{"id":1705,"date":"2019-01-14T09:53:54","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T14:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=1705"},"modified":"2019-01-14T09:53:54","modified_gmt":"2019-01-14T14:53:54","slug":"monday-missive-january-14-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2019\/01\/14\/monday-missive-january-14-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – January 14, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Coming of Age Day\u00a0<\/b>— Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan.\u00a0 Celebrated on the second Monday in January, Coming of Age Day is a national holiday honoring all young adults who reach the age of 20 at any point during the year.\u00a0 In Japan, 20 is considered the age of majority, which means that young people gain the right to vote and drink alcoholic beverages on their 20th birthday.\u00a0 Throughout Japan, local governments hold a ceremony called Seijin-shiki on Coming of Age Day. \u00a0 During this ceremony, young people are introduced to the rights and responsibilities associated with adulthood.<\/p>\n

Although the United States does not have a national holiday that is comparable to Japan’s Coming of Age Day, the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood is still an important aspect of American society and culture.\u00a0 This transition is reflected in several of the courses that the English Department is offering this semester.\u00a0 Henry Doss, for example, is teaching a topics course titled “Southern Childhood in Films, Stories, and Performances” in which he is exploring the coming-of-age experience for young people growing up in the South.\u00a0 Janaka Lewis is offering an upper-level course on “Black Girlhood.”\u00a0 In this course, she is covering several texts that deal with coming-of-age themes, including Toni Morrison’s\u00a0The Bluest Eye,<\/i>\u00a0Maya Angelou’s\u00a0I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,<\/i>\u00a0and Angie Thomas’s\u00a0The Hate U Give.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Like Janaka, Balaka Basu is also teaching a course that deals with the experience of growing up female.\u00a0 Balaka is teaching a graduate-level course titled “Books for Girls and Other Young People” in which she encourages her students to examine what “girlhood studies has to do with women’s studies.”<\/p>\n

Japan’s Coming of Age Day underscores the important role that culture plays in helping young people navigate the transitions associated with growing up.\u00a0 In\u00a0Childhood and Society,\u00a0<\/i>Erik Erikson argues that the process of maturing involves going through eight different stages, six of which take place before one reaches full adulthood.\u00a0 As Erikson points out, the experience of progressing through these stages is shaped in part by one’s culture.\u00a0 All societies have rituals and stories associated with coming of age, but they vary depending on each society’s cultural values and traditions.\u00a0 I am pleased that our English Department provides our students with many opportunities to ponder the cultural significance of such coming-of-age rituals and stories.<\/p>\n

Kudos<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 As you know, I like to use my\u00a0Monday<\/span>\u00a0Missives<\/span>\u00a0to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n

Allison Hutchcraft\u00a0<\/b>has published her poem \u201cAmong the Graves\u201d in\u00a0The Gettysburg Review.<\/i><\/p>\n

Maya Socolovsky<\/b>\u00a0recently published an article titled “Material Literacies:\u00a0 Migration and Border Crossings in Chicana\/o Children’s Picture Books” in\u00a0MELUS:\u00a0 Multi-Ethnic Literature of the U.S.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

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

January 16<\/strong> — Last day for students to add or drop a course with no grade.<\/p>\n

January 19<\/strong> — The Children’s Literature Graduate Organization (CLGO) and the Myers Park Library are co-sponsoring a “Celebration of Paddington Bear.”\u00a0 This event will take place at the Myers Park Library (1361 Queens Road) on Saturday, January 19, from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm.<\/p>\n

January 29<\/strong> — The Personally Speaking presentation featuring Janaka Bowman Lewis will take place on Tuesday, January 29, 2019, at UNC Charlotte Center City.\u00a0 Janaka’s presentation on her book\u00a0Freedom Narratives of African American Women<\/i>\u00a0will begin at 6:30 p.m.\u00a0 A book signing and reception will follow her presentation. For more information and to RSVP, please click on the following link: \u00a0https:\/\/exchange.uncc.edu\/how-early-womens-writings-led-to-civil-rights-discourse\/<\/a><\/p>\n

February 7<\/strong> — Grace Ocasio will participate in a poetry reading at the Waccamaw Library on Pawleys Island, SC, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.<\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 The CLGO’s “Celebration of Paddington Bear” brings to mind Paddington Bear’s origin story.\u00a0 According to this story, in what country was Paddington Bear living before he moved to London?<\/p>\n

Last week’s answer: Heather Vorhies<\/strong>
\nThis Monday Missive spotlights six faculty members who incorporate science in their English courses, but these faculty members are by no means the only English faculty members who draw on the sciences in their teaching. For example, another faculty member is teaching a course this semester on the “Rhetoric of Science.” What is the name of the professor who is teaching this course? <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming of Age Day\u00a0— Today is Coming of Age Day in Japan.\u00a0 Celebrated on the second Monday in January, Coming of Age Day is a national holiday honoring all young adults who reach the age of 20 at any point during the year.\u00a0 In Japan, 20 is considered the age of majority, which means that […]<\/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-1705","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\/1705","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=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}