
{"id":567,"date":"2015-09-21T13:40:51","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T17:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=567"},"modified":"2015-09-21T13:40:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T17:40:51","slug":"monday-missive-september-21-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2015\/09\/21\/monday-missive-september-21-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday Missive &#8211; September 21, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><b>The Versatility of English<\/b> &#8212; Bill Hill, the Senior Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, regularly reads the Monday Missives, and he often sends me responses to the quirky quiz questions.\u00a0 For last week&#8217;s question, I asked people to identify the two departments for which Jay Jacoby served as interim chair, and Bill responded correctly that these departments were Art and English.\u00a0 This question prompted Bill to think about the various English professors who have served as interim chairs for departments other than English over the years.\u00a0 After exchanging several emails, Bill and I came up with the following list:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jay Jacoby &#8211; Art<br \/>\nCy Knoblauch &#8211; Biology<br \/>\nRon Lunsford &#8211; Philosophy<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Jim McGavran &#8211; Dance and Theater<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Malin Pereira &#8211; Africana Studies<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Mark West &#8211; Art<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>There is no other department in the College that has provided six interim chairs for other departments.\u00a0 The various leadership roles that English professors have played over the years is a reflection of the strength of the English Department, but this record of leadership also reflects the versatility of the discipline of English.\u00a0 The critical insights and the reading and writing skills associated with English are readily transferable to other disciplines as well as to interdisciplinary fields.\u00a0 It is worth noting that the current directors of four of the interdisciplinary programs in the College come from English.\u00a0 Here is the list:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Paula Eckard &#8211; American Studies<\/p><\/div>\n<div>Beth Gargano &#8211; M.A. Program in Liberal Studies<\/div>\n<p>Katie Hogan &#8211; Women&#8217;s and Gender Studies<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Aaron Toscano &#8211; Humanities, Technology, and Sciences Minor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The versatility of English also benefits our students.\u00a0 I was reminded of this last week when I viewed a a video about our Technical\/Professional Writing Program.\u00a0 One of our current graduate students, Yekaterina Dolmatova, interviewed two of our recent program graduates and produced a short, five-minute video. It&#8217;s now on the University&#8217;s Youtube channel.\u00a0 As this video demonstrates, the versatile nature of our program helps prepare our students to succeed when they enter the workforce. Here is the link to the video: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/glp1fHcjSD8\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/glp1fHcjSD8<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><b>Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Community Read Program<\/b> &#8212; The Charlotte <a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/322\/2015\/09\/The-Storied-Life-of-A.J.-Fikry.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-568\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/322\/2015\/09\/The-Storied-Life-of-A.J.-Fikry-201x300.jpg?resize=176%2C263&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry\" width=\"176\" height=\"263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/322\/2015\/09\/The-Storied-Life-of-A.J.-Fikry.jpg?resize=201%2C300&amp;ssl=1 201w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/322\/2015\/09\/The-Storied-Life-of-A.J.-Fikry.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 176px) 100vw, 176px\" \/><\/a>Mecklenburg Library is sponsoring a series of events designed to encourage members of the Charlotte community to read and discuss a common text this fall.\u00a0 This program will take place between <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">September 28<\/span><\/span> and <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">October 17<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 The text that has been selected for this year is Gabrielle Zevin&#8217;s <i>The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry.\u00a0 <\/i>This 2014 novel deals with a cranky bookstore owner who gradually forges connections with other people through their shared love of books.\u00a0 In many ways, the novel is a celebration of books, bookstores, and the reading life.\u00a0 I have agreed to lead several book discussions focused on this novel at various library locations.\u00a0 For more information about this program, please click on the following link: \u00a0\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmlibrary.org\/about_us\/in_the_news\/#%21\/pressrelease\/charlotte-mecklenburg-library\/r\/charlotte-mecklenburg-library-unveils-2015-community-read-titles,c9820275\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.cmlibrary.org\/about_us\/in_the_news\/#!\/pressrelease\/charlotte-mecklenburg-library\/r\/charlotte-mecklenburg-library-unveils-2015-community-read-titles,c9820275<\/a><\/p>\n<div><b>Kudos<\/b>\u2014 As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of our department.\u00a0 Here is the latest news:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><b>Chris Davis<\/b> recently learned that he has been selected for a winter residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts.<\/p>\n<p><b>Sarah Minslow<\/b> will be speaking at local libraries about censorship as part of Freedom to Read Week. She will speak on <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Monday, Sept. 28th 6pm<\/span><\/span> at Independence Library, <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Thursday, Oct. 1st at 6pm<\/span><\/span> at Matthews Library, and <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Saturday, Oct. 3 at 2 pm<\/span><\/span> at Uptown Library. Please come along and add to the conversation.<\/p>\n<p><b>Lara Vetter<\/b> recently presented a paper titled &#8220;Espionage and Psychoanalysis in H.D.\u2019s Late Prose&#8221; at a conference on &#8220;H.D. and Feminist Poetics&#8221; in H.D.&#8217;s birthplace, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p><b>Upcoming Events and Deadlines<\/b>\u2014\u00a0Here are some dates to keep in mind:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">October 9<\/span><\/span> &#8212; Mid-semester reports of unsatisfactory grades are\u00a0 due on <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">Friday, October 9th at noon<\/span><\/span>.<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">October 19<\/span><\/span> &#8212; The deadline to apply for a Faculty Research Grant is <span class=\"aBn\"><span class=\"aQJ\">October 19<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 For more information, click on the following link: \u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/research.uncc.edu\/proposal-development\/locating-funding\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/research.uncc.edu\/proposal-development\/locating-funding<\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><b>Quirky Quiz Question<\/b>\u00a0\u2014 <i>The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry\u00a0 <\/i>is published by Algonquin Books.\u00a0 Although Algonquin Books is now a division of Workman Publishing, the editorial office is still located in the same community where the publisher was founded in 1983.\u00a0 Where is Algonquin Books located?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Last week&#8217;s answer: Art and English<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><em>In addition to teaching in the English Department, Jay Jacoby served as the interim chair for two departments.\u00a0 Can you name these departments?<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Versatility of English &#8212; Bill Hill, the Senior Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, regularly reads the Monday Missives, and he often sends me responses to the quirky quiz questions.\u00a0 For last week&#8217;s question, I asked people to identify the two departments for which Jay Jacoby served as interim chair, [&hellip;]<\/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-567","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\/567","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=567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2082,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567\/revisions\/2082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}