1. Announcements
The students enrolled in the ENGL 525 Digital Humanities class will present their DH projects in poster format today, December 5th, in JR 319 at 7:00 p.m. All the projects use a computational practice called Topic Modeling for the purposes of literary criticism. The poster presentation, organized as a small DH Symposium, is an opportunity for both faculty and students to get a glimpse of yet unexplored computational-enhanced critical possibilities for humanities and literary studies. If you are around and have time, please drop by and enjoy some light refreshments and talk about digital literary studies.
You are invited to the English Department’s holiday party! We will be celebrating our student award winners and the approach of the winter holidays on Friday, December 6, from 12:00-3:00 p.m. in JR 319. Award presentations will begin at 1:00 p.m. The Department will provide sandwich wraps, chips, fruit, and drinks, but the real magic happens with you. A sign-up sheet is posted in the mailroom.
The Department of English now has an Instagram! Our handle is @csunenglishdepartment (https://www.instagram.com/csunenglishdepartment/).
The last Composition Student Showcases for this semester, featuring the excellent writing of students from English 113A, 114A, and 115, will be held in the Whitsett room on Friday, December 6, 2019, from 8:00 a.m to 11 a.m. This event is an opportunity for faculty and students to share the wonderful work produced by students in writing courses! Each participating class will have a space in the Whitsett room to display their work. CSUN Campus Writing Centers, Tutoring Centers, Writing Labs, and Supplemental Instruction (and S.I.), and tutors are also invited to share their excellent student support services! All composition instructors, students, writing support centers, departments, programs are welcome.
2. Reminders
Don’t forget to contribute to the Department’s Amenities fund. Among other things, the money we contribute helps pay for the cost of the holiday party; provides holiday gifts for members of our staff; allows us to express our sympathy to anyone in the department who suffers a loss; and lets us congratulate new parents. Suggested donations: $40 for Assistant Professors, $50 for Associate Professors, and $70 for Full Professors. Thank you!
The English Department Composition Program Orientation will be held on Thursday, January 16, 2020, from 12:00-4:00 p.m. In addition to being able to chat with one another, the orientation will feature Professor Cezar Ornatowski, from San Diego State University, who will give a compelling talk titled “Weaponized Rhetoric: Writing, Social Media and the Rhetorical Situation as We (and Our Students) Now Control It”; and Trista Payte, LRC Director, who will share useful data about how students have been performing in the Stretch curriculum.
JR 319 is open to Graduate and Honor’s students for study during the following times for the remainder of the Fall 2019 semester:
Mondays: 8:30-10:30am, 12:30-4:45pm
Tuesdays: 8:30am-3:30pm
Wednesdays: 8:30-10:30am, 12:30-3:30pm
Thursdays: 8:30am-3:30pm
English Graduate/Honors students need to check in with the Main Office (ST-706/708) for access to JR 319. The room also needs to be left as found before leaving and locking the door.
3. Opportunities
Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty
NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes for Higher Education Faculty provide higher education faculty across the nation the opportunity to broaden and deepen their engagement with the humanities. The one- to four-week professional development programs allow participants (NEH Summer Scholars) to explore recent developments in scholarship, teaching, and/or curriculum through study of a variety of humanities topics.
The CSUNposium is now accepting applications. The CSUNposium student conference, also known as the 24th Annual Student Research and Creative Works Symposium, features oral and poster presentations to showcase excellence in scholarly research and creative activity conducted by CSUN students across all academic disciplines. The CSUNposium will be held Friday, March 27, 2020. Applications are submitted online and require a 1,000-character abstract (approximately 150 words) and electronic faculty approval. The application deadline is Wednesday, January 29, 2020 by 5:00 p.m.
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2020 Jerome Richfield Memorial Fellow. The Office Research and Sponsored Programs is looking for scholars who are accomplished members of our faculty and of their discipline who are conducting research that is of broad interest to the public. With support from the Jerome Richfield Memorial Fund, each year, a CSUN faculty member engaged in high quality, high-impact research is named as the Richfield Memorial Fellow. The Fellow presents a lecture at the Provost’s Colloquium Series, which is designed to highlight and celebrate the scholarly achievements of our faculty, and to provide an opportunity for socialization among faculty, administrators, students, and staff. Any CSUN faculty, student, staff member, or administrator may nominate CSUN faculty members at any rank. If applicable, an individual may be nominated multiple times for separate, unrelated research topics. Self-nominations will also be accepted. Nominees may include at most two letters of support. Deadline: 5:00 p.m,. Monday, December 9, 2019. For more information, contact Sheree M. Schrager, Managing Director/Acting AIC, Research and Sponsored Programs, at sheree.schrager@csun.edu.
4. Achievements
Scott Andrews presented “Pop Art Aesthetics and Contemporary American Indian Art” to the Critical Theory Club at Pasadena City College on November 13, 2019. The club’s faculty advisor is CSUN graduate Shane Underwood, currently an Associate Professor at PCC.
Beth Wightman was an invited participant in the “Irish Modernisms” roundtable at the Modernist Studies Association Annual Conference in Toronto in October. Earlier this year, she was elected to the Reacting to the Past Consortium Board, which oversees Reacting to the Past pedagogical development activities nationally and worldwide.
Congratulations to Professors Andrews and Wightman!