1. Announcements

Welcome back to another semester! We hope that you had restful break and a happy New Year. We look forward to another productive semester that serves our students and the broader academic, scholarly, and creative writing communities to which we belong. We encourage you to take time to send announcements and achievements for publication in Thursday’s Notes to adawahare@csun.edu.

The English department is moving more firmly into the twenty-first century with an Instagram account, @csunenglishdepartment. Please put the Instagram account on your syllabus.

The Search and Screen Committee for our Latinx Literature and Culture position and our African American Literature and Culture position will be bringing finalists to campus on January 28, 29, 30, February 3, 4, and 6. The three African American Literature and Culture candidates will be presenting job talks in ST 703 on the following dates: Tuesday, January 28, 2:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m.; Thursday, January 30, 10:00-11:15 a.m.; and Monday, February 3, 2:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m. The three Latinx Literature and Culture candidates will be presenting job talks in ST 703 on the following dates: Wednesday, January 29, 2:00-3:15 p.m.; Tuesday, Feb 4, 10:00-11:15 a.m.; and Thursday, February 6, 2:00-3:15 p.m. We encourage you to attend!

The inaugural edition of Articulate, an open-access and peer-reviewed graduate student journal published once a year in the Spring by AGSE, was published in November 2019. This issue of the journal features excerpts from the 2018-19 English Department thesis pilot students and is a must-read for exciting and innovative work in fields that register the varied interests of our department.

2. Reminders

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.

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.

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. TUC Learning-Centered Instructional Project Grant Application Deadline: Friday, March 2 at 4:00 p.m.

Would you like to join a small group of CSUN faculty to discuss new teaching ideas that will benefit your students and increase your enjoyment of teaching (with a stipend too)? Apply for a Faculty Development Learning-Centered Grant (formerly known as Beck Grants) and receive a year filled with fun, community, and coffee to take your teaching to the next level. Those who are awarded the TUC-FLC Grants will receive: $3,000 stipend & evidence-based learning-centered teaching practices. For more information and to apply, please visit the Faculty Development Grants page.

4. Achievements

Kimberley Young’s second full length collection of poems, Tigers, is forthcoming in PANK (a literary magazine fostering access to innovative poetry and prose, publishing the brightest and most promising writers for the most adventurous readers), in Fall 2020. Kim is also one of our M.A. program alums and lecturers.

Abraham Zapata Jr’s full length play, Borracho: Spanish for Drunken Bum, is coming to the The Actors Company in West Hollywood beginning January 31st until February 9th. The play, began as his M.A. thesis project directed by Rick Mitchell and also published in the AGSE’s Articulate, is a modern take on “The Boys in the Band” set in Los Angeles about a group of gay men of color celebrating a birthday.

Congratulations to both!