Reading Matters, Vol. 14, Issue 6, January 22, 2009
The books have been moved and the files have been sorted. I’ve stared at the frozen construction site by the river that fills the view from my window, peeked at the now very empty spot under the chair’s desk, and tested the rather tippy swivel chair. Most of the time I remember to stop at the third landing rather than trudging up to the fourth.
All of which is to say that I am settling in.
You’ll no doubt be reassured to hear that I haven’t been left to my own fumbling devices, as our incredibly capable office staff has been guiding me at every turn. My deepest thanks to Erin and Dianne for getting all things electronic up and running; to Linda, Cherie, Elizabeth, and Maggie for help with matters curricular and beyond; to Sharry for her scheduling expertise; and to Gayle for filling me in on the big picture. A chair couldn’t ask for a better team!
We’ll be seeing a number of opportunities and challenges this semester, about which I’ll keep you posted, but let me mention now the most exciting of them: the two searches that are already underway. In a year in which the MLA projects a 21-percent drop in faculty positions compared with 2007-08 and in the wake of widespread cancellations of searches by universities across the country, we are conscious of our extreme good fortune in being able to conduct MLA interviews and bring candidates to campus as planned. This week and next will see campus visits by our four Early Modernist candidates, with the three Americanists coming in the following two weeks. You can read their files on paper copies in Sharry’s office or, perhaps more conveniently, on the shared drive from your office or home computer. The schedule for their talks can be found in the calendar, along with the times for departmental meetings at which we’ll discuss the candidates and vote on offers.
More news about looming concerns and issues--and ideas and wishes--will come in future columns, as I sort them out. In the meantime, feel free to drop in for a chat and let me know what you’re thinking. It’s a big office and I’d welcome the company.
Visiting Assistant Professor Mike Chasar's poems "Chicago Politics," "Ancient Flying Reptile Bigger Than a Car," "Simpson Questioned in Vegas Incident," and "Laura Bush Unveils George W. Bush State China" appeared in the Press-Citizen on December 12, December 13, December 17, and January 10 respectively. "Chicago Politics" was subsequently reprinted online by the Oregon Statesman Journal, and "Laura Bush Unveils George W. Bush State China" was reprinted on the front page of the Tallahassee Democrat's Op-Ed section and online by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Robin Hemley's latest “Dispatch From Manila” has been posted on the McSweeney's website. Click here to read about his time in the Philippines.
A cartoon on teaching by Mark Isham appears in the just released issue of Talk: A Newsletter from the Center for Teaching. Mark has been asked to submit cartoons as a regular contributor for the newsletter.
President Mason will tour the Departments of Cinema & Comparative Literature, Communication Studies, English, and Rhetoric and the School of Journalism & Mass Communication on Thursday, January 29.
The conclusion of President Mason’s visit will be a Q&A session from 3:15 to 4:00 p.m. in room 304 EPB (the Gerber Lounge) to which all faculty, staff and graduate students are invited to attend.
This spring semester the Nonfiction Writing Program is pleased to welcome Xu Xi, the 2009 Bedell Distinguished Visiting Writer. The author of seven books of essays and fiction, Xu Xi is one of Hong Kong’s leading English-language writers. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and teaches on the MFA faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. In 2004, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from her undergraduate alma mater, the State University of New York - Plattsburgh. For more, see here.
The department also welcomes back Jean-Marie Maguin, emeritus professor of English Literature at the University of Montpellier, honorary director of research with CNRS, and honorary president of the French Shakespeare Society. Professor Maguin co-founded the Center for Research in the Elizabethan Age at the University of Montpellier (France, 1970) and co-launched Cahiers Elisabéthains, a biannual journal specializing in research in the literature and culture of the late Middle Ages and the English Renaissance (1972). He has returned to Iowa City to find out how the successors of the students he taught 23 years ago are faring.
Reports on Faculty Development Awards taken in Fall 2008 are due to Claire by Friday, January 30. This includes CDAs, Faculty Scholar, and Global Scholar Awards held in Fall 2008. Reporting forms and instructions are listed on the Provost's webpage.
This week’s DEO mailing contains a number of items of interest, including:
The Graduate Fellows of the Obermann Graduate Institute for Public Engagement and the Academy will share their projects with drop-in guests on Thursday, February 5 from 2-4 at the Public Library (Room C). This year’s Institute included several students from the English Department: Janet Hendrickson (Nonfiction Writing), Matt Lowe, and Ann Pleiss Morris. Please drop by to offer your responses to their projects. For more information about the Institute, see the Obermann website.
The Center for Teaching is offering a number of teaching and learning events this semester. The events include a presentation by renowned student success scholar George D. Kuh, the second Large-Class Summit and workshops on an array of topics. More information can be found here.
Heidi Bean's review of Shannon Jackson's “Professing Performance: Theatre in the Academy from Philology to Performativity” appears (somewhat belatedly) in the forthcoming (Winter 2009) issue of Cultural Critique. Heidi also presented a paper entitled "American Poets' Theater and the Emergence of Something New'" at the recent MLA conference in San Francisco.
The calendar is now housed on its own page, and both the calendar and Reading Matters are now available via links from the main English Department webpage, making them easier to access. You can find a full listing of upcoming events at the English Department Calendar.
UI Master Calendar | UI Academic Calendar | NonFiction Writing Program Calendar | The Writers Workshop Calendar | The International Writing Program Calendar
The English Honors Program Calendar
The next issue of Reading Matters will be on Thursday, February 5. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, February 4 to erin-hackathorn@uiowa.edu.