January/February Missive
Hi all.
Welcome back from what I hope was a relaxing/productive Spring Break! We are now officially on the downhill side of the semester. Here’s hoping that the next two months go well for everyone. March, as you may have noticed, is the season for university and college committee nominations. Very soon, I will be sending out a list of these committees for your consideration. For a number of reasons it’s very important that English Department faculty have representation on as many of these as possible. Indeed, we are required to provide nominations for a number of them. In other news, Maya Socolovsky will deliver the talk “Orphanhood, Citizenship, and Belonging in US LatinX Children’s Literature” on Friday, March 21st from 2 until 3 in the Seminar Room. This presentation is sponsored by the Development Committee. I hope to see you there. O
Our own Rob Conkie has been directing his first large production here at UNC Charlotte over the past many months. His Measure for Measure will run in the Anne R. Belk Theatre in Robinson Hall from March 20th to March 23rd. This is one of two plays that Shakespeare wrote about the sex trade (the other is Pericles), and in my experience it’s a play that works really well in performance. I know Rob would very much appreciate it if many of us were in the audience at some point. Lastly, Alan Rauch and Matt Rowney just returned from the UK after guiding a group of students around London and the Lake District as part of their abroad class The Lakes and London: Britain in the 19th Century. No doubt they’ll have a number of anecdotes to tell about the experience if you run into one of them around the department.
Searches
Erica Hussey has now signed a contract to join us as an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing this coming Fall. A big thank you to Bryn Chancellor, Mark Hall, Katie Hogan, Allison Hutchcraft, and Matt Rowney for all of the hard work that they put in over the past many months to make this happen. If you have a spare minute, I know that she would appreciate welcome emails (erica.elaine@gmail.com). Negotiations with finalists in the Digital Humanities tenure-line search remain ongoing. An equally big thank you to Meghan Barnes, Pilar Blitvich, Juan Meneses, Fred Batista Pereira, Alan Rauch, and Greg Wickliff for the hard work they put in to get us to this point. Hopefully, I’ll have good news to share about this search very soon.
Website and Social Media
Jadieah Timmons continues to be in charge of managing our website and social-media accounts. All website updates and social-media posts should now be sent to Jadeiah via email. As far as the latter go, we continue to be interested in posting information about department-related events that you are planning and have run, about your professional accomplishments, and about the many incredible achievements of our students and alums. Images are always welcome.
English Department Facelift
Jadeiah, Alan, Meghan, and Pilar continue to work on our department suite’s long-overdue facelift. You may have noticed that some bulletin boards have moved or been removed and that the Canterbury pilgrims are now processing across the wall outside of the Lounge. The committee’s work will continue over the course of the semester. If you have any suggestions, please let one of the committee members know.
Kudos!
After completing her doctoral degree at Texas A&M University, Jessie Cortez (M.A., 2018) accepted a tenure-track offer from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. She will begin as an assistant professor there this fall.
UNC Charlotte’s Black Alumni Chapter presented an Excellence in Leadership Award to English major Tisha Perkins Greene (’01).
Aaron Gwyn published the new novella The Cannibal Owl with Belle Point Press. It was just given a favorable review in The New York Times.
Fulbright student Anastasiia Malakhova has been accepted to the Edmund S. Muskie Professional Fellowship Program, a professional development program funded by the U.S. Department of State.
Kirk Melnikoff‘s 55-chapter, co-edited volume The Oxford Handbook of Christopher Marlowe was given the go ahead by the Oxford UP delegates and is scheduled for publication in 2028.
Juan Meneses presented the papers “Literature, Exile, and the Failures of Prosthetic Affiliation” at the Carolinas Migration Conference 2025 in Charlotte on January 31 and “Unself” at the recent MLA conference this past January in New Orleans.
Liz Miller recently presented a plenary talk at the 31st Annual Graduate Linguistics, Applied Linguistics & TESOL Symposium, hosted by Arizona State University. Her talk was titled: “Taking (language) teacher emotions seriously: What research on emotions and emotion labor can help us understand about teaching, power, and social discourses.”
UNC Charlotte’s Black Alumni Chapter presented an Excellence in Leadership Award to English major Danielle Clark Moore (’07).
Rebecca Roeder organized and led an organized session entitled “Accent, Attitude, and Language Change” at the Linguistic Society of America annual meeting in Philadelphia (January 9-12). She also presented the paper “Migration, Stigma, and the Charlotte Accent” at the Carolinas Migration Conference 2025 in Charlotte on January 31.
Sam Shapiro has been hosting another film series at the Independent Picture House. Once Upon a Time in Hong Kong will continue until June.
Lara Vetter signed an advance contract with the University Press of Florida for a scholarly edition entitled The Early Stories of H.D.
Mark West published the edited volume(with Frye Gaillard) The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter: Essays on the President’s Books (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025). He also published “Theodore Roosevelt’s Life-Long Interest in Children’s Literature,” Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal 45.4 (2024): 24-2; “Theodore Roosevelt’s Childhood Response to Our Young Folks,” in What the Presidents Read: Childhood Stories and Family Favorites, Ed. by Elizabeth Goodenough and Marilynn Olson (Rowman & Littlefield, 2025: 357-359); “The Influence of Mayne Reid’s Adventure Books on Theodore Roosevelt’s Life,” in What the Presidents Read, 461-464; “The Rich Legacy of Jimmy Carter, the Author,” Charlotte Observer, 29 December 2024: 8A; “L. Frank Baum’s Animal Rights Stories,” Early Children’s Literature and Culture Chronicle, Winter 2024; and “Recognizing Dorothea Lange’s Contribution to The Family of Man Exhibition on Its 70th Anniversary,” Daily Art Magazine, 20 January 2025. He was interviewed on WFAE on January 3rd about The Literary Legacy of Jimmy Carter andpresented “President Jimmy Carter’s Literary Legacy” at Myers Park Baptist Church, January 19. 2025.