August 2022
Monday, August 22, 2022
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the first week of classes! Frewtwell started off hot this morning, but the temperature has now improved. Here are a couple reminders for this week: 1) Make sure to send Monica your syllabi and office hours for the semester; and 2) We have a department meeting this Friday at 11 in the Seminar Room (Fretwell 290 B). If you need a Zoom link, please contact Angie.
I thought you might enjoy reading about your colleagues’ recent accomplishments, as well as some exciting student news. There is much to celebrate so please take the time to read through the list.
KUDOS
Christine Arvidson will read from her works in Davidson, NC, on September 11, 2022. “An Afternoon of Poetry with Chris Arvidson,” is co-sponsored by Main Street Books Davidson and the Charlotte Writers Club North (flyer attached). She will also lead a workshop at the On the Same Page Literary Festival on September 13.
JuliAnna Ávila signed a new book contract with Brill Publishers for an edited collection titled Leaders in English Language Arts Education: Intellectual Self Portraits. She also presented a paper titled “Super High Grade Cultural Appropriation: Using Social Media to Critique Consumer Culture” at the National Association for Media Literacy Education Conference.
Pilar Blitvitch, who edits Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, reports that Scopus has released 2021 cite score. JLAC was ranked 77 among 1,117 linguistics journals (top 10%, with a 3.2 cite score).
Allison Hutchcraft’s collection of poems, Swale, has been named a finalist for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment’s 2022 Book Award in the category of environmental creative writing: https://www.asle.org/stay-informed/2022-book-award-finalists/
Paula Martinac has received an MLA Professional Development Grant for PT faculty, which she will use for her research for her novel-in-progress. (Lane Rhodes and Dina Massachi, who have taught in English and American Studies for several years, are previous recipients of this grant.)
Juan Meneses presented the paper “Insolent Animals: Decentering Homo Politicus for a Radical Planetary Politics” at the American Comparative Literature Association conference.
Tiffany Morin published a book review of Young Adult Gothic Fiction: Monstrous Selves/Monstrous Others (edited by Michelle J. Smith and Krine Moruzi, University of Wales Press, 2021) in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.
Daniel Shealy presented a 3-hour seminar on “‘Yours for Reforms of All Kinds’: Louisa May Alcott, the Civil War and Reform” for the NEH Summer Institute for College Teachers on “Transcendentalism and Social Reform: Activism and Community Engagement in the Age of Thoreau” in Concord, MA.
Ralf Thiede served as an invited judge for Hollins University’s 2022 Francelia Butler Children’s Literature graduate conference for the Shirley Henn Award for Critical Papers.
Lara Vetter’s article “H.D., Modernist Fiction, and a Queer Quotidian” recently appeared in Feminist Modernist Studies.
Mark West published an article titled “What Young Theodore Roosevelt Read” in Early Children’s Literature and Culture Chronicle. He also published “An Extraordinary Resource from 1902: Perusing Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s Young Folks’ Library” in the online journal Early Children’s Literature and Culture Chronicle. Mark moderated the second Charlotte Readers Book Club event featuring Landis Wade’s Deadly Declarations and Avery Caswell’s recently published novel Salvation.
Greg Wickliff presented a paper titled “Student Research in a Mathematics Enrichment Program” at the16th International Conference of the Mathematics Education for the Future Project, King’s College, Cambridge, UK.
Student News
Luther (Cole) Kissam has been featured on the important mental health website of author and activist Pete Earley http://www.peteearley.com/2022/08/08/bipolar-manic-thoughts-of-suicide-writing-poetry-helps-author-find-voice-recovery/
Jordan Frederick, who received an M.A. in English with a concentration in literature in 2021, recently published an article on fan fiction and pedagogy in Convergences <https://theseacs.org/convergences/>. In addition, Jordan’s paper “Memento Mori, Memento Vivere: Death Artifacts and Victorian Death Traditions in Dickens’ Great Expectations” has been accepted for presentation at the Victorians Institute conference.
Former student Krupal Amin, who received her M.A. (literature) from us in 2011, and then earned a Ph.D. in literature from Ohio State University, is now Associate Director of the Asian American Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Former student Elizabeth Gardner, who received her M.A. (literature) from us in 2018, will be attending UNC-Greensboro for her doctorate in literature. Her assistantship duties include coordinating the Humanities Network and Consortium (https://hnac.uncg.edu/), overseeing M.A. students, planning programs and events, and liaising between humanities-based departments.
Cody Ward, who graduated from our M.A. program last spring and is now attending UNC Chapel Hill for a doctorate in literature, had his article “From Commas to Cosmos: The Pervading Influence of Thomas Wolfe on Cormac McCarthy” accepted for publication in the Thomas Wolfe Review.
Please remember to send me news of your accomplishments for upcoming missives. If I have neglected to include an accomplishment you have already sent me, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I hope the 2022-2023 academic year brings you many new successes. Your work is inspiring to colleagues and students alike. I am happy to share the good news.
Best wishes for a great semester,
Paula