Newsworthy

The Newsworthy section of The English Channel, our weekly online newsletter, features an event or a faculty or student member of the English Department. We have selected 2003 - 2004 Newsworthy notes on faculty and students here for you to peruse.

Previous NewsworthY Features

March 24, 2004
Graduate Student Honored
Kelly Messerschmidt has been selected by the AU Graduate Council as one of Auburn University’s ten outstanding master’s students for 2003-2004. Kelly will graduate in May with a Master in Technical and Professional Communication. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from Auburn in 1998.

In addition to her responsibilities as a student and GTA, Kelly also publishes The English Channel. Each week she tracks down news for the Channel and writes the articles. She develops the Newsworthy section that features a faculty member, graduate student, or department event on the department’s homepage and in this section of the Channel.

Kelly, Caitlin, and Bill are moving to Birmingham this summer and she will begin teaching at Samford University this fall. She will teach University Core Communication Arts, a two-part series that incorporates oral communication, technical writing, and service learning.

Please congratulate Kelly when you see her. Her honor also honors the English Department.

March 17, 2004
Hargis Professor Constance Relihan
Hargis Professor of English Constance Relihan has taught English at Auburn University for 14 years and has served on the Graduate Studies Committee for 6 years. She specializes in 16th- and 17th-century prose fiction, Shakespeare, and early modern literature. Relihan was appointed Associate Hargis Professor in 2001 and appointed a full Hargis Professorship in 2003.

The Hargis Professorship was named for Estes H. Hargis, who earned an honorary Doctor of Science from Auburn in 1965. Hargis had established the professorship in 1964 to help "produce distinguished graduates in the field covered by the Professorship." In line with this goal, Hargis Professors receive a reduced classroom load to afford them more time to help graduate students in their research and more time to conduct research themselves. As Hargis Professor of English, Relihan works with PhD advisees and the ABD Colloquium in which she counsels and assists graduate students who are working on and finishing dissertations. Relihan also serves as the Coordinator of Great Books and as advisor to the English Graduate Organization.

Relihan, a former recipient of the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts Award for Teaching in the Humanities, edited the recently published text, Prose Fiction and Early Modern Sexualities in England, 1570-1640. She will teach English 7650, Early Modern

March 10, 2004
Creative/Research Forum
Today's Creative/Research Forum showcasing faculty research will take place at 3:00 pm in 3104 Haley Center. You will find brief synopses of the faculty presentations below.

Alicia Carroll: "Material Cultures: Dead and Alive"
At today's forum, I will reflect on lessons learned from working both in and out of my area of Victorian Studies. I will speak about intersections between my work on Victorian material culture and my work on contextualizing the upcoming Quilts of Gees Bend exhibit. Discussing both my recent research on the quilts and my new book in progress, Outdoors in the Novel: A Cultural History of the Green Space, I will explore Victorian and contemporary narratives of the aesthetic and resistances to and engagements of commodity culture in both contexts.

Jim Ryan: "Imaginary Friends: Representing Quakers in Early American Fiction”
As my title suggests, this project examines an aspect of the American religious and moral imagination, specifically, representations of Quakers in American fiction from the 18th century to the mid-20th century.

Writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rebecca Harding Davis, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Robert Montgomery Bird, Louisa May Alcott, Herman Melville, Bayard Taylor, and Theodore Dreiser are among the many writers who deployed Quakers as stock characters in their fiction. Sometimes, as in the case of the Indian-killing Quaker in Bird’s Nick of the Woods or the hard-bargaining Quakers of Melville’s Moby Dick, members of the Religious Society of Friends are criticized for their religious views. But far more frequently during this period, and in part due to their important work on behalf of progressive causes like abolitionism and women’s rights, Quakers are held up as exemplars of a profoundly admirable Christian practice. It is ironic, however, that while many American novelists admire and promote the moral world of the Quaker, they nevertheless stop well short of advocating Quakerism for themselves or their readers. For nearly 200 years, the Quaker religion and the Quaker moral life are presented as a pinnacle of American virtue, and yet—for complex reasons—it is a pinnacle never to be inhabited by “ordinary” persons.

In addition to setting out the main ideas of the essay that emerged from my study of Quakers in American fiction, I will discuss how the specific idea for this work grew out of recent experiences in teaching a 4000-level undergraduate course in the novel, as well as some of the new digital archives that I used during the research.

For those who would like to peruse a full-text digital version of my essay, published in December in Studies in American Fiction 44 (Fall 2003): pp. 191-220, it is now easily available through Infotrac (this is accessible from the AU library home page. Select “Find Articles and Databases,” search Infotrac for the name “James Emmett Ryan,” and the title will appear).

Michelle Sidler: "Interpreting the 'Book of Life': English Studies and the Genome"
My presentation will overview recent advancements in molecular biology, explaining the vital role English studies could play in this increasingly culturally-significant field. In particular, I will present epistemological and ontological parallels between the genome and language: DNA metaphors employing terms such as text, code, and book are pervasive in scientific discourse and in the popular media, compelling fields like linguistics, rhetoric, literature, and technical communication to join the conversation. My presentation will introduce our community to current research in both the biological sciences and the humanities, then briefly describe funding opportunities available to scholars interested in this topic.

Hilary Wyss: "Indigenous Literacies: Reading, Writing, and Education in Native Communities in Colonial New England"
I will talk briefly about the general direction my work has been taking, particularly my recent focus on Native American literacy practices in colonial New England. While Native New Englanders became adept practitioners of alphabetic writing remarkably early, they also maintained extensive indigenous literacy systems that coexisted with print culture.

 

 

March 3, 2004
Hargis Professor of American Literature Bert Hitchcock
Hargis Professor of American Literature Bert Hitchcock has taught English at Auburn University since 1971 and served as the head of the English Department from 1977 to 1990. He specializes in 19th-century American literature and Southern literature and his additional academic interests include nature writing, travel writing, and the short story. Hitchcock received the Hargis Professorship in 1999.

The Hargis Professorship was named for Estes H. Hargis, who earned his Doctor of Science from Auburn in 1965 and established the professorship in 1964 to help “produce distinguished graduates in the field covered by the Professorship.” In line with this goal, Hargis Professors receive a reduced classroom load to afford them more time to help graduate students in their research and more time to conduct research themselves. As Hargis Professor of American Literature, Hitchcock works with students whose dissertations deal with aspects of Southern literature. He is also working with a student with an undergraduate research fellowship who is conducting primary research with cultural documents from turn-of-the-twentieth-century Mississippi.

Hitchcock, recipient of the 2001 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Alabama’s Most Distinguished Literary Scholar, was recently one of 14 invited scholars from the US and Europe to give presentations at the “Reading Today’s Southern Writers” lecture series at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. He is currently teaching Southern Literature and Great Books I and has agreed to contribute to a series of essays taking a new look at Erskine Caldwell (best known for Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre). In the spring, Hitchcock will present a talk in Demopolis, Alabama on Lillian Hellman's works and will participate in a presentation in North Alabama on the history of Alabama women journalists.

February 18, 2004
The Auburn Circle
Auburn University's general interest magazine, The Auburn Circle, was started in 1969 to showcase the talents of Auburn students, staff, faculty, alumni, and other Auburn supporters. It accepts contributions in the categories of art, design, fiction, non-fiction, photography, and poetry. The goal of The Auburn Circle is to accurately represent the diverse talents and abilities of the Auburn community. Five thousand copies of the publication are distributed around the Auburn campus each fall and spring quarter.

The Auburn Circle staff consists of 17 members in disciplines such as English, journalism, graphic design, and photography. While the Circle staff does not choose a specific focus for each issue of the publication, the staff does come up with ideas for the magazine's feature articles. These feature articles, combined with textual and artistic submissions, help set the tone for The Auburn Circle and make each of its issues unique.

Submissions for the spring 2004 issue of The Auburn Circle are being accepted until Thursday, February 19. The spring issue will be distributed April 21-23. If you have questions about the publication or would like information on how to become part of the Auburn Circle staff, email the Circle staff or visit the Circle's website.

February 4, 2004
Creative/Research Forum
Today's Creative/Research Forum will feature English faculty members Chris Forhan, Keith Gibson, and Cedrick May. Their presentations, described below, will start at 2:00 pm in 3104 Haley Center.

Chris Forhan: The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars
Chris Forhan, who specializes in poetry, will be reading from his most recent book, The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars (Northeastern UP, 2003), plus selections from his more recent work. He also plans to talk about a change occurring in his work recently and the reasons for—and challenges of—writing in a more disjunctive, elliptical, and associative style than in his earlier work. The poetry that Forhan will read from in the forum will illustrate this stylistic shift, and he will discuss questions that this change of style has brought to his mind that are applicable to the work of most creative writers: How might a change of style lead to a change of subject? How can one distinguish between meaningful mystery and needless obscurity? What might a poem be able to say by keeping something unsaid—by employing noticeable gaps, lacunae?

Keith Gibson: Scientific Revolutions in the 21st Century
Keith Gibson's research traces the arguments that have shaped artificial intelligence research since 1950. Thomas Kuhn's work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, originally published in 1962, relied on the examination of paradigm shifts that were as many as 400 years old. Gibson's book-length project brings Kuhn's historical perspectives to bear on an ongoing scientific argument, one that has features that are strikingly different than those in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gibson examines elements such as the changing nature of the scientific community, the shifting roles of academic and entrepreneurial research, and the influence of governmental agendas. His work, though still in progress, is shaping up to lend support to many of Kuhn's general principles, while also suggesting some new data on the progress of scientific knowledge.

Cedrick May: "Enthusiasm" or Religious Emotionalism
Cedrick May's presentation is a study of "enthusiasm," or religious emotionalism, as a racial and class marker in 18th century British and British North American society. During the 17th and 18th centuries, British and American authorities viewed religious emotionalism as a potential threat to religion and government. Black evangelical writers like John Marrant, Prince Hall, Richard Allen, and David Walker, however, would clarify and redeem the role of "enthusiasm" in North American evangelism, particularly among African-descended peoples and poor whites. May will discuss their recognition of the social and political importance of emotionalism as a unifying feature of evangelical Christianity among the North

January 21, 2004
Summer Academy Participants to Showcase Their Computer Skills in Today's Teaching Forum
Today, Kathy McClelland and Joyce Rothschild will share the results of their Summer Academy projects from 3:00-4:30 pm in 1203 Haley Center. McClelland's presentation on teaching punctuation is titled, "Mouse-overs, Dreamweavers, and Me," and Rothschild's presentation will be "Using the WebCT Discussion Tool in ENGL 3040: Technical Writing."

McClelland's project was a complete redesign of the Comma website that she and Robin Sabino had created in the late 1990s with a Breeden Grant. McClelland wanted to simplify the punctuation pages on their website and take advantages of some new interactive abilities of the web that she and Sabino didn't have access to when first designing the pages. Using tools she learned about in the Summer Academy, McClelland redesigned the pages on the website. The final pages are much easier to use, simpler, and more streamlined than those of the original website. Her presentation today will be a brief comparison of the two websites and the official unveiling of the new pages. Visit the Comma website.

Rothschild's experience in last year's Summer Academy led her to produce a WebCT site for ENGL 3040: Technical Writing that she will discuss and demonstrate at today's Teaching Forum. Her main use of WebCT is to engage students in discussion of major technical writing artifacts (for instance, the NASA report on the explosion of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the FEMA report on the structural collapse of the World Trade Center towers, a Pew Commission study on the state of the world's oceans) that have social, historical, and political dimensions. Rothschild used the WebCT discussions feature successfully in two sections of technical writing this past fall and is using it again this spring.

January 14, 2004
Southern Humanities Review
For the past 37 years, the Southern Humanities Review has been the official organ of the Southern Humanities Council, publishing critical and personal essays, fiction, poetry, and book reviews. While it is geographically based in Auburn, Alabama, and a number of the submitted works have a Southern proclivity, the works published in the quarterly journal represent a wide variety of geographical areas and genres.

Among notable contributions are essays by Noam Chomsky, Sheryl St. Germain, and Christopher Norris – as well as stories by Kent Nelson and Greg Johnson – and poetry by R.T. Smith, Walt McDonald, Natasha Tretheway, Stephen Corey, and Stephen Dunn, recipient of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. St. Germain's essay for the Southern Humanities Review was recognized in the recent anthology Best American Essays. The journal also publishes translations, the most recent of which was Daphne Day's translation of a Pietro Citati essay on Goethe's Elective Affinities.

The staff of the Southern Humanities Review consists of editors Margaret Kouidis and Dan Latimer, production editor Karen Beckwith, copyeditor Mary Waters, and student editors Katherine McDonald (fiction) and Katherine Perry (poetry). These members of the English Department read, react to, and assess the thousands of submissions sent to the Southern Humanities Review throughout the year. The best essay, story, and poem of each volume receive a Hoepfner Award, the latest of which will be announced next month in the winter issue.

The brightly colored art that appears on each cover of the Southern Humanities Review is chosen by Dr. Kouidis and Dr. Latimer, and covers have been selected to represent the artwork of members of the Southern Humanities Conference and local Auburn artists. See the Southern Humanities Review website for examples of its cover art.

December 10, 2003

Upcoming Events for Spring Semester 2004
The 2004 spring semester begins on Monday, January 12, and classes begin on Tuesday, January 13. The new semester brings with it a number of events, including appearances by speakers for the English Symposium Series. Anthony Hecht, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Hard Hours in 1968 will read from his recent works on Thursday, March 4. On Thursday, April 15, the Symposium Series will welcome Robyn Wiegman, Director of Women's Studies at Duke University. In addition to Wiegman's visit, April 15 is also slated for the Undergraduate Awards Ceremony. The Graduate Student Reception will take place at Pebble Hill on Tuesday, May 4. Graduation is scheduled for Friday, May 14.

Check the English Department Calendar for dates and times for the faculty teaching and research forums and other meetings. Information about faculty golf, the MTPC field trip to the Currents conference, and English Club activities TBA.

December 3, 2003

Phi Kappa Phi Forum Editor, Pat Kaetz
Phi Kappa Phi Forum is the general interest magazine of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Editor Pat Kaetz, Associate Editor Stephanie Bond, and Graphic Designer Laura Kloberg make up the Phi Kappa Phi Forum staff. Each quarterly issue of the magazine centers on a different theme to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of its audience. Authors are invited to submit articles based on their expertise. Many renown figures have contributed articles, including Norman Cousins, Stanley Fish, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, and Myrlie Evers-Williams.

Kaetz joined Phi Kappa Phi Forum as the magazine's editor in 1993 after spending four years as a technical editor and document production manager for a major international engineering firm. An Auburn University alum, he earned his MA from the University of Alabama and his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to serving as the Editor for Phi Kappa Phi Forum, Dr. Kaetz teaches Business Writing, Great Books, and Technical Writing.

November 19, 2003
Graduating Senior English Major, Brooke Bullman McIntosh
During her time at AU, graduating senior Brooke Bullman McIntosh has actively pursued English and Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) both in the Department and in the workplace. McIntosh, who was last year’s Editor in Chief of The Auburn Circle, was honored with an Academic Award from the Society for Technical Communication in 2002. She has interned with the Department of Communications and Marketing in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and has had two summer contracts with NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

McIntosh spent her first three semesters at AU as an art major before changing her major to English/TPC. Her art background, combined with her proficiency in TPC, has allowed her to double as a graphic designer. She believes the skills she has learned in TPC are practical, versatile, and valuable to employers. McIntosh’s first post-graduation job will be as a writer and graphic designer for UDA Technologies, a software company in Auburn that creates and sells construction management software.

November 12, 2003
Dr. Robin Sabino, Her Work With the Center for Diversity & Race Relations, and the Second Annual War Eagle Native American Festival
Associate Professor Robin Sabino’s work with the Center for Diversity & Race Relations (CDRR) is extensive, as is the amount of enthusiasm people have expressed about the Center’s mission. Since the CDRR opened on January 14 of this year, Dr. Sabino has played a role in its accomplishments, which include a celebration for St. Patrick’s Day, two events for Scottish-American Heritage Month, and the Klezmer Concert. The CDRR is about to publicize events for Black History Month.

Dr. Sabino has found that her work at the Center ties into the quantitative sociolinguistic research she does. One such area of research involves the revitalization of languages to help prevent “language death.” Dr. Sabino is currently helping to revitalize the Cherokee language once spoken by the Echota Tsalagi tribe. Her work with the Cherokee language, coupled with this week’s event—the Second Annual War Eagle Native American Festival—is a prime example of the ties between her research and her work as Acting Assistant Director for the CDRR. Learn more about the Echota Tsalagi Language Revitalization Project.

The Second Annual War Eagle Native American Festival, a free event open to the public, will take place at the Gardens of The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art on:

Friday, November 14 (10:00 am – 4:30 pm)
Saturday, November 15 (10:00 am – 4:30 pm)
Sunday, November 16 (1:00 pm – 4:00 pm)

Celebrating Southeastern Native American culture and history, the Festival will showcase artisans, food, musicians, traditional storytellers, and living campsites with Mark Davis, Pete Dunaway, Jim Saw Grass, and Deborah Sanders. Examples of the craft demonstrations include archery, basketry, beading, flint knapping, herb craft, leather work, pottery making, and tanning.

In conjunction with the War Eagle Native American Festival, the RBD Library and Archives will host a Genealogy Workshop tailored for beginners as well as those advanced in genealogical research.

November 5, 2003
Amy Qualls Makes a Difference in the English Center
Amy Qualls is in her first year of PhD work in the English Department after earning her MA at Auburn University and her BA at Purdue University. In addition to being a PhD student with interests in Early American Literature and Cultural Studies, Qualls is a GTA and the Assistant to Dr. Isabelle Thompson, Coordinator of the English Center.

As Dr. Thompson's assistant, Qualls helps with the training practicums and assists English Center consultants when they run into problems or have concerns. It is often busy in the English Center, and one of her additional objectives is to help it continue to run smoothly and efficiently. Qualls also consults with English Center clients several hours a week.

While she finds working with Dr. Thompson and the English Center consultants a wonderful experience, Qualls views working with the English Center's clients to be one of the most rewarding aspects of her position. She sees that the work done in the English Center makes a difference to the students it serves, and Qualls believes the English Center plays a great part in helping students realize that Auburn University is dedicated to seeing them succeed.

October 29, 2003
Spotlighting English Department Poets - Chris Forhan and Peter Huggins
Poet Chris Forhan earned a BA in Communications with an English minor, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of New Hampshire, and an MFA from the University of Virginia. He published Forgive Us Our Happiness in 1999, which was chosen for the Bakeless Prize, and his work has appeared in chapbook form, as well as in a number of anthologies. Forhan’s latest book, The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars, is being published this month by Northeastern University Press. Winner of the Morse Prize, The Actual Moon, The Actual Stars can be found online. View an excerpt from the book. Read more about Chris Forhan.

After earning a BA in History and then a law degree, Peter Huggins went on to earn an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alabama. He has published two volumes of poetry, Hard Facts (1998) and Blue Angels (2001), and his third volume, Necessary Acts, is forthcoming in fall 2004. Huggins has just finished writing South, a work that like his others is thematically rich. South focuses on the geographical area as well as specific locales, for - as Huggins quotes Barbara Kingsolver - our "greatest and smallest explanations for ourselves grow from place as surely as carrots grow in the dirt." Read more about Peter Huggins.

October 15, 2003
The Third Annual Haley Center Poetry Project
The Haley Center Poetry Project for Fall 2003 is an outdoor poetry reading event that is open to the public and showcases the poetry of students, faculty, staff, and other distinguished writers. The Poetry Project is especially fortunate this year to welcome its guest, the 2002 Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Carl Dennis.

The Poetry Project began in 2001 to highlight the Department of English programs and people. This year's event will provide reading opportunities for as many as 50 people; each person will have about 10 minutes to read the poetry of his or her choice.

The Project will be held 10:00 am - 2:00 pm on Wednesday, October 22 and will hold the same hours on Thursday, October 23. It is sponsored by the Department of English, Sigma Tau Delta, the English Club, and the AU Bookstore and will take place in the Haley Center courtyard (outside the AU Bookstore).

If you would like to be a reader in the Haley Center Poetry Project, you may sign up now on the list outside 8070 Haley Center, or email Professor Jim Ryan. When you sign up, please indicate on which of the two days you would prefer to read.

October 8, 2003
AU Students Visit TSYS in Columbus, Georgia
On Thursday, October 2, a group of MTPC students, English majors, and other interested students visited TSYS (Total System Services, Inc.) in Columbus, Georgia. TSYS is a world leader in electronic payments processing, with 5.6 billion transactions per year. The company - which Fortune Magazine has rated one of the top 100 companies to work for - is where Auburn University MTPC graduate, Alise Chabaud ('03) works as an Instructional Designer. Other AU alum working at TSYS include Julie Bouchard, TJ Shockley, and Julia Smith. According to TSYS, some of the company's strongest employees come from AU.

In a meeting moderated by Chabaud, the students learned about TSYS Education and the key services the division provides in document design. Students learned about the history of TSYS, how to go about applying for a job with the company, and received answers to questions about working in the technical communication field. The visit to TSYS concluded with a tour of the campus, which is located on the Chattahoochee River waterfront.

October 1, 2003
Dr. Patrick Morrow Publishes Ninth Book
This past summer, Professor Patrick Morrow published his ninth book of literary criticism, Academic Memoirs—Essays in Literary Criticism for American and British Literatures. The essays in the book, some of which he began writing as a college student, capture forty years of Dr. Morrow’s thoughts on British, American, and South Pacific literature, as well as popular literature and culture.

The "academic memoirs" in his aptly named book are found in the overviews to his chapters. These memoirs clarify the academic challenges and successes that have surrounded Dr. Morrow as a scholar, ranging from his "desperate" attempt for tenure at the University of Southern California to his winning three Fulbright Grants for research and travel in the South Pacific. The final chapter of his book, "Disabled But Still Teaching Great Books 101," clarifies his personal struggles and his victories, ultimately demonstrating that even distinguished scholars are still remarkably human.

Chapters in Academic Memoirs include:

Bret Harte, Popular Fiction, and the Local Color Movement (1973)
Prelude to Space Fiction: Doris Lessing's Martha Quest Novels (1977, 2000)
Those Sick Challenger Jokes (1993)
The Secret Message for Dad in Katherine Mansfield's "The Woman at the Store" (2001)
The book cover was designed by an AU student. The circle of hands touch but don't clasp to reflect "grasping" at ideas.

Dr. Morrow is currently studying the relationship between anthropological theory and literary theory. He discusses his future plans and studies in the conclusion of Academic Memoirs and, while he explains that he is "in no hurry with this [anthropological theory and literary theory] project," there are undoubtedly many people continuing to look forward to reading Dr. Morrow's future works.

September 24, 2003
Heather Hicks Earns Defoe Assistantship
The Defoe Assistantship was created by Dean Rebekah Pindzola in recognition of Eminent Scholar Dr. Paula Backscheider’s work as a mentor to graduate students and as part of the University’s goal of increasing the number and quality of graduate students. Many highly qualified graduate students applied for the Defoe Assistantship, which was awarded to Heather Hicks.

Hicks, a PhD candidate, is currently helping edit an upcoming book by Dr. Backscheider on eighteenth-century women’s poetry. Hicks’ work mainly consists of editing chapter notes, editing individual chapter texts, and formatting the text for publishing. She has also begun work as the editorial assistant for the Blackwell’s Companion to the Eighteenth-Century Novel, a work that Dr. Backscheider is co-editing with Professor Catherine Ingrassia. In addition to her editing responsibilities, Hicks has taken two PhotoShop seminars and will be creating cd-roms for use in Dr. Backscheider’s classes.

Hicks says that she has already learned a great deal during her time as the Defoe Assistant, and she finds the position very rewarding.

September 17, 2003
Summer Academy Participants
This summer, English faculty interested in technology-enhanced instruction participated in the five week Summer Academy 2003. Four faculty will present their work at the English Faculty Forum today at 3:00 pm in 3104 Haley Center.

Jamie Marchant and Angel Rodgers began pulling together existing resources for Great Books I and II at Summer Academy. The resources, which are now available on Web CT, include exams, exercises, paper assignments, and syllabi from previous courses. The larger piece of their project - interactive timelines with links to e-texts and resources - is currently in the early stages of development.

Scott Simkins attended Summer Academy to become more familiar with information technology and to learn additional ways to incorporate technology in his instruction. He finds that combining current web technology with traditional classroom pedagogy leads his students to contribute more during class discussion. Simkins is incorporating the discussion feature of Web CT into his classes, giving all students equal opportunity to participate.

Isabella Wai's Summer Academy project, "Nobel Five et al," focuses on the following five Nobel laureates: Henry Böll, Yasunari Kawabata, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, François Mauriac, and Wislawa Szymborska. Two of Wai's major and continuing objectives are to update an electronic journal for Great Books students and to explore the resemblances between graphic images and metaphorical language.

On Wednesday, November 12, additional Summer Academy faculty participants will be featured in the "Newsworthy" section. They will be presenting their work at the English Faculty Forum on Wednesday, November 12 at 3:00 pm in 3104 Haley Center.

September 3, 2003
New Graduate Students - Welcome! Please extend a warm welcome to the Department's new graduate students. Their diverse skills and academic accomplishments are assets to Auburn University.

The PhD students are: Nick Boone, Rabi'a Hakima, Heather Hicks, Sara Johnson, Kristen Miller, Amy Qualls, Martha Turner, and Sean Wells.

The MA students are: Tiwanna Blakley, Lauren Boone, Raymond Dillman, Jill Frank, Cayce Gordy, Min Hu, Lara Hurston, Antoine Kirby, Sarah Liechty, Katherine McDonald, Jill Parrott, Kia Powell, Suzanne Previte, Kevin Quinn, Adriane Smith, Deborah Walling, and Michelle Zwerling. The MTPC students are: Elizabeth Childs, Rachel Kennedy, Jessica Lueders, Christopher Miller, Prashant Natarajan, Wendy Perry, Cindy Staudt, and Julie Zorn.

August 27, 2003
New Faculty - Pierre Cyr, Stephanie Gordon, Susan Hopkirk, Janet Mauney, Kimberly McGhee, Michael Smith
The Department extends a warm welcome to its newest faculty members. We appreciate the knowledge and skills they bring with them as well as the diversity of their academic specializations.

Pierre Cyr has taught English courses at Auburn University for the past six years. He is currently working on his dissertation on the usefulness of Plato's Symposium, particularly the concept of eros, for rhetoric and composition studies.

Stephanie Gordon received her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. Her specialties are creative writing and multicultural American literature, especially Native American and African American. Gordon's work has been published in several journals and another of her essays is forthcoming.

Susan Hopkirk received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta, and her research interests are in both the medieval period and popular culture. Hopkirk's work appears in Pioneering North America: Mediators of European Literature and Culture.

Janet Mauney received her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Florida State University. Mauney's short stories have appeared in both journals and magazines, and a chapter of her novel, "Isabel's Tattoo," appeared in Belles' Letters, an anthology of women's writing.

Kimberly McGhee's research and teaching interests include film, twentieth-century comparative literature (especially Russian and French), critical theory, and anthropological approaches to literature. McGhee has taught introductory and upper-level film courses, world literature, composition, and other courses as well.

Michael Smith received the Transatlantic Review Award for fiction in 2002 and has published stories in numerous literary reviews. This spring, Smith served with the EUR-AM Center for International Education in Pontlevoy, France and taught creative writing and 1920s expatriate literature of Paris.

 

August 20, 2003
New Professorial Faculty - Keith Gibson, Cedrick May, Chris Forhan
The Department extends a warm welcome to its newest faculty members. We appreciate the knowledge and skills they bring with them as well as the diversity of their academic specializations.

Keith Gibson earned his PhD from Penn State University in 2003. He focused on the connections between rhetorical theory and scientific discourse. He is currently researching how science influences public policy. Gibson joins the MTPC faculty.

Cedrick May earned his PhD from Penn State University in 2003 and specializes in eighteenth and early nineteenth-century African American literature, poetry, and evangelical literature. His work was recently published in The African American Review.

Chris Forhan earned his MFA from the University of Virginia and his MA from the University of New Hampshire. Forhan specializes in poetry and his work has received prizes and been published in several literary magazines and anthologies.

August 1, 2003
Artwork in 8009 Haley Center - Marian Carcache
Faculty member Marian Carcache has graciously loaned the department some of her artwork to enhance the common area in 8009 Haley Center.

For several years, Marian Carcache participated in gallery exhibits and sidewalk art shows alongside her former husband, Nicaraguan watercolorist and etcher, Juan Carcache. She has won many awards for her work and her hand-tinted photographs have graced the covers of various journals.

"In my photography I tried to capture some of the magic that exists just beneath the surface of everyday reality," she says. "If someone looks at one of my photographs and tells me it is unsettling, then I know I've tapped into that magic." Her favorite subject matter includes religious icons and abandoned places and objects. Among those who have influenced her work, she lists photographers as unalike as Walker Evans and Eugene Meatyard; painters such as Edward Hopper and Robert Vickery; and the 20th century Southern and Hispanic writers of magical realism.

Though she has taken a break from the camera for a number of years, she does intend to go back to the work of visual art as soon as life allows. Presently, she lives in Auburn with her son, five dogs, parakeet, and sugar glider. She teaches part-time in the English department and is an assistant at Auburn Acupuncture and Wellness Centre.

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Last updated April 26, 2004