English Department
Go English!
Here at the ECU Department of English, we are a vibrant and energetic collection of teachers, scholars, researchers, and writers. Our department offers four degrees: a B.A. in English; a B.S. in Professional Writing and Information Design; an M.A. in English; a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication as well as various minors and certificates. The diversity of this department is one of its strengths: you can take coursework in literature, creative writing, technical and professional communication, rhetoric and composition, multicultural and transnational literatures, linguistics, theory and criticism, folklore, children’s literature, teaching English to speakers of other languages, and film studies. In addition, you can expect to benefit from a breadth of faculty expertise across many areas of study. Above all, your success as a student is our first priority.
English News
Dr. Kirstin Squint received the 2024 Scholar-Teacher Award at the University Teaching Awards Celebration held on April 22. The award is given in recognition of faculty who effectively integrate research and creativity with their teaching roles.
Teaching is at the heart of ECU’s mission, Chancellor Philip Rogers said in his opening remarks.
“ECU is so fortunate to benefit from the many talents of our extraordinary and dedicated faculty who are passionately committed to delivering on our mission of student success, public service and regional transformation,” Rogers said. “As I look at the three pillars of our mission statement, all three are critical. All three are important. But it’s quite intentional that student success, more broadly defined as learner success, leads the way. It’s core to who we are.”
John Hoppenthaler and other creative writers read to celebrate the new Lake Johnson Park Interpretive Poetry Trail in Raleigh on Sunday, 4/21/24.
The interpretive poetry trail will feature the work of ten local poets who represent the incredible talent within the community. Each poem celebrates the park’s unique natural features and beauty to enhance the City’s greenway experience and encourage residents to reflect on nature through an artistic lens. The one-mile stretch of natural surface trails is on the park’s west side. It is heavily wooded, with views of the lake and plenty of habitats for native wildlife.
Christy Hallberg was featured on WordPlay on 103.3 Asheville.fm on April 14. Hosted by Lockie Hunter and Jeff Davis, the show delved into Hallberg’s novel, Searching for Jimmy Page, and her podcast on rock novels, Rock is Lit. During the conversation, Hallberg read excerpts from her book.
Dr. Marame Gueye completed the French translations of two articles “La Gambie pourrait autoriser à nouveau les mutilations génitales féminines : un nouveau signe d’une tendance mondiale à l’érosion des droits des femmes” and”En Gambie, l’interdiction des mutilations génitales menacée” related to the recent attempts to repeal the law banning FGM in the Gambia. The original articles were published in The Conversation and African Law. The French translations appear on Seneweb and AfriqueXXI.
Dr. Andrea Kitta served on the scientific advisory board for Vaccine Hesitancy in the Nordic Countries and was thanked in the preface. This was part of her trip to Lund, Sweden, where she also lectured. She was the only US participant at the event.
“The members of our scientific advisory board – Fausto Colombo, Università Cattolica del Sacre Cuore; Elzbieta Drazkiewicz-Grodzicka, Lund University; Bernice Hausman, Penn State University; Lars-Eric Jönsson, Lund University; and Andrea Kitta, East Carolina University – have throughout our project given us their unfailing support and constant sage advice, for which we are more grateful than words can express. Last but not least, the volume editors would like to express their gratitude to our always helpful and unerringly professional editorial assistant at Routledge, Gemma Rogers.”
Dr. Margaret Bauer won REDE’s 2024 Eminent Trendsetter Award last week at the ECU research awards ceremony. In 2022, recognizing the importance of highlighting faculty who are highly effective in their research and creative activity output, REDE developed a new award, the Trendsetter Award, to identify noteworthy scholars in three categories:
- Early career, with six or fewer years of service
- Mid-career, with 5-9 years of service
- Later career or Eminent,” with ten or more years of service
Dr. Donna Kain and Jennifer Sisk were celebrated at the ECU Service Awards Ceremony on Monday, April 8, in the Main Student Center Ballrooms. In addition, Andrea Kitta and Amanda Klein were also inducted into the Service Society 2024.
Sisk received the Centennial Award for Excellence in the Category of Leadership.
Kain received the Centennial Award for Excellence in the Category of Spirit.
PhD students, Zac Singletary (fourth year) and Gagne’ (second year), and Director of Writing Foundations, Tracy Ann Morse, presented last week at the Conference on Writing and Well-Being at the University of Arizona. Tracy Morse writes: “Our panel presentation, “How to be a Bad GTA: Boundary Setting and Support in a Writing Program,” was inspired by Courtney Adams Wooten’s chapter “How to be a Bad WPA” (in The Things We Carry: Strategies for Recognizing and Negotiating Emotional Labor in Writing Program Administration). As a WPA, former GradWPA, and GTA, we explored how writing programs can build and sustain structures of support that help GTAs learn how to, and become okay with, setting necessary boundaries as they develop as writing instructors within a writing program community.”
Rich Klindworth, Jr. (MA-English Studies, 2019; Certificate in Professional Communication, 2018) defended his dissertation in ECU’s doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Administration, supervised by Dr. Crystal Chambers.
Klindworth is a Public Communications specialist at ECU News Services. He earned his MA in English completing a dual concentration in TPC and Creative Writing (Bob Siegel chaired his thesis). In 2019, the department circulated an announcement about a successful grant project he completed in the spring 2018 section of ENGL 7712.
Dr. Tabitha Miller, who received her PhD in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication from our department in 2014, has just been named as the next President of Martin Community College.
Her dissertation, entitled “The Students’ Voices in Developmental Education,” was directed by Will Banks and English Department committee members included Wendy Sharer and Sherri Southard. Dr. Steven Schmidt from the College of Education was an outside member.