Newsworthy: English Symposium Presents James Phelan

The English Department's 2005-2006 Symposium Series concludes with the annual Carl Benson Lecture in 20th-Century Literature delivered this year by James Phelan, Humanities Distinguished Professor of English at Ohio State University and editor of the award-winning journal Narrative.

Dr. Phelan's presentation, “Judgment and Progression in Ian McEwan's Atonement: Or, Life, Art, and the Problem of Other Minds,” will be Tuesday, April 18 at 3 pm in the Ralph Brown Draughon Library Auditorium. A reception will follow.

In addition to this lecture, Phelan will be in Haley Center 8009 from 10:30-11:30 am on Tuesday, April 18 for an informal session on the academic profession and academic publishing. This session is designed for graduate students and others early in their academic careers. It will offer both an editor's perspective—Phelan has been the editor of the journal Narrative since 1993—and sound practical advice for writers interested in publishing scholarly articles. All Department faculty members and students, especially graduate students, are invited. Refreshments will be provided.

Phelan is the author of a number of books on narrative theory, most recently Living To Tell About It: A Rhetoric of Ethics and Character Narration (Cornell University Press, 2005), as well as the autobiographical Beyond the Tenure Track: Fifteen Months in the Life of an English Professor. He is the editor or co-editor of four additional books, including such collections of essays as The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical Controversy.

Phelan frequently offers NEH Seminars for College and University Teachers on narrative theory and is, with Peter J. Rabinowitz, editor of Ohio State University 's series on Theory and Interpretation of Narrative. He is currently at work on a study tentatively titled “Narrative Judgment: Studies in the Ethics and Rhetoric of Fiction.”

McEwan is an internationally acclaimed British writer. His highly and widely honored book Atonement (2001) has been described as “a symphonic novel of love and war, guilt and forgiveness” which “combines all the satisfaction of a superb narrative with the provocation we have come to expect from this master of English prose.”

Professor Phelan's appearance at Auburn is sponsored by the Department of English, the University Lectures Program, and the Auburn Universities Libraries.

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April 12 - Tenured Faculty Meeting - 3 pm - HC 3104

A tenured faculty meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 12 at 3 pm in HC 3104.

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April 12 - EGO Nominations Meeting - 3:30 pm - HC 2213

All graduate students are encouraged to attend the EGO Nominations meeting on Wednesday, April 12 at 3:30 pm in HC 2213.

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April 12-15 and 18-23 - AU Theatre Department Presents The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

The Auburn University Theatre Department presents The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas April 12-15 and April 18-23.

Weeknight and Saturday performances begin at 7:30 pm, and Sunday performances begin at 2:30 pm.

Admission is free to Auburn students with valid University ID. Tickets are $18 for faculty, staff, and senior citizens; $20 for the general public.

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April 21 - Department of English Awards Ceremony - 3 pm - AU Hotel and Dixon Conference Center

The Department's annual awards ceremony is scheduled for Friday, April 21 at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center. Undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and staff of the English Department will be honored.

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April 27-29 - Southeastern Conference on Linguistics at Auburn University

Thursday evening through Saturday afternoon, April 27-29, The Southeastern Conference on Linguistics will return to Auburn University for its 73rd meeting, bringing regional, national, and international linguists together to share research on a variety of language topics, including African-American English, language change, literary linguistics, dialectology, gay identity, and many more.

Auburn University personnel and students can freely attend any and all of more than sixty presentations, including three plenary addresses, conveniently located at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

The conference begins at 7 pm on April 27, with a plenary address of special interest to the local Jewish community. Cynthia Bernstein, University of Memphis, will speak on “Jewish languages in the Southern United States.”

To learn more about the organization and the meeting now, visit the SECOL web page.

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Jim McKelly Recognized by Honors Program

Jim McKelly has been named Professor of the Year by the students of the Auburn University Honors Program. Jim was so recognized during the 2000-2001 academic year as well.  

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Richard Joines Chosen for DAAD Summer Seminar

Rick Joines has been chosen to participate in the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Summer Seminar at Cornell University on "Nietzsche and Heidegger: The Question of Esoteric Political Philosophy" (click here for the website). The seminar will be led by Geoff Waite, author of the great expose of Nietzsche, Nietzsche's Corps/e: Aesthetics, Politics, Prophecy, or, the Spectacular Technoculture of Everyday Life.  

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Publication Announcement - Kat Privett

Two of Kat Privett's short stories, "A Nice Wake" and "Bodies Without Rest," are being published by Long Story Short (an e-zine with a hard copy newsletter) in the May 7th issue.

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Jennifer Reid Successfully Defends MA Thesis

Congratulations to Jennifer Reid, who successfully defended her MA thesis on April 4. Her thesis, entitled "'Not So Much Written As Dreamed': Quaker Dream-Work in Charles Brockden Brown's Edgar Huntly," was directed by Prof. James Emmett Ryan.

Reid's thesis examines Brown's early American novel Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799) in terms of the novel's relation to religious ideas derived from the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a group to which the author's family belonged. Specifically, her thesis analyzes the ways in which Charles Brockden Brown's fictional narrative makes use of Quaker dream-work: a process of reciting, interpreting, and publishing dreams, which was an important way in which early Quakers attempted to find meaning in their shared experiences.

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Alumni News - Jake Adam York, Jessica Van Slooten

Our alum Jake Adam York ('94) was just named one of the "Best of Denver 2006" by Westword Magazine (the Denver alternative weekly). As the article states, Jake's book of poetry (his first) is called Murder Ballads. A critical work on American poetry entitled "The Architecture of Address" is to be published soon by Routledge. The article also mentions some of Jake's many other local activities and accomplishments.

Jessica Van Slooten (PhD 2003) has an essay in the anthology Chick Lit: The New Woman's Fiction, ed. by Suzanne Ferris and Mallory Young, just published by Routledge. The title of her essay is "Fashionably Indebted: Fashion, Romance, and Conspicuous Consumption in Sopie Kinsella's  Shopaholic Trilogy." Jessica is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures at Michigan State University.

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Last updated April 12, 2006

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