{"id":2008,"date":"2019-10-28T12:10:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T16:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=2008"},"modified":"2019-10-28T12:10:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T16:10:01","slug":"monday-missive-october-28-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2019\/10\/28\/monday-missive-october-28-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive – October 28, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three Acts<\/strong>\u00a0— The English Department was a busy place last Friday.\u00a0 In between the classes\u00a0and committee\u00a0meetings, three department-wide events took place over the course of the day: \u00a0the English Department meeting, Janaka Lewis’s presentation on her current research project, and the annual Halloween party\u00a0organized by our various student groups.\u00a0 As I scurried\u00a0from event to event, I started thinking about these events as three acts in a larger play about community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In act one, the players gathered\u00a0in the conference room to consider a series of proposals related\u00a0to the department’s\u00a0graduate program.\u00a0 What impressed me the most about this opening act was the sense of camaraderie that ran throughout the deliberations.\u00a0 Each proposal received careful consideration, but everyone took a constructive and positive approach when asking questions and requesting clarifications. \u00a0 With the close of the first act, I came away feeling pleased with the department’s commitment to faculty governance and to offering a high-quality and diverse graduate program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act two opened shortly after the close of act one, and it starred Janaka Lewis.\u00a0 Janaka delivered a soliloquy titled “Black Girlhood and Radical Creativity.”\u00a0 Based on the research project she did during her residency at the National Humanities Center this past summer, her presentation spanned African American literature, women’s and gender studies, and childhood studies.\u00a0\u00a0 While act two focused on Janaka, the people who came to her presentation also contributed to its success.\u00a0 Many members of the English Department came, and they were joined by several other attendees from other departments.\u00a0 I enjoyed the lively discussion following Janaka’s presentation.\u00a0 People asked thoughtful questions and offered their own insights into the portrayal of black girlhood in literary works.\u00a0 Act two underscored for me the department’s commitment to creating and sharing new knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third act–the Halloween Party–brought our play to a festive close.\u00a0 With the opening of act three, a major scene shift occurred.\u00a0 Instead of taking place in one room, act three expanded to include every public space in the English Department.\u00a0 New players also made their appearance in act three.\u00a0 These new players represented every student organization in the English Department.\u00a0 These students filled the department with energy, creativity, and a communal sense of fun.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As is the case with most three-act plays, each of Friday’s three acts contributed to a larger story.\u00a0 For me, the theme of this larger story is the importance of community.\u00a0 Each act showed a different side of the community that is the English Department, but combined they showed a department that shares a commitment to teaching, scholarship, and good cheer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kudos<\/strong>\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\n\n\n

Paula Martinac\u00a0<\/strong>received\u00a0a 2019-2020 North Carolina Arts Council Literature Fellowship. This is the second major fellowship that Paula has received in two years, and it is an indication of her prominence as a North Carolina fiction writer. \u00a0 Here’s the link with the artist statements for all the recipients:\u00a0https:\/\/www.ncarts.org\/meet-north-carolina-arts-council%E2%80%99s-artist-fellowship-recipients?fbclid=IwAR3pTxY8Ege3kDBhiJr9pTpP57H2NC_I8y_zcHiIPVnC1XkDho5cIzCB2mk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quirky Quiz Question<\/strong>\u00a0— The title of Paula Martinac’s most recent novel makes reference to the muse of history from Greek mythology.\u00a0 What is the title of this novel?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week’s answer: France<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from another country.\u00a0 What country gave this famous statue to the United States<\/em>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Acts\u00a0— The English Department was a busy place last Friday.\u00a0 In between the classes\u00a0and committee\u00a0meetings, three department-wide events took place over the course of the day: \u00a0the English Department meeting, Janaka Lewis’s presentation on her current research project, and the annual Halloween party\u00a0organized by our various student groups.\u00a0 As I scurried\u00a0from event to event, […]<\/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-2008","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\/2008","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=2008"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2010,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2008\/revisions\/2010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}