Thursday’s Notes 57.7

Dear all,

     We are fast approaching the end of the Spring 2025 semester! Please let me know if you have any announcements or accomplishments that you would like to share. 

 

Announcements 

Sean Pessin will be hosting a National Poetry Month workshop for students, faculty, and staff in University Library Computer Lab B or Lab C (TBD) from 1pm–3pm on April 22, 2025. The workshop will focus on using InDesign to make visual poetry.

Northridge Review will be participating in an open mic event on April 26 from 4–6pm at Malibu Village Books (23359 Pacific Coast HWY #23359, Malibu, CA 90265). Issues will be available for purchase there, too! NOTE: Because PCH is closed coming into Malibu, taking Malibu Canyon Rd or Kanan Rd via the 101 freeway is necessary.  

CSUN alumna Zuleima Ugalde will be visiting ENGL 412 on April 16 at 4pm in JR 248 to talk to the current editors of Northridge Review about what it’s like to work for Penguin Random House. This very informal discussion is open to visitors, but space is limited!

We are one month away from The English Department Awards Ceremony and MA Hooding Event! Please do everything you can to make space for this on your calendars!
  • The English Department Awards Ceremony and MA Hooding Event
    May 9, 2025
    12:00-2:00pm
    Lakeview Terrace Room, East Conference Center, University Student Union
There will of course be food and beverages and opportunities to celebrate award winners and recent graduates from the MA program! 
 
 

Be sure to remind your students of the WONG – SAYAMAN EQUALITY AWARD!

The Wong – Sayaman Equality Award is offered through the Queer Studies Program at California State University, Northridge. Ronora W. Sayaman is a CSUN alumnus working in the private sector, who wishes to provide support to students from any academic major who are committed to a leadership role in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities.

This annual competitive award of $1,000 will recognize students who have a strong academic standard and a history of participation in or leadership of organizations that promote awareness and acceptance of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender persons. Any currently enrolled undergraduate or graduate student at California State University, Northridge, studying in any academic discipline. Students may receive this scholarship more than once, but must reapply and compete annually.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

Students interested in the Wong – Sayaman Equality Award must submit a completed application form and both a resume and short explanation (1-2 paragraphs, no more than 500 words) of their interest and activities related to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender topics, highlighting leadership and scholastic achievement. Materials should be submitted by April 25, 2025 to: QS Director, Dr. Jacob Lau, jacob.lau@csun.edu

 

Achievements

Scott Andrews recently attended the American Indian Workshop in Madrid, Spain, to present “The Tlicho Origin Story and Richard Van Camp’s The Lesser Blessed.” He will have a review of Urban Homelands: Writing the Native City from Oklahoma by Lindsey Claire Smith in an upcoming issue of Western American Literature. He is the guest editor of the spring issue of Transmotion, an online, open-source journal of Native American Studies. The issue is devoted to new work by members of Tsalagi Scholars, a collective of Cherokee academics. Scott is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and a member of the Transmotion editorial board.

Book Arts Lab presented at the 2025 Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) annual conference Bookfair, held this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center, March 27–29, 2025. Book Arts Lab shared a table with UCLA’s California Rare Book School. Over 10,000 attendees saw projects facilitated by the Book Arts Lab team: Ismael Dones, Ysabella Gonzalez, Cambri Morris, and Sean Pessin. Special shout-outs are necessary for Jazmine Agregado, Ray Birdsong, Kiara Braden, Hanna Davis, Andrew Isagulyan, Matthew Miehe, Patrick Smith, Maddy Trujillo, Caroline Urbina for helping to make sure the table was staffed, knowledgeable, and effervescent!

On Friday, April 4th, Irene Clark served as a judge in the CSUNposium and found the presentations incredibly interesting.
 
CSUN students Hanna Davis, Grace Muller, Jerica Cuevas, and Max Gershon performed on April 3, 2025 in a “Poetry and Music Jam Session” at Colburn School with Colburn student-musicians Bianna Bell, Hope Hyink, David Kwon, Kate Lee, Kaia Selden, and Esther Zhang. This event was part of a series, “Poetry Week at Colburn,” co-curated and co-produced by Sean Pessin and Library Director Debbie Smith, with funding from the Library Learning Lab at Colburn School.
 
Professor Kelan Koning co-presented “Mad Scholarships and Activisms: Cultivating Neurodivergent-Centered Learning and Organizing Spaces” with Dr. Pau Abustan (Cal State LA) at the CFA Equity Conference in March. 
 
Professor Kelan Koning also recently co-designed and co-facilitated a four-part series for Cosumnes River College entitled “Transformative Practices Learning Community” with CRC faculty Professor Trang Abeid. The series, which included Zoom workshops and Canvas modules, focused on equitable assessment, backward design, trauma-informed pedagogy, and ePortfolios.
 
The Spring 2025 Launch Party for Northridge Review was a smash hit! Nearly 100 attendees in person and virtually and in-person to celebrate on April 2, 2025. The digital copy of the current is available for free on our website. Physical copies may be ordered from the managing editor trio: Ismael Dones, Maddy Trujillo, and Caroline Urbina.
 
Professor Sean Pessin‘s paper titled, “Examining Concentration and Amplification from 1988–1997 in The Best American Poetry,” was accepted to the University College Dublin conference “Dis/Trusting the Institution(s) of Literature 2025” to be held 17–20 June.
 
Dr. Mauro Carassai and Sean Pessin are leading a workshop focused on data and digital migration in the University of Macerata summer seminar “The digital turn and intercultural societies: ethics, accessibility, and democracy” on June 25.
 
Professor Audrey Thacker  presented her paper, “’That Would Be So God’: Replacing a Questionable Divinity with an Equally Questionable Humanity at the Secular Margins in Shalom Auslander’s Hope: A Tragedy,” at the 30th annual conference of the Western Jewish Studies Association, held in San Diego in March.
 
Six English department faculty won ESSA awards for 2025-26. Congratulations! 
  • Star Glover
  • Amanda Harrison
  • Kelan Koning
  • Rick Mitchell
  • Colleen Tripp 
  • Kim Wells