Dori Sanders’s Writings — February is Black History Month (also known as African American History Month), which makes this a fitting time to celebrate the writings of Dori Sanders, one of the Charlotte-area’s most influential African American authors.  Born just south of Charlotte in York County, South Carolina, Sanders has spent the majority of her life growing and selling peaches on land that her family has owned since 1915.  Although Sanders sees herself primarily as a peach farmer, she has written three notable books:  Clover, a children’s novel published in 1990; Her Own Place, a novel for adults published in 1993; and Dori Sanders’ Country Cooking:  Recipes and Stories from the Family Farm Stand, published in 1995.

The growing and preparation of food figures prominently in all three of Sanders’s books, but in Clover food takes on added significance.  In this novel, food functions as a nonverbal language.  The characters use food to communicate their feelings toward each other.  Ten-year-old Clover Hill, the novel’s central character, learns about her extended family through the medium of food.

This week Joanne Joy will discuss the importance of food in Clover as part of the kick-off for the program on “The Southern Child in Literature and Film.”  Joanne will deliver a presentation titled “Lessons at the Southern Table:  The Fusion of Childhood and Food in Dori Sanders’s Clover.”  This event will take place on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room.  For more information about this event, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/event/the-child-character-in-southern-literature-and-film/

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’s novel Sycamore has just been released in paperback with Harper Perennial; it includes a P.S. section with discussion questions, an author Q&A, and author recommendations for books about small towns. Central Piedmont Community Colleges’ Levine Campus selected it for this spring’s inaugural Levine Reads program, a campus-wide common read, and Bryn will visit the campus as part of CPCC’s Sensoria arts and literature festival in April to discuss the book with students, faculty, and staff. https://sensoria.cpcc.edu/

Sara Eudy, one of our graduate students, recently published an article titled “The Language of Diaspora:  Multiraciality and Resistance in Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” in The Sigma Tau Delta Review.

Allison Hutchcraft and Juan Meneses have published four translations of contemporary Spanish poet Concha García’s poems in the Winter 2018 issue of West Branch.

Becky Roeder was named the Graduate Professor of the Year by the English Graduate Student Association at their 18th annual conference.

Sam Shapiro, one of our part-time faculty members, recently published a book review of Denis Johnson’s short story collection titled The Largesse of the Sea Maiden in the book section of The Raleigh News and Observer.  

Daniel Shealy recently published an article titled “‘Lost in the Hurly-Burly’:  Louisa May Alcott’s Jamie’s Wonder Book” in Resources for American Literary Scholarship.  

Lara Vetter‘s A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose, has just received a 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award.  According to Choice, books that receive this award are selected for their excellence in scholarship and presentation, significance of contribution to the field, and value as an important—often first—treatment of their subject. Only nine percent of the titles reviewed by Choice during the past year, and two percent of the more than 25,000 titles submitted to Choice over the same period, constitute Outstanding Academic Titles.

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

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.”  During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore.  The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00.  The event is free, but registration is required.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question —  South Carolina is not only the home to Dori Sanders’s peach farm, but it is also home to a famous peach-shaped water tower called the Peachoid.  In what town is the Peachoid located?

Last week’s answer: Julian Mason

Every year the English Department gives an award to an outstanding graduate student with an interest in Southern literature.  Do you know the former faculty member for whom this award is named?

The Southern Child in Literature and Film — Our English Department has a long tradition of promoting the study of Southern literature and culture.  In 1977, the English Department officially added to the university catalog an upper-level course titled “Literature of the American South,” and ever since then, members of our faculty have been teaching courses and conducting scholarship on Southern literature.  In keeping with this forty-year history, the English Department is about to launch a series of cultural events under the heading of “The Southern Child in Literature and Film.”  Supported by a major grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council and co-sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, these events will be open to the public and will take place at various venues both on campus and in the Charlotte community.

The kick-off event will take place on Thursday, February 8, 2018, at 5:00 p.m. in the Atkins Library’s Halton Reading Room. This event is tied to a special issue of The Southern Quarterly that I recently guest edited on “Children in the South.”  Three of the contributors to this special issue will give presentations related to their articles.  Johnathan Alexander will give a talk titled “Outside Within:  Growing Up Gay in the South.”  Jan Susina will give a presentation titled “Alabama Bound:  Reading Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird While Southern,” and Joanne Joy will deliver a presentation titled “Lessons at the Southern Table:  The Fusion of Childhood and Food in Dori Sanders’s Clover.”  For more information about this event, please click on the following link:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/event/the-child-character-in-southern-literature-and-film/

This project also involves a film series featuring films set in the South in which child characters play significant roles.  The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is sponsoring this film series, and the films will be shown at library locations.  The details about this film series will be announced soon, but the tentative schedule is listed below:

March 10^th:   BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

March 24^th:   TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

April 7^th:        SOUNDER

April 14^th:      THE REIVERS

May 12^th:       NIGHT OF THE HUNTER

Several members of the English Department are contributing to the planning and administrative aspects of this project.  Sarah Minslow is playing a key leadership role in all aspects of this project.  Paula Eckard is participating in all of the planning meetings and is coordinating the project’s connections with the American Studies Program.  Sam Shapiro, who teaches film courses for the English Department, is taking responsibility for the film series, and Angie Williams is handling the project’s budget.  We also have two students who are helping with the project–Kelly Brabec and Amy Arnott.  My thanks go to everyone who is helping to make this project a reality.

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 has put together an impressive string of journal publications in the past few months.  Here is the list of her recent articles that she either wrote or co-wrote:

• “Mediating the ‘Two-Worlds’ Pitfall Through Critical, Project-Based Clinical Experiences,”The New Educator
• “Beyond Censorship:  Politics, Teens, and the ELA Teacher Candidates,” English Teaching:  Practice and Critique
  
• “Encouraging Interaction and Striving for Reciprocity:  The Challenges of Community-Engaged Projects in Teacher Education,”Teacher and Teacher Education
  
• “The Absent Dialogue:  Challenges of Building Reciprocity Through Community Engagement in Teacher Education,” eJournal of Community Engagement

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

February 2 —  The 18th Annual English Graduate Student Conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union.

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.”  During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore.  The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00.  The event is free, but registration is required.  For more information, please click on the following link:  https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question — Every year the English Department gives an award to an outstanding graduate student with an interest in Southern literature.  Do you know the former faculty member for whom this award is named?

Last week’s answer: Katie Hogan and Aaron Toscano

Not only are the current leaders of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Humanities, Technology, and Science Program from the English Department, but so too were the immediate past leaders of these programs.  Can you identify the immediate past leaders of these two interdisciplinary programs?

Interdisciplinary Studies in the New Millennium — The theme for this year’s English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) conference is “All Roads Lead to Roam: Interdisciplinary Studies in the New Millennium.” The EGSA’s conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union. In keeping with the conference theme, the thirty papers listed on the schedule incorporate various interdisciplinary approaches, including book history, film studies, gender studies, political discourse, and race studies. I applaud our graduate students for focusing their conference on interdisciplinary studies.

Narrowly defined academic disciplines took root in American universities during the late 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. As various fields of study began separating themselves from other fields of study, knowledge became more fragmented and scholars became increasingly isolated from one another. For many years, however, members of our English Department have resisted this trend.

Our English Department has a long history of supporting interdisciplinary studies programs. The American Studies Program, the first interdisciplinary studies program established at UNC Charlotte, was started by Julian Mason, an English professor, in 1975. Members of the English Department have run this program for most of its history. Paula Eckard, for example, has served as the program’s director since 2002. English faculty members currently play leadership roles in several other interdisciplinary studies programs, including Janaka Lewis, who serves as the director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and Alan Rauch, who leads the program in Humanities, Technology, and Science.

The EGSA members made the decision on their own to focus their conference on interdisciplinary studies, but their decision reflects a departmental ethos–an ethos that welcomes interdisciplinary approaches to the study of language usage, literature, and the creation and interpretation of narratives of all sorts. Such is the nature of English studies as it has evolved in our department in the new millennium.

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:

Paula Eckard just brought out a new issue of The Thomas Wolfe Review, a journal for which she serves as the main editor.

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

February 2 — The 18th Annual English Graduate Student Conference will take place on February 2, 2018, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in UNC Charlotte’s Student Union.

February 6 — The UNC Charlotte Alumni Association is sponsoring a program called “A Fireside Chat with Bryn Chancellor.” During this event, Bryn will discuss her debut novel, Sycamore. The event will take place on February 6, 2018, in the Harris Alumni Center from 5:30 to 7:00. The event is free, but registration is required. For more information, please click on the following link: https://49eralumni.uncc.edu/s/1721/interior.aspx?sid=1721&pgid=1306&gid=2&cid=3574&ecid=3574&post_id=0

Quirky Quiz Question — Not only are the current leaders of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Humanities, Technology, and Science Program from the English Department, but so too were the immediate past leaders of these programs. Can you identify the immediate past leaders of these two interdisciplinary programs?

Last week’s answer: Atlanta

Coretta Scott King founded the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.  In what city is the King Center located? 

The librarians who founded the Coretta Scott King Books Awards have made a difference.  Not only have they help draw attention to excellent children’s books by African American authors and illustrators, but they have also helped to make sure that we remember and honor Coretta Scott King along with her legendary husband.

Celebrating Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and the Contributions of Women to Scientific Discourse — Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus first saw print two hundred years ago this month. Written when Shelley was still a teenager, Frankenstein has long been classified as a Gothic novel, but in more recent years it has come to be seen as a pioneering work in the genre of science fiction. The term science fiction had not yet been coined when the book came out in 1818, but Frankenstein is clearly informed by the scientific discourse of its day. Like many contemporary works of science fiction, Frankenstein employs the conventions of fiction to delve into the motivations of scientists and to explore the possible ramifications of scientific research. As a woman writer and as the daughter of the famous feminist philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley was keenly aware of gender-based biases, and she incorporated reflections on gender-related issues in Frankenstein. In some ways, Frankenstein is part of a larger conversation about the role of women with respect to scientific discourse.

Several faculty members in our English Department have a professional interest in Shelley’s Frankenstein. Matthew Rowney, for example, is using Frankenstein as the touchstone text of his Approaches to Literature class this semester. He will be applying the various theoretical approaches the course investigates to the novel. In conjunction with this class, he is arranging for a showing of one of the films towards the end of the semester. Alan Rauch is also using Frankenstein in his teaching. This semester he is including the novel as a required text in Writing about Literature. Alan’s interest in Shelley’s novel extends to his scholarship. Some years ago, he published an article titled “The Monstrous Body of Knowledge in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”

Members of our department are also interested in topic of women’s contributions to scientific discourse. For example, this semester Jen Munroe is teaching an Honors Seminar (that includes some graduate students as well) titled “Gender, Science, and Nature,” which considers the gendering of “science” in the 17th century in England and reorients our understanding of the “rise of science” from the early through later 17th century to include women’s contributions as well as men’s. Jen has written extensively on this topic. Her published essays that deal with this topic include “Mary Somerset and Colonial Botany,” “First ‘Mother of Science’: Milton’s Eve, Knowledge, and Nature,” and “‘My Innocent Diversion of Gardening’: Mary Somerset’s Plants.” Moreover, she is addressing this topic in her current monograph project titled Mothers of Science: Women, Nature, and Writing in Early Modern England, which is an ecofeminist literary history of science that proposes a revaluing of the relationship between women’s everyday practices, nature, and writing in seventeenth-century England. Heather Vorhies is also interested in this topic. She recently taught a graduate seminar that looked at the Rhetoric of Science and that included women writers, and she is currently working on a scholarly project related to the contributions of women to medical communication during the early American republic.

For anyone who is interested in the connections between Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and women’s contributions to scientific discourse, I recommend Debra Benita Shaw’s Women, Science and Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance and Jane Donawerth’s Frankenstein’s Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction.

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 was featured in an article titled “So You Want to Be an Author: Eight Charlotte Writers Tell How They Landed a Big Time Agent,” which recently appeared in The Charlotte Observer. Here is the link: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article193234679.html

Katie Hogan is the author of the following two papers presented at the MLA Conference held in New York City: “Moving Beyond the Urban/Rural Divide in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home,” and “‘Examine Everything: On Being (a Former) Director of WGSS in a Neoliberal University.”

Lara Vetter presented a paper titled “Sexuality and the Inhuman in Storm Jameson’s In the Second Year” at the MLA Conference held in New York City. Her paper was on the Gender and Women’s Studies Society panel on “Gender, Representation, and Fascism.”

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

January 12 — The English Department meeting will take place on January 12 from 11:00 to 12:15 in the English Department Conference Room.

January 15 — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (university closed)

Quirky Quiz Question — The name Frankenstein is the last name of the scientist who is the main character in Mary Shelley’s novel. Does anybody know the first name of this scientist?

Last week’s answer: UNC Chapel Hill

The university libraries figured prominently in the relationship between Amy Dykeman and Alan Rauch, but a library also played a key role in the relationship between Dick Davis and Boyd Davis.   Dick and Boyd first met in the library at the university where they both earned their doctoral degrees.  Can you name this university?

There and Back Again — The subtitle for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is There and Back Again. This phrase seems apropos for today’s Monday Missive since I just returned from Oxford, where Tolkien wrote The Hobbit. I went to Oxford to participate in the Oxford Education Research Symposium and to present a paper titled “LeVar Burton and the Evolution of Language Arts and Literacy Education in the Digital Age.” While I was there, however, I had dinner at The Eagle and the Child, which is the pub where Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and the other members of a group called the Inklings gathered every week to discuss their writing projects.

The Oxford Education Research Symposium is known for bringing together scholars from around the globe to share pedagogy-related research. At this symposium, participants came from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, India, Israel, Malaysia, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain,Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Many of these participants gave presentations on the impact of digital technology on educational programs in their countries. For the most part, they emphasized the educational benefits made possible by using digital technology. One of the participants, for example, discussed how he used Smartphones with indigenous students in northern Canada to record and share community stories. Although nearly all of the participants expressed support for the use of digital technology in educational settings, they often sounded a note of caution. Several of the participants mentioned a book titled The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. As one of the participants pointed out, Carr’s book provides evidence that “online reading” does not always result in the same levels of comprehension associated with reading from the printed page.

My return flight back to Charlotte was delayed by seven hours on account of the snow storm that hit London on Sunday. While I was sitting for hours in the Heathrow Airport waiting for my flight, I had plenty of time to reflect on what I learned about the educational use of digital technology. Like most of the symposium participants, I think that digital technology can be used to great advantage in a teaching context. However, I urge all of us in the English Department not to view digital technology as some kind of pedagogical panacea. Digital technology provides us with tools but not necessarily with answers.

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:

Lara Vetter’s book A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose (2017) was reviewed in the most recent issue of The Review of English Studies.

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

December 13 — Bill Hill’s retirement reception will take place in Robinson Hall from 3:30 to 5:00. RSVP here, or call 7-0051.

December 16 — The Commencement for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will take place in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center (SAC) on Saturday, December 16, at 3:00 pm.

December 18 — Final grades for the Fall 2017 term must be submitted by Monday, December 18 at noon.

December 19 — The CLAS Faculty Achievement Celebration will take place in the Harris Alumni Center from 3:30 to 5:30.

Quirky Quiz Question — Tolkien used his first three initials when he published his creative works. Does anybody know what J.R.R. stand for?

Last week’s answer: Sullivan

What is the name of the composer who frequently collaborated with William Gilbert?