Announcements
Welcome to the fall 2022 semester, and welcome back for many of us to a much more in-person schedule! We hope you are receiving energy and enthusiasm from your students and colleagues alike, and we are looking forward of finding ways to continue to build community and collaboration. If you have ideas about programs or events you’d like to see happen, please contact Beth and Danielle to share.
We are also thrilled to welcome our new staff member, Vanessa Mendoza! Vanessa, we are so grateful to have you joining our community.
Reminders
Public Health/Safety
Please keep in mind that masks are required for instructional spaces (classrooms and labs) and the library. If you or your students need masks, you can get them from our department office or the nearest department/program office to your classroom.
Submitting syllabi and office hours
If you haven’t already, please do send your syllabi and office hours to Vanessa Mendoza.
Add/Drop Dates End on Sunday
Please note that adding/dropping classes without much additional paperwork ends on Sunday, so please remind your students if you haven’t already.
English Department Canvas Majors and Minors Page
Please encourage your students to join the English Department’s Canvas English Majors and Minors Page, in which they can self-enroll by following this link. Please also consider joining yourself to receive the updates and information that our students receive.
Confidentiality in the Classroom
Please remember to log out of your classroom computer before you leave your classroom. We have had reports from several faculty of computers being left on and open to Canvas pages or other details that might infringe on FERPA regulations for students, and it also delays the next faculty member from logging into their course materials as effectively. The quickest keystrokes to access the sign out menu is ctrl + alt + delete, but there are other methods as well.
Opportunity
Online Teaching Training/Professional Development
There are several opportunities for online teaching training/professional development available through CSUN and the CSU Chancellor’s Office. Faculty who wish to continue teaching in online formats will need to show proof of such professional development/competency, so consider signing up for a course that will best suit your goals as a teacher. You can find information about fall QLT trainings here and about future ACUE training here.
Achievements
The chair of ISLS, Ranita Chatterjee (English), is pleased to announce that the Department of Liberal Studies has been renamed The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies and Liberal Studies. Though housed in the College of Humanities, the department works closely with over twenty-five departments from most of the other colleges at CSUN and has two distinct undergraduate degrees and two minors: a multi-disciplinary B.A. in Liberal Studies with a state-accredited multiple subjects or education specialist credential; an interdisciplinary B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with an 18-unit specialization in two different fields of study; a multi- and inter-disciplinary Minor in Sustainability; and a Minor in Humanities Interdisciplinary Studies. The new department name includes all facets of the department’s diverse course offerings and faculty research: Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam (Philosophy of Science; Science Education), Mauro Carassai (Digital Humanities; American Studies), and Krystal Howard (Childhood Studies; Cultural Studies).
Charles Hatfield’s essay, “Gazing, Playing, Cartooning: Jim Woodring vis-à-vis Surrealism,” appears in the newly released catalog for the exhibition, “American Alternative Comics, 1980–2000: Raw, Weirdo, and Beyond,” now showing at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College. The catalog, edited by co-curators John McCoy and Andrei Molotiu, features ten essays and interviews and more than 150 plates. Charles’s essay has recently grown into a book project. Charles thanks Anthony Dawahare for his help in researching surrealism — thank you, Anthony!
Scott Kleinman’s co-authored article, “What Everyone Says: Public Perceptions of the Humanities in the Media,” was published in Dædalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as part of a special issue on The Humanities in American Life. The work is the culmination of his Mellon-funded WhatEvery1Says project, which used computational methods to understand patterns in how the humanities are mentioned in U.S. journalism and social media. Contributions to the project were made by over 20 CSUN students, particularly for their analysis of issues of diversity and the representation of the humanities on Twitter and Reddit. Many of these contributions are cited in the article’s footnotes.
Congratulations, all!