The topic for Thursday, October 1, Breakfast with the RCC (Research Culture Committee) is "Benefitting a Research Agenda through Teaching."  Panelists are Alicia Carroll, Jeremy Downes, Chris Keirstead, and Marc Silverstein, and the breakfast is in Eagle's Nest North.  Food from Panera Bread, coffee, juice, etc., will be provided.

"Mid-Career Options and Choices" is the topic for the RCC panel discussion on October 7, 3:00 p.m., in Haley 3228.  Panelists are Jon Bolton, Constance Relihan, and Paula Backscheider.

Because of the number of faculty publications, the main office display will now be made up of articles, books, poems, and stories from the past six months rather than the past twelve months. Please be sure to give Paula Backscheider or Elizabeth Kent copies of your work as soon as it comes out. If you have no offprint, we will create one for you. Please browse these publications, enjoy a quick read, and do congratulate our colleagues.

Dan Latimer wrote an article, "The Euphoria of Gloom: An Inquiry into Gottfried Keller's Green Henry," after being intrigued by what W.G. Sebald and Walter Benjamin cryptically said about Gottfried Keller's kinship with the female identity. Latimer holds that it amounts to a split consciousness, a confusion about whether his creative apparatus is essentially male or female. He was never able to break the ice between them, as in his poem about the water nixie trying to make contact with him from the depths of a frozen pond. He doesn't help her, and her face is always in his mind. This failure made him the most pessimistic man who ever wrote a 500 page novel, condemning him to morbidity and emotional futility. The reader has the impulse to fall in love with his women characters, while Keller himself, or his character Henry, runs in panic for the exits.

To World Literature Instructors: the Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, April 15-18, 2010, will be held at Seton Hall University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. For information about the conference and how to submit a proposal for a brief paper, please visit their website or see James Goldstein for details. Their website is available at: http://www.coretexts.org/

Matt Klauza's article, "Mark Twain's Recovered Comic Voice in 'You've Been a Damfool, Mary'" has been accepted for publication by peer-reviewed journal, The Mark Twain Annual. This article began as research for a Mark Twain Fellowship at the Center for Mark Twain Studies in Elmira, NY, where Matt was scholar-in-residence in the home in which Twain himself lived and wrote seven of his novels. For the fellowship, he was the first to critically examine, firsthand, a recently-discovered (and thought to be lost) typescript of one of Twain's short stories, "You've Been a Damfool, Mary." His article revisits and reconsiders the pedagogical and scholarly value of this lesser-known work, taking into consideration contemporary events, biography, and composition history, while examining the usefulness of this newly-rediscovered story.

Nearly 300 students currently major in English at Auburn University, and they are a diverse group of individuals with a variety of interests and talents.  The English Channel  is proud to feature some of our stronger students who help make the English Department dynamic and interesting.

Christina Masten, Senior
Tina Masten, a cadet in the United States Army ROTC program, is already finding her English courses to be helpful. She realizes that for military orders to be effective, they should be clearly written and grammatically correct.  Writing orders, however, isn't the reason she decided to major in English. She had "really great high school English teachers" and has always loved to read. Two favorite writers she lists are Ayn Rand, not for her writing necessarily but because of her Objectivist philosophy, and Jodi Picoult, whose complex characters pull her into very honest, real stories. When asked what English courses at Auburn she has enjoyed, she quickly and emphatically states that Dr. Thomas Nunnally's Bible for Students of Literature (ENGL 3360) has been her favorite. She learned a lot about the Christian Bible from a non-religious perspective, which she feels has given her a knowledge base to discuss Christianity with those who are devoutly religious. Besides reading "everything," she spends her time caring for her daughters Elane (age 4) and Ryah (age 2). Tina came to Auburn after she relocated to Columbus, Georgia from her home state of Delaware. Her future plans include being an Army officer for four to six years, after which she hopes to establish a career in which she helps young girls and women become empowered as strong individuals. Ideally, she would like to fly helicopters for a living. She jokes that she could teach young women to fly - both literally and figuratively.

Auburn University officials dedicated the John C. H. Miller Jr. Writing Center at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, in the Governor's Room at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. Speakers included Jay Gogue, Auburn University president; Sarah Newton, Board of Trustees president pro tempore; Margaret Marshall, newly named director of university writing; Sharon Roberts, co-chair of the Writing Initiative Task Force; and Matt Klauza, assistant to the center director and a Ph.D. candidate in English. The center's namesake, John C. H. "Jack" Miller Jr., served on the Board of Trustees from 2000 until his death July 11, 2009. He spearheaded efforts to improve students' writing and reasoning skills and he led the creation of the Writing Initiative Task Force. The Board of Trustees in June named the newly established writing center in his honor. The center is directed by Isabelle Thompson and staffed by faculty members from the Department of English. It has two locations on campus: Haley Center room 3183 and on the second floor of the Ralph Brown Draughon Library.

Provost Mary Ellen Mazey has named Margaret Marshall director of university writing for the newly established John C. H. Miller Jr. Writing Center, effective June 2010. Marshall will come to Auburn University from the University of Miami where she is assistant provost and associate director of The Reinvention Center. She has been an associate professor in Miami's Department of English since 1999, including six years as director of English composition. Her publications include three books, "Composing Inquiry: Methods and Readings for Investigation and Writing," "In Response to Reform: Composition and the Professionalization of Teaching" and "Contesting Cultural Rhetorics: Public Discourse and Education, 1890-1900." Marshall earned her doctorate in English and education in 1991 from the University of Michigan, master's degree in English education in 1981 from the University of Colorado and bachelor's degree in 1975 from the University of Northern Colorado. At Auburn, she will serve as a tenured professor in the Department of English.

More details on the event: http://wireeagle.auburn.edu/news/1154

The College of Liberal Arts is pleased to announce four new chairs in the departments of Music, Communication and Journalism, English, and Philosophy. They are Sara Lynn Baird, Music; Margaret Fitch-Hauser, Communication and Journalism; Jim Ryan, English, and Michael Watkins, Philosophy.

Sara Lynn Baird earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Florida State University, a Master of Music in Voice Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and a Ph.D. in Music Education with an emphasis on Choral Conducting from Florida State University. Her previous position was Interim Dean of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts at Louisiana State University. Baird also served as Associate Dean for the College of Music and Dramatic Arts from 1998-2007 and Director of Graduate Studies from 2005-2007. Baird served as President for Southern Division ACDA and on the National Board from 2005- 2007.

Margaret Fitch-Hauser earned a bachelor's degree in English and Communication and a master's degree in Communication from Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas, and a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Oklahoma. For the past 20 years, she has taught Public Relations at Auburn University. During that time, the program has progressed from offering only two PR classes to being one of two accredited PR programs in the state of Alabama. She was chair of the Department previously from 1993-1996, and served as Acting Head of the Department from 1991 - 1993. In 2007, she received the International Listening Association Research Award, 2007 and the College of Liberal Arts Teaching Excellence Award in Communication and Social Science, 2004-2005.

Jim Ryan earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied English, political science, and urban life. He later earned a doctorate in early American literature from UNC-Chapel Hill. His current teaching and research fields are in early American Literature and interdisciplinary American Studies. For his work with undergraduate and graduate students at AU, he received the College of Liberal Arts Early Career Teaching Award (2004).

Michael Watkins earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology and a master's degree in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee. He received his doctorate degree in Philosophy from The Ohio State University and has been faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Auburn since 1994. Watkins is currently a Lanier Professor and was recently inducted to the College of Liberal Arts' Academy of Teaching and Outstanding Teachers.

Jessica Sims - PhD
Jessica Sims received her Master in Arts in English in 2007 from Auburn University and her Bachelor of Arts in English in 2005 from Auburn as well.  While completing her MA, she served as the MA co-chair for the English Graduate Organization, tutored student athletes in the English Center and was awarded the honor of Best Graduate Student Paper at the Master's level in 2007.  Her thesis explored concepts of gender within the private and public spheres in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.  She intends to specialize in 19th century American literature.

Elizabeth Savoy - MA
Elizabeth (Beth) Savoy started her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at El Paso.  In 2009, she finished her Bachelor of Arts in English at Athens State University in Athens, Alabama. Her interests include young adult fiction, contemporary poetry, and playing the flute.

Pearl Shields - MA
Pearl Shields is from Aurora, Colorado and received her B.A. in English and Politics from Regis University in Denver, Colorado. While at Regis, Pearl worked for the Honors Program, both as its Student Coordinator and as a T.A. for the Honors First-Year Writing Seminar. She also served as a legislative aide in the Colorado General Assembly and worked for the Host Committee at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. Pearl's academic interests include pop culture studies, film criticism, travel literature, and the early Catholic works of female writers such as Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe.

Shanna Lockwood - MTPC
Shanna Lockwood is thrilled to begin her graduate career in the Master of Technical and Professional Communication program, after having graduated Summa Cum Laude from Auburn University in May 2009 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. During her time as an undergraduate, she was a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Tau Sigma Honor Society, and Delta Epsilon Iota. Additionally, she was on the 2008-2009 Glomerata staff, serving as Assistant Photo Editor for the university's yearbook. From performing at Carnegie Hall to being a photographer on the sidelines for the Auburn Tigers, Shanna looks forward to achieving yet another dream - a master's degree from the loveliest university on the Plains.

On October 1, the second Breakfast with the Research Culture Committee will offer “Benefitting a Research Agenda through Teaching.” Panelists are Alicia Carroll, Chris Keirstead, and Jeremy Downes. 8:15-9:15, Eagle's Nest North, and there will be more coffee as well as food.

Robin Sabino presented "Language Thugs, Grammar Writing, Cultural Hegemony, and the African Diaspora" at Berry College on September 14th. This presentation grew out of research for the development of ENGL 5840/6840, Modern English Grammars, and a lecture developed for the inaugural Understanding Differences that Matter: Diversity Research at Auburn University last year. While at Berry College, Sabino met with students at Berry College interested in finding out about graduate study in English at Auburn University.

Emily Friedman won the GI/TA Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching with Technology from her PhD alma mater, the University of Missouri.  The award consists of a $500 stipend for educational technology or professional development expenses. 

Attention instructors: The Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, April 15-18, 2010, will be held at Seton Hall University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  For information about the conference and how to submit a proposal for a brief paper, please visit their website or see James Goldstein for details.  Their website is available at: http://www.coretexts.org/

Marvyn Petrucci has two poems in the current issue of the Southern Humanities Review. Also, he may be heard reading a poem of his in the current online issue of the Cortland Review.

SEL, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 has just published "Recent Studies in the Restoration and Eighteenth Century" by Paula Backscheider.  The review covers 115 books published in 2008 and early 2009. Each quarter's issue of SEL features a different period of British literature, and she is the first woman and only the fourth expert to be invited to write the review twice.

In our continuing feature, we present an undergraduate English major who helps make our department strong.
Nicholas Brown, Freshman
If you've ever wondered how a student from Illinois might end up choosing to attend Auburn University, consider Nicholas Brown. Nick's parents both attended Auburn University and, what's more, they were both English majors. Nick says he wanted to do something different than his parents did, but he has always been an Auburn football fan, and when he visited the campus, he knew it was the place for him. He also picked English as his major because like his mother, a creative writing professor, he enjoys writing stories and loves to read. His favorite books combine stark realism and dystopia, such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. In fact, Nick has written a novel in this tradition that explores possible ramifications of controlling children for the sake of protecting them. When asked if the hero is modeled after himself, Nick laughs and says that he sees the hero as being "the part of you that you wish you were" and the villain as "the part of you that you wish you weren't." He attributes his insights into human nature to being the son of a pastor, which he says is the "loneliest profession" because people look up to his father but do not expect him to be a regular person. He has seen a lot of human elements that most kids don't by being around those in the congregation so much, including personal struggles and senseless bickering. Nick plans to continue with Army ROTC and serve his commitment after college. Ultimately, he plans to pursue his dream of becoming a writer; his perfect future would include attending the University of Iowa's Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing.

In addition to being a 4th year PhD candidate (ABD), Amanda Morris is also a budding, self-taught professional photographer who specializes in capturing the essence and personality of individuals, families, pets, and places. Her prior experience as a journalist gave her photo publishing credits, but she now pursues a different type of photographic experience. Influences range from social documentary photography and photojournalism to fashion and landscape photography, including work by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Shelby Lee Adams, Phillipe Halsman, Stephen Shore, Ansel Adams, Nigel Barker, and many others. Since fall 2008, she has been requested to shoot engagement photos, individual and family
portraits, pet portraits, and weddings. In her free time and during her travels, she also experiments with both nature images and small town/urban space photo projects for competitions. Her "Spring Mirror" nature shot, taken at dawn in Eufala National Wildlife Refuge this spring, won the Artistic category in Auburn University's Davis Arboretum Spring photo competition, several shots have been picked up by online travel guides and photographic blogs, and most recently, her "Motel Capri" shot from her Spring 2009 San Francisco CCCC adventure was selected as a finalist in Photographer's Forum magazine's 29th Annual Spring contest. Current artistic projects include a photo essay on kitchens, and a developing gallery show collection on contemporary impressions of Alabama. Below are some representative images of Amanda's recent photographic work (for more shots, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandawriter).

The purpose of the English Graduate Association is to provide, through election, graduate representation on departmental and university committees and organizations. EGA seeks to provide a forum for discussion of issues relevant to English graduate students, to act as an advocacy group for English graduate students, both within the department and the university, and to provide intellectual, professional, and social opportunities for the benefit of its membership. EGA also strives to maintain a university-sanctioned organization to represent Graduate students in the Department of English and the university as a whole. Membership is restricted to regularly enrolled Auburn University students, faculty, and staff. No university student may be denied membership on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, color, age, disability, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

All students enrolled in the Auburn University Department of English graduate program are considered members of the English Graduate Association, for which there are no dues to belong. At the beginning of the fall semester, look for fliers announcing the first meeting of the year!  This year we hope to focus on recruitment to our program and the reordering and restoration of certain committees, as well as fostering a positive social environment for ALL English graduate students.

The EGA constitution can be found here.
The bylaws can be found here.
Any questions can be directed to Suzanne Samples (Ph.D. Co-chair) at srs0006@auburn.edu, or Todd Aldridge (Master's Co-chair) at tja0004@auburn.edu.

PhD Co-Chair Suzanne Samples	MA Co-Chair  Todd Aldridge	Secretary Josh Doty
Parliamentarian Amanda MacDonald	Benson Lecture Committee Keith Clavin	Composition Committee Heather Pavletic
TPC Committee Cassity Hughes	English Center Committee (PhD) Matt Klauza	Graduate Studies Committee James Holzmeister
Faculty Meeting Rep. (PhD)  Matt Thiele	Graduate Student Council (PhD) Nancy Blair	Graduate Student Council (MA) Trisha Hanson
IT Committee Karen Hunley

The Research Culture Committee will be hosting a Brown Bag lunch program on Thursday, September 17 from 12:30-1:30 in Eagle's Nest South. The topic is journal rankings and improving acceptances. Jo Mackiewicz and Paula Bobrowski are the discussion leaders; Paula is the CLA representative to the P&T Committee. The major sources for journal rankings are on the Research Culture blog, and it might be helpful if participants glanced at them before the program. The blog is located at http://blog.auburn.edu/english/. Your i.d. and password are your user i.d. (dantega, for instance) until you change your password. Beverages will be provided for your convenience.

Peter Huggins led three poetry workshops on beginnings, voice, and place at the Alabama Writers' Conclave in July. He will be appearing at the Decatur Book Festival in September and at the Southern Festival of Books in October. His picture book, TROSCLAIR AND THE ALLIGATOR, will next appear on the PBS show BETWEEN THE LIONS on September 17.

The English Department is co-sponsoring this film series at the Jule Collins Smith Art Museum this Fall; Elvis's America: 1956 ties into the museum's exhibition Elvis at 21: New York to Memphis. The series will feature American films from 1956, including Baby Doll, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Movies will be preceded by lectures by faculty members in different departments.  The schedule is posted in the Calendar of Events (above) and can be viewed here.

The Research Culture Committee is offering career consulting.  Assistant and Associate Professors who want to talk about their research plans may ask for confidential meetings with Paula Backscheider, Constance Relihan, Isabelle Thompson, and Don Wehrs.  Sequencing publications, taking research trips, deciding between writing more articles or stories or writing a book, planning teaching and service to make research easier- all of these topics and more can be explored.  E-mail any of the four and take them up on the offer.

The Research Culture Committee's next event is a panel on external summer funding on September 9 featuring Joanne Tong, Matt Zarnowiecki, and Susan Youngblood (3:00 in Haley 3228). After that, there will be a brown bag on September 17 from 12:30-1:30 in the 8th floor lounge on journal rankings and improving acceptance rates. Facilitators will be Jo Mackiewicz and Paula Bobrowski, who is the dean's representative to the P&T Committee. All welcome!

“At the same time that Dean Gramberg gave Hilary [Wyss] and Craig [Bertolet] special responsibilities, she charged me with improving the department’s publication record.  With a small committee of volunteers, I formed a Research Culture Committee.  Although research in English studies is largely a solitary activity, it is best carried out in an environment that is friendly, supportive, interested, and stimulating.  To that end, we have planned several kinds of events: Breakfast with the Research Culture Committee, Brown Bag Lunches, and afternoon panels.  We have established a blog, http://blog.auburn.edu/english/ .  In addition to postings to which we hope you will respond, there’s a calendar of our events (times, places, topics for our events), some highlights, and other entertaining features.    A bookshelf in the main office displays faculty publications from the last 12 months.  Every two weeks, they rotate, so that different publications are at eye-level.  Year-old publications disappear.  Please be sure to give me your new publications, and, if you don’t have offprints, we can create them.  I am interested in your ideas and will be happy to talk with you about them.” – Dr. Paula Backscheider

• Thomas Blake, PhD. Dissertation:  "Staging and Upstaging Revolt: The Maternal Function in Twentieth-Century Drama."  Summer, 2009.
• Nodya Boyko, MA. Thesis:  "The Truth is Online: Digital Reality and Remediating The X-Files."  Spring, 2009.
• Tamara Bruch, MA. Thesis:  "The Evolution of the South: Eliza Frances Andrews, General William T. Sherman, and Green Interpretations of the Civil War."  Spring, 2009.
• Angela Fletcher, MTPC. Spring, 2009.
• Katherine Gray, MA. Thesis:  "We All Fall down." Spring, 2009.
• Tawnysha Greene, MA. Thesis: "Sundays." Spring, 2009.
• Elizabeth Hollis, MA. Thesis: "The Things They Carried: Conceptions of Writing Transfer in Composition Studies." Summer, 2009.
• Paul Hollis, MTPC. Spring, 2009.
• Victoria Hollis, MA. Thesis:  "Ambassadors of Community: The History and Complicity of the Family Community in
• Midnight's Children and The God of Small Things." Spring, 2009.
• Min Hu, PhD. Dissertation: "Phonological Awareness in Mandarin of Chinese and Americans."  Spring, 2009.
• Elizabeth Kent, MA. Thesis:  "Zombie as Parody: The Misuses of Science and the Nonhuman Condition in Postmodern Society."  Spring, 2009.
• Emily Maffett, MTPC. Spring, 2009.
• Corine Mathis, MA. Thesis: "'That girl of yours, she's pretty hard-boiled':  Film Noir and the Claiming and Performance of Gender in Veronica Mars."  Spring, 2009.
• Madhu Narayan, MA. Thesis: "'An Art of Speaking': A Study of Anzaldua's Borderlands as a 'tactical discourse.'" Spring, 2009.
• Michael Noble, MA, Non-Thesis. Spring, 2009.
• Rachel Reed, MA. Thesis: "Re-envisioning the Giants: A Longitudinal Case Study of One ESL Learner."  Spring, 2009.
• Mary Ann Rygiel, PhD. Dissertation: "Representations of Catholicism in American Literature, 1820-1920."  Spring, 2009.
• Kelly Sherrill, MTPC. Spring, 2009.
• Elizabeth Weeks, MTPC. Spring, 2009.
• Caroline Wilkinson, MA. Thesis: "'Getting Things "Alt" enough':  A Rhetorical Analysis of Composition Scholars' Use of Hybrid Academic Discourse."  Spring, 2009.

Monita Bell
The English Department is pleased to have added Monita Bell to its faculty.  Monita earned her M.A. from Auburn University and her B.A. from Alabama State University. After leaving AU, she taught composition, world literature, creative writing, and short fiction at Alabama State. Her scholarly interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature and African American literature. She is particularly interested in images and representations of black women in American literature, film, television, and music videos. She plans to expand her research in the politics of hair concerning black women, among other issues that deal with images of female beauty.

Seungheui (Ellie) Lee - MA
Seungheui (Ellie) Lee graduated in 2007 from Kyunghee University in South Korea with a dual major in English and International Business Management. In 2008, she earned a TESOL diploma and worked as an ESL teacher for four years. She is pleased to have an opportunity to study and work as a GTA in the English Department and is interested in studying composition and linguistics.

Benjamin Arnberg - MA
Benjamin is a first year Master's student, planning on concentrating in literature. He graduated from Auburn University in the spring of 2009 with a degree in English. While an undergraduate, Benjamin served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Glomerata (Auburn's yearbook), a member of the College of Liberal Arts Student Eminent Society, a member of SGA, an Undergraduate Studies Academic Coach, and on various university boards and committees. Benjamin is very excited to have the opportunity to expand his knowledge of the literary landscape at Auburn University and cannot wait to get to work with the diverse faculty and student body throughout the next few years.

Katherine Meersman - MTPC
Katherine (Katie) Meersman graduated in May 2009 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a Bachelor of Arts in History. While at UT, Katie served as a columnist and as a news editor at the school newspaper. While Oak Ridge, Tennessee is Katie's hometown, she has also lived in Washington, D.C., New York, Maryland, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and California.  When she is not in school, Katie enjoys traveling, and most recently traveled to China through UT's Study Abroad Program. She also enjoys volunteering at an adult day center and a Golden Retriever rescue organization.

(Carl) Alex Mansell - MTPC
A Birmingham, Alabama native, Alex Mansell graduated May 2009 with a B.A in German from Auburn University.  Former Auburn Professor David Yeats sparked his interest in Technical Communication through his Styles Workshop course, and his interest in TPC developed while studying in Vienna, Austria in the summer of 2008.  His academic interests include sociolinguistics, foreign languages and, of course, technical and professional communication.  Alex's personal interests include hiking, kayaking, soccer, and traveling.  He is a regular volunteer at the Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari and serves as the Public Relations Chair for the Society for Conservation Biology, Auburn Chapter.

PhD Student Matt Klauza Presents Paper at Mark Twain Conference In early August, Matt Klauza presented a paper, "Hannibal Revisited: Place Identity and Mark Twain’s Returns Home," in Elmira, New York, at the Sixth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies.  Matt's paper traced Mark Twain's returns home to his native Hannibal, Missouri--homecomings which not only impacted Twain's place identity, but also his writing and his regional associations.

The Composition Program is thrilled to launch new customized readers for the themed 1120 courses. These readers were constructed with special attention to the objectives of 1120 and a desire to more effectively accommodate 1120 instructors and students. Each reader has a substantial collection of readings that reflect a variety of genres and subtopics within each major theme. The readers are available for use beginning Fall 2009. Desk copies are currently available in the English Department Office for your perusal.

Masters students Steele Campbell and Hallie Johnston have been appointed to serve as editorial assistants for The Southern Humanities Review.  Campbell and Johnston will be reading submissions, and assisting Karen Beckwith with the managerial duties when necessary. Campbell will be looking at poetry submissions and Johnston, fiction submissions.  I'm really excited for them, and for us.

More than 300 students currently major in English at Auburn University, and they are a diverse group of individuals with a variety of interests and talents.  The English Channel  is proud to feature some of our accomplished students who help make the English Department dynamic and interesting.

Sara Short, Senior
When Sarah isn't practicing and performing as a majorette with the Auburn University Marching Band, she loves to write.  She recently discovered a love for creative writing, an activity she plans to explore more in the future.  She talks animatedly about her literature courses at Auburn, which she sees as helping her consider ideas that she had not previously considered. For example, in Dr. Hillary Wyss's Senior Seminar "Indian Removals" (ENGL 4950), she began to understand an often overlooked dimension of the United States's history - that of the plight of its native peoples.  "People don't really consider the modern-day repercussions of what America did to the Indian people that they marginalized," she says.  Dr. Wyss's class, as well as Dr. Susana Morris's Topics in African American Literature course, "Love Jones: Representations of Love in Contemporary African American Literature and Culture" (ENGL 4580) were two of her favorite courses because both professors had a great ability to generate thoughtful classroom discussion.  Sara plans to put her literature and writing knowledge to use in graduate school, where she will pursue either an MA in English or an Alternative master's certification degree in Education so that she can teach either college or secondary school English.  Sara feels that her main accomplishment has been maintaining good grades, particularly in light of her numerous extracurricular activities, including being the majorette with the Auburn University Marching Band.  Although it is more important for her to be satisfied with the quality of her research papers, she is proud of having made straight As in her English courses at Auburn.

Rachel Coxwell, Sophomore
Rachel Coxwell, an Opelika, Alabama native, is serious about taking every opportunity to learn while in college.  In her history course, she learned how to knit.  In the lecture class, another student was always knitting while they waited for the (usually) late professor, so one day Rachel told her she'd like to learn.  The knitter told her to bring some needles to the next class and she'd show her; they knitted during their discussion sections, too.  By the end of the semester, there were four knitters who learned history while doing (albeit something else).  Rachel has a wide variety of interests, including crafts such as sewing and making journals.  She chose to be an English major because of the influence of excellent English teachers in her private school education, where she learned to focus on how she was communicating ideas rather than worrying about sentence structure while trying to get a draft written.  She loves art, literature, math and science, but she chose to study literature and writing because she does not want to do a puzzle everyday, which she feels would be the case with a math or science career.  She also discovered during Dr. Isabelle Thompson's honors writing seminar that she loves helping people learn to write, and she would like to do just that as a career. In other words, Rachel learned more than how to peer review -she learned to love a potential profession.  Besides being an English teacher, she would also eventually like to use her English degree to help her homeschool her children.  Rachel is so fully an English major that she not only loves to read and write, she is also a published poet. Her poem, "Burning Embers," was published in Creative Communications when she was a sophomore in high school. 

To World Literature Instructors: the Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, April 15-18, 2010, will be held at Seton Hall University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  For information about the conference and how to submit a proposal for a brief paper, please visit their website or see James Goldstein for details.  Their website is available at: http://www.coretexts.org/

"At the same time that Dean Gramberg gave Hilary [Wyss] and Craig [Bertolet] special responsibilities, she charged me with improving the department's publication record. With a small committee of volunteers, I formed a Research Culture Committee. Although research in English studies is largely a solitary activity, it is best carried out in an environment that is friendly, supportive, interested, and stimulating. To that end, we have planned several kinds of events: Breakfast with the Research Culture Committee, with our first event on writing groups; Brown Bag Lunches, with how journals are ranked and why we should care as the first at that time; and Panels designed to allow open-ended discussion. We have established a blog, http://blog.auburn.edu/english/ . In addition to postings to which we hope you will respond, there's a calendar of our events (times, places, topics for our events), some highlights, and other entertaining features. Faculty members are already subscribed and graduate students and instructors can contact Lacy Marschalk (marscls@auburn.edu) to join.  A bookshelf in the main office displays faculty publications from the last 12 months. Every two weeks, they rotate, so that different publications are at eye-level. Year-old publications disappear. Please be sure to give me your new publications, and, if you don't have offprints, we can create them. I am interested in your ideas and will be happy to talk with you about them."
The first "Breakfast with the Research Culture Committee" will be August 27th, 8:15-9:15, in the lounge, Haley 8009. Emily Friedman, Kevin Roozen, and Robin Sabino will be the panelists and discussion leaders for "Writing Groups:  Pros, Cons, and Getting Started." There will be a continental breakfast, and everyone is welcome. Raise questions and comment before and after on the Research Culture Blog, http://blog.auburn.edu/english/.

The National Endowment for the Humanities will be conducting one of its regional workshops at Auburn University's Hotel and Conference Center on September 23-24. Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and the English Department's Research Culture Committee, the workshop will begin at 9:15 on Wednesday with a welcoming coffee social. Faculty and administrators from many area colleges and universities will be invited to attend. There will be sessions on the full range of NEH programs and special incentives, a workshop on strategies for application writing, and a mock review panel. The Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office for University Outreach will sponsor a reception on the afternoon of the 23rd. Faculty who submit a draft proposal or abstract two weeks before the workshop can have a private consultation with the NEH program officer on the 24th Faculty who want to attend will need to register (pkrb@auburn.edu).

The CLA Student Services Center (this includes all Advisor and Administrative offices) is moving to 321 Tichenor Hall. We hope to be open for advising in our new offices on Aug. 26. We will be closed on the afternoon of Aug. 21 and all day Aug. 24 and Aug. 25 in order to make the move. Please keep checking your email for updates--as with all moves, there may be some last minute changes to the schedule.

The Department of Communication and Journalism will also be moving back to Tichenor. Please look for more information from the Department.

The English Department has a new interim department head, Dr. James Emmett Ryan.  A professor at Auburn since 2000, Dr. Ryan's primary teaching and research fields are in early American Literature and interdisciplinary American Studies. Dr. Ryan has served as the associate department head for the English Department since 2006 and has served on a number of departmental and university committees.  Dr. Ryan is replacing Dr. Michelle Sidler, who acted as interim department head for the 2008-2009 academic year.  Dr. Sidler will continue to serve as director of the Composition Program and as Associate Professor in Composition and Rhetoric for the English Department.   Dr. Sidler would like to thank everyone for their support during her reign as department head.

Other members of the English Department with administrative duties include:

Michelle Sidler Writing Programs Coordinator	Jon Bolton Undergraduate Studies Coordinator	Alicia Carroll Graduate Studies Coordinator
Robin Sabino Graduate Admissions Coordinator	Isabelle Thompson TPC and English Center Coordinator	Tracey Parker Academic Advisor
James Goldstein World Literature Coordinator

Emily Friedman - 18th Century British Literature

Emily C. Friedman received her BA from Bryn Mawr College, her MA from the Centre for Eighteenth-Century Studies at the University of York, and her PhD from the University of Missouri, where her dissertation was titled "Beginning's Ends: New Senses of Ending and the Rise of the Novel."  She has essays forthcoming on Sarah Fielding in Eighteenth-Century Fiction and in Masters of the Marketplace: British Women Novelists of the 1750s, was recently in residence as a Chawton House Library Fellow, and is the founder of the Samuel Richardson Society.

Her teaching and research interests center on the eighteenth-century.  She is particularly interested in the "conversational" aspects of literary works, including notions of adaptation, print culture, book history, correspondence, education, reading practice, and the interaction between performance and prose. Her current research attempts to understand constructions of (and resistance to) ending and closure in the eighteenth century.

Erich Nunn - Southern Literature

Erich Nunn received his PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia. His academic interests include American studies, Southern studies, American modernism, and popular music. His work has been published in The Faulkner Journal and African American National Biography.

He has received research grants and fellowships from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the Appalachian Sound Archives at Berea College, and the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library at Texas Tech University. He is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Sounding the Color Line: Race, Music, and American Modernism.

Derek Ross - Technical and Professional Communication

Derek Ross received his Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University. His research interests include examination of environmental rhetoric in hot-topic situations, investigation of modern perceptions and use of commonplaces in environmental rhetoric, and research methodology and pedagogy in technical communication.  He has recently published articles in Journal of Technical Writing and Communication. You can visit his website at derekross.com.

Chad Wickman - Composition and Rhetoric

Chad Wickman, Assistant Professor, received his PhD in English with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition from Kent State University. His research and teaching interests include rhetoric of science and technology, qualitative methods for the study of workplace literacy, and socio-cultural investigations of situated writing activity. Chad's current research explores the rhetorical, technical, and epistemological dimensions of writing and visual representation in the physical sciences.

The English Department is fortunate to have a hard-working staff, including a few new faces. 

Dr. Craig Bertolet (International Man of Mystery) reports on this summer's international experience

From 9 May to 19 June, I led our second group of students to London for the CLA Summer in London Program. We had ten people, including a civil engineer from NC State who came as a transient student (well, he was an engineer and was rather civil). None of them had known each other before, few had ever been out of the country before, and most were indifferent to tea. As the parking official said, I had a lot to do. We all stayed again at Regent's College, located in gobsmackingly lovely Regent's Park where the roses come in every color but mostly on the ends of plants. Each of the students took a class taught by one of Regent's faculty members, but gave it back at the end of the term. They also took my ENGL 3840 class which I called the "Makings of English Comedy." This year, we opened my class to other Regent's students which also meant that this class conformed to Regent's summer offerings of meeting 3.5 hours twice a week. So, in my class I explained other people's jokes for 7 hours a week, which is usually less time than it takes me to explain my own. This gave the students 6 credits and more puns than they ever thought they would be delighted by.

We all stayed in the dormitory (where the rooms will be renovated this fall), dined in the refectory (which was renovated in the spring), and ate really good food (though the fish pie could be renovated any time they'd like). One of the weeks in May, they were celebrating Portuguese Week for no evident reason. Each evening was a different kind of Portuguese cuisine with entrees that were eerily similar to each other. England and Portugal do have the longest continuing alliance in the world. It may be due mostly to swapping recipes. It's very sad.

All students in our group took weekend trips to Austria, Ireland, and France. These trips, they went on their own, though mostly, they went on planes. In addition, I took them to Hampton Court Palace, Canterbury, Salisbury, Stonehenge, Warwick Castle, and Bath. I also went on an unplanned excursion with one of them to the local hospital. He had fallen out of a tree and introduced his head to the sidewalk. Happily, the injury to his head was not serious and we didn't need to replace it.

Our last group excursion was to the Globe to see a production of As You Like It. The members of our group had made friends with most of the other students studying at Regent's and many of them joined us for the play. Only one or two had ever seen a Shakespeare play performed. Appropriately enough, it was just as they liked it. Although running this program is a lot of work, when I came home, I felt like the customer who thought he'd ordered a natural wood table; I was sad it was finished.

Teafully,

Craig

The English Department is participating in a new College of Liberal Arts program, CLA Reads!, which is a series of informal discussions, faculty-led, seminars, and related events focused around Lewis Nordan's  The Sharpshooter Blues (Algonquin Books, 1995). All events are free and open to all members of the AU Community. The schedule of events is as follows:

• Gathering/Open Discussion - Aug. 18, 3pm, 3196 Haley Center; Constance C. Relihan, Senior Associate Dean. CLA
• Oral Reading and Open Discussion - Sept. 2, 3pm, 301 Tichenor; Chris Qualls, Dept. of Theatre & Dr. Relihan
• Performing The Sharpshooter Blues - Sept 16, Telfair Peet Theatre, Time TBA; Chris Qualls, Dept. of Theatre
• Pain is the Great Doctor - September 22, 4pm, 301 Tichenor; Barry Burkhart, Dept. of Psychology
• Black and Blue Elvis in Rock and Roll Lit - September 29, 4pm, Jule Collins Smith Museum (a part of the Elvis' America: 1956 Lecture Series); Barb Baker, Director, Women's Leadership Institute
• The Sharpshooter Blues and the Other South - Oct. 14, 4-6pm, 301 Tichenor; Giovanna Summerfield and Colleagues from the Dept. of Foreign Languages
• The Sharpshooter Blues and the Burden of Southern History - Oct. 27, 3pm, 301 Tichenor, David Carter, Dept. of History
• The South on Film: Elia Kazan's Baby Doll (1956) - October 27, 6pm, Jule Collins Smith Museum (a part of the 1956 Film Series)
• The Sharpshooter Blues and Philosophy - Nov. 4, 3pm, 301 Tichenor, Dr. Kalynne Pudner, Dept. of Philosophy
• The Sharpshooter Blues in Literary Context - Nov. 11, 3pm, 301 Tichenor, Dr. Sunny Stalter, Prof. Chantel Acevedo, Dr. Alicia Carroll, Dept. of English
• End of Semester Party & Next Steps - December 2, 3pm, 301 Tichenor; Moderator, Constance Relihan

Dr. Michelle Sidler, Assistant Professor in the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts, just won the 2008 Computers & Composition Distinguished Book Award for the collection, "Computers in the Composition Classroom." The Distinguished Book Award is a national prize awarded by the editorial staff of the field's major journal, Computers and Composition. The award will be presented later this month at the national Computers and Writing Conference in California.

Dr. Sidler collaborated with two other co-authors, Dr. Betsy Smith of Tennessee State University (and a former faculty member in English at Auburn) and with Dr. Richard Morris of Parkland College in Champaign, IL.

Dr. Sidler received her Ph.D in English from Purdue University with a specialization in rhetoric and composition. She currently serves as Interim Department Head of English, Coordinator of Composition, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in composition, technology, science, and literacy.

Written by Dr. Constance C. Relihan, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of English

CLA Reads! is a voluntary one-book reading program that will be offered especially for all incoming College of Liberal Arts students and will be open to all students.

The book will be Lewis Nordan's The Sharpshooter Blues (Algonquin Books, 1995; ISBN 1-56512-182-1). It is a novel, somewhat in the vein of the works of William Faulkner, of a group of individuals coping with life in a small southern town in the late 1950s. It involves crime, mental illness, shooting refrigerators, and Wallace Stevens' poetry. Nordan's writing is simultaneously hilarious and tragic. You may learn more about the fiction of Nordan (who earned a PhD in English at Auburn) at http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/nordan_lewis/ or check out the contents of the recent Pebble Hill Symposium on his work at http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/auburn.edu.2048352923 .

In addition to open discussion sessions and an on-line Blackboard discussion that will begin over the summer, there will be lectures and panel discussions on various topics that will discuss the novel in relation to southern history, other southern cultures, literary contexts, performance techniques, and the music of Elvis.

The goals of the program are two-fold: to help incoming students develop a sense of community early in their first year at AU and to provide them with a broad sense of what CLA has to offer them.

Peter Campion, Assistant Professor in the Department of English, has been chosen by the American Academy of Arts and Letters to receive the 2009-2010 fellowship for a one-year residency at the American Academy in Rome.

The Rome Prize is a prestigious American award made annually by the American Academy in Rome, through a national competition, to 15 emerging artists (working in Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Design, Historic Preservation and Conservation, Literature, Musical Composition, or Visual Arts) and to 15 scholars (working in Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and early Modern, or Modern Italian Studies).

The Rome Prize Fellowship in Literature is awarded annually to two writers of exceptional promise. Literature is the only field for which applications are not accepted-writers are nominated by members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and chosen by a committee comprised of members.

While in Rome, Campion will be working on his third collection of poems (current title, El Dorado). His second collection, The Lions, has just been released by The University of Chicago Press.

Rome Prize winners and their families go to the American Academy, situated on the Janiculum, Rome's highest hill. They live in apartments there, and are also provided with studios for their work. The American Academy in Rome was established in 1894 and chartered by an Act of the United States Congress in 1905.

Campion received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, and his M.A. from Boston University. He's the author of two collections of poems, Other People (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and The Lions (University of Chicago Press, 2009,) as well as a monograph on the painter Mitchell Johnson (Terrence Rogers Fine Art, 2004.) His interests include contemporary poetry, prosody, and the relations between poetry and the visual arts.

In addition to this latest award, Campion has held a George Starbuck Lectureship at Boston University as well as a Wallace Stegner Fellowship and Jones Lectureship at Stanford University.

His poems and prose have appeared in ArtNews, The Boston Globe, Modern Painters, The New Republic, Poetry, Raritan, Slate, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. He recently won a Pushcart Prize. And he is Editor-in-Chief of Literary Imagination: the Review of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, which is published by Oxford University Press.

Information provided by Paul A. Harris, Ph.D., Associate Director for National Prestigious Scholarships in the University Honors College, Auburn University

The following students within the College of Liberal Arts were recognized for their outstanding achievement at the 6th Annual Undergraduate Research Forum which was held on Monday and Tuesday, April 6th & 7th 2009.

2009 Sigma Xi Best Overall Poster Presentation Award - Annie Gilbertson, 2nd Place, Senior, Department of English. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Alicia Carroll.

2009 Office of Undergraduate Studies Award - Sarah Teague, 1st Place, Senior, Department of Psychology. She is also the Spring 2009 CLA Graduation Marshal. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Adrian Thomas.

2009 Office of Undergraduate Studies Award - John Johnson, 2nd Place, Senior, Department of History. Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jennifer Brooks.

Other award winners and runners up are:

Lauren Roddy, a senior in English, is a finalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Fellowship. Less than 40 students nationwide are selected to receive the award. Ms. Roddy is one of two Auburn undergraduates who are representing Auburn at the national level competition. If awarded, the scholarship will pay $90,000.00 for law school. Final decisions will be mady by end of May / early June.

Katherine Davis, a junior in political science, was a finalist for the highly competitive Truman Scholarship. Each year 50 students are selected to receive the award. Ms. Davis was the only Auburn undergraduate - and one of 600 students nationwide - who was invited to the day-long interview held on the campus of Georgia Tech on Thursday, March 5th.

Chantel Smith, a graduate student in The Department of Foreign Languages (Hispanic Studies), has been awarded a Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholarship to pursue French language studies in Tours, France during academic year 2009-2010.

Rebecca Ludvigsen, a senior in biomedical science, (minor: German) received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Germany, 2009-2010.

Other outstanding College of Liberal Arts students include: Ross Harper, a senior in French, is the CLA's Presidential Award and Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award Winner and has applied for a Fulbright Scholarship; Natalie Crowe, a senior in English who applied for a Mitchell Scholarship to study in Ireland; and Christopher Thompson, a senior in History who applied for a Marshall Scholarship. These students exceeded eligibility expectations and put in hours upon hours of work on their respective applications.

Congratulations to our outstanding students!

Any undergraduate or graduate student enrolled at Auburn University is eligible to submit a video. Only one video may be entered per person or group.

$500 will be awarded to the creator(s) of the video selected as the first place winner. The creator(s) of the second and third place videos will receive $250 and $150, respectively. Prize money is sponsored by Auburn University's College of Liberal Arts.
The three winning videos will also be showcased on the CLA website.

To submit a video, upload your video on YouTube and then email its url to Christa Slaton, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at ccepc@auburn.edu. Emails must be sent from an Auburn University email account. Please type "CLA YouTube Contest" in the subject line of your email, and include in the body of the email the names of the person, persons, or group submitting the video. The College of Liberal Arts will make your video available for viewing on the contest website. You will receive confirmation email from the College of Liberal Arts indicating that your video entry has been received.

In the event that you are unfamiliar with how to upload a video to YouTube, directions are available at http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=57931.

Videos need to be between one and five minutes in length.

The deadline for submitting videos is March 27, 2009. Videos received after the deadline cannot be considered.

Between April 1 and April 5, students are invited to vote for their favorite contest video by sending an email to Christa Slaton, Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at ccepc@auburn.edu. Emails must be sent from an Auburn University email account. Please type "Vote CLA YouTube" in the subject line of your email and indicate the title of the favorite video in the email's body. Only one vote per person will be tallied.

Videos will be judged by members of the College of Liberal Art's Civic Engagement Planning Committee. Videos will be judged based on the five criteria outlined below:

• Relevance to the contest theme
• Extent to which the video provokes productive reflection, discussion, debate, and/or critique regarding civic responsibility as a feature of learning and living at Auburn University
• Creativity
• Originality
• Number of student votes

Contest winners will be notified via email on April 10, 2009.

View the Video Entries

• Submitted by Amanda Morris
• Submitted by Ashley Nunn
• Submitted by John Anderson
• Submitted by Griffin Limerick and John Collins
• Submitted by Jillian Clair
• Submitted by Mallory Rice