Mark West and Bill Hill

Learning from Bill Hill — At the end of this fall semester, Bill Hill, the Senior Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will retire.  Bill and I arrived at UNC Charlotte within two years of each other.  Bill came in 1982, and I came in 1984.  At the time, the English Department housed speech (as communication studies was then called), so we both started off as assistant professors in the same department.  Over the years, our careers followed along similar paths.  We both served as program directors, department chairs, and associate deans.  However, Bill has always been a few steps ahead of me.  The experience of serving alongside Bill has been one of the great pleasures of my career, but it has also been a learning experience.  Bill’s approach to being an administrator has provided me with an example that I have long attempted to emulate.  Here are three of the lessons that I have learned from Bill about good administrative practices.

Perhaps because of his background in college debate, Bill always looks at administrative issues from multiple points of view.  After all, in debate tournaments, one has to be able to argue both sides of an issue.  Bill is very good at building strong arguments for particular positions, but he never dismisses opposing positions.  Drawing on his many years as a debate coach, he helps those of us who work with him to frame our arguments using sound logic, provide evidence to support our positions, and take a respectful attitude toward colleagues whose positions differ from our own.  His belief in the value of open debate is one of the key reasons he has developed such a good rapport with administrators across our campus.

Another one of Bill’s strengths as an administrator is his patient and methodical approach to building programs.  I watched from a ring-side seat as Bill built communications studies from a few courses, to a semi-autonomous program, to a free-standing academic department, and I was very impressed with the effectiveness of his step-by-step approach.  He carefully followed the curricular-planning process, and he always kept the members of the English Department fully informed along the way.  When the Communication Studies Department split from the English Department in 1995, it was seen as the natural evolution of a gradual and transparent process.

Bill grew up watching the Andy Griffith Show, and he often quotes the following line that Barney Fife says in this show: “Nip it in the bud.”   For Bill, this line captures his desire to solve problems when they first surface rather than wait for the problems to grow into crises.  This approach is one of the reasons Bill always seems so even-keeled, for when problems are addressed before they spin out of control, there is no need for crisis management.

I will miss going upstairs to talk with Bill about the various issues that I face in my role as the Chair of the English Department.  However, even after Bill retires, the lessons that I have learned from him will continue to guide me.  I am sure that I will often ask myself, “What would Bill do?”

I know that I speak for the entire English Department in wishing Bill a happy retirement.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event:

Dec. 1 — The English Department holiday party will take place on Friday,  December 1, from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge. Please sign up on the potluck listed located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

Quirky Quiz Question — Bill Hill is UNC Charlotte’s first tenure-track faculty member hired to teach in the area now known as communication studies, but he is not UNC Charlotte’s first full-time faculty member to teach in this area.  A year before Bill arrived, a lecturer was hired to teach communication studies courses.  This lecturer eventually became the director of the University Center for Academic Excellence.  Does anybody know the name of this former lecturer?

Last week’s answer: Utah

“Pieces of April” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  What is the host state for this annual film festival?

Family, Friends, Food, and Film — I associate Thanksgiving with spending time with my family, connecting with friends, preparing and consuming food, and perhaps seeing a film at some point during the long Thanksgiving weekend.  All of these associations relate in one way or another to the film Pieces of April.  I didn’t see the film when it first came out in 2003, but my wife and I rented it a few years later when it came out on DVD.  It has since become my favorite Thanksgiving film.

Pieces of April focuses on a young woman named April Burns (played by Katie Holmes) who lives with her boyfriend in a tiny, dilapidated apartment located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.  Although April feels alienated from her family, she wants to reconnect with them.  She invites them all over for Thanksgiving dinner even though she is a totally inept cook, and her family members accept the invitation.  In many of the scenes, April is desperately trying to prepare the meal, which is made more difficult when her oven breaks down.  She copes with this problem with the help of her eccentric neighbors who allow her to use the ovens in their kitchens for the short periods of time when they are not using their ovens.  In other scenes, April’s family members are riding together in a cramped car to New York City. Their tensions play out in comical ways as they get closer and closer to April’s apartment.

What I love the most about this film is its portrayal of a family.  In many ways, this family is completely dysfunctional, but they still care about each other on some deep level.  They do not communicate well using words.  However, they are finally able to connect by using food as a sort of communications medium.  Food also provides a tangible way to bring April’s friends and neighbors into the family fold.  The film’s culminating dinner brings together quite a wide variety of people, but at least for that one meal, they transcend their differences.  Such is the power of food.

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving.

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

Meghan Barnes recently gave the following three presentations at the NCTE Conference held in St. Louis: “Challenges of Social Justice Pedagogy:  That Time I Did Exactly What I Tell My Students Not to Do,” “Reciprocal Community Relationships:  Challenges of Inviting Community Voices into Teacher Education,” and “Teacher Research as Reclaiming Education:  A Critical Analysis of Two Inquiry-Based Projects.”

Bryn Chancellor last month was an invited author at Litchfield Books’ A Moveable Feast in Pawleys Island, SC; she also gave readings at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro and McIntyre’s Books in Pittsboro as part of the North Carolina Arts Council fellowship reading series. Her novel Sycamore also was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2017 and rights recently were optioned to FilmNation (The Big Sick, Arrival) for their new television department.

Katie Hogan presented a paper titled “Rural Queer Echohistories as Movement-Building and Freedom-Making” on Saturday, November 18, at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Allison Hutchcraft gave a reading at Lenoir-Rhyne University as part of their Visiting Writers Series and was part of a panel discussion “NC Writing Today.”

Janaka Lewis presented a paper titled “Black Girlhood and the Power of Belonging” at the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora conference in Seville, Spain, on Nov. 10 and a paper titled “Reconstructing Black Girlhood, from Stories to Selves” at the National Women’s Studies Association Conference in Baltimore last week.

Consuelo Salas recently presented a paper titled “Food-Based Pedagogies: Opening the Classroom Space” at NCTE Conference in St. Louis in a session titled “Foodways Literacy and Language Learning.”

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event:

Dec. 1 — The English Department holiday party will take place on Friday,  December 1 from 11:30 to 1:30 in the Faculty/Staff Lounge.  Please put this special event on your calendar and make sure to sign up on the potluck list located on the desk outside of Monica’s office.

Quirky Quiz Question —Pieces of April premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  What is the host state for this annual film festival?

Last week’s answer: John Benjamins

The Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict is published by an international academic publisher with offices in Amsterdam and Philadelphia.  Does anybody know the name of this publisher?

Service to the Profession — Last week Pilar Blitvich showed me a copy of the latest issue of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, a journal that she co-edits.  As I thumbed through the issue, I was impressed with the international nature of this journal.  Both the articles and the contributors have connections with many different countries.  The fact that Pilar plays such a key role in editing this international journal underscores for me the importance of service to the profession.  This type of service work often goes unnoticed, but it is crucial for the integrity and sustainability of academia.  Such service includes writing letters related to tenure and promotion cases at other universities, serving as referees for academic journals, and contributing to the governance of professional organizations.  The members of our English Department take service to the profession seriously, and a number currently play leadership roles in this area, including Pilar, Paula Eckard, and Ralf Thiede.

In addition to serving as the Co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict since 2009, Pilar Blitvich serves as the Co-Editor in Chief of an academic book series on pragmatics and discourse analysis.  She is also the co-founder and convenor of the Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis International Conference.  Paula Eckard has served as the Editor of The Thomas Wolfe Review since 2013, and before that she served as the President of the Thomas Wolfe Society from 2011 to 2013.  Ralf Thiede is currently serving as the President of the SouthEastern Conference on Linguistics, a position he will hold until June 2019.  Before he became the President of this organization, he served for five years as the Editor of its main publication, The Southeastern Journal of Linguistics.  As these three examples illustrate, members of our English Department are leaders in their fields as well as on our campus.

International Education Week — UNC Charlotte is celebrating International Education Week from November 13 -17.  As part of this week-long celebration, Sarah Minslow’s War and Genocide in Children’s Literature course will be hosting their Promoting Peace Project on Wednesday, November 15.  This year they are participating in Facing Difference Challenge, an initiative designed “to help educators worldwide empower young people to reflect and take action toward building understanding, empathy, and peace.”  Sarah and her students will be located in tents set up between Atkins and the College of Heath and Human Services.  For more information about International Education Week, please click on the following link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2017-11-08/university-observe-international-education-week

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

Chris Arvidson, one of our part-time faculty members, was recently did a one-hour interview on WCHL (“The Hill”) radio in Chapel Hill, with D. G. Martin, the host of Carolina Bookwatch.  They talked about baseball, books, writing, and  editing.  Here is the link to the interview:  http://chapelboro.com/wchl/weekend-shows/whos-talking/october-14-2017-6

She was also interviewed by Brendan Omeara for his podcast “Creative Nonfiction Podcast.” Here is the link to the interview:http://brendanomeara.com/

Balaka Basu has just taken on the role of Associate Editor for the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  

Consuelo Salas recently co-facilitated a roundtable discussion in a session titled “Double Agents: Infiltrating Writing Center Pedagogy at Multilingual Border Institutions” at the International Writing Centers Association conference in Chicago, IL.

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

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s 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/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Nov. 17 — The English Department meeting will take place on November 17 from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

Quirky Quiz Question —The Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict is published by an international academic publisher with offices in Amsterdam and Philadelphia.  Does anybody know the name of this publisher?

Last week’s answer: Andrew Carnegie

During Verse & Vino, the organizers played a short video about the history of our public library.  According to this video, the library’s first major building was built in 1901 with funding provided by a famous philanthropist.  Does anybody know the name of this philanthropist?

Connecting with the Public Library — For the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the beginning of November is a special time of the year, for this is when two of the public library’s signature events take place.  On November 2, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation held Verse & Vino, the library’s biggest fundraising event.  On November 4, the public library held EpicFest, a free, daylong festival celebrating children’s literature and literacy.  I am pleased to report that members of our English Department contributed in significant ways to both of these events.

Peter Larkin, one of our part-time faculty members, is also a member of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation.  In his role with the Foundation, Peter is one of the community leaders who helps makes Verse & Vino a reality.  Angie Williams also helps make Verse & Vino happen by volunteering each year with the preparation for the event.  This year the organizers of Verse & Vino celebrated prominent “local authors who have new books for adults published in 2017.”  These authors included two of our faculty members (Bryn Chancellor and Andrew Hartley) and a graduate of our M.A. program (Mark de Castrique).

EpicFest relies heavily on volunteers to staff activity tables and help make this festival run smoothly.  Chauna Wall, the Volunteer Coordinator for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, informed me that our students played a crucial role in helping out with EpicFest.  Members of our various student organizations as well as students in several of our classes stepped up and volunteered their time.  Approximately half of the of the total number of community volunteers who helped with EpicFest this year were our students.

One of the reasons the English Department and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library have so many connections is that we share core values.  We both embrace the importance of literature and literacy, and we both are committed to engaging in meaningful ways with the larger community.  The English Department and the public library are more than collaborators–we’re partners.

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

Paula Eckard recently presented a paper titled “Teaching the Familiar and Fantastic in Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel”  at SAMLA 89 in Atlanta, GA in a session titled “Teaching the Bildungsroman: Reinventing Great Books for the 21st Century.”

Paula Martinac recently served as the judge for the Elizabeth Simpson Smith Short Story Award of the Charlotte Writers’ Club.

Malin Pereira has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Furious Flower Poetry Center, the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry, housed at James Madison University.

Alan Rauch recently presented a paper called “Death and Recovery in Victorian Literature” at the Victorians Institute Conference at Furman University.

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

Nov. 7 —  The Early Modern Paleography Society. EMPS will collaborate with EMROC (Early Modern Recipes Online Collective), a group of international scholars that is creating a database of recipe transcriptions, for EMROC’s 3rd Annual Transcribathon. The event will take place in the Atkins VisLab THIS TUES, Nov 7, 2-5pm.

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s 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/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Quirky Quiz Question — During Verse & Vino, the organizers played a short video about the history of our public library.  According to this video, the library’s first major building was built in 1901 with funding provided by a famous philanthropist.  Does anybody know the name of this philanthropist?

Last week’s answer: A troll

For the Haunted English Department Takeover costume contest, Angie William’s granddaughter (Hallie Edwards) dressed up as Herminone Granger from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.   Hallie’s great costume reminded me of the Halloween chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Does anybody know what unexpected visitor showed up at this party and caused the party to come to a sudden end?

A Friendly Takeover — In the realm of corporate business, hostile takeovers are commonplace, but in the realm of our English Department a completely different kind of takeover took place last week.  The students associated with Sigma Tau Delta and the Early Modern Paleography Society (with assistance from our other student groups) organized a “Haunted English Department Takeover” on Friday, October 27.  Many of us on the faculty and staff opened our office doors to trick-or-treaters, and it proved to be a fun and engaging way to kick off the takeover.  After the trick-or-treating, the students held a rollicking, multi-generational costume contest.  The participants included lots of children, many of our students, and a number of faculty and staff members.  I was amazed at the creativity that went into the costumes.  In addition to the trick-or-treating and the costume contest, the organizers provided games, a scary movie, and an abundance of pizza.  I had to leave at 6:00 while the takeover was still in full swing, but when I returned to the office at 8:00 this morning the students had already straightened up the department after the party.

Everything about the Haunted English Department Takeover impressed me, but what impressed me the most was that our students took the initiative to organize this takeover.  By taking the initiative to organize an event for the enjoyment of our extended departmental community, our students developed leadership and community-building skills.  To use a fashionable word in academia these days, they claimed and exercised agency.  They helped add a family-friendly dimension to our department, and they showed that academic pursuits are fully compatible with having fun.  I hope this friendly takeover of the English Department becomes an annual event.

Alumni Association Book Club — The Alumni Association is starting a book club that is kicking off today, and Bryn Chancellor’s Sycamore is being featured. The organizers of this book club are hoping to engage our alumni, faculty/staff and students with Bryn’s book in a new way.  For more information about this book club, please click on the following link:
https://www.pbc.guru/uncc/#join

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

Boyd Davis co-authored a conference paper titled “Sociocultural Aspects of UH as a Pragmatic Marker in Dementia Discourse” for presentation at the Seventh Aging and Society Research Conference at the University of California at Berkeley.

Allison Hutchcraft recently gave a reading at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill as part of an event organized by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming event.

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s 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/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Quirky Quiz Question — For the Haunted English Department Takeover costume contest, Angie William’s granddaughter (Hallie Edwards) dressed up as Herminone Granger from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.   Hallie’s great costume reminded me of the Halloween chapter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Does anybody know what unexpected visitor showed up at this party and caused the party to come to a sudden end?

Last week’s answer: Charlotte Public Library and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte

The upcoming EpicFest will take place at ImaginOn.  This unique facility is jointly operated by two cultural organizations in Charlotte.  Can you identify these two cultural organizations?

Lending a Helping Hand — The spirit of volunteerism and a commitment to community engagement often go hand in hand.  This pairing was clearly the case earlier this month when a group of students from the English Learning Community (ELC) volunteered at the 6th Annual Charlotte Literary Festival at the Little Rock Cultural Center.  Janaka Lewis helped organize this community event, and she contacted Tiffany Morin, the coordinator of the ELC, to see if any of the ELC students would be interested in volunteering.  Not only did a group of these students agree to volunteer, but they showed up early in the morning to help set up for the event and assist the featured authors with their tables.  A group of ELC students will also help out with the upcoming EpicFest, the public library’s children’s literature/literacy festival that will take place at ImaginOn on November 4. This year’s EpicFest will include a “teen night,” and the ELC volunteers will be helping with this aspect of the festival.  For more information about EpicFest, please click on the following link:  https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/epicfest-2017

Our students are not the only ones who are getting into the volunteer spirit these days.  The members of our staff are also volunteering their time to help others.  Jennie Mussington recently volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Crisis Assistance Ministry, and later this week she is scheduled to volunteer with Friendship Trays.  Angie Williams volunteered at the Staff Fall Festival last week, and she’s scheduled to volunteer for Verse and Vino, the major fundraising event for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library.

As these examples demonstrate, the willingness to lend a helping hand, which is a characteristic of our departmental culture, extends well beyond the confines of our department.

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

Boyd Davis recently published a a co-authored article titled “Perceptions of U.S. Veterans Affairs and Community Healthcare Providers Regarding Cross-System Care for Heart Failure” in Chronic Illness.

Allison Hutchcraft recently gave a reading at Scuppernong Books in Greensboro as part of an event organized by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Janaka Lewis recently had a chapter titled “Brown Girls in the Ivory Tower:  Reflections on Race, Gender, and Coming of Age in Academia” published in Coping With Gender Inequities:  Critical Conversations of Women Faculty (Thompson and Parry, eds., Rowman & Littlefield 2017).

Consuelo Salas recently presented a paper titled “Undergraduate FYW Program Philosophy: Foundation of an Independent Department” at the Association of Rhetoric and Writing Studies, which took place in El Paso, Texas

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about upcoming events.

Oct. 27 — Sigma Tau Delta and the Early Modern Paleography Society are sponsoring  their “Haunted English Department Takeover” on Friday, October 27, from 4-7 p.m.

Nov. 14 — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Paula Eckard will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s 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/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

Quirky Quiz Question — The upcoming EpicFest will take place at ImaginOn.  This unique facility is jointly operated by two cultural organizations in Charlotte.  Can you identify these two cultural organizations?

Last week’s answer: The Old Kentucky Home

Thomas Wolfe grew up in his mother’s boarding house in Asheville, North Carolina.  Does anybody know the name of this boarding house at the time that Wolfe lived there? 

Thomas Wolfe Moves In — Paula Eckard will be talking about her book Thomas Wolfe and Lost Children in Southern Literature as part of the Personally Speaking Series on November 14, 2017.  In the lead up to her presentation, we have just installed an exhibit on Thomas Wolfe in the main lobby of the English Department.  Among the items included in the exhibit are copies of Wolfe’s books, recent issues of the Thomas Wolfe Review (edited by Paula), samples of Wolfe’s handwriting, a portrait of Wolfe, and an image of his mother’s boarding house in Asheville where he grew up during the early years of the twentieth century.  The items on exhibit are from Paula’s personal collection of Wolfe material.

The exhibit case has its own story.  Alan Rauch acquired the case from a Macy Department store that closed over the summer.   He brought it to the English Department, but the case clearly needed to be refurbished.  Angie Williams contacted Chris Shores from Facilities Management, and he repaired the base of the exhibit case and painted the case’s exterior sides.  Our current Wolfe exhibit marks the debut of our newly refurbished departmental display case.

I urge everyone to check out the Wolfe exhibit and attend Paula’s presentation.  Her Personally Speaking presentation will take place on Tuesday, November 14, 2017, at UNC Charlotte Center City.  Paula’s 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/personally-speaking-looks-at-lostness-through-the-eyes-of-children/

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

Chris Arvidson‘s co-edited collection titled The Love of Baseball:  Essays by Lifelong Fans was recently featured in Inside UNC Charlotte.  Here is the link:  https://inside.uncc.edu/news-features/2017-10-13/fall-classic-%E2%80%94-essayists-contribute-tribute-baseball

Bryn Chancellor this past weekend was an invited author at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville, where she was part of the panel “A Reckoning: Novels of Unresolved Pasts” and the Authors in the Round fundraiser. She also recently was an invited speaker at the Hoover Public Library Write Club in Hoover, AL, and she gave readings at the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts and Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh as part of the North Carolina Arts Council fellowship reading series.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about upcoming meetings and events.

Oct. 20 — The English Department meeting will take place on October 20 from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

Oct. 20 — The English Learning Community will hold its annual Faculty Meet and Greet on October 20 at 12:30 (immediately after the department meeting) and the faculty/staff lounge.

Oct. 20 — Ralf Thiede will give a faculty talk titled “Managing Language:  Children’s Literature, Brain Development, and Language Acquisition” on October 20 from 1:00 to 2:00 in the Seminar Room (Fretwell 290B).

Quirky Quiz Question — Thomas Wolfe grew up in his mother’s boarding house in Asheville, North Carolina.  Does anybody know the name of this boarding house at the time that Wolfe lived there?

Last week’s answer: As You Like It

What is the title of Shakespeare’s play that includes the line “All the world’s a stage”?