English Department News

            

October 18, 2000

          

Volume 3, No. 8


October 18

  

Professorial Faculty meeting, 3:10 p.m., HC 3104

October 18

  

Library Orientation for Graduate Students, 4:00-5:00 p.m., Second floor computer lab, RBD Library

October 20

  

Great Books Committee meeting, 3:00 p.m., HC 9030D

October 23

  

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, 9:10 a.m., HC 9030D

October 23

  

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, Jared Diamond, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.

October 24

  

Webpage Workshop, 3:30-5:00 p.m., HC 3143

October 26

  

Southern Gothic Dinner, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Tim Dykstal's home

November 2

  

AAUP Forum: "Effective Teaching: What Is It? and How Can We Assess It?" 4:00 p.m., Tichenor 206

November 3

  

Great Books Committee meeting, 3:00 p.m., HC 9030D

November 6

  

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, 9:10 a.m., HC 9030D

November 7

  

Michael Montgomery, "Three Streams of Southern English," 7:00 p.m., Pebble Hill

November 14

  

Jan Gretlund, "Southern History, Biography, and Fiction: Is There a Difference?" 4:00 p.m., Pebble Hill

November 17

  

Great Books Committee meeting, 3:00 p.m., HC 9030D

November 20

  

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, 9:10 a.m., HC 9030D

November 22-24

  

Thanksgiving Holiday

December 4

  

Graduate Studies Committee meeting, 9:10 a.m., HC 9030D

December 7

  

Classes End

December 8

  

Dead Day

December 9, 11-14

  

Final Exams for Semester

December 16

 

Graduation

January 29, 2001

  

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, Elaine Pagels, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.

March 5, 2001

  

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, E. O. Wilson, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.

April 9, 2001

  

Littleton-Franklin Lectures, Lynn Margulis, Auburn University Hotel and Conference Center, 4:00 p.m.


What's Cookin'? The Southern Gothic Dinner

Next Thursday, October 26th, is the date for the annual Southern Gothic Dinner, a potluck event which students and interested faculty are invited to bring (and feast on) southern delicacies like catfish, hush puppies, fried green tomatoes as they contemplate the witching hour.
For a few years now the dinner has served as the official kick-off for the English Club (an informal group of majors who get together for service and social activities and intellectual stimulation) and Sigma Tau Delta (the international English honorary).
It's also a chance to welcome new and returning English majors, introduce our new professorial faculty, and just mingle. Please invite your students, and come yourself, to Tim Dykstal's house, 778 Cary Drive, from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
To see a map to Tim's house, click HERE.

AAUP to Sponsor Forum on Effective Teaching

The Auburn Chapter of the American Association of University Professors is sponsoring an open forum on the topic of "Effective Teaching: What Is It? and How Can We Assess It?" The forum is scheduled for Thursday, November 2, 2000 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. in Tichenor 206.
Barry Burkhart will moderate a panel that includes Paula Backscheider (English), Jeffrey Fergus (Mechanical Engineering and Chair of the Teaching Effectiveness Committee), Philip Lewis (Psychology), and Philip Shevlin (Chemistry).
Panelists will make brief presentations and then respond to questions from the floor.
The forum is free and open to the public.

Question of the Week

Prepare for the upcoming forum discussion by thinking about and responding to the questions: "What is Effective Teaching?" and "How Can We Assess It?" To stimulate your thinking, you may want to read Paul Trout's essay, "Flunking the Test: The Dismal Record of Student Evaluations," in the July-August 2000 issue of Academe, (pages 58-61). For your convenience, a copy of the article will be available in HC 9022. Please respond to this week's question in The Forum. If you have forgotten your password, please contact George Crandell.


Charlie Rose reports that he has a story, "A New Roof," appearing in the Spring 2000 issue of the Alabama Literary Review. He has also published a review of Michael Knight's Dogfight and Other Stories in the Spring 2000 issue of First Draft, and a review of Tom Franklin's Poachers in the Winter 2000 issue of Chattahoochie Review, called "The News From Franklin County."
Michelle Sidler presented "Microsoft's Rhetorical Monopoly: Standardizing the Tools of Literacy-Laborers" at The Thomas R. Watson Conference on Rhetoric and Composition in Louisville, Kentucky on October 6, 2000.
Great news from Natasha Trethewey! Graywolf Press has just accepted her second book, Bellocq's Ophelia for publication. Natasha reports that she is hard at work on another book, travelling a lot for readings, and enjoying the life at the Bunting Institute.
If you would like to include an item in the "Professional Notes" section of The English Channel, please submit your note to George Crandell.


I am writing to encourage you to vote in the upcoming MLA election and to ask you to consider the candidacy of my colleague Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, who has been nominated to serve on the Executive Council. Rosemarie is committed to promoting a more inclusive academic community. To do this, she has helped develop the field of disability studies. I support her nomination. Thanks for bearing Rosemarie in mind when you receive your MLA ballot and accompanying candidate information booklet.  --James Goldstein
If you would like to include an item in the "Personal Notes" section of The English Channel, please submit your note to George Crandell.
Please submit items and direct all questions or comments about The English Channel, to George Crandell, who currently maintains this site.
To include an item in The English Channel, submit text items by Monday at 4:40 p.m. for publication the following Wednesday. Graphic images are due by the preceding Friday at 11:40 a.m. Submit items by using my email link or by putting a note or disk in my mailbox (disks will be returned). If you submit an image on disk, please make sure that it can be edited to fit and be read clearly on the page. Items over fifty words in length should be submitted on disk or sent by email. Please check your submission for accuracy and completion--all calendar items and meeting announcements must include the date, time, and location of the event. Please omit all unusual formatting.