Thursday's Notes

1. Announcements:

• CSUN’s Graduate Studies, Research & International Programs is sponsoring workshops for faculty and students interested in the Fulbright program. On September 8, the Director of the Fulbright office will present two workshops in the Special Events room in the Sierra Center (2nd floor): one for faculty, from 10:00-12:00 noon, and one for students, from 1:00-3:00 p.m.
• Application materials for the 2005-2006 Distinguished Visiting Speakers Program are due on October 6, 2005. If you have questions, please contact Hedy Carpenter at x2138. Applications are available on the website http://www.csun.edu/graduatestudies/.
• The College of Humanities Faculty Fellows Program plan to award five course reassignment fellowships for Spring 2006 to tenure-track faculty who provide exceptional proposals and are recommended to the Dean by a faculty committee, chaired by the Associate Dean. No one receiving other university-assigned reassigned time in Spring 2006 may receive a Faculty Fellowship. The Dean will be responsible for final selection and approval. Applications for the 2006 Faculty Fellows Program are due in the Dean’s office no later than Friday, October 7.
• The Office of Graduate Studies has received funds to support costs incurred by classified graduate students working on theses, projects, or artistic performances in the 2005-2006 academic year. Awards up to $1,000 may be provided to selected students, based on review of an application that outlines the project and the anticipated costs. Deadline for submissions is October 3, 2005.
• CFA is sponsoring a Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Workshop on Wednesday, October 5th and Thursday, October 6th, from 2:00-3:30 p.m., in the Business Building 4117. For more information, contact the CFA office at ext. 5919. Please note the change of dates (originally September 14 and September 15).

2. Reminders:

• If you have not already done so, please put a copy of your course syllabi in Jennifer Lu's box. The syllabi will be filed in the notebooks in our Conference Room for reference by other faculty teaching similar courses in the future.
• Please remind students that all adds/drops/changes in basis of grading should be completed by the end of the third week of class: September 16.
• Please note that all faculty must distribute a written syllabus to each student in the course or post it on-line no later than the second week of classes.
• Department meeting dates for the year are as follows: September 9, October 14, November 11, December 9 (the holiday party), February 10, March 10, April 7, and May 12.
• The SPACE Academic Lecture Series, sponsored by Associated Students, has set aside $4,000 for awards, $500 maximum per award. This academic honorarium fund will only allocate funds for honorariums or pre-negotiated speaking fees. The deadline for application is September 9, 5 p.m. For more information, contact Leanne Vincent, ext. 7899.
• Sabbatical applications for 2006-2007 are due to the Chair by Friday, September 30, 2005. Application forms are available in Martha Alzamora's office.

3. Faculty/Student Achievements:

• Joseph Thomas's experimental essay "Letters to Children" appeared in the Children's Literature Association Quarterly 30.1, as did his "The Books that Print Bred: The Materiality of Picture Books," which introduced the cluster of essays of which "Letters to Children" was a part. His essay "Reappraising Uncle Shelby" was the topic of "A Glance at the May/June Issue of The Horn Book Magazine: The Beloved Children's Poet whom Scholars Hate," the 6/3/2005 installment of The Chronicle of Higher Education's Magazine & Journal Reader column.
• Brian Leung served as a Grant Judge for the Arkansas Literary Arts Council. His World Famous Love Acts received honorable mention in the Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writers Award and was a finalist for The Asian American Literary Awards. He published "Literary Fugue: The Definitive Explanation on the Difference between Poetry and Prose" in Indiana Review, Summer 2005.
• Jackie Stallcup delivered a paper, “Captain Underpants and the Wrath of Insulted, Outraged Adults,” at the Children’s Literature Association’s annual conference, held this summer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
• Robert Louis Chianese worked with a team of CSUN Humanities academics and assessment specialists from RAND Corporation devising “Tasks in Critical Thinking,” which measure college students’ reasoning skills at the all-university level. Development of these essay-based assessment instruments is funded by the Council for Aid to Education through the College Learning Assessment Project.

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

Conferences and Calls for Papers

• The Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities will be held on January 11-14, 2006 at the Renaissance Ilikai Waikiki Hotel. Deadline for proposal submissions is September 13, 2005. Proposals in a variety of areas of the arts and humanities are invited. For further information, see http://www.hichumanities.org/cfp_artshumanities.htm. Submissions may be made electronically via e-mail to humanities@hichumanities.org.

Competitions and Fellowships

• The Commonwealth Club of California invites authors and publishers to submit entries for their 75th Annual California Book Awards. Entries are restricted to books bearing a 2005 original publication date, and authors must have been legal residents of California at the time their manuscripts were accepted for publication. Entries must be postmarked no later than January 7, 2006. For more information, contact the Awards Coordinator Scott Davis at sdavis@commonwealthclub.org.

Lectures and Other Events

• On October 21, the Faculty Development Center presents “Keeping a Pulse on Student Learning,” a Beck Grant Assessment workshop. The workshop, scheduled for 8:45 a.m.-3:00 p.m. in the Whitsett Room, Sierra Hall, will be facilitated by Dr. Amy Driscoll, an expert on student learning and assessment. Please rsvp to Kelly Kroeker at x6536 or kelly.kroeker@csun.edu.

Jobs and Other Opportunities

• The California State University, Sacramento English Department invites applications for two tenure track assistant professor positions: 1) multi-ethnic literature and 2) creative writing (fiction) and modern/contemporary fiction. A Ph.D. in English is required and must be completed by August 1, 2006. Please send letter of application, curriculum vitae, copies of academic transcripts, and three letters of recommendation to Dr. Joshua McKinney, Personnel Chair, Department of English, California State University, Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819-6075 by November 21, 2005.

Compiled by Sandra Stanley, Associate Chair