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Header: The English Channel English Department News
March 3, 2004
Volume 6.24		  

 

Hargis Professor of American Literature Bert Hitchcock
Bert HitchcockHargis 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.

Be sure to check out Newsworthy on March 17 that will feature Hargis Professor of English, Constance Relihan.

Great Flicks - Tonight - 7:30 pm - 1203 Haley Center
Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)
Rashomon is arguably the first great masterpiece from Akira Kurosawa, Japan’s greatest director. Despite the ancient setting and samurai characters, Japan’s postwar woes and tensions are very much on display in this story of a terrible crime recounted afterwards by various participants—the criminal, the witnesses, even the victim speaking through a medium. Since their accounts differ wildly, how can the truth be found?

View the Great Flicks Spring Schedule.

Auburn Chamber Music Society Presents the Ying Quartet - Tonight - 7:30 pm - Goodwin Recital Hall
The Auburn Chamber Music Society will be presenting its second concert of the 2003-04 season tonight at 7:30 in Goodwin Recital Hall. The internationally known Ying Quartet will perform Haydn's String Quartet Op. 50 #1, Jennifer Higdon's "Southern Harmony," Bernard Rands' String Quartet #3, and Tchaikovsky's String Quartet #3.

Our originally scheduled quartet, the Orpheus String Quartet, needed to cancel due to the tragic death of their first violinist in November. Season ticket-holders will have their Orpheus String Quartet tickets honored at this concert. Otherwise, tickets are $20, $5 for students, and are available at the door. For more information, contact Craig Bertolet, Co-President of the Auburn Chamber Music Society.

Haley Center Poetry Project - Postponed Until Fall Semester
The Haley Center Poetry Project originally scheduled for today and tomorrow has been postponed until fall semester.

English Symposium Featuring Pulitzer Prize Winner Anthony Hecht - Thursday March 4
Anthony HechtAnthony Hecht won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work, The Hard Hours (1967). His most recent work is Collected Later Poems (2003). This University Professor Emeritus at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. has received a number of significant awards for his work, including the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, the Ruth Lilly Prize, the Loines Award, the Librex-Guggenheim Eugenio Montale Award, and the Corrington Award. Hecht has received fellowships from The Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among others.

Hecht will read from his poems at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (located at South College Street and Woodfield Drive, between the AU main campus and Interstate 85) on Thursday, March 4 from 4:30 to 5:30 pm. Admission to the reading is free and will include the JCSM After Hours event, which features music, tours of the galleries, and hors d'oeuvres. Hecht's reading is the department's third English Symposium.

The following table lists the times and topics of additional activities:

Time Topic
11:30 - 1:30 Lunch with faculty and students
4:30 - 5:30 Poetry reading at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art
5:30 - 7:30 JCSM After Hours event


The College of Liberal Arts and the Center for Diversity and Race Relations are sponsoring Hecht's activities this afternoon. A tea is planned for 1:00 in the Foy gallery for students and faculty to meet Hecht. At 7:00 this evening, he will be part of a panel, "Speaking About the Unspeakable," a look at some of the events during World War II.

Read more information about Anthony Hecht and his publications.

Summer Academy Applications Deadline - Monday, March 8
This year's Summer Academy is looking for faculty and GTAs to participate. The Instructional Multimedia Group will offer two basic Summer Academies and one advanced Summer Academy in which faculty and GTAs will work on specific teaching projects. As in previous years, the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) will provide funding for some participants of each session with $3000 per participant.

The deadline for applications is Monday, March 8. Apply for Summer Academy online. If you have questions concerning the Summer Academy, please email Wiebke Kuhn.

Creative/Research Forum - Wednesday, March 10 - 3:00 pm - 3104 Haley Center
The Creative/Research Forum, scheduled for Wednesday, March 10 at 3:00 pm in 3104 Haley Center, will showcase faculty research. You will find brief synopses of the faculty presentations below.

Alicia Carroll

Alicia Carroll: "Material Cultures: Dead and Alive"

At next week'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

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

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

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.


Annual ACETA Meeting - Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13 - AUM
The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama (ACETA) will hold its annual meeting on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13 at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). Full details of the program will appear in the February issue of Light.

The theme of the program will be coping with the present financial crises in higher education in Alabama. Very important revisions to the Association's constitution, intended to provide for the establishment of a permanent secretary/treasurer position, will be brought up for consideration and vote. The text of these changes will be included in the February issue of Light.

Other highlights include the presentation of the annual Calvert, Woodall, and McMillan awards and papers and a Friday night reception/light supper at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF), followed by the opportunity to attend a performance of the acclaimed drama, Proof, at a reduced ticket price. Macbeth will also be running that weekend; you may purchase tickets for Macbeth online or by calling (800) 841-4273.

The February Light will contain suggestions for lodging convenient to AUM and ASF. Visit the ACETA website.

OIT Department Announces Teaching with Technology Day - Tuesday, March 16
The Education Technology Services Department within the Office of Information Technology (OIT) and the AU Library will be sponsoring a Teaching with Technology Day on Tuesday, March 16 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm in the AU Library. Faculty members will have the opportunity to share their special methods of enhancing the learning experience of their students and to present their accomplishments in a context that will encourage face-to-face discussion with their colleagues.

Faculty members wishing to participate in the Teaching with Technology Day are requested to submit a brief description of their proposed presentation by email to Terry Daughtrey. Please include the name and number of the course and summary information about the use of the technology in the course.

Applications for Breeden Faculty Enhancement Grants Due Friday, March 19
The Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning is pleased to announce that competitive grants for teaching enhancement projects will be available again this year from the Daniel F. Breeden Endowment for Faculty Enhancement. The Teaching Effectiveness Committee will review proposals; grants will be awarded through the Biggio Center. Awards will be made for up to $2,000 for one-year projects beginning in the summer or fall term, 2004.

Tenured/tenure-track faculty from all disciplines or faculty from the clinician title series with appointments continuing through the 2004-2005 academic year are eligible. Although graduate students or instructors may be hired to work on the projects, funds may not be used to support the writing of dissertations or theses. Funds may be used to enhance courses or programs, enrich the core curriculum, provide field experience or hands-on experience for students, pay for travel for research or presentations on teaching, purchase books, develop workshops, or underwrite almost any activity germane to teaching or the evaluation and assessment of teaching.

Applications for the Breeden grants are available online or directly from the Biggio Center, 4011 RBD Library. Completed applications must be received in this office by 4:45 p.m. on March 19, 2004. Applicants will be notified within four to five weeks, and funds will be available first day of summer term.

Spring Applications for CLA Funded Research Support Due Friday, April 2
Spring applications for research support funded by the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) are due Friday, April 2. This deadline is timed to coincide with the conclusion of the Competitive Research Grants process conducted by the Vice President for Research.

View details on the Humanities grant program.
View details on the CLA Summer Grant program.

Please note that the Humanities grant program and the CLA Summer Grant program are two separate programs, and winners are chosen by two separate committees. Eligible faculty may apply for both programs, but two distinct applications are required. In practice, most people file similar proposals for both programs, but it is important that the proposals be titled clearly to indicate the program to which you are applying.

If you have questions or would like any assistance with your proposal(s), please email Tony Carey.

AU Instructional Development Grant 2004 - 2005 Competition - Applications Due Friday, April 9
The purpose of the Instructional Development Grant - Incorporating Service Learning into the Curriculum is to encourage enhancement of teaching and community service through financial support of selected projects. Such projects should directly benefit the students, the community, and the faculty member. Instructional activities in any area can qualify for support.

Five grants of up to $1000 each for instructional development will be awarded. The application for the AU Instructional Development Grant is available online and the deadline for submitting the application is Friday, April 9, 2004. The grant period begins on Thursday, July 15, 2004 and ends on Thursday, May 12, 2005.

View more information about the AU Instructional Development Grant, or attend the Service Learning Instruction and Grant Writing Workshop on Friday, March 5 from 9:00 am to 10:30 am at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

Teacher Workshops Offered in St. Augustine, Florida in June and July
Summer workshops for teachers are being offered by the Florida Humanities Council through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The week-long seminars, held in St. Augustine, Florida between June 28 and July 24, are titled Spanish St. Augustine: Between Columbus and Jamestown.

Teachers and school administrators who are interested in Spanish heritage and the Spanish, British, and American colonial experience are encouraged to apply. Stipends for living expenses and travel will be paid.

View details about the teacher workshops and view the application instructions. If you have questions, please email Laurie Berlin or call her at (727) 553-3810.

To include an item in The English Channel, submit text items by Tuesday at 11:40 am for publication Wednesday. Submit items by email to Kelly Messerschmidt or Betsy Smith or put the information in their mailbox. Please check your submission for accuracy and completion--all calendar items and meeting announcements must include the date, time, and location of the event.

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Last updated March 3, 2004


Department of English
9030 Haley Center
Auburn University, AL 36849-5203
Phone (334) 844-4620
FAX (334) 844-9027
© 2004 Department of English at Auburn University. All rights reserved.

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