{"id":1816,"date":"2019-04-29T10:34:11","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=1816"},"modified":"2019-04-29T10:34:11","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T14:34:11","slug":"monday-missive-april-29-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2019\/04\/29\/monday-missive-april-29-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – April 29, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Party Favors<\/b>\u00a0— Most people think of party favors as small gifts that are given to the guests at a party.\u00a0 After the party is over, they can take these party favors home with them as\u00a0mementos of the occasion.\u00a0 I remember purchasing inexpensive toys that my wife and I gave away as party favors to the children who came to our son’s birthday parties during his early childhood years.\u00a0 Nowadays, however, I like to think of party favors in a less materialistic way.\u00a0 In a sense, the memories of our experiences at a party are similar to party favors.\u00a0 Like conventional party favors, these memories are the takeaways that we bring home with us after going to a party, but unlike most conventional party favors, these memories can last for years.
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During my thirty-five years as a member of our English Department, I have many lasting memories from the dozens of department parties that I have attended over the course of my career.\u00a0 I remember dancing with Kay Horne at one of my first department parties back when Fred Smith was the chair.\u00a0 I remember talking about Judy Blume’s novels with Ron Lunsford’s son, Christopher, back when Ron was the chair and Christopher was still a boy.\u00a0 I remember having a long conversation with Blair Rudes about his experiences as a consultant on the film\u00a0The New World<\/i>\u00a0back when Cy Knoblauch was the chair. I remember talking with Ernest Pereira about our mutual love of Greek food back when Malin Pereira was the chair.
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Now that my wife and I host most of the department parties, I pay more attention to the experiences of the attendees of the department parties.\u00a0 Like any party host, I want everyone at the party to have an enjoyable experience.\u00a0 This past weekend, nearly fifty people came to the English Department’s spring party, which took place in our backyard.\u00a0 During the the party, I took pleasure in seeing lots of people laughing and talking, but I was especially pleased to see Deje McGavran and Matt Rowney engaged in a long conversation.\u00a0 As Jim McGavran’s wife, Deje has attended many English Department parties over the years, but prior to Saturday’s party, she and Matt had never met.\u00a0 Matt, as many of you know, now teaches the courses on British Romanticism that Jim had taught for decades.\u00a0 After the party, Deje told me how meaningful it was to her to get to know Matt.\u00a0 I am sure that for both Deje and Matt their conversation\u00a0 provided them with a sense of continuity and community.\u00a0 There can be no better party favor.<\/span><\/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

Alan Rauch<\/b>\u00a0received a one-month research fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia (founded by Benjamin Franklin) and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.\u00a0 Also, Alan recently presented a paper titled\u00a0\u00a0\u201cKnowledge, Assertion, and Contestation: Children and the Making of Expertise\u201d at the British Women Writers Conference in Auburn, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Thomas Simonson<\/b>, one of our former undergraduate honors students in literature, will be entering the doctoral program in English at UNC Chapel Hill in the fall with a full-funding package.<\/p>\n

Sophie Yates<\/b>, one of our current graduate students, recently presented a paper titled \u201cMoving between Space and Time: Mary Wollstonecraft\u2019s\u00a0A Short Residence in Sweden\u00a0<\/i>as Travelogue and Speculative Document\u201d\u00a0at the British Women Writers Conference in Auburn, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:<\/p>\n

May 8<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Paula Martinac will launch her new novel,\u00a0Clio Rising,\u00a0<\/i>at Park Road Books on Wednesday,\u00a0 May 8, 2019, at 7:00 p.m.<\/span><\/p>\n

May<\/span>\u00a011<\/strong> \u2014 The\u00a0Commencement<\/span>\u00a0for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will\u00a0take\u00a0place on Saturday,\u00a0May<\/span>\u00a011,\u00a02019<\/span>, at 3:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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May<\/span>\u00a013<\/strong> \u2014 Final grades for the\u00a0Spring<\/span>\u00a02019<\/span>\u00a0term must be submitted by\u00a0Monday<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0May<\/span>\u00a013, 2019, at noon.<\/p>\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Deje McGavran taught as a lecturer in our English Department for several years before joining the faculty in the English Department at a sister institution of higher education.\u00a0 What is the name of this sister institution?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Last week’s answer: Malin Pereira, Becky Roeder, and Liz Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am not the only member of the English Department who has connections to Madison, Wisconsin.\u00a0 Three members of our faculty earned graduate degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison although only two of them earned their doctoral degrees from there.\u00a0 Interestingly, two of these three faculty members started out in the same cohort of MA students.\u00a0 What are the names of these three faculty members?\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Party Favors\u00a0— Most people think of party favors as small gifts that are given to the guests at a party.\u00a0 After the party is over, they can take these party favors home with them as\u00a0mementos of the occasion.\u00a0 I remember purchasing inexpensive toys that my wife and I gave away as party favors to the […]<\/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-1816","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\/1816","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=1816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1820,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1816\/revisions\/1820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}