1. Announcements
For those of you in the RTP process, fall brings not just the occasional shower of rain and change of leaf, even here, but also classroom visitations, PIFS, and sometimes a frazzled nerve or two. In order to calm these and provide critical information, the CFA-CSUN Chapter will be hosting a Retention, Tenure & Promotion Workshop for all new and probationary faculty, personnel committee members, department chairs, and deans. Learn the guidelines and understand the processes outlined in the new CFA/CSU contract and yet to be updated “Section 600.” This workshop will take place on Wednesday, October 16, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in Juniper Hall 417 and includes lunch! To ensure sufficient handout materials, please RSVP to CFA office at (818) 677-5919 or cfa.office@csun.edu.
The next event in this month’s Faculty Development Fall Teaching Series will feature Prof. James E. Sefton of the History Department with a talk titled, “High Standards: Holding Students Accountable.” A long-time champion of student achievement and effort, Jim has recently revised and shared his characteristically brief and to-the-point list, “Academic Tactics for Freshmen,” which you can find online under “Timeless Advice . . . .” in the main column at http://www.csun.edu/afye/. The event will take place on Thursday, October 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Whitsett Room (SH 451), and please RSVP to wendy.say@csun.edu.
On October 30 from 2:30 to 3:30 in JR 319, Tina Torres, the new Director of the Credential Office, and credential counselors will be talking about the various opportunities available for teaching, providing information about their credential programs, and answering questions. All students — both undergraduate and graduate — are invited. Students are sure to find the information valuable, even if they are ambivalent about becoming teaching.
On Wednesday, October 23, Mona Houghton and Kate Haake will be reading with What Books Press at LA’s first annual Lit Crawl. The nationwide phenomenon known as the Lit Crawl will be held in two rounds at twelve different NoHo locations. Round 1 goes from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. and Round 2, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.. And then there’s an After Party, from 9:00 to 11:00 p.m. (tickets, $15). Houghton and Haake will be reading with other What Books authors, Rod Val Moore, Chuck Rosenthal, and Gail Wronsky in Round 2 (7:30 to 8:30 p.m.) at the ACME Comedy Theater (21+) at 5124 Lankershim Blvd.
2. Opportunities
MIT is looking to hire a Tenured Associate/Full Professor in Comparative Media Studies to begin in September 2014. A Ph.D. and an extensive record of publication, research activity, and leadership are expected. Expertise in the cultural and social implications of established media forms (film, television, audio and visual cultures, or print) is as important as scholarship in one or more emerging areas such as media industries and production practices, games, social media, new media literacies, software studies, and transmedia storytelling. Candidates should demonstrate a record of effective teaching and thesis supervision, significant research/creative activity, relevant administrative experience, and international recognition.
Here’s one for students: Courtesy of the EOP AB 540 Initiative Committee, eight $500 scholarships will be awarded to currently enrolled students in good academic standing at the end of this fall semester. This scholarship aims to support and encourage AB 540 students at CSUN in pursuit of academic excellence. Preference will be giving to CSUN students currently enrolled un AB 540s. Check with Marvin Villaneuva for application guidelines, which will include a one-page single spaced essay. The deadline is Monday, November 4, 2013; applications must be dropped off in Jerome Richfield 240.
And another for students, a new national literary magazine dedicated to the work of outstanding undergraduate creative writing,The Quaker, at www.thequaker.org. Please let your student writers know.
3. Achievements
Stephanie Harper has been named a HASTAC Scholar for 2014. The HASTAC Scholars program is an innovative student community with Scholars coming from 75+ universities and dozens of disciplines. The Scholars community works at the intersection of technology and the arts, humanities and sciences, blogging, hosting online forums, developing new projects, and organizing events that center around rethinking pedagogy, learning, research & academia for the digital age. HASTAC (pronounced “haystack”) is an alliance of individuals and institutions inspired by the possibilities that new technologies offer us for shaping how we learn, teach, communicate, create, and organize our local and global communities.
Jacqui Meisel‘s piece, Simple Pleasures, has been published in the Essay/Memoir section of the Moon Magazine’s October issue.