English Department News
Hallberg Interviewed on IBT Podcast
Christy Hallberg was just featured on the Indie Book Talk Podcast on the episode “Turning Memoir Into Fiction with Christy Alexander Hallberg”. She talked with the hosts about turning memoir into fiction and her experience writing her novel, Searching for Jimmy Page, forthcoming October 20 from Livingston Press.
The novel’s synopsis is the unraveling of eighteen-year-old Luna Kane’s haunted past begins in the winter of 1988, when her great-grandfather, a self-proclaimed faith healer, claims he hears phantom owls crying in the night. “Them owls, like music. Can you hear the music?” His plea triggers Luna’s repressed memory of her dead mother’s obsession with Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s legendary guitar wizard, and sends her on a pilgrimage from North Carolina to England.
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Feder Published in Critical Read
Dr. Helena Feder published a creative nonfiction piece “Stealing Hunters in the Snow” in Critical Read.
Critical Read tells the true stories behind works of the fine, literary, and performing arts. At a time when in-depth writing about the arts has all but disappeared from daily media, Critical Read seeks to reintroduce the reader to the history of art and the people who make our world beautiful.
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Hallberg’s Short Story Featured in Still
Christy Hallberg’s new short story about the late Gram Parsons, “Grievous Angel,” was just published in the summer issue of Still: The Journal.
Also, the arts magazine HocTok featured Christy reading an excerpt from her forthcoming novel, Searching for Jimmy Page, on their YouTube channel.
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Kitta Featured in Slate
Dr. Andrea Kitta was recently featured in an article in Slate, “The Fable of the Sick Anti-Vaxxer:” The author of the article recounts a 1975 poster created by the World Health Organization to promote child immunizations. Kitta suggests the fable “cements the in-group of the vaccinated, providing the vaccinated reader with confirmation that their choice was the right one.”
In addition, the article links to the March 2 article, How the Stories We Tell About COVID Can Help—or Hinder—Vaccination Efforts, in which Kitta was interview extensively on vaccination folklore.
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Squint Interviews Clapsaddle for NCLR
Dr. Kirstin Squint’s interview, “Many Identities, One Voice: an Interview with Cherokee Novelist Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle,” was published in the 2021 issue of North Carolina Literary Review. The interview explores Clapsaddle’s award-winning debut novel, Even As We Breathe, as well as themes including Cherokee literary traditions and the intersection of Indigenous, Appalachian, and southern cultures. Squint will host Clapsaddle through the Whichard Professorship at the Black Box Theatre on October 4, 2021, at 6:00 p.m. for a reading and fundraiser for North Carolina Literary Review.
Feder Publishes Second Collection
Dr. Helena Feder published her second edited collection of the summer. You Are the River (NCMA) is a volume of seventy-five literary responses to seventy-five works in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art. THCAS will be hosting a ticketed event for the book here at ECU on the evening of 9/1. NC State Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green will join several members of the department, past and present, to read their work from the book, including Liza Wieland, Luke Whisnant, John Hoppenthaler, Peter Makuck, and Alex Albright. The event combines the book launch with the opening of the giant Great Book sculpture, a leave-a-book/take-a-book library installed outside Joyner, funded in part by the NCMA.
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Hallberg Presents Paper and More
Christy Hallberg presented her paper “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll, But Not Everybody Likes It: Contextualizing Violence and Music in Jeff Jackson’s Destroy All Monsters” at the Popular Culture Association’s 2021 Virtual Conference. The paper explores the link between violence and music and the deification of dead artists. How far should one go to preserve the authenticity of art? Does selling out warrant execution of one sort or another? Is art worth killing for—figuratively and, in the case of Jackson’s novel, literally?
Hallberg’s bio is included in Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2021, which was just released last week. Per Amazon’s blurb, “In the second annual Who’s Who of Emerging Writers compiled and published by Sweetycat Press, the bios of 128 writers worldwide are included, along with seven essays by professionals in the writing field that should be of interest to every writer at all stages in their careers as writers.
Hallberg was also recently interviewed for HocTok arts magazine about her forthcoming debut novel from the University of West Alabama/Livingston Press, Searching for Jimmy Page.
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Feder Publishes Collection
Dr. Helena Feder’s collection Close Reading the Anthropocene was published by Routledge. Reading poetry and prose, images and art, literary and critical theory, science and cultural studies, Close Reading the Anthropocene explores the question of meaning, its importance, and immanent potential for loss, in the new geological epoch of the Anthropocene. Both close reading and scientific ecology prioritize slowing down and looking around to apprehend similarities and differences, to recognize and value interconnections. Here “close” suggests careful attention to both the reading subject and read “object.” Moving between places, rocks, plants, animals, atmosphere, and eclipses, this interdisciplinary edited collection grounds the complex relations between text and world in the environmental humanities.
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Hallberg Published in storySouth
Congratulations to Christy Hallberg, whose new creative nonfiction essay, “Shifting Phantasmagoria,” was just published by storySouth.
Hallberg states, “If you’re intrigued by the likes of Sharon Tate, Charles Manson, The Beatles, Joan Didion, Quentin Tarantino, and Donald Trump, please have a read. (I wrote it in early December 2020, before the storming of the Capitol Building.)”
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Bauer Publishes Essay in Deep South
Dr. Margaret Bauer’s creative nonfiction essay “My Mother’s Day, 1989,” was recently published in Deep South Magazine.
In the essay, Bauer writes, “How many of my parents’ friends remarked to me over the years, “You always had a book with you.” I learned early that would cure boredom if our parents got caught up in their partying, and we got stuck much longer than expected at someone’s house with no other children to play with. I would find a corner and read. I had imagined writing books like that, but my graduate school papers took me in a more scholarly direction with my writing.”
Deep South is an online magazine covering the literature and culture of the South. It strives to celebrate Southern literature by interviewing authors, reviewing their books, creating reading lists, and visiting landmarks.
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Hoppenthaler Participates in Poetry Month
John Hoppenthaler read his poem “A Jar of Rain” as part of the West Virginia Humanities Center’s National Poetry Month celebration.
The Humanities Center and Eberly College of Arts and Sciences partnered to celebrate April as National Poetry Month — which marks its 25th anniversary this year — by recording a series of poetry readings. The presenters each read original works or other poems that reflect their West Virginia experience and identity.
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McKoy Garners Third Award for Dissertation
ECU English alumna Dr. Temptaous Mckoy (PhD RWPC 2019), now an assistant professor at Bowie State University, has been selected as the winner of ECU’s 2020 Thesis and Dissertation Award in the Humanities and Fine Arts category for her dissertation, “Y’all Call It Technical And Professional Communication, We Call It #Fortheculture: The Use Of Amplification Rhetorics In Black Communities And Their Implications For Technical And Professional Communication Studies.” Mckoy will receive the award at a virtual event on April 12.
This is the third award for McKoy’s dissertation, which also received the 2020 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Dissertation in Technical Communication Award and the 2020 Presidents Dissertation Award from the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition.
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Kitta Serves as Panelist at International Webinar
Last month, Dr. Andrea Kitta represented the United States as a panelist for an international webinar, “Misinformation Conspiracy Theories and Vaccine Hesitancy.” The event was sponsored by the World Medical Association and the Department Of Education, International Program UNESCO Chair In Bioethics at the University of Haifa in Melbourne, Australia.
Kitta served on the panel with scholars from the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Italy, South Africa, and Hong Kong.
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Caswell and Flinchbaugh Publish Nursing Article
Drs. Nikki Caswell (English) and Kerri Flinchbaugh (University Writing Program) recently collaborated with several colleagues in the College of Nursing on an article, “Troublesome knowledge for entry-level PhD nursing students: Threshold concepts essential for the research-focused doctorate,” which was published in the Journal of Professional Nursing.
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Squint Gives Lecture in Critical Perspectives Series
Dr. Kirstin Squint gave the first lecture in the spring 2021 Critical Perspectives Series for the Department of English at UNC Asheville. Her lecture, “Native Southern Literature and EBCI Author Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle,” worked in tandem with Clapsaddle’s UNCA reading on March 31, 2021, and was designed to give background and context on the Cherokee writer.
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Feder’s Interview with Goldstein Now Available
Dr. Helena Feder’s “Love Is the Great Subject: A Conversation on Literature, Science, and Social Justice with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein” is now in print in the ASAP/Journal 6.1 (January 2021): 29-48.
The ASAP/Journal is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that explores new developments in post-1960s visual, media, literary, and performance arts.
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Klein Reflects on Reality TV in Book and TV Series
ECU News has posted a great article about Dr. Amanda Klein and her new book, Millennials Killed the Video Star. In the article, Klein argues, “You start to see these different ways of talking about what identity is. If you look at early seasons of ‘The Real World’, you see cast members who are starting to talk about what it means to be black or what it means to be gay. But the white characters, especially in the early seasons, seem always a little confused. They don’t know what they are.”
The article also mentions Amanda’s upcoming appearance in For Real: The Story of Reality TV, a documentary series on E!.
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Joyner Library Features Five English Professors
Joyner Library has recognized five English faculty members—Guiseppe Getto, Jeffrey Johnson, Andrea Kitta, Kirstin Squint, and Liza Wieland—among its 2020-21 Faculty Authors.
This year, Joyner celebrated a total of 40 authors from across the university: the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Fine Arts & Communication, the College of Health & Human Performance, the Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences, and Academic Library Services.
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Gueye Speaks on Senegalese Women and Unrest
Dr. Marame Gueye gave a talk, “Fleecing Senegalese Women: The Normalization of Female Suffering Through Language and Religion, and Who Should Lead the Fight for Gender Equity in Africa,” as part of the “Sexual and Reproductive Rights in West Africa” webinar series hosted by the University of Lisbon.
In addition, Gueye has made several media appearances to speak about the current unrest in Senegal. She was a recent guest on the academic podcast “The Africanist”, quoted in a recent Al-Jazeera article. and she published an op-ed in the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section.
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Byrd Publishes Article in Politics and Religion
Current Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication PhD student Gordon Byrd published an article, “Why do Evangelicals Support Israel?” in the March 2021 issue of the journal Politics and Religion.
Byrd’s research on this topic is also featured in a recent blog post at The Palm Beach Center for Democracy and Policy Research.
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Cariño Wins Alice James Award
Alum Ina Cariño (BA English and Creative Writing Minor, ’16) has won the 2021 Alice James Award for their manuscript, FEAST. Cariño’s book of poetry will be published by Alice James Books in 2023.
Cariño is a queer Filipinx writer who was born in the Philippines. Their work appears in Waxwing, New England Review, The Oxford Review of Books, and Tupelo Quarterly, among other journals. They hold an MFA in creative writing from NC State and were a 2019 Kundiman fellow. In 2019, they founded Indigena Collective, a reading series and project centering othered and underrepresented creatives in the NC community. Cariño’s manuscript FEAST was a finalist for the 2019 Jake Adam York Prize.
Find out more about Cariño at her website.
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Wieland Publishes Two Stories in After the Pause
Dr. Liza Wieland published a double story feature in the Spring 2021 issue of After the Pause.
After the Pause is a quarterly experimental online literary journal, based in Indianapolis. The journal features experimental poetry, flash fiction, visual poetry, and visual art from new, emerging, and veteran writers. In addition to the online magazine, they published annual print anthologies for the first three years of operation.
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Department’s Diversity Lauded in ECU Article
ECU English was featured in a University News story on the department’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity. The story details how four ENGL alumnae (Drs. Cecilia Shelton, Temptaous McKoy, Kimberly C. Harper and current Michigan State Ph.D. student, Constance Haywood [MA 2017]) were featured in a national roundtable on Black Technical and Professional Communication hosted virtually by Virginia Tech in December.
In the article, Harper states, “With the support of English faculty, I honed my research and writing skills and learned how to become a scholar-activist. I am grateful to the faculty and staff who played a role in my journey.”
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Department Statement on Racial Injustice
As part of its contribution to ECU’s mission of student success, public service, and regional transformation, the Department of English denounces the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, GA, on 2/23/20, of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, KY, on 3/13/20, of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, on 5/25/20, and of Tony McDade in Tallahassee, FL, on 5/27/20. These unconscionable killings and the all too many more like them are products of systemic racism that devalues Black lives. We believe in critical thinking and debate, accessibility, and inclusion, and we condemn violence and hate. We are examining how we–as teachers, scholars, writers, students, members of institutions and communities, and individuals–can be part of making a more just North Carolina and a more just United States. We are living in immensely difficult and stressful times, but for those who bear the scars of systemic racism, getting “back to normal” is not a solution. We believe that the humanities can join with many other disciplines to change our society for the better. To our students: we see you, we see your struggles, and we are here to support and encourage you. We are committed to listening to you and amplifying your voices. As professionals in disciplines attentive to the power of language to help and to hurt, we recognize that a statement like this one can seem painfully inadequate; we consider it only the beginning of the work that we all are doing and will continue to do.
Shelton Wins Dissertation Award
ECU English alumna Cecilia Shelton (PhD RWPC 2019), now an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, has been selected as the recipient of the 2021 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication for her project “On Edge: A Techné of Marginality.”
This prestigious national award is a credit to Shelton’s important work and to the excellent mentoring she received in our PhD program in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication. Her dissertation committee included Wendy Sharer (chair), Erin Frost, Michelle Eble, and Ersula Ore (Arizona State). She is in good company. This is the second year in a row that an ECU RWPC alumna has received this award; Temptaous Mckoy received it in 2020. Previous winners of the CCCC dissertation award also include Erin Frost (2015), Donna Kain (2004), and Brent Henze (2003).
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Hatcher to Join Univ. of Scranton Faculty
Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication PhD student Alicia Hatcher has accepted an offer to join the faculty of the University of Scranton as a tenure-track assistant professor. Hatcher will be part of a cluster of new faculty building a minor in Black Studies.
Many congratulations to Hatcher on this wonderful opportunity.
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Banks Receives Stonewall Award
Dr. Will Banks received the 2021 Stonewall Service Award for the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). This award recognizes members of CCCC/NCTE who have consistently worked to improve the experiences of sexual and gender minorities within the organization and the profession. He will be recognized during the 2021 CCCC Awards Presentation.
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Bauer Publishes Article in The Dead Mule School
Dr. Margaret Bauer’s creative nonfiction essay “When a Cajun Calls: Louisiana Priorities, circa 2002” was just published in the February 2021 issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature.
In addition, the essay is illustrated with a painting by Bauer’s mother, Jane Desonier.
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Faculty Recognized by Campus Living
Several English faculty and graduate students were honored in Fall 2020 as Campus Living Honored Instructors. Honored Instructors are nominated by students in their classes. Congratulations to Zachary Perkinson, Jennifer Sisk, Marc Petersen, Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs, Ken Parille, Angela Raper, Randall Martoccia, Andrea Kitta, Kasen Christensen, Kelly Miller, Zachary Singletary, Helena Feder, and Timm Hackett.
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Former ENGL 7712 Student Lands $449K Grant
Vanessa Cogdell Moore, a 2019 graduate of the College of Education Certificate in Distance Education and Administration, is the co-founder of Fish Out Of Water, a Fayetteville-based non-profit career development center that seeks to advance education and training among individuals seeking transitions. While finishing her COE certificate program, she also took the English department’s Grant and Proposal Writing course to learn how to prepare grants in support of her organization’s efforts.
Moore recently learned that FO2W has been awarded a two-year, $449K federal grant to support the organization’s “Anchors Up” initiative, a youth development program that helps Bladen County middle- and high school students to set and pursue healthy life goals through workshops, coaching, and access to community health resources. The proposal received funding through the Title V Competitive Sexual Risk Avoidance Education grant program.
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Squint and Bauer Appear on NC Bookwatch
Margaret Bauer joined Randall Kenan, Big Fish writer Daniel Wallace, and NC Writers’ Network Director Ed Southern gathered to talk about “North Carolina’s Literary Landscape:”
Kirstin Squint appeared on the broadcast that discussed Appalachian Reckoning. Squint was one of four authors featured in the show hosted by Meredith McCaroll, the editor of the book.
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Huang’s Article Compares Three Great Wall Films
Dr. Su-ching Huang’s article, “Rewriting History, Narrating Nation: The Great Wall in Sino-US Co-productions in the New Millennium,” has been published in the newest issue of The Journal of Chinese Cinemas. This paper compares the representations of the Great Wall of China in three Sino-US co-produced films, Shadow Magic (西洋鏡, Ann Hu胡安, 2000), Dragon Blade (天降雄師, Daniel Lee李仁港, 2015), and The Great Wall (長城, Zhang Yimou張藝謀, 2016). Instead of seeing the Great Wall as a structure that demarcates clear boundaries, Dr. Huang reads its film representations as symptoms of anxieties over the impossibilities of maintaining well-defined borderlines.
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Hallberg Feature on Micro Podcast
Christy Hallberg is one of three featured writers on a recent edition of Micro: A Podcast for Short But Powerful Writing. She’s reading her flash story “Aperture,” published in Fiction Southeast in October 2020.
Micro’s mission is to elevate small works with big voices and the writers and publications who create them.
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Herron’s Research Highlighted at ECU Awards Ceremony
Dr. Tom Herron was recognized at yesterday’s Research and Creative Activity Awards ceremony for his work on the “Castle to Classrooms” NEH grant. The ceremony highlighted how research has continued at the university in the face of the pandemic.
ECU featured Herron in a more in-depth article on Castle to Classrooms back in August 2020.
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Kitta Interviewed in Slate Magazine
Dr. Andrea Kitta was interviewed by Slate on COVID folklore and the importance of narrative in vaccine efforts.
In the article, Kitta states, “With COVID, we have some stories like this—nurses and physicians who give it to family members, all those people who got sick from the one wedding in Maine. That’s the level of story that sticks—it was this celebratory event, and people died because of it. The best intentions will lead you astray.”
Slate is a daily magazine on the web and podcast network. Founded in 1996, they are a general-interest publication offering analysis and commentary about politics, news, business, technology, and culture.
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Klein Publishes book on MTV
Dr. Amanda Ann Klein’ s book Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV’s Transition to Reality Programming has been published by Duke University Press. You can read the introduction for free on the Duke Press website.
Millennials Killed the Video Star historicizes and analyzes MTV’s original cycle of scripted, identity-focused reality shows that started with Laguna Beach (2004-2006) and continues on today with series like Catfish (2012-to the present). Why did MTV stop selling rock music videos and start selling identity-focused reality television in the 2000s, and what might this shift reveal about the way Millennial youth were instructed to understand identity (their own, of those around them, and of the subjects they watch on reality TV)?
Klein analyzes MTV’s larger role in discourses of self-governance in relation to Millennial youth identities in particular, the fascination with and normalization of self-scripting and self-disclosure that characterizes Millennial public discourse. For Millennials, the first generation who regularly documented and projected their selfhood via social media and smartphones, MTV’s reality programming functioned as an “identity workbook,” showcasing a variety of ways of being in the world. This book tells the story of MTV’s changing programming and the role that this programming has played in the way Millennial audiences of the 2000s thought about, talked about, and embraced a variety of identities.
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Herron’s Work Featured in Spenser Studies
Dr. Tom Herron has published the article: “Mixed Up: Race, Degeneration, and ‘Old English’ Politics in Spenser’s Bower of Bliss and Castle Joyous,” in the journal Spenser Studies.
This article is part of a special issue on “Spenser and Race.”
Founded in 1980, Spenser Studies is devoted to the study of Edmund Spenser and the poetry of early modern England. Contributions examine Spenser’s place in literary history, the social and religious contexts of his writing, and the philosophical and conceptual problems explored in his art.
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Gueye Featured in The Bellingham Review
Dr. Marame Gueye’s new creative nonfiction essay, “Cooking Yassa with Ami,” was recently published in the Bellingham Review’s new online series “Resilient Pieholes.”
The Bellingham Review publishes literature of palpable quality, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and photography, in one Fall Online Edition and one Spring Print Edition, along with rolling content on the BH Review Blog. Established in 1977, Bellingham Review has earned a reputation for publishing established and emerging writers who successfully employ innovative form and content.
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Wieland Featured on NC Bookwatch
Dr. Liza Wieland was interviewed for the 12/13 episode of NC Bookwatch. Wieland discussed her latest novel, Paris 7 a.m. NC Public Television described the book as “a beautifully imagined depiction of the celebrated American poet Elizabeth Bishop. Set near the dawn of WWII, focuses on the three life-changing weeks Bishop spent in Paris.”
NC Bookwatch is a local public television program presented by UNC-TV.
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Herron Featured in Medieval Warfare
Tom Herron’s NEH-funded “Castles to Classrooms: Developing an Irish Castle in Virtual Reality” project is featured in a two-page spread in the Feb/March 2021 issue of Medieval Warfare magazine, with an article written by Tom and his collaborator Vicky McAlister.
Medieval Warfare covers military history topics in the period between 500 – 1500 A.D. Set in the time of warlords and castles, this bi-monthly magazine explores topics both familiar and unconventional.
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Mckoy Wins Presidents Dissertation Award
ECU English alumna Dr. Temptaous McKoy (PhD 2019), now an assistant professor at Bowie State University, has been selected as a recipient of the 2020 Presidents Dissertation Award from the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition for her project “Y’all Call It Technical And Professional Communication, We Call It #Fortheculture: The Use Of Amplification Rhetorics In Black Communities And Their Implications For Technical And Professional Communication Studies.”
This is the second national award from McKoy’s dissertation, which also received the 2020 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Dissertation in Technical Communication Award. McKoy also presented today as part of a national Zoom panel hosted by Virginia Tech on Black Technical and Professional Communication. (Three other ECU English alums, Kimberly Harper, Cecilia Shelton, and Constance Haywood, also presented.)
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Squint’s Collection Named Editor’s Pick
Dr. Kirstin Squint’s co-edited collection Swamp Souths: Literary and Cultural Ecologies (LSU Press 2020), has been named an “Editors’ Pick” for November by Choice Reviews.
About Choice: “Choice supports the work and professional development of academic librarians by providing tools and services that help them become more effective advocates for their patrons. Through its over fifty-year history, it has established itself as an authoritative source for the evaluation of scholarly resources and as the publisher of trusted research in areas of interest to a changing academic library community. Today, Choice works to bring librarians, scholars, publishers, and the reading public together, facilitating a shared concern for the discovery, management, and preservation of scholarly information.”
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Feder Publishes Article in Guernica
Dr. Helena Feder published the essay, “Cold Inside: Sexual Climate Change,” in Guernica.
In the essay, Feder writes, “Literature, in any language, is often the story of sex or death or both, an expression and reflection of the forces of nature we cannot control, those that remind us we are social animals.”
Founded online in 2004, Guernica is an award-winning 501(c)3 non-profit magazine focused on the intersection of arts and politics. Run entirely by a staff of volunteers, Guernica is also the grateful recipient of federal and private support. A home for incisive ideas and necessary questions, we publish memoir, reporting, interviews, commentary, poetry, fiction, and multimedia journalism exploring identity, conflict, culture, justice, science, and beyond.
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Valcin Wins People’s Choice Award
Mariot Valcin, Jr., a student in our MA program with a concentration in MTL, won the People’s Choice Award for the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition.
The Dean of ECU’s Graduate School, Paul Gemperline, mentioned Valcin’s achievement in his recent newsletter.
The Three-Minute Thesis is an international competition for graduate students to present their research in 3 minutes or less using only 1 slide. The first 3MT was held at The University of Queensland in 2008 with 160 PhD students competing. Enthusiasm for the 3MT concept grew and its widespread implementation by universities has led to the development of an international competition.
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Banville Co-Edits The Peer Review
PhD student Morgan Banville co-edited the newest issue of The Peer Review journal. In the letter from the editors, Banville and her co-editors trace out the unique opportunity afforded to them to edit a special issue – an opportunity usually only given to established scholars. Banville is carrying on the legacy of past and current PhD students in our department who are working to enlarge the fields of writing studies and TPC to make space for diverse voices and perspectives.
The Peer Review is a fully online, open-access, multimodal scholarly journal that promotes the work of emerging writing center researchers. In particular, the journal targets graduate/undergraduate/high school researchers. While the journal welcomes Writing Center directors and administrators as co-authors, the journal’s overall purpose is to forward the work of new voices in the field.
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Johnson and Variorum Staff Complete Last Volumes
Dr. Jeffrey Johnson and the staff of the John Donne Variorum just submitted the last two volumes of the 10 printed volumes to Indiana University Press. Those volumes are the last two parts of the 3-part Songs & Sonets set: Songs & Sonets, Volume 4.2 (1,104 total pages) and Songs & Sonets, Volume 4.3 (1,050 total pages). These two volumes contain the texts and commentary for all 57 of these love lyrics.
The Divine Poems, Volume 7.2 (1,012 total pages) is currently at the press and will be available January 2021. The last two Songs & Sonets volumes should then be published about a year later. This project was first conceived by a group of eight scholars in 1980 and over the years dozens of scholars and research assistants contributed to the excellence of this critical edition of Donne’s poetry. And now, 40 years and many NEH dollars later, it is done.
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Kitta Wins 2020 Chicago Folklore Prize
Dr. Andrea Kitta won the 2020 Chicago Folklore Prize for her book The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore (Utah State University Press, 2019). This is the highest book award in the discipline of folklore and a major achievement. ECU News featured Kitta’s award-winning book recently on its site.
First awarded in 1928 and given to the author(s) of the best book (or occasionally of the best two books) of folklore scholarship for the year, the Chicago Folklore Prize is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. The prize is offered jointly by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago. Dr. Kitta is the most recent in a long line of fine folklorists who have been honored for their excellent prize-winning books for more than three-quarters of a century.
On Oct. 17 and 18, Kitta will be featured in “Radical Death Reads” with The Collective for Radical Death Studies. The CRDS “mission is to interrogate the field of Death Studies to decolonize and de-center whiteness while calling to radicalize death practices, all in theory and in practice from a variety of angles, i.e. our research, writing, community work, and professional careers.”
Lastly, Kitta’s, essay “Why Are Ghosts So White?” was just published at The Order of the Good Death.
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Bauer’s Publishes Two Essays
Dr. Margaret Bauer’s creative nonfiction essay “Navigating the Pod People” was published in the Spring/Summer 2020 issue of Cold Mountain Review. In the essay, Bauer writes, “I am an English professor. I teach critical thinking and critical reading. I do not deny that I live in a liberal bubble, as university communities tend to be, but we vet our news sources, I point out, in response to my brother’s suggestion that liberals are all naive.”
In addition, Bauer’s creative nonfiction essay “Hope Chest Turned Coffee Table” was just published in storySouth.
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Caswell Receives OED Grant
Dr. Nikki Caswell received a mini-grant from the Office for Equity and Diversity for her project “Write On through Anti-Racist Pedagogy.” Caswell will collect stories from students about racist experiences with respect to grading criteria and writing assignments. The goal is to use the information collected to engage faculty to reflect on their approach toward grading criteria and writing assignments. Through highlighting this issue, this project will have an impact on current and future students by increasing the opportunities for success by changing unfair grading practices.
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Banville Publishes Pilot Study
Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication PhD student Morgan Banville’s pilot study “Resisting Surveillance: Responding to Wearable Device Privacy Policies” has been published in the 2020 proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Design of Communication (SIGDOC) proceedings. The SIGDOC conference is being held virtually this week. Her work explores how undergraduate students interpret wearable device privacy policies.
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Dudasik-Wiggs Honored with ECU’s Highest Leadership Award for Women
Dr. Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs was announced as the winner of the Dr. Linda Allred Profiles in Leadership Award. This is ECU’s top leadership award for women.
In addition, Dudasik-Wiggs was named one of ECU’s 2020 Women of Distinction. Dudasik-Wiggs is recognized for her many years of dedicated service, leadership, and advocacy in English and in Gender Studies and in the community.
The awards recognize individuals who identify as women who have:
- Distinguished themselves in academic work, career, leadership, public service, or any combination thereof through commitment, determination, empowerment, and generosity of spirit and time;
- Contributed to the personal growth and success of others, especially women, through education, research, or public or volunteer service, beyond their expected job responsibilities; and
- Whose achievements create positive social change, increase equality and fairness for all, and build community.
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Getto Awarded a Grant for Work on SOBOS App
Dr. Guiseppe Getto, with several colleagues at the university (Marti Van Scott and Ariana Billingsley), was recently awarded an Innovation Corps – National Innovation Network Teams Program grant for $50,000. The grant will help the team behind the Self-Reported On-the-Water Boat Operators Safety app develop a business model for funding their continuing work to improve boater safety.
SOBOS is an iOS and Android mobile app, providing information about normal, non-accident based recreational boaters designed to reduce recreational boating accidents. The goal is to test the efficacy of crowdsourcing recreational boating data as an evidence-based public health approach to reducing boating accidents.
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Rice Selected as Fearing Award Winner for GTAs
The GTA Fearing Award Committee is pleased to announce that Jayde Rice has been selected to receive the 2019-20 Bertie E. Fearing Award for Excellence in Teaching (GTA category). Rice received his MA in English (English Studies) from ECU in 2019 and is now a student in our PhD program in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication. He has taught ENGL 1100, ENGL 2201, ENGL 2885 (Writing and Document Design), and ENGL 3820 (Scientific Writing). The committee was impressed by Rice’s thorough, polished portfolio of teaching materials and by his exemplary, compassionate communications with his classes during the upheavals of the pandemic.
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Johnson’s Article Featured in Language Teaching
Dr. Mark Johnson just published the invited essay “Research timeline: Planning in L1 and L2 Writing: Working Memory, Process, and Product” in the journal Language Teaching.
Johnson argues “The study of planning in second language (L2) writing research is heavily influenced by two research domains: (a) early research on cognition in first language (L1) composing processes and (b) second language acquisition (SLA) research.”
Johnson’s research timeline “traces the study of planning in L2 writing in each of these domains by reviewing key L1 and L2 writing research over the last 30-plus years and by highlighting each study’s findings. Prior to presenting the timeline, the following sections provide backgrounds in each of the domains noted above and situate planning within those domains.”
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Eble and Frost Publish Interrogating Gendered Pathologies
Drs. Michelle Eble’s and Erin Frost’s co-edited collection, Interrogating Gendered Pathologies, has just been published by Utah State University Press. The book “points out and critiques unjust patterns of pathology. Frost and Eble assemble a transdisciplinary approach from/to technologies, rhetorics, philosophies, epistemologies, and biomedical data to consider the effects of biomedicine’s gendered norms on people’s lives. Using a range of complementary and intersectional theoretical approaches, contributors ask questions about rhetoric’s role in healthcare and how it differs depending on patient embodiment and the ways nonnormative bodies are pathologized.”
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Manizza Roszak Publishes Several Works
Dr. Suzanne Manizza Roszak recently published her poetry in several national publications.
- An article, “‘Child-Poems,’ Transnational Affinities, and Literary Activism: Langston Hughes and Rabindranath Tagore for Young Readers,” in the fall issue of Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.
- A poem, “Requiem,” in American Literary Review.
- “Three poems” in the Summer 2020 issue of New Letters.
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Morris and Krusheck featured in Dean’s Remarks
Dean Danell from the Thomas Harriott College of Arts and Science mentioned at the Fall 2020 opening convocation that PhD candidate and new fixed-term instructor Abigail Morris was featured in Cornerstone, the college’s magazine, this summer.
Recent PhD alum Gina Kruschek was also featured. They’re in a piece about “Communication in Healthcare” that highlights their work with their mentor, Erin Frost.
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Hallberg Selected for Featured Fiction
Christy Hallberg’s new flash story, “Aperture,” just won Fiction Southeast’s Story of the Month.
Fiction Southeast is an online literary journal dedicated to short fiction. The journal was founded by Editor, Chris Tusa, and Editor-at-Large, Michael Garriga. We publish fiction weekly as well as essays, reviews, and interviews. Past contributors include Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Aimee Bender, Donald Ray Pollock, RT Smith, Michael Martone, Ron Carlson, and many others.
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Gueye’s Work Featured in Bellingham Review
Dr. Marame Gueye’s short story, “Wedding Rings,” was just published in issue 80 of The Bellingham Review. It is featured in a special section, “Scribes, Griots, Poets: New Writing from West Africa.”
The Bellingham Review publishes literature of palpable quality, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and photography. Established in 1977, Bellingham Review has earned a reputation for publishing established and emerging writers who successfully employ innovative form and content.
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Squint Involved in Book Award; Featured in ECU News
Dr. Kirstin Squint, Whichard Visiting Distinguished Professor, is a contributor in Appalachian Reckoning: a Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, which won an American Book Award (the Walter and Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award).
The award, which has no categories or nominees, was created to recognize extraordinary literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community. The 2020 American Book Award winners will be formally recognized on Sunday, October 25th, 2020 from 2-3 pm.
Additional information on the award can also be found at the Before Columbus Foundation.
In addition, Dr. Squint was recently featured in an ECU news article about women’s suffrage. The article also highlights October 21st virtual event, sponsored by the Whichard Professorship, Gender Studies, and English, featuring historian Cathleen Cahill.
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Feder’s Non-Fiction Featured in After the Art
Dr. Helena Feder just had a light piece of nonfiction published in After the Art. Currently, Feder serves as Mellon/ACLS fellow-in-residence at the North Carolina Museum of Art.
In the piece, Feder writes, “For those who want to know, though I must warn you I am a very jealous lover, the Portrait of a Gentleman to which I refer hangs in the North Carolina Museum of Art. There he sits in stately black with perfect, yet relaxed, posture on a cushioned carved chair.”
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Herron Awarded NEH Grant
Dr. Tom Herron received a $93,212 NEH grant in the Digital Humanities Advancement category for his project “Castle to Classrooms: Developing an Irish Castle in Virtual Reality.” The grant will fund the design and testing of teaching modules built in virtual reality for an existing 3-D digital model of Kilcolman Castle, Ireland, home of English poet Edmund Spenser.
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PhD Alumnae, Dr. Kimberly Harper, Pens Web Article
English PhD alum Kimberly Harper, now an Assistant Professor at North Carolina A&T, has a new post on Teacher-Scholar-Activist entitled “Do White People Hate Us?” As the site editors write, “In the post, Dr. Harper raises questions about the recent commitments that many white academics are making to antiracist practices and how these commitments will transform white academics’ behavior.”
Dr. Harper reminds us of “the emotional work that we must carry out and our shared humanity.”
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Raper’s Story Published in Footnote
Angela Raper’s short story, “The Rum Barrel,” has been published in Footnote: A Literary Journal of History, from Alternating Current Press.
Alternating Current is a boutique independent press dedicated to publishing and promoting incredible literature that challenges readers and has an innate sense of self, timelessness, and atmosphere.
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Shelton Joins Faculty at University of Maryland
Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication PhD alumna Cecilia Shelton will be joining the faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English this fall. Dr. Shelton graduated from our program in 2019 and held a position in the writing program at The George Washington University in 2019-2020. Her work focuses on connections between technical communication and digital and cultural rhetorics. We wish her all the best in her new job!
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Kitta’s Book Wins McConnell Award
Dr. Andrea Kitta’s book The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore (Utah State UP, 2019) has been named the winner of the 2020 Brian McConnell Book Award, which is given by the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. The purpose of the award is to encourage scholarship in the field, to recognize and inspire standards of excellence in contemporary legend publications, and to commemorate the life and work of Brian McConnell, a longtime member of ISCLR, celebrated crime reporter, author and legend scholar. Andrea is a two-time winner of this award, as her previous book Vaccinations and Public Concern in History: Legend, Rumor, and Risk Perception (Routledge, 2012) was honored in 2012.
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Feder Authors Two New Articles
Dr. Helena Feder added two new journal articles to her curriculum vitae.
“‘Dover Beach’ and the Uncertain Afterlife of Victorian Environments” was published in Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism on September 2nd. The journal “explores the relationship between literary, artistic and popular culture and the various conceptions of the environment articulated by scientific ecology, philosophy, sociology and literary and cultural theory.”
“Contradiction Is Not Disappointing: An Interview with Michael Hardt” was published in the August edition of the journal Capitalism Nature Socialism. The journal focuses on “ecosocialism, encompassing anticapitalist perspectives that are both egalitarian and environmental in orientation.”
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Joseph Campbell (1964-2020)
The Department of English mourns the passing of our colleague, Joe Campbell. Joe will be much missed in our department, at Pitt Community College, and in the community.
After earning his BA (1986) and MA (1997) with a creative writing concentration in English at ECU, he lived in Atlanta for six years before returning to ECU as a Teaching Instructor in 2005. Joe regularly taught composition and business writing courses. We send condolences to Joe’s friends and family.
Joe’s family requests memorials be made to Saving Graces 4 Felines, P.O. Box 4307, Greenville, NC 27836 or the NC ALS Chapter, 4 North Blount St., Suite 200, Raleigh, NC 27601.
Eble Publishes Chapter
Dr. Michelle Eble’s chapter “Turning Toward Social Justice Approaches to Technical and Professional Communication” was just published in Talking Back: Senior Scholars and Their Colleagues Deliberate the Past, Present, and Future of Writing Studies (Utah State University Press, 2020).
In Talking Back, edited by Norbert Eliot and Alice S. Horning, a veritable Who’s Who of writing studies scholars deliberate on intellectual traditions, current practices, and important directions for the future. In response, junior and mid-career scholars reflect on each chapter with thoughtful and measured moves forward into the contemporary environment of research, teaching, and service.
Eble’s chapter is a response to “Inside the Wave: The Professionalization and Future of Technical and Professional Communication,” written by Jo Allen, alum and former faculty member in the Department of English.
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Caswell Featured in AALHE’s Intersection
Dr. Nikki Caswell’s article “What’s Beneath the Demographics? Writing Center Usage and Inequality” was published in the journal Intersection by the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education. In the article, Caswell argues “how writing centers and other learning centers can use demographic data to actively engage in social justice work through assessment.”
The Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education is an organization of practitioners interested in using effective assessment practice to document and improve student learning. As such, it serves the needs of those in higher education for whom assessment is a tool to help them understand learning and develop processes for improving it.
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Hackett Wins THCAS Teaching Award
Timm Hackett was named a recipient of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Fixed Term Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award for 2019-20. Established last year, this award recognizes and rewards sustained, exceptional performance by fixed-term teaching instructors. Hackett was recognized for his dedication to teaching and mentoring and his excellent service, including his leadership on teaching with technology, which has been crucial during the pandemic. (Dr. Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs won this award last year, so English is two-for-two!)
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Klein Wins Board of Governors Award
Dr. Amanda Klein is one of the winners of the 2019-2020 ECU Board of Governors Distinguished Professor for Teaching Award for her excellent teaching in Film Studies. The award recognizes and supports excellent teaching at East Carolina University.
The OFE has a brief video congratulating Dr. Klein on YouTube.
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Henze Wins 2019-2020 Max Ray Joyner Award
Dr. Brent Henze was announced as the winner of ECU’s 2019-20 Max Ray Joyner Award for Excellence in Teaching through Distance Education in recognition of his teaching, advising, and mentoring of students in the department’s TPC MA concentration and certificate.
The OFE has a brief video congratulating Dr. Henze on YouTube.
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Herron Updates Centering Spenser
Dr. Tom Herron and Laurie Godwin (ITCS), with the help of Doug Barnum (ECU VR Lab) and English grad students Sarah Parrish and David Buchanan, finished a year-long remodel of the Centering Spenser website. They re-organized parts to make them more user-friendly, added graphics, switched various pages to the Omeka platform and added a few new features, mainly for undergraduate teaching purposes, such as a free downloadable iBook (PDF) version of much of the website content and also a sample VR tour –a hodgepodge of items tossed into various rooms– that functions on the web platform WondaVR (in non-Safari browsers).
In addition, Herron published a recent blog post, “Hawks and Yawps,” on Humanities Watch as part of its “Coronavirus Tales” series.
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Raper Publishes New Work
Angela Raper has published a new creative nonfiction piece in the spring issue of K’in: “Seventeen Things I Need from the Store.”
K’in states, “Our goal is to create a publication that makes a place for that range, for those diverse experiences, particularly making space for marginalized and underrepresented voices.”
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Feder Interviews South African sculptor Ledelle Moe
Dr. Helena Feder published an interview with the South African sculptor Ledelle Moe in Another Chicago Magazine.
Moe’s work has appeared in numerous venues, including the Kulturhuset (Stockholm, Sweden), the NSA Gallery (Durban, South Africa), the International Sculpture Center (Washington, DC), The Washington Project for the Arts (Washington, DC), and the American Academy of Arts and Letters (New York City). Her projects include large-scale concrete installations at Socrates Park and Pratt Institute in New York City, and The African Museum of Art in Washington DC.
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Hallberg Reads on Charlotte Readers Podcast
Christy Hallberg was invited to read her creative nonfiction essay “The Ballad of Evermore” on the Charlotte Readers Podcast Covid-19 Read-In. The episode aired on April 14.
To listen to the podcast click here.
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Eble Wins 2019-2020 ECU Scholar-Teacher Award
Dr. Michelle Eble has been selected as one of the 2019-2020 ECU Scholar-Teacher recipients. This is the 24th Annual Teaching Awards given by the ECU Office of Faculty Excellence.
The OFE stated, “Students at ECU have the opportunity to learn from faculty who challenge, equip, support and encourage them not only to seek excellence in the classroom, but also to make a positive difference in our community, nation, and world.”
The OFE has a brief video honoring the recipients on YouTube.
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Gueye Publishes Article in Journal of the African Literature Association
Dr. Marame Gueye’s article “Fatou Diome’s Le ventre de l’Atlantique: re-configuring local discourses of emigration” was just published in the Journal of the African Literature Association. This article uses Wolof idioms related to Senegalese migration to France such as dem ci kaaw bi (to go to the cave/France) and dem Jolof (to go back to Jolof/Senegal) in order to read Fatou Diome’s Le ventre de l’Atlantique (The Belly of the Atlantic). It argues that the novel mimics the polysemy of these terms and coins a new one: toog Jolof (to stay/remain in Senegal) as an alternative to clandestine migration.
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Bauer’s Article Featured in Southern Quarterly
Dr. Margaret Bauer’s article “Man wonders but [Babs] decides / When to kill the Prince of Tides”: Taking the Prince Out of The Prince of Tides” was just published in the (somewhat delayed) Summer 2019 issue of Southern Quarterly.
The Southern Quarterly is a scholarly journal devoted to the interdisciplinary study of Southern arts and culture.
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Froula Garners Grant from NEH Dialogues on the Experience of War
Dr. Anna Froula received a $97,163 grant through the NEH Dialogues on the Experience of War initiative to support two years of the Veteran to Scholar Bootcamp, her innovative summer bridge program for new student veterans at ECU. Her collaborator on this grant is Sheena Eagan in the Brody School of Medicine. In the Veteran to Scholar Bootcamp, students learn about life at ECU and explore the topics of homecoming and reintegration through literature, film, folklore, and the medical humanities.
The program was even mentioned in a New York Times article about the NEH grants.
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Glover Receives NEH Summer Stipend
Dr. Brian Glover received a $6,000 NEH Summer Stipend for his project “The Boswell Club of Chicago.” He will be writing an article based on his research in the archives of the Boswell Club of Chicago (1944-1972) (funded by a Special Collections Short-Term Travel Fellowship from the University of Illinois at Chicago) exploring the role of this society on the American reception of Scottish writer James Boswell (1740–1795).
More information and the full list of awardees can be found at neh.gov.
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Recent PhD’s Shelton and McKoy Publish New Article
Two recent ENGL PhD alums, Cecilia D. Shelton and Temptaous McKoy, have just published a new article. “Dressed but Not Tryin’ to Impress: Black Women Deconstructing “Professional” Dress” by Brittany Hull, Cecilia D. Shelton, and Temptaous Mckoy, is featured in the latest issue of The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics.
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Squint’s Chapter Featured in Award-Winning Book
ECU’s current Whichard Chair, Dr. Kirstin Squint, contributed to Appalachian Reckon: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, which won the 2020 Weatherford Award for best non-fiction book about Appalachia. Her chapter in the book is a creative non-fiction piece called “Kentucky, Coming and Going.”
The Weatherford Awards honor books deemed as best illuminating the challenges, personalities and unique qualities of the Appalachian South. Granted by Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association for 50 years, the awards commemorate the life and achievements of W.D. Weatherford, Sr., a pioneer and leading figure in Appalachian development, youth work and race relations, and his son, Willis D. Weatherford, Jr., Berea College’s sixth President.
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Matthews Accepts Offer to Begin Ph.D.
Holly Mathews, who was the English Department’s outstanding MA student in December 2019, officially accepted an offer, with funding, from Indiana University – Bloomington to start her Ph.D. in Folklore. She received offers from Memorial University and Penn State as well.
Ms. Matthews wrote an excellent thesis on how women find power in the supernatural and she plans to work more on this subject. Holly’s thesis was chaired by Andrea Kitta, with committee members Su-ching Huang and Jim Kirkland.
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Manizza Roszak Publishes Three Poems
Dr. Suzanne Manizza Roszak just published three poems — “Family Reunion,” “Missing Person,” and “Santissimo Nome di Maria” — in the Spring 2020 issue of the journal Puerto del Sol.
Puerto del Sol, now in its 53rd year of publication, is published by MFA candidates at New Mexico State University. For half a century, Puerto del Sol has been dedicated to providing a forum for inventive and fresh fiction, poetry, reviews, criticism, and artwork from emerging and established writers and artists.
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Hatcher and Alexander win 2020 Amplification Awards
Alicia Hatcher, a current ECU English Ph.D. Student in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication, and Jamal-Jared Alexander, who graduated from ECU in 2018 with an MA in English (concentration in Technical & Professional Communication) and is now a Ph.D. student at Utah State University, have won two of the three 2020 Amplification Awards from the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). They will receive the awards and present their research at the ATTW conference later this month in Milwaukee. The award includes a conference registration waiver and financial assistance ($500) to help to offset the costs of their travel to ATTW 2020.
As part of ATTW’s commitment to social justice practices and increasing organizational participation and supporting research from underrepresented scholars and teachers of technical communication, ATTW offers three awards to recognize and amplify the important contributions of underrepresented students and/or non-tenure track faculty presenting at ATTW.
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Flora Thomas Publishes New Works, Receives Residencies
Amber Flora Thomas has been quite busy with writing and working with fellow writers.
She had two poems published in Quarterly West.
In addition, Thomas has been offered a month-long residency at Storyknife Writers Retreat in Homer, Alaska, this summer.
She is once again joining the faculty at Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference in June.
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English Department Features Service, Spirit Winners, and Servire Society Members
At this year’s Chancellor’s Horizon Awards for Service Ceremony, English had a lot to celebrate.
Drs. Cheryl Dudasik-Wiggs and Tracy Ann Morse, both received Centennial Awards for Excellence. Dudasik-Wiggs was recognized as the faculty winner in the “Service” category for her extensive service to Gender Studies and English, including her advocacy for fixed-term faculty. Morse was recognized as the faculty winner in the “Spirit” category for her committed leadership of the Writing Foundations program and her work for accessibility and inclusion in writing classes and beyond.
Erin Frost, Laura Jolly, Andrea Kitta, and Lucy Wilmer were honored as Servire Society members for completing 100 or more hours of community service in 2019.
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Kitta Featured in Several New Stories Concerning COVID-19
Dr. Andrea Kitta has been interviewed and quoted as an expert on medical folklore in several recent articles on coronavirus:
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Squint Publishes Book; Gives Lecture
Whichard Professor Dr. Kirstin Squint’s co-edited collection Swamp Souths: Literary and Cultural Ecologies was published March 4 by LSU Press. The book expands the geographical scope of scholarship about southern swamps. Although the physical environments that form its central subjects are scattered throughout the southeastern United States—the Atchafalaya, the Okefenokee, the Mississippi River delta, the Everglades, and the Great Dismal Swamp—this evocative collection challenges fixed notions of place and foregrounds the ways in which ecosystems shape cultures and creations on both local and global scales.
Click here for information on the book.
Squint also traveled to Western Carolina University where she delivered an invited lecture for the Cherokee Studies program, “Choctaw Writer LeAnne Howe and Native Southern Literature.”
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Hallberg’s New Story Featured in Deep South
Christy Hallberg’s flash fiction story “Winter Women” was just published in Deep South Magazine.
Deep South is an online magazine covering the literature and culture of the South. It strives to celebrate Southern literature by interviewing authors, reviewing their books, creating reading lists and visiting landmarks. We will also highlight book festivals and other literary events, along with presenting a roundup of literary news every Friday.
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Raper’s Class Appears on ECUNOW
Dr. Angela Raper’s class is the lead story on ECUNOW, the official blog about news, honors, and events at East Carolina University.
Raper is using a Reacting to the Past active-learning game designed for higher education, specifically the Greenwich Village 1913 game. She first learned about this novel teaching method at a workshop hosted by Dr. Kirstin Squint, Whichard Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities.
“I thought it would be an engaging way for the students to practice some of the fundamental elements of rhetoric, such as learning how to make conscious choices about how to address your audience,” Raper said.
To read the entire story, click here.
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Almuna Davis Featured in Missouri S&T video
Dr. Carleigh Davis (Ph.D. 2018) is currently featured in a Missouri University of Science and Technology video in which she discusses the differences between technical writing and conventional writing.
Dr. Davis has an M.A. in Rhetoric, Writing, and Social Practice from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication from East Carolina University. She was a Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative Fellow. Her research uses Memetic Rhetorical Theory to examine the intersections between rhetoric and social justice in digital spaces. She taught at Kent State during her M.A. program, then at East Carolina University during her doctoral program, before coming to Missouri S&T in 2018.
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Jennette Named Robert H. Wright Alumni Leader
English major Matthew Jennette was named as one of this year’s recipients of the 2020 Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award. This prestigious university-wide award is given by the ECU Alumni Association and recognizes Matthew’s leadership in the classroom and in the community. A double major in English and English Education, Matthew is an Access Scholar, Alumni Association Scholar, and Honors College Centennial Fellow. As Vice President of Pirate After School Scholars, he organizes free tutoring at Sheppard Memorial Library. Matthew will receive the award at the university’s spring commencement ceremony.
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Herron Awarded Visiting Fellowship
Dr. Tom Herron has received a visiting fellowship from the Maynooth University Arts and Humanities Institute (MUAHI) in Ireland. He will be in residence there for two weeks this summer, collaborating with colleagues and working on a book project on Shakespeare and Ireland; the fellowship will help to cover his travel expenses.
The Maynooth University Arts and Humanities Institute, founded in 2018, is the research home of the Faculty of Arts, Celtic Studies and Philosophy. It is dedicated to the promotion of scholarship within the Faculty and to bringing the best of Maynooth University’s rich tradition in humanities research to the world.
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Wieland Receives ECU Lifetime Award for Excellence
Dr. Liza Wieland was named this year’s winner of the ECU Lifetime Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Activity. Wieland’s long and impressive record of creative activity will be celebrated at the Research and Scholarship Awards ceremony on March 2.
Her most recent novel is Paris, 7 A.M. (Simon and Schuster, 2019). Oprah Winfrey named the novel as one of “The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019.”
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McKoy Receives Outstanding Dissertation Award at CCCC
ECU English alumna Dr. Temptaous Mckoy (Ph.D. 2019), now an assistant professor at Bowie State University, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Dissertation in Technical Communication Award for her project “Y’all Call It Technical And Professional Communication, We Call It #Fortheculture: The Use Of Amplification Rhetorics In Black Communities And Their Implications For Technical And Professional Communication Studies.”
This prestigious national award is a credit to Dr. Mckoy’s important work and to the excellent mentoring she received in our PhD program. Her dissertation committee included Michelle Eble (chair), Erin Frost, Matt Cox, and Natasha Jones (Michigan State). She is in good company; previous winners of the CCCC dissertation award include Erin Frost (2015), Donna Kain (2004), and Brent Henze (2003).
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Roszak Publishes Two New Chapters
Dr. Suzanne Manizza Roszak recently published two book chapters:
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Eble Wins Book Award
Congratulations to Michelle Eble, whose book Key Theoretical Frameworks: Teaching Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century (Utah State UP 2018, co-edited with Angela Haas of Illinois State University) has won the 2020 Technical and Scientific Communication Award in the category of Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication
from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). This national award is presented annually in six categories to works published in the past two years. More details are in the attached press release. Michelle and Angela will be announced as award recipients at the CCCC conference next month in Milwaukee
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Kitta Publishes New Chapter
Dr. Andrea Kitta has a chapter, “American Folk Medicine and Health Practices,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Folklore And Folklife Studies (Oxford University Press, 2019). This book was recently named to the exclusive 2020 Outstanding Reference Sources List by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American Library Association. Only 7 reference works are chosen from among hundreds that are submitted. The Oxford title is the only folklore reference work on the list. The award, established in 1958, recommends “the most outstanding reference publications published the previous year for… public and academic libraries. The selected titles are valuable reference resources and are highly recommended for inclusion in any library’s reference collections.”
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Klein Publishes Two New Essays
Dr. Amanda Klein had two essays recently published.
“Teaching Fake News and Resisting the Privilege of Forgetting,” invited essay for Fake News: Understanding Media and Misinformation in the Digital Age. Eds. Melissa Zimdars and Kembrew McLeod. (MIT Press, 2020).
“Grown Woman Shit: A Case for Magic Mike XXL as Cult Text,” invited essay for The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema. Eds. Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton. (Routledge, 2019).
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Feder’s Interview Featured in The Writer’s Chronicle
Dr. Helena Feder’s interview with poet Marianne Boruch is featured in the February 2020 issue of The Writer’s Chronicle, the quarterly magazine of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.
The Writer’s Chronicle has served as a leading source of articles, news, and information for writers, editors, students, and teachers of writing. Published four times during the academic year, the Chronicle provides diverse insights into the art of writing that are accessible, pragmatic, and idealistic.
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Banks and Cox Win Book Award
Drs. Will Banks, and Matt Cox’s book Re/Orienting Writing Studies: Queer Methods, Queer Projects (Utah State UP 2019, co-edited with Caroline Dadas of Montclair State University) has won the 2020 Lavender Rhetorics Award for Excellence in Queer Scholarship (Book) from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). This national award is presented annually to three works (one book, one article, and one dissertation) published within the past two years that best make queer interventions into the study of composition and rhetoric. More details are in the attached press release. Will, Matt, and Caroline will be announced as award recipients at the CCCC conference next month in Milwaukee.
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Hoppenthaler Publishes Two New Poems
John Hoppenthaler had two poems are reprinted in the Australian journal Cordite Poetry Review. The Cordite Poetry Review is an Australian and international journal of poetry, criticism, and research.
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Freeman Publishes Three New Poems
Gabrielle Freeman recently published three new poems.
The poem “In the Turn” in The Rumpus. The Rumpus is a place where people come to be themselves through their writing, to tell their stories or speak their minds in the most artful and authentic way they know how.
Poems “Waking Up Alone” and “Ghazal for Decomposition” in The Los Angeles Press. The Los Angeles Press publishes the best in established and emerging art, literature, and political discourse, from Southern California, the West, and beyond.
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Gueye Receives Travel Grant to Present at Black Migrations Symposium
Congratulations to Dr. Marame Gueye, who received a Harriot College of Arts and Sciences travel grant.
Gueye will use her grant towards the costs of her travel to Columbia, MO, to present her work at the Black Migrations Symposium. This two-day symposium will examine black migrations to include relocations within and beyond the US. Symposium organizers seek papers from scholars, students, and activists that discuss various periods and streams of migration that have shaped the histories and contemporary realities of African people and their descendants.
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Bauer and Kain Receive Faculty Senate Teaching Grant
Drs. Margaret Bauer and Donna Kain, received an ECU Faculty Senate Summer Teaching Grant for their project “Editing/Publishing Training Workshops and Modules for ENGL 3870 and 4890–4891.” For Introduction to Editing and Publishing (which publishes The Lookout) and for the NCLR internship, Bauer and Kain will develop innovative, reusable training modules for lessons on employing style guides, formatting different kinds of content, fact-/quote-checking, editing, acquiring images and permissions, and managing layout. The modules will give students opportunities outside the classroom and internship office to practice editing and design tasks.
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ENGL Department Represented at ECU International Award Ceremony
Dr. Marame Gueye received the ECU International Award for Research in recognition of her current work on Senegalese popular culture and representations of gender. At the ceremony, she met for the first time one of her online students, Lori Anderson, an MA student in Multicultural and Transnational Literatures, who received the Thomas W. Rivers Foreign Exchange Scholarship. Ms. Anderson will use the scholarship towards study abroad in London in Summer 2020. Finally, Timm Hackett introduced the winner of the International Undergraduate Student Award, Musawenkosi Mpondi. Mr. Mpondi, an international student from South Africa, is Mr. Hackett’s student in ENGL 2201.
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Kitta Featured in Two Recent Podcasts
Dr. Andrea Kitta was recently featured on two podcasts, both associated with her new book The Kiss of Death: Contagion and Contamination in Folklore:
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Eble Receives ECU Scholar-Teacher Award
Dr. Michelle Eble was selected as one of the 2019-20 ECU Scholar-Teacher award winners. This university-wide award recognizes outstanding faculty members who integrate scholarship and teaching. Michelle is one of three winners from Harriot College. She will be recognized at the University Teaching Awards ceremony in the spring.
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Bauer Publishes Essay; Elected to Council
Dr. Margaret Bauer just published an essay in the Fall 2019 issue of storySouth. To read the essay, go here.
In addition, Dr. Bauer was elected as one of ten new trustees on the board of the North Carolina Humanities Council.
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Johnson Voted President-Elect of NC TESOL
Dr. Mark Johnson has been elected Vice-President/President-Elect of Carolina TESOL, a non-profit organization that seeks to improve the quality of education for learners of the English language throughout North and South Carolina by advocating for the needs of English language learners and the teachers who serve them. Johnson will serve in this capacity for one year, after which he will assume the duties of the President of Carolina TESOL.
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Miles Leads GAME P.L.A.Y Event
Gera Miles hosted another successful GAME P.L.A.Y. event. This gathering had over 300 kids and Greenville’s mayor in attendance.
Miles said “The English department supports the event through loaned technology and advertising. We appreciate your continued help in making this Outreach Initiative a life-changing and eye-opening experience between the youth and police officers in our community.”
Go here for WITN, Channel 7’s coverage of the event
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Kirk Nancy Wins Outstanding Research Award
The Ph.D. program in Rhetoric, Writing, and Professional Communication in English at East Carolina University recently announced that Ruby Kirk Nancy is the winner of our 2019 inaugural Ph.D. Outstanding Research Award.
Kirk Nancy began the program in the fall of 2015 having come to the department from her master’s program at Western Illinois University. Her research has focused on genre fluidity within rhetoric and writing studies especially where issues of sex, gender, and sexuality are concerned.
Kirk Nancy is a doctoral candidate and plans to defend her dissertation in the spring semester of 2020. Her dissertation committee is Dr. Matt Cox (chair), Drs. Erin Frost, Wendy Sharer, and Deborah Thomson (ECU School of Communication). The award winner receives $300 in professional development/travel funds to be used in the academic year the award is given.
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Banks Chairs NCTE Research Foundation Board
Dr. Will Banks became chair of the NCTE Research Foundation Board of Trustees for two years, effective December 1. As outlined in the NCTE Constitution, the Research Foundation’s goal is to “improve the quality of instruction in English at all educational levels; to encourage research experimentation, and investigation in the teaching of English; to facilitate professional cooperation of the members; to hold public discussions and programs; to sponsor the publication of desirable articles and reports; and to integrate the improvement of instruction in English.” Members of the Research Foundation review grant applications for both research and teaching grants, and also select a cohort of 12 -15 early-career scholars every two years to participate in the Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color (CNV) project, which pairs early-career researchers with experienced mentors in order to support innovative projects and build powerful mentoring networks. Participants in the CNV present their work at selective conferences and go on to become leaders in NCTE and other professional organizations.”
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Hoppenthaler Attends Morisson Celebration
John Hoppenthaler will attend the Celebration of the Life of Toni Morrison at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan on November 21st. Speakers will include Oprah Winfrey, David Remnick, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kevin Young, Angela Davis, Fran Lebowitz, Jesmyn Ward, Edwidge Danticat, and Michael Ondaatje. Hoppenthaler, Morrison’s personal assistant for nine years, also recently participated on the Morrison Tribute Panel at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference in Atlanta. He was joined by notable African-Americanists Carolyn Denard and Trudier Harris. The panel was chaired by Jervette Ward.
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Banks Named ISU Distinguished Graduate Alumni
Dr. William Banks received the Illinois State University Distinguished Graduate Alumni Award this semester. He returned to ISU to accept the award and also guest-lectured in a graduate course, mentored graduate students in small groups, and spoke on two different occasions to current undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and other alumni about his experiences at ISU and his career.
“I’m really honored and touched by this award,” Banks said. “Being recognized by the English department as an outstanding alumnus honors their investment in me all those years ago.”
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Gueye Records Senegalese Poem
Dr. Marame Gueye is featured in a reading and translation of a Senegalese poem by Fatou Yely Faye.
Fatou Yely Faye is a popular poetess in Senegal who does a lot of work with the environment and children. Gueye is translating her book of poetry “Les poubelles de l’espoir” (The Trashcans of Hope). The poem featured in this single is entitled “Reviens” (Come Back!) and is about immigration and the environment. Fatou Yely herself reads the French version, Gueye did the English, Mourtada Diop did the Wolof, and Misa Kouassy did the Portuguese.
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Kitta Gives Two Talks on Vaccines
Dr. Andrea Kitta has been sharing her research on vaccines and folklore with audiences far and near:
She just returned from the symposium “Addressing the Vaccine Crisis: The Digital World, Big Data, and Public Health,” which was sponsored by The Institute for Digital Research and Education and brought together the leading experts on vaccines from around the country.
On Nov. 4, she lectured on vaccines at Wayne Community College.
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Herron Guest Lectures at Carleton College
Dr. Thomas Herron recently headed north to present the ECU interdisciplinary website that he directs, Centering Spenser: a digital resource for Kilcolman Castle, to an Irish history class at Carleton College, MN. Over three days (10/30-11/1), Herron met twice with the class and once with interested faculty to discuss the website and its virtual reality applications, while also exploring digital humanities facets of early modern studies.
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Getto Publishes New Book
Dr. Guiseppe Getto’s co-edited collection, Content Strategy in Technical Communication, was just published by Routledge as part of the ATTW Series in Technical and Professional Communication. The book offers a balanced, comprehensive overview of the current state of content strategy within the field of technical communication while showcasing groundbreaking work in the field. Emerging technologies such as content management systems, social media platforms, open-source information architectures, and application programming interfaces provide new opportunities for the creation, publication, and delivery of content. Content Strategy in Technical Communication provides a roadmap including best practices, pedagogies for teaching, and implications for research in these areas.
Learn more about it here.
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Gueye Receives ECU Achievement Award
Dr. Marame Gueye has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the ECU Achievement in International Research and Creative Activity Award. She will receive the award at ECU’s International Award Ceremony, to be held from 5:00-7:00 PM on November 19th at the Murphy Center. Marame’s research focuses on the verbal art of Senegalese women, and she is regularly interviewed in the media in both the U.S. and Senegal.
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Wieland’s Novel Featured in Historical Fiction List
Dr. Liza Wieland’s novel Paris, 7 A.M. was selected by fellow novelist Courtney Maum for a feature on Electric Literature, “12 Novels about Historical Women to Inspire a Better Future.”
Read the list here
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Klein Highlighted on ECU’s Homepage
Dr. Amanda Klein is featured on the ECU homepage in a Halloween-themed article about horror films and her upcoming spring ENGL 1500 class, “Fear and the American Horror Film.”
In the article, Klein argues that horror movies “force your body to have a reaction, whether it’s crying, laughing or fear. It’s very cathartic to feel that and have that bodily emotion.”
Read the entire article here.
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Kitta Receives Reassignment Award
Dr. Andrea Kitta’ received a Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Reassignment Award for Spring 2020 for her project “Opioid Epidemic: An Ethnographic Investigation into an American Tragedy.” The award will provide a one-course buyout to allow Andrea time to prepare competitive grant proposals.
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Hallberg Publishes Essay
Christy Hallberg just published a flash creative nonfiction essay, “The Ballad of Evermore” in Entropy.
To Hallaberg’s piece, go here.
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Feder Pens Two New Works
Dr. Helena Feder has two new publications. Her article on H.G. Wells, “The ingenious unraveling of evidence”: Empathy, Extinction, and The Croquet Player,” was published in Twentieth-Century Literature.
Her interview, “Science and Social Change: A Conversation with Robert Sapolsky,” was published in the Summer 2019 issue of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.
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Raper’s New Short Story Published
Congratulations to Angela Raper, who published a new short story, “The Murder of Crows,” in the just-released collection Cabinet of Curiosities: Tales of Oddities, Gadgets, and Trinkets:
To read Raper’s story, go here.
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Combs Completes PhD
D. Shane Combs (ECU, MA 2015) completed his doctorate in English Studies at Illinois State (2019) and is now in his first year as Assistant Professor of English Composition and Professional Writing at Central Methodist University. His book, co-edited with Amy E. Robillard, How Stories Teach Us: Composition, Life Writing, and Blended Scholarship was just published by Peter Lang.
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Cope Delivers Keynote Address
Dr. Lida Cope was a keynote speaker at the conference on Multilingualism and Regionality, marking the opening of a new Master’s program in this field at the University of Regensburg in Regensburg, Germany. The title of her talk was *Tož pomály a furt: Looking back at two decades documenting the language of Texas Czechs.”
*Tož pomály a furt is part of a typical greeting in Texas Czech, in response to Jak se máš? ‘How are you?’. It means ‘It’s going, slowly but surely.’ ?
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Gonzales Gives 2019 TAG Lecture
Dr. Laura Gonzales, from the University of Florida, gave the 2020 Tag Lecture, “Language, Technology, and Power in Community Healthcare Contexts,” on October 16 at ECU. Drawing on examples from three community engagement projects in El Paso, Texas, Dr. Gonzales will discuss the role that translation and user experience (UX) design play in healthcare access with multilingual communities. Dr. Gonzales is an engaging scholar-teacher committed to social justice and inclusive practices.
For more information about Dr. Gonzales, visit her website
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Klein Delivers Keynote Address
Dr. Amanda Klein delivered the keynote at the annual Literature/Film Association conference in Portland, Oregon. The title of her talk was, “‘They should never have given us uniforms if they didn’t want us to be an army’: Contemporary Media Multiplicities in a Time of Crisis.”
For more information, go to the Literature/Film Association conference website.
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Kitta Authors The Kiss of Death
Dr. Andrea Kitta’s book The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore has just been published by Utah State University Press. Using examples of specific legends and rumors, The Kiss of Death explores the beliefs and practices that permeate notions of contagion and contamination. Kitta offers new insight into the nature of vernacular conceptions of health and sickness and how medical and scientific institutions can use cultural literacy to meet their communities’ needs better. More information about the book is below.
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Froula’s Essay Featured in Jump Cut
Dr. Anna Froula’s essay “’Alpha Male, Veteran Journalist’: Rob Riggle’s Traumatic Embodiment and Satiric Authenticity was just published in Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media. Rob Riggle is a familiar face in TV sitcoms and satires, comedic films, and commercials, working steadily with over 100 acting credits to his name. This essay reads the film and television roles of the comedian and retired Marine Lt. Colonel against his military biography and deployments as a multiverse of U.S. veteran representation.
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Wieland’s Novel Makes Oprah’s Summer List
Dr. Liza Wieland’s latest novel, Paris, 7 a.m., was selected by Oprah Winfrey as One of the Best Books by Women of Summer 2019. Wieland teaches Creative Writing and serves as the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Development for the Thomas Harriott College of Arts and Sciences.
To read the full article, go to ECU News.
“The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019”
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Klein Gives Fright-Fest Talk
Dr. Amanda Klein gave a talk as part of the Fright-Fest Film Series at the Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library. Klein introduced Psycho and Poltergeist, which the library will screen this month. Klein’s talk was organized by ECU English and Film Studies alum Carolyn Schulman.
For more details, please visit the Kinston event’s web site.
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Shelton Publishes Article
Ph.D. Alumna Cecilia Shelton published the article “Shifting Out of Neutral: Centering Difference, Bias, and Social Justice in a Business Writing Course,” in Technical Communication Quarterly. Shelton is an Assistant Professor of Writing at George Washington University.
To view the abstract, go to the Technical Communication Quarterly web site.
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Hoppenthaler Receives Travel Grant
Creative Writing Professor John Hoppenthaler received a Harriot College of Arts and Sciences travel grant.
Hoppenthaler will use his grant towards the costs of his travel in November to the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) conference, where his talk “What I Learned as Toni Morrison’s Personal Assistant and Other Stories” will be part of a series of panels in tribute to Morrison.
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Kruschek Pens Article
Ph.D. Alumna Gina Kruschek published the article, “Stigma in the Comments Section: Feminist and Anti-Feminist Discussions Online,” was published in Computers and Composition. Kruschek is a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Kirkland’s 50 Years Highlighted by ECU
Dr. Jim Kirkland is featured in a news story on the ECU homepage for his fifty years of service on the ECU faculty.
“Teaching has always been the great joy of being here,” said Kirkland. “We’ve always had a diverse group of students, some first-generation students, and others who had experiences traveling abroad or studying at other universities. Every class has always been interesting.”
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Sylvester Saraceno Publishes First Novel
Congratulations to ECU MA Creative Writing alumna June Sylvester Saraceno, whose first novel, Feral, North Carolina 1965 is coming out this month.
Originally from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Sylvester Saraceno received a BA in English from East Carolina University and an MFA in creative writing from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She is currently Humanities and English Department Chair at Sierra Nevada College, Lake Tahoe, where she is the director of the popular Writers in the Woods literary speaker series and founding editor of the Sierra Nevada Review.
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Watson’s Article reprinted in Collection
Dr. Reggie Watson’s article “The Changing Face of Biraciality: The White/Jewish Mother as Tragic Mulatto Figure in James McBride’s The Color of Water and Danzy Senna’s Caucasia” was recently reprinted in the ebook Contemporary Essays and Memoirs, Volume 1 from Infobase Publishing.
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Hoppenthaler Remembers Toni Morrison
Creative Writing Professor John Hoppenthaler was featured in multiple media outlets reflecting on the passing of literary great Toni Morrison. Hoppenthaler served as Toni Morrison’s personal assistant for about a decade. Hoppenthaler participated in a screening of a documentary on Morrison’s life on August 26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Raleigh. In addition, he penned a reflection for the New York Magazine and was interviewed for the BBC’s Newshour.
Read “What I Learned As Toni Morrison’s Personal Assistant”
Listen to Hoppenthaler’s Interview with the BBC (begins at 49:31)
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Gueye Featured in the New York Times
Dr. Marame Gueye, whose expertise on representations of women in Senegalese popular culture was recently cited in the New York Times.
“Bold Women. Scandalized Viewers. It’s ‘Sex and the City,’ Senegal Style.”
The Times article links to an article Marame published on the popular blog “Africa is a Country:”
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Kitta’s Purr-fect Article at #FolkloreThursday
Congratulations to Dr. Andrea Kitta, whose short article “Mis-purrs-ecptions: Cat Folklore” was published August 15 on the #FolkloreThursday blog. This piece is based on Kitta’s Nerd Nite talk from April and features her research in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore.
To read Kitta’s article, go to the FolkloreThursday Blog.
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Caswell Selected to co-Edit The Peer Review
Dr. Nikki Caswell has accepted the position of Professional Co-editor of The Peer Review, the journal of the International Writing Centers Association. The Peer Review is a fully online, open-access, multimodal scholarly journal that promotes the work of emerging writing center researchers. As Professional Co-editor, Caswell will mentor and collaborate with an editorial team of graduate students in the field.
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Sharer’s Chapter Published in Retellings
Dr. Wendy Sharer’s chapter “Opening the Scholarly Conversation” was published over the summer in the co-edited collection, Retellings: Opportunities for Feminist Research in Rhetoric and Composition Studies from Parlor Press. The contributors to this volume use the anniversary of the publication of Cheryl Glenn’s Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity Through the Renaissance, the first book to examine women’s contributions to rhetoric across history, as an opportune moment to assess feminist rhetorical research and test out new possibilities.
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Parille’s Essay Featured in The Comics Journal
Ken Parille’s essay “Steve Ditko and the Comic-Book People” was recently published at The Comics Journal.
First published in 1976, The Comics Journal is an incendiary magazine of critical and journalistic advocacy that lambasts the comics industry for churning out mediocrity and squandering the potential of the medium.
Steve Ditko and the Comic-Book People
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Moore Pens Essay in NewBlackMan (in Exile)
Eddie Moore’s essay “Incidents in the Life of an Unholy Black-ish Queer Boy” was published in May on the website NewBlackMan (in Exile). The site is curated by Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal, a leading scholar of black masculinity and hip-hop studies.
Incidents in the Life of an Unholy Black-ish Queer Boy
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Hallberg’s Essay Published in Litro
Christy Hallberg, whose creative nonfiction essay “You Shook Me” was just published in Litro Magazine.
Since 2005, Litro has published works by first-time authors through to Noble laureates. Litro is self-selecting for people with an interest in literature, culture, and innovation, providing readers with an escapism a perfect read for those with busy lives and encouraging cross-cultural conversations through the annual Litro World Series editions.
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Raper’s Short Story Featured in The Broken Plate
Angela Raper’s short story “Biscuits” was just published in the 2019 print issue of The Broken Plate literary magazine.
The Broken Plate is a nationally distributed literary magazine produced by Ball State University undergraduates. The magazine features poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, one-act plays, art and photography, book reviews, and interviews.
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Thomas Receives Arts and Humanities Awards
Amber Flora Thomas received an Arts and Humanities Reassignment Award from REDE/Academic Affairs for her book project NOT IN THE SOUTH: POEMS. In this work, Thomas focuses on eco-politics, with poems that explore the environment and place thematically and structurally.
This is the third year of these awards, and English has had recipients every year.
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Johnson and Donne Team Publishes New Volume
Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, Tracy McLawhorn Hayes, and the whole Variorum Edition of the Poetry of John Donne team recently published Volume 5 of “The Verse Letters.” The volume, published by Indiana University Press, provides texts and commentary of the 42 poems contained in its 1,483 pages.
The Donne Variorum project is housed at ECU and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Miles Hosts GAME P.L.A.Y. Event
Gera Miles organized another successful GAME P.L.A.Y. event this Summer, this one in Washington, NC. This initiative brings together youth and first responders to play games together. The department lent technology for this event.
Read more on the story at WCTI Channel 12.
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Berryman Wins Sherrill Carlson Fellowship
Recent BA graduate Glenesha Berryman is the first-ever winner of the Sherrill Carlson Fellowship, a new national award from Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society,. Created in 2018, this fellowship is awarded to the top-ranking nominee in humanities and the arts from PKP chapters around the country. Berryman will receive $35,000 to support her graduate work at the University of Michigan, where she will pursue a PhD in American Culture. Berryman was an EC Scholar and double major in English and Great Books here at ECU.
Learn more about her story and watch the video at ECU News
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