Reading Matters, Vol. 12, Issue 9, January 18, 2007
Welcome back to the new semester! I trust that you are all being warmed by the ferment of intellectual exchange and scholarly revelation in your classes, even as global warming seems to be giving Iowa a miss for awhile.
While we were away, I see that the Regents created a new search process for University President, to be chaired by Dean Johnsen of the College of Dentistry, with an explicit deadline to name a new president by summer. That will be a process to watch with much interest. In other university business, the midyear pay rise that was conditionally written into salary letters from June did, indeed, go into effect and so will be visible in February 1 paychecks.
Meanwhile, closer to home, I can report that I met and talked with Sam Chang about the possibilities and ramifications of some form of Creative Writing track within the English major. I’m pleased to report that she was distinctly enthusiastic about the possibilities and keen for the Writers’ Workshop to partner with the English Department in seeing such a development through. I did my best to summarize the diversity of opinion expressed at our faculty meeting at the end of last term and we agreed that what is needed now is some small committee that can take the various ideas mooted and shape them into concrete specific proposals for a track in Creative Writing within the English major, to be overseen by both units, and for shaping up a search proposal for one or two new line(s) in association with the initiative. I have asked Ed Folsom to chair such a committee, comprising himself, Dee Morris, Doug Trevor, Loren Glass from English and, provisionally, Sam Chang and James Galvin from the Writers’ Workshop. Many thanks to Ed, Dee, Doug, and Loren for agreeing to take this on. I am assuming that, once they have shaped up concrete plans, I will bring these to the full department for further discussion and approval or rejection later in the semester. Feel free to share your ideas for the track or the position(s) with any of these folks.
Other business that will likely take departmental attention during this semester includes: agreeing our search priorities for next year and our five-year hiring plan; completing the strategic assessment of our graduate programs; completing our Outcomes Assessment plan for the major (Associate Provost Rocklin was appreciative of our Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives for English Majors); review of the journals and their funding support; and the new Gateway Course for the undergraduate major with its newly created graduate teaching positions. I will circulate a schedule of likely department meetings on these issues as soon as possible.
In other faculty news, congratulations to Lara and
David on the birth of Leela Chaeve Wittenberg Trubowitz!
Lori Branch will be withdrawing from teaching from
the start of the semester in anticipation of the
birth of her twins. Good luck to her and thanks to
Wes Kisting and John Pendell for taking over her
two courses. And welcome to Gérard Siary, our visitor
from Montpellier for this semester. Welcome, too,
to Lia Purpura, the Nonfiction Writing Programs Bedell
Visiting Writer for the spring. And best wishes to
all for an exciting and rewarding semester!
Congratulations to Lori Branch, Corey Creekmur, Kathy Lavezzo, Alvin Snider, and Doug Trevor, each of whom has been approved for a Career Development Award in the 2007-08 academic year, and to Marie Kruger, who has been awarded a Flexible Load Assignment in Fall 2007.
Cheryl Herr will be a Kirkpatrick Lecturer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in early April 2007. She will also deliver a keynote at the International Association for the Study of Irish Literature conference in Ireland in July of this year.
Kevin Kopelson has been invited to speak at The New England Conservatory of Music this month.
Barbara Eckstein writes: "Those NRC faculty questionnaires should be coming your way soon. Honest. Please hang onto and make use of that email that I sent about the questionnaires on Friday January 5. And please update your c.v. so it is ready to go."
A few items from the recent DEO mailing:
Linda Bolton was featured in Boom: Life and Style for Baby Boomers, the Dec. 2006 supplement to the Iowa City Press-Citizen.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution covered Robin Hemley's recent appearance in a children's musical (with photos), and a columnist from the Evansville (IN) Courier & Press was inspired by Robin's upcoming book about taking a second shot at past experiences to remember one of his own childhood embarrassing moments.
The New York Times recently published a letter from Jeff Porter on the subject of decommissioned B-52s that can be seen via Google.
A Writing University website has recently been launched, including links to and information about the department's Nonfiction Writing Program. The UI news release about the site is available here, and the DI recently published a article about the Writers House, which is intended to bring together the various branches of the Writing University, and the house's resident writing fellows.
Jan. 24 (Wed.), 4:00 p.m., Gerber Lounge—The English Department will host a lecture by Erica Fudge, a scholar of early modern literature and culture and of animal studies. Fudge teaches at the Trent Park campus of Middlesex University in Britain. The title of the illustrated lecture is “The Dog and the Self in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: An Animal Approach to Shakespeare.” Fudge is the author of three books: Brutal Reasoning: Animals, Rationality, and Humanity in Early Modern England (Cornell, 2006), Animal (Reaktion, 2002), and Perceiving Animals: Humans and Beasts in Early Modern English Culture (Macmillan, 2000). She is the editor of Renaissance Beasts: Of Animals, Humans, and Other Wonderful Creatures (U of Illinois P, 2004) and co-editor, with Susan Wiseman and Ruth Gilbert, of At the Borders of the Human: Beasts, Bodies and Natural Philosophy in the Early Modern Period (Macmillan, 1999). She is also a co-editor with other members of the Animal Studies Group of Killing Animals (U of Illinois P, 2006). The talk is co-sponsored by History, School of Art and Art History, French and Italian, Rhetoric, and International Programs.
Feb. 1 (Thr.), 3:45 p.m., Gerber Lounge—Department Meeting: five-year hiring plan and search requests for next year
Feb. 2 (Fri.), 2:30-4:00 p.m., 331 EPB—The Early Modern Reading Group will meet to discuss Wes Kisting's conference paper, "The Theater of Conscience: Reforming Spectacle in Measure for Measure." Please contact Stacy Erickson (stacy-erickson@uiowa.edu) for more details.
Feb. 15 (Thr.)—Deadline for NRC faculty questionnaires
Feb. 15 (Thr.), 3:45 p.m., Gerber Lounge—Department Meeting: discussion of graduate matters
Feb. 15 (Thr.), 7:30 p.m., UI Museum of Art—Nick Kowalczyk, writer-in-residence at the UI Museum of Art and a student in the Nonfiction Writing Program, will giving a reading with Russell Valentino and John D'Agata.
Feb. 16 (Fri.)—Fall developmental reports due. Details here.
Feb. 22 (Thr.) - Feb. 24 (Sat.)—Studies in Sound: Listening in the Age of Visual Culture, an interdisciplinary graduate conference hosted by the Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature. The conference will feature Caryl Flinn as the keynote speaker as well as "The Audible Picture Show," a performance of sound works for a "dark screen." The Call for Papers is available here.
Feb. 22 (Thr.), 7 p.m., Prairie Lights Bookstore—Lia Purpura, Bedell Visiting Writer in the Non-Fiction Writing Program, will read from her latest collection of short essays, On Looking.
Feb. 26 (Mon.), 7 p.m., Prairie Lights Bookstore—Robin Hemley will join current NWP student Brian Goedde and recent NWP grads Bonny Rough (NWP ’05) and Kerry Reilly (NWP ’03) to read from Modern Love: 50 Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion, a collection of pieces from the New York Times Modern Love column.
Mar. 1-4 (Thr.-Sun.)—Obermann Symposium "Obscenity," organized by Loren Glass
Mar. 2 (Fri.), 2:30-4:00 p.m., 331 EBP—The Early Modern Reading Group will meet to discuss Stacy Erickson’s dissertation, "Collaboration in the Marketplace: Writers, Printers, and Publishers in Early Modern England."
Mar. 8 (Thr.), 3:45 p.m., Gerber Lounge—Department Meeting: report on the Gateway Course and (if time) continued discussion of Outcomes Assessment
March 15 (Thr.)—Submission deadline for the 7th annual Craft Critique Culture Conference. Details available here.
Apr. 5-7 (Thr.-Sat.)—Poetries Symposium, beginning with a keynote lecture by Cary Nelson
Apr. 11 (Wed.), 7 p.m., Prairie Lights Bookstore—Robin Hemley will read from Invented Eden.
Apr. 12 (Thr.), 3:45 p.m., Gerber Lounge—Department Meeting: discussion of the possible new Creative Writing Track within the English Major
Apr. 13-15 (Fri.-Sun.)—7th annual Craft Critique Culture Conference.
Apr. 13 (Fri.), 2:30-4:00 p.m., 331 EPB—The Early Modern Reading Group will meet to discuss an article by Jailyn Moreland. Please contact Stacy Erickson (stacy-erickson@uiowa.edu) for more details.
Apr. 19 (Thr.), 3:45-5:15 p.m., Ritchey Ballroom, IMU—The Graduate Awards Ceremony
Apr. 19 (Thr.), 7:30 p.m., UI Museum of Art—Riley Hanick, writer-in-residence at the UI Museum of Art and a student in the Nonfiction Writing Program, will giving a reading with Robin Hemley and Patricia Foster.
Apr. 27 (Fri.), 3:30-5:00 p.m., the Museum of Art's Lasansky Print Room and Willis Atrium—Undergraduate Honors Award Ceremony. Thesis advisors: Please note this date on your calendars and that this year the event is scheduled on a Friday rather than a Thursday as has been the tradition in the past.
May 4 (Fri.), 2:30-4:00 p.m., 331 EPB—The Early Modern Reading Group will meet. Please contact Stacy Erickson (stacy-erickson@uiowa.edu) for more details.
Nov. 1-3 (Thr.-Sat.)—NonfictioNOW Conference
UI Master Calendar of Events | UI Academic Calendar | The Writers Workshop Reading Schedule | POROI Calendar
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 Thursday during the semester, and submissions should be received by 5 p.m. the day before. Please send submissions for the next issue by 5 p.m. on Wed., Jan. 31. Thanks very much.