Negotiations: April

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

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

English Graduate Organization presents lecture by Tim Dean Oct. 16
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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

2k6 End of the Year Party: English & Film

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

Negotiations in April

FPP Workshop: MLA Jobsearches

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

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.

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

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.

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

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!