Celebrating Black History Month —  February is Black History Month (also known as African American History Month).  For the members of the English Department, the history of African Americans relates in significant ways to our research and teaching.  A perfect example of this relationship is Janaka Lewis’s current a research project on the history of girls’ play in African American communities.  When I contacted Janaka and asked her for more information about her research, she sent me the following description:

My current research project, “Freedom to Play,” looks at narratives of girlhood in African American literature (19th through 21st centuries) and the ways play is both embraced as a tool of liberation and means of negotiating identity and also used to restrict the spaces in which black girls are able to move.  Using authors that include Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison, I discuss narratives of games that mimic the roles that young girls are expected to embody as adults, stories that are passed down from elders, and lessons that are taught about and through play in formal and informal educational settings.  Along with scholarship about these narratives, my future goals are to create a black girlhood studies reader with excerpts of literary experiences in black girlhood (which I will design for a future course) and to incorporate the narratives as interactive experiences for a broad audience.

As the above description makes clear, Janaka’s current project connects in many ways to the various curricular and research areas that are encompassed within the English Department.  Her examination of works of African American literature supports our concentration in Literature and Culture as well as our minor in Diverse Literature and Cultural Studies.  Her focus on children’s play has direct connections to our minor in Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies.  Her emphasis on the history of African American girlhood contributes to the English Department’s long-time relationship with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Her consideration of “lessons” and “educational settings” connects to our departmental commitment to English Education.   In other words, the research on African American history that Janaka and other members of our English Department do is integral to the work of the English 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:

Paula Eckard recently participated in a panel discussion on The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Charlotte Film Society, and Charlotte Lit.

Janaka Lewis recently led a workshop on the book Hidden Figures with a group of middle school students from Hickory Ridge Middle School in Harrisburg.

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

Feb 13 – The Faculty/Staff performance of “Tales From Down There” will be on Monday, February 13 at 7pm in McKnight Hall. This performance will include appearances by the following people associated with the English Department: Janaka Lewis, Tiffany Morin, Angie Williams, Alison Walsh, and Shannon Bauerle. Advanced tickets can be purchased on-line at https://ecom.uncc.edu/C21561_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=147&SINGLESTORE=true or with cash only at the door.

Quirky Quiz Question — Black History Month was officially recognized by the United States government in 1976 as part of a larger celebration of American history.  What was the name of this  national event celebrating American history?

Last week’s answer: Ellis Island

Like many Polish Jews who immigrated to America during the turn of the last century, my father’s grandparents settled in New York City.  However, before they established homes in New York City, they first passed through a famous immigration processing center located on an island.  What is the name of this island?

International Holocaust Remembrance Day — This past Friday (January 27) marked the observance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and this event sparked me to reflect on my family’s connections to the Holocaust.  Everyone on my father’s side of the family came from the Jewish community in Warsaw, Poland.  A small group of them immigrated to New York City in the early years of the 20th century.  My great-grandparents were among those who fled the oppressive conditions in what was known as the Warsaw Ghetto, and they eventually became American citizens.  Many of their relatives, however, remained in Warsaw.

When I was a college student, my grandfather shared with me the story of what happened to his relatives who stayed in Warsaw.  He had just watched the famous mini-series Roots, and he thought that I should know something about my roots.  According to my grandfather, his relatives who remained in Warsaw were swept up in the tumultuous series of events known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  This celebrated act of Jewish resistance started on April 19, 1943, when the Jewish residents of the Warsaw Ghetto refused to surrender to the Nazi forces who had come to the Ghetto to round up everyone and deport them to concentration camps.  Chaos ensued, and nearly every one from the Warsaw Ghetto was killed, including my relatives.  However, they died resisting Fascism, and my grandfather always took pride in that fact.  I do, too.

I think that it is important not only to remember the Holocaust, but also to become better informed about this nightmarish chapter in our history.  For those who want to know more about the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, I recommend two books as good starting points.  Dan Kuzman’s The Bravest Battle:  The Twenty-eight Days of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is an excellent historical account of the events related to the uprising. Leon Uris’s Mila 18 is a moving novel about the uprising and the story of the Jewish resistance fighters.  As both of these books make clear, it takes a great deal of courage to resist tyrants and bigots.  In remembering the Holocaust, we should also remember and honor those brave people who stood with the resistance.

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:

Katie Hogan‘s essay, “The Academic Slow Lane,” appears in the newly published collection, Staging Women’s Lives in Academia: Gendered Life Stages in Language and Literature Workplaces, edited by Michelle Masse and Nan Bauer-Maglin (SUNY Press, 2017).

Liz Miller is first author of a co-authored article titled “Exploring Language Teacher Identity Work as Ethical Self-Formation” that has just been published in the Modern Language Journal.

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

February 3 — The 17th Annual English Graduate Student Association Conference will take place on February 3, 2017, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Cone Center Lucas Room.

Quirky Quiz Question — Like many Polish Jews who immigrated to America during the turn of the last century, my father’s grandparents settled in New York City.  However, before they established homes in New York City, they first passed through a famous immigration processing center located on an island.  What is the name of this island?

Last week’s answer: See below.

In addition to writing The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers wrote three other novels.  Can you complete the titles of her three other novels listed below?  

Celebrating the Centennial of Carson McCullers’s Birth — Copper Restaurant, known for its Indian food, is located just a few blocks from our home.  Whenever I walk our dog along East Boulevard, we pass by it as we get our exercise.  Our dog doesn’t seem to care that the famous novelist Carson McCullers lived in the building where Copper Restaurant is now located, but it matters to me.

McCullers and her husband rented an apartment in the building in 1937.  While living there, she began writing The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, her first novel.  She lived in Charlotte for just a year, but for those of us who are interested in Charlotte’s literary history, that’s long enough for us to claim her as a Charlotte writer and to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth on February 19, 1917.

As part of this celebration, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Charlotte Film Society, and an organization called Charlotte Lit are presenting a film series showcasing three films based on McCullers’s novels.  The series kicks off on February 5, 2017, with a screening of the 1968 film version of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, and Cicely Tyson.  The film will be shown at 1:30 p.m. at ImaginOn’s Wells Fargo Playhouse.  After the screening there will be a panel discussion, and our own Paula Eckard is one of the panelists.   Paula is a charter member of the Carson McCullers Society, and she often includes McCullers’s novels in her courses on Southern literature.

For more information about the film series and the other events related to the centennial of McCullers’s birth, please click on the following link: http://www.charlottelit.org/carsonmccullers/

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 co-authored chapter titled “Challenges and Experiences in Training Multilingual, International Direct Care Workers in Dementia Care in the United States” in the edited volume Multilingual Interaction in Dementia. 

Lara Vetter recently published an afterword to a collection titled Modernist Women Writers and Spirituality:  A Piercing Darkness, co-edited by Elizabeth Anderson, Andrew Redford, and Heather Walton.

Debora Rae Wenger, a graduate of our M.A. program, was recently named one of the nation’s ten best journalism educators.  She is currently a professor at the University of Mississippi.  Please click on the following link for more information: http://hottytoddy.com/2017/01/20/wenger-professor-honored-nations-best/

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines.
January 27 — The English Department meeting will take place on January 27, 2017, from 11:00-12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

February 3 — The 17th Annual English Graduate Student Association Conference will take place on February 3, 2017, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Cone Center Lucas Room.

Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to writing The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers wrote three other novels.  Can you complete the titles of her three other novels listed below?

 
Reflections in a _______ Eye

The Member of the _________

_________ without Hands

Last week’s answer: Atlanta

In addition being a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis has long served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives.  His district encompasses most of what major city in the South?

John Lewis and Jim Zwerg

Reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King Day — A few years ago a student in my children’s literature course made an appointment to talk with me about her interest in doing an independent research project related to our class session on the history of African American children’s literature.  She was especially interested in nonfiction books for young people about the history of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.   She signed up for an independent study with me, and she and I met on numerous occasions to talk about her readings.  She introduced me to Freedom Riders:  John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Movement by Ann Bausum.  The student and I both read this book, and we agreed that it provides an excellent introduction to the history of the Civil Rights Movement and to two of the movement’s leaders, both of whom risked their lives to advocate for equality and freedom.  For her final project, this student interviewed Bausum, and I proudly published an excerpt of this interview in RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.  

By introducing me to Bausum’s excellent book, this student underscored for me the lesson that learning is often a collaborative process.  Of course, students learn from their teachers, but it is also true that teachers can learn from their students.  By working together to learn new material and share discoveries and insights, we can sometimes break out of our individualistic concerns and come up with new and collaborative solutions to common problems.   As Dr. King once said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

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:

Valerie Bright recently received a Master’s Degree in Library and Information Studies from UNC Greensboro.

Heather Vorhies recently published “Women and Corporate Communication in the Early American Republic” in Peitho Journal.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines— Here is information about an upcoming events and deadlines.
January 27 — The English Department meeting will take place on January 27, 2017, from 11:00-12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

February 3 — The 17th Annual English Graduate Student Association Conference will take place on February 3, 2017, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Cone Center Lucas Room.

Quirky Quiz Question — In addition being a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, John Lewis has long served as a member of the U. S. House of Representatives.  His district encompasses most of what major city in the South?

Last week’s answer:

Ian Fleming–The Spy Who Loved Me

John le Carré–Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

John le Carré, Roald Dahl, and Ian Flemming are all British writers who also worked as spies.  Listed below are three books written by one of these authors.  See if you can identify the author of each book.

Coming in from the Cold — As I made the frigid walk from the East Parking Deck to the Fretwell Building on this first day of the Spring 2017 semester, a phrase popped into my head the moment I felt the welcomed warmth of the building.  “Aah,” I said to myself, “the professor who came in from the cold.”  Then I started wondering where the phrase came from, and I remembered a spy novel that I read in college titled The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold came out in 1963, and the Cold War tensions are integral to the novel.  Spying, espionage, and subversive interventions in the political processes of nations all figure in this famous novel.   I remember being caught up in the fast-paced plot of the book, but what stuck with me was the way in which the novel addresses moral questions and concerns.  Lying is so central to the central character’s life that he hardly knows the difference between lying and telling the truth.   Needless to say, there is a lot about The Spy Who Came in from the Cold that relates to our current situation besides the cold temperatures.

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:

Juan Meneses presented a paper titled “Postcolonial Misrecognition in Jean Rhys’sVoyage in the Dark” at the MLA conference, which took place last week in Philadelphia.

Sarah Minslow published a chapter titled “Helping Children Understand Atrocities:  Developing and Implementing an Undergraduate Course Titled ‘War and Genocide in Children’s Literature'” in a the volume Understanding Atrocities:  Remembering, Representing, and Teaching Genocide.  The book was published Calgary University Press.

Jen Munroe presented a paper titled “Premodern Kitchen Ecologies: ‘Sustainable Becoming'” at the MLA conference in Philadelphia last week.

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

January 16 — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day–University closed.

January 16 — The last day to add/drop with no grade.

January 27 — The English Department meeting will take place on January 27, 2017, from 11:00-12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.

Quirky Quiz Question — John le Carré, Roald Dahl, and Ian Fleming are all British writers who also worked as spies.  Listed below are three books written by one of these authors.  See if you can identify the author of each book:

The Spy Who Loved Me

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Going Solo

Last week’s answer: Larry Mellichamp

Jeffrey Gillman is the current Director of the Botanical Gardens.  Does anybody remember who served as the Director of the Botanical Gardens before Jeffrey?

Innovative Teaching — I do not usually make resolutions at the beginning of the new year, but this year I have resolved to write a bit more about teaching in my Monday Missives.  In my 33 years of teaching in the English Department, I have long been impressed with my colleagues’ innovative approaches to teaching.  Starting with today’s Monday Missive, I am going to celebrate some noteworthy examples of innovative teaching by members of our English Department.

Last semester Matthew Rowney took an innovative approach to teaching his students about ecocriticism.  Matt met with Jeffrey Gillman, the Director of Botanical Gardens at UNC Charlotte, and Jeffrey gave Matt a tour of the greenhouses and gardens.  In recounting this tour, Matt told me, “I told him about my Romantic ecocriticism course, in particular the author John Clare, who was himself an accomplished amateur botanist.  Given the importance of individual plants to Clare, I went through the texts assigned for the course and made a list of plants, and then forwarded these to Jeffrey, inquiring whether the garden contained any of them. Luckily, the gardens have many of the same or similar species. After reading Clare’s work and discussing his ecological vision, my class took a tour of the gardens, stopping to examine individual plants appearing in Clare’s work, and thinking about what seeing these plants within a larger habitat might contribute to how we understand Clare’s poetry.”

Jeffrey Gillman, Director, UNCC Botanical Gardens

An example of one of Clare’s poems that Matt connected to the gardens is “Emmonsail’s Heath in Winter.”  In this poem, there are two lines that relate to an ash tree.  One of the lines reads, “Beside whose trunk the gypsy makes his bed.” There are three ashes that stand together in the gardens, near where the forest area connects with the Asian garden.  Matt showed these ash trees to his students and asked them to imagine the trunks of these trees as a resting place for a weary traveler.

By bringing his students into the garden and relating the plants in the garden to Clare’s poetry, Matt helped his student develop a deeper appreciation of these poems’ intrinsic connections to the natural world.

RD News — As we start the Spring 2017 semester, two of our faculty members are about to experience changes as a result of being awarded an RD (Reassignment of Duties).  Paula Connolly will return to teaching after having spent the fall semester working on a research project, and Ralf Thiede is about to take a semester-break from teaching in order to work on a research project.

During her RD, Paula worked on Stories about Slavery, an anthology of U.S. literature published for children between 1790 and 1865. The anthology contains pro- and anti- slavery selections (with many that fall in a spectrum between the two). While the anthology could function as a companion to her earlier critical study, Slavery in American Children’s Literature, 1790-2010, most of the anthology contains new material not previously discussed and only available in rare book rooms. Some of the different groupings of literature include “slave narratives,” “alphabets,” and even “schoolbooks: mathematics” where Confederate children learned how to figure the price of slaves they were expected to one day own. Her goal is to offer historical and literary contexts for the pieces as guideposts, but to keep critical intervention to a minimum so readers can explore the literature–particularly in terms of its racial ideologies–on their own.

For his RD, Ralf will work on project in which he can combine his backgrounds in linguistics, cognitive science, and literature. He is writing a book on the linguistics of children’s literature. He is working within an emerging new paradigm in neuroscience that focuses not so much on brain areas but on the pathways between them and how they develop over time in infants and children, changing their thinking. He then matches the successive processing profiles with what the language of children’s literature can offer at each developmental stage that is not already present in how adults talk to children. He has already completed his study of how babies acquire and produce speech sounds and how authors like Dr. Seuss support that development with noises (Mr. Brown Can Moo!), rhyme, rhythm, anticipation, engaging repetition, funny-sounding words (S-L-U-R-R-R-P), and surprising violations (thnead is definitely not a possible sound combination in English) that trigger the child’s instinct to explore.  Ralf will look at interactive book readings between adult readers and preliterate children to describe linguistic collusions among child, adult, protagonist, and author.

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:

Alan Rauch recently gave a presentation titled “Rethinking A Christmas Carol as a Malthusian Parable” as one of the community salons organized by Twig Branch.

Angie Williams recently launched a blog titled It Is What It Is:  Life as a Parent, Grandmother, and Caregiver.  Her is the link to her blog:  https://pages.charlotte.edu/angie-williams/updates/

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

January 9 – The first day of classes for the Spring 2017 semester is January 9.

Quirky Quiz Question — Jeffrey Gillman is the current Director of the Botanical Gardens.  Does anybody remember who served as the Director of the Botanical Gardens before Jeffrey?

Last week’s answer: Epistolary

In thinking about the term “missive,” I am reminded that some novels are told through a series of letters (or missives).  What is the term that is generally used for such novels?

Postscripts — My wife always reads my Monday Missives, and she mentioned to me that last week’s Monday Missive read like it was my last Monday Missive of the Fall 2016 semester.  However, the word “missive” is an old-fashioned word for “letter,” and old-fashioned letters often included postscripts, so I decided to close out the semester with a few postscripts.

Commencement Report — Last Saturday the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences held its winter commencement ceremony, and for 82 of our students, this ceremony marked their transition from current students to graduates.  A total of 11 of our graduate students are listed in the commencement program, and 71 undergraduate students are listed.

I was especially impressed with how many of our BA students fall under the heading of “Graduation with Distinction.”  Of the 71 students, 7 earned the distinction of Cum Laude (GPA between 3.4-3.7), 4 earned the distinction of Magna Cum Laude (GPA between 3.7-3.9), and 3 earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude (GPA between 3.9-4.0).  This total comes to 14 students. I am very proud of all of our graduating students, but I want to mention by name the 3 students who earned the distinction of Summa Cum Laude.  Their names are Megan Renee Bonds, Jasmin Marie Gonzalez Caban, and Kevin F. Wetherall.

Jen Munroe’s News — Sometimes good things come in threes, and this seems to be the case with Jen.  Three exciting opportunities recently came her way.  Jen (with Hillary Nunn from U of Akron and Amy Tigner from UT Arlington) will be teaching a summer course next May titled, “Making Manuscripts Digital.” This course will be part of the DH@Guelph Summer Workshops at the University of Guelph. Their participation is supported with an honorarium and expenses paid.  Jen will also be an invited participant in the Folger Institute program, “Early Modern Manuscripts Online: New Directions in Teaching and Research,” May 17-18, 2017.  She has been asked to present during a round table titled, “EMMO Pedagogical and Research Community.” That participation is also expenses paid.  And finally, Jen has been asked to contribute a chapter to a forthcoming essay collection co-edited by Hillary Eklund and Wendy Beth Hyman titled, Shakespeare and the Pedagogies of Justice. Her chapter will take up the question of teaching environmental justice and early modern texts.
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:

Bryn Chancellor’s forthcoming novel, Sycamore (Harper, May 9, 2017), was chosen for Publisher Weekly’s spring 2017 preview, which selects the top 50 books in varied categories “to predict which books will stand out in the early months of 2017—which will make it to the top, in terms of attention, sales, and awards and prizes.” Chancellor’s is included in literary fiction. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/new-titles/adult-announcements/article/72259-spring-2017-announcements-literary-fiction.html

Jeffrey Leak has accepted an invitation from Malin Pereira to serve as faculty fellow for the new Martin Scholars Program.

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

January 9 – The first day of classes for the Spring 2017 semester is January 9.

Quirky Quiz Question — In thinking about the term “missive,” I am reminded that some novels are told through a series of letters (or missives).  What is the term that is generally used for such novels?

Last week’s answer: Al Maisto

Malin Pereira is the current Executive Director of the Honors College.  Does anybody remember who ran the Honors College before Malin?

Turning Pages — I often think of semesters as chapters in a larger story.  As we prepare to turn the last page of the chapter about the fall 2016 semester, I am impressed with how much happened in this chapter.  We saw the debut of new characters, such as Melodye Gordon, Matthew Osborne, and Matthew Rowney.  We saw established characters take on new roles, such as Sarah Minslow, Jen Munroe, and Lara Vetter.  A whole new advising system came into place over the course of this chapter.  For me, however, the parts of the chapter that I’ve underlined with a yellow Hi-Liter are the passages that deal with the launching of the English Honors Program.  In the short span of one semester, our English Honors Program went from the glimmer of an idea to a vibrant program that has already attracted the involvement of 32 undergraduate students.

The launching of the English Honors Program could not have happened without the help of many members of the English Department.  At the top of the list is Kirk Melnikoff, who is serving as the director of the program.  Janaka Lewis has worked closely with Kirk to coordinate the connections between the English Honors Program and Sigma Tau Delta.  Aaron Toscano taught an English Honors Seminar this semester, and Monica Alston worked with Kirk to communicate with the students in the program.  Malin Pereira, the Executive Director of the Honors College, helped Kirk solve the logistical problems involved with launching our program.  Finally, too many faculty members to mention by name have agreed to work with our honors students on their thesis projects.  My thanks go to everyone who helped launch the English Honors Program.

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:

Sandy Govan was recently featured on a syndicated radio program about Maya Angelou.  Here is the link to the radio program:  withgoodreasonradio.org

Malin Pereira recently published an essay titled “Brenda Marie Osbey’s Black Internationalism” in Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities,’Race’ 3: African Americans, ‘Race’ and Diaspora.

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

December 13 – The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Celebration of Faculty Achievement will take place on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, from 12:00 to 1:00 at the Harris Alumni Center.

Quirky Quiz Question — Malin Pereira is the current Executive Director of the Honors College.  Does anybody remember who ran the Honors College before Malin?

Last week’s answer: First the bank was called North Carolina National Bank.  Then it was called NCNB.  Then it was called NationsBank, and now it is called Bank of America.

In addition to mentoring Ron Lunsford, Roy Moose was well known for teaching courses on the works of Shakespeare.  In fact, he was the first member of the English Department to win the teaching award that is now known as the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.  When he won the award in 1969, however, the award reflected the name of the bank at that time.  Does anybody know what Bank of America was called then?

Nudging as Mentoring — Last week I had a conversation with Ron Lunsford about his experiences as an undergraduate student in our English Department in the late 1960s.  Like many of our current students, Ron was a first-generation college student.  The thought of going to graduate school or pursuing a career in academia never occurred to him until some of his professors suggested that he consider applying for graduate school.  Ron credits an English professor named Roy Moose with providing the necessary nudge to apply to the M.A. program at UNC Chapel Hill.  This nudge proved to be a key moment in launching Ron’s career in academia.  As the saying goes, the rest is history.

The mentoring that Ron received from Roy Moose and other professors at UNC Charlotte underscores for me the importance of nudging in the mentoring process.  Sometimes students need a little push, a word of encouragement, or a suggestion to pursue opportunities.  For those of us who are working with talented undergraduate students, I suggest that we follow Roy Moose’s example and suggest to these students that they consider applying to graduate programs, including our own M.A. program.  Some of our best graduate students received their undergraduate degrees from UNC Charlotte.  For those of us who are working with graduate students, I suggest that we nudge these students to submit an abstract for the upcoming upcoming English Graduate Student Association Conference. The deadline to submit an abstract is today.  Please click on the following link for the paper call:  http://english.uncc.edu/sites/english.uncc.edu/files/media/2017%20EGSA%20Call%20for%20Papers%20Final.pdf

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 Connolly published a review essay in the most recent issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.  She reviewed two scholarly works about picture books:  Reading Visual Narrative:  Image Analysis of Children’s Picture Books  and Picture Books:  Beyond the Borders of Art, Narrative and Culture.

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

December 8 – The Department Holiday Party will take place from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge on December 8. A sign-up sheet for donated goodies is on the front reception desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to mentoring Ron Lunsford, Roy Moose was well known for teaching courses on the works of Shakespeare.  In fact, he was the first member of the English Department to win the teaching award that is now known as the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.  When he won the award in 1969, however, the award reflected the name of the bank at that time.  Does anybody know what Bank of America was called then?

Last week’s answer: Professor Sprout

In the Harry Potter series, the students at Hogwarts study science, but the J. K. Rowling often substitutes her own terms when referring to these subjects.  For example, she uses the term herbology when referring to botany.  What is the name of the professor at Hogwarts who teaches herbology?

Harry Potter’s World Exhibit – A few weeks ago I received an email from Abby Moore, the Education Librarian at the J. Murrey Atkins Library.  She informed me that a traveling exhibit titled “Harry Potter’s World:  Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine” is making a stop at the Atkins Library from the end of November through January 6, 2017, and she wanted to meet with me to brainstorm programming ideas related to this exhibit.   We met for an hour and kicked around lots of ideas for Harry Potter talks, events, and projects; Abby and her colleagues decided to implement many of them, the details of which will be announced soon.  In the meantime, however, the opening ceremony is already scheduled.  It will take place on Wednesday, November 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 in the Halton Reading Room of Atkins Library.  For more information about this exhibit, please click on the following link:  http://library.uncc.edu/HarryPottersWorldExhibit

This traveling exhibit was organized by the National Library of Medicine.  By exploring the connections between the medical sciences and and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the National Library of Medicine underscores the fact the medical sciences and the humanities overlap in significant ways.  This overlap can also be seen in the research of several of our faculty members.  Paula Eckard, for example, is currently working a new book that is tentatively titled The Medical Narratives of Thomas Wolfe.  At its core, this project relates to the new field of narrative medicine.  Similarly, Boyd Davis is working on several funded research projects in which she examines the importance of storytelling when working with patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s.  A third example is the research that Jen Munroe is doing on the history of medicine as it is reflected in the writings of early modern women from Great Britain.  As this examples demonstrate our English Department is very much a player in the world of medical science.

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:

Amand Loeffert, one of our graduate students, recently published a co-authored article titled “Fifteen Years of Harry Potter Movie Magic” in the Fall/Winter 2016 issue of RISE:  A Children’s Literacy Journal.  Her co-author is Julia Morris, who graduated from our MA program in 2015.

Paula Martinac recently learned that she has been awarded a 2017 Regional Artist Project Grant to support her work on a novel that is tentatively titled Clio.

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

December 2 —  The English Department meeting will take place on Friday, December 2, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room.  Gray’s Bookstore will be providing a faculty/staff appreciation luncheon in the lounge (Fretwell 248C) immediately following the meeting.

December 8 – The Department Holiday Party will take place from 11:30-1:30 in the faculty/staff lounge on December 8. A sign-up sheet for donated goodies is on the front reception desk.

Quirky Quiz Question — In the Harry Potter series, the students at Hogwarts study science, but the J. K. Rowling often substitutes her own terms when referring to these subjects.  For example, she uses the term herbology when referring to botany.  What is the name of the professor at Hogwarts who teaches herbology?

Last week’s answer: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

When I went to the event that the students in Sarah Minslow’s class organized, I was very impressed with their efforts to communicate the difficulties facing refugee children.  I came away thinking that nobody should live the life of a refugee, and that reminded me of the following line from a song:  “You don’t have to live like a refugee.”  Who recorded this song?