Thursday's Notes

1. Announcements:

• The application due date for the 2006-2007 Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity awards is 5 p.m. on Monday, February 20, 2006. Awards are mini-grants up to $5,000 or 3 units of reassigned time for use in Fall 2006 or Spring 2007. Applications are available at http://www.csun.edu/~gripact/03_Research/09_On-CampusCompetition.html.
• The proposal due date for the Judge Julian Beck Grant is Monday, March 6, 2006. Information and application packets are available at Faculty Development, Sierra Hall 438, ext. 6536, or online at http://www.csun.edu/~celtact/grants.html.
• At the February 16 meeting of the Faculty Senate, nominations will be taken for faculty officers (president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer), senators-at-large (6 positions), and CSUN’s representatives to the CSU Academic Senate (2 positions). If you would like to be nominated for any of the positions, contact faculty president Ronald McIntyre or any member of the Faculty Senate by February 15. Senators from the English Department are Cheryl Spector, Charles Hatfield, and Beth Wightman. The roster of current Faculty Senators is on the Faculty Senate website: http://www.csun.edu/senate.
• The Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate soon will make nominations for some positions on Senate Standing Committees. If you are interested in being nominated, complete the University Service Form and return it by February 15 to the Faculty Senate Office, Oviatt 10 (mail drop: 8221; email: heidiw@csun.edu). The Service Form is available at http://www.csun.edu/senate.
• Office of Graduate Studies is announcing the 2006-2007 California Pre-Doctoral Program. The purpose of the Program is “to increase the diversity of the pool from which the California State University draws its faculty.” Junior, seniors, and graduate students who have experienced economic and educational disadvantages, who are enrolled in a “degree-seeking” program at any CSU campus, and who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible to apply. Among the Program’s benefits are a summer research internship at a UC or other major research university and travel funds for the student and faculty sponsor to visit U.S. doctoral-granting institutions and to attend professional meetings. Applications to the Program are available at http://www.calstate.edu/predoc. Applications are due in the Office of Graduate Studies by 5:00 p.m. in March 30, 2006. For additional information, contact Hedy L. Carpenter at (818) 677-2138.

2. Reminders:

• The Provost wishes to remind faculty members that in accordance with the University’s policy, faculty should accommodate a student when an examination conflicts with the student’s religious observation. For assistance in evaluating a student’s request for the rescheduling of an examination for purposes of religious observation, faculty members may contact the Office of Faculty Affairs at ext. 2962.

3. Faculty/Student Achievements:

• Tony Arthur spoke on Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle at Cal State LA’s Kubal Lecture on January 26. The event was filmed by C-SPAN for Book Notes and will be available via the C-SPAN web site later this month. Also, Random House asked Tony to write an afterword for the Modern Library edition of The Jungle, to be published in June at the same time as Tony’s biography Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair.
• Kellie Dawson has received a Faculty Development Grant from the Center for Community Service-Learning at CSUN. The grant allows Kellie to add a service-learning component to her Popular Culture course. Her students will give presentations on the manipulations of popular culture to social studies classes at James Monroe High School.
• Irene Clark recently published the article “A Genre Approach to Writing Assignments” in Composition Forum. The article is online at http://www.fau.edu/compositionforum. Click on “current issue.” Irene’s article “Entering the Conversation: A Genre Approach to Thesis Proposals” has been published in Profession 2005, an MLA publication.

4. New Items in the Thursday’s Notes file (ST 708) or on Bulletin Board (Outside 710)

Conferences and Calls for Papers

• The Pacific Southwest Women’s Studies Association: Students and Teachers Working Together is calling for proposals from faculty and students for workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, individual presentations, performances, and the like at its Sixteenth Annual Conference on April 22 at Occidental College, Los Angeles. The theme of the conference is “Confronting Unnatural Disasters: Feminist Engagements Across and Within Borders.” The deadline for submitting proposals is February 28. For more information, visit http://www.pswsa.org, or contact Deborah Mindry at dmindry@oxy.edu or (323) 259-2524.
• The Student Conference for Research and Creative Arts is calling for undergraduate and graduate students to submit applications to present original research and creative art projects at the group’s 12 th Annual Conference, April 19 and 20, at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Houston, Texas. Applications must be submitted by February 20 online at www.uhcl.edu/ResearchArtsConference. There is a $25 processing fee. For assistance and additional information, contact M. Hunt at (281) 283-3374.
• The Organizing Committee for the Fourth International Conference on the Book is calling for papers to be delivered at Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, on October 20-22, 2006. The deadline for the next round in the call for papers is February 28. Additional information is available at the conference’s website: http://www.Book-Conference.com.

Competitions and Fellowships

• The National Humanities Center, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is announcing its Summer Institutes in Literary Studies from July 9-14, 2006. Two seminars will be offered: “George Eliot’s Middlemarch” and “Herman Melville’s Short Fiction: ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener,’ Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd.” Participation carries a stipend of $1,500 and covers the cost of travel, lodging, meals, and texts. The institute is open to scholars who have received a PhD within the last ten years and who teach in departments of literature or related disciplines at American colleges or universities. Applications are available at http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/siliterarystudies/index.htm. The due date is February 24, 2006.

Lectures and Other Events

• In celebration of Black Herstory Week, Gwendolyn Pough, Professor of Women’s Studies at Syracuse University, will deliver the lecture “Hip-Hop Feminists, Video Vixens, and B-Girls, Oh My . . .” on February 16 at 4:30 p.m. in the Grand Salon of the Student Union.
• Ethos Theatre Company, located at 1523 N. La Brea, has opened its second season with a performance of Romeo and Juliet, which will run through February 12. Student tickets are $10; faculty accompanying student groups will receive complementary entrance. For information and reservations call (310) 383-6644 or email the company at info@ethostheatrecompany.com.

Compiled by Patricia D. Watkins, Associate Chair