1. Announcements
Don’t miss the upcoming conference of our very own Associate Graduate Students of English, which will take place on Saturday, March 9, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the USU. The theme of this year’s conference will be “Innocence and Experience,” and refreshments and lunch will be provided. Panels will organized by theme, and include critical papers in literature and rhetoric and composition, as well as creative works. Dr. James Kincaid, from USC, will be the keynote speaker.
This April, CSUN will be hosting a week-long visit by Charles Bowden, acclaimed author of forty non-fiction books and numerous articles, and recipient of the First Amendment Award from the PEN Center as well as the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction, among many others. Most recently, Bowden has focused his attention on the Southwest and the border region. While he is on campus, Bowden will be discussing his work on Juarez, Mexico in, at least, one public address, as well as with faculty and students in smaller settings. In preparation for his visit, Provost Harry Hellenbrand will be hosting a book club/reading group discussion, the first of several, of his book, Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields (2010) on Monday, March 11, at 7:00 p.m. in the Whitsett Room. Please read the book and join the conversation, and RSVP to Kent Kirkton of the Journalism department at kent.kirkton@csun.edu. Also of interest for future discussion is Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family (2002).
Dr. Les Perelman will be speaking and leading a workshop in Irene Clark’s English 651 class on March 4th at 4 PM (JR 319). Dr. Perelman was the Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at MIT and is now spending his days waging war on institutions who want to use automated grading rather than human beings. Happily, Irene assures us, he still has a deep interest in classical rhetoric and its current applications. The title of his talk is “Applying Cicero’s Stasis Theory to Contemporary Rhetoric.” All are welcome.
Exciting news from the Critical Theory Club, which will be holding its first meeting of the semester on Tuesday, March 5th from 5-7 in Sierra Tower 703! The evening will feature the amazing Beth Wightman in a discussion of a Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey. The suggested reading is a short excerpt from Jean Baudrillard’s “The Procession of Simulacra,” available in any Norton Anthology or the club’s own CTC Moodle page. Join them as they revisit this fabulous text with a fun new edge and great people. Plus, there’s always some delicious snacks! As always, the meetings are open to everyone and are informal, so feel free to drop by for a couple of minutes before your next class or stay the whole time! Email them at ctc@my.csun.edu if you have any questions or would like to be added to our Moodle page.
The 2013-2014 Freshman Common Reading at CSUN will be Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes. The book offers a non-fiction exploration of America’s trash as (1) a problem, (2) a topic of scientific investigation, and (3) an opportunity for solutions and improvement. Humes will (almost certainly) be our Freshman Convocation speaker on September 12, 2013. A limited number of copies of the paperback edition are available from Cheryl Spector, on the condition that you agree to read it and speak to at least one freshman about it next year! Call or visit CIELO (Sierra Hall 437 or 438, x6535) to get your book and/or to RSVP for a book group meeting: http://www.csun.edu/afye/Garbology-for-Faculty-and-Staff.html.
Red Hen Press is sponsoring a reading on March 24 at 2:00 p.m. at the Ruskin Art Club with local poets Kally Davio, Bart Edelman, David Hernandez, Brynn Saito, and Richard Silberg. The address is 800 S Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90005; and general admission is $10, senior and student, $5.
2. Reminders
Gina Lawrence is starting a Facebook fan page to get updates from the graduate liaison. Students can go on and “like” the page, which can be accessed at https://www.facebook.com/CSUNengdeptgradliaison, and find out everything they will need to know.
If you haven’t yet finished your Research and Sponsored Projects Grant application, there’s still time! The deadline for this year’s competition is of applications is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 4, 2013. Proposal guidelines and application materials are available at http://www.csun.edu/grip/research/forms/. For more information, faculty may also contact the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects at x2901.
Also don’t forget to soon-soon-to-be-upon-us deadline of Friday, March 15 (by 4:00 p.m.), for the 2013-14 Judge Julian Beck Learning-Centered Instructional Projects grants competition. Beck Grants are aimed at supporting faculty projects that are specifically designed to promote learning-centered approaches and improve student learning. The grants provide 3-units of reassigned time OR up to $6000. More information on this grant may be found on http://blogs.csun.edu/faculty-development/rfp-for-2013-14-beck-grants/
3. Opportunities
The National Endowment for the Humanities has just announced its Fellowships competition. This program is almost identical to the recently announced Awards for Faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Both fellowship programs support research of value to humanities scholars or general audiences. Designed to be flexible to suit your needs, guidelines allow you to define your audience, type of research, and award period, the deadline for the Fellowships competition is May 1, and for the Awards for Faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions is April 16. Full details are available at http://www.neh.gov/grants/research/fellowships. For more information, contact COH Grants Officer, Teresa Morrison.
Closer to home, the College of Humanities Faculty Fellowship and Grant Program has announced its Faculty Fellowship program Fall 2013, pending availability of funds, which provide support for scholarly research or creative activities. Full-time tenure track and tenured faculty may apply for funding to support ONE (but not both) of the following options: three units of reassigned time or up to $1500 to help fund a student assistant or research-related travel involving a specific research project or creative activity. For more information, please contact Juana Mora.
Writers still have time to enter Contest One at Spark, a Creative Anthology. For a $10 entry fee, you may submit — by the tomorrow’s March 1 deadline — a piece of writing, prose or poetry, inspired or informed by the word “spark.” Prizes include money, publication, and subscription — what could be better? Details available at http://sparkanthology.org/contests/one/?et_mid=603262&rid=1985858. And if twenty-four hours isn’t enough time for the sluggards among you, this contests title suggests there may be more, so stay tuned.
The following awards are available for graduate students. Application deadlines are March 25, by 5:00 p.m., and details and applications are available at http://www.csun.edu/grip/graduatestudies/sfo/studentawards.html
Association of Retired Faculty Memorial Award: The purpose of the award is to recognize and provide financial support to graduate students for excellent scholarship and creative activity. The award will support a project that is part of a master’s program. Award criteria include a project description, two faculty letters of recommendation, and willingness to provide a brief presentation of the project at the ARF annual brunch.
Robert H. Schiffman Memorial Award for Outstanding Research Promise: The determining factors for the award are based on early stages of conducting research, a minimum GPA of 3.5, record of scholarhip and contributions to the field, and returning for the 2013-2014 academic year. The award is for a graduate student who shows promise in research.
Nathan O. Freedman Memorial Award for Outstanding Graduate Student: The determining factors for the award are based on a record of distinguished scholarship, a minimum GPA of 3.5, and contributions to the field. The award recipient will be announced at Honors Convocation.
4. Achievements
John Gides has been nominated for the Pearson Award for Outstanding College Teaching and is also being honored in the National “One Professor” Campaign. The Outstanding College Teaching Award recognizes significant achievements and contributions to higher education classrooms, while the “One Professor” campaign is a lifetime achievement honoring a teacher who has dramatically changed the lives and learning experiences for one or more students. Well done, John!
Congratulations to the following students who won awards in the recent CSUN Student Research Symposium. First place winners include Holly Batty and Lorie Hamalian, and second place winners include Sean Pessin and Angela Blair.