Calendar of Events
2008-2009
Fall: (TBA): The English Department will be holding a “ Book Launch.” Faculty members will be promoting and signing their new books. Those faculty who will be there with their books are: Branka Arsic, Passive Constitutions; Glyne Griffith, Color, Hair, and Bone: Race in the Twenty-First Century; Helene Scheck, Reform and Resístance: Formations of Female Subjectivity in Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Culture; Charles Shepherdson, Lacan and the Limits of Language; and Alifair Skebe, El Agua Es La Sangre De La Tierra.
September
Sept. 11 (Thurs.): 4:00 p.m., HU354: The Professionalization Committee, directed by Bret Benjamin, with Professors Randy Craig and Lisa Thompson, will hold an introductory meeting for all graduate students who plan to apply for academic positions this year. At this meeting we will discuss the job application calendar, the necessary documents, and the expected level of progress towards the Ph.D. They will lay out a timeline of future professionalization meetings this semester that will cover specific aspects of the process including job letters, interviewing strategies, and so forth. In the coming months they plan to work intensively with all job seeking students, both as a group and through individualized tutorials. At this meeting, they will do their best to answer any questions about the process. This meeting is open to all graduate students who want to learn more about the academic job market in preparation for future years; however, it is essential for those students who plan to apply for academic jobs this Fall.
Sept. 12 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, Upstate Artists Guild Gallery (UAG Gallery), 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay), Albany NY. Poetry at the UAG sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild free and open to the public: Tomás Noel and The Poet Essence.
Sept. 17 (Weds.): 7:00 p.m. (6:30-6:55 p.m. Steel Pan Musical Prelude), Campus Center Ballroom, University at Albany: The Department of Africana Studies is presenting professor Sir Kenneth O. Hall, ON, GCMG, OJ, Governor-General of Jamaica’s lecture entitled “Caribbean Development within the Global Economy.” There will be a Carnival Gala and other cultural performances. A reception follows the program. For further information please visit the department website: www.albany.edu/africana
Sept. 25 (Thurs.): 10:40 a.m., Assembly Hall Campus Center: Our new ENG faculty member Tomás Urayoán Noel will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Breaking Boundaries: Opening Pathways for New Ways of Learning." Contact Bret Benjamin (bret@albany.edu) for more information.
Sept. 26 (Fri.): 7:30 p.m. Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, NY: Doug Henwood, editor of Left Business Observer and author of Wall Street and After the New Economy, will be presenting the capstone event for the Capital Region Social Forum, which will include film screenings, lectures by Lori Wallach and Steve Early, as well as a Global Fair Trade fair in conjunction with the launch of the Globalization Studies Major. Please note that new ENG faculty member Tomás Urayoán Noel will participate in a panel discussion on Thurs 9/25 at 10:40 a.m. entitled "Breaking Boundaries: Opening Pathways for New Ways of Learning." Contact Bret Benjamin (bret@albany.edu) for more information.
Sept. 26 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE ,Upstate Artists Guild Gallery (UAG Gallery), 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay), Albany NY. Poetry at the UAG, free and open to the public, is sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Cara Benson and Cheryl A. Rice.
October
Oct. 10 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, Upstate Artists Guild Gallery (UAG Gallery), 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay), Albany NY. Poetry at the UAG is free and open to the public sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild: Friday Night Open Mic.
Oct. 14 (Tues.): 5:30 p.m., HU 354: English Department Fall Open House for English Majors (and intended majors.) The event will promote the Spring English Courses, Internship Program, Sigma Tau Delta, Honors Program, and the Writing Center.
Oct. 24 (Fri.): 3:00 p.m., HU 290: Sherman Raskin, Chair of the English Dept. at Pace University will be speaking about "Publishing as a Career and the Master's Program in Publishing at Pace University." All are welcome.
Oct. 24 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, Upstate Artists Guild gallery (UAG Gallery), 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay), Albany, NY. Poetry at the UAG , free and open to the public, is sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild: Dan Nester and Dan Wilcox.
Oct. 30 (Thurs.): 11:00 a.m., HU 354: SUNY Press Editorial visit.
November
Nov. 14 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, Upstate Artists Guild gallery (UAG Gallery), 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay), Albany, NY. Poetry at the UAG, free and open to the public, is sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild: Chris Funkouser and Ed Rinaldi.
Nov. 20 (Thurs.): 3:00 p.m., Initiatives in Teaching Workshop in Humanities 290. Please join us next Thursday, November 20, for the first Initiatives in Teaching workshop of the year. For this workshop, Tomás Urayoán Noel and Christopher Rizzo will discuss issues they have grappled with in the creative writing classroom. The audience will be an integral part of the workshop. We anticipate a lively and productive discussion, and We hope many of you will be able to attend.
December
Dec. 4 (Thurs.) (time TBA), HU345: Theory Conference on Class and Critique.
Dec. 8 (Mon.): Last day of classes for Fall 2008 semester.
Dec. 11 (Thurs.): 1:00-3:00 p.m. (location TBA): "Dance of Death," a multimedia performance. This modern revival of a medieval and early modern form of social critique will draw on the collaborative critical, creative, and research abilities of students from four separate classes in English and Theater departments. Ineke Murakami and Helene Scheck received an Instructional Innovation Grant from ITLAL in support of this performance project. Using a team-based learning approach, the project endeavors to test some of the boundaries commonly erected between historical periods, academic disciplines, scholarly vs. creative writing, and "literary" vs. mass cultural modes of expression. Karen Williams (English), Eszter Szalczer (Theater), Daniel Gremmler (Humanistic Studies/Classics), and Ione Beauchamp (Theater/Dance) are the other instructors involved in this project. Open to the public.
Spring 2009
January
Jan. 23 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., a special JAWBONE, The Albany Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave, Albany, NY 12210: Open Mic Reading with Christopher Stackhouse as a featured poet and the author of poetry collected in the chapbook “Slip” (Corollary Press, 2005); coauthor of “Seismosis” (1913 Press 2006), a collaboration featuring Stackhouse’s drawings and John Keene’s text.
This semester, JAWBONE is working with EGSO on its seventh annual graduate student conference, "Negotiating Land: New Readings." We will also host events as they emerge over the course of the semester. As always, Jawbone events are free and open to the public.
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February
Feb. 11 (Wed.): 4:00-8:00 p.m., Campus Center, Assembly Hall, “Fair Trade for a Fair World!”: The U Albany Fair Trade Alliance will host an open event including art, food, and presentations; 9:20-11:20 a.m., Social Sciences Building, SS134: Fair Trade lecture by Patricia Pinho, Assistant Professor of Latin American Caribbean, and Latino Studies; 4 p.m., Fireside Lounge: Participatory Art Installation; 5:00-8:00 p.m., event will begin in Assembly Hall. The event is co-sponsored by the English Department and is free and open to the public. For online information see:
http://www.uafairtradealliance.blogspot.com
Feb. 26 (Thurs.): 9:30 a.m. & Feb. 27 (Fri.) 9:00 a.m., Standish Room, Science Library: Rick Barney and Helene Scheck are co-organizing a two-day multidisciplinary symposium entitled "Rhetorics of Plague: Early/Modern Trajectories of Biohazard." The Symposium will generate discussion on larger social, philosophical, cultural issues relating to biohazard in the pre- and early modern period, considering, for example, what early manifestations of and attitudes toward plague might tell us about what we know/think now (phobic as well as reasoned responses); or, conversely, what current work tells us about early paradigms of biohazard. By soliciting papers and panels that forge connections between 21st-century contexts and pre- and early modern periods (up to ca. 1820), we aim to create a symposium that will generate lively and important cross-talk that will cultivate rather than simply showcase ideas. For more information regarding the symposium visit the website: http://www.albany.edu/english/plague.shtml.
Feb. (TBA): Initiatives in Teaching. Workshop focused on a particular aspect of teaching college English. Dates and details TBA.
March
Mar. 10 (Tues): 4:15 p.m., Seminar, Assembly Hall, Campus Center; 8:00 p.m., Reading/ Performance, Assembly Hall, Campus Center: Rodrigo Toscano, author of To Leveling Swerve (Kruspkaya Books, 2004), Platform (Atelos, 2003), The Disparities (Green Integer, 2002), and Partisans (O Books, 1999), will be presenting a talk for the English Department in collaboration with the new York State Writers Institute and Fence magizine. His new book, Collapsible Poetics Theater (Fence Books, 2008), was a National Poetry Series 2007 winner. His poetry has appeared in Best American Poetry 2004, and he was a 2005 recipient of a New York State Fellowship in Poetry. He was poetry co-coordinator for "The Social Mark" symposium (Slought Foundation), and is also the artistic director and writer for the Collapsible Poetics Theater (CPT). His polyvocalic pieces, poetics plays, and body-movement poems have been performed nationwide. Toscano is originally from Southern California. He lives in Brooklyn, and works at the Labor Institute in Manhattan. Please see Rodrigo’s author page at this link: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Toscano.html
Mar. 19 (Thurs.): 7:00 p.m., The Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 6th Avenue North Troy, NY: "A Best of Fence: The First Nine Years," Readings from area writers Chase Twichell, Sam Truitt, Christian Peet, Laura Didyk, and others in celebration of Fence Magazine's brand new anthology of poetry, creative nonfiction, short fiction and more. Refreshments will be served and copies of "A Best of Fence" will be available for purchase. Free to the public.
Mar. 27 (Fri.): 3:00-4:30 p.m., HU 354: Artist in Residence: Performance Artist Petr Kotik, Open talk at the UA English Department, and performance of experimental literature at 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the UA Art Museum, John Cage’s “Empty words”,(tickets $8:00; students $ 4:00 for performance) co-sponsored by the Department of English.
Related Events: Mar. 26 (Thurs.): 7:00-9:00 p.m., Performing Arts Center Recital Hall: Petr will present an Open lecture/rehearsal in the UA Music Department. Mar. 28 (Sat.): 7:00 p.m., Concert at the Performing Arts Center Recital Hall with works by Petr Kotik, Jackson Mac Low, John Cage, Phill Niblock, and Morton Feldman. January to May 2009: a corresponding exhibit of “scores”and visual poetry in the UA Library, free and open to the public.Mar. 30 (Mon.): 3:00-5:00 p.m., HU 354: A presentation and a reading by the Algerian poet novelist & sociologist Habib Tengour on "The current situation of literature in North Africa" organized in collaboration with the LLC & the Writers Institute. Mar. 31 (Tues.): 7:00-10:00 p.m., HU 115: A presentation and a reading by the Algerian poet novelist & sociologist Habib Tengour on "The current situation of literature in North Africa" organized in collaboration with the LLC & the Writers Institute. He will also be present at the graduate seminar on translation. Habib Tengour, writer and ethnologist, born in Mostaganem (Algeria) in 1947, lives and works between Constantine and Paris. Considered as "one of the Maghreb's most forceful and visionary poetic voices of the post-colonial era" (Pierre Joris), Tengour, who authored a "Manifesto of Maghrebian Surrealism" in 1981, explores the Algerian cultural space in all its ramifications : the oral and hagiographic traditions, the popular imagination and the founding myths, collective memory, raï music and the lived experiences of exile. Core to this work (at times referred to as “soufialism”) are the Algerian cultural identity and memory as they are being mestizoed and woven between Orient and Occident, especially under the impact of the experiences of exile and migration. See for example L'Epreuve de l'Arc (1990), his "maqamât-novel," Gens de Mosta (1997), his novel composed of short stories, Ce Tatar-là (1999), his poem set in the working class suburbs. The double vision of poet and ethnologist achieves surprising symbioses, for Tengour, the cynical observer of his society, proposes through his narratives a fragmented chronicle of post-colonial Algeria under the dismal light of History or of myth. (Regina Keil-Sagawe)
Mar. (TBA): Professionalization Committee. Workshop focused on issues concerning graduate students and their preparation for academic careers. Dates and details TBA.
Mar. (TBA): Initiatives in Teaching. Workshop focused on a particular aspect of teaching college English. Dates and details TBA.
April
Apr. 16th (Th.): 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., The Standish Room, Science Library: The Fifth Annual English Department Undergraduate Research Conference will take place in the Standish Room (Science Library, 3rd floor) on April 16, 2008. Panels begin at 10:00 a.m. and run through 4:30 p.m. This year’s keynote speaker is Robert Markley, Romano Professorial Scholar, University of Illinois Urbana; he will lecture on "Nature, Landscape, and Climate: Feeling the Heat in Jane's Austen's Mansfield Park." You can find a copy of the program here (.doc) . Please join us!
Apr. 17& 18 (Fri. & Sat.): University Hall: The English Graduate Student Organization, EGSO, will hold its seventh annual graduate conference, Negotiating Land: New Readings. This conference will interrogate how recent theory and scholarship has understood changing local and global geographies and the spaces—textual, pedagogical, political, etc.—in which we attempt to read terrestriality.
Apr. 21 (Tues.): 7:15-10:05p.m., HU115: Graduate Seminar for a talk and discussion from 7:15-8:30p.m. on the translation of The Odyssey.
This event is open to the public.Apr. 21, (Tues.): 3:00p.m., HU 354: Initiatives in Teaching: Our next Initiatives in Teaching Workshop will focus on grading rubrics. Grading rubrics ideally perform a pedagogical function and make grading more efficient and more fair. Many of the models developed for writing are developed for expository writing rather than literary criticism. Professor Patricia Chu will provide the rubrics she has been using and would like to brainstorm how to make them more effective at both teaching and grading.
Apr. 24 (Fri.): 4:15 p.m., HU 354: Charles Stein, Poetry Reading.
Apr. 24 (Fri.): 5:00-7:00 p.m., The Book House, Stuyvesant Plaza.
The English Department will be holding a “Book Launch.” Faculty members will be promoting their new books. Those faculty who will be present with their books are: Randall Craig, The Narratives of Caroline Norton; Eric Keenaghan, Queering Cold War: Ethics of Vulnerability in Cuba and the United States; Urayoán Noel, Boringkén; David Wills, Dorsality: Thinking Back through Technology and Politics.Apr. 27 (Mon.): Class, Culture, and Multitude in Online Post-America
2:45-4:15 p.m., HU 354, The Spring 2009 Theory Conference: Crafting Class Consciousness: “Working for the Clampdown,” Text Messaging and Craigslist. Later at 4:30-6:00 p.m., HU 354, Class and Its Others: Slumdog Millionaire, Doomsday, Zizek and the Revolutionary Sublime. The Presentation will be presented by ENG 240 – Growing Up in America (T. Ebert), ENG 642 – Class and Cultural Theory (T. Ebert), JRL 220 – Visual Culture: The Task of the Media in a Visual World (R. Wilkie).Apr. 28 (Tues.): 4:00 p.m., HU 354: Undergraduate Professionalization series, "How to Decide on a Graduate School". Students are encouraged to attend.
Apr. 29 (Weds.): Class, Culture, and Multitude in Online Post-America
5:00-6:30 p.m., HU 354, The Spring 2009 Theory Conference: Digital Journalism: (Un)Covering the Global Realities of the New Media. The Presentation will be presented by ENG 240 – Growing Up in America (T. Ebert), ENG 642 – Class and Cultural Theory (T. Ebert), JRL 220 – Visual Culture: The Task of the Media in a Visual World (R. Wilkie).
May
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May 16 & 17 (Sat.-Sun.): Commencement
Weekend
May 16 (Sat.) 3:30-5:00 p.m. SEFCU arena.
Undergraduate Graduation ceremony for English Majors and Journalism Majors.
Attire: Students may opt to wear their cap and gown or business attire
Seating: Tickets are not needed for te department's Recognition Ceremony. There is ample seating in the SEFCU Arena for friends and family.
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