1. Announcements
We begin this issue of Thursday’s Notes with a special tribute to and recognition of our amazing students and the very special announcement of where at least some of them will be headed in the fall and what they will be doing and what they will be doing. Many of these students received multiple offers, but at least as As ever, we’re going to miss them but naturally wish them the very best. Meantime, congratulations to them all.
Caitlin Benson, 2012 BA in Literature, has accepted an offer from UCLA to join their Ph.D. program in English.
Alissa Binder, 2012 Creative Writing BA, has been accepted into the MFA in Writing Program at CalArts.
Nick Burden, 2013 Creative Writing BA ’13, has been accepted into the Master of Professional Writing Program at USC.
Gayane Haroutyunyan, 2013 B.A. in Creative Writing/Poetry) will be attending the MFA program in poetry at Sarah Lawrence College.
Naomi Carrington, 2013 MA in Rhetoric and Composition, will be attending the university of Texas, El 
Paso, with full support. But that won’t be for a while yet, because next year Naomi will be headed to Rwanda on a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistantship), which is 9 months long. Naimi be working at the university level, teaching English to various degrees (writing, ESL, reading), and will also be implementing two personal side projects. Her first project is to help Rwandans overcome aftereffects of the 1994 Genocide by offering English pedagogy enrichment courses for teachers who were trained in/only teach in the French language. The courses will consist of linguistic study, collaboration, pedagogy, and more. Her second project is to join forces with One Laptop Per Child where I will train teachers, develop lesson plans, and help install in the less urban areas of Rwanda. Congratulations, Naomi, on your success and good work.
Stephanie Dotto, 2013 BA Creative Writing/Narrative, will be attending Kingston University’s MFA Creative Writing program for fiction (located in Kingston, England).
Kristen Ingram, 2013 Literature BA has been accepted into the MA program in Media, Culture, and Communications at New York University.
Karlee Johnson, 2013 Journalism BA with Minors in both Creative Writing/Narrative and Queer Studies, will be attending the Creative Writing MA Program at San Francisco State University.
Sidney Jones, 2013 BA Honors/Literature, will be attending Sidney Jones (undergrad lit major) has accepted an offer of admission to the Ph.D. program in English at Ohio State University, and has been offered a University Fellowship as part of her funding package.
Gina Lawrence, 2013 Composition and Rhetoric Rhetoric MA, will be attending the University of Texas, El Paso, Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition Program on a fully funded Fellowship that will have her busy teaching various levels of composition.
Sean Pessin, 2013 Creative Writing MA, will be attending the MFA Creative Writing Program at Otis College of Art and Design. Described by Director Sarah Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum as this years “top recruit,” Sean has received a generous funding package and is eagerly awaited at Otis.
Auggie Samie, 2012 Creative Writing/Narrative BA, has been accepted into the Ph.D program in Humanities at the University of Chicago with an emphasis on Near Eastern Cultures and with a fellowship.
Mychal Schillaci, 2013 Creative Writing/Narrative BA has been accepted into the MFA in Writing Program at CalArts.
Olvard Smith, 2013 Creative Writing BA, will be attending the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers on a full scholarship.
We also want to congratulate and warmly welcome back the following graduating seniors and other CSUN alumni who will be returning to our own MA program in the fall: Eric Kufs, Brittney Neff, Angela Blair, Taylor Farnsworth, Amanda El Khoury, Kayla Lopez, Nicholas Jerrems, Kimberly Miller, Azure Glover, Freddy Garcia, Jordan Guevara, Angelika Hakopyan, Lizette Hernandez, Deanna Herbert, Ellen Moreh, Kheim Nguyen, Christopher Pruitt, Arthur Maturo, Rosa Colato, Sherece Usher, Chelsea Turner, Gayaneh Navshadian, Kimberly Sanders, Marilyn Serafin, Kirk Sever, Shelly Steinberg, Steven Rivas, Jennifer Rodrick, Robin Smith, Sarah Swanson, Gina Srmabekian, Enrique Solis, Eduardo Valladolid, Jennet Troy, and Jonathan Mejia.
As previously announced in a mysterious computer glitch, our good friend and colleague, Barbara Kroll, has generously donated a cash gift of $3000 to the Department for the improvement of faculty lives. Barbara would like us to enjoy our retreats more, or have cleaner offices, or better and more nutritious food at our various gatherings. And so we shall. Thank you, Barbara. Even though we know how good retirement has been good for you, we miss you.
And another new addition to our growing extended family and the human race arrived just yesterday, May 1, 2013, to the daughter of our own Marlene Cooksey, a grandson born to Vanessa and Andrew who will join his brother Henry and be known as Sam. Sam came in to this world 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and all are doing well.
In other happy news, the English Department has again been well recognized by this year’s University Faculty Awards. Congratulations to Michael Bryson, recipient of the 2013 Preeminent Scholarly Publication Award, and to Rick Mitchell, recipient of the Exceptional Creative Accomplishment Award.
Dorothy Barresi is being honored this year for having finished her 25th year at CSUN. Congratulations, Dorothy, and welcome to the club.
Tomorrow, May 3, English 698D will be hosting their conference titled “Paradigms: Redefined & Redesigned” in room JR 319 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Breakfast and lunch will be served. Panels span a diverse range of topics with a focus on all three options: literature, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing. The guest speaker is Yetta Howard from San Diego State University, whose presentation, “Flexing the Paradigmatic Muscles of Sexuality and Music,” will conclude the event. You will not want to miss this!
StoryCube is back. How about sharing highlights of your university experience with the CSUN StoryCube project? The goal is to collect and preserve the oral history of our campus by recording the stories and memories of individual members of the faculty, staff and student body. unity. The StoryCube booth is set up near the front entrance of the Matador Bookstore and interviews are being scheduled to take place Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 29 to May 10, and during Commencement Week, May 21-23. To set up an interview time, please email the StoryCube staff at storycube@csun.edu. For more information about the StoryCube project, see http://www.csun.edu/storycube/index.html or visit the booth.
And here’s an excellent opportunity to donate some of those books collecting dust on your bookshelves: BookMentors, a new nonprofit to give, get, and talk books for public schools, has just launched. On their platform, teachers can request the books their students need and donors can fulfill teachers’ requests. Teachers and donors can also share information about their favorite children’s and YA literature. Check them out at http://www.bookmentors.org. This could be a great connection.
Congratulations to Martin Pousson and Danielle Spratt, who were both elected as representatives to our Faculty Senate next year.
2. Reminders
The final department meeting of the year will take place next Friday, May 10, from 3 to 5. This promises to be an exciting time, chock full of year end reports and plans for the retreat and next year. Even in this busy time, it will be good to be there to review all the work we have done this year.
The College of Humanities Commencement this year will be Wednesday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. on the Oviatt Library Lawn. Do turn out and celebrate with our students. Before that, we will be having our annual Department Reception, honoring the achievements of our English graduates.
And another chance to recognize their achievements is this year’s Honors Convocation, which will be held Monday, May 20, at 6:00 p.m. on the Oviatt Libary Lawn.
But before then, finals week is Monday, May 13, to Saturday, May 18. And grades are due on May 24. Please do your part to ensure that this process goes seamlessly again, at least on our end.
And after that, stay tuned for the new Moodle 2, which will happen on May 28, 2013, for the start of the summer semester. On this date, Moodle 2 will be available to you and all students at moodle.csun.edu. Before the go-live date, Moodle 2 will continue to be available for you to preview the new layout and begin to develop content. You can view courses for 2011 and 2012 and create new courses for summer and fall 2013. To do so, log in to m2.csun.edu with your CSUN user ID and password. Please note that any 2013 courses you’ve added or changed since January 8, 2013 will be migrated to Moodle 2 this summer. Also, you might find the following list of resources and workshops for using Moodle 2 helpful: What’s New in Moodle 2?; What’s New in Moodle 2? video; Getting Started with Moodle 2; Moodle Student FAQs; Moodle Faculty FAQs. A list of workshops is also available on the IT Training Page and you can sign up by using the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact the Faculty Technology Center at ftc@csun.edu or (818) 677-3443.
And there’s this: the College of Humanities needs people to serve for the College Personnel Committee election. As Dean Say has reminded us, “the review and evaluation of our colleagues for promotion and tenure is, perhaps, the most important responsibility members of the faculty are charged with as the future of the University rests on the decisions made in this arena.” Also, with very few exceptions, tenured faculty are required to serve. If there are not additional nominations by tomorrow (Friday, May 3, 2013) at 5:00 pm, the name of every eligible faculty member in the college will be placed on the ballot and those elected will be required to serve.
3. Opportunities
Calling all Drabble writers. The Daily Sundial and Bill Willingham, author of Fables, have joined forced to create a new drabble contest, open only to CSUN student. the winning drabble will be published in the Daily Sundial, and its author will receive a hardcover edition of Fables, Vol. 1, autographed by Bill Willingham, and a personal, 15-minute writing critique over the phone from Bill Willingham. Students should submit their dribbles to ane@csun.edu. The Sundial will than select 5 finalist and Mr. Willingham will pick the winer. Only one drabble per student. (And for those of you not in the know, a drabble is a 100 word short story.) On your marks, get set…
Students are also invited to submit essays to the Jewish Studies Essay Contest and compete for a $250 prize. They may use work written for ANY CSUN class, from Spring 2012 – 2013. The essays will be judged based on Jewish Studies content, quality of writing, clarity of argument, and originality. The essay may take the form of a case study, a report on research, or an analysis that is biographical, historical, literary, philosophical, sociological, or theological. The entry must be the original, unpublished work of the student. Entries must be submitted by May 13, 2013, in the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, Sierra Hall 194, by May 13, 2013.
Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) seeks motivated, flexible, and detail-oriented, interns to serve in her district office. Enthusiastic self-starters interested in learning about the inner workings of a congressional district office are encouraged to apply. The ideal candidate has a strong commitment to serve the community, excellent communication skills, and thrives in a team environment. This unpaid internship is a great learning experience for graduate and undergraduate students interested in gaining real-world experience in public service. Interns provide administrative support, work on special issue-based projects, and are offered the opportunity to attend meetings and briefings throughout the district. Residents of the 40th Congressional District are encouraged to apply. Hours are flexible, but a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week is required. Please send your cover letter, resume, and three professional references to Alfonso Alfaro at alfonso.alfaro@mail.house.gov. The deadline is May 17, 2013. For more information please call (323) 721-8790.
4. Achievements
The current issue of American Scientist magazine has the third of Bob Chianese‘s Earth Art essays, this one on Andy Goldsworthy’s “Running Wall” sculpture (at Storm King Art Center along the Hudson in New York.) You can find it on line at http://www.americanscientist.org.