Reading Matters, Vol. 1, Issue 1

Publications, Presentations, and other Faculty Matters

Congratulations to Ed Folsom on receiving the President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence. This is a university-wide award which recognizes outstanding and sustained teaching excellence and commitment to student learning. In addition, he spoke on "Clinton's Whitman, Bush's Whitman, and Whitman's America" at the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 19 at the University of Virginia, where he was also a panelist with Robert Creeley and Stephen Cushman discussing Whitman in the twenty-first century.

Jon Wilcox has recently published an edited volume: Old English Scholarship and Bibliography: Essays in Honor of Carl T. Berkhout, Medieval Institute, 2004.

The March issue of FYI announced the following career development awards:

Barbara Eckstein will interview former foremen of Republic Steel to place their perspective in the analysis of deindustrialization.
Mary Lou Emery will investigate the obsession with houses—as a literary symbol and a social program—in early twentieth-century Britain, and specifically, the connection between this obsession and anti-immigration laws which excluded certain populations from British residence.
Eric Gidal will study the connection between personal melancholy and political engagement in the lives and writings of Thomas Jefferson and the English poet Lord Byron.
Kevin Kopelson will write an accessible guide to satire that pays close attention to its confessional aspect.
Brooks Landon will write the introduction to a book studying the cultural uses and importance of narratives that describe first contact with a radically different alien race, species, or entity.

Upcoming Events

Wed., Mar. 23, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Kathleen Diffley will be the second speaker in the 18th- and 19th-Century Interdisciplinary Colloquium series "Global History through the Eyes of the Artist: War and Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries." Her talk will be titled "Unsubjugated: How the Illustrated London News Pictured the Confederacy." The lecture will be followed by a discussion led by colleagues in History and Art History.

Thr., Mar. 24 - Sat., Mar. 26, The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies - The Obermann Humanities Symposium: "Collage as Cultural Practice"

Fri., Mar. 25, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Chris Merrill and Barbara Eckstein will present a Faculty Colloquium.

~~Wed., Mar. 30, 7 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Alan Trachtenberg will give the Carver Lecture: "The Naked Reader in Melville and Whitman."~~ Because of family matters, Alan Trachtenberg has had to postpone his Carver Lecture originally scheduled for March 30 at 7:00 pm. He will reschedule for sometime later in the spring or fall.

Fri., Apr. 8 - Sun., Apr. 10, IMU - The 5th Annual "Craft, Critique, Culture" conference

Fri., Apr. 8, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Matt Brown and Huston Diehl will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Fri., Apr. 8, 7:30 p.m., IMU - Garrett Stewart will be a guest speaker at the "Craft, Critique, Culture" conference.

Thr., Apr. 28, 7:30 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Joan Landes, Ferre Professor of Early Modern History and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University, will give a talk titled "Women and the French Revolution." This talk is hosted by the Interdisciplinary 18th- and 19th- Century Colloquium and is part of the speaker series for this year (in celebration of the Year of Arts and Humanities): "Global History through the Eyes of the Artist: War and Revolution in the 18th and 19th Centuries."

Fri., May 6, 4 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Lori Branch and Doug Trevor will present a Faculty Colloquium.

Future Issues

Please send any items for Reading Matters to Carolyn Jacobson at carolyn-jacobson@uiowa.edu. Reading Matters will appear every other Wednesday, and submissions should be received by 5 p.m. on the preceding Monday. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on April 4. Thanks very much.