1. Announcements

We are joining forces with 10 other CSUs to co-organize events to raise awareness regarding the over 53,000 students who experience housing and food precarity or homelessness across the CSU each year. Events include:

Today, Thursday, February 20, 11:30-12:30 p.m. – Rally/discussion to express solidarity, raise awareness, and circulate support information;

Monday, February 24, 9:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m. – Teach in to express solidarity, raise awareness, circulate support information, and discuss theories, strategies, etc. (co-teach with other faculty and classes or run simultaneous classes);

Tuesday, February 25, 9:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m. – Teach in to express solidarity, raise awareness, circulate support information, and discuss theories, strategies, etc. (co-teach with other faculty and classes or run simultaneous classes).

We will have materials to make banners and signs, to offer messages of support, and to discuss strategies for meaningful and structural change. If you would like to sign up to participate on any/all of these days and time frames, please click here. Please reach out to danielle.spratt@csun.edu if you have any questions.

This Friday, February 21st, at 7:00 PM in Jerome Richfield Hall, Room 319, “The Reimagining Narrative Film Series” returns with Panos Cosmatos’s Mandy (2018). This brazen cult film has been described as “…a gory grindhouse revenge thriller …breathtakingly gorgeous… …hallucinatory… …phantasmagorical… …visually mind-blowing… …psychotic… …campy… …like an acid trip set to a death metal soundtrack…” Curated collaboratively by Dr. Christopher Higgs & Katharine Mason, M.A., each film in series will be introduced & contextualized prior to screening, with an open discussion to follow. Pizza,drinks, & snacks provided. Free & open to the public. (Content Warning: The films this year are horror movies, which means they involve a lot of violence, blood, and death, some of it hilariously fake and some of it upsettingly realistic. Please attend with caution.) For more information, contact Professor Higgs (christopher.higgs@csun.edu) or join our newsletter: bit.do/reimagining. We hope to see you there! Many thanks!

The Search and Screen Committee for our Latinx Literature and Culture position is bringing another finalists to campus. Please attend her talk on her research on Thursday, February 27, 10:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m. in ST 703. We encourage you to attend!

CSUN faculty and staff can request a free copy of the 2020-2021 Freshman Common Read, Educated: A Memoir by email (to Susanna: susanna.eng@csun.edu); phone (818-677-6535); or in person: UN 280 (Academic First Year Experiences). You get one free copy in exchange for your promise to speak about the book with at least one new CSUN freshman in fall 2020.

2. Reminders

The CSUN Research and Grants Committee requests applications from faculty members for the annual competition for the 2020-2021 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) Award. The RSCA winners will be awarded either 3 units of release time or a $5,000 mini grant for conceptual, empirical, and artistic projects to advance their respective fields of inquiry and the College and University missions. Projects related to curriculum development or requests for summer salary will not be considered. In concert with the campus-wide effort to support scholarly activity by probationary faculty, those who have been at CSUN for five years or less are strongly encouraged to apply.

Submission Deadline: 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 24, 2020. You can download the 2020-2021 Guidelines here. These is also detailed information and helpful tips in the attached informational video Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award video prepared by the CSUN Research and Grants Committee. For further questions regarding the competition or the submission process, please call Liza Johnston at x3441, email liza.johnston@csun.edu, or click on the links below to view more information.

Evaluation time is already here for spring. Please let Wendy Say know which class or classes you would like to have evaluated, or if you will not have classes evaluated, by Wednesday, March 11. Additional information on the SEF process can be found on our resource page.

3. Opportunities

The Faculty Development Probationary Faculty Support Grant, funded by Academic Affairs, provides probationary faculty (those in their pre-tenure years) with 3 units of reassign time in order to advance their research agenda and meet scholarly productivity requirements for retention, tenure, and promotion (RTP). For more information and to apply, please visit the Faculty Development Grants page. Deadline: Friday, March 2 at 4:00 p.m.

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) summer conference will be held at USC in May. For more information, visit their website.

4. Achievements

On Friday, February 7, Irene Clark participated in a round table at the Glendale Community College Winter Retreat. Among the participants was Francien Rohrbacher, who has an MA from our department. She is currently GCC English Division Faculty Member and College Curriculum and Instruction Coordinator.

Please send all announcements, opportunities, and achievements to adawahare@csun.edu.