1. Announcements
- Welcome to the new Thursday’s Notes, for it is, indeed, Thursday. Here’s hoping you all had wonderful summers and are returning to classes refreshed and excited to meet the challenges of the year ahead.
- Effective this fall, the advising proedures for the College of Humanities have changed. Please refer students for advising to the Student Services Center/E0P (Richfield Hall, Room JR 240, @ ext. 4784) for all academic advisement–e.g., changes in student academic plans, etc., declaration of major, filing for graduation, and questions about what classes to take. DEPARTMENT ADVISERS WILL CONTINUE TO SEE STUDENT for the purposes of mentoring and general advisement about the major and/or whatever in the world may be coming next after college with an English degree. This year’s English advisers are: Kate Haake, Associate Chair; Kent Baxter, FYI/JYI; Dorothy Clark, ESM; Michael Bryson, Honors.
- Request for feedback, Community College Transfer Model Curriculum for English: As discussed at the last year, in response to Senate Bill 1440, California community colleges are working on curriculum relating to two year transfer degrees. CSU faculty has been invited to participate in these discussions, both at conferences and online. The Transfer Model Curriculum for English is available for faculty review on the C-ID website. To look at the curriculum and to provide feedback, please go to the “TMC” tab at http://www.c-id.net and scroll down. Faculty review is needed for five draft C-ID descriptors in your discipline: ENGL 110: Freshman Composition; ENGL 115: Argumentative Writing and Critical Thinking; ENGL– CW 100: Introduction to Creative Writing; ENGL – LIT 100: Introduction to Literature; ENGL – LIT 160: Survey of British Literature 1. For more information on SB 1440, please see http://www.cccco.edu/1440. The deadline for responding is October 16, 2011.
- Save the Date! On November 3, former CSUN English student Kim Knight, now Assistant Professor of Emerging Communication at the University of Texas-Dallas, will be giving a presentation on “Digital Humanities: A Media Ecology.” The presentation will take place in the Oviatt Library Presentation Room form 4:00-5:00 pm. More information will be made available in the coming weeks.
- Cal State Northridge is hosting a site visit in connection with its reaccreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Sept. 14-16, 2011. Open meetings will be scheduled with students and faculty for informal input from the campus community, but the WASC team also hosts a confidential email site so that everyone has the opportunity to communicate with the team regarding their experience with the institution. Students who wish to send a message to the team are encouraged to comment on issues of academic rigor and consistency, availability of student support services and other matters related to the quality of the educational experience. The team is particularly interested in hearing from students enrolled in distance education/off-site courses and programs. Only comments received prior to and during the site visit will be considered as part of the review process. The WASC can be contacted at: wascf11csun@yahoo.com.
2. Reminders
- Please read carefully the Beginning of the Semester reminder Martha distributed by email today. It contains important information we may take for granted. For example, faculty office hours are expected and are included in faculty compensation. Full-time faculty are required to schedule three hours per week. Part-time faculty are required to schedule one hour per week for each three-unit class. If you need to cancel your office hours on a particular day, notify the department office staff.
- The end of week three comes sooner than we expect. Please remember that, for students, this is last day to register late, add a class, drop, or change basis of grading. After the fourth week of the term, students will not be able to change their programs or basis of grade except for extraordinary circumstances.
3. Faculty/Staff/Student/Alumni Achievements
- Ian Barnard‘s article, “Authorial Intent in the Composition Classroom,” has been published in Composition Forum 24 (Fall 2011).
- Irene Clark participated in a research seminar at Elon University concerned with the issue of “Transfer.” Her project is focused on potential transfer from the writing done in first year writing classes to writing in classes across the disciplines. Anyone who wishes to hear more about this exciting project should contact Irene. In addition, her book, Concepts in Composition: Theory and Practice in the Teaching of Writing, has been published in a second edition by Taylor and Francis.
- Amanda Harrison presented her paper, “Marriage Can Wait: Shaw’s Portrayal of the New Woman,” at the International Shaw Society Conference, 2011, at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario.
- Scott Kleinman‘s article “Frið and Fredom: Royal Forests and the English Jurisprudence of Laȝamon’s Brut and Its Readers” has been published in Modern Philology 109.1 (2011).
- Bobby Lopez has been busy. Last spring he presented three papers:”Trespassing To and From: Confidence Man and William Wells Brown’s Escape.”/American Literature Association. Boston, MA. May 2011.”Eating the Citizen to Build the City: Dogeaters and Noli me Tangere.”/Association of Asian American Studies. New Orleans, LA. May 2011./”Military Multiculturalism: Reconsidering the Pacifist-Antiracist Nexus in Ethnic Studies.” Critical Ethnic Studies Conference. Riverside, CA. March 2011. In addition, his monograph, The Colorful Conservative: American Conversations with the Ancients from Wheatley to Whitman, is coming out from Rowman & Littlefield’s University Press of America on October 17, 2011. It can be ordered through custserv@rowman.com with the ISBN 978-0-7618-5627-6.
Compiled by Kate Haake, Associate Chair