Chair: Kent Baxter
Notes compiled by: Kate Haake
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Announcements
Welcome back, one and all. Here’s hoping everyone had excellent holidays and is off to a promising New Year. That said, not to belabor the point, but here we go again.
We begin with the sad news that a former colleague, Professor William G. Stryker, who taught in the department from 1969 to 1986, passed away recently due to heart failure. Born in Montana and raised in Oregon, Professor Stryker served three years on a Naval transport in the Pacific before earning his Ph.D. from Stanford on the G.I. Bill. In the course of his long and productive career, Stryker taught at a wide range of institutions, including universities in China and Hawaii. Once at CSUN, he chaired the then University Teacher Preparation Committee for three year and finished his career as Coordinator for the then Interdisciplinary Linguistics Program. He is survived by a daughter, a son, four grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren, and will be sorely missed.
To follow up with happier tidings, just in case you missed it, we welcome the birth of the newest member of our extended family, Dean Eric Dinsmore, who came into this world on January 11 at 4:10 o’clock in the morning and weighed in at 8 lbs., 14 oz. Congratulations to parents Eric and America, and all best wishes in your new adventure.
Looking to the future, this year’s “Explore CSUN” event will take place on Saturday April 14. The College of Humanities will have a showcase area in front of Sierra Tower for students to come hear about the fabulous opportunities available to them in our college, including English. For more information about the event, please see https://www.csun.edu/explore-csun. If you’d like to get involved and help welcome our incoming students, please contact Jackie Stallcup at jackie.stallcup@csun.edu.
The Search and Screen Committee for our African American Literature and Culture position will be bringing finalists to campus on February 1, 6, and 8, and wants everyone to have the opportunity to hear the candidates and provide feedback. The three candidates will be presenting job talks in ST 703 on the following dates and times. Please do come out to meet them.
Thursday, February 1, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon—Nicole Morris Johnson, Emory University
Tuesday, February 6, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon—Emanuela Kucik, Princeton University
Thursday, February 8, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon—Carlyn Ferrari, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Reminders
Ronaldo wants your office hours and your syllabi, so if you haven’t complied with his request yet, please do so at your earliest convenience.
Opportunities
If it’s spring semester, it must be grant application time. Humanities Research Fellow Award applications are due on 1/29/18, and Academic Program Fund applications are due on 2/1/18. For more information on these–and other–funding opportunities, see https://www.csun.edu/humanities/college-funded-research.
Please let your students know about the upcoming CSUNposium, an annual student conference, now in its 22nd year, that features oral and poster presentations showcasing excellence in scholarly research and creative activity conducted by CSUN students across all academic disciplines. Applications are open until February 2, at 5:00 p.m., and can be found at www.csun.edu/csunposium.
Also for students, the Sundial is looking to hire students for a wide range of positions in all their departments. Interested students should be directed here: http://sundial.csun.edu/about/jobs/.
Here are a couple of new writing awards from LA–the Roswell Award and the Women Hold Up Half the Sky Award–that may be of interest to you or your students. The Roswell Award is a short science fiction contest presented by the Light Bringer Project and Sci-Fest LA. Submissions are only 1500 words or fewer. The top 5 winning stories will be officially recognized at the LitFest Pasadena on May 19th and read on stage by a celebrity guest. The top 3 will receive cash prizes of $500, $250, and $100, respectively. Artemis and Hollywood NOW will also present the Women Hold Up Half the Sky Award for the best feminist themed science fiction story. The deadline for submission is January 29. For more information, and to submit, please see http://www.lightbringerproject.org/science-fiction-contests.
Achievements
Noreen Lace has been invited to read and discuss her new novella, Eddy, a fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe’s Suicide attempt in 1848, at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia during their annual Birthday Celebration on January 20th.
Brian Evenson has selected Kate Haake’s diptych fiction, “Crown, Fuzz,” as runner-up for the 2017 Italo Calvino Prize in Speculative Fiction.