Party Favors — Most people think of party favors as small gifts that are given to the guests at a party.  After the party is over, they can take these party favors home with them as mementos of the occasion.  I remember purchasing inexpensive toys that my wife and I gave away as party favors to the children who came to our son’s birthday parties during his early childhood years.  Nowadays, however, I like to think of party favors in a less materialistic way.  In a sense, the memories of our experiences at a party are similar to party favors.  Like conventional party favors, these memories are the takeaways that we bring home with us after going to a party, but unlike most conventional party favors, these memories can last for years.

Now that my wife and I host most of the department parties, I pay more attention to the experiences of the attendees of the department parties.  Like any party host, I want everyone at the party to have an enjoyable experience.  This past weekend, nearly fifty people came to the English Department’s spring party, which took place in our backyard.  During the the party, I took pleasure in seeing lots of people laughing and talking, but I was especially pleased to see Deje McGavran and Matt Rowney engaged in a long conversation.  As Jim McGavran’s wife, Deje has attended many English Department parties over the years, but prior to Saturday’s party, she and Matt had never met.  Matt, as many of you know, now teaches the courses on British Romanticism that Jim had taught for decades.  After the party, Deje told me how meaningful it was to her to get to know Matt.  I am sure that for both Deje and Matt their conversation  provided them with a sense of continuity and community.  There can be no better party favor.

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:

Alan Rauch received a one-month research fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia (founded by Benjamin Franklin) and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  Also, Alan recently presented a paper titled  “Knowledge, Assertion, and Contestation: Children and the Making of Expertise” at the British Women Writers Conference in Auburn, Alabama.

Thomas Simonson, one of our former undergraduate honors students in literature, will be entering the doctoral program in English at UNC Chapel Hill in the fall with a full-funding package.

Sophie Yates, one of our current graduate students, recently presented a paper titled “Moving between Space and Time: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Short Residence in Sweden as Travelogue and Speculative Document” at the British Women Writers Conference in Auburn, Alabama.

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

May 8 — Paula Martinac will launch her new novel, Clio Rising, at Park Road Books on Wednesday,  May 8, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.

May 11 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place on Saturday, May 11, 2019, at 3:00 p.m.

May 13 — Final grades for the Spring 2019 term must be submitted by Monday, May 13, 2019, at noon.

Quirky Quiz Question —  Deje McGavran taught as a lecturer in our English Department for several years before joining the faculty in the English Department at a sister institution of higher education.  What is the name of this sister institution?

Shall We Dance — Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were both magnificent dancers on their own, but when they danced together they created cinematic magic.  One of the ten films that they did together was Shall We Dance, which came out in 1937.  I watched this film several years ago on my return flight after giving a talk at the National University of Singapore. The airline offered a whole array of old musicals, and I watched one after another.  I saw Shall We Dance on a tiny screen with the sound coming through the cheap earbuds that airlines provide on transoceanic flights, and yet I was still swept away by the power of Astaire and Rogers’s performance.  When the two of them appeared together on the screen, they seemed to engage in conversations just through their movements.   As dance partners, each augmented the performance of the other.  By lifting each other up, they succeeded in reaching heights that neither could reach as solo dancers.

Like Astaire and Rogers, our English Department excels when it collaborates with partners.  In recent years, the department has had the good fortune to dance with some wonderful partners, both in the Charlotte community and the campus community.  Two of our most frequent dance partners are the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens, and both of them are on our dance card this month.

On Wednesday, April 10, our English Department and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library will co-sponsor a production titled “Challenging the Good Ole Ways:  Exploring Southern Childhood Narratives.”  The production will take place in the Francis Auditorium of the Main Library of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library from 6:00 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. The production will feature twenty of our students who will perform a series of scenes and skits that reflect their inquiry into the unique experiences of Southern childhood.  The students will be joined by Ashley Hanson, a 2018 Obama Foundation Fellow, and actress Dame Jasmine Hughes from Placebase Productions.  Sarah Minslow, Henry Doss, and Sam Shapiro are the key organizers of this event.  This production is supported by a grant from the NC Humanities Council.

On Tuesday, April 23, our English Department and the UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens will co-sponsor an event titled “Gardens and Verses:  An Earth Day Celebration.”  The event will take place in the Botanical Gardens from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.  The event will feature poetry readings about nature, on-site writing opportunities, and games all in celebration of the relationship between gardens and language.  Jen Munroe and Matt Rowney from the English Department and Jeff Gillman from the Botanical Gardens are the key organizers of this event.

As these two upcoming events demonstrate, the reach of our English Department is far greater because of our partnerships.  Our willingness to collaborate with various partners is a trait of the department that I just take for granted.  In a sense, the title of the film Shall We Dance captures this trait.  The phrasing suggests that it is a question, but there is no question mark.  The title is more of a statement than a question.  Perhaps the film should have been titled We Shall Dance.  In all of the films starring Astaire and Rogers there is no question that they will be dance partners  The same can be said about our department’s willingness to collaborate with our dance partners.

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 led a workshop titled “Writing on the Fringes” at the NC English Teachers Association Spring Symposium in Statesville this past Saturday.

Pilar Blitvich recently co-organized the inaugural Radical Right Research International Network (RIN) Workshop which was held at Swansea University. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a network of researchers and stakeholders interested in the study of extreme far right groups from an interdisciplinary and global perspective.  This invitation-only event hosted scholars from Europe, Australasia, North America, and South America.  The panels consisted of papers which examined current trends within the radical right-wing scene, insights into current online/offline activities, hate speech and social media, as well as identity constructions of the far right.  Besides co-organizing the event, Pilar also presented a co-authored paper titled “Radical Right Women in Greece and Spain.”

Cara DeLoach, a recent graduate of our M.A. with a concentration in literature, will be entering the Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies program at Vanderbilt University in the fall, with a full funding package.

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

April 10 — The last EMPS (Early Modern Paleography Society) meeting of the year will take place Weds, April 10, 3:30-5pm in the Conference Room (280C).

April 10 — A group of twenty of our students will participate in a performance titled “Challenging the Good Ole Ways: Exploring Southern Childhood Narratives” on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in the Francis Auditorium of the Main Library of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This “Performance Narrative” is part of a grant from the NC Humanities Council.

Quirky Quiz Question — One of Ginger Rogers’s best friends ran an entertainment company called Desilu Productions.  What is the name of this friend of Ginger Rogers?

Going Beyond the Classroom — The learning process is not limited to the classroom, and the same holds true for the teaching process.  Examples of how learning and teaching go beyond the classroom abound in our English Department.  Over the past week, three such examples came to my attention, and I thought I would share them with you in today’s Monday Missive.

Last week, students from Jen Munroe’s ENGL 4072/5072: Ecologies of Eating in Early Modern England course traveled to Washington, DC, where they participated in a workshop on rare materials at the Folger Shakespeare Library, co-lead by Jen and the Folger’s Education Outreach Specialist, Rachel Dankert. Students spent the first part of the day viewing and discussing the material qualities and print production of early/first editions of the early modern print books and manuscripts they were studying in class, which included the first folio of Shakespeare’s works; in the afternoon they received training in working with rare materials and were able to work with the same rare texts as they did original research for their final papers (though the first folio sadly had to be put away). That day, the students were also able to mingle with scholars researching at the library as they attended the daily afternoon tea. Students commented during and after the trip about how meaningful it was to view these materials and to use them in their research as well as to spend time together and strengthen their sense of community with each other.

Just as Jen’s students were returning from their trip to the Folger Shakespeare Library, Alan Rauch took a group of students from our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta to Saint Louis to participate in the 2019 Sigma Tau Delta International Convention, which took place from March 27 to March 30.  Our students presented creative pieces and participated in a roundtable discussion.  However, they also took advantage of opportunities to learn from the students from other chapters and developed their networking skills.

A third example took place much closer to home.   On Friday, March 29, several of our students participated in UNC Charlotte’s Undergraduate Research Conference, which took place in the James H. Barnhardt Student Activity Center.  All of the student participants worked with a faculty advisor in preparing their presentations.  Clayton Tarr worked with Kathleen Griffin, one of our English undergraduates.  Kathleen presented an essay titled “The Unattainable Body of the Female Child in Children’s Literature: How Adults Control Parameters.”  Clayton reports that Kathleen “did a great job, especially during the question/answer period.”  Meghan Barnes served as the faculty advisor for two of our English majors who presented at the conference: Corinne Rigordaeva presented a paper titled “Building Classroom Rapport: How Teacher and Student Gender Roles Influence Communication,” and Charity Clark presented a paper titled “Communication: Male and Female Professors in the Classroom and Its Effects on Students.” Meghan reports that “and they each did a fabulous job!  For both students, this was their first experience conducting their own human subjects research and presenting in a ‘conference’ — I was incredibly proud of them.

As these three examples illustrate, the work of our English Department often transcends the classroom.  For our students and faculty members, the process of learning and teaching knows no bounds.

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

Meghan Barnes recently published a co-authored article titled “You stick up for all kids”: (De)politicizing the enactment of LGBTQ+ teacher ally work” in Teaching and Teacher Education.  Please click on the following link to access the article:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X18313295?dgcid=author

Boyd Davis recently published “Formulaic Language” in the Sage Encyclopedia of Human Communication Sciences and Disorders.   She also published a co-authored article titled “Represented Speech in Dementia Discourse” in the Journal of Pragmatics.

Janaka Lewis recently delivered a presentation titled “Finishing a Dissertation without Losing your Soul” for Social Science Research Council Proposal Writing and Dissertation Development Seminar, in Atlanta, Georgia.  She was also one of three speakers on the Local Leaders Panel, Levine Museum of the New South HERstory Day.

Juan Meneses participated as a respondent following the screening of Raoul Peck’s documentary I Am Not Your Negro as part of the UNC Charlotte International film Festival.

Alan Rauch was recently appointed to a three-year term on the PMLA Advisory Committee.

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

April 10 — A group of twenty of our students will participate in a performance titled “Challenging the Good Ole Ways: Exploring Southern Childhood Narratives” on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, in the Francis Auditorium of the Main Library of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. This “Performance Narrative” is part of a grant from the NC Humanities Council.

Quirky Quiz Question — What crime-fighting icon of American popular culture turned eighty this week?
Last week’s answer: Novello
The impetus to create the Center City Literary Festival was in response to the demise of a community-wide literary festival that was sponsored and organized by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library for many years. What is the name of this former literary festival?

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?

        

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

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?