Chair: Kent Baxter
Notes compiled by: Kate Haake
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Announcements
With everything going on at the end of the term, it’s sometimes easy to lose track of even very important things. Among the most critical of them, are our upcoming deadlines for Department Awards, some of which require faculty nomination, and all of which require students knowing about them. So please announce them in class and let your most promising students know in person. Undergraduate awards are: The Henry Van Slooten Scholarship in English, The Linda Nichols Joseph English Merit Scholarship, The Lesley Johnstone Memorial Award, The Robert apRoberts English Honors Essay Prize, and The William L. Wilson Award. And graduate awards are: The Professor Mitchell Marcus Prize in English; The Mahlon Gaumer Award; The Harry Finestone Award in English. The deadline is May 5, and more information is available from Beth Wightman, 2016-17 Chair of the Awards Committee (beth.wightman@csun.edu) or Kent Baxter, our Chair (kent.baxter@csun.edu).
If you teach a course on social justice and/or the humanities, please participate (or invite your students to participate in) in CSUN’s first Art & Social Justice Wiki-Edit-a-Thon, taking place on April 17th, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:45 p.m., in JR319. Jointly sponsored by English Honors and Sigma Tau Delta, this edit-a-thon provides an excellent opportunity for attendees to gather and strengthen Wikipedia’s scope and content related to the arts, activism, and social justice–from local LA writers and California politics, to national issues of social justice and the humanities that are near and dear to our hearts. Training, resources, and pizza will be provided. Drop-ins are welcome! And, if you’re interested in making this a class event or have questions, please email Dr. Colleen Tripp (colleen.tripp@csun.edu). Also, please remember to sign up for a wiki account before coming.
Martin Pousson will be a featured author for a LGBTQ fiction panel at Flintridge Bookstore in La Cañada-Flintridge on Thursday, April 13, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The event is free and all are welcome. He also will be a featured author at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, on Saturday, April 22, at 3:00 p.m., for the Writing Gay Literature panel on the USC University Park Campus.
Reminders
Christopher Higgs will read from his newly released experimental memoir, As I Stand Living, on Thursday, April 27, at 1:00 pm., in the English Department Reading Room, JR 319. Hosted jointly by the Northridge Creative Writing Circle and “Higgs’ Homies,” the reading will be open to the public. Please come and help celebrate this exciting new work.
The Department meeting, originally scheduled for April 14, has been changed to April 21. Regular time, regular place.
Opportunities
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies (RGS) is pleased to announce a Call for Proposals for grants to further the development of new and ongoing research, creative activities and scholarship across the CSUN campus for Summer 2017. ORSP invites campus-wide proposals for either A) Seed Grant funds intended to support new ideas for which preliminary work is required or B) POC Grant funds for the further development of current research, creative activities or scholarship. The involvement of student researchers, and/or multi-disciplinary and cross-campus proposals are strongly encouraged. Awards up to a maximum of $3000 will be available, and the deadline os April 26. Complete guidelines are available from RGS; additional questions may be directed to Megha Patel, Assistant VP for Research and Economic Development at megha.patel@csun.edu with additional questions.
The Office of Community Engagement is pleased to announce its annual round of funding for the 2017-2018 academic year. They are offering four types of grants to support faculty in providing service learning opportunities to students and in disseminating service learning knowledge, research or findings. Tenured, tenure-track, and lecturer faculty are eligible to apply. Community Engagement’s funding opportunities help to support our efforts in keeping CSUN students civically engaged, so please consider making some good use of their support. The deadline is May 1, and complete information is available at http://www.csun.edu/undergraduate-studies/community-engagement/grant-opportunities. Inside the Department, Danielle Spratt is a good resource on this and has offered to help with your questions.
This one is for graduating seniors: We’ve heard from local employer in Chatsworth, who is starting a new business in kitchen concepts and looking to make a full time hire. She is a stickler for writing and would love to hire an English student! So, if you have someone in mind, please help spread the word. Interested students should contact me at kate.haake@csun.edu for more information.
Achievements
Martin Pousson read from his novel-in-stories, Black Sheep Boy, for Dirty Laundry Lit in Hollywood on Saturday, April 8. He also compiled an impressive list of student and alumni achievements, which I am thrilled to share with you here. Thank you to Martin for keeping good track of so many fabulous students. And, to the rest of you: please feel free to let me know when you hear of other such fine achievements from your own students! It’s always great to honor them by helping to spread the good news.
Brian “The Dude”Andrade (BA English CW Spring ’17) has been accepted into the MFA Creative Writing program in Poetry at The New School, Emerson College, and San Francisco State University, in addition to his previous acceptances at Sarah Lawrence College, University of San Francisco, and Columbia College Chicago.
Kelly Guerrero (BA English CW Spring ’17) has been accepted into the MA program in Applied Linguistics at San Diego State University.
Wes Hallquist (BA English CW Spring ’17) has been accepted into the MA program in Computer Science at CSU Fullerton and CSU Dominguez Hills.
Arthur Karagezian (BA English CW Spring ’17) has been accepted into the JD law program at Whittier College, Western State College, and University of La Verne, in addition to his previous acceptance at Southwestern University.
Rebecca Rahimi (BA English Lit Fall ’16) has been accepted into the MA/MS program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University and Vanderbilt University, in addition to her previous acceptances by Duke, NYU, UCLA, and University of Chicago.
August Samie (BA English CW/Honors Spring ’11, Dean’s Scholar, Wolfson Scholar) has been hired as Lecturer in Eurasian History and English Composition at University of Chicago, where he is at work on his PhD dissertation.
Leo Sanchez (BA English CW Spring ’13) has been hired as Administrative and Parent Coordinator at Occidental College.
Leticia Valente (BA English CW Spring ’14, MA ongoing) has been appointed Administrative Support Assistant for student hiring here at California State University Northridge.
Sunny Williams (BA English CW Spring ’17) has been accepted into the MFA Creative Writing program in Fiction at the University of Limerick in Ireland.