From (under) the Chair's Desk

Congratulations to Barbara Eckstein on her move to the interim Associate Provost position that she will be taking up in January. While I’m sure the existing provostial team is wonderful, it will certainly be good to get a humanist into that office. And, while I’m delighted to see Lola Lopes serving as interim Provost, it will also be good to see a new permanent Provost in place by next summer. As chief academic officer, the Provost sets the agenda of the university in a way that affects us all. At the moment, there are a number of issues for a Provost to decide that may particularly affect our department, such as, on the one hand, structural and resource questions about the Writing University initiative that may well have an impact on The Iowa Review and perhaps on the new Undergraduate Track in Creative Writing and, on the other hand, about the structure and funding of the Graduate College, which may well have an impact on how we can fund our first year graduate cohort.

The final shape of all three journals that the department discussed at the beginning of semester is still uncertain, with discussions and adjustments continuing. After a meeting with the Interim Provost this week, I’m hopeful that I’ll have good news to report soon about the structure, funding, and continuity of The Iowa Review. Alvin Snider has taken energetic charge of editing Philological Quarterly, with a new double issue of exciting scholarship coming out soon, and imaginative budget pruning to cover production costs through subscription income, but the prospect of continued funding for a graduate RA in support of the journal looks, alas, unlikely. Kathleen Diffley ran another exciting and successful conference of the M/MLA this month, at which numerous institutions expressed interest in the possibility of relocating the association and the journal to their own campus within a year. I hope to be able to report more fully on progress on all three journals at a departmental meeting next semester.

Meanwhile, the end of this semester looks busy with all the usual excitements and a few extra. Students are eagerly enrolling for next semester’s classes, with a pleasingly even-looking distribution across our curriculum visible on ISIS (with thanks to Sharry for overseeing this) and with a successful flow of advising to those students who request it or are in categories of most need (with thanks to Rob Latham and Anne Stapleton for overseeing this, and to the faculty advisors Florence Boos, Eric Gidal, Miriam Gilbert, and Phil Round and student advisors Melanie Reichwald, Jillian Walker, and Lacey Worth). The new Introduction to the English Major lecture and discussion course enrolled 102 students in the Fall, taught by Laura Rigal, and looks set to enroll about that or slightly more this Spring, taught by Lori Branch. Laura will briefly report to us on her experiences teaching this course—which will be the common formative experience of all our majors in the future—at the faculty meeting on December 13.

At that meeting, we will also need to discuss the department’s five-year hiring plan and the search requests we prioritize for next year. The Executive Committee has discussed these plans, drawing on the suggestions of faculty groups and individuals, and I will circulate next week their proposal for a five-year hiring plan along with rationales for the prioritized searches. While exec. has done some good preliminary work here, the decision about what searches we prioritize is an important decision of the faculty as a whole. The plan from exec. will come as a motion to the faculty meeting, but I expect it will trigger a broad-ranging discussion and finally a vote by the full faculty. I will present the priorities agreed by the department to the CLAS Deans and Executive Committee early next semester. The final decision on authorizing searches is at the discretion of Dean Maxson, informed by the discussions of her executive committee and by budget realities that don’t become fully apparent until the spring, although I see a few signs to encourage cautious optimism about the budget.

Meanwhile, our various committees are going full bore at this year’s searches. As a result of the labors of Claire Sponsler, Huston Diehl, Miriam Gilbert, and Alvin Snider; Judith Pascoe, Steve Kuusisto, Jeff Porter, Tom Simmons, Marilynne Robinson, and Dean Young, along with Mary Anne Rasmussen and Sam Chang; and Robin Hemley, John D’Agata, Teresa Mangum, and Bonnie Sunstein—all ably supported by Sharry Lenhart—we can all expect an early Spring semester illumined and entertained with visits and talks from an exciting range of early modern scholars, creative writers fit for directing an undergraduate track in creative writing, and nonfiction writers.

Before this semester ends, tenured faculty should also expect to anticipate next year as you will need to fill out a Post-Tenure Effort Allocation Portfolio or sign off on the standard portfolio. This is the process where you estimate your likely professional balance in 2008-09. Since it comes with a mid-December deadline, we will need to fill these out as best guesses, before we know for certain about various research leaves and special administrative assignments. Fortunately the projected portfolio can be changed at any subsequent time to reflect subsequent realities. Also coming up will be mock-interviews to help graduate students on the job market this year—please be generous in volunteering your time for these—arranged by the Ph.D. placement committee of Michael Hill, Florence Boos, and Kathleen Diffley.

And finally, after the mess of meetings, cacophony of committee work, and closing out of classes, don’t forget that the semester ends with the promise of conviviality at the departmental winter party at the home of Dee Morris and Wendy Deutelbaum, 431 Brown Street, Friday, December 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m. I look forward to seeing you all there…

Publications, Presentations, and other Faculty Matters

News Matters

The November/December issue of Bark, "the modern dog culture magazine," includes an article by D. L. Pughe about the increased attention dogs have been receiving from academics. The article describes several specific instances, leading off with a detailed description of Teresa Mangum's work on animals, including the Articulating the Animal seminar that Teresa organized with Jane Desmond. The article describes how scholars have influenced each other and spurred interest in this developing area of study. Despite the magazine's focus on dogs, the article keeps an eye on the broader implications of the work: "As Teresa Mangum found in her own animal seminar, the time now is particularly ripe to 'examine how disciplinary definitions, associations, assumptions, distinctions, uses, fears and fantasies about animals produce elaborate systems of meaning.'"

NWP Matters

Amy Leach's Warbler's Delight was recently published by Pastoralia Press.

Emma Rainey has been accepted into the prestigious Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy for a project that will create a partnership between the university's graduate students in the Nonfiction Writing Program and Shelter-a facility in Iowa City for homeless teens operated by Four Oaks-to engage this marginalized teen population in the process of developing positive identities though reading and writing.

Emma also choreographed The Skaters, a ballet depicting lively characters on an ice skating pond, to be performed at the new Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center, December 14th - 16th.