{"id":136,"date":"2014-04-23T21:25:17","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T21:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=136"},"modified":"2014-08-26T16:55:40","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T16:55:40","slug":"monday-missive-april-21-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2014\/04\/23\/monday-missive-april-21-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – April 21, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earth Day <\/strong>– Today is John Muir’s birthday, and tomorrow is Earth Day. These two dates belong together, for John Muir (1838-1914) played a key role in the early days of the conservation movement. \u00a0Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. \u00a0He was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, President Theodore Roosevelt, and many other major figures who shared his commitment to preserving the natural environment. \u00a0Throughout his career, Muir enjoyed writing about his experiences as a naturalist and his observations of special places, such as the Sierra. \u00a0As we look forward to celebrating Earth Day, we should note that the English Department has faculty members who share Muir’s interest in promoting the natural environment. \u00a0Two who come immediately to mind are Greg Wickliff and Jen Munroe.<\/p>\n

Greg regularly teaches a summer course called “Writing about Place.” \u00a0In this course, Greg has his students immerse themselves in a particular place and then write about that place in terms of its natural resources as well as its human inhabitants, both past and present. \u00a0This summer, Greg is having his students write about Badin, North Carolina. \u00a0Located on the Yadkin River, this small twon is about forty miles east of UNC Charlotte. \u00a0It is also a significant archeological site, and research indicates that humans have lived in this area for more than 12,000 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jen has established herself as a leader in the University’s sustainability initiatives, but she has also made a name for herself in the area of eco-criticism. \u00a0Her scholarship in this area is reflected in her books\u00a0Making Gardens of Their Own: \u00a0Gardening Manuals for Women, 1500-1750\u00a0<\/i>(2007),\u00a0Gender and the Garden in Early Modern English Literature <\/i>(2008), and Ecofeminist Approaches to Early Modernity <\/i>(2011). \u00a0 Last month Jen\u00a0received\u00a0a contract for a new co-authored monograph titled Shakespeare and Ecofeminist Theory. \u00a0<\/i>It will appear as part of the Arden “Shakespeare and\u00a0Theory” series.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The celebration of Earth Day helps us remember the importance of preserving and understanding our natural environment, but only so\u00a0much\u00a0can be\u00a0accomplished in one day. \u00a0Through teaching and scholarship, Greg and Jen help sustain throughout the year the goals we associate with Earth Day. \u00a0I am sure John Muir would approve.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leadership<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I am pleased to report that we now have three more faculty members who have\u00a0completed the leadership\u00a0program\u00a0offered by the ADVANCE Faculty Affairs Office. \u00a0These faculty members are Pilar Blitvich, Liz Miller, and Aaron Toscano. \u00a0By\u00a0participating\u00a0in this program, these and the other faculty members who have already gone through this program are positioning themselves to play leaderships roles in the department as well as the wider university. \u00a0Jeffrey Leak, for example, is a previous participant\u00a0in the ADVANCE Program, and he is now one of two\u00a0candidates\u00a0for the\u00a0position\u00a0of Faculty President. \u00a0In my opinion, one of the great strengths of the English Department is the willingness of our faculty and staff to serve in leadership roles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kudos<\/span><\/b>\u2014 As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department. \u00a0Here is the latest news:<\/span><\/p>\n

Andrew Hartley<\/span><\/b> was the subject of a feature article that ran in last Sunday’s Charlotte Observer. \u00a0<\/i>Here is the link to the article: http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2014\/04\/18\/4850175\/unc-charlottes-andrew-hartley.html#.U1VPiRlmWTg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lisa McAlister<\/span><\/b>, one of our current graduate students, recently\u00a0presented a paper titled “Relational Knowledge and the Knowledge of Power between the Human and the Nonhuman in Early Modern Culture: The Knowledge of Experience and the Knowledge of Experiment” at the\u00a0joint University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and King’s College London (UNC\/KCL) Graduate Student Conference.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Liz Miller<\/span><\/b> will be a guest speaker\u2014via Skype\u2014in a doctoral class at Pennsylvania State University this evening.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacqueline Plante<\/span><\/b>, one of our former M.A. students, has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland, College Park, with a fellowship that includes five years of funding. \u00a0She plans to study twentieth-century poetry and digital humanities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/span><\/b>\u2014\u00a0Here are some dates to keep in mind:<\/span><\/p>\n

April 24-26<\/strong> \u2014 The Shakespeare in Action Initiative is sponsoring a workshop titled “Devising Shakespeare: \u00a0The Shrew Project.” \u00a0The workshop will take place in the Black Box Theater in Robinson Hall, starting at 7:30 (Thursday-Saturday). \u00a0Andrew Hartley, Kirk Melnikoff, and Jen Munroe all helped organize this event.<\/span><\/p>\n

April 30<\/strong> \u2014 The English Department Student Awards Ceremony will take place in the Dale Halton Room in the Library from 12:30-2:00. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u2014 I first took an interest in John Muir when I was living in Madison, Wisconsin. \u00a0Muir lived in Madison and attended the University of Wisconsin, although he never graduated. \u00a0We have several faculty members in the English Department who have degrees from the University of Wisconsin. \u00a0Name one of these faculty members.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earth Day – Today is John Muir’s birthday, and tomorrow is Earth Day. These two dates belong together, for John Muir (1838-1914) played a key role in the early days of the conservation movement. \u00a0Muir founded the Sierra Club and helped establish Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. \u00a0He was friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-monday-missive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}