Volume 50:9

Chair: Kent Baxter
Notes compiled by: Kate Haake

___________________________________________________

Announcements

Sadly, we begin these Notes with sad announcement of the loss of another dear friend and colleague, Arthur Lane, along with our deep gratitude to John Clendenning for offering the following remembrance:

In Memoriam. Arthur Lane died on April 26, 2018 at the age of 81. He joined the CSUN English Department in 1968 and retired in 2001. At his retirement celebration we were all delighted when he announced, with characteristic dry humor, the motto for the occasion: LANE ENDS MERGE LEFT.

In 1972 his first book–An Adequate Response: The War Poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon—was published by Wayne State UP. This remarkable volume is a retrospective analysis of the English soldier-poets in World War I as seen from the perspective of a critic who had protested the war in Vietnam.

Arthur is best remembered for his teaching. Scores of devoted and adoring students followed him from course to course. He specialized in the Romantics, but the whole range of British literature was at his command. As department chair in the ‘70s, I observed one of his classes. The subject was King Lear and this was an hour I will never forget. The students sat in rapt attention as Arthur authoritatively yet modestly clarified this challenging text. I understood then why Arthur’s classes were always the first to fill up and generated long waiting lists. He possessed an astonishing combination of youthful charisma and avuncularity that students found irresistible.

 A second book, Dancing in the Dark, is a collection of his deeply moving and, at the same time, delightfully witty poems. In one of these—my favorite—Keats and Shelley greet Wordsworth, great grinning friends after such a long and troubled silence, in Elysium. I can just see Arthur now, tumbling out of old Charon’s boat, climbing the bank, and hugging his friends—Ann Stanford, Ben Saltman, Marvin Klotz, and Rachel Sherwood—who crown him with a laurel wreath.

The College of Humanities is accepting proposals for the Academic Programming Fund from all full- and part-time faculty in the college. This fund provides up to $200 for in-state speaker stipends and up to $500 for out-of-state/international speaker stipends to support academically related events only (e.g., guest lecturers, workshops, performances. Proposals should be no longer than one page and should describe how the proposed activity or event supports a course or academic program in the College of Humanities during the Spring 2019 semester. The deadline for proposals is Tuesday, February 12, 2018, 5:00 p.m. Late requests will NOT be considered for funding. APF awards will be announced on or before Monday, February 24. For more informations and to apply, please  see https://www.csun.edu/sites/default/files/APF%20Application.pdf.

Free book off from Common Read! CSUN faculty and staff can request a free copy of the 2019-2020 Freshman Common Read, The Far Away Brothers, the true story of the Flores twins and what happens after they leave El Salvador in search of a better life in California. For your free copy, email Susanna at susanna.eng@csun.edu; call AFYE at 818-677-6535, or show up in person at Sierra all 422, Undergraduate Studies on the Roof. Your copy is in exchange for your promise to speak about the book with at least one new CSUN freshman in fall 2019. Also not to be missed: Academic First Year Experiences will be hosting several faculty-staff discussions of The Far Away Brothers this spring, in March and April. Exact dates and times will be posted on our faculty and staff resources page as they are set: see https://www.csun.edu/undergraduate-studies/academic-first-year-experiences/far-away-brothers-faculty-and-staff-resources.

This Friday, February 8th, at 7:00 PM in Jerome Richfield Hall, Room 319, “The Reimagining Narrative Film Series” returns with Isiah Medina’s 88:88 (2015), which has been described as “a motion picture for anyone who has craved to be challenged again by cinema.” Curated collaboratively by Dr. Christopher Higgs & Katharine Mason, M.A., each film in the series will be introduced & contextualized prior to screening, with an open discussion to follow. Refreshments provided. For more information, contact Professor Higgs (christopher.higgs@csun.edu) or join our newsletter: bit.do/reimagining.

Spring elections for faculty governance positions for the 2019-2020 academic year will be held in March. Nominations from Senators for faculty officers, senators-at-large, and one representative to the Academic Senate CSU will be taken at the next Faculty Senate meeting on February 14, 2019. Senators may also make recommendations for Standing Committee representatives. Nominations by petition for Faculty Officers, Statewide Academic Senators and Senators-at-Large may come from any faculty member and are due in the Faculty Senate Office by Friday, February 22, 2019.  A petition must have 15 faculty member signatures (printed name also) with the candidate’s name. If you would like to be nominated for any of these positions, please contact Mary-Pat Stein or any member of the Faculty Senate prior to the February 14th, 2019 meeting. The current roster may be found on the Faculty Senate website http://www.csun.edu/faculty-senate.

The 2019 Panetta Congressional Internship Program is currently accepting applications for its Fall 2019 internship program. The program is only open to undergraduate sophomore and junior students who have not applied for graduation and has always been a wonderful opportunity for a student (one from each CSU campus) to go to Washington to work for a member of the California Congressional delegation.  A scholarship covers all expenses. For more information, please see http://www.panettainstitute.org/programs/study-with-us/congressional-intern-training/. And please do encourage qualified students to apply! The application deadline is Friday, February 22, 2019, by 4:00 p.m. to the Undergraduate Studies office (UN 215, MD 8203).

The LRC will be offering a the following series of exciting new workshops this spring. Please let your students know!

Date	Time	Consultant	Topic	Location
1/31	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Close Reading and Annotation	LRC
2/7	3:30-4:30pm	Melissa	Summary, Paraphrase, Quote	LRC
2/19	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Outlining and Prewriting	LRC
2/20	3:00-4:00pm	Melissa	Personal Statements	LRC
2/21	3:30-4:30pm	Melissa	Essay Refresh	LRC
2/26	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Paragraphs	LRC
2/27	1:30-2:30pm	Melissa	Working with Sources	LRC
2/28	2:30-3:30pm	Loretta	MLA	LRC
2/28	4:00-5:00pm	Loretta	APA	LRC
3/7	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Annotated Bibliography	LRC
3/12	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Visual Thinking	LRC
3/14	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Literature Review	LRC
3/26	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Effective Presentations	LRC
4/2	3:30-4:30pm	Anne	Grammar Errors ESL	LRC
4/3	3:30-4:30pm	Rosie	Grammar Errors	LRC
4/4	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Producing Writing that Flows	LRC
4/9	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Optimizing Group Work: Tips, Tricks, and Tools	LRC
4/11	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Synthesis	LRC
4/30	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	Proofreading and Revision	LRC
5/1	3:00-4:00pm	Sean	APA	LRC
5/2	3:30-4:30pm	Sean	MLA
5/7	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Scholarships and Personal Statements	LRC
5/8	3:00-4:00pm	Sean	Resumes	LRC
5/9	3:30-4:30pm	Loretta	Cover Letters	LRC

Opportunities

This one is for students. The Comparative Literature Undergraduate Journal (CLUJ) at the University of California, Berkeley, is currently seeking submissions. Showcasing the best undergraduate research in comparative literature and media from universities all over the world, this journal provides an exciting opportunity for undergraduates and recent graduates working in, around, or critically engaging with literary topics in a comparative nature. Papers in any language are welcome. Possible topics include but are not limited to: papers comparing at least two authors or texts, interdisciplinary research engaging multiples disciplines within the humanities, and research engaging with literary theory and schools of criticism. For more information and for submissions, please see https://ucbcluj.org/submissions/. Submissions for the 2019 issue will be accepted until February 15th.

Achievements

Joseph Galasso has published a version of an earlier paper, “Some Remarks on Early Modern English: Shakespearian Grammar,” in Annals of Language and Literature 3 (1), 11-24, 2019.

Katharine Mason has published a review of twelve recent books featuring “horse latitudes” in the title, “Reading in The Horse Latitudes: Authors Can’t Stop Naming Their Books after Random Geographical Area.” Curious? Read it here, https://bookandfilmglobe.com/fiction/reading-in-the-horse-latitudes.