Reading Matters, Vol. 15, Issue 1, September 3, 2009
Welcome back to the new academic year, after a refreshingly uneventful summer in which we were neither driven from our building by raging flood waters nor left scrambling to return to EPB just days before the semester started.
Although less dramatically than at this same time last year, you’ll notice some changes in EPB, as offices have been vacated, renovated, and reassigned over the summer, and as new colleagues join us. The Iowa Review has moved down the third floor hallway to the suite of rooms at 302 EPB. Lynne Nugent continues on in a 75% staff position as Managing Editor, supporting Russell Valentino, as the TIR’s new editor. Russell is taking up the baton from David Hamilton, who is stepping down after a distinguished, thirty-two-year run as TIR’s editor. We're delighted by the arrival of our two new colleagues, Adam Hooks and Blaine Greteman, who join us in the area of Early Modern literature and culture. We also welcome Visiting Assistant Professor Missy Donegan, one of our own recent PhDs, and Visiting Scholar Dallye Sohn, from Korea, who is being sponsored by Florence Boos.
If you walk down the first floor of EPB, you’ll notice that 109 EPB has been given a dramatic upgrade, with new banked seating and other niceties, transforming it from an awful into an awfully nice space. On a more modest scale, a number of faculty offices have received make-overs, with new lighting, paint, and ceiling tiles. The BizHubs (also known as those two hulking copying machines) in 308F EPB are now Ethernet connected, which means that in addition to making photocopies, you can for the first time scan documents to PDF and send them to yourself via e-mail, taking us another step towards a paperless office while also lightening our research and teaching labors, one hopes.
We may be mere moments into September, but it’s time already to start work on next year’s curriculum. You should plan to attend curriculum area committee meetings in each of the areas in which you intend to teach, as follows (locations to be announced soon):
Tues. 9/15, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Transnational Lit & Postcolonial Studies
Wed. 9/16, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Modern British Lit & Culture
Mon. 9/21, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Medieval & Early Modern Lit & Culture
Tues. 9/22, 4:00-5:15 p.m. American Literature & Culture
Wed. 9/23, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Nonfiction Writing
Thurs. 9/24, 4:00-5:15 p.m. Literary Theory & Interdisciplinary StudiesMany thanks to Bluford Adams and Sharry Lenhart for orchestrating this curricular effort.
You’ll hear more in the next weeks about upcoming events, including an exciting series of lectures and readings, but for the moment, you might wish to mark on your calendar this semester’s personnel meetings: on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 3:45 p.m. all tenured associate and full professors will convene to discuss the reports on Miriam Thaggert and Lara Trubowitz for tenure and promotion, along with the fifth-year report on Marie Krüger; please reserve Thursday, December 3, 3:45 p.m., for a follow-up fifth-year-report meeting, if needed.
Last of all, don’t forget about the English Department fall reception, which will be held at the home of Jon Wilcox and Denise Filios on Saturday, Sept. 26, 5-7 p.m. I look forward to seeing everyone there.
American Periodicals accepted David Dowling’s essay "Davis, Inc.: The Business of Asylum Reform in the Periodical Press" for publication and Professor Dowling’s article, "Autobiography as Professional Ethic: Fanny Fern's Vision of Literary Partnership," has been accepted for publication in a/b: Auto/Biography.
Mark Isham will give a faculty seminar, “Drawn into Learning", for the Center for Teaching with Rachel Williams of the Art Department on September 22, 2009: a workshop about how to help students tap into deep learning - and their visual and kinesthetic learning styles - by creating cartoons and comic strips. Mark Isham also gave full-day seminars, "Business Writing Workshops Designed for Engineering Professionals" at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, IA on May 21 and August 20.
Loren Glass’s essay, “Still Dirty After All These Years: The Continuing Trials of Naked Lunch,” was published in Naked Lunch @ 50: anniversary essays, edited by Oliver Harris and Ian MacFayden.
Stephen Kuusisto spoke on July 22, 2009 at The Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington as a guest of the NEA. His topic concerned how the NEA can promote careers in the arts for people with disabilities. He has been invited to perform a one man “talking essay” at The Kennedy Center next summer. Britain’s “Journal of Literature, Culture, and Disability” contains an interview with Kuusisto “Lyric Anger and the Victrola in the Attic” by the nonfiction writer and disability studies scholar Ralph Savarese: JLCDS 3.2 (2009), 195–207 ISSN 1757-6458 (print) 1757-6466. The same issue contains an essay on Kuusisto’s poetry: “A River that No One Can See: Body, Text, and Environment in the Poetry of Stephen Kuusisto” by Michael L. Melancon. Steve’s new book, a tour de force on the history and value of conversation entitled “Conversational Joys” will be published this autumn by the AARP as part of a series of commissioned books on the arts of living by contemporary American writers. His memoir “Planet of the Blind” has recently been published in Turkish.
Jon Wilcox had two essays published this summer: “The Ghost of M.I. Steblin-Kamenskij: Interpreting Old English Literature through Saga Theory.” Anglo-Saxons and the North, ed. Matti Kilpiö, Leena Kahlas-Tarkka, Jane Roberts, and Olga Timofeeva. Tempe: ACMRS, 2009. 109-20 and “The Use of Ælfric’s Homilies: MSS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 85 and 86 in the Field.” A Companion to Ælfric, ed. Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan. Leiden: Brill, 2009. 345-68.
Teresa Mangum writes:
The English Department Shines in the Dickens Universe!
The English Department is one of over 30 members in The Dickens Project, an international consortium that creates opportunities for collaborative research and disseminates research findings through annual conferences, institutes, and publications. The feature event is the annual “Dickens Universe,” focused on a particular Dickens novel. One faculty member and two graduate students from each member university attend. This year, 100 scholars joined 120 devoted readers—including undergraduates, high school and college teachers, elder hostlers, and more—for a week-long series of lectures, seminars, classes, professionalizing workshops, and social events inspired by David Copperfield.
The UI English Department shone brilliantly among peers from Harvard, Cornell, NYU, U Michigan, Vanderbilt, the UC schools, Exeter, Royal Holloway, Hebrew University, and a host of other universities. The graduate students selected to attend this summer, Brenton Thompson and Anna Stenson, were joined by two alums from our department. Margaret Loose, now an assistant professor at UC San Diego, organized writing workshops for graduate students. (Margaret notes that the search committee at UCSD was especially interested in her familiarity with the Universe, based on her own experiences there as a graduate student.) Marty Gould, now an assistant professor at the University of South Florida, was a keynote speaker. His talk, "Copperfield, the Stage Sensation,” comes from his second book project, a study of literary adaptations. Marty was such a success that he has been asked to organize the Dickens Project’s annual MLA session for 2011. Teresa Mangum is the current Associate Director of the Project.
Next year, the Universe will orbit around Oliver Twist and Dickens’ Sketches. On behalf of all who have had the pleasure of attending the Universe over the past decade, many, many thanks to the English Department and all who support the Department. You have made this wonderful opportunity possible for our students.
Gordon Hutner, professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and founding editor of the journal American Literary History, will be visiting the department on September 17. Professor Hutner will meet with graduate students for an informal chat about publishing and American Studies at 10:00 a.m. in Gerber Lounge. He will also deliver a formal lecture entitled “Prestige and the Case for Contemporary American Realism” at 3:45 in Gerber Lounge.
This October, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, International Programs, and units across the campus and community, including the English Department, will host “The Obermann Humanities Symposium: Platforms for Public Scholars.” The conference opens on Thursday, October 15 at 7:00 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library with “Voices in the (Digital) Public Sphere: A Panel Discussion on Books in the Age of New Media.” Speakers include Scott McLemee from Inside Higher Ed; Christopher Merrill, UI Professor of English and Director of the International Writing Program; and Meena Kandsamy, author, translator, and participant in the 2009 International Writing Program.
On Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16-17), eminent humanities scholars from across the country will discuss their publicly engaged projects. Their community-based collaborations, international partnerships, and digital scholarship offer cutting-edge examples of “the public humanities.” Speakers include Ann Davis Basting (Center on Age and Community and Theatre, UW-Milwaukee); Matthew Countryman (History and Director of Arts of Citizenship, U Michigan); Julie Ellison (American Studies, U Michigan); James Gregory (History, UW-Seattle); Timothy Lenoir (New Technologies, Duke); Ifeoma Kiddoe Nwankwo (English and American Studies, Vanderbilt); George Sanchez (American and Ethnic Studies, USC); Julie Sze (American Studies, UC-Davis); Marica Tacconi (Musicology and Director of the Institute for Arts and Humanities, PSU); Sean Takats (Digital History, George Mason); and Kathleen Woodward (English and Director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities, UW-Seattle). The events are free and all are welcome. The symposium is being organized by Teresa Mangum. Please see the Obermann Center website for full details.
Matt Miller has been selected for a Graduate Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award for 2009. The Graduate Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award is made only in occasional years and recognizes exceptionally meritorious scholarship. The award carries a prize of $500.00. Matt's dissertation entitled, "Collage of Myself: The Making of Leaves of Grass" was directed by Ed Folsom.
The Provost's office has announced the schedule of deadlines for applications for Faculty Development Awards for 2010-11 (e.g., CDAs, Old Golds, Faculty and Global Scholar awards, etc.) and for reports on Developmental Leaves taken in spring 2009 and fall 2010. The first of these arrive fast on the heels of summer, in late August and early September.
Click here for more information including the deadlines.
The English Department is now on Facebook! Go to http://www.facebook.com/IowaEnglish to become a "fan" of the Department.
The Center for Teaching is offering a new and exciting array of events and workshops this fall, including:
The Crossroads Project—Michelle Dunlap, visiting speaker from Connecticut College will present a talk and workshop on how civic responsibility and diversity intersect in courses and inform higher education today. This is the first of a yearlong series.
Large Lecture Series—Three workshops with ITS-Instructional Services on how to meet the challenges of teaching large classes. We will discuss learner-centered courses, helpful instructional technologies, and assessment—all within the context of large classes. Please note that the first workshop in the series will be Monday August 17, 12:00-1:30.
Drawn into Learning—UI faculty members Rachel Williams and Mark Isham will present a lively, hands-on workshop about how students can tap into their visual and kinesthetic learning styles by creating comics and cartoons.
“Clickers” Users Conference—Featuring Vanderbilt University’s engaging expert, Derek Bruff, and in collaboration with ITS-Instructional Services.
ifolio: An Innovative Tool for Learning Portfolios—A showcase of ifolios custom-designed for UI faculty members, several of whom will be panelists.
Events for Teaching Assistants—A new series that offers tips and best practices for teaching effectively, motivating student learning, incorporating teaching technologies, and dealing with end-of-the-semester challenges. Supported by the Center for Teaching, the Graduate College, the College of Education, and COGS.
Space is limited, so please register early!
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, September 24. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23 to erin-hackathorn@uiowa.edu.