Announcements
We are in the home stretch of the spring semester! Please consider attending one or more of the celebratory events for our students and faculty.
Friday, May 12:
Department Awards Ceremony: 11-1pm, JR 319
MA Hooding Ceremony: 1-3pm, The Little Theatre, Nordhoff Hall
The final TN of the year will follow the awards ceremony, so stay tuned!
Opportunities
As students turn to fall 2023 registration, please encourage them to consider ENGL 494IP, the Internship Program, directed and taught by Heidi Schumacher. The class can count as an elective for all options, and it may also count as a senior seminar or for the pop culture studies or writing and rhetoric minor.
Reminders
Please save the dates for the following Center for Public Humanities events, and please consider RSVPing (they are all on Zoom, and the May 12 event will also take place as a hyflex event in the Whitsett Room from 4-6pm).
Friday, May 12, 4-6pm, Whitsett Room and Zoom (hyflex)
Decolonizing the CSUN University Library Archives
Student Transcription Fellows from CSUN, Pierce College, and Pasadena City College: Veronica Cerna, Grace Chin, Deborah Gordon, Kelsey Harrington, Angela Lopez, Max McDermott, Cambri Morris, Jacky Valenzuela, Domonique Villalobos, Valerie Villanueva (CSUN), Sophia Serdarian (Pierce College), and Chloe Nimpoeno and Lucy Bowie Martinez (Pasadena City College). Transcription mentors Kate Ridgewell and Jennifer Sams will offer introductory remarks.
Wednesday, May 17, 9-10am, Zoom
How to Start a Public Humanities Project
Adela Ramos (Pacific Lutheran U), Bridget Draxler (St. Olaf College), Daryl Maxwell (West Valley LA Public Library), and Ed Pettit (Rosenbach Museum, Philadelphia)
Thursday, May 18, 4-6pm, Zoom
Media and the Organization of Trauma Memory
George Uba
and
Youth Voices in the Archives (teaching HS students)
Annabelle Bonebrake and Bobbie Metcalf, CSUN English MA Alums
RSVP here
Faculty Achievements
Margeaux Aegel Gamboa-Wong (Asian American Studies/English) won the CSUN Extraordinary Service Award, granted to one faculty member each year in recognition of their outstanding contributions of service to the University’s students.
Amanda Harrison has been named a recipient of the prestigious Polished Apple Award, bestowed on select faculty by the CSUN University Ambassadors for exemplary teaching & mentorship, and also for making a positive impact on student lives. The award acknowledges a passionate commitment to improving the careers of students, professionally & academically. Amanda teaches in the English Department and in the Queer Studies Program. We’re proud to cheer her achievement. Kudos, Amanda!
Martin Pousson and Sid Hansen (Philosophy) received recognition as runners up for the highly competitive Faculty Student Success Champion Award, given in recognition of outstanding advocacy on behalf of trans students. Thank you for making our campus more inclusive, equitable, and just, Martin!
Danielle Spratt won the Visionary Community-Based Service-Learning Award, granted to one faculty member per year in recognition of their work in civic and community engagement.
Student Achievements
It’s that wonderful time of year where we can celebrate our student and alumni accomplishments!
From the celebratory files of JC Lee (thank you, Jen!):
- Erika Ayon presented “Letters from the Grieving” (a creative work presentation)
- Nicholas Bonhomme presented “Language and the Internet”
- Greg Combs presented “Rhetorical Interactions in Mesoamerican Empires”
- Lucas Keeling presented “Literacy Narratives: Assignments for Improving Student Motivation, Engagement, and Retention.”
- Melissa Pistone presented “Captivating and Repelling: Satirizing Parasocial Relationships in Bo Burnham’s Inside”
- Valerie Quiroga presented “We Are Americans: Necropolitics in Jordan Peele’s “Us””
From the celebratory files of Martin Pousson (thank you, Martin!):
Here are student & alumni successes:
Christine Assadourian (BA in English, CW ’18) has been accepted into the MFA in Screenwriting program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Christine is a first-generation Armenian American, and she’ll enroll at LMU this Fall 2023. Kudos, Christine!
Christian Barragan (BA in CVTA ’22) has been waitlisted for the MFA in Creative Writing program at Hollins University in Virginia. Christian is a biracial first-generation Mexican American. While at CSUN, he served as Fiction Editor & Drama Editor for the Northridge Review. He also served on the editorial staff at UC Davis’ Open Ceilings. He was a member of Sigma Tau Delta and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Cinema & Television Arts while minoring in Creative Writing. He’s been published in sixteen literary magazines, including Alchemy, Book IX, Clamor, Constellations, and the Northridge Review. Kudos, Christian!
Alissa Binder (BA in English, CW ’11) has been accepted into the MFA in Creative Writing at California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. Alissa also was accepted into the Los Angeles Review of Books Summer Publishing Workshop at the University of Southern California. While at CSUN, she was a member of Northridge Creative Writing Circle. She’s been published in the Northridge Review, Chaparral, and Writer’s Tribe Review. She’ll enroll at CalArts in Fall 2023. Kudos, Alissa!
Alex Fischer (BA in English, CW ’23) has been accepted into the MFA in Creative Writing program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, with funding, and he was waitlisted at Brooklyn College in New York City. Alex is a Jewish writer from the San Fernando Valley. While at CSUN, he was a member of Northridge Creative Writing Circle and Sigma Tau Delta. He also was recently published in the Northridge Review. He’ll graduate summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Creative Writing, in Spring 2023, and he’ll enroll at CCA in Fall 2023. Kudos, Alex!
Kelly Geiger (MA in English, CW ’20; MFA in CW ’23 at BGSU) has been accepted into the PhD in Creative Writing program at Georgia State University in Atlanta with an interdisciplinary focus on Feminism & Gender Studies. She also was accepted at Illinois State University, and she was waitlisted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which accepts one student annually. While at CSUN, Kelly served as a Teaching Associate and a Supplemental Instruction Leader. She was published in the Northridge Review and also in The Anarchist and Bards & Sages Quarterly. She’ll graduate with a Master of Fine Arts from Bowling Green State University in Ohio this Spring 2023, and she’ll enroll at GSU in Fall 2023. Kudos, Kelly!
Miranda Haeick (BA in English, CW ’23) has been accepted into the MFA in Creative Writing program at both Emerson College in Boston & at Chapman University in Orange. Miranda is biracial, Lebanese and Italian. While at CSUN, she was a member of Northridge Creative Writing Circle. She was recently published in the Northridge Review. She’ll graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Creative Writing, in Spring 2023, and she’ll enroll at Emerson College in Fall 2023. Kudos, Miranda!
Khashayar Khabushani (BA in Philosophy’16; MFA in CW ’20 at Columbia University) sold his first novel in a six-figure deal to Hogarth Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Now, that debut novel, I Will Greet the Sun Again, has been named a Summer Indies Selection by the American Booksellers Association, and it’ll be published in August 2023, with simultaneous publication in the UK. Subsequent translation & publication rights have been sold in France, Germany, and Italy. Khash is a first-generation bisexual Iranian American novelist & educator. At CSUN, he took classes in the Creative Writing program, served as Associated Students Senator, and won the Outstanding Graduating Senior Award. At Columbia University in New York City, he worked with writers from The New Yorker, including Hilton Als. He has taught in Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley and in The Bronx in New York. He currently lives in San Francisco, where he’s at work on his second novel. Find Khash online @ khashayarjkhabushani.com Kudos, Khash!
Hannah Nuce (BA in English, CW ’23) had been waitlisted for the MFA in Creative Writing program at New York University in New York City. Hannah was recently published in the Northridge Review. She’ll graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Creative Writing, in Spring 2023. Kudos, Hannah!
Sebou Ourfalian (BA in English, CW ’22) has been accepted into the PhD in English program at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont. Sebou is a first-generation Armenian American, and he’ll enroll at Claremont in Fall 2023. Kudos, Sebou!
Maya Riles (BA in English, CW ’22; MA in English, Lit ’23) has been accepted into the PhD in English program at Vanderbilt University, with full funding. She also was accepted at UT Knoxville, SUNY Buffalo, and the University of Rochester. Maya is multiracial, Black, Chinese & Native American. While at CSUN, she served as a Teaching Associate, a Supplemental Instruction Leader, and a Public Humanities Archival Fellow. She was recently published in the Northridge Review and is a Sigma Tau Delta member. She’ll graduate summa cum laude with a Master of Arts in English, Literature, in Spring 2023. She’ll enroll in Vanderbilt in Fall 2023. Kudos, Maya!
Nairi Simonyan (BA in English, CW ’21) has been accepted into the Los Angeles Review of Books Summer Publishing Workshop at the University of Southern California. She’s a first-generation Armenian American. While at CSUN, she was a member of Northridge Creative Writing Circle. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English, Creative Writing, in Spring 2021. She’ll enroll at LARB on the USC campus this Summer 2023. Kudos, Nairi!
Natalie Van Gelder (MA in English ’21) has been accepted into MFA in Creative Writing program at both UC Riverside & at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, with full funding. While at CSUN, she served as Vice President of Sigma Tau Delta, as a Teaching Associate, and as a Graduate Student Representative. She was published in the Northridge Review and in UC Davis’ Open Ceilings. She also won the Deborah Averill Award. Natalie graduated summa cum laude with a Master of Arts in English at CSUN in 2021, and she’s currently completing her Creative Writing certification from the University of California, Los Angeles. She’ll enroll at OSU in Fall 2023. Kudos, Natalie!
Douglas Weissman (BA in English, CW, ’10; MFA in CW ’13 at University of San Franciso) won 3rd place in Book Fest’s Spring 2023 Awards in Literary Fiction for his debut novel, Life Between Seconds, and he advanced into the quarterfinals in the Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards for his new screenplay, Being V. His second novel, Girl in the Ashes, is set to be published later in 2023. Doug is a Jewish writer from the San Fernando Valley. He’s been published in Kingdoms in the Wild & Wild Musette and is Lead Travel Writer for Zicasso. He’s also a Creative Writing Instructor for Southern New Hampshire University. Find Doug online @ douglasweissman.com/ Kudos, Doug!