Henry Doss, for example, is teaching a topics course titled “Southern Childhood in Films, Stories, and Performances” in which he is exploring the coming-of-age experience for young people growing up in the South.  Janaka Lewis is offering an upper-level course on “Black Girlhood.”  In this course, she is covering several texts that deal with coming-of-age themes, including Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give.  Like Janaka, Balaka Basu is also teaching a course that deals with the experience of growing up female.  Balaka is teaching a graduate-level course titled “Books for Girls and Other Young People” in which she encourages her students to examine what “girlhood studies has to do with women’s studies.”

Japan’s Coming of Age Day underscores the important role that culture plays in helping young people navigate the transitions associated with growing up.  In Childhood and Society, Erik Erikson argues that the process of maturing involves going through eight different stages, six of which take place before one reaches full adulthood.  As Erikson points out, the experience of progressing through these stages is shaped in part by one’s culture.  All societies have rituals and stories associated with coming of age, but they vary depending on each society’s cultural values and traditions.  I am pleased that our English Department provides our students with many opportunities to ponder the cultural significance of such coming-of-age rituals and stories.

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 has published her poem “Among the Graves” in The Gettysburg Review.

Maya Socolovsky recently published an article titled “Material Literacies:  Migration and Border Crossings in Chicana/o Children’s Picture Books” in MELUS:  Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.  

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

January 16 — Last day for students to add or drop a course with no grade.

January 19 — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) and the Myers Park Library are co-sponsoring a “Celebration of Paddington Bear.”  This event will take place at the Myers Park Library (1361 Queens Road) on Saturday, January 19, from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

February 7 — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Quirky Quiz Question — The CLGO’s “Celebration of Paddington Bear” brings to mind Paddington Bear’s origin story.  According to this story, in what country was Paddington Bear living before he moved to London?

Last week’s answer: Heather Vorhies
This Monday Missive spotlights six faculty members who incorporate science in their English courses, but these faculty members are by no means the only English faculty members who draw on the sciences in their teaching. For example, another faculty member is teaching a course this semester on the “Rhetoric of Science.” What is the name of the professor who is teaching this course?

Monday Missive - January 7, 2019

January 07, 2019 by Mark West
Categories: Monday Missive
The Inclusion of Science in English Courses-– Last semester I recorded an episode for the NPR program called “The Academic Minute” in which I argued that the humanities and the sciences should be seen as overlapping circles on a Venn diagram.  I went on to discuss how professors in our English Department draw on insights from the sciences in their research.  Since I had less than two minutes to make my points, I did not discuss how our faculty also incorporate the sciences in their teaching.  However, many of our faculty members have a strong background in the sciences, and they draw on this background in their classes.  I recently contacted a number of these faculty members and asked them for information on how they incorporate the sciences in their teaching.  Their responses are listed below.

Paula Eckard regularly teaches a course called Literature of the American South.  In her response to me, she explains how she includes the sciences in this course:  “When I teach the novel The Evening Hour by Carter Sickels, I use various aspects of science and technology to examine the novel, including coal mining technologies, environmental destruction of mountains, and heavy metal contamination of groundwater and waterways.  We also discuss health implications related to these environmental issues, as well the health and social science aspects of opioid addiction, illness, and aging in Appalachia.  When I teach works by Thomas Wolfe, including The Lost Boy and Look Homeward, Angel, we discuss issues related to infectious disease in the early 20th century, including typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and influenza.  As a registered nurse, I had many courses in the sciences, so bringing those topics to bear on literary discussions seems a relevant thing to do.”

Jen Munroe has researched the roles that women have played in the history of science.  In her response to me, she discusses how this research interest relates to her teaching:  “Last spring I taught an upper-division course titled Gender, Science, and Nature. I asked the students to consider how the development of scientific discourse in the seventeenth century in England (the origins of our modern scientific methodology) cast the nonhuman world (plants and nonhuman animals) as objects of inquiry divorced from the human world and how notions of male, elite ‘objective,’ scientific knowledge was posed as in opposition to amateur experimentation and knowledge of non-male, non-elite groups and resulted in the further marginalization of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and the poor. In our course, that is, we considered how studying the ways that gender, science, and nature (and their interconnections) came to mean in a certain way three hundred years ago has informed tensions between Humanities and STEM today.”

Alan Rauch has a graduate degree in biology, and he frequently draws on his background in the sciences in his scholarship.  In his response to me, he explains how he incorporates science and technology in many of the courses that he teaches:  “Book History, which I frequently teach, is always and inevitably about science and technology, to say nothing of literacy and the rise of ‘knowledge’ (often scientific) as a commodity.  The Graphic Novel, relying as it does on visual representation is enabled and driven by technologies of print and the cognitive awareness of how readers process image and text together.  Finally, Animals, Culture, & Society addresses the very essence of our scientific selves, and the cultural identities that we manufacture out of our organismal selves, and the animals around us.  My interest in animals, culture, and society stems, of course, from the many years I spent studying zoology, but also draws on a lifelong commitment to scientific knowledge.  That commitment was predicated on a model that rejects the idea of overlapping circles in a Venn diagram, in favor of a synthetic matrix in which the terms science and culture are merely different terms that describe the same idea.  Cultural studies of animals, which looks at behavioral, ecological, physiological, and anatomical variations of living beings, underscores the idea of a synthetic matrix because we can never get ourselves out from under our own interpretations of ourselves as scientific and cultural creatures.”

Matthew Rowney has an expertise in the relationship between literature and the environment especially as it relates to the Romantic period in British literature.  In his response to me, he writes about the various ways he draws on this expertise in his teaching:  “In my Romanticism and Ecology course, I ask students to consider the first published account of the life of a black woman, Mary Prince, which details ten years working in the salt ponds on Turks Island, then part of the British colony of The Bahamas. We consider the importance of this substance in part through an understanding of its scientific qualities, including its geological formation and contribution to the tectonics that shape the earth’s surface, its chemical qualities, which enable its use as a preservative throughout much of human history, and its physiological effects, particularly in terms of the epidemiology of hypertension among members of the African diaspora.  My experience has been that when students consider cultural and scientific representations side by side rather than in isolation, they gain unique insight into how we might face contemporary global challenges.”

Ralf Thiede is interested in the relationship between language acquisition and the science of brain development.  In his response to me, he comments on how this interest relates to some of the linguistics courses that he teaches:  “Since 1990, I have been teaching a course called The Mind and Language that explores how brain architecture and language shape each other (within and across brains).  This semester, I am teaching (for the fifth time) a course in the linguistics of children’s literature, this time with an emphasis on what children’s books uniquely contribute to neural development that is not already present in child-directed speech.  And in the Fall of 2019, I am going to teach an honors course that explains linguistic inequality in evolutionary terms.”

Greg Wickliff has conducted extensive research on the connections between the history of science and the development of technical communication.  In his response to me, he explains how this research interest informs his teaching:  “I integrate science into several of my English courses that examine how formal arguments are constructed through technology, writing, and illustration. For example, in my course titled Visual Rhetoric, students are introduced to material from Lorraine Datson (a historian of science) and Peter Galison (a physicist) about the history of the concept of Objectivity, then they read and discuss material from Colin Ware (a data visualization expert and oceanographer) in Visual Thinking for Design, about the physiology and perceptual psychology of vision.  Students also explore the treatment of Photography and Science by Kelley Wilder (a historian of photography) and go on to study selections from a book by the historian of science Klaus Hentschel: Visual Cultures in Science and Technology: A Comparative History. By the end of the course, questions of computer modeling and measurement come to the fore in selections from the computer scientists Julie Steele and Noah Illinsky’s Beautiful Visualization: Looking at Data Through the Eyes of Experts.”

As these six examples illustrate, our English Department has many connections to the STEM disciplines, and these connections are often reflected in the courses that we offer.  At least in terms of our English Department, there really isn’t a conflict between the humanities and the STEM disciplines.  For our department, this much ballyhooed conflict is just a false dichotomy.

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

Bryn Chancellor last week was a Visiting Writer for Converse College’s low-residency MFA program in Spartanburg, SC. She gave a craft lecture titled “Later, and Later Still: Exploring the ‘Nth’ Perspective and the Retrospective ‘I’,” and a fiction reading from Sycamore.

Katie Hogan recently delivered the following two papers at the Modern Language Association Conference in Chicago:  “Narrating Queer Disaster” and “Compounded Exploitation: Race, Gender, and Contingency.

Jen Munroe recently published a co-authored article titled “Becoming Visible: Recipes in the Making” in Early Modern Women Journal, 13(1) 2018: 132-142.  She was also a respondent for the “Marlowe and Ecology” roundtable at the Modern Language Association Conference in Chicago.

Upcoming Events and Meetings — Here is a list of upcoming events and deadlines:

January 9 — First day of classes for the Spring 2019 semester.

January 16 — Last day for students to add or drop a course with no grade.

January 29 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Janaka’s presentation on her book Freedom Narratives of African American Women will begin at 6:30 p.m.  A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse/

February 7 — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 to 4:00.

Quirky Quiz Question — This Monday Missive spotlights six faculty members who incorporate science in their English courses, but these faculty members are by no means the only English faculty members who draw on the sciences in their teaching.  For example, another faculty member is teaching a course this semester on the “Rhetoric of Science.”  What is the name of the professor who is teaching this course?

Last week’s answer: Apple Records

“Imagine” was originally released on a record label that was founded by the Beatles in 1968.  What is the name of this record label?