{"id":1621,"date":"2018-10-29T11:43:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T15:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2018-10-29T11:43:22","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T15:43:22","slug":"monday-missive-october-29-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2018\/10\/29\/monday-missive-october-29-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – October 29, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
Come and Sit for a Spell (or a Potion)<\/b>\u00a0— One of the reasons I like Halloween so much is that it harks back to a time when children knew all of their neighbors and felt free to visit them–a time when people sat on their front porches and invited passersby to sit on the porch swing for a spell.\u00a0 However, with the rise of the suburban ranch house, the sociable front porch has given way to the private back patio or deck, and this change in domestic architecture has altered the ways in which neighbors interact.\u00a0 Nowadays, many children hardly know their neighbors, and they certainly don’t feel free to ring their neighbors’ doorbells and ask for a treat–except for on Halloween.\u00a0 On Halloween, we give ourselves permission to open our doors to our neighbors, to play, and to not take ourselves too seriously even if it’s just for a day.<\/div>\n
\n

\"\"<\/a>I am pleased to report that the convivial spirit of Halloween pervaded the English Department last Friday thanks to the efforts of the students in Sigma Tau Delta, the English Graduate Student Association, and the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization.\u00a0 These students held their second annual Haunted English Department Take Over on Friday, October 26, from 4:00 to 8:00 pm, and it was a smash hit.\u00a0 We flung open the front doors of the English Department, and lots of students and children showed up in costumes.\u00a0 A number of faculty and staff members, including me, opened our office doors to trick-or-treaters.\u00a0 The student organizers decorated the department, held a costume contest, and set up Halloween-related craft projects.\u00a0 They showed a scary movie and provided an abundance of pizza and other tasty snacks.\u00a0 Everyone who participated had a great time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I had to leave around 6:00, but the English Department was still rollicking when I headed home.\u00a0 Seeing so many children, students, faculty, and staff members all having fun together, I concluded, as I drove home, that our English Department is not just an academic unit.\u00a0 For many of us, it also functions as a community or a neighborhood of sorts.\u00a0 If it’s haunted, I suspect that it’s haunted by friendly spirits who just want to sit for a spell and enjoy the convivial company.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Personally Speaking Dates<\/b>\u00a0— We have confirmed the dates next semester for not one but two<\/u>\u00a0English Department faculty who will be discussing their books at Personally Speaking:<\/p>\n

\n

Janaka Lewis<\/a>\u00a0will talk about\u00a0Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings<\/i>\u00a0on\u00a0Tuesday, Jan. 29<\/b>, at UNC Charlotte Center Center; Bryn Chancellor<\/a>\u00a0will talk about her novel,\u00a0Sycamore<\/i>, on\u00a0Tuesday, Mar. 26<\/b>, also at Center City. (The second Personally Speaking of the season is from political scientist\u00a0Mary Layton Atkinson<\/a>\u00a0—\u00a0Combative Politics<\/i>, on Nov. 1, and a fifth presentation, historian\u00a0Karen Cox’<\/a>s\u00a0Goat Castle\u00a0<\/i>is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 19.). You can RSVP for Janaka and Bryn, as well as the other Personally Speaking events, by clicking on the author names above.<\/p>\n

Kudos<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n

Melissa Goodnight,<\/b>\u00a0a Spring 2018 MA graduate, published her personal essay \u201cDoll\u201d in\u00a0Mud Season Review<\/i>.\u00a0http:\/\/mudseasonreview.com\/<\/a>\u00a0The essay was part of\u00a0Poor-Branded Women,\u00a0<\/i>her creative thesis.<\/p>\n

Joan Mullin<\/b>\u00a0along with\u00a0Jan Rieman<\/b>\u00a0recently presented a paper titled “A Report on a Longitudinal Study of Student Writing Transfer” at ALES, the Latin American association for writing studies. The ALES Conference took place in Santiago, Chile.<\/p>\n

Matthew Rowney<\/b>\u00a0recently delivered a paper titled \u00a0“‘Lin’d with Moss’: Clare’s Rhizomatic Poetics”\u00a0at the International Conference on Romanticism in Greenville, SC.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Meetings<\/b>\u00a0— Here is a list of upcoming events and meetings:<\/p>\n

October 31 — Balaka Basu will deliver a talk titled “Learning from the Harry Potter Generation” on October 31 at 2pm in the Dale Halton Room of the Atkins Library.\u00a0 For more information, please click on the following link:\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/exchange.uncc.edu\/event\/celebrating-20-years-of-harry-potter\/<\/a><\/p>\n

November 2-4 — The Department of English is a sponsor of the 2018 North Carolina Writers\u2019 Network\u2019s Fall Conference, held in Charlotte Nov. 2-4 at the Hilton Charlotte University Place. Both Paula Martinac and Bryn Chancellor are teaching workshops, including a conference opener hosted in Fretwell.\u00a0 For more conference information, please click on the following link:\u00a0https:\/\/ncwriters.org\/index.php\/programs-and-services\/conferences\/9786-fc18<\/a><\/p>\n

November 3 —\u00a0Distinguished Shakespeare scholar Peter Holland will delver a presentation titled “Forgiving and Forgetting: Shakespeare and Power” on\u00a0Saturday, November 3, in the Choir Room in Robinson Hall\u00a0at 6:00 pm.\u00a0 The presentation will take place just prior to Saturday’s\u00a0Twelfth Nigh<\/i>t performance.<\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 During the costume contest at the Haunted English Department Takeover, someone who dressed up like a wind-up doll won one of the prizes.\u00a0 Who wore this winning costume?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Last week’s answer: John F. Kennedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Robert Frost was 86, he read a poem at the inauguration of a President.\u00a0 What is the name of this President?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Come and Sit for a Spell (or a Potion)\u00a0— One of the reasons I like Halloween so much is that it harks back to a time when children knew all of their neighbors and felt free to visit them–a time when people sat on their front porches and invited passersby to sit on the porch […]<\/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-1621","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\/1621","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=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1627,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}