CFP: IWCA Collaborative @ CCCC

Another call for proposals this week! You may recognize our very own Dr. Harry Denny mentioned here. Don't hesitate to get these abstracts submitted. The deadline is fast-approaching -- October 17, 2011. You can view all the information about this "unconference" including all details on proposals and submission after the jump. Just click "Read more."

Call for Proposals: International Writing Centers Association

Collaborative @ CCCC

March 21, 2012 – Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, MO

Writing Center Activism: From Ideals to Strategies

In Facing the Center (Utah State UP, 2010), Harry Denny explores the ways in which identity politics impact writing center work. He observes that identifying such politics within the center marks only the beginning; writing center professionals must continue to examine how the “larger socio-cultural forces” of race, class, gender, and nationalism (to name a few) “commingle with institutional histories and cultures” (145).  He insists that our responses to the tensions that arise from such commingling can “provide critical lessons to our colleagues beyond the spaces of our writing centers,” and he identifies such responses as the stuff of “everyday activism” (145). For Denny, understanding activism as a daily choice—or performance—creates at once tremendous potential and challenges for writing center professionals and workers.

10/4: What is Writing Studies? Event

Attention English-ers! This upcoming event promises to be a very interesting conversation about the future of the Writing Studies field. Whether you are taking or teaching a composition class or have had your interest even mildly piqued by it in the past, I hope you'll join us next Tuesday for this conversation.

What Is “Writing Studies”?

In the past, the term “Writing Studies” has been used interchangeably with “Composition/Rhetoric,” and little discussion has been devoted to exploring how Writing Studies might evolve into a field of its own.

Why has this been the case?  What are the institutional obstacles confronting Writing Studies?  What is the
promising potential that this field holds?

Please join guest speaker Derek Owens and hosts Roseanne Gatto, Sean Murray, and Tara Roeder of the St. John’s Institute for Writing Studies for this conversation.

When: Tuesday, October 4th, 6:00-7:30 pm
Where: St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus (101 Murray St.)

For Directions, Click the Link Below:
http://www.stjohns.edu/about/general/directions/directions/manhattan

Refreshments and snacks will be served.

Please RSVP by Saturday, October 1st to Tara Roeder:
roedert@stjohns.edu

Meet Dr. Sicari!

Today we are kicking off a brand new series of Meet the Faculty posts! These are a little get-to-know-you of your English professors. Not only do they teach your classes, but they are also researching, writing for publication, and presenting at conferences.

Dr. Stephen Sicari, Professor and Chair of English Dept.

Dr. Sicari is the Chair of the English Department, as well as a Professor teaching courses to undergrads and graduate students alike. He has been teaching for 26 years in total, sixteen of which he has spent here at St. John's. Before taking on the mantle of professor, Dr. Sicari attended Manhattan College for his undergraduate studies. He went on to earn both his M.A. and his Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Among the classes Dr. Sicari teaches at St. John's are introductory courses for undergraduates, Modern Poetry, Modern Novel, Modern Critical Theories, as well as single author courses in Pound, Stevens, Eliot, and Joyce. Although he does not have a real favorite among these courses, when pressed he chose Modern Poetry as his favorite class to teach.

The Messenger as Journalist in Antony and Cleopatra

Probably because I am interested in journalism, I started to think of the messengers in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, whose job it is to enter public and private places to obtain information and deliver it to their employers, as proto-reporters. I was most impressed by the work of the messenger/reporter who appears in Act 2, Scene 5, and then again in Act 3, Scene 3. In his first appearance, the mesenger seems to disapprove of the Queen’s sexualized, over-eager demand for news, and his subsequent lines are marked by a dignified, even slightly aloof simplicity that seems more Roman than Egyptian. But when bringing home the nature of Antony and Octavia’s union, the messenger's tone turns sharp and clever:

CFP: Stony Brook Grad Conference

Stony Brook University announces their 24th Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference: Instrument, Image, Ekphrasis: Intersecting Genres of Knowledge.

For more information, registration, and updates, visit: www.stonybrook.edu/english/grad/conference/.

Othello in New Jersey -- Oct 22 at FDU

For all STJ Jersey-ites, and others, here's the notice of an annual event at Farleigh Dickinson University in my former hometown of Madison, NJ.  I'll put anyone who wants to go in touch with the organizers or speakers if you'd like...

Why I am in Graduate School

As a first semester doctoral student I am terrified at what the future holds. I am in this weird purgatory-esque setting where I am between two worlds. As teacher and student simultaneously, I am floating around trying to find my way. I am constantly bombarded with stories, articles, books, and blog posts about the abysmal job market, the destruction of tenure, and the abusive adjunct experience. I came to graduate school because I love books. I knew the market was bad and that graduate school would be a daunting task, but I love books. I love to read them, hold them, talk about them, think about them, write about them. I am not worried about a stinking job market. I will cross that bridge when I get to it. I have always questioned myself and wondered if this was the right attitude, or did I set myself up for a great deal of pain and regret. However, last week in The Chronicle of Higher Education I read the article “Fear and Loathing in Graduate School”, and it validated for me the reasons I decided to attend graduate school in the first place.