February 2020
Monday, February 17, 2020
Happy President’s Day! February is proving to be a very productive month for English Department faculty. As we discussed in the department meeting last Friday, I will send out missives more often, so that we can have more opportunities to celebrate the accomplishments of our English Department colleagues.
Just in time for President’s Day, Mark West has a new opinion piece in The Charlotte Observer this morning titled “A President, His NC Confidant, and the Civil Rights Movement.” The column focuses on JFK and Charlotte’s Harry Golden. You can read it here:
February is also Black History Month. If you have not seen it already, please check out the exhibit featuring publications by English Department faculty on African American literature. Mark West and Monica Burke put together the exhibit, which is located in the front office next to the glass display case of faculty books. You can also enjoy an art display of Romare Bearden’s work in the Seminar Room (290B), which Mark West organized and Alan Rauch installed. Janaka Lewis contributed a Romare Bearden piece from her personal collection. (photos attached)
KUDOS
An article about Meghan Barnes recently appeared in Exchange about her work preparing students for teaching using virtual reality. You can read it here: https://exchange.uncc.edu/students-prepare-for-teaching-using-virtual-reality-in-cross-college-work/
Bryn Chancellor and Katie Hogan have received RDs (reassignment of duties) for Fall 2020.
Katie Hogan published “Decolonizing Rural Space in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home,” a chapter in The Comics of Alison Bechdel: From the Outside In (University of Mississippi Press).
Dina Massachi was interviewed twice by producers of American Experience (PBS) for a two-hour documentary on L. Frank Baum. Dina teaches “Oz: An American Fairytale” and has published articles on Baum.
Kirk Melnikoff was awarded the Bibliographical Society of America’s Katharine F. Pantzer Senior Fellowship in the British Book Trades. He will use the award to conduct research in London and Oxford this summer.
Juan Meneses recently published a chapter titled “Towards an Environmental theory of Afropolitan Literature” in an edited collection of essays titled Afropolitan Literature as World Literature (Bloomsbury).
Ralf Thiede presented a paper titled “Language Nutrition” at the Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies (formerly the Philological Association of the Carolinas) annual conference.
Aaron Toscano also presented a paper at the Southeastern Association of Cultural Studies conference. His paper was titled “American Obsession with Firearms and the Rhetoric of Fear: A Cultural Studies Approach to Deep-seated Anxieties Surrounding Liberty.”
Lara Vetter has signed an advance contract for a monograph titled H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) for the Critical Lives series of Reaktion Books, London.