Volume 104 Number 27
ˇ ´ VESTNIK S P J S T Benevolence
A Tale of Two Texases: Travis Franks, Australian Fulbright
H E R A L D
★ Humanity
ISSN —07458800
★ Brotherhood
July 6, 2016
Lodge 177, Academy Gives $13,155 to Local Volunteer Fire Departments
From accents on english Newsletter of the Department of English at Arizona State University Spring-Summer 2016 Volume 19, Issue 2 By Larry Ellis
Beginning in February 2017, Arizona State University Department of English PhD candidate T r a v i s Franks will spend 11 months in Queensland, Australia, funded by a Fulbright U.S. Student Aw a r d , Travis Franks s t u d y i n g of Lodge 29, Taylor country literature and music. Franks will conduct research for his dissertation, tentatively titled “Rethinking Settler Nativism: Settler Colonial Origins of Anti-Immigrant Nativism.” He describes his project as “a comparative analysis” of U.S. and Australian literary representations that focuses on not only traditional genres of prose, poetry, and historiography, but on music and oral tradition as well. “This work,” he writes, is the first of its kind to link anti-immigrant nativism to the elimination of native populations
Lodge 177, Academy presented checks last week to five area volunteer fire departments at the SPJST Home Office in Temple. Pictured are, left to right, Justin Jackson of Troy VFD, David Borders and Gary Wilder, in back, of Little River VFD, Lodge 177 Treasurer Josie Mitchell and Lodge 177 President Otis Beck, Aline Junek of Buckholts VFD, Ernest Stroud of Rogers VFD, James Junek of Buckholts VFD, Ritz Mize of Moffat VFD, and SPJST President Brian Vanicek. Lodge 177’s hometown fire department received $5,155, and the neighboring departments received checks for $2,000 each. Hats off to Lodge 177 for its generosity and supporting the local communities.
through the concept of settler nativism, a term that has previously only been used to understand how settler populations appropriate native symbols and customs in an attempt to see themselves as an indigenous population. Franks’ Australian research will begin with archival study at the University of Queensland/Brisbane, where he will intern with AustLit, recognized as “the premier digital archive of Australian literature.” The archive will give Franks access not only to Anglo print literature but to the catalogued oral traditions of the continent’s aboriginal peoples. During his internship, Franks
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Interest Rates ......................................2 Important Dates ...................................3 Readers Write ......................................3 Lodge Section......................................6 In Memoriam ......................................17 Youth Section ....................................19
plans to volunteer as a tutor for the Aboriginal Literacy Foundation. Next, he will travel to the small town of Texas (yes, you read that right), three and a half hours southwest of Brisbane. Apart from the irony that Franks is a native Texan, he hopes to draw comparisons between the settler experience in Texas, Queensland, to that in Texas, U.S.A. “Here,” he writes, “I will explore how the axiom “The Spirit of Texas” came to be meaningful in both places and how that meaning results from similar origin stories.” Serving as an unpaid volunteer to a local historian
Inside This Week’s Vestnik
Vestnik Project...................................20 Youth Clubs’ Quarterly Report .........24 Youth Merit Points Report ................25 Czech Culture ....................................27 Advertisements .................................29 Lodge Calendar .................................30
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Congrats, West High School Baseball and Softball Teams!
will aid him in researching these stories, as will an especially interesting phase of his project: attending and performing at the Texas Country Music Roundup, held every September in Texas, Queensland. Franks, a self-described “third-generation musician,” sees the Roundup as a crucial phase of his project:
The interviews and observations I am able to conduct at the Roundup will factor directly into one of my dissertation chapters. More importantly, I’ll
Continued on Page 18.
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Lodge 160 San Angelo joins hands with Wall Middle School
District Seven teens attend LIT Retreat
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