Reading Matters, Vol. 13, Issue 5

From (under) the Chair's Desk

As you all know, our curriculum process is well under way for next academic year, with thanks to Bluford and Sharry for taking the lead on this. The curriculum committee continues to work to adjudicate tensions between faculty teaching desires and the needs of the undergraduate and graduate curriculums. I’m happy to say that those tensions are minimal, although I would emphasize the need to maintain a strict rotation between MWF and TR teaching schedules for the sake of equity to all colleagues in view of the constraints on available teaching space.

One small innovation in teaching schedules might arise from a new push coming from the College, reacting to an initiative of the Provost’s Office: encouraging more Friday classes. This is presumably related to the Vice Provost’s policy of getting students in classes on Fridays in order to discourage excessive drinking on Thursdays. For our department the issue is moot for most of the day since we face a different pressure—that of building utilization—which means that every classroom in EPB or for miles around it is packed full of classes every period of the day. (That’s one of the things that makes Sharry’s job of timetabling such a challenging one.) But the exception comes at 3:30 p.m. and after. We have found in the past that students show a marked reluctance to register for classes that include a meeting after 3:30 p.m. on Friday and so we have gradually vacated those teaching slots, using times from 3:30 p.m. onwards for 75-minute MW classes. That is the lack that the College has now noticed, and is politely wondering if we might fill in with a few classes in Fall 2008.

Initial discussion among curriculum committee has already generated some innovative suggestions that I’ve passed on to Dean Dettmer, the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, who oversees matters curricular. One suggestion was to extol the pedagogical attraction of 75-minute classes for our kinds of discussion and suggest all 75-minute classes, taught on MR, TF, with W reserved for seminars and special sessions. That would ensure full curricular engagement throughout Fridays, but also involve a radical change in conceptualizing the curriculum. An easier suggestion is that the College lower the expected minimum enrollment for any course that meets after 3:30 on Fridays below the current minimum of 12 students for an undergraduate class. Those are suggestions that are likely to get discussed over the coming months, but aren’t likely to come into place for 2008-09.

And so, let me offer you one additional option as you select teaching times on those beige sheets due to Sharry by the end of this month. The number of MW 75-minute teaching slots are severely constrained because they tie a room down for two sessions across the normal teaching grid. But if you really want a 75-minute teaching experience on a MWF schedule, I suggest that we experiment with just a few WF 3:30-4:45 (or later) classes. Remember that your course does still need to receive minimum enrollments (i.e. 12 for an undergraduate course), so that volunteering for this slot involves some risk. If we can offer just a few classes at this time, we can gain experience of enrollment patterns and presumably our experiment will be watched with gratitude by the College

Elsewhere, congratulations to Robin and all the nonfiction writers on the exciting-looking line-up for next week’s NonfictioNow conference, the leading conference for creative nonfiction writers in the nation. And I look forward to seeing many of you at this afternoon’s Truman Capote award ceremony—how can English faculty resist a champagne reception aimed at literary critics, let alone a talk by William Gass?—and at this evening’s performance of Votes for Women! with a star-studded cast of English faculty. Full details in the English Department Calendar.

Publications, Presentations, and other Faculty Matters

On Saturday, the Iowa City Press-Citizen published an opinion piece by Loren Glass about the FCC's new "zero-tolerance policy" for indecency and the impact it is having. Glass writes:

Now, in one of those aggravating ironies of history, WBAI [a New York affiliate of Pacifica Radio] has decided not to air "Howl Against Censorship," a radio documentary about the trial [of Lawrence Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl"] that includes a recording of Ginsberg reading the famous poem. And it's not surprising. In the wake of "nipplegate," the FCC is instituting a new "zero-tolerance policy" for anything it considers to be indecent, and they're threatening to issue crippling fines to back it up. And although "Howl" would seem to be the perfect test case for an appeal, the current Supreme Court unlikely is to have any sympathy for WBAI in this matter.

You can read the full piece here (or here as a .pdf file). (Also available to subscribers to the Press Citizen's website is a response from Nick Johnson, a former FCC commissioner, and Loren's response to his response.

Matt Brown will speak at Harvard University’s book history seminar in November, where he will give the talk “Books, Things, Mary Rowlandson, Us.” His essay “Book Arts and the Desire for Theory” is forthcoming in the Journal of Artists Books 22 (Fall 2007) and his essay “Undisciplined Reading” is available here at the just-published issue of Common-place, the online journal of American culture and history.

Huston Diehl writes:

On October 9, I gave an afternoon Q&A at Mt. Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, followed by an evening reading from my book Dream Not of Other Worlds: Teaching in a Segregated Elementary School. A number of faculty at the college are using my book in their freshman writing classes. Later in the week, I did a book-signing at the Iowa Library Association’s authors fair in Coralville and, on October 13, gave a reading of my book at the Des Moines Public Library. Monica Hadley interviewed me about Dream Not of Other Worlds on her radio program, “Writers Voices” on October 19. (The interview is now available online here. )

This coming weekend, I will participate in a plenary roundtable on “Shakespeare and Religion” at the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference in Minneapolis.

An interview with Mark Isham appears in the just released issue of Talk: A Newsletter from the Center for Teaching (October 2007, Volume 11, Number 2). Mark talks about his use of cartoons for reflection in his Service Learning course (8N:133 Advanced Writing for Business: Team Writing and Document Design). Several of his cartoons illustrate the article and other articles in the issue. In addition, a Mark Isham cartoon was used for postcard reminders of recent Center for Teaching events, one of them being a “Teaching Content by Encouraging Commitment: Celebration of Service Learning at Iowa” in the Old Capitol Senate Chambers where Mark Isham and other Service Learning teachers at Iowa created posters about their courses. Mark Isham illustrated the use of Service Learning in 8N:133 Advanced Writing for Business: Team Writing and Document Design. The University of Iowa Provost, service organizations from the area, and the University of Iowa community participated.

Jeff Porter was also recently interviewed by Monica Hadley, and you can listen to the hour-long interview here.

Taking up where last week's faculty colloquium in the English department on "literary narratography" left off, Garrett Stewart has been invited by Iowa's Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature to explore the filmic and digital equivalent of such medium-specific analysis in a multi-media presentation on Friday, November 30, 3:30 in BCSB 101. Entitled "Digitime and Inscription in Current Cinema," the presentation, with dozens of video clips and still images, is a reprise of illustrated lectures Garrett gave in September at Yale and Princeton.

News Matters

News of Kevin Kopelson's book Sedaris has been hitting the wires. Today's Iowa City Press-Citizen carried this article. Here are two summaries of recent articles, as noted in recent UI news releases:

"Kopelson: Sedaris fearless as a writer" (El Paso Times, Oct. 16): Americans have embraced David Sedaris' quick wit and quirky humor. Books like "Barrel Fever," "Naked," "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" have all been highly acclaimed and have sold millions of copies worldwide. It's his satirical wit that continues to awe his readers, said KEVIN KOPELSON, a professor of English at the University of Iowa and the author of the newly published book simply titled "Sedaris." The book is a literary critique of Sedaris' body of work. "He's a popular writer, but he's also a genius who is analogous to Mozart and Chopin. He understands his craft profoundly and the work is beautiful and easy to enjoy," Kopelson said, adding that, as a very visual writer, Sedaris allows the reader to see the scenes he's describing. "He's also fearless and there isn't anything he won't write about." This article can be found here.

"Seriously funny: UI professor finds lessons in Sedaris humor": David Sedaris might be too funny for his own good. New York Times best-selling author and frequent contributor to Esquire, The New Yorker and NPR's "This American Life," Sedaris is known for his hilarious essays on his eccentric family, his days as a holiday elf at Macy's, and his quirky experiences as an American in Paris. But as University of Iowa English Professor Kevin Kopelson points out in his new book, "Sedaris," readers may overlook the fact that Sedaris is trying to teach some life lessons. This UI news release is here.

NWP Matters

Robin Hemley reports:

Tom Montgomery-Fate (MA.W, 1987) is the first winner of the NWP alumni La Muse Inn Fellowship. Tom will be spending most of the month of January at La Muse Inn in southern France working on a new book of nature essays. Tentatively titled A Box of Wind, the collection is also a kind of conversation with Henry David Thoreau's work and its startling relevance in the modern era. (The title essay is forthcoming in Riverteeth.

Tom Montgomery-Fate is the author of Beyond the White Noise, a collection of essays, and Steady and Trembling, a memoir. His essays frequently air on National Public Radio and Chicago Public Radio, and have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Fourth Genre, Manoa, Puerto del Sol, and other magazines, journals, and anthologies. He is a professor of English at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn IL.

Department Calendar

The calendar is now housed on its own page, and both the calendar and Reading Matters are now available via links from the main English Dept. webpage, making it easier to access them. You can find a full listing of upcoming events at the English Department Calendar.

Other Calendars

UI Master Calendar of Events | UI Academic Calendar | The Writers Workshop Reading Schedule | The International Writing Program Calendar

Future Issues

Please send any items for Reading Matters or the departmental calendar to Carolyn Jacobson at carolyn-jacobson@uiowa.edu. Reading Matters appears 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., Nov. 7. Thanks very much.