David Cantwell reviews Bastard Out of Carolina for New Yorker

Posted on 01/22/2018 by jmcward

In November, David Cantwell published an essay on Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, as part of the New Yorker‘s Second Read Series. Cantwell’s essay, titled “An Essential Novel About Poverty, Bigotry, and Sexual Abuse, Twenty-Five Years Later,” considers the major themes of the novel, while also focusing upon the author’s life and some of the controversies surrounding the novel’s publication in 1992.

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Dan Murtaugh’s recent publication: Good Night, Beloved Comrade

Posted on 01/22/2018 by jmcward

In February, 2017, The University of Wisconsin Press published Good Night Comrade: The Letters of Denton Welch to Eric Oliver, edited by Dan Murtaugh, adjunct professor of English. Here is some information that Dan provided about the subject of his book:

Denton Welch (1915–48) died at the age of thirty-three after a brief but brilliant career as a writer and painter. He published four novels published between 1943 and 1950: Maiden Voyage, In Youth Is Pleasure, Brave and Cruel, and A Voice through Cloud, as well as a large body of short fiction and poetry. The revealing, poignant, impressionistic voice that buoys his novels was much praised by critics and literati in England and has since inspired creative artists from William S. Burroughs to John Waters. His achievements were all the more remarkable because he suffered from debilitating spinal and pelvic injuries incurred in a bicycle accident at age eighteen.

Though German bombs were ravaging Britain, Welch wrote in his published work about the idyllic landscapes and local people he observed in Kent. There, in 1943, he met and fell in love with Eric Oliver, a handsome, intelligent, but rather insecure “landboy”—an agricultural worker with the wartime Land Army. Oliver would become a companion, comrade, lover, and caretaker during the last six years of Welch’s life. All fifty-one letters that Welch wrote to Oliver are collected and annotated here for the first time.

To learn more about Dan’s book, follow this link to The University of Wisconsin Press site: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5569.htm.

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First Friday English Department Discussions

Posted on 01/18/2018 by jmcward

During the departmental meetings last week, I mentioned that we’re going to start offering once-a-month sessions on a variety of topics related to technology, our classes, discipline, etc. I am happy to announce that we have a slate of four planned activities on the first Friday of each month, starting in February. Each session will be from 2- 3pm. Here is what we have planned this semester:

Feb. 2: Spinbots, Plagiarism, Turnitin, and Canvas. Maureen Fitzpatrick and Jim McWard will lead this hands-on session in which we’ll explore the world of spinbots and the extent to which Turnitin can or cannot recognize the results as plagiarism. We’ll also cover how students and instructors can view originality reports when using Turnitin through Canvas. Location: CC 217.

March 2: Before the start of the semester Beth Gulley travelled to Pakistan to give a keynote speech at The Conference on the Concept of the Community College. She also conducted a four-hour workshop on “Communicating with Students” at Sukkur IBA University. Beth will report on her trip and the college’s and department’s potential roles in working with Pakistan teachers and students. Location: TBA.

April 6: Last spring, several members of the English department met to assess our students’ understanding of diversity in our literature classes. Monica Hogan, the department’s chair of assessment, has written a detailed report of our findings that she will discuss at this meeting. She may also offer some insights into what we’ve learned thus far from our recent Composition II research assessment activity. Location: TBA.

May 4: As everyone knows by now, D2L will ride off into the sunset on June 30, which means that Canvas will be the only LMS to use at JCCC when the summer semester begins. Throughout the spring semester, the Educational Technology Center will offer many online and on-campus training opportunities for Canvas (http://classsearch.jccc.edu/class/results/term_type/StaffDev?term_code=201703&query=zetc&s=&term_type=StaffDev). However, this session will focus on Canvas tools that will be most useful for English instructors. Location: TBA.

I hope that you’ll find one or more of these topics to be of interest, and if you do, please come! I’ll be sure to send out an email reminder about a week before each scheduled discussion.

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Cavalier Conference for Spring 2018

Posted on 01/10/2018 by jmcward

The English Cavalier Conference is scheduled for April 20, 2018. This year’s theme is “Researching, and our keynote speaker will be Doug Hesse, writing program executive director and professor of English at University of Denver, past president of NCTE, and former chair of CCCC.

Paper and presentation proposals are due by Feb. 2, 2018. For more information go here:

http://blogs.jccc.edu/englishconference/

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Fall 2017 Department News

Posted on 12/05/2017 by jmcward

Common Read Event

Just Mercy is the new Common Read book for the year. As part of the Common Read series, Tricia Bushnell of the Midwest Innocence Project, will be speaking at 10 am on Oct. 2 in the Craig Auditorium (GEB 233). This day is also designated as Wrongful Conviction Day. Bring your classes.

Tricia Bushnell at Common Read Launch last spring

Cav Kickoff

The English department enjoyed participating in the Cav Kickoff on Wednesday, August 23. Below are pictures of our new departmental tablecloth as well as two of our fabulous volunteers, professors Tom Reynolds and Diane Davis.