Thursday's Notes

1. Announcements:

• Dr. William Watkins, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, requests that faculty members publicize the 2006 Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. The award will given to four students “based on academic excellence, campus and community service, and exceptional achievements or personal life circumstances that have been overcome.” The awards will be presented during the Honors Convocation ceremony on Tuesday, May 30, 2006. An application from the student and two letters of recommendation (at least one of which must be from a CSUN faculty member) must be submitted to Dr. Watkins, at mail drop code 8239, on or before Monday, April 17, 2006. Application and recommendation forms are available from the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs.

2. Reminders:

• Please announce to your classes that The Northridge Review is celebrating the publication of the Spring 2006 issue of the magazine. The Review will host a reading today, March 24, in JR 319, starting at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served. All are welcome to attend.
• On Tuesday, March 28, at 1 p.m. in JR 319, Harvard University’s Tom Jehn will conduct a workshop on how teachers with limited time can still give quality feedback on students’ expository essays. For additional information, email Irene Clark at irene.clark@csun.edu.
• CSUN’s Sigma Tau Delta/ Honors in English Colloquium will take place on Tuesday, March 28 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Student Union. Check-in will be in the Burbank Room from 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. Panels will be held in Lakeview Terrace Rooms A, B, C, and D. Lunch will begin at 12:30 p.m. The keynote address, delivered by UCLA’s Dr. Rachel Lee, will begin at 2 p.m. For more information, contact Rory Moore, co-president of Sigma Tau Delta, at rorymmoore@aol.com.
• Bob Chianese and Carl A. Maida are inviting members of the English Department to submit proposals for papers to be read at a special session of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science—Pacific Division, at UC San Diego on Monday, June 19, 2006. Proposals must be emailed by April 15 to professors Chianese and Maida at the following addresses: cmaida@ucla.edu and robert.chianese@csun.edu. Contact Bob Chianese for additional information.
• On Saturday, April 29, 2006, CSUN will host a Spring Composition Conference. Featured presenters will be Chris Anson, Sue McLeod, and Les Perelman, with a response from Carol Jago. Presentations will be followed by breakout sessions. There will be a book display, food, and entertainment. Registration information is available online at http://www.compositionconference.com. For additional information, contact Irene Clark at irene.clark@csun.edu.

3. Faculty/Student Achievements:

• Michael Bryson was interviewed for the “Intellectual Affairs” column of Inside Higher Ed. The column’s subject, occasioned by the debut of HBO’s series Big Love, is the history of polygamy in Christian thought. Michael was asked about John Milton’s defense of polygamy. The column is online at http://insidehighered.com/views/2006/03/15/mclemee.
• Kara Lawton, a 2005 CSUN graduate (in journalism) who took three poetry workshops with Leilani Hall and who won honorable mention in an Academy of American Poets Prize Competition, has just been accepted into the MFA program in creative writing/poetry at Antioch College.
• Leilani Hall recently presented the essay “The Order of the Disorder: Creative Writers in Disability Studies” at the Associated Writing Programs conference in Austin, Texas.
• Brian Leung and Leilani Hall facilitated three sessions on creative writing pedagogy at the recent Associated Writing Programs conference in Austin, Texas. This year, Brian and Leilani are serving as advisors to the AWP Pedagogy Forum Steering Committee.

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

Competitions and Fellowships

• Dorothy Barresi and Leilani Hall request that you announce to your classes that the Academy of American Poets Prize Competition is now accepting submissions for the 2006 award. The winner will receive a cash prize from the Academy of American Poets and will be published in The Northridge Review. Two Honorable Mentions will also be awarded. The winners will be announced during the English Department’s commencement celebration. To enter the contest, students should submit duplicate copies of one to three poems to the English Department Office by Wednesday, April 19. A cover sheet should state the student’s name, address, phone number, and email address, and should state the titles of the poems submitted. For additional information, contact Dorothy at extension 0911 or dorothy.barresi@csun.edu, or contact Leilani at extension 3428 or leilani.hall@csun.edu.

Conferences and Calls for Papers

• The 7th Annual Claremont Graduate University Early Modern Studies Symposium will take place at Claremont on Saturday April 1, 2006, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This symposium brings together graduate students working in literature, history, religion, cultural studies, and philosophy to engage in interdisciplinary discourse. Topics this year include early modern otherness, constructions of identity, and emerging notions of nationhood. An advertisement for the conference is posted on the bulletin board outside ST 712. For additional information, call (909) 621-8612.

Lectures and Other Events

• As part of it Spring Program, the Department of Chicana/o Studies will screen the documentary Hey, Pancho on April 18, at 5 p.m. in the Presentation Room in Oviatt Library. For additional information, contact Roberta Orona-Cordova at roberta.orona@csun.edu.
• The Huntington Library is presenting a series of programs under the title “African-American Culture & Arts: Dreams Fulfilled.” The three remaining programs in the series focus on the Little Rock Nine, the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Cultural Center, and Langston Hughes. Students are admitted free. Additional information is available at http://huntington.org/Information/CultureArts.pdf.

Jobs and Opportunities

• CSUN’s Office of Undergraduate Studies is advertising for part-time lecturers to teach three-unit sections of University 100, Freshman Seminar, in Fall 2006. Lecturers must have at least an earned master’s degree and prior college or university teaching experience, among other qualifications. The application deadline is Friday, March 24, 2006. A position description is online at http://www.csun.edu/~univ100/U100F06Openings.html. For additional information, contact Cheryl Spector at cheryl.spector@csun.edu.
• The Department of English at California State University, Bakersfield, is looking to hire two full-time lecturers for Fall 2006—one lecturer in linguistics and the other lecturer in Renaissance non-dramatic literature and a secondary field, preferably Restoration and eighteenth-century English literature. A Ph.D. is required at the time of appointment for both positions. Applications should be received by April 30, 2006. Advertisements for the two positions are posted on a bulletin board outside ST 712.

Compiled by Patricia D. Watkins, Associate Chair