Year-at-a-Glance Department Calendar University Calendar Graduate School Calendar

Open Forum Discussion
All faculty and graduate students are invited to attend the Open Forum Discussion to be held on Wednesday, November 6 from 3:00 to 4:45 p.m. in HC 1203. This opportunity is an effort to facilitate communication among all groups in the department, and a chance to talk about what is important to you and to the Department.

The discussion will be divided into two segments. In the first part, discussion will focus on some of the larger issues facing our department.  In the second part, discussion will focus on more specific issues about which your response is needed: 1) a proposal from the Great Books Committee about scheduling classes; and 2) the proposals to re-allocate summer funding.

This forum is a first attempt to encourage widespread participation in matters of importance to the department as a whole. It is likewise an attempt to involve more people in the process that leads to decisions affecting everyone in the department.

Prior to the meeting, you can expect to receive: 1) a summary of the various discussion sessions at New Directions '02; 2) the proposal about scheduling classes from the Great Books Committee; and 3) the latest drafts of proposals to re-allocate summer funds.

Please make plans to attend.

Great Books News
Please remember to collect two copies from each of your students of the second formal paper they write for your Great Books classes. At the end of the term one paper from each set (along with a final exam) will be collected for assessment purposes.  Please share this information with your colleagues in the department.

Make plans to attend a meeting Wednesday, November 6, at 3:00 pm in HC 1203.  This department-wide meeting will have on its agenda an initial discussion of a proposal the Great Books committee has drafted to try to implement a pilot plan to assign teachers (of all ranks) to GB classes before the registration period begins. A hard copy of the proposal will appear in your mailboxes soon on bright colored paper. Please read it, think about it, and come on Wednesday prepared to discuss it. Contact Constance Relihan for more information.

Southern Gothic Dinner
The annual Southern Gothic Dinner will be tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Pebble Hill. Faculty are invited to join the English majors for Southern food and ghost stories. To that end, please volunteer your culinary talents. Side dishes and desserts are needed, with Southern dishes especially welcome.  

Last year some faculty children came to this event and wore their Halloween costumes. Everyone seemed to enjoy this; children are welcome at the dinner from 7:00-9:00. (Ghost stories begin at 9:00 and are genuinely creepy.)  Please let Alicia Carroll know  if you are coming, and what you will bring in light of food or children.

Listen to the Sounds of the String Quartet 

Tonight the Artis String Quartet from Vienna, Austria will be performing at 7:30 in the Goodwin Recital Hall on campus.  This concert is sponsored by the Auburn Chamber Music Society as the first of its series of three concerts for the 2002-2003 season.  The program will feature Mozart's F Major String Quartet (K. 590), Schumann's A minor String Quartet (Op. 41#1), and Brahms's A minor String Quartet (Op. 51 #2).  Tickets are $20 apiece, or you can obtain a season ticket for all three concerts at $50.  Admission is free for all students.  A reception for the quartet at Greystone Manor to which all audience members are invited immediately follows the concert.  For tickets or more information, please contact Craig Bertolet, who serves as co-president of the society.

Students to debate C.S. Lewis at English Hour
Is C.S. Lewis good for children? Students from Tim Dykstal's ENGL 3190 Studies in Children's Literature class will debate that question at a special English Hour on Monday, November 4 at 4:00 p.m. 

The question was prompted by the class's reading of Lewis's The Horse and His Boy, the third book in the Narnia series. On the one hand, Horse is an exciting romance about a slave boy who discovers he is really a prince, a fantasy that--like all the Narnia books--aims to persuade us that there is a greater power behind our stories. On the other hand, the book--more explicitly than Lewis's other children's books--contains some deeply embedded ethnic stereotypes, stereotypes that may be harmful to children. Can we abstract the message from the medium used to convey it, or does the one invalidate the other? 

Speaking for Lewis will be Wellon Lee, Lauren Vautier, and Jane Walker. Speaking against Lewis will be Trey Lyles, Jill Frank, and Eliza McAllister. Comments and questions from the audience will be welcome after the debate. Please come and participate in what promises to be a lively discussion!

Pebble Hill Program
On Thursday, November 7, at 4:00 p.m. Johnny Williams will read from his new novel Lake Moon. Williams, an Auburn native, teaches English at LaGrange College. A reception will follow the reading.

Women and Politics: A Global Perspective
The Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures and the College of Liberal Arts are pleased to invite you to a major university-sponsored public event entitled "Women and Politics: A Global Perspective." This event will be held at the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center on Thursday, November 21, 2002.

For more information about the event click here. This event is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost.

MTPC Alum to Talk about Tech Writing, the Job Hunt, and the Real World
Lowell Lambert, Auburn Graduate 2002, will be giving a talk entitled "Going Down that Bumpy Road to Your First Technical Writing Job" on Tuesday, November 5 at 3:00 p.m. in HC 3228.  His talk will cover the following topics:

The Conference Paper: A "How To" Panel for Graduate Students
On Monday, November 11 at 4:00 p.m. in HC 3184, EGO will sponsor a panel on "The Conference Paper."  Dr. Simpkins, Dr. Keirstead, Dr. Relihan, and Matthew Binney will discuss "how to" select a conference,  write an abstract, know what conference panel organizers are looking for, and turn a seminar paper into a conference paper.  The panel will also discuss what graduate students should expect when attending a conference and what we need to know about the paper presentation itself.  

All graduate students are invited to attend and encouraged to bring questions.

Career Panel
The Sigma Tau Delta/ English Club will have a Career Panel on Friday, November 8 in Haley Center (location TBD).  Participants all hold B.A.'s from AU's English Department. They include: 

If you would like to include an item in the "Professional Notes" section of The English Channel, please submit your note to Betsy Smith or Alise Chabaud.

---

Please submit items and direct all questions or comments about The English Channel to Betsy Smith or Alise Chabaud.

To include an item in The English Channel, submit text items by Tuesday at 11:40 a.m. for publication Wednesday. Graphic images are due by the preceding Friday at 11:40 a.m. Submit items by email or by putting a note or disk in Alise Chabaud's 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.