Reading Matters, Vol. 11, Issue 9

From (under) the Chair's Desk

Welcome, all, to the new semester! A glance at ISIS shows that our course enrollments are nicely distributed this semester, with a typical undergraduate literature class size of about 25-29 students in an exciting range of courses.

The most important departmental activity of the moment is the job search. I’m delighted to see such a large group of faculty at the job talks, which will continue on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Files on the candidates are available in Sharry’s office, 308E EPB. We will meet for a decision on Thursday, February 2.

Faculty governance is another current issue. Nominations can now be made for positions on the CLAS Executive Committee, Educational Policy Committee, and Faculty Assembly, and for a representative on the Graduate Council. I would stress the considerable importance of having a strong English Department presence on these bodies. EC and EPC are the two committees that do most to shape those policies within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that have such a huge impact on the English Department. CLAS Faculty Assembly provides an opportunity for debating broad policy initiatives and interacting with other departments. Graduate Council is crucial for advising the Graduate Dean in a time of transition for graduate funding. It is really important for a large and active department like English to be well represented on these committees. Nominations can be made up to 4 p.m. on February 3 here; elections will be held February 27 through March 10.

I should let you all know that I will need to be away for a few days, Jan. 25-31, during which time I should still be available by e-mail, while Ed Folsom has kindly agreed to stand in for me during my absence.

Meanwhile, sorry to learn of the departure of our fearless leader, but I’m sure we all wish him well at Cornell, often known these days, I believe, as the Iowa City of New York state.

Reporting Matters

One new practicality that has now arrived for all faculty is the self-reporting of sick leave on a monthly basis, including when you have taken no sick leave. We were threatened with this last semester, but the Provost’s Office delayed implementation while it got its computer systems right. Every faculty member received information about this in an e-mail from Susan Johnson, Associate Provost for Faculty, headed “[UnivAdm] Sick leave reporting,” sent out on Friday, January 20. You will need to go to your Human Resources Self-Service website, https://hris.uiowa.edu/portal/, once a month, click on Employee Time Records (which is in the central column, under Time Reporting), click on the live link that comes under “Period Ending,” then either enter data or approve the No Leave default record by clicking on “Submit to Human Resources.” Apparently that all is supposed to be user-friendly. Elizabeth Curl in 327 EPB can help you out if you have any difficulties with accessing your Self-Service website and reporting these hours.

In all of this, there has been no change in the University sick leave policy; only the reporting form is new. Associate Provost Johnson’s memo provides an informative gloss on the policy:

“Additional guidelines for faculty: The University understands that faculty members do not punch a 9-to-5 time clock, but rather work in a flexible and highly varied employment environment. In order to accommodate this flexibility and at the same time apply the policy with some uniformity across faculty with very different work portfolios, the following guidelines are provided:

“Absences of less than half a day are expected to be made up at some other time, or to be reported if they are not.

“Absences of more than half a day should be reported if they involve missing a class, faculty or committee meeting, or any other University-based obligation, even if rescheduled or covered by someone else.”

That and the formal policy is the limit of my information, although if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try to get them answered.

Publications, Presentations, and other Faculty Matters

Congratulations to Matt Brown on the publication of an essay, "The Thick Style: Steady Sellers, Textual Aesthetics, and Early Modern Devotional Reading" in the latest number of PMLA.

Congratulations to Barbara Eckstein, who received a curriculum development grant from CLAS to support a service-learning course relating to Veterans of Foreign Wars, "Over There and Coming Home," to be offered in 2006-07.

Congratulations to Tammy Ho, who received an Instructional Improvement award from the Council on Teaching to improve her course 131:055 Gender, Race, and Class in the U.S.

Congratulations to Teresa Mangum, who received a curriculum development grant from CLAS to develop a new course on the creation of communities in the arts and humanities for summer 2006.

Welcome to Don Morrill, 2006 Bedell Visiting Writer for the Nonfiction Writing Program. Don is the author of three books of nonfiction (most recently The Untouched Minutes) and two volumes of poetry (most recently With Your Back to Half the Day). After teaching at China's Jilin University and visiting the University of Lodz, Poland, as a Fulbright Lecturer, he is now teaching at the University of Tampa where he is an editor of Tampa Review and the University of Tampa Press Poetry Series.

Graduate Matters

Stacy Erickson has been awarded a grant by the Folger Institute to attend the library’s March conference “Further Transactions of the Book” and to conduct research for her dissertation while there.

Congratulations to Ben Otto, winner of a one-semester Marcus Bach Fellowship for Graduate Students in the Humanities, for Fall 2006. Ben is a third-year M.F.A. student in the Nonfiction Writing Program whose multiperspectival exploration of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal has involved extensive field research, linguistic training, and the cultivation of personal bonds with informants in a politically sensitive context.

Undergraduate Matters

The Office of the Vice President for Research is soliciting submissions for the Spring Iowa Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IREU) competition. The submission deadline is February 20, 2006. More details are available at http://research.uiowa.edu/ifi/.

From the competition's website: "Eligible faculty members and research staff in all disciplines are invited to consider involving an undergraduate in their research projects. Proposals that seek to involve students in intellectual scholarly work, experimental and laboratory-based research, and/or creative work in the arts are eligible. Of most interest are applications that fully engage the student in the work: from contemplation of the work, through analysis, and presentation of results. In some cases, students may be able to engage in a nearly independent project, though one related to the overall research program. Work that can lead to an honors thesis, publication, or other form of recognition for the student is encouraged. Proposals that intend to narrowly involve students in only a limited aspect of a project, such as retrieving references or assaying samples, will not be supported. Regular opportunity for the student to interact with and to be mentored by the sponsoring faculty/staff member is crucial in all cases."

Jan. 27 (Fri.) - deadline for applying for Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professorships Program 2006-07 (http://www.uiowa.edu/~provost/idabeam/)

Feb. 6 (Wed.), 7:30 p.m., Aliber/Hillel Jewish Student Center, 122 E. Market St. (corner of Market and Dubuque) - Klezmer Concert in memory of Robert Paredes (1948-2005) featuring the Iowa Klezmer Band—Oleg Timofeyev (guitar) and Natalia Timoveyeva (cello)—and New York musicians Yale Strom (violin) and Norbert Stachel (clarinet)

Feb. 7 (Tue.) – Feb. 11 (Sat.) Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Shirley Brice Heath, the Margery Bailey Professor of English and Dramatic Literature at Stanford University, will be visiting campus. More details and some of her articles are available here.

Feb. 8 (Wed.), 4:30-6:00, Jones Common, College of Education – Shirley Brice Heath will give a talk on language and learning, specifically the linguistic components of apprenticeship models of learning titled “Sustaining Learning and Language: Forgotten in Education?” Reception to follow. More information available here.

Feb. 9 (Thr.), 4:30-5:15 p.m., Art Museum – Showing of Shirley Brice Heath’s documentary film ArtShow, a prize-winning documentary that describes 4 youth-based arts organizations in the United States. More information available here.

Feb. 9 (Thr.), 5:30-6:30 p.m., Art Museum – Lecture by Shirley Brice Heath: “Art and Science: Companions in Learning for Society.” Reception to follow. More information available here.

Feb. 10 (Fri.), 5:00-7:00 – Radio interview of Shirley Brice Heath by Joan Kjaer of Know the Score. Also featured on this program will be Miriam Gilbert, talking about the current University production of Love's Labours Lost. Listen on KSUI 91.7FM or attend the event at the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Feb. 11 (Sat.), 10:00 a.m.-noon, Jones Common, College of Education – Final debriefing with Shirley Brice Heath, who will “engage the audience in an interactive discussion of her impressions of strengths and possible areas for further development in university/community learning collaborations in the Iowa City area.” More information available here.

Feb. 17 (Fri.), 4 p.m., Shambaugh House (corner of Clinton and Fairchild) - Poet Dean Young will launch the new Iowa Writers' Workshop Faculty Lecture Series with a presentation about "Surrealism."

Feb. 20 (Mon.) - submission deadline for the Spring Iowa Research Experiences for Undergraduates (IREU) competition (http://research.uiowa.edu/ifi/)

Feb. 23 (Thr.),1-5 p.m., Northwestern Room (No. 345), Iowa Memorial Union - Publishing a Scholarly Book seminar

Mar. 2 (Thr.), 3:45 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Promotion and Review Meeting: DCG Meeting to discuss 3rd-year review of Lara Trubowitz

Mar. 3 (Fri.), 4:00 p.m., Gerber Lounge - Mark Hansen, Professor of English at the University of Chicago and author of Embodying Technesis and New Philosophy for New Media, will speak on the phenomenology of real-time media in a lecture and video presentation entitled "The Politics of Presencing."

Mar. 3-4 (Fri.-Sat.) - 2006 Liberalism and Its Legacies: A Conference on Latin American History in Honor of Charles A. Hale. Conference information and program available here. Organized by Claire Fox.

Mar. 28 (Tue.), 7 p.m., Shambaugh Auditorium - Carl Klaus will read from his new book Letters to Kate: Life after Life at Live from Prairie Lights. The reading may also be broadcast live on WSUI, 910 AM (will confirm at a later date).

Mar. 29 (Wed.) - Talk by Walter Benn Michaels: “Never Again: Neoliberalism and the Persistence of the Holocaust." Michaels is Professor and Chair of the English Department at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is author of The Shape of the Signifier: 1967 to the End of History, Our America: Nativism, Modernism, and Pluralism, The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism, and numerous articles on American literature, literary theory, and cultural studies.

April 27 (Thr.), 3:30-5:00 p.m., Willis Atrium, UI Museum of Art (Please note the change of location this year) - Undergraduate Honors Awards Ceremony

Other Calendars

Future Issues

Please send any items for Reading Matters or the departmental calendar to Carolyn Jacobson at carolyn-jacobson@uiowa.edu. Reading Matters will appear every other Wednesday, and submissions should be received by 5 p.m. on the preceding Tuesday. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on Tue., Feb. 7. Thanks very much.