Volume 50:8

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Chair: Kent Baxter
Notes compiled by: Kate Haake

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Announcements

Welcome back to an all new semester and year. And here we go.

Sadly, we begin this term with the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Warren Wedin. Professor Wedin was hired by the CSUN English Department in 1969 and taught here until 2004. He specialized in 20th Century British and Irish Literature and creative writing. Those of us who knew him will remember Warren as a warm and generous colleague who will be deeply missed. On a personal note, I knew him as a great supporter of the Northridge Review, who curated and published its first 10-year retrospective and taught me much of what I know about its history and its culture; I will always be grateful for his guidance and teaching in this and other matters. The department has lost a true friend. Our thoughts go out to his family in their time of bereavement.

Nominations for the 2019 Faculty Awards are now being accepted. Awards are presented each year to a select group of California State University, Northridge faculty members, in recognition of outstanding achievement in a variety of areas. The awards honor:

The deadline for receipt of nominations is February 15, 2019. The deadline for receipt of supporting materials is March 15, 2019.  All materials are to be submitted online via BOX with any supporting material that can not be made into a PDF submitted directly to the Faculty Senate Office (Oviatt Library, Room 10; Mail Drop 8221). For questions, email: Senate Office or Phone: (818) 677-3263.

The Far Away Brothers: Two Young Migrants and the Making of an American Life by Lauren Markham has just been chosen as CSUN’s Freshman Common Read for 2019-2020. Nominated by Carolyn Darin, a University 100 instructor, the book is a deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador’s violence to build new lives in California—fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong. Themes of immigration, belonging, resilience, mental health, adolescence, education, and family make this book an ideal choice that will appeal to a wide variety of departments across campus and engage our first year students. Though it hasn’t yet been updated to include next year’s selection, you can read more about the Freshman Common Reading Program at CSUN  https://www.csun.edu/undergraduate-studies/academic-first-year-experiences/common-read.

Now open at the LRC—the English Grammar Lab! Please let your students know that appointments and walk-ins are available for those in need of grammar assistance or just plain curious. The lab is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Wednesday, from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; and Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Also happening at the LRC, Conversation Swap for international and native students alike to converse in English in a fun, low-stress environment and develop cultural awareness from around the world. Conversations take place on Wednesdays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Please help spread the word.

Reminders

This is a reminder that the Research Fellow Program applications are due tomorrow, January 25, at 5:00 p.m. (There’s still time!) Full-time tenure-track and tenured faculty are eligible to apply. The application, along with the instructions, can be found on the following website: https://www.csun.edu/humanities/college-funded-activities-and-research. This prestigious award offers 12 units of reassigned time and a grant of up to $5000. Applications are on line this year, so please do let Kent know if you are applying.

Achievements

Noreen Lace has two new publications. “Bowie and the Basket Case” will be published this January by ID Press. “Heaven’s Password” will be published in the January/Feb issue of Survivor by P&D.