English Department News

            

October 31, 2001

          

Volume 4, No. 11

 
November 2 Open Practicum: Theory, 4:00, HC 3104
November 3 New Directions 01: Mapping the Future of English, 8:30-1:00
November 5 English Hour, 4:00-5:00, HC 3104
November 5 Graduate Studies Committee, 1:00, HC 9030D
November 17-25 Thanksgiving Holidays
November 26 Graduate Studies Committee, 1:00, HC 9030D
December 3 Graduate Studies Committee, 1:00, HC 9030D
December 7   Classes End
December 8-9  

Study/Reading Days
December 10 Graduate Studies Committee, 1:00, HC 9030D
December 12 Liberal Arts Staff Retreat
December 10-14  

Final Exams
December 15  

Graduation

 Graduate School Calendar
December 20 - January 2 University Closed for Holidays University Calendar
 

New Directions 01: Mapping the Future of English

Faculty will meet Saturday, November 3, from 8:30-1:00 at Kiesel Park to participate in a dialogue about the English department's future.  Information packets with the agenda have been distributed.  If you have any questions, please contact George Crandell or Betsy Smith.  We are looking forward to a productive meeting.


Great Books Resources

Through the kindness of W.W. Norton, the Great Books Program has recently acquired the following materials: a video of the first eight cantos of Dante's Inferno (with John Gielgud as Virgil), a video of A Room of One's Own (with Eileen Atkins as V. Woolf), "Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass: 'The Lesson of the Hour' " (from the Moyers Collection of videos), "Mythology: The Great Myths of Greece and Rome" (an interactive CD), and "Othello" (a CD including portions of 5 versions of the play, interactive tours of relevant locations, information on Shakespeare). 

Drop a note to Constance Relihan (relihco@auburn.edu) if you'd like to borrow any of these for classroom use. And please let us know if there are other materials the Great Books Program should try to acquire.


More Great Books Information...

Everyone teaching Great Books should ask their students to submit two copies of a formal paper for assessment purposes. As we did last year, at the end of the semester all folks teaching Great Books will be asked to forward the paper and exam of a student selected at random by the Great Books Coordinator to the Great Books Committee for assessment purposes. This year, however, we will NOT be distributing memos to students explaining the process and how to submit their papers electronically: that information is now available on the Great Books web page (Assessment Information). 


English Hour - Monday, November 5 at 4:00 in HC 3104

What is Information Literacy and why is it important to your students? Jim Jenkins, Library Instruction Coordinator, and Marcia Boosinger, Chair of Reference and Instruction Services, RBD Library, will define and discuss information literacy and its relationship to critical thinking, particularly in the context of what the concept means to students' lifelong learning. 

In its narrowest sense, information literacy includes the practical skills involved in effective use of information technology and information resources, either print or electronic, but it is more than just that. It is "the ability to locate, evaluate, and use information to become independent life-long learners." Jenkins and Boosinger will also discuss how the English faculty and the library faculty can work in partnership to create an information-literate student.

Royalty Reincarnated
Queen Elizabeth I visited Haley Center this week.  Don't you think Constance Relihan bears a remarkable resemblance to QEI?



Friday's Practicum session (4:00, HC 3104) is open to all interested graduate students.  Dr. Backscheider has assembled a panel of graduate students (Dana Nichols, Pierre Cyr, and Amy Jo Formby) to discuss theory: what it can do for you and how to work it on your own.



 

In addition to reading selections from Ogden Nash at the Haley Center Poetry Project, George Crandell recently lectured on "The Good Bad Poet" at a meeting of the Auburn University Academy of Lifelong Learners. Since 1999, Crandell has served as a consultant to the U.S. Postal Service working on the design of a stamp to be issued in 2002 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth. 

Crandell has also accepted an invitation to be the "guest curator" for a special exhibition at the University of Texas at Austin featuring the Ogden Nash Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. The exhibit is scheduled to open Fall 2002.


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


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

Please submit items and direct all questions or comments about The English Channel, to Betsy Smith who currently maintains this site.
To include an item in The English Channel, submit text items by Tuesday at 11:40 a.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.