News
Professor Aljoe Participates in "Stormy Monday" Colloquia Series
The Department of African American Studies's Stormy Monday Colloquium will feature Professor Nicole Aljoe on November 5, 2009. Professor Aljoe's talk is entitled, "Remapping the Slave Narrative." 320 Shillman Hall, 3-4 PM. Posted 10/26/09
NUcast - The Future of Reading
Professor Mary Loeffelholz recently participated in a live webcast panel discussion entitled "The Future of Reading," in which local experts discussed the benefits and pitfalls of new, electronic reading technologies such as the Kindle. Posted 10/22/09
In Memory & Legacy: The Interdisciplinarity of Civil Rights
The Humanities Center, Department of English, and Department of History are co-sponsoring a symposium to bring together an interdisciplinary panel of academic activists who focus on the challenges of research and pedagogy as they relate to the Civil Rights movement in the United States. Professors Kimberly Juanita Brown (English), Peniel E. Joseph (History), and Charissa Threat (History), who work within and beyond the parameters of the movement's ideology, will engage in a conversation about the different ways in which they enter the discourse of this historical, cultural, and political moment.
- November 19, 2009
- 102 West Village G
- 3:00–4:30 PM
Refreshments will be served.
For more information about this event and the panelists, please visit: http://www.northeastern.edu/humanities. Posted 10/21/09
2009-2010 Barrs Lecture Series: Professor Laura Green
On Friday, October 30, Laura Green, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of English, will give a talk as part of the department's Barrs Lecture Series. Her talk, entitled "Transforming Fictions: Literary Identification in the Novel of Formation (Schwartz, Dangarembga, Winterson)," will take place in the Barrs Room (located in 472 Holmes Hall), from 4:00-5:15 PM. All are welcome. Posted 10/21/09
Professor Brown Participates in "Stormy Monday" Colloquia Series
On Thursday, October 15, Professor Kimberly Juanita Brown will give a talk as part of the Stormy Monday Colloquia Series, organized by the Department of African American Studies. Her talk, entitled "Regarding the Pain of the Other: Photography, Famine, and the Transference of Affect," will begin at 3 PM, in 320 Shillman Hall.
On March 26th, 1993 Kevin Carter's photograph of an emaciated Sudanese child hunted by a vulture was published in The New York Times. What began as the photographic documenting of the horrors of famine ended in the symbolic realm of visual transference. Carter's suicide, months after receiving the Pulitzer Prize for the photo, is laced with all-encompassing sacrifice and associated with the famous image. In the interim, feelings of sympathy connected to the photograph of the starving child have been shifted to Carter, who is memorialized ever after as a man unable to live with the inhumanity of humanity. Professor Brown's paper engages the photographic obliteration of the starving girl in favor of Carter's sympathetic martyrdom. Posted 10/8/09
Northeastern Celebrates the National Day on Writing
The Writing Program and English Department have organized a variety of activities to mark the National Day on Writing, October 20, 2009. The National Day on Writing celebrates the integral role writing plays in the lives of Americans from all walks of life. Celebrations will be held in communities and schools across the U.S., including at Northeastern. Please plan to participate in one or more of the following:
- Writing Rumpus Room: Come write with us! Bring your friends! We’ll have a variety of fun writing activities, such as magnetic poetry, 6-word memoirs, collaborative stories, comics-writing, etc. While you’re here, enjoy some snacks and get a look at Northeastern’s Writing Center, which will house the Rumpus Room. Time: 10 AM -2 PM. Location: 412 Holmes Hall. For more information, call x4549.
- Community Writing Event: Participate in the creation of a real-time, collaborative, multimedia text! On October 20th, we will open a shared online space in which all members of the Northeastern community are welcome to share their ideas about writing in the twenty-first century in any format and form they choose. We will provide a general prompt and then let the participants shape the emergent text together. This text will become a featured contribution of the Northeastern University Writing Program Gallery on the National Gallery of Writing. Time: All day. Location: http://nuweb9.neu.edu/writingday
- Open Mic: Come share your writing! Open to all members of the NU community. All kinds of writing welcome—stories, essays, meditations, songs, slam poetry, etc. (Time limit: 5 minutes.) Time: 3-6 PM. Location: Curry Student Center (room to be posted).
- Writing with New and Emerging Technologies Demonstration for Faculty: This session will introduce faculty to a range or new and emerging writing technologies that are having a profound impact on how students and teachers learn and interact. Time: 2:30-3:30 PM. Location: EdTech Center, 215 Snell Library. Registration required at http://nuweb9.neu.edu/writingday
You are also invited to contribute to the Northeastern University Writing Program Gallery of Writing: We are currently accepting submissions from anyone in the NU community for our local gallery on the National Gallery of Writing at http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/275020
For more information, please contact Prof. Chris Gallagher, Director of the Writing Program, at c.gallagher@neu.edu or x2193 or visit http://nuweb9.neu.edu/writingday Posted 9/29/09
Welcome, Chris Gallagher!
The department is delighted to welcome to the faculty Professor Chris W. Gallagher, who comes to Northeastern from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Professor Gallagher's field is Rhetoric and Composition, and he specializes in Writing Pedagogy, Assessment and Accountability, Literacy Studies, and Rhetorical Theory. At Lincoln, Professor Gallagher served for four years as Coordinator of Composition in his department, and he will be taking over here as Director of the Writing Program.
Professor Gallagher received his Ph.D. in 1998 from SUNY-Albany, where his dissertation, "Reflexive Inquiry: Rethinking Pedagogy and Literacy," won the James Berlin Outstanding Dissertation Award of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). This year, a dissertation directed by Professor Gallagher, written by Eric Turley, won the James Berlin award. Professor Gallagher is the author of three books, Teaching Writing that Matters (with Amy Lee), Reclaiming Assessment, and Radical Departures, as well as numerous articles, and has collaborated with teachers and administrators in the Nebraska public schools on educational assessment issues. Posted 9/09
Welcome, Michael Booth!
Michael Booth joins us as a Visiting Assistant Professor specializing in Shakespeare. Dr. Booth received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 2003, where he wrote a dissertation titled "The Figure of Naught in Elizabethan Thought: Shakespeare, Harriot, Marlowe." Dr. Booth has been a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Haverford College and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin Colelge, and he has recently been award a research fellowship at the John Carter Brown library of Brown University. He will teach a variety of courses on Shakespeare this year for the department. Posted 9/09
English Department Graduates
On Thursday, April 30th, the department celebrated commencement at a lunch reception for graduating majors and their relatives and friends. A brief program highlighted English majors' ways with words: Suzanne Igarteburu, with the highest GPA in the major, and Matt Zahnzinger, with the second, shared valedictory remarks ; Mr. Zahnzinger also performed the tongue-twisting "Museum Song" from the musical Barnum, and Allison Mosho shared poems written for Ellen Noonan's Poetry Workshop.
The department congratulates Michael Baulier, MacFarland Scholar and one of NU's 100 Most Influential Seniors; Peter Franklin, NU Leadership Scholar, Kathleen Gillis, winner of an NU Compass Award, S, Laura O'Regan, winner of the 2009 Peter Burton Hanson Prize in Scholarly Writing, and over seventy more new B.A.s in English! For photos from the event, click here.
The department congratulates Tiffany Conroy, winner of a Dissertation Writing Fellowship for Summer 2009. This competitve university fellowship supports doctoral students in the final semester of writing. Ms. Conroy, who also holds a Certificate in Cinema Studies, expects to complete and defend her dissertation (directed by Professor Harlow Robinson, Department of Modern Languages and Cinema Studies Program) in August 2009.
Barrs Lecture Series 2008-2009 Presents: Leah Price, Harvard University
From the History of a Book to "The History of a Book"Leah Price is the author if The Anthologyand the Rise of the Novel and the coeditor of Literary Secretaries/Secretarial Literature.
Date: Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 4:00 PM in the Barrs Room / 472 Holmes Hall.
All are welcome! Call Department of English for more information 617-373-4540.
Reception in Honor of Graduating Seniors
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009Time: 1 PM
Location: Kerr Hall, 96 The Fenway
Share refreshments with family and faculty and celebrate the accomplishments of our seniors.
Contact Cheryl Delaney at ch.delaney@neu.edu
On April 3, Ben Leubner successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, "The Limits of My Language: Wittgenstein and Contemporary American Poetry."
He'll take his Ph.D. at the May 1 commencement. Come fall, he'll be teaching in the English department at Montana State University at Bozeman. Ben's essay on Wittgenstein and Jorie Graham has just been accepted for publication in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2009 Peter Burton Hanson Writing Competition Winners
SCHOLARLY WRITING:
Winner: Laura O'Regan, "Doctor, Voyeur, Poet: The Triple Role of William Carlos Williams in 'The Young Housewife.'" Written for Prof. Guy Rotella in Modern Poetry (Spring 2008).
Honorable Mention: Margot Crary, "Tony Morrison's A Mercy: Tracing the Roots of Racism in America." Written for Prof. Marina Leslie in Experiential Education: Opening the Archive (Fall 2008).
CREATIVE WRITING:
Winner: Katrina Langer, "Summer Skin." Written for Barbara Shapiro in Topics in Writing: The Memoir (Fall 2008).
Honorable Mention: William Clark, Three Poems. Written for Ellen Noonan in Poetry Workshop (Spring 2009).
The 2009 Peter Burton Hanson Writing Competition Reception will be on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 from 3:00-4:40 PM in 340 Egan. Delicious refreshments will be served. Posted 3/09
Student Spotlight
English major Laura Ann Boston has been awarded a Northeastern University Presidential Scholarship. Recipients of this award are middler-year students with a minimum 3.8 QPA who have demonstrated excellence in the major, in arts and sciences courses outside the major, and in experiential education. Eight students received the award in 2008-09.
A Secondary Education minor and Honors student from Reading, Massachusetts, Laura recently recently completed a co-op experience with Aptara, an educational textbook company. She has passed the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure and hopes to start substitute teaching this summer. She plans to enroll in Northeastern’s BA/MAT program in the next year and to teach high school English in Boston after graduation, perhaps teaching one day at the college level.
She is the Director of Administration and the School Climate Committee Leader for Visuals with Social Change through Peace Games, a student organization that won the Community Service Group of the Year Award in 2008.
Posted 2/09
Assistant Professor Nicole Aljoe
Assistant Professor Nicole Aljoe was a speaker on the President's Plenary Session, "Keywords in Early American Studies of the West Indies," which opened the Sixth Biennial Conference of the Society of Early Americanists, March 4-7, in Hamilton, Bermuda. Professor Aljoe gave a paper titled "Creole Testimony," which featured her ground-breaking research on 18th-century Caribbean slave narratives. In selecting Professor Aljoe for this plenary panel, the Society recognized her as one of the top emergent scholars in the field. Posted 3/09
Professor Elizabeth Dillon
Professor Elizabeth Maddock Dillon has been elected by the American Literature section of the Modern Language Association to a three-year term on the Board of Editors of American Literature (www.dukeupress.edu/americanliterature/).
Professor Dillon's election to the board of this distinguished journal is a recognition of her own scholarly contributions to the study of American literature. As a member of the editorial board, Professor Dillon will evaluate as many as fifty manuscripts each year to determine whether they are suitable for publication in the journal, and her efforts will help to ensure the continued production of new and important scholarship. Posted 1/09
Very Sad News
The English department’s valued colleague Professor Kathy Howlett, a scholar and teacher of sevententh-century literature and Shakespeare, particularly Shakespeare on film, passed away unexpectedly from natural causes on January 1st, 2009.
Professor Howlett, who received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1990, had been a member of the English department since 1986. She was the author of the book Framing Shakespeare on Film (2000) and a number of articles on Shakespeare, film, and eighteenth-century literature. She was also Co-Director for many years of the Cinema Studies program, English Department advisor to the Golden Key International Honor Society, and director of a number of doctoral dissertations. In these capacities and as a tireless organizer of visits for students to local plays, film festivals, and musical events, Professor Howlett encouraged and enabled students to make the most of their intellectual and cultural opportunities and to aim at high standards of achievement. Her loss will be felt deeply in the English Department, the Cinema Studies Program, and the larger Northeastern Community.
Please be advised of these funeral service arrangements for Professor Kathy Howlett:
Wake: Tuesday , January 6, 2009, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Joseph P. Keating Funeral Home
46 South Main Street
Sharon, MA 02067
Funeral service: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 11:00 a.m.
First Congregational Church of Sharon
29 North Main Street
Sharon , MA 02067
Colleagues, students, and friends are invited to visit and to share their memories at the online memorial page for Professor Howlett, at http://tinyurl.com/kathyhowlett.
There will be an on-campus memorial for Professor Howlett on Friday, February 27th, 4-6 p.m. in the Sacred Space in Ell Hall.
Posted 1/092009 Morse Poetry Prize
Jean Valentine has selected "Tulips, Water, Ash," by Lisa Gluskin, of San Francisco, California, as winner of the 2009 Morse Poetry Prize. The book, the 26th volume in the series, will be published by Northeastern University Press/UPNE in the fall. Posted 01/09
Fall 2008 e-Newsletter
The department has just posted its third issue of the Alumni e-Newsletter. In this issue, you'll find new faculty profiles, undergraduate program updates, graduate alumni book lists and news, and recent event information. Visit the Newsletter webpage for a .pdf version of the e-Newsletter, and while you're there, send Drop Us A Line. We'd love to hear from you. Posted 11/08
Save the Date! 2008 Peter Burton Hanson Reading/Lecture
The 2008 Peter Burton Hanson Reading/Lecture will take place during activities period (3:00-4:30) on Thursday, October 23, location TBD. This year's presenter is Jay Parini, D. E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College. Professor Parini is a poet, novelist, and scholar, whose most recent book is Why Poetry Matters, published last April by Yale University Press. This year's presentation will in fact be a reading/lecture, with Professor Parini reading from his own poetry and commenting on what in his poetry or poetry more generally matters, and why it does. We hope to see you there. Posted 8/08
Fleckenstein to Present at Writing Program Workshop
Prof. Kristie Fleckenstein (Florida State U) will be offering a talk and a workshop under the auspices of the Writing Program (Department of English) on Tuesday, September 9, 10:00-12:00 in the Raytheon Theatre. The title of her talk and workshop is "Teaching and Writing with Tongues of Fire: A Polymorphic Pedagogy for a Polymorphic Literacy."
Prof. Fleckenstein's recent book, Embodied Literacies: Imageword and a Poetics of Teaching, was the recipient of the 2005 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book of the Year Award. She has published more than 40 articles and book chapters on subjects that cluster around her research interests of visuality and rhetoric, feminist theory, and composition pedagogy. Her current work explores the connections between early photography and writing pedagogy in the 19th century. She also co-edits with Linda Calendrillo JAEPL: Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, which has been selected by NCTE as a featured affiliate journal for the past nine years. Posted 9/2/08
2007-2008 First-Year Writing Contest Winners Announced
- First place: Jordan Martins, "Screens and Rhymes," written for Lynn Dornink
- Honorable Mention: Jon Brookstone, "Comics vs. Prisoners of the Mind," written for Christen Enos
- Honorable Mention: Maura McClafferty, "Rear Window: Voyeurism through the Camera," written for Kelly Garneau Posted 4/30/08
Grewell Awarded Dissertation Fellowship
The Department extends its congratulations to Ph.D. student Cory Grewell for receiving a Dissertation Writing Fellowship. The award is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and offers financial support to Ph.D. candidates so they may spend their final semester writing. Cory's dissertation is entitled, “Satiric Servants: The Revival of the Clever Roman Slave in Ben Jonson's Comedies," and his advisor is Professor Kathy Howlett. Posted 4/30/08
Undergraduate Student Presents at Shakespeare Conference
Grahame Turner, an undergraduate in Prof. Kathy Howlett's Shakespeare on Film class, presented the paper that he wrote for her class at an undergraduate Shakespeare conference in Worcester in April. Posted 4/08
Retiring...
This year marks the retirement of three valued and long-time colleagues in the English Department: Joe DeRoche, David Tutein, and Susan Wall. Each of them has contributed so much to the teaching and learning in the Department, each in a special way. Read more on page 2 of the Spring 2008 English Department Alumni e-Newsletter.
Senior Seminar Class Explores Rhetoric in Boston
On their website, Writing on the Line - Rhetoric in Boston's Southwest Corridor, Prof. Sullivan's Spring 2008 English Senior Seminar class explores the rhetorical nature of the prose and poetry carved on monuments in Boston's Southwest Corridor. Take the tour by visiting Writing on the Line. Posted 4/08
2008 Hanson Writing Competition Winners Announced
In the Category of Scholarly Writing:
- Winner: Elyse Merlo, “Identification and Categorization in People v. Kobe Bryant.” Written for Prof. Britt for Rhetoric of Law in Fall 2007.
- Honorable Mention: Emily Lemiska, “Frances Burney’s Evelina.” Written for Prof. Howlett’s Junior/Senior Seminar in Women of Letters in the Long 18th Century in Fall 2007.
In the Category of Creative Writing:
- Winner: Jacey Fortin, “Exile.” Written for Prof. Blessington for Fiction Workshop in Spring 2008.
- Honorable Mention: Abigail Zorbaugh, “Warmer.” Written for Prof. Bernstein for Creative Writing in Fall 2007.
Grewell Accepts Position at Thiel College
Cory Grewell (Ph.D. expected 2008) has accepted a tenure-track, assistant professor position at Thiel College in Greenville, PA. Posted 3/20/08
DeWall Accepts Position at McKendree
Nichole DeWall (Ph.D. expected 2008) has accepted a tenure-track, assistant professor position at McKendree University in Lebanon, IL.
5th Annual Peter Burton Hanson Writing Competition
Undergraduate Students: Enter the fifth annual Peter Burton Hanson Writing Competition. Deadline: February 22, 2008. Download an informational flyer.
English Major Receives Leadership Scholarship
The Department extends its congratulations to Peter Franklin for receiving a $5,000 Leadership Scholarship. Peter is a middler English and modern languages major and is the president of Northeastern's Progressive Student Alliance. Posted 1/22/08
Faculty Spotlight: David Kellogg
Professor David Kellogg's article, "Toward a Post-Academic Science Policy: Scientific Communication and the Collapse of the Mertonian Norms," has been named 2007's Best Article on Philosophy or Theory of Technical and Scientific Communication by the NCTE's Committee on Technical and Scientific Communication. The award will be presented at the annual ATTW Conference on April 2, 2008 in New Orleans. Posted 1/10/08
2008 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize
Rodney Jones has selected In the Truth Room, by Dana Roeser, as winner of the 2008 Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize. Ms. Roeser teaches at Butler University and lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. Her first book, Beautiful Motion, won the Morse Prize in 2004. Posted 1/10/08
DeWall Awarded Dissertation Fellowship
The Department extends its congratulations to Ph.D. student Nichole DeWall for receiving a Dissertation Writing Fellowship. The award is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and offers financial support to Ph.D. candidates so they may spend their final semester writing. Nichole's dissertation is entitled, “ 'A Plague o’ Both Your Houses': Shakespeare and the Early Modern Plague Writing Traditions," and her advisor is Professor Kathy Howlett. Posted 12/12/07
Charles Simic Presents 2007 Peter Burton Hanson Lecture
On November 29, 2007, the English Department hosted Charles Simic, the Poet Laureate of the US. Mr. Simic presented the annual Peter Burton Hanson Lecture to a capacity audience in the Curry Student Center.- The Northeastern News article, Poet laureate Charles Simic shares experiences, by Derek Hawkins
- Daily News Transcript article, Through a Teacher's Eyes: Poet laureate draws words out of silence, by Carol Ziemain
Co-Op Class Features Alumni Panel
On November 6, Pam Goodale invited several English Department alumni/ae to participate in a panel presentation for her co-op class. Amanda Collins (AS ’05), Thomas Hall (Ed ’68), Emily Hunt (AS ’06), Shaun McNamara (AS ’96), Jessica Noonan (AS ’02), Carol L. Phelan (LA ’71), and Brooke L. Witkowski (AS ’03) made up the panel. They represented a variety of career possibilities including publishing, professional writing, education, public relations, and creative writing.
After the presentation and discussion, students and panel members were invited to attend a small networking reception organized by the English Department and the College of Arts and Sciences’ development office. Guests included Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg (AS ’88, MA 92), Stephen M. Wallace (English/Journalism, LA ’68), James E. Bowman (LA ’67), Julia B. Bonopane (AS ’04), and Edward H. Buswick (MA ’79). Many English faculty members also attended.
English Chair Tim Donovan strongly supported having the reception as part of his continued efforts to encourage alumni involvement. "We were delighted to have such a great alumni turnout at the event,” he said. “I am pleased to know that our alums are interested in helping students sort through all the career options made available to them through an NU degree in English.”
If you are interested in participating in opportunities such as the alumni panel or the networking reception, please Drop Us a Line.
More alumni and co-op news can be found in Fall 2007 Alumni e-Newsletter and in the Alumni section of our website.
Faculty Spotlight: Elizabeth Maddock Dillon
The English Department faculty, staff, and students are pleased to welcome new faculty member Professor Elizabeth Maddock Dillon. In addition to being an associate professor in English at Northeastern, Dillon is co-director of the Future of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College. She writes and teaches on early American literature and Atlantic colonialism. Her areas of interest include the early novel, feminist theory, political theory, aesthetics, transatlantic print culture, Caribbean literature, and early American drama.
Professor Dillon's book, The Gender of Freedom: Fictions of Liberalism and the Literary Public Sphere (Stanford University Press, 2004), concerns gender, political theory, narrative, and the print public sphere. American Literary History, American Literature, Diacritics and other journals and edited volumes on topics ranging from Barbary captivity narratives to literary formalism.
Professor Dillon received the Heyman Prize for Outstanding Publication in the humanities at Yale University in 2003 and the Society of Early Americanists Essay Prize in 2005. She is currently completing a manuscript titled New World Drama: Theatre of the Atlantic, 1660-1850 that will be published by Duke University Press and she is co-editing, with Michael Drexler, a volume of essays on early American culture and the Haitian Revolution.
Professor Beth Britt is the recipient of the 2007 Excellence in Teaching Award at Northeastern.
She is one of only two faculty members in the University so honored this year. Professor Britt, whose teaching and research interests include rhetorical criticism, rhetoric of law, rhetoric of inquiry, and ethnographic theory and methods, will be recognized in a ceremony at Commencement in May, and a brief biography will appear in NU's Commencement booklet.
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