The Quill
SPRING 12
English Department Newsletter
S a n ta C l a r a U n i v e r s i t y Recent Graduate Joins Department In 2005-2007 the English department was fortunate in having one of the first postdoctoral fellows in the College assigned to us: Professor Aaron Oforlea, who had just completed his doctorate and had competed for a two-year stint here at SCU with a reduced teaching load and mentoring from colleagues in the department in preparation for his application for a tenure-track job elsewhere. His time here was successful, and he was hired full-time at Washington State University. We are delighted to say that the dean has offered a two-year postdoctoral fellowship to “one of our own”: Christine (Christy) Lupo Montgomery (SCU 2002, English major, ethnic studies minor, cum laude), and she has accepted the offer. Christy has just completed her doctorate at UC Santa Cruz, with a dissertation entitled “Conjuring Freedom: Reconstructions and Re-visions of the Neo-Slave Genre.” In her first of two years here, Christy will teach one section of (Continued back page)
Santa Clara Seniors in New Orleans!
Three seniors represented Santa Clara at the Sigma Tau Delta international convention February 29-March 3 in New Orleans: Joseph Forte presented his paper “Edgar Allen Poe: Feminist Hero or Sexist Humbert?”; Tanya Schmidt read “Hero’s Resistance Against Patriarchal Oppression in Much Ado About Nothing”; and R. Jon Teel read his short story “The Smell of Ending Silence.” All the pieces were excellent, and each of the students read beautifully and fielded questions from the audience masterfully. In addition, the three students and co-moderator Michael Lasley presented brief overviews of the kind of community service projects they had been involved with, and they then led a discussion for the roundtable “Service Learning Reawakens Our Sense of Ourselves” – at 8 am on Saturday morning! Both the panelists and those who attended discussed the way they connected to others and learned more about themselves in the process. Co-sponsors Simone Billings and Michael Lasley accompanied the students, and they made sure the students could see parts of New Orleans besides the
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convention hotel: Café du Monde and the Mississippi come to mind. All in all, the students and co-sponsors of Sigma Tau Delta enjoyed representing Santa Clara University’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta and being able to meet representatives from the other chapters – including some from The American University of Kuwait! – all of whom love language and literature just as all of us English majors do.
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Table of Contents Cover Story...................................................1 Creative Writing Updates..............................2 Other News about Sigma Tau Delta..............2 Letter from the Chair.....................................3 Hannah’s First Story......................................3 California Legacy Updates............................4 Canterbury Fellowship Notes........................4 Professional Career Development.................5 Writing Award Winners and Honorees..........5 Student and Alumni Achievements...............6 Faculty Achievements...................................7
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Creative Writing Updates by Ron Hansen
We began the year with a fall poetry reading by former President and now Chancellor, Fr. William Rewak, SJ, and by faculty members Claudia Mon Pere McIsaac and Kirk Glaser — who was recently promoted to Senior Lecturer. With the Ignatian Center, we co-hosted a January lecture and reading of creative non-fiction by Paula Huston, author of The Holy Way, Forgiveness, and Simplifying the Soul. At the Santa Clara Review publication party in February, Associate Professor Juan Velasco read, in English and Spanish, poems from his new collection Massacre of the Dreamers and was joined by UCLA’s María Amparo Escandón, author of Santitos, González and Daughter Trucking Co., and Esperanza’s Box of Saints. María also introduced and discussed her funny, magical
realist film adaptation of Santitos. Eric Goodman was our guest reader in April as he premiered his novel Twelfth and Race and presented his Capitol News television episode to Ron Hansen’s screenwriting class. May was highlighted by a visit from poet, essayist, translator, librettist, and former National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, author of the collection Interrogations at Noon, winner of the American Book Award, and Can Poetry Matter?, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dana was the guest of honor at the Santa Clara Review’s publication party, where he read selections from his new poetry collection, Pity the Beautiful, and that evening he gave a seminal talk on “The Catholic Writer Today” for the Ignatian Center. At the May Honors and Awards Ceremony, Claudia and Kirk presented the Academy of American Poets “Tamara Verga”
Other News About Sigma Tau Delta: (Continued from page 1)
Right before the fall term, Ainsley Kelly learned she had been awarded the best in poetry category prize for her poem “Firestorm,” one she had submitted to the Sigma Tau Delta Literary Journal. She received a good-sized monetary prize as well as recognition in both the society’s newsletter and the journal itself. Also in the fall, R. Jon Teel presented two of his pieces – that is, his submissions were selected for presentation at – Pilgrimage West, the Far Western Regional Conference at Chapman University in Southern California. So off he went in October to read “Unleashed” (creative fiction) and “Hrunting and Naegling” (an analytical essay). He reported, “It [the oneday conference] was fantastically orchestrated, with three panels-sessions throughout the day, lunch-time discussion groups, and absolutely wonderful students and faculty.” Jon loved the kind of people who attend these conferences: “There were a number of good, probing questions on my Beowulf piece that turned into a good dialogue even after the
prize to senior Ainsley Kelly. Victoria Isabel Yap and Sabrina Barreto were awarded Honorable Mentions, and Sabrina won the Shipsey Poetry Prize, a first for a freshman. Winner of the McCann Short Story Contest was first-year transfer Kelly McMeekin. Lecturer and poet Rebekah Bloyd represents Creative Writing on the new Arts Advocacy Board, joining faculty and students in drama, dance, studio art, and music in heightening awareness of the arts though joint presentations. The Santa Clara Review staff, along with faculty advisor Kirk Glaser, instructed and judged over 30 elementary and middle school students in a Poetry Out Loud performance as part of a home school program at Our Lady of Peace Church. Editor-inChief Taara Khalilnaji and four other members of the Santa Clara Review staff attended the Associated Writing Program
Conference in Chicago in March and distributed hundreds of copies of the magazine to writers and editors. E-book versions of the Review may be downloaded at www.santaclarareview.com. Kirk is also co-editor of the annual New California Writing, published by Heyday Books. The 2012-2013 school year will feature a fall fiction reading by Bo Caldwell (The Distant Land of My Father, City of Tranquil Light) and Ron Hansen, whose collection She Loves Me Not will be published in November. We’ll again have invited guest readers at both Review publication parties. Poets Tim Myers, Claudia McIsaac, and Kirk Glaser are introducing a new undergraduate competition in the performance of poetry, and Diane Dreher, Cynthia Mahamdi, and Michael Malone are creating a panel on the hopes and hazards in this new era of publishing.
panel was over (I love finding Beowulf fanatics like myself!).” He noted, “Overall, the whole day was a whirlwind of fantastic writing and discussion.” New members have been inducted into the chapter as usual this year, and we’re looking forward to another stellar year in AY 2012-13. – Simone Billings and Michael Lasley
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Chair’s Corner
Faculty Spotlight
Simone Billings and I began our three-year term as co-chairs of the department this year, and it’s been a busy one. Every so often, each of the academic departments at the University undergoes a programmatic review of its goals and processes, and we’ve done that this year under the energetic organization of Juliana Chang and Don Riccomini. In various committees, faculty assessed the effectiveness of what we do, whether teaching writing courses or literature; reviewed past assessments and current courses; analyzed our faculty profile, including who have entered administrative positions and who have engaged professionally beyond our John Hawley campus; and analyzed our student and alumni profiles—what they do while undergraduates and what they do post-graduation from Santa Clara. In Fall 2012, we’re looking forward to visits by two professors, one from Princeton and the other from the University of Kentucky, who will read our reports, speak with us about our findings and our own suggestions for self-improvement, and offer their observations on our program. At the end of this process, we hope to be approved to hire new faculty, some in familiar areas like British literature and others in emerging areas of importance, perhaps digital humanities. We hope also to revamp the requirements for the English major – more on these potential changes next year!
Professor Tim Myers, who was recently appointed as a Lecturer, has won the 2012 Magazine Merit Award for Fiction from the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators. His award-winning story, “Hannah’s First Story,” appeared in Spider Magazine in March 2011. Tim has established himself as something of a guru of children’s literature, having published 11 books between 1993 and 2009. Among his most notable books are Basho and the Fox (2000) and its sequel, Basho and the River Stones (2004). The former was read aloud by Daniel Pinkwater on NPR’s Weekend Edition, was listed on the New York Times Bestseller List for Children’s Books and listed as a Notable Book for Children by Smithsonian Magazine. He has written 185 stories, poems, and essays, and made 45 presentations on writing. At Santa Clara he has spent most of his time in the Liberal Studies department and in Counseling Psychology, but we’re happy that he has now joined English full-time.
This year the department hosted a major joint conference of two organizations dealing with ethnic literatures in the United States, and the literatures in nations that had been colonized by European powers. Besides the four keynote addresses (one of them by the University’s award-winning novelist, Francisco Jimenez) there were 280 papers presented, and participants from throughout the United States, India, China, Korea, Europe, Australia, and Brazil. We held it at the Fairmont Hotel, and Professor Aparajita Nanda is currently editing a book developed from some of the talks. Many of you know Jessica Norred, the department’s capable senior administrative assistant who runs the office and who has helped a good number of you when it came time to finalize your graduation requirements. This year we have had the good luck to hire Jefferson Dela Cruz. Jefferson brings special skills in graphic design, and is the one principally responsible for a fresher look to our website, the introduction of facebook and twitter and other social media to our modes of communication with you, and the lively ongoing series of testimonials from some of you detailing the role your English major has ended up playing in your life. This summer brings a much-needed break from what has been an unusually demanding year. Next year we have other challenges that will keep us on our toes—several searches for new faculty, the hosting of a visiting scholar from China, and, of course, a whole new batch of English majors and minors.
A year of assessment and planning. www.scu.edu/english
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California Legacy Update by Pooja Thapar, California Legacy Intern
As the year draws to a close, we would like to recap our accomplishments and share our latest news and features with you. This year we have published a new book that reflects the unique botanical beauty that the California landscape has to offer. Califlora: A literary Field Guide edited by Terry Beers is a compilation of botanical poetry and prose, delving into the beauty and intrigue of California’s diverse landscape. Written by a range of individuals, from fiction writers and poets to naturalists and foresters, this work is an astonishing exploration of the relationship between plant and
human. The pieces will enchant you with their colorful descriptions and eloquent detail, capturing you into the mystical California landscape.
biographies and video clips from scholars and prominent writers who shared their perspectives on California landscape writing for the production.
During the fall and winter quarter, we broadcast our new radio series, Nature Dreaming, working closely with KAZU 90.3 and other public radio stations in California.
We have also worked to expand our website by adding new features to celebrate California’s unique literary history.
Nature Dreaming celebrates the relationship between the individual and nature and the connection to a landscape that surrounds and sustains us. The production features award-winning writer and farmer David Mas Masumoto, who brings his unique perspective on land and landscapes. Our website features the two-part radio production (californialegacy.org/radio_ productions/Nature_Dreaming/ index.html) and includes in-depth
Canterbury Fellowship Notes by Jeff Zorn
As chair of the Canterbury Committee this year, I have learned the full meaning of Canterbury “fellowship.” On the material plane, our honorees for 2012 and 2013 come away with the ample benefits associated with scholarships and fellowships: the travel funds, books, and course units needed to probe deeply into matters regularly raced past in quartersystem allegro. Even more significant, Canterbury Fellows gain the close associations with faculty mentors that define “fellowship” in the personal, spiritual sense: the meeting of mind to mind, the sharing of knowledge and passion. Thus Ainsley Kelly has worked with Professors Glaser and McIsaac this year, Tanya Schmidt with Professors Dreher and Dunbar. Next year Hallie McKnight will be mentored by Professor Myers on her flash fiction for young adults project, while Joanne Santomauro will work with Professors Gould and Zorn on ability grouping in secondary-level English education. The processes and products of the Canterbury program are diverse, the overall value unitary: the chance for excellence in undergraduate humanistic studies.
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Our newly-added “What Do I Read Next” feature on our website sheds the spotlight on significant and rich works from California’s expansive literary history. We will be updating this frequently with new literary gems for you to enjoy. We have also been working to include video interviews and a series of annotated bibliographies in this section, calling upon prominent humanities scholars to expand upon the diverse literary
and natural landscape that California offers.
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All in all, the California Legacy Project has had a wonderful year so far. We’ve published another book, added more features to our ever-growing website and expanded our information onto Facebook and twitter. We are proud of the progress that California Legacy Project has seen over the last year and look forward to what is in store for it in the future. Check out California Legacy on Twitter, YouTube and Facebook! Follow us at CA_Legacy, subscribe to our video posts at http://youtube.com/ californialegacy and visit our facebook page for exciting daily updates, pictures, featured books and more!
Fewer than five juniors responded to our call to apply for a Canterbury Fellowship this year. Let’s network and communicate and advertise and market even more assiduously and purposefully this year to garner many more 2013 applications.
Program Review 2012 by Don Riccomini and Julie Change
This year, the English Department undertook a comprehensive review of its academic program, looking at ways to improve our curriculum, teaching, scholarship, and overall structure. This was quite an extensive undertaking, given the large size of the department, but thanks to the hard work and support of our faculty and staff, we were able to complete a Self-Study Report in April 2012. We look forward to the next phase of program review, which involves a review by faculty and administrators visiting from other universities in October 2012. After receiving their report, we will update our plans to further develop the English Department’s faculty and course offerings. We would like to thank everyone in the department for their work and their ideas in helping us envision and plan the future of the English Department.
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Professional Career Development by Mike Malone with contributions by Stephen Carroll and Simone Billings
Even as the traditional media forms have begun to fade, the rise of the blogosphere, social networking and other alternative digital media have presented new opportunities for SCU English majors pursuing a professional writing career. Indeed, these new platforms offer the potential, realistically for the first time, for these young writers to embark on those careers while still undergraduates. Add to this Santa Clara U’s unique location at the very heart of Silicon Valley, the heartland of many of these new media, and the pieces are in place for any enterprising SCU English undergraduate to make his or her mark early in the writing business. Given the current economic conditions, this can be a crucial leg-up in starting a career. SCU’s English Department is blessed with a number of faculty members who have written critically acclaimed novels and non-fiction books, feature films and television documentaries, and authored numerous articles for academic journals and literary magazines, by-lined stories, columns and editorials for publications ranging from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to Wired and Chronicle of Higher Education Brainstorm to Redbook; from Early American Literature to Studies in American Indian Literatures to Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education to Rhetoric Review to The Upstart Crow. As a result, SCU creative and professional writing students enjoy the support of veteran teacher-editors who can help them navigate the challenges of developing story ideas, pitching, reporting and writing and editing – as well as the crucial career skills of pricing, billing and invoicing, and business management. A dedicated SCU writing student can expect to not only place or sell one or more pieces in the commercial world of newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites, but with enough commitment, to have a strong professional-level portfolio of published writing completed by graduation. Recent SCU writing students have placed numerous articles in all of the university’s in-house publications, including The Santa Clara, Santa Clara Review and Santa Clara Alumni Magazine. They have also been published locally in paying assignments for Metro Weekly, Palo Alto Weekly, and others. Some have been published in national web portals, including Instapundit and Ricochet, before millions of readers. In a sample case, a senior English major, whose parents worked in Saudi Arabia, was going home for Christmas. She used the opportunity to pitch a story to the national web news/opinion portal, Ricochet, about daily life in the Kingdom under the threat of regional war. The resulting story, posted from half-way around the world, earned banner treatment on the website, more than a score of lively commenters, and an invitation to contribute to the site anytime in the future. Another enterprising SCU English major found herself clambering up a fifteen foot wall to interview a solitary Occupy San Jose protester. Still another met with the surviving alumni of a legendary Broncos baseball team the 1940s. And another, for a feature story, tracked down the pre-dawn collectors secretly gathering the recycled bottles and cans from University frat parties. Armed with these clippings and links, these students have landed internships or summer/part-time jobs at MTV Networks, Weber Shandwick Public Relations, Catholic News Service, New Ways of Working Network, MLS Listings Inc, National Geographic, National Public Radio (NPR), NBC, Sunset Magazine, Applied Materials, Kaplan, and the Humane Society. And thanks to evening seminars, personal blogs and social networking on sites such as Linked-In, these students have begun to develop professional networks not just with their SCU professors and peers, but with younger undergraduates following in their path.
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Writing Award Winners and Honorees from 2011-2012 Richard Jon Teel Winner of the Katherine Woodall Prize for her essay: “Negro Dialect in Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson” Julianne Parayo Winner of the Christiaan Lievestro Prize for her essay “Elective Sisterhoods: Female Relationships in Leonora Sansay’s Secret History” Sabrina Barreto Winner of the Shipsey Poetry Prize for her poem: “Mehndi in Monsoon Season” Kelly McMeekin Winner of the McCann Short Story Contest for his short story: “Pockets Full of Posies” Ainsley Kelly Winner of the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Prize for her poems: “Three Tries For Fall,” “After Drought,” and “Sierra Storms and Seamonsters” Victoria Isabel Yap Honorable Mention of the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Prize for her poems: “Tarantella,” “Suicide Bugs,” and “Wandering The Ark” Sabrina Barreto Honorable Mention of the Academy of American Poets Tamara Verga Prize for her poems: “Sparks,” “Walking To Class,” and “Elysium” Tanya Schmidt Canterbury Scholar 2011-2012. Shakespeare and Women’s Agency: Gender Justice in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale Contrasted to the Pygmalion Story in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Ainsley Kelly Canterbury Scholar 2011-2012. Wildfire: A Poetry Manuscript Taara Khalilnaji (2011-2012) Stephen Layton (2012-2013) Editor of the Santa Clara Review Pooja Thapar California Legacy Intern 2011-2012
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Student and Alumni Achievements
All three seniors – Richard Jon Teel, Joseph Forte, and Tanya Schmidt – received funding to deliver their papers at the Sigma Tau Delta conference in New Orleans: they applied for and received a grant from the Undergraduate Travel Support division of the Office of the Provost. Tanya Schmidt ’12 received the St. Clare medal. The St. Clare medal represents outstanding in academic performance, personal character, school activities, and constructive contribution to the University. Brendan Riley ’88 has published a review of Mexican novelist Alvaro Enrigue’s Decencia in The Review of Contemporary Fiction. Evangeline White ’03 is now Professor of Nursing at Gurnick Academy of Medical Arts. Hilary Titus ’12 published an article, “Friending in El Salvador and Tanzania: An Education in Solidarity,” in Explore, the magazine of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education.
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Aaron Michael Ritchey ’93 has recently published a book titled, The Never Prayer. For more info http://aaronmritchey.com/ Christina Fialho ’06 received a grant to make the world a better place. Christina and her colleague, Christina Mansfield, recently found out that they are 2012 Echoing Green Fellows for Social Change. Echoing Green provides more than $2 million in seed support to a diverse group of Social Entrepreneurs from around the world every year. For the 2012 fellowship, Echoing Green received 3,509 applications. The project is called, Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), with the support of Echoing Green for the first two years. More information on CIVIC http://endisolation.org. Stephanie Wilson ’11 is working as the Education Coordinator for Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, a non-profit that manages the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens in downtown San Jose. She writes: “I love my coworkers and my job! I can’t think of a better place for me right now. I feel like
I’m really bringing positive change to San Jose and helping to preserve a bit of this area’s rich natural and cultural history. I also have a lot of freedom to pursue my own projects and develop new programs. I’m actually working with my friend Ainsley Kelly from SCU to put on a poetry night that focuses on the urban forest. We like to call our park “the best kept secret in San Jose.” It runs right through downtown, and the effects of urbanization are hard to miss-from the flood control measures that turn parts of the river into concrete canals, to the large population of homeless persons that call the Guadalupe home. But the park also exhibits great natural beauty! There is abundant bird life in the park (I see Great Herons and Red-tailed Hawks almost every day), and about a month ago, we spotted five huge Chinook salmon spawning in the river!” Zena Andreani ’12 was a recipient for the Hackworth Grants for Research in Applied Ethics awarded in December to faculty and students by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. She is a double major, English and Religious Studies. $400 to support work on a Religious Studies seminar paper called “Restorative Justice and Resolution: The Urgent Alternatives to Shame and Punishment in the United States.” Ms. Andreani will study Bay Area groups promoting approaches to criminal justice that emphasize practices like truth-telling and reconciliation. She will work on her paper with Professor Diane Gibson in a class called “Human Suffering and Hope.”
Monique M. DeJong ’06, not only works as the Corporate communications Specialist at Sanmina-SCI but has been hired as a board member of the African Library Project, in charge of coming up with a communications strategy among her other duties. http://www.africanlibraryproject.org/ Katie Girlich ’16 has already written and published her first book. San Francisco Zoo, Katie’s book celebrates the unique eighty-year history of one of the city’s greatest treasures. Katie began volunteering at the zoo at age 12. As an animal lover she enjoyed working with porcupines and pythons, but there was something else at the zoo that intrigued her. “Time whizzed past so quickly, and before I knew it I had my hands on my first copy!” At the zoo’s 80th anniversary celebration in June 2009, the then 16-year-old Katie signed copies of her book that immortalized beloved animals like Monarch the grizzly bear, featured favorite structures like Monkey Island, and highlighted important figures like philanthropist Herbert Fleishhacker. “Sharing the zoo’s history was like opening a gateway into another time.” Katie learned touching stories from many Bay Area residents who expressed their delight after reliving fond memories of days gone by and recognizing family members featured in the book.This experience was an incredible opportunity for Katie to fan her passions, follow her dreams, and contribute to her community. “A story is not going to mind if you’re sixteen or if you’re sixty. It just wants to be told.”
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Simone Billings and Denise Krane both presented papers at the Young Rhetoricians Conference June 21-23. Cynthia Mahamdi was there as well with the following: “Using Creative Writing to Teach Research and Argumentation in Freshman Composition”. The theme of the conference was Choices, Challenges, Changes. Accordingly, at this conference, Simone Billings presented a paper called “Demons of the Classroom: Using Visuals as Writing Prompts”; Denise Krane presented her paper, “Changing Perspectives: Using Psychological Theories to Find the Writer in Each Student.”
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Olin Bjork was one of twenty faculty presenters at SCU’s instructional technology demo day, where he showcased virtual cosmographies and audio podcasts created by students in his CTW2 and English 138 classes, respectively. Rebekah Bloyd appeared in the Spring issue of Writing from the Inside Out, a publication of the Institute for Writing and Thinking at Bard College for her poem “In His Time,” a variation on a sestina. Marc Bousquet continues to write a blog for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Michelle Burnham will be associate editor of a major journal, Studies in EighteenthCentury Culture, from 2012-13, and then editor from 2013-15. Phyllis Brown has been promoted to Full Professor. Stephen Carroll has been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Alan Clinton had his poem “After Reading Marx” published in the Spring-Summer issue of Struggle: A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature. Juliana Chang served as an external reviewer for the University of San Diego Ethnic Studies Department in April 2012. Information about her forthcoming book Inhuman Citizenship is now online at: http:// www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/ books/inhuman-citizenship
Melissa Donegan delivered a lecture titled “Room to Write: Domestic Violence and Spatial Control in Sarah Grand’s The Beth Book” at Buffalo State College in New York on February 16, 2012. Diane Dreher has begun writing a blog for Psychology Today. Judith Dunbar received the Teaching Excellence award for 2012 from Phi Beta Kappa Northern California Association. Marilyn Edelstein presented a paper on “Imagining Cross-Racial and Cross-Cultural Empathy in Short Fiction by Jhumpa Lahiri and Sandra Cisneros” and moderated a session on “Religion and Ethnicity.” Eileen Elrod had her article posted on Project Muse, “Gender, Genre and Slavery: The Other Rowson, Rowson’s Others” in the new issue of Studies in American Fiction. Andy Garavel gave a paper, “’The Alldemanding Eyes:’ An Augustinian Reading of ‘Parker’s Back,’” at a conference called “Revelation and Convergence: Flannery O’Connor Among the Philosophers and Theologians” at Loyola University in Chicago. Kirk Glaser has been promoted to Senior Lecturer. Kirk has also just published three poems,”Summer Night, Insomnia,” “Mercury,” and “Dark Matter in Yoga,” appearing in the just-released Mad Hatters’ Review Issue 13, readable at: http://www. madhattersreview.com/issue13/poetry_ glaser.shtml Jill Gould and Gail Gradowski, “Using Online Video Testimony in University Courses across the Disciplines.” Accepted for the 17th Annual International Oral History Association Conference – The Challenges of Oral History in the 21st Century: Diversity, Inequality and Identity Construction. (Buenos Aires, 4-7 September 2012). Ron Hansen has been nominated for his novel A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion from the Northern California Book Award in Fiction as one of the best works by a northern California author published in 2011. John Hawley “Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow and the Edifice Complex,” has just been
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published in Cross/Cultures: Readings in the Post/Colonial Literatures in English, vol. 145. John also presented a paper, “Vain Art of the Fugue: The Postcolonial Romance of the Eastern European Nation,” at the conference, Making Sense of Catastrophe: Postcolonial Approaches to Postsocialist Experiences” at King’s College, Cambridge University, 24-25 January. Claudia McIsaac had two poems, “Carving” and “Aspen, 1998,” appear in the Cal Legacy book Califlora: A Literary Field Guide, edited by Terry Beers. Sharon Merritt completed and earned her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s School of Education in December 2011. Aparajita Nanda, recently appointed Lecturer, collaborated with the Digital Palimpsest Mapping Projects at Stanford University. Her book, Black California, has been nominated for the Bronco’s read. Her article, “Writing the Self in ‘Heterotopic’ Spaces: Reading Woman at Point Zero” has been published in From the Cradle to the Grave: Life Course Models in Literary Genres, ed. Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Sarah Herbe, Heidelberg: University Press of Heidelberg. Noel Radley was one of the recipients of the 2012 Computers and Writing/Graduate Research Network Travel Award. She is presenting at Computers & Writing 2012 about the social tagging of images: “Folksonomy as Gift: Motivations for Social Tagging.” Don Riccomini published two review essays in Technical Communications, and a critical essay in the Journal of Religion and Film. Avantika Rohatgi has edited an anthology, entitled Global Rights and Perceptions, dealing with human trafficking, female genital mutilation, organ trade, and female feticide. Juan Velasco presented the paper “The Topography of the Total Self: The Bilingual Trilogy of Francisco Jiménez” at the Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) and the United States Chapter of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (USACLALS), San Jose, California (April 19-22nd, 2012).
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critical thinking and writing, as well as a course in the Harlem Renaissance, and one in Black Women Writers. Meanwhile, she’ll be working on developing her dissertation into a book, beginning with an essay on the poet Arna Bontemps. Professors Michelle Burnham, Julie Chang, and Eileen Elrod will be Christy’s mentors here. We’re sure that Christy would be delighted if alumni from her graduating cohort were to stop by for a visit next year—and we’d be very happy to see you, as well.
@SCU – Sharing the latest
The English Department is on the move! We are now on Facebook, Twitter, Shelfari, and YouTube.
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