O Fortuna: five down, eleven to go--but who’s counting? 

This winter several English Department instructors and staff are working through stressful situations, including illness, surgery, caregiving, and mourning.  Even so, they are calling in to meetings and pulling together preps from hospitals and airports.  I’m grateful to the many instructors who have stepped in to cover classes for those who are ill or caring for others, and to colleagues who are delivering meals to those in need. If you are aware of someone in English who needs support, particularly visiting and adjunct professors and graduate instructors from other departments, please let me know. And thank you, all, for your dedication and care for one another!

 

Faculty Matters

Warm congratulations to Marie Kruger, who received the CLAS International Engagement Teaching Award for 2019-20!

Warm congratulations to Inara Verzemnieks, who received a Collegiate Teaching Award for 2019-20!

Professors Blaine Greteman and Doris Witt and Visiting Exchange Professor Raphaël Ricaud conversed with former U.S. National Security Advisor and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice in connection with Rice’s campus visit through the UI Lecture series, February 5, 2020.

 

Grad Matters

Congratulations to Darius Stewart, who was recently awarded the 2020 Englert Nonfiction Fellowship. 

Congratulations to Nonfiction Writing MFA candidate Lei Wang who received a Marcus Bach Fellowship for 2020-21 to support work on her thesis, “From Here to Here.” 

Congratulations to English doctoral candidate Bambi Whittaker who received a Marcus Bach Fellowship for 2020-21 to support work on her dissertation, “Investigating Enchantment and Disenchantment in Golden Age British Detective Fiction.” 

 

Undergrad Matters

This winter, Professor Harry Stecopoulos and NWP MFA Candidate Jess Kibler led a group of eighteen Iowa undergraduates to Greece. The intrepid travelers visited such celebrated sites as the Parthenon, Olympia, and Delphi. They walked miles across marble ruins, learned a great deal about the classical past, and generated brilliant prose. Land of the Muses, indeed!

Students at the Temple of Athena in Delphi                                      Students on a surprisingly cold day at Mycenae

Students with their guide Eleni in Nafplio                                          Students enjoying the rather chilly beach at Glyfada near Athens

 

Alumni Matters

Congratulations to Adam Bradford (PhD 2010), who has a new position as Dean of the Graduate College at Idaho State University.

Myriam Chancy's (PhD 1995) new book, Autochthonomies: Transnationalism, Testimony, and Transmission in the African Diaspora, will be published in March 2020 by University of Illinois Press.

Douglas Dowland's (PhD 2010) essay, "The Problem of Self-Care in Higher Education," was recently published by Inside Higher Ed.

 

Staff Matters

Corey Campbell, a contributing editor to the literary journal Waxwing, published a review of Ashley Wurzbacher’s short story collection Happy Like This in the latest issue. In addition, Corey was recently named a finalist for the Warren Wilson Larry Levis Postgraduate Award in Fiction.

Kate Conlow is serving as a contest judge for Write Now: The UI Alumni and Friends Flash Writing Contest. She also recently had individual and group artwork in shows at 110 CHURCH Gallery in Philadelphia and at the UI Center for the Book’s open house.

Lynne Nugent will be reading from her nonfiction chapbook NEST, winner of The Florida Review’s Jeanne Leiby Chapbook Prize, at Prairie Lights on Friday, March 27, at 7pm.

 

Upcoming Matters

DH Workshop by Sean Silvers, Rutgers University: "Novel Networks: Extracting Character Systems from the Eighteenth-Century Novel" - February 21, 2020 | 10:00 am-12:00 pm | Digital Studio

Graduate Student Seminar with Sean Silver, Rutgers University: "The Network Turn in Literacy and Cultural Studies" - February 21, 2020 | 1:00-3:00 pm | 331 EPB

Faculty Meeting - February 24, 2020 | 10:30 am | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

Meet-and-greet with CLAS Associate Deans Sara Sanders and Roland Racevskis - February 25, 2020 | 3:50-4:50 pm | 331 EPB

'Written on a Blank Space': Keats's Poetics of the Book, Brian Rejak, Illinois State University - February 26, 2020 | 3:30-5:00 pm | 3058 Main Library

Lyrical Reenactments: a reading of recent work by Hai-Dang Phan - March 11, 2020 | 4:00 pm | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

Morris Sessions Panel Discussion featuring Ann Powers, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Loren Glass, moderated by Kembrew McLeod - March 13, 2020 | 3:30-5:00 pm | 101 BCSB

Morris Sessions Reception - March 13, 2020 | Immediately following panel discussion | Trumpet Blossom

Grad Student Colloquium with Enrico Bruno and Laura Hayes - March 26, 2020 | 2:00 pm | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

The Krause Series in Contemporary Nonfiction: Lewis Hyde, Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Writer - March 26, 2020 | 7:00 pm | Prairie Lights

Talk by Joshua Calhoun, University of Wisconsin-Madison - March 30, 2020 | 3:30-5:00 pm | Special Collections

Mission Creek's Lit Walk: Nonfiction Writing Program Showcase featuring Ander Monson, T Fleischmann, and Lulu Dewey - April 3, 2020 | 6:00 pm | Prairie Lights

Faculty Meeting - April 6, 2020 | 10:30 am | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

The Krause Series in Contemporary Nonfiction: Editor Joey McGarvey - April 10, 2020 | 10:00 am | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

Faculty Meeting - April 20, 2020 | 10:30 am | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

English Faculty Colloquium: Jennifer Buckley, "No Words, No Clothes, No Shame, No-Place: Young Jean Lee's Utopian Untitled Feminist Show" - April 22, 2020 | 3:30-4:30 pm | Gerber Lounge, 304 EPB

The Krause Series in Contemporary Nonfiction: Kayleb Rae Candrilli - April 23, 2020 | 7:00 pm | Prairie Lights

English Undergraduate Recognition Ceremony - April 24, 2020 | 3:30 pm | University of Iowa Old Capitol Building

 

Click here to visit the News and Events on the English Department website for more details.