Mark West

Two Poems for Now — I have long admired Elijah Cummings, the congressman from Baltimore who died last week, so I paid particular attention to the news coverage surrounding his passing.  Several of the stories that I saw on television included a video clip of the very first speech he ever gave in Congress back in 1996. In this speech, he recited the following poem titled “Just a Minute” by the famed civil rights leader Benjamin Mays:

I only have a minute,
60 seconds in it,
Forced upon me,
I did not choose it,
But I know that I must use it,
Give account if I abuse it,
Suffer if I lose it.
Only a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.

Hearing Cummings’s eloquent recitation of Mays’s poem, I had a sense that this short poem perfectly captures the spirit of Cummings’s purpose-driven life.  The fact that this poem was written by Mays, who was Martin Luther King’s mentor at Morehouse College, underscores for me how Mays and King and Cummings are all interconnected. 

In a sense, Mays’s poem is part of a larger American saga–a saga about the ongoing struggle for liberty, civil rights, and equal opportunities.  It has connections to other poems that also relate to this saga.  I am reminded of “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, a Jewish American poet from New York City.  In 1883, she wrote “The New Colossus” as her contribution to an art and literary auction organized to raise funds for the construction of the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty.  Twenty years after Lazarus wrote “The New Colossus,” a bronze plaque bearing the text of Lazarus’s poem was installed on one of the walls of the pedestal, and it has been associated with the Statue of Liberty ever since.  Although it was written 136 years ago, Lazarus’s poem is as relevant today as it was when she first penned these words:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Mays’s poem and Lazarus’s poem not only speak to each other but they also speak to us as we decide what role we will play in this great American saga.  These are two poems for now, for this minute.  By reciting Mays’s poem in the halls of congress, Cummings reminded all of us that we might just have a minute, so we should use it wisely.  Cummings made the most of his.   

News from the English Learning Community — Students in the English Learning Community are enjoying their first semester at UNC Charlotte both on and off campus. Last weekend they visited the Carolina Renaissance Festival along with their new advisor Gina Kelley, where they got to see a “Joust to the Death.” On Friday, they experienced their first SlamCharlotte Poetry Slam at the Knight Gallery, helping to judge some of the best spoken poets in the country. On campus, they are looking forward to becoming more involved with the English Department by helping out with the English Department Halloween Take-Over and hosting faculty at the Meet and Greet Coffee Hour on November 22nd. If you would like to include the ELC in your event or program, please contact Tiffany Morin.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Liz Miller recently accepted an invitation to serve as Co-editor of Brief Research Reports for TESOL Quarterly. She will begin her three-year term in March 2020.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

October 25 — The English Department faculty meeting will take place on Friday, October 25, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room (Fretwell 280C).

October 25 — Janaka Lewis will deliver a faculty talk titled “Black Girlhood and Radical Creativity” on Friday, October 25, from 1:00 to 2:00 in the English Department Seminar Room (Fretwell 290B).

October 25 — A Halloween Party will take place in the English Department from 4:00 to 8:00. Jointly sponsored by the Children’s Literature Graduate Organization, the English Graduate Student Association , and Sigma Tau Delta, this party will feature a costume contest, games, prizes, and food.

Quirky Quiz Question —The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from another country.  What country gave this famous statue to the United States?

Last week’s answer: Bank of America Finalist

In 2004, David Amante received an important honor from the university, earning him a spot on our department’s Wall of Fame.  What honor did he receive?

Bridging the Years — For me, attending Leon Gatlin’s memorial service last week had a bittersweet quality to it.  I felt a sense of sadness, but I also took pleasure in seeing so many former members of our department gathered together to remember and honor Leon.  As I exchanged greetings with these retired members of our department, memories of my early days in the department kept surfacing.  

Seeing David Amante and John McNair together, I flashed back to the days when the three of us regularly carpooled to the university.  At the time David and John lived in Dilworth, and when they learned that I had just moved to Dilworth, they invited me to join their carpool.  For my first year at the university, we took turns driving.  When it was my turn to drive, David and John braced themselves for a time-travel experience.  I had an ancient, gas-guzzling, gigantic,  green Ford LTD that was once a luxury car but had devolved into something that resembled a gangster car.  David dubbed it the Green Hornet.  However, whether we were riding in the Green Hornet or the more normal cars that David and John owned, we spent much of the drive talking about the English Department.  Both of them had already been teaching in the department for many years when I join their car pool, and their willingness to share their experiences and insights provided me with a sense of the history of the department.  They helped me better understand departmental dynamics and provided me with sage advice about building my career as a UNC Charlotte English professor.

The willingness of David and John to reach out to a new colleague is not an isolated incident in the history of our department.  Still today established members of our department often reach out to newer members.  Here are just a few of the examples that come to mind.  Julianna Ávila and Meghan Barnes have formed a great partnership, and JuliAnna has helped Meghan pursue her career as a specialist in English education within the context of an English Department.  Jen Munroe has reached out to Matt Rowney, and the two of them have cultivated a connection over their shared interest in eco-criticism.  Greg Wickliff extended a helping hand to Heather Vorhies while she was still a member of our department.  Drawing on their mutual interest in the history of science and science writing, they formed their own writing group.  Before Heather resigned and moved to the Washington, D.C., area, she told me how much she valued Greg’s support. 

In reflecting on this aspect of our department, I am reminded of a nautical phrase that dates back to the days of sailing ships.  When new recruits would join a ship’s crew, the experienced sailors would teach the new members of the crew how to manipulate the sails, and this always involved moving and tying ropes.  This process gave rise to the phrase “learning the ropes.”  I salute David, John and all of the members of our department, both past and present, who have taken it upon themselves to help the new members learn the ropes.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Alan Rauch was recently recognized by the Executive Director of Sigma Tau Delta for his excellent leadership as a faculty advisor for our chapter of Sigma Tau Delta.

Aaron Toscano recently presented a paper titled “Neoliberalism and American Entrepreneurial Lore: How Showtime’s Billions Reflects Capitalist Vacuity” at the Popular Culture Association of the South/American Culture Association of the South Conference in Wilmington.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

October 25 — The English Department faculty meeting will take place on Friday, October 25, from 11:00 to 12:30 in the English Department Conference Room (Fretwell 280C).

October 25 — Janaka Lewis will deliver a faculty talk titled “Black Girlhood and Radical Creativity” on Friday, October 25, from 1:00 to 2:00 in the English Department Seminar Room (Fretwell 290B).

Quirky Quiz Question — In 2004, David Amante received an important honor from the university, earning him a spot on our department’s Wall of Fame.  What honor did he receive?

Last week’s answer: Cy Knoblauch and Ron Lunsford

Leon Gatlin long valued the English Department’s sense of camaraderie and collegiality.  In fact, on the day that he died, he and Mike Doyle from the Department of Languages and Culture Studies were heading to Topsail Island to socialize and play a little golf with two former chairs of the English Department.  Can you identify these two former chairs of our department?

Honoring Leon Gatlin, One of the Founders of the English Department — With the death of Leon Gatlin on October 3, 2019, the English Department lost a friend, a former colleague, and a link to the department’s origin story.  A native of North Carolina, Leon earned his B.A. and M.A. in English from Wake Forest and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.  He joined UNC Charlotte’s English Department in 1966 and remained a member of the faculty until his retirement in 2001.  Even after his official retirement, he continued to teach courses in the department for several more years on a part-time basis.

When Leon first came to UNC Charlotte in 1966, the university was still a young institution.  In fact, he arrived just one year after Charlotte College became the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  Leon played a key leadership role in building the English Department during this formative period in the university’s history.  For many years, he served as the department’s Undergraduate Coordinator, and in this capacity, he contributed to the operation and growth of the department.  A specialist in British literature, Leon developed and regularly taught many of the British literature courses offered by the department.  He also contributed to the department’s writing program and served as the Director of the UNC Charlotte Writing Project for a number of years.

One of my early memories of Leon dates back to the fall of 1984, a few months after I joined the department.  At that time, Leon was the Undergraduate Coordinator, and he was in charge of the process by which students registered for their courses for the next semester.  The process was completely different then as compared to today’s process. It involved having the students go to the gym and then migrate from table to table picking up a computer punch card for each of the courses that they wanted to take.  Leon asked for volunteers to assist with the registration process, so I signed up to help.  I remember being overwhelmed by the chaotic nature of the whole process, but I also remember how calm and cool Leon was throughout the process.  No matter what problems arose, he remained unflappable.  Somehow Leon solved every problem, and in the end, all of the students succeeded in registering for their classes.  That was the first time I associated Leon with the Bill Withers’s hit song “Lean on Me” from 1972.  However, I made a slight change to the line “We all need somebody to lean on.”  Here is how the line goes in my version:  “We all need somebody to Leon.” 

Thank you, Leon. 

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

October 10 — A memorial service for Leon Gatlin will be held at 3:00 pm on Thursday, October 10, at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 1510 E. 7th St., Charlotte.

Quirky Quiz Question — Leon Gatlin long valued the English Department’s sense of camaraderie and collegiality.  In fact, on the day that he died, he and Mike Doyle from the Department of Languages and Culture Studies were heading to Topsail Island to socialize and play a little golf with two former chairs of the English Department.  Can you identify these two former chairs of our department?
Last week’s answer: Frank Oz

Jim Henson worked with many puppeteers over the course of his career, but there was one puppeteer he worked with on almost every project he did.  This was the puppeteer behind Miss Piggy.  This same puppeteer also controlled Yoda from Star Wars.  What is the name of this puppeteer? 

Anniversaries — In celebration of our 32nd anniversary, my wife (Nancy) and I traveled to Atlanta for a quick getaway this past weekend.  We packed a lot into two days.  We saw the Romare Bearden’s Profile Series Exhibit at the High Museum of Art, and we were pleased to see that number of works on exhibit are based on his experiences in the Charlotte area. We took the behind-the-scenes tour at the Georgia Aquarium, and we saw the giant whale sharks up close.  We visited the touring Silk Road exhibit at the Fernbank Museum, and we learned all  about this ancient trading route between China and Iraq.

My favorite place that we visited, however, was the Center for Puppetry Arts.  As a puppeteer, I enjoyed seeing their amazing collection of puppets from around the world.  These puppets are housed in what they call their Global Collection Gallery.  As much as I liked seeing the international collection, the part of the center that appealed to me the most was their Jim Henson Collection Gallery.  This gallery houses the world’s largest collection of Henson puppets, or muppets as Henson often called his puppets.  Our visit coincided with the Center for Puppetry Arts’s celebration of Sesame Street’s 50th Anniversary, and the gallery includes lots of information related to this anniversary. This coincidence added to my enjoyment, for it brought back memories of my introduction to Sesame Street and Henson’s puppets.  

When Sesame Street made its debut in 1969, I was in high school, so I did not watch the program at the time.  In 1972, however, I started watching Sesame Street on a regular basis.  I worked at a day care center in Burlington, Vermont, at the time.  The day care center owned a television, but nobody turned it on until late in the afternoon when the parents started streaming in to pick up their children.  About 4:00 somebody always turned on the television just in time for the remaining children (and me) to watch Sesame Street.  That is when I first saw Kermit, Big Bird, Elmo, Miss Piggy, Oscar, the Cookie Monster, Bert and Ernie, and the rest of the Sesame Street puppets.  I marveled at how Henson and his crew brought these puppets to life and gave them distinct personalities.  It would be another four years before I launched my own career as a puppeteer, but my love of puppetry can be traced back to 1972 and the afternoons I spent watching Sesame Street, often with a kid in my lap.   Seeing Henson’s puppets at the Center for Puppetry Arts reminded me of those days in the early 1970s when I became a Jim Henson fan and joined the ranks of the countless people whose lives have been influenced by Sesame Street over the past 50 years.

Since our visit, the Sesame Street theme song has been running through my head.  I keep finding myself humming the opening lines of the song:

Sunny Day

Sweepin’ the clouds away

On my way to where the air is sweet

Can you tell me how to get?

How to get to Sesame Street?

Well, I can’t tell you exactly how to get to Sesame Street, but I can tell you how to find Kermit and the rest of the Sesame Street puppets—just take Interstate 85 down to Atlanta and follow the signs for the Center for Puppetry Arts. 

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Lara Vetter‘s A Curious Peril: H.D.’s Late Modernist Prose (UP of Florida, 2017) has been released in paperback.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

October 1– Benjamin Filene, the Chief Curator at the North Carolina Museum of History, will deliver a lecture titled “Reading, Writing, and Race: One Children’s Book and the Power of Stories” on Tuesday, October 1, from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm in Fretwell 290B. A Panel discussion with Janaka Lewis and Ashli Stokes will follow the lecture.

October 2 — Molly G. Yard will deliver a lecture titled “‘We Have Lost Our Labour’: Recovering Women Editors of Shakespeare” on Wednesday, October 2, from 12:15 pm to 1:15 pm in Fretwell 290B.

Quirky Quiz Question — Jim Henson worked with many puppeteers over the course of his career, but there was one puppeteer he worked with on almost every project he did.  This was the puppeteer behind Miss Piggy.  This same puppeteer also controlled Yoda from Star Wars.  What is the name of this puppeteer? 

Last week’s answer: Gregory Peck

What is the name of the actor who played the role of Atticus Finch in the famous film version of To Kill a Mockingbird?

Welcoming Gina Kelley — Last week I was pleased to announce that Gina Kelley accepted the Academic Advisor position in the English Department with a starting date of Monday, September 30, 2019.  However, Gina is already moving into her new office, and she is excited about becoming a member of our departmental family.

Gina has a wealth of experience as a professional advisor.  She has served as an Academic Advisor for the College of Computing and Informatics since 2016.  Prior to coming to UNC Charlotte, she served as an advisor for the Department of World Languages and Culture at UNC Wilmington from 2010 to 2016.  Over the course of her career, she has won several advising awards, both at UNC Charlotte and at UNC Wilmington. 

For Gina, becoming the Academic Advisor for the English Department provides her with an opportunity to combine her love of advising with her long-standing interest in English Studies.  Gina has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington, and she is currently pursuing her M.A. in English (with a concentration in children’s literature) here in our department.  As Gina put it, she has “a true passion for literature and writing.”

Gina is following in the footsteps of Sarah Minslow, who served as our previous Academic Advisor.  In addition to being professional colleagues, Gina and Sarah have another interesting point in common.  Both Gina and Sarah are dog lovers.  One of Sarah’s dogs is named Atticus after the character Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird.  I recently learned that Gina’s dog is named Charles Atticus.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

September 24— The Provost’s Awards Reception will take place on Tuesday, September 24, 2019, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the Halton Reading Room (Atkins Library).

Quirky Quiz Question — What is the name of the actor who played the role of Atticus Finch in the famous film version of To Kill a Mockingbird?

Last week’s answer: Waiting to Exhale

Three years before the release of How Stella Got Her Groove Back another film based on a popular McMillan novel made its debut.  This film is about the friendship of four women.   What is the title of this film?

Back in the Groove — In August 1998, the film How Stella Got Her Groove Back made its debut.  Based on Terry McMillan’s 1996 novel of the same title, this film had a great opening weekend, and it went on to become one of the most successful romantic comedies from the 1990s.  Shortly after the release of the film, I started hearing more and more people saying the word “groove,” and this pleased me.  I like the word “groove” because it is associated with the grooves on vinyl records, and I have never lost my love of vinyl records.  It is for this same reason that I still use the old hippy word “groovy.”  Thus, even though Stella (a stockbroker on the rise) and I (an aging English professor) don’t have that much in common, the title of her film appeals to me.

For Stella, getting her groove back involves taking a vacation at a luxury resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  For those of us in the English Department, however, getting our groove back involves settling into the routines and rhythms of our work.  Now that our students have returned and our fall classes are well underway, I have a sense that the English Department is back in business.  The quiet summer months are conducive to doing research, but the department just doesn’t feel right to me without the presence of students.

The energy that our students bring to the department was evident at last Friday’s Graduate Student Social.  Hosted by our English Graduate Student Association, this event took place off campus at the nearby Wine Vault, and it provided an opportunity for graduate students and faculty members to socialize.  I went, and I enjoyed hearing our students talk excitedly about their classes and their research projects.  I also enjoyed hearing our faculty members sharing stories with our students.  Kirk Melnikoff, for example, entertained all of us with his tales about his new office mate, who happens to be a mouse.  I am not sure how a mouse got into Kirk’s office, but I am pretty sure that the mouse is in for an educational experience.  When faculty, students, and perhaps an occasional mouse interact in this way, I know that the English Department is back in the groove.

Working the Game — We all know how hard our staff work in the department, but what many people don’t know is that our staff often also work at UNC Charlotte sporting events on the weekend.  Last Saturday, Monica Burke, Jennie Mussington, and Angie Williams all worked at the home football game.   I am pretty sure that this is the real reason the home team won!

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Daniel Shealy published an article titled “‘Wedding Marches’: Louisa May Alcott, Marriage, and the Newness of Little Women” in Women’s Studies, vol. 48, no. 4, 2019.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

September 24— The Provost’s Awards Reception will take place on Tuesday, September 24, 2019, from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the Halton Reading Room (Atkins Library).

Quirky Quiz Question — Three years before the release of How Stella Got Her Groove Back another film based on a popular McMillan novel made its debut.  This film is about the friendship of four women.   What is the title of this film?

Last week’s answer: Piedmont Airlines

Our English Department is not the only place in Charlotte with international connections.  The Charlotte Douglas International Airport offers international connections of a different sort.  The Charlotte airport became an international airport in 1987 when a now defunct airline introduced flights between Charlotte and London. What is the name of this airline?

International Connections — Every September UNC Charlotte holds its now famous International Festival.  This year’s 44th annual International Festival will take place on Saturday, September 21, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in and around the Barnhardt Student Activity Center.  For more information about this year’s International Festival, please click on the following link:  https://ifest.uncc.edu/

Given that the International Festival is just around the corner, I started thinking about the English Department’s many international connections. Numerous members of our department are engaged in research projects that are international in nature.  Examples include Liz Miller’s research on the teaching of foreign languages in Germany, Jeffrey Leak’s research on the Dutch/British editor Rosey Pool and her promotion of African American poetry, and Pilar Blitvich’s recent article titled “Globalization, Transnational Identities, and Conflict Talk: The Complexity of the Latino Identity,” which appeared in the Journal of Pragmatics in 2018.The English Department’s international connections are also reflected in the courses that we teach.

This semester, for example, Boyd Davis is teaching a course on the “History of Global Englishes” in which she provides her students with an overview of how English became the global lingua franca.  Another example from this semester is Juan Meneses’s “Modern World Literature.”  As Juan states in his official course description, “This course investigates a series of 20th- and 21st-century works with the objective of studying some of the most important questions at the center of world literature:  universal values, the dissemination of ideas across borders, the relationship between national literary traditions, translations, and cosmopolitanism.” 

The English Department also provides students with opportunities to include international experiences as part of their education.  Next semester, for example, Jen Munroe will take a group of students over spring break to London and Stratford for “Shakespeare in England.” More than just experiencing Shakespeare’s works in performance in the cities that shaped his career, though, this course exposes students to a new country, with its own traditions and way of being. Students have regularly commented after taking the course that they were amazed by the differences between the US and the UK, despite our speaking the same language.

As the aforementioned examples illustrate, our English Department’s international connections are numerous, diverse, and ongoing. 

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Boyd Davis has been named to the Data Safety Monitoring Board as part of the NIA-funded SPEEKO dementia caregivers project headed by Kristine Williams, U. Kansas.  Also, Boyd and Margaret Maclagan are presenting a poster titled “Pictures without Frames: Lexical Bundles and Multiword Expressions in Dementia Discourse” at the 13th World Congress on Dementia.

Tiffany Morin and Malin Pereira were selected as finalists for the 2019 J. Murrey Atkins Library Faculty Engagement Award. Both Tiffany and Malin will be recognized at a ceremony and social on October 2 at 4:00 PM. For more information please click on the following link: https://library.uncc.edu/2019FacultyEngagement

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

September 13— English Department meeting will take place on Friday, September 13, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Fretwell 290B (seminar room).

September 13— The EGSA Graduate Student Social will take place at the Wine Vault on Friday, September 13, at 5:00 p.m.

Quirky Quiz Question — Our English Department is not the only place in Charlotte with international connections.  The Charlotte Douglas International Airport offers international connections of a different sort.  The Charlotte airport became an international airport in 1987 when a now defunct airline introduced flights between Charlotte and London. What is the name of this airline?

Last week’s answer: Industrial Workers of the World

Mother Jones was one of the founders of a union whose members were often called Wobblies.  What is the name of this union?

Remembering Mother Jones on Labor Day — Since Labor Day always falls on a Monday, I have written about Labor Day in several of my Monday Missives over the years.  While contemplating the focus for this week’s Monday Missive, I gave some thought to writing about another labor novel.  I wrote about John Steinbeck’s labor novel titled In Dubious Battle in the Monday Missive that I wrote on Labor Day in 2016, so I thought it might be time to pick another labor novel to highlight, but which one?  I decided to enter the phrase labor novels in Google and see what titles showed up most often.  Lists of famous labor novels popped up just as I expected, but to my surprise, I also came across lists of novels that deal with childbirth and motherhood.  Well, this surprise prompted me to think about famous mothers associated with the labor movement, and Mother Jones immediately came to mind.

Nowadays many people associate the name Mother Jones with the magazine that goes by this name, but there really was a labor leader named Mother Jones.  Her official name was Mary Harris Jones, but for much of her adult life, everybody called her Mother Jones.  She was born in Cork, Ireland, in 1837.  At the age of ten, she moved to Canada with her family.  After attending school in Toronto, she moved to the United States where she worked first as a teacher and then as a dressmaker.  In 1861 she married George Jones, who was a member of the National Union of Iron Moulders, and he introduced her to America’s fledgling labor movement.  They settled in Memphis and had four children, but her children and her husband all died in 1867 when a yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis. Following this personal tragedy, Mother Jones moved to Chicago where she became increasingly involved in union activities.  

Throughout her many years as a labor organizer, Mother Jones worked on behalf of exploited children.  She fought to end child labor and improve the living conditions of children from mining communities and textile factory towns.  In 1903, she organized a massive event billed as a “Children’s Crusade” in which children who worked in mines and textile mills marched and carried signs demanding an end to child labor.  Mother Jones’s dedication to helping children, workers, and immigrants is reflected in her most famous quotation:  “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

As we celebrate this Labor Day, I think we should take a moment to remember Mother Jones.  For those who want to know more about her eventful life, I recommend The Autobiography of Mother Jones. This book came out in 1925, just five years before her death in 1930.  I read her autobiography when I was a college student, but I still remember being impressed with her life story and her unwavering commitment to helping the most vulnerable members of our society.  She died nearly ninety years ago, but the story of her life still resonates today.  

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Greg Wickliff recently presented at paper titled “Communicating Mathematics and Science” at the 15th International Conference of The Mathematics Education for the Future Project at Maynooth University in Kildare, Ireland.

Quirky Quiz Question — Mother Jones was one of the founders of a union whose members were often called Wobblies.  What is the name of this union?

Last week’s answer: The Little House

In addition to writing Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow, Virginia Lee Burton wrote a famous picture book about an anthropomorphic building.  This picture book won the Caldecott Medal.  What is the title of this book?

The English Department That Could —  When I was a young boy, my favorite picture books were those featuring anthropomorphic machines.  This preference is not that surprising since my favorite toy was a bulldozer, which I still have.  I liked Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939) by Virginia Lee Burton.  I also liked Burton’s Katy and the Big Snow (1943) in which a snowplow named Katy saves the day.  However, the anthropomorphic machine book that I liked the most was The Little Engine That Could (1930) by Watty Piper.  Well, I thought it was by Watty Piper until I became a children’s literature professor and learned that Watty Piper is actually the pen name of Arnold Munk. I felt a bit disappointed when I made this discovery, but my disappointment did not undermine my fond memories of reading this book over and over again during my early boyhood.  There was something about the Little Blue Engine’s willingness to help others and her sense of determination that appealed to me as a boy, and it still appeals to me.  Even today, when I am tackling a difficult task, I sometimes find myself repeating the Little Blue Engine’s mantra: “I think I can–I think I can–I think I can.” 

The Little Engine That Could popped into my head last week as I was going over some of the student numbers related to the current state of the English Department.  These numbers are still preliminary, but they are encouraging.  This semester we have about 425 majors, which is up by about ten students compared to last fall.  This increase is noteworthy given that the overall enrollment at the university is down this fall when compared to last fall.  Most of the other departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are seeing declines in the number of students in their majors, but not English.  Some of the other numbers are also encouraging.  Our English Learning Community, for example, has 26 students participating in it this fall, which is a significant increase over last year’s total of 19 participants.  The number of students in our graduate program is 55, which matches last year’s figure, and last year’s numbers were way up from the year before.   It’s too early to tabulate numbers for our English Honors Program, but all indicators suggest that our Honors Program will continue to be one of the largest departmental honors programs in the university.

When viewed together, these numbers tell a story.  It’s the story of a determined and dedicated department that meets challenges and overcomes obstacles.  It’s the story of a department that thinks it can.  It’s the story of the English Department That Could.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Boyd Davis recently published a co-authored article titled “Mode Shifts in Conversations with People with Dementia Can Cause Confusion” in Gerontology and Geriatric Studies. 

Liz Miller recently had a co-authored chapter appear in the edited volume Qualitative Research Topics in Language Teacher Education (Routledge). Her chapter is titled “Emotions in Language Teacher Education and Practice.”

Becky Roeder together with Elsie Berman from the Anthropology Department recently presented a paper titled “Non-standard English Speakers as English Learners: Marshallese Students and the Effects of Language Policy on Neocolonial Subjects” at the Multidisciplinary Approaches in Language Policy and Planning Conference in Toronto.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

August 26— Last day to register, add, or drop classes with no grade.
September 2— Labor Day (no classes, university closed).

Quirky Quiz Question — In addition to writing Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel and Katy and the Big Snow, Virginia Lee Burton wrote a famous picture book about an anthropomorphic building.  This picture book won the Caldecott Medal.  What is the title of this book?

Last week’s answer: Slade

Toni Morrison co-wrote several children’s books with her son, including The Big Box (1999)and Please, Louise (2014).  What is the name of her son?

Honoring Toni Morrison — On the fifth of this month, the great American author Toni Morrison died in New York City at the age of eighty-eight.  The English Department has just installed an exhibit honoring Morrison and her literary legacy.  The exhibit includes copies of many of her books as well as photographs of Morrison at various stages in her long life.  Numerous members of the English Department helped with the installation of the exhibit.  Janaka Lewis, Paula Eckard, Bryn Chancellor and Jeffrey Leak all provided copies of Morrison’s books from their personal libraries.  Monica Burke, Angie Williams, and I all worked on installing the Morrison exhibit.  I encourage everyone to take a look at the exhibit, which is located in the main lobby area of the English Department.

One of the other ways in which members of our English Department honor Morrison is by conducting scholarship on Morrison’s writings.  For the purposes of this Monday Missive, I mention four examples of professors who have conducted Morrison-related scholarship.  

In her monograph titled Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Lee Smith, Paula Eckard examines the portrayal of motherhood in three of Morrison’s novels:  The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved.  As Paula points out in her monograph, “In these three novels, Morrison presents motherhood with compelling and brutal honesty.  She juxtaposes silence and voice in each novel and uses the maternal body as a source of myth and metaphor to undergd the realities of female experience.”

In his monograph titled Racial Myths and Masculinity in African American Literature, Jeffrey Leak examines the depiction of black masculinity in Morrison’s Song of Solomon.  As Jeffrey discusses in his monograph, “Morrison appreciates the rich lives of black men, but she reveals two tenuous strands of black male heterosexual identity formation:  virulent differentiation from women and homophobia.”  In his analysis of Song of Solomon, Jeffrey shows how these two strands play out in the experiences of the novel’s protagonist.

Janaka Lewis participated in Language Matters: Toni Morrison NEH workshops and met Morrison there and at her curated exhibit “Foreigner’s Home” at the Louvre in Paris as part of the Toni Morrison Society.  She notes the influence of Morrison on the field of Black women’s writing in her book Freedom Narrativesand writes about Sula in a forthcoming article in South journal called “Building Worlds of Our Dreams.”

While Malin Pereira’s scholarship for the past two decades has been devoted to contemporary black poetry, Toni Morrison’s first six novels were the focus of her earliest work, published in four journal articles, an essay in a collection on women’s revisions of Shakespeare, and a chapter in her first book, Embodying Beauty: Twentieth-Century American Women Writers’ Aesthetics. In all of these publications, Malin writes, “I was obsessed with how Morrison wrote back to canonical authors and dominant Western ideas about female identity, beauty and blackness, always seeking to decolonize the black mind.” Malin has a yet-unfulfilled desire to write on Morrison’s libretto for the opera Margaret Garner and why it substantially differs from her novel Beloved.

As the aforementioned examples illustrate, our English Department is a place where Morrison and her writings are taken seriously.  Ever since Morrison burst on the literary scene in the late 1970s, members of our English Department have read, studied, and taught Morrison’s novels.  In so doing, we honor Morrison and her lasting contributions to American literature.

Kudos  — As you know, I like to use my Monday Missives to share news about recent accomplishments by members of the English Department.  Here is the latest news:

Allison Hutchcraft published five poems in the summer issue of The Missouri Review.

Upcoming Events and Deadlines — Here is information about upcoming events and deadlines:

August 20— First day of classes for the fall 2019 semester.

August 23— The CLAS All Faculty Meeting will take place on Friday, August 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in the SAC Salons A & B. The meeting will be preceded by a light breakfast beginning at 8:30 a.m.

August 23— The first English Department meeting for the fall 2019 semester will take place on Friday, August 23, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Fretwell 290B (seminar room).

Quirky Quiz Question — Toni Morrison co-wrote several children’s books with her son, including The Big Box (1999)and Please, Louise (2014).  What is the name of her son?

Last week’s answer: Prince Edward Island

Charlotte is named after Queen Sophia Charlotte, the wife of England’s King George III.  The capital of Canada’s smallest province is also named after this same queen.  What is the name of this Canadian province?