The English Department will be featured in the coming months in a profile in the CLAS magazine aimed at general alumni of the university. I pointed the CLAS reporter who will be working on the story, Nicole Riehl, in the direction of some of our many interesting achievements and hope that you will cooperate if she approaches you. While I could provide lots of information about the department, there was one good question that floored me and I would like to ask your help on. What are the names of a couple of particularly famous alums from our department, who would have name recognition across a wide audience? I immediately suggested Susan Gubar, who has been selected as a 2008-09 CLAS alumni fellow, but apparently academics aren’t seen as having the biggest name recognition. In all the tens of thousands of majors we have graduated, there must be some folks who are widely famous (I don’t think our motto is come be an Iowa English major only if you’re shy), but I’m not sure who. Please send me suggestions and I’ll compile a list, both to report back to Carla Carr, who is overseeing the article, and to report in a later Reading Matters.
Library Matters
The Main Library is making a revision in its handling of acquisitions for the Department of English. As part of a rearrangement of duties, Kathy Magarrell will no longer be the selector and purchaser for English titles. Kathy, who is the Head of Reference and Library Instruction, will remain available to us for giving presentations to classes or for talking with individual faculty about research tools. Marsha Forys, already familiar to many of you as the specialist for American Studies and Spanish and Latin American Studies, will be taking over acquisitions for English. Marsha reports to me that the current system of purchasing, mostly driven by acquisition librarian decisions relating to publisher information and reviews, seems to be working well and that she will be continuing the systems that Kathy has been using. One element in deciding what to purchase is the recommendation of faculty. In those cases, please now direct all suggestions to Marsha (marsha-forys@uiowa.edu) rather than to Kathy. Marsha also welcomes any who are interested to stop in and see her (her office is behind the ATM on the south-east side of the first floor of the library; best to e-mail for an appointment). Many thanks to Kathy for her years of wonderful work for the department, and I look forward to continuing to work with her on library research presentations, and a warm welcome to Marsha as our acquisitions specialist!
Publications, Presentations and other Faculty Matters
Lori Branch's book Rituals of Spontaneity: Sentiment and Secularism from Free Prayer to Wordsworth won the Book of the Year Award from the Conference on Christianity and Literature.
Matt Brown writes:
Michael Warner, professor of English and American Studies at Yale University, will visit as an Ida Beam Distinguished Professor from March 2-4. Arranged by the UI Center for the Book with support from English, History, American Studies, Religious Studies, Sexuality Studies, and Communication Studies, his visit will include the lecture “The Evangelical Public Sphere” on Monday, March 3 at 7.30 pm in the Gerber Lounge. Warner is a leading scholar of book history, queer theory, and public sphere studies; more information about Warner’s work is available at his Yale website. Further details for the visit will follow.
Barbara Eckstein writes:
On Friday, Feb 8, the second Iowa River tour will focus on Johnson County. Creeks, beaches, the dam, a water treatment plant, model dams, construction and species removal, as well as a photographic exhibit are all part of the tour that begins at 3 from the south side of the Main Library. The final event of the day at the Iowa City Water Treatment Plant is a reading from Deep Water by Jacques Leslie. A box supper will be provided on the bus, and a reception will accompany the photographic exhibit at the Main Library. All events are free and open to the public but the bus tour requires registration via Cory Sanderson at cory-sanderson@uiowa.edu or 319-353-1021. Sponsors are the Departments of English, American Studies, and History, the Bond Fund administered by CLAS, the Office of the Provost, and the Office of the VP for Research.
Robin Hemley was one of the featured writers at the Bennington Writing Seminars on January 7, 2008 in Bennington, VT. College News originates in Maryland.
Mark Isham gave a Seminar in Workplace Writing on January 14, 2008 at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mark also gave seminars in Workplace Writing at Emerson Process Management, Fisher Controls International LLC on January 24, 2008 and January 31, 2008 in Marshalltown, Iowa. The seminars included topics like basic writing tools, writing for different audiences, choosing the best medium, choosing an appropriate style, and strong sentences as a basic tool. The audiences were engineers and marketing and human resources professionals.
Kevin Kopelson’s book Sedaris received the following review in CHOICE: "Even a passing acquaintance with [David] Sedaris will allow one to appreciate Kopelson's unique brand of criticism and his keen insights into the satirist's characters, themes, and language. Kopelson also explains a few things about how modern satire works. So even those who have never heard of Sedaris will find Kopelson's engaging approach enjoyable--and his book worth a read."
Priya Kumar's book, Limiting Secularism: The Ethics of Coexistence in Indian Literature and Film, is out from the University of Minnesota Press. From the website, "With a backdrop of religious violence and escalating regional tensions in South Asia, Priya Kumar’s Limiting Secularism probes the urgent topic of secularism and tolerance in Indian culture and life. Kumar unpacks the implications of the Nehruvian doctrine of tolerance—with all of its resonances of condescension and inequality—and asks whether more ethical cohabitation can replace the “arrogant compulsive tolerance” of the state and the majority. Informed by Jacques Derrida’s recent work on hospitality and living together, Kumar argues for the emergence of an “ethics of coexistence” in Indian fiction and film." The book has also been accepted for publication by Permanent Black in India. More information can be found here.
Steve Kuusisto had 2 poems published in the Beloit Poetry Journal Spring 2008 Issue. More information about the BPJ can be found here.
Christopher Merrill will be one of the three featured speakers at the international conference "Scotland's Place in the World," organized by the British Council Scotland. Details on this conference can be found here.
Congratulations, once again, to John Raeburn for his selection to the CLAS Helen Kechriotis Nelson Teaching Award in special recognition of his career-long dedication to and excellence in teaching.
The Fall 2007 Seneca Review featured 3 NWP professors in its special issue titled On the Lyric Essay. John D'Agata provided the introduction while Steve Kuusisto and Mary Ruefle contributed essays. Steve also served as a Contributing Editor and John was the Associate Editor for Lyric Essays.
To celebrate the UI Library’s new on-line access to the British Periodical Collections Part I and II, the Library is hosting a workshop featuring the growing number of online full-text, fully searchable magazine sites. The workshop, "A Research Workshop: 18th and 19th-Century American and British Magazine Archives Online", is designed for graduate students and faculty members whose work focuses on 18th- and 19th-Century British and American history and culture. Reference Librarian Kathy Magarrell will be joined by English professors Teresa Mangum, Eric Gidal, Kathleen Diffley, and Matthew Brown, who is also Director of the Center for the Book. The workshop will cover major online magazine resources, search strategies for text and images, and uses of magazines in teaching and research. The workshop is a collaboration of the UI Main Library Reference Department, the 18th- and 19th-Century Interdisciplinary Colloquium, and The Center for the Book. The workshop takes place on Tuesday, February 26 from 3:30 - 5:00 in Arcade Room 2 of the Main Library. To reserve your place in the workshop, email Kathy Magarrell at kathy-magarrell@uiowa.edu.