English Graduate Organization at Syracuse University

Welcome Back--Upcoming Changes

2009-08-07T22:47:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the 2009-2010 academic year! As part of our preparations for the fall semester we will be updating the EGO website frequently for the next few weeks. First of all, Google is ending the Google Pages hosting program and switching all content to Google Sites. The main EGO website will automatically transfer over to Google Sites soon. The old URL will redirect to the new site, so disruptions will be minimal, but you will see some changes before and after the transfer. We will also be adding a calendar that will synthesize departmental events, deadlines, social events, and events outside the department into one easy to access place. Another useful update will be a new page that will cover all of our reading groups. This page will provide group descriptions, current readings, meeting dates, and contact information for someone in charge of the group. In addition, there will be a new “Guide to Syracuse” page with helpful links and recommendations for basic information from the best study spots to how to find a good dentist in the area. This page will continue to evolve for a while, and any suggestions from those of us who are more familiar with the Syracuse area would be much appreciated. For EGO members we will also be adding a new listserv that will allow students in the department to contact each other when looking for a specific book that has been checked out of the library. We hope that all of these changes will make the EGO website more dynamic and useful for current and prospective students.

Spring Speaker Series: Hyon Joo Yoo Murphree and Wai Chee Dimock

2009-03-30T00:09:00.006-04:00

The English Graduate Organization's Speaker Series has two exciting speakers lined up for this spring, with talks by Hyon Joo Yoo Murphree, Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Vermont, and Wai Chee Dimock, William Lampson Professor of English and American Studies at Yale University.

Dr. Murphree's talk, "Reading Cinema Globally: A cinema of failure," will be held this Friday, April 3rd, in Hall of Languages room 207, at 3:30 pm. A screening of Jia Zhang Ke's film Still Life will be included in the presentation.

Dr. Dimock's talk, "Three Wars: Henry James and Others," is scheduled for Monday, April 13 at 5:00 pm in the Killian Room (Hall of Languages 500).

Recent Negotiations

2008-11-29T12:19:00.006-05:00

There have been a number of Negotiations meetings for graduate students to read papers since the last update. On April 18 Corinne Martin and Rachel Collins read papers. Corinne's was titled "'Gifted with All Lore': Lydia Maria Child and the Construction of American Legend," and Rachel's was "'Where all the ground is friendly': Reading Space in Willa Cather's My Antonia."

On September 29 Rachel Collins read "Representing Capital as Landscape: The Naturalization of Corporate Practice in The Octopus" and C.J. Dosch read "A Greenleaf Revolution: Flannery O'Connor's 'Greenleaf' and the New Agricultural South." The flyer appears below.

On October 24 Laurel Ahnert, Mike Dwyer, and Chuck Robinson read papers. Laurel read "Third Cinema Clash: The Politics of Hybridity in Wend Kunni," Mike read "More than a Feeling: Nostalgia and The Historicity of Affect," and Chuck read "Global Designs and Global Desires from Mark Twain to Matt Harding." In November Steven Doles and Ryan McClure read papers. Flyer and titles forthcoming.

Collection for Tammy

2008-03-24T13:27:00.002-04:00

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, MA Tammy Bluewolf-Kennedy was in a serious car accident a few weeks ago. In an effort to support her and her family, we've taken up a collection for her. Please give whatever you can to help. The box is in Terri's office.

Negotiations - February 29

2008-02-27T11:22:00.005-05:00

The February Negotiations panel is scheduled for Friday, February 29 at 2:30 pm in 421 HL. Drinks and food at Faegan's to follow.

Negotiations is both a showcase for new scholarship produced by graduate students in the department, and a workshop that offers feedback and criticism for graduate student work in its early stages. Please attend, ask questions, and support the work of your colleagues and your department.

Michael Dwyer will be reading from his work, "Back to the Future and the Fantasy Return to the Fifties", which attempts to understand the role of a particular understanding of "the Fifties" in the rise of the New Right in the 1970s and 1980s.

Chuck Robinson's "The Country and the City (and the Zombie)" uses Raymond Williams' foundational text to inquire into the ambiguous, and ambivalent, place of "the zombie" in contemporary film & culture.

Rounding out the panel will be Ivy Kleinbart, who will read from her paper "'Church-bells beyond the stars heard': Reading Form and Structure in George Herbert's The Temple".

See you all there!

Professional Development Seminar

2008-02-19T15:04:00.003-05:00

"Dissertation" Is Not a Four-Letter-Word: Managing the Doctoral Life

The prospect of writing a dissertation can be overwhelming. Can you get through the process successfully - and maintain your sanity too? Nisha Gupta, PhD in Cultural Foundations of Education, will lead this interactive workshop in which we will discuss ways of navigating the dissertation process and time line as well as methods for completion. Come prepared to participate! A video tape of this seminar will be made available in 423 Bowne Hall for those unable to attend.

Date: Thursday, February 28, 2008
Time: 12:30 - 1:30 PM
Location: Bowne Hall 111

Presenter: Dr. Nisha Gupta, Associate Director of Professional Development, Instructor in Women's Studies and Cultural Foundations of Education

RSVP for this seminar to Corrie Burdick

New Links

2008-02-16T16:01:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. You might want to check out two links I just added to the sidebar:

Drek's Tips for First-Year Graduate Students

Orgtheory.net: Grad School Rulz

Some of that stuff seems like common sense to me now, but I think it's good to have that stuff available to you in black and white as soon as possible.

Spring Semester Updates

2008-02-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

It's already turning out to be a very busy spring semester, and we still have quite a bit of winter ahead of us. Here are some upcoming events to keep an eye out for:

First, congratulations to Cristina Stasia, whose lecture "Mrs. Croft: Angelina Jolie & the Straightening of the Female Action Genre" was, by all accounts, a successful start for the spring colloquium lineup.

Hearts of Westcott, the English Dept soccer team, has its first match of the indoor season on Monday night.

PhD admit Eve Eisenberg is headed our way this Wednesday to have lunch with graduate students and sit in on a graduate seminar. Please make her feel welcome. More PhD & MA admits will be visiting this term, and will be announced soon.

Thursday the department will be hosting prospective senior hire Sarah Projansky, who is currently in the Gender & Women's Studies program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. If you would like to attend the lunch with Professor Projansky, or the teaching talk, please contact Mike Dwyer.

Ben Jonson's Head, the Department's Trivia team, is firmly entrenched in the peleton, but needs help to make the push to the top of the rankings. Trivia starts at 9pm at the Inn Complete.

This month's Negotiations panel will be held on February 29th.

Finally, we're trying to get a ego website together that is a little more comprehensive & appealing. Feel free to check out the new Syracuse English Graduate Organization homepage and tell us what you think.

As a part of this, we'd like to put together a backlog of abstracts of Negotiations panels, so if you have abstracts for papers you've given, you can send those along as well.

But the thing we need the MOST help with is the "Guide to Syracuse" section. We just want to give people a sense of what kind of resources might be available to them as a grad student in Syracuse. If you want to see a model, you can check out the Univ of Florida's EGO site here.

So, I'll ask two things, respond to me at mddwyer (at) syr.edu.

1) List up to three favorites in any categories you have opinions on.
2) Write up (at least) one very brief description for any one of your choices. 100-200 words, tops.

Thanks!
Mike

Congratulations, Tristan!

2008-01-25T23:35:00.000-05:00

It was just announced that Tristan Sipley (MA 05), currently in the PhD program at the University of Oregon was elected regional delegate to the MLA assembly. Congratulations, Tristan!

FSS - Jean Howard

2007-11-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

The final lecture in this year's EGO Fall Speaker Series will be delivered on Thursday, December 6 by Professor Jean Howard. Professor Howard began her career at Syracuse and we are thrilled to sponsor her return! Please plan to attend the final event of the semester.

"Beatrice's Monkey: Staging Exotica in Early Modern London
Comedy."

In this piece I consider the consequences for early modern
spectators of the staging of exotic objects in plays that deal with
contemporary London. My starting point will be the moment in Eastward Ho
when Beatrice, a maid, comes on stage with a monkey. What is both the
representational consequence of that action, given the considerable symbolic
freight attached to monkey and apes in the early modern imagination, and
what is the presentational consequence, that is, the effect of having a
non-human "actor" from an exotic clime have a role in a play set in 1604
London? Probably, the monkey would have been imported from Africa, brought
back on a ship engaged in trade along the West African coast. How, then, can
we think about this creature's appearance on the public stage, and what
larger implications does it have for understanding how the stage functioned
to domesticate the exotic and to mask the larger economic and political
forces that enabled monkeys to become figures in stories of London life.

Jean E. Howard is William B. Ransford Professor of English and Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives at Columbia University. Professor Howard’s specializations are Renaissance literature, history of drama, feminism, new historicism and Marxism. Her publications include Shakespeare's Art of Orchestration: Stage Technique and Audience Response (1984), Shakespeare Reproduced: The Text in History and Ideology, edited with Marion O'Connor (1987), The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England (1994), With Phyllis Rackin, Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare's English Histories (1997), Co-editor of The Norton Shakespeare (1997), and Marxist Shakespeares, edited with Scott Shershow (2000).

FSS - Shirley Samuels

2007-10-15T15:53:00.000-04:00

Professor Shirley Samuels will deliver the second lecture in this year's Fall Speaker Series on October 23rd at 5pm in the Killian Room. Samuels' presentation, "Women, Blood, and Contract", will focus on the issues of land contracts, womens' bodies, and fears of interracial sexuality in historical novels of the 19th century – Hobomok, Hope Leslie, and The Last of the Mohicans. This paper will not only consider the colonial American period to which the narratives refer, but the immediate context in which they were published, a period in which land claims, citizenship, suffrage and slavery were all contested issues in the formulation of the Early Republic's national identity.

FSS - Amy Villarejo

2007-09-06T12:54:00.000-04:00

The first lecture in this year's EGO Fall Speaker Series will be delivered by Amy Villarejo from Cornell University. This event, held on Tuesday September 25 at 5pm in the Killian Room (500 HL) will inaugurate Professor Villarejo's lecture is entitled "Tales of the City: Television and Queer Urbanity" and explores the role of television in constructing social spaces for the queer denizens of contemporary cities. A small reception will immediately follow the lecture. Save the date and support your grad student colleagues who've made this series such a success in recent years!

The EGO Fall Speaker Series is designed to foster new connections between the Syracuse English Department and other esteemed programs in the region, to showcase our graduate program in English, and to provide an opportunity for members of the SU community to engage with accomplished scholars working outside our own university.

The series is sponsored, planned, organized and funded entirely by our graduate students, which makes it a very exciting and valuable learning experience for all involved. If you haven't already, please get in contact with us to lend a hand!

Meeting Minutes, etc

2007-09-05T12:14:00.000-04:00

The minutes from our last meeting can be viewed here.

In the continuing efforts to keep better records and make our decision making processes more transparent, we've attached a Google Documents account to the EGO Blog, which will allow us to easily save documents, letters, correspondence, and interesting items of department history.

Our next meeting's agenda should include discussion on policies regarding this storage system (who should be able to access it, what sort of password protection and/or editing priveleges should be arranged, etc). In the short term, anyone wishing to access this account can email me for the password (mddwyer at syr dot edu).

All Expenses Paid trip to Rochester Conference

2007-04-01T20:24:00.000-04:00

As part of the University's partnership with Cornell and the University of Rochester to create a
"humanities corridor" in Central New York, funded by the Mellon Foundation, the college has
access to funds to send graduate students to the upcoming interdisciplinary conference at
Rochester next weekend, paying for lodging, travel, and sponsoring a reception Friday night to
allow Syracuse and Rochester grads to begin building connections between departments. If you
are interested in attending, please let me know via email: mddwyer (at) syr.edu.

I'm attaching the conference announcement beneath.
m-

The English Department and the Program in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester present  
An Interdisciplinary Conference, held as part of The Humanities Project:

The Archive of the Future / The Future of the Archive

The conference will take place on Friday and Saturday, April 6 and 7, 2007 and will include a roundtable discussion
on the future of the archive (with an opening address by Johnathan Massey, Assistant Professor of Architecture at
Syracuse University, along with a roundtable made up of faculty, librarians and graduate students) and an
opening reception on Friday, which will showcase Marsha Kinder's digital and interactive *Labyrinth Project*.
Saturday's events include a keynote address by Marsha Kinder, Professor of Cinema, Comparative Literature
and Spanish, at the University of Southern California, as well as 12 presentations by an interdisciplinary and
international group of graduate students on topics as diverse as Popular Culture and New Media,
Politics and Society, Visual Culture, and History, Revision and Memory.  

Please see
http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/?archive
http://www.rochester.edu/College/humanities/projects/?archive&conference 
for more information (including specific times and paper topics) and to REGISTER. 
 
This conference, including Friday's reception and Saturday's lunch, is FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. We do
ask, however, that you register using the form on the website so we have a sense of how many people to expect.


Please free to contact the organizers at futureofthearchive@gmail.com with any questions or comments.

Negotiations February

2007-02-23T14:00:00.000-05:00

The February Negotiations panel is scheduled for Friday, February 23 at 2pm in 421 HL.

Negotiations is designed as both a showcase for ongoing work produced by graduate students, and a workshop for papers that go on to be presented and published in the academic community. For this reason, it's important for everyone to attend, to make sure that the papers that have "Syracuse University English Department" attached to them are the very best that they can be. Mark your calendars!

Meghan Boyle will be presenting from her paper "From Nanook of the North to Survivor: The Entertainment of Imperialism."

Rachel Collins will contribute a presentation entitled "'Living was an ache': Authorial Distance and Indentification in Experiments of Class Transvestism".

Finally Soumitree Gupta will read from her "Resignifying Female Desire: Regulation and Resistance in Post-War Psychiatric Melodramas on the Mad Woman".

See you all there!

Negotiations: Spring Schedule

2007-02-19T14:07:00.000-05:00

The Spring schedule for the Negotiations Graduate paper series is set, so make sure you mark your calendars and come to support your colleagues, and help to improve the work coming out of the department.

Presenters for this semester will be:
Meghan Boyle, Jared Champion, Rinku Chatterjee, Rachel Collins, Tanushree Ghosh, Soumitree Gupta, Mike O'Connor, Matt Rigilano, and Jon Singleton

Matt Hotham's Early Art, back in print!

2007-02-13T14:54:00.000-05:00

Early Art, a chapbook of 11 poems from 3rd year MFA Matt Hotham, is now in its second printing from Turtle Creek Press.

Jane Cassady, author of An Awkward Kind of Faith and host of Monday Night Poetry, says that Matt "humanizes political life while letting NO ONE off the hook. He is both fierce and playful. It's not all politics, of course. There are some sweet love poems with just the right ratio of emo and remove. I'm not pulling any lines to show you because the book is a treasure map of images, and you should get the privelege of making these discoveries on your own."

Copies are $5, ($7.50 with shipping).

Order by mail:
Matt Hotham
131 Dell St, Apt #2
Syracuse, NY 13210

Syracuse English @ the MLA

2007-01-13T20:13:00.000-05:00

Syracuse made an excellent impression at the 2006 annual conference of the Modern Language Association in Philadelphia. Graduate students, faculty, and some recently departed department alumni delivered presentations, interviewed, and crashed an Ivy League party.

Gina Liotta, MA '06, on the Early Twentieth Century African-American Children's Literature panel, delivered her presentation, "A New Narrative: Reading Langston Hughes Literature for Children as Imagetext". This paper was originally composed for Susan Edmunds' Harlem Renaissance course and was initially delivered in a 2005 Negotiations panel. Gina is currently enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Oregon Education program.

Professor Susan Edmunds was busy at the MLA--sitting on the "Posthuman, All Too Posthuman" roundtable, as well as giving a paper entitled "A New Beauty: Anzia Yezierska's Immigrant Women and the Making of Modern America".

Cindy Linden, fresh off her dissertation defense, appeared on the Pain and Disability panel. Cindy presented her paper, "In the Interests of Normativity: A reconsideration of Elaine Scarry's The Body in Pain".

Appearing on the Names, Language, and Theory panel, Amy Leal presented ""The Cockney School of Naming: Keats' Political Allegory in 'Caps and Bells'". Amy has also had an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Ed entitled "Who Killed John Keats?".

Former Emerson Fellow Sarah Brouillette, who is now an Assistant Professor of Literature at MIT, appeared on the Spectacles of Violence panel with her paper, "The Culture Industries of Northern Ireland: Specularity, Violence, and the Conviction Plays".

Professor Monika Wadman chaired a panel on the Native American artist Jimmie Durham. Monika's paper was entitled "Indian Playing Indian? Jimmie Durham's Columbus Day".

Finally, former EGO facilitator, MA 2006, and current Cornell PhD Jon Senchyne not only delivered a paper entitled "Class, Sexuality, Hypervisibility: Complicating 'Diversity' with Everything I have is Blue", a paper that emerged from his experiences teaching at Syracuse, but also extended the invite to many Syracuseans to Cornell's Friday night party. Thanks, Jon!

Negotiations: April

2006-12-06T17:55:00.000-05:00

Negotiations Paper Reading Series December 8

Our final graduate student reading of the fall semester will be held this Friday at 3pm in 421 HL, directly after the PhD advisory meeting with Dympna Callaghan. Three of our second-year students will be presenting their work, followed by a happy hour / end of the semester celebration. Please plan to attend.

The panel:

Sarah Etlinger
Walking the Line: Reading Ambivalence in Edna Ferber

Corinne Martin
'Supplanters of the Tribe': American Exceptionalism and Thoreau's 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers'

Brigitte Fielder-Montero
Pretend Indians: The Fictionality of Literature in David Treuer's Native American Fiction and The Translation of Dr. Apelles

FSS - Ernesto Laclau

2006-11-30T12:15:00.000-05:00

An afternoon lecture with Ernesto Laclau:
"The Signifier, the Role of Naming, and the Logic of Antagonism"

Ernesto Laclau, Chair of Political Theory at the University of Essex, will deliver the final lecture in the inaugural EGO Fall Speakers Series. His lecture will be held in the Killian Room, 500 Hall of Languages, at 3:15 PM on Thursday, November 30.

Professor Laclau is Director of the doctoral program in Ideology and Discourse Analysis at the Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences. He also is currently University Professor of the Humanities and Rhetorical Studies at Northwestern University. He is coauthor, with Chantal Mouffe, of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Toward a Radical Democratic Politics (Verso, 1985). His numerous other works include New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (Verso, 1990) and Emancipation(s) (Verso, 1996), and he is the editor of The Making of Political Identities (Verso, 1994). His latest book, On Populist Reason, seeks to understand how the construction of a people relates to other forms of political subjectivity—classes, corporations and other forms of association.

FSS - Tim Dean

2006-10-10T01:41:00.001-04:00

English Graduate Organization presents lecture by Tim Dean Oct. 16
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Professor Tim Dean, from the English Department at the University of Buffalo, will deliver a lecture entitled "Breeding Culture: Barebacking, Bugchasing, Gift-Giving" at 1:00PM in the Killian Room, 500 Hall of Languages.

Professor Dean will present research from his forthcoming book, Unlimited Intimacy, which addresses the emergence of bareback subculture. By suspending the impulse to pathologize this behavior, Unlimited Intimacy explores the kinship structures that the subculture produces as an alternative to normative heterosexuality.

**This lecture is a part of the English Graduate Organizations's Fall Speaker Series, jointly sponsored by the English Department, the LGBT Senate, and the Graduate Student Organization**

FSS - Susan Buck-Morss

2006-09-29T20:20:00.000-04:00

2k6 End of the Year Party: English & Film

2006-05-07T00:08:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to thank everyone that came out to celebrate the end of the year, the
graduation of some fantastic colleagues, the Film Department's MFA show, and a few birthdays,
as well. It was a great time, everyone got home safe, and nobody broke anything. A successful
year and a successful party. Those of you who will be in town for the summer, make sure to
keep an eye on this space for announcements, etc.

Here's a few pictures from the events of the last few weeks of the semester.

Negotiations: April

2006-04-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

Negotiations in April

FPP Workshop: MLA Jobsearches

2006-04-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

COMING YOUR WAY IN APRIL:

NEGOTIATING THE MLA JOBSEARCH--A WORKSHOP

Will you be seeking a job soon, or just want to learn more about what
it entails?  Join CRYSTAL BARTOLOVICH, SARAH BROUILLETTE (newly hired
at MIT), STEVEN COHAN, and KATE GIGLIO (newly hired at the University
of Central Florida) for a discussion of the nitty gritty of the
search, from finding where jobs are to surviving an on-campus
interview.  With Syracuse faculty who have served on numerous job
committees as well as successful recent job candidates both on hand,
you can hear about the search from both sides, and start to plan your
own search.

The workshop itself will be on THURSDAY APRIL 20 at 4pm in the
English Department Library. Please mark you calendars now!  Everyone
welcome.

I am writing early, though, to ask people who are planning on
attending to let me know--we'd like to have a sense of how big a
group we will be.  Also, if you have particular questions you'd like
us to cover, please let me know.

Hope to see you there!


RSVP and direct questions to Crystal:  clbartol@syr.edu

2006-03-26T18:26:00.000-05:00

Negativland!

Mark Hosler
Friday, March 31 at 7pm
Shemin Auditorium
Shaffer Art Building
Syracuse University

Free and open to the public

A 90-minute film and storytelling presentation by Mark Hosler,
founding member of Negativland, with Q and A to follow. No lawyers
were harmed in the making of this event!

Pranks, media hoaxes, media literacy, the art of collage, creative
activism in a media saturated multi-national world, file sharing,
intellectual property issues, evolving notions of art and ownership
and law in a digital age, artistic and funny critiques of mass media
and culture, so-called "culture jamming" (a term coined by Negativland
way back in 1984).... even if you've never heard of Negativland, if
you are interested in any of these issues you're sure to find this
funny and inspiring presentation worth your time and attention.

Is Negativland a "band"? Media hoaxers? Activists? Musicians?
Filmmakers? Culture jammers? An inspiration for the unwashed many? A
nuisance for the corporate few? Decide for yourself in this
presentation that uses films and stories to illustrate the many
creative projects, hoaxes, pranks and "culture jamming" that
Negativland has been doing since 1980.

Most famous for getting sued for their "U2" single, Negativland have
had 25 years of fun being a thorn in the side of the corporate media
and entertainment biz. They've released a gazillion CDs, do
occasional tours, make little movies, and were the subject of San
Francisco filmmaker Craig Baldwin's 1995 feature film "SONIC OUTLAWS".

Negativland isn't just some group of merry pranksters; its art is
about tearing apart and reassembling found images to create new ones,
in an attempt to make social, political and artistic statements.
Hilarious and chilling.
-   THE ONION

Contact: Roger Hallas, rhallas@syr.edu, 443-9468.

2006-03-26T17:53:00.000-05:00

Respect is due!

The semester is only a little over halfway done, but we've already have loads of
congratulations to dole out. It has been a very good year to us here!

Congratulations go to...

Jon Singleton and his wife Julie, whose healthy baby girl, Lydia Jane, was born on February 28.

Laura Farmer, who had her "Christmas Eve" published in the Winter 2005/2006 Iowa Review.

Polina Kroik, who has been accepted to the English & Comparative Literature PhD program at Cal Irvine.

Gina Liotta's "A New Narrative: Reading Langston Hughes' Literature for Children as
Imagetext," which was featured in our October Negotiations reading, has not only been picked
up for publication in the forthcoming collection To See the Wizard: Politics and the Literature of Childhood from Wayne State University Press, but has also been accepted to next year's MLA convention.

Jon Senchyne, who accepted an offer to join the PhD program in English at Cornell.

Mike O'Connor is now officially a "PhD candidate", passing the qualifying exams he took this winter.

Enass Khansa was accepted into Georgetown University's Department of
Arabic Language, Literature and Linguistics.

Nate Mills is currently weighing offers from PhD programs at Michigan, Illinois,
and Wisconsin.

Kate Giglio, who was hired by the English Department at the University of Central Florida
in sunny Orlando (no more Syracuse winters!).

I'm sure I've missed somebody, so apologies in advance. Let me know and I'll make sure to add more kudos to the list!

-mike

2006-03-26T17:36:00.000-05:00

Pre-Order Ali Hasan's Grieving Shias

Grieving Shias, MFA student Ali Hasan's book of poems is being released this month from Sheep Meadow Press. If Ali hasn't let you know already, you can pre-order it from Amazon here or from Sheep Meadow here.

A spectacular blurb from Stanley Moss:
American English his adopted language, at home in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syracuse, N. Y., Raza Ali Hasan deals with material unavailable to any other poet I know writing in English. Without rank, without comrades, he has fought battles of the mind and spirit. The reader may hear music he does not recognize; perhaps it is of the subcontinent. The architecture is American fusion, Mughal, postcolonial, colonial, sometimes peasant, sometimes Syracuse motel. Ali Hasan does not play cricket; his often painfully beautiful poems do not play fair.

2006-03-22T10:51:00.000-05:00

A few items today.

PhD admit Jessica Kuskey will be visiting campus this week. The department has organized a graduate student lunch with her on Thursday 3/23. Please attend.

We need volunteers for our upcoming Negotiations panel. Now is the time for all of you first-years to get your feet wet in presenting your work! I can't tell you how beneficial getting feedback from within your department will be when you are preparing for conferences. Please contact me or Jon Senchyne if you're interested.

There will be an EGO Meeting on Friday, 3/24 in the English Library. The tentative agenda is as follows

1) GSO Funding Proposals for next year:

Your grad student activity fees go into GSO's coffers and are dispersed upon request. As far as I understand (Gina might enlighten us further) these funds can be requested at the end of the year for any organizational activities. I've heard through the grapevine that GSO is flush with cash right now, so we should take advantage.

That means if we want to bring in guest speakers, create our own publication, do a reading series, or even set up a small conference, we could request GSO funding to do so. The money is there, and it's ours for the taking--so let's take advantage of that.

2) Elections for next year.

If you are interested in any of the EGO positions, (PhD Facilitator, MA Facilitator, Agenda Committee, Undergrad Committee, Grad Committee, Faculty Development Sub-Committee, Webmaster, or Writing Program Lower Division Committee, we will discuss the responsibilities put upon each position and accept nominations.

3) Albany Conference

We need to formally submit our budget for the SUNY Albany Conference in April. I've talked to Gregg Lambert informally, and he has assured me that it will be funded in full, but I'd like to finalize that soon.

4) I'd like for us to discuss some of the developments in the department this year (Teaching Evaluation Changes, MLA funding for grads, etc)

5) We could also use a more comprehensive website. I can probably do it myself, but I'd like to hear people's suggestions.

6) We also have loads of congratulations to hand out. It's been a good year for us!

thanks everyone
Mike

2006-03-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

February 2006 Negotiations Panel

PhD students Rachel Collins and Michael O'Connor are scheduled to deliver papers in this month's Negotiations Panel, Tuesday at 4pm in the English Library. Rachel's talk, titled "Metonymic Kinship: the Gardin City and Levittown Reconsidered" addresses the impulse behind the Garden City movement, and its reliance on utopian fiction. Mike O'Connor's paper, "Not Black, White, or Green: Documentary Film and the Myth of Irish Immigrant History" explores the relationship of documentary representations of "Irish-ness" in America to issues of race, class and ethnicity.

Look forward to seeing you there!

2005-12-11T18:07:00.000-05:00

RESOLUTION OF THE ENGLISH GRADUATE ORGANIZATION OF SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY IN SUPPORT OF GSOC/UAW 2110, the union of graduate student employees at New York University.

WHEREAS, the English Graduate Organization of Syracuse University is organized to provide
an inclusive, public and democratic space in which to advocate for the interests of all Syracuse English graduate students, AND

WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the English Graduate Organization of Syracuse University to
protect graduate student rights, to advocate for improved material conditions for graduate
students, to seek to uphold and protect academic freedom, to advocate for fair labor standards that do not impede rigorous graduate education, AND

WHEREAS, the above named principles, conditions, an practices lead to strong graduate
education, collegial academic departments with high morale, and improved
undergraduate education by graduate student instructors, AND

WHEREAS, GSOC/UAW 2110 has gone on strike to defend these same principles and values
and in so doing seeks to protect graduate student employee interests through a legally binding collective bargaining agreement New York University, an institution that depends on graduate student labor, AND

WHEREAS, the efforts of the administration of New York University to defeat the graduate
student union and retaliate against those who have initiated and sustained the current strike defies all protocols of civility and fairness and heralds a bellicose approach to the union and its demands for fair wages, decent health care, and provisional job security, AND

WHEREAS, the requests made by the administration of New York University upon its faculty
represent an unprecedented and dangerous infringement on departmental autonomy, AND

WHEREAS, the administration of New York University utilized information technology
such as Blackboard to engage in electronic surveillance reportedly in order to gain information about teaching staff and the status of their courses during the strike, and that the seizure of access to the communication between teaching staff and their registered students is in deepest violation of academic freedom, AND

WHEREAS, President Sexton of New York University on 28 November 2005 threatened to
rescind the Spring 2006 stipend support of striking graduate students who do not return to
the duties of their assistantships by 5 December 2005, also that such students would return to work under the proviso that striking again would disqualify them from two semesters of teaching and stipend support. AND

WHEREAS, such draconian policies and threats violate the principles of the university, violating the academic
freedom of students who have chosen to strike according to good conscience

IT IS RESOLVED that the English Graduate Organization of Syracuse University approves the actions of, and expresses solidarity with, the graduate student employees of New York University now on strike and refusing to teach, grade, advise, or perform any other duties associated with their assistantships.

*In solidarity with other groups, parts of the above were copied from written statements in support of the NYU TA's posted on www.facultydemocracy.org

PASSED 10 December 2005

2005-12-05T14:06:00.001-05:00

Labor News At Syracuse University

A development on campus that hasn't been covered widely. . .

(from the SU News clearinghouse)

Adjunct faculty union vote begins

On Oct. 31, a petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by Adjuncts United, a labor union affiliated with the New York State United Teachers Union (AU/NYSUT), seeking to represent part-time and part-time adjunct faculty members employed by Syracuse University.
In its communications with the relevant faculty members, the University has stated that it would prefer to work directly with part-time and adjunct faculty to achieve mutually agreed upon goals, without an outside organization and that it respects the right of employees to choose whether or not they are represented by a union.

Details of this ongoing process are available at: http://provost.syr.edu/unionization/unioninfo.htm.

On Dec. 5, the NLRB is sending all eligible voters a ballot, by which they may cast their vote in a secret-ballot election to indicate whether they wish to be represented by a union for purposes of collective bargaining. This election will be conducted by mail. Eligible voters are defined as: all part-time, non-tenure-track faculty members employed by the University on the University’s Syracuse, N.Y., payroll and working in Syracuse, including part-time adjunct non-tenure-track faculty members; and including such faculty members employed by University College, all professional schools and on-line instruction programs. Excluded are all full-time faculty members, tenured and tenure-track faculty members, visiting professors, research faculty members, graduate assistants, teaching assistants, research assistants and faculty members who work in dual capacity for the University, which includes supervisory, confidential and/or managerial status, confidential employees, temporary employees, managers, guards and supervisors as defined by the National Labor Relations Act, and all other employees.

The majority of the votes cast in that election will determine whether the entire eligible group is represented or not. That is, employees who vote not to be represented and employees who abstain will, regardless of their vote, be represented by the union if a majority of the votes cast favor unionization. SU urges every employee who is within the petitioned unit to vote his or her personal preference.

Ballots must be returned on or before the close of business on Dec. 19 to count in the election process. Ballots will be counted on Dec. 20 and the results will be shared immediately. Regardless of the outcome of the election, SU will continue to work toward addressing the needs of its faculty and staff, in line with the priorities and economic realities of the University.

Notice the rhetorical threat of the "ominous union monster" in there? This is a clear (and common) anti-union tactic used to frighten unsure workers by encouraging them to link unions with totalitarianism in the that hope that they will instead opt for the university's proposed "good faith" model in which workers and the administration work toward mutually agreed upon goals.

2005-12-04T18:01:00.000-05:00

The Graduate Employee Strike At NYU

Since November, graduate student employees of NYU (TA's, GA's, RA's etc) have been on strike. NYU's GSOC was the first graduate student union to win recognition at a private univeristy. The Bush National Labor Relations Board, however, released NYU from its obligation to recognize the union. When their contract ended this year, NYU refused to recognize the union, and seeks to 'take care' of its graduate students on good faith. In the meantime, however, graduate students claim that since the end of the contract, they have seen their health care costs rise dramatically. When the strike commenced, NYU apparently engaged in ethically dubious activities to coerce graduate students back into work. It has been reported that the administration entered Blackboard course pages in an effort to discover if the GA/TA in question had suspended courses. This is an incomplete account of the events, more information can be found at the GSOC webpage here.

Recently, the president of the university issued a statement saying that graduate students who do not report back to work by December 5 will lose their stipends for the Spring semester, and further, that students who strike again will lose their assistantships. That statement is available here. These actions are being called the most draconian response to the graduate student labor movement. Judith Butler, Joan Scott, Frederic jameson, Slovoj Zizek and others have issued a statement in response and are calling for signatures on an online petition site. Their letter is also reproduced below.

To: President John Sexton, NYU
December 2, 2005
John Sexton
President, New York University

We, the undersigned faculty from several universities in the United States and abroad, write to express our objections to the New York University administration's efforts to defeat the graduate student union and retaliate against those who have initiated and sustained the current strike. The union in question was clearly instated on the basis of a fair election which then obligated New York University to negotiate with the appointed representatives in a fair and open manner. Although the NLRB in 2005 released the university from its obligations to recognize the union, it did not authorize retaliatory action on the part of the university.The recent actions of your office, now widely publicized, defy all protocols of civility and fairness and herald a bellicose approach to the union and its demands for fair wages, decent health care, and provisional job security.

As we all know, there may be differences of opinion on how best to formulate policies that would address these various issues, but undermining the union itself is nothing more than Reagan-esque union-busting and so conveys and enacts hostility to student labor that can only heighten conflict and circulate a ruinous image for New York University as an unfair and indecent place of employment. The infiltration of student and faculty email constitutes an unauthorized invasion of privacy.And the most recent threat to rescind funding for students engaged in the strike constitutes an abhorrent form of coercion.

We urge you to enter into negotiations with the union and to find civil, legal, and productive ways of resolving whatever issues of employment exist between these two parties.

Sincerely,

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor, University of California, Berkeley
Fredric Jameson, William A. Lane Professor of Comparative Literature and Romance Studies, Duke University
Joan W. Scott, Harold F. Linder Professer of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, City University of New York
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University
Paul Gilroy, Anthony Giddens Professors of Social Theory, London School of Economics
Donna Haraway, Professor of History of Consciousness, University of California at Santa Cruz
Slavoj Zizek, Co-Director International Center for Humanities Birkbeck College, University of London
Etienne Balibar, Professeur emeritus, Université de Paris X Nanterre, Distinguished Professor of Humanities, University of California, Irvine

EGO members may find it interesting to compare NYU's actions against the striking graduate students with former Chancellor Buzz Shaw's reaction to SU faculty that refused to cross the picket line in the 1997 service workers strike at SU. You can read about that by following the link at left for "1997 service worker strike."

By, the way, I know the guy who kinda looks like Sideshow Bob in this picture. He's a musicology PhD student. Brilliant kid.

2005-11-10T22:49:00.000-05:00

Judith Butler Field Trip

On Thursday November 10th a contingent of 14 grad students went to Cornell University to hear Professor Judith Butler deliver a lecture entitled "Toward a Critique of Violence." Professor Butler presented ways for thinking justice outside revenge killing and discussed the Isaeli state, Levinas, and a little Benjamin. After the lecture, the crew moved to Ithaca's Collegetown for dinner at Ruloffs. Pictures from Nate's cell phone to come.

UPDATE: Cornell Daily Sun News Coverage

Butler Asks for Mideast Dialogue
November 11, 2005
by Samantha Henig
Sun Staff Writer

Judith Butler’s talk yesterday afternoon surprised on two counts. First, there was the fact that the talk, ambiguously titled “Violence, Non-Violence” and delivered by a woman renowned for her work on gender theory, was actually about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Second, her presentation and the audience questions that followed employed the kind of calm, removed and intellectual language that, though common in academia, came as a shock for a subject that typically makes blood pressures and speaking volumes soar.
This is Butler’s first visit to Cornell as an A.D. White Professor-at-Large.

Prof. Jonathan Culler, chair of the English department, introduced her as an especially appropriate pick for the position because “far more than most academics, she is a professor who has been at large in the world, ranging freely outside the academic world.”

He noted that in addition to being a prolific and respected scholar in the United States, Butler “has also become a major public intellectual in Europe — even in France!”

Butler began by warning the audience of a couple hundred that her talk would deviate from her more typical subject matter.

“If you know me at all — or know this thing called ‘Judith Butler’ — it may be that you know me through my work on gender studies,” she said. “But for now I am interested in pursing Jewish ethics.”

As she spoke, Butler’s face was barely visible over the large wooden podium before her, but her presence nonetheless loomed large.

Calling for an open intellectual discourse about Israel, Butler lamented the strong emotions and stigmas that normally stifle such discussions. She said that many Jews feel as though they cannot express discontentment with Israel without first renouncing their Judaism, and that those who do are all too often labeled “self-hating Jews.”

She herself has fallen subject to the latter: “There are loads of Web sites that keep lists of all of the self-hating Jews and I think that I’ve made all of them,” she said.

Butler engaged the works of Edward Said, Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas to explore identity in Israeli-Palestinian relations. In particular, she questioned Levinas’ claim that persecution is the core both of Judaism and of Israel.

Butler takes issue with “the idea that you can be persecuted for all of history without ever being viewed as the persecutor.” Such an interpretation, she argued, puts Jews in a position where they can always present their actions as self-defense, and thus never be blamed as the aggressors.

Butler also criticized Levinas’ disinterest in engaging with Muslims. She told a story of Levinas meeting with the late Pope John Paul II and the prominent anthropologist Clifford Geertz. When the Pope asked the men if it is possible to create dialogue among Christians, Jews and Muslims, Levinas responded that it would only be possible among Christians and Jews.

In addition to condemning those who dismiss Islam as a religion, Butler also questioned people who want to withhold rights from Palestinians to prevent them from outnumbering and overpowering the Jews.

“I want to call into question why the demographic advantage has to be preserved as a part of Zionism. It wasn’t always that way,” she said.

One audience member asked Butler under what conditions violence is justified, to which she responded that she is “not an absolutist in my ostensible passivism."

Rather, she said she was mostly interested in arguing against revenge theory and questioning a state that would work to preclude the citizenship of certain groups.

Butler closed by urging people to come to her seminar today at 10 a.m. in Barnes Auditorium.

The auditorium was abuzz with discussion long after Butler stepped out from behind the dwarfing podium.

“She really embodies the role of public intellectual in the way that she brings her academic practice out to address current political concerns,” said Theo Hummer grad.

Ashley Puig Hertz grad also commented on Butler’s choice to apply her more abstract theories to current controversies. “She was talking about very charged, controversial issues, and discussing them in a way that was very enlightening,” she said.

Prof. Stuart Davis, English, said all he had to say was that “she was in rare and beautiful form.”

2005-10-30T16:42:00.000-05:00

Halloween Party Pics

Here's a smattering of the pics, the rest are on the Flikr account.

2005-10-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

October Negotiations Panel

2005-10-04T18:50:00.000-04:00

Annual Stephen Crane Lecture Scheduled, Graduate Students Encouraged to Attend
”The Body Count: Stephen Crane and the Cost of War.”

I am writing on behalf of my colleagues to invite you to the upcoming Stephen Crane Memorial Lecture, hosted annually by the English Department and the Dikaia Foundation. We are honored this year to have Cindy A. Weinstein, Professor of English at California Institute of Technology, give this year’s lecture. She will speak at 4 p.m. on October 19th in Room 208 of the Goldstein Alumni and Faculty Center. The title of her talk is ”The Body Count: Stephen Crane and the Cost of War.”

A member of the faculty in Cal Tech’s Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor Weinstein is widely recognized for her work in nineteenth-century American literature. The Literature of Labor and the Labors of Literature traces the intersections of aesthetic and economic discourse in nineteenth-century America. Her most recent book, Family, Kinship, and Sympathy in Nineteenth-Century American Literature, published by Cambridge University Press in 2004, argues that the cultural achievement of the enormously popular sentimental fictions of the mid-nineteenth century was to challenge the very constitution of the bourgeois family, substituting love for consanguinity, contract for biology. Professor Weinstein is currently at work on Narratives, Numbers, and Pictures: From Poe to Dos Passos, the project from which her lecture will be drawn. In this moment when counting the bodies, whether of the Iraqi dead or those lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is a matter of serious political and ethical debate, Professor Weinstein’s inquiry into the question of numbers—of who is counting and who counts—in the work of late nineteenth century writers is an unusually timely one. Like last year’s Crane Lecture by Cecelia Tichi, Weinstein’s talk promises to focus on the ways in which writers use narrative to confront issues of urgent civic importance and to confirm the vital public import of scholarship in the humanities.

The Stephen Crane Memorial Lecture series is made possible by the generosity of the Dikaia Foundation. It commemorates the achievements of Stephen Crane, who attended Syracuse University in 1891 and was a member of the Delta Upsilon Fraternity from which the Dikaia Foundation derives. We are very pleased that a scholar of Crane and his generation of U.S. writers of Professor Weinstein’s prominence will address us on this special occasion.

We hope you will join us for Professor Weinstein’s lecture and at the reception following it.

Sincerely,
Amy Schrager Lang
Professor of English and Humanities

2005-10-03T13:24:00.000-04:00

SuperEGO Soccer Club's Passionate Effort Ends in Heartbreaking Defeat

SuperEGO, the English Dept intramural soccer team, dropped a heartbreaking loss to the Rancho Carne Toros
on Sunday night, surrendering a goal in the final minute and losing, 3-2.

After absorbing some early pressure, EGO struck first in the match. John Henderson & Ben Krier helped to
set up the sequence that ended with Michael Montero slipping the ball past the Toros keeper to take a 1-0
lead.

The SuperEGO defense, anchored by Meghan Boyle, stood up to the task of defending the lead. John Henderson
and Laura Winkiel frustrated their opponents with some stingy defense on the wings, and producing some
counter-attacks. Late in the period, Mike Dwyer was sprung on a breakaway, but came up empty as the
opposing keeper made the save. Cruelly, the Toros were able to equalize on a long-distance shot, just before
halftime.

The second half started unevenly, when goalie Mike O'Connor was tested several times. Save after save
was coaxed out of O'Connor, when finally a busted play (and dubious offside non-call) gave the Toros a 2-1
lead.

EGO struck right back on the ensuing kickoff. Some clever combination play between Ben Krier and Mike
Dwyer brought the equalizer within seconds, leveling the score at 2-2.

The rest game was a very even affair, with both sides playing tight defense and making the most of their
chances. EGO's defense tightened up, with strong efforts from Amata Schneider-Ludorff and Ali Hasan in
the defensive third.

With the clock winding down and fatigue setting in, it
was the Toros who mounted one last attack. A shot
from outside the box just escaped O'Connor's reach to
give the Toros the gamewinner with just 38 seconds
left to play.

One final SuperEGO attack was stymied when Michael Montero's shot was blocked by the defense. Still, it
was a valiant effort, and a whole lot of fun. Thanks to everyone that came out to play or just came to
watch. Next game is Tuesday Oct 11 at 9:45 pm!

Forza SuperEGO!

2005-09-25T17:34:00.000-04:00

Critz Farms Trip Photos Available

All the photos are on the Flickr site.

2005-09-20T21:15:00.000-04:00

Cristina's Party Pictures Are Available

Can't remember much of the party after your first drink? Click on the Flckr.com montage at the bottom left to see them all (and others). Pictures will be posted on the Flckr account as they become available.

2005-09-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

EGO Restarts "Negotiations" Graduate Student Paper Series

On September 29th, the English Graduate Organization will host the first in an ongoing series of graduate student paper readings. Mike Dwyer will read from his work on Hitchcock, Nate Mills on Mike Gold, and Jon Senchyne on E.E. Cummings. The reading will be held in the Killian Room of the Hall of Languages and will run from 5:00 - 6:30 PM.

MA and PhD students can email Jon Senchyne if they would like to read from their work at future Negotiations readings. This is a great way for all of us to learn more about what our contemporaries are doing, to engage in questions that may have grown out of shared coursework, and -for new students especially- to learn about what type of papers come out of seminar work. Some students are also preparing to deliver papers at conferences around the country this year - this is a great way to practice your reading and to answer some questions from the floor.

2005-09-16T09:56:00.000-04:00

EGO Trivia Team

As some of you might know the graduate student organization subsidizes a bar on South Campus called the Inn Complete. On Thursday nights they run a pub trivia competition. EGO entered its first team last night and scored 110 points tying for 4th with about 10 other teams. But - the score tally is cumulative over the entire semester, and if we get some more people out there next week - especially those whose knowledge of oddities and pop culture history of the 30s and 40s is unendingly vast, someone whose last name rhymes with "Real" - then we might have a chance at the semester title if we keep winning. Plus the soda, beer, and food are really cheap.

2005-09-14T15:33:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Andrew Leal

Congratulations to one of our newest. In addition to being our official
balloon animal artist, 1st year MA student Andrew Leal's co-authored book THE ANIMATED MOVIE GUIDE arrived today. Andrew wrote over 50 entries for the collection whose main editor is Jerry Beck. The book was published by The Chicago Review Press.

From the jacket:

"Here for the first time in print, is an accurate and complete guide to every
animated movie ever released in the United States. This lavishly illustrated companion traces the origin of the art form,
discusses what it takes to make a great animated feature, and guides the reader through all manner of hits and flops that make up this previously uncharted world. Every film listing includes reviews, four star ratings, background information, plot synopses, accurate running times, consumer tips, and MPAA ratings.

Going beyond the box-office hits of Disney and Dreamworks, this guide to every animated movie ever released in the United States covers more than 300 films over the course of nearly 80 years of film history. Well-known films such as Finding Nemo and Shrek are profiled and hundreds of other films, many of them rarely discussed, are analyzed, compared, and catalogued. The origin of the genre and what it takes to make a great animated feature are discussed, and the influence of Japanese animation, computer graphics, and stop-motion puppet techniques are brought into perspective. Every film analysis includes reviews, four-star ratings, background information, plot synopses, accurate running times, consumer tips, and MPAA ratings. Brief guides to made-for-TV movies, direct-to-video releases, foreign films that were never theatrically released in the U.S., and live-action films with significant animation round out the volume."

for more: Chicago Review Press
and on Amazon.

2005-09-13T13:34:00.000-04:00

Cristina's Party

Cristina's Party (updated)

It's time to move the debauchery (and balloon animals!) downtown.

In keeping with the new department tradition of a party every weekend, Nate and I will be hosting one this weekend.

When: Saturday, Sept 17th @ 9 pm

Where: 133 Walton St. #126.

Bring: Wine/Beer/Stoli. No need to bring food, we will provide various treats to soak up the alcohol.
Partners/lovers/crushes are welcome.

I live in the townhouses above the Lemongrass reastaurant/The Blue Tusk/Starbucks and across from the MOST. There is a walkway between the Blue Tusk and the Lemongrass restaurant and right in the middle of it, next door to the Tusk, is a green door. Buzzers are next to it. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor. Turn right. Walk to the end of the courtyard. My townhouse will be on your right, #126. If you get lost, call (473 9897) and we will send a guide. Or ask Alex at the newstand to direct you.

You can park on the street or in the underground parking garage (next door to the Lemongrass). Cab rides from the university area to downtown are around $5, and it's super easy to find cabs down here Friday nights for your return trip. Just in case you're planning on drinking.

Nate-Please forward this to Ali and insist he comes. It can't be a man's world without him.

Andrew-We will have Canada Dry for you.

Brigitte-I know you will be out of town, but please tell your partner to come.

Vanessa-I will have a bottle of white Bordeaux just for you.

It is not necessary, but I would appreciate it if you could RSVP so we know how much food to make and I can start Martha Stewart-ing out.

Cristina

2005-09-13T01:06:00.000-04:00

Dates, Time, and Location of Department Assembly Meetings - FALL 2005

The following is copied from a Memo sent by G. Lambert, Chair to the faculty, 16 August 05:

Assembly Meetings & Committees 05-06: Assembly meetings will take place on the third Wednesday of each month, between 10-30-12:00pm, except where there is a conflict in room assignment. I will request that Chairs of the undergraduate and graduate committees schedule meetings on alternative Wednesdays, during the same time period, and the English Library will be available at the beginning the semester and through the year. I will soon be distributing the sign-up sheet for faculty service; all new faculty, as well as part-time faculty, are excused from serving on a committee the first year of their appointment. Of course, regular part-time faculty have no service requirement, unless they choose to volunteer. However, given the motion to amend the department’s committee structure, in its first meeting I will ask the Agenda only to appoint members of the undergraduate and graduate committees. Finally, I have also scheduled a meeting for the Promotion & Tenure Committee this fall in order to review procedures and make any revisions to the process, as well as to organize and prepare for several cases that we have upcoming in the next year. Please see attached schedule mark your calendar and plan to attend these meetings where we conduct all the important business of the department.
(emphasis added)

2005-09-09T20:19:00.000-04:00

Uncorrected EGO Meeting Minutes 9 September 2005

EGO Meeting Minutes - 9/9/2005

Present – Jon Senchyne, Rachel Collins, Mike Dwyer, Amata Schnieder-Ludorff, Christina Stasia, Mike O’Connor and the O’Connor girls, Brigitte Fielder Montero, Nate Mills, Jon Singleton, Corrine (what’s Corrine’s last name?)

1. Reports from Committees:

A. The Agenda and Faculty Development Committee reps have nothing to report.

B. The Undergraduate Committee: Nate Mills reports:

a. With the gradual retirement of Chuck Watson there are some changes in the management of the undergraduate curriculum.
b. Claudia Klaver is the new Director of Undergraduate Studies.
c. Jolynn Parker is the “ETS coordinator.” Nate was not clear exactly what this position entails, it may simply mean assistant to Claudia Klaver, or it might not.
d. There is some confusion about who English Department TA’s (PhD students teaching ETS curriculum) should report to. Is it Jolynn Parker? Is it Gregg Lambert? Nate will find out at the next Undergrad committee meeting.

C. Graduate Committee: Rachel Collins reports:

a. Amy Lang is the acting Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the Fall term only.
b. The grad committee’s goals for the year are threefold:
i. Find a new DGS
ii. Develop Syllabi for the proposed pro-seminars that are part of the revised graduate curriculum.
iii. Reshaping the graduate curriculum – including “marketing” the program to the outside, and trying to get at least one year of fellowship for all PhD students.

2. A motion was made to make Corrine the 1st year student representative to EGO. It passed on the floor. Corrine is the 1st year rep.

3. Jon Senchyne reports on his meeting with Gregg Lambert

A. Jon and Cristina Stasia will be meeting with Gregg at 1pm on Monday September 12th.
Upon request from EGO they will be sure to discuss:
a. The ETS TA office situation. There is some confusion about who belongs in what office, where Salt Hill is supposed to be, and getting computers fixed. We would like to know who is supposed to be where, we would like that clearly marked on doors, and to have the Apple computer fixed.
b. Improved communication about Assembly meetings, notably some kind of email confirmation about time and location.
B. Jon met with Gregg last week and discussed the following:
a. Gregg expressed some concern about EGO representatives on Department Assembly standing committees using their votes as a block. While EGO has traditionally used its 4 votes in unison to represent the collective will of EGO, Gregg feels that this was not the intention when voting rights were extended. He also said that he is aware that EGO will probably continue to function in this way. Jon and Rachel checked the EGO constitution and are confident that it is within our own guidelines to vote as a block when EGO reaches consensus. Mike Dwyer added that last year we did not vote as a block when we were not in consensus as a body politic.

b. The English Library. Once all of the furniture arrives the English library will be used for Graduate seminars, department committee meetings, ego meetings, “open time,” and Gregg will be holding a monthly graduate student luncheon (paid by the department) that will be open to all MA, PhD, and MFA students.
c. Gregg Lambert will be giving 2 of the old folding tables from HL 421 (the seminar room) to replace the missing TA desks in HBC wherever they are needed the most (and fit). Again this is contingent on the arrival of new furniture.
d. Jon and Gregg also discussed the place of MFA students within EGO. It is clear that there is an MFA student on the Creative Writing Committee, but that student is not administered through EGO. Rather it is done “in house” through the CW wing of the department. MFA at one time had their own student group, and according to Gregg Lambert, EGO was always intended to be for PhD/MA students. Now, however, MFA students are officially included in EGO membership. Jon Senchyne feels that in order to make EGO a worthwhile group for MFA students, EGO needs to in some way have an official stake in matters that would affect MFA students, something that is not possible without official representation. Jon Senchyne would prefer if the CW Committee representative was a position administered officially through EGO, elected by and reporting to EGO as the other 4 reps do. Amata expressed concern that EGO should only seek to administer this position if MFA students are unsatisfied with the current setup. The prevailing attitude is that EGO would like to involve MFA students more, but that we cannot, in general, figure out how to do so since EGO’s political power rests squarely outside of the CW wing. This contributes to the false divide between the student body.

4. “Issues”
We discussed the ETS TA office situation, computers and their repair, and getting the department to set up a list serv to notify students when and where the department assembly meetings will be. Jon and Cristina will bring this up at the Monday meeting with Gregg Lambert.

5. The EGO Listserv.
A. A motion was made to remove all those currently on the listserv who are no longer in the department. This means graduates, those who have gone to other departments, and those who have otherwise left the program. The motion passed. Given the passing of this motion, Mike Dwyer is now the only legitimate listserv administrator, and therefore will be responsible for removing all non-current English Department Graduate students from the listserv.
B. Amata strongly discourages current students from asking to be taken off the list. Though it is inconvenient to get email when one is not interested in EGO, the body still represents that person in the Assembly and in the department. There may also be a time when an issue affecting such a person arises and they otherwise would not have the opportunity to access EGO electronically. There was general agreement about this point.

6. Writing Program Representation

A. Jon Senchyne talked about the reasons EGO might want to officially request representation of MA/MFA/PhD students within the governing committees (specifically the Lower Division Committee) of the Writing Program. These include:
a. English Department MA/MFA/PhD students make up a significant percentage of the Lower Division Faculty. By Nate Mill’s estimate they are 30% of the Lower Division teaching staff.
b. English Department MA/MFA/PhD students are the only teaching constituency without this kind of representation. PWI’s and CCR students have representation.
c. English Department MA/MFA/PhD students are expected to teach the lower division curriculum that the LD committee develops, but have no role in developing it.
d. There is no clear grievance system when MA/MFA/PhD students are fired from the Writing Program – something that happens with minor frequency – and having political representation would assist in bringing such problems to the Writing Program’s attention.

B. Cristina Stasia said that we should alert Gregg Lambert if we are going to formally present a request for representation to the Writing Program so that he is not “blind sided” in the event that the Writing Program reacts negatively and comes to see him about it. Rachel is also going to alert Anne Fitzsimmons about this.

C. A motion was made to give Jon Senchyne permission to draft a letter to the Writing Program requesting representations for the reasons mentioned above. The letter will be brought before EGO, revised as the body wishes, and delivered after it has been approved by EGO at the next meeting. The motion passed.

These minutes are unedited and are subject to the approval of the EGO membership at the next meeting.

2005-09-09T19:26:00.000-04:00

Correction To Minutes of 9/9/05

Clarification on Jolynn Parker, just so I don't seem as incompetent as the
minutes suggest. Jolynn's position as "ETS Coordinator" has yet to be fully
defined, as the position was only just created this year. Jolynn will assist
Claudia in directing the undergraduate program (which Chuck apparently had
down to a science since he had been doing it so long), will act as a liasion
between the department and the honors program, the DIPA program etc, and will
handle much of the paperwork and bureacracy surrounding the ETS major:
proposals for new courses, sheparding curriculum changes through the
University Senate, etc.
If there is significant concern over this, I can try to arrange to have Jolynn
and or Claudia address EGO in order to clarify how the new governance
structure will work.
My understanding is that Claudia, as ETS director, will still do the bulk of
the overseeing of Phd teaching, though I imagine any PhD instructor will have
significant contact with Jolynn as well. I will clarify this point, as Jon's
minutes indicate, at the next meeting. For right now, I would suggest that any
PhD instructor who has any sort of issue to be addressed by the department
regarding ETS teaching contact Claudia.

Thanks,

nate