Newsletter December 9, 2005

Features

Where's My English Newsletter?

The English Dept. Newsletter has forgone "postal" altogether. It is now exclusively online. The new move does not just integrate the electronic version seamlessly with the newly overhauled web site (wink wink), it also allows us to "hyper link" to anything on the internet, and it conserves paper, in turn allowing for more content, specifically the new "feature articles." That's right, folks. If you are reading this right now, then you are reading the first new "feature" of the brand spankin' new Department Newsletter.

Along with the newsletter, the web overhaul includes an all-new events calendar. If you want to know what events the English Dept. is affiliated with, why not click on over to the events page and have a look-see. *Warning: (another) Shameless Advertisement Ahead* If you are a department member (faculty, staff, graduate student, undergraduate student) and would like your department related event listed, please send a plain text message (no fancy formatting or attachments please) to cbarrett@albany.edu with the (tentative) title, date, time, and any other pertinent information.

Since this is the first working edition of our new format, we would like to know what you think. Are these short feature articles worthwhile? Is the newsletter easy/difficult to browse through? Will our favorite caped crusader find the fantastic faery's ferocious fanged fruit fly incubation chamber in time? Or is the boy wonder doomed to die by the dastardly deeds of the alliterative alien from ALF? These are the burning questions that only YOU can stare at in dismay. Please send feedback to dg6349@albany.edu.

So now that the business end is out of the way, what's in store this issue? I'm glad you asked, my friends, because we have some exciting news. The Journalism Minor, spear-headed by our own William Rainbolt and others, is about to become a major.

Another big event of the fall semester was the faculty book launch at Stuyvesant Plaza. The event featured Thomas Cohen's two volume set: Hitchcock's Cryptonymies, David Wills' Matchbook: Essays in Deconstruction, Helen R.Elam's The Wordsworthian Enlightenment : Romantic Poetry and the Ecology of Reading, and Charmaine Cadeux's What You Used to Wear.

This issue also includes two first time book-length authors: Charmaine and Helene Scheck. Helene's first book-length text, Reform and Resistance: Formations of Female Subjectivity in Early Ecclesiastical Culture, was recently accepted by SUNY Press. Charmaine's text is a collection of poetry already available (Goose Lane Editions, 2004). We have a short Q & A style interview with both authors about their recent accomplishments. Happy reading and enjoy the semester break!

Journalism Major On Track for Fall '06

The Journalism Program’s Proposal for a Major in Journalism now needs only the approval of SUNY Central and the State Education Department to become an official major leading to a B. A. in Journalism.

On October 31 President Kermit Hall signed his consent to create the major.  Three weeks earlier, the University Faculty Senate passed the Proposal unanimously.

 “We all are very enthusiastic about the on-campus support for the Proposal so far, and optimistic about its future when it goes downtown to SUNY Central and State Ed,” says Dr. William Rainbolt, Director of the Program.  “UAlbany will become the first of the four University Centers to offer such a major.  That is a strong point in its favor, as well as its proposed curriculum.  Of course, we continue to offer a very large and popular minor.”

The Proposal was drafted by the Program’s fulltime faculty, Dr. Rainbolt, Dr. Nancy Roberts, and Dr. Thomas Bass, and is supported strongly by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Joan Wick-Pelletier. 

It establishes a 36-credit major which offers undergraduates four sequences: Public Affairs Reporting, STEM Journalism (Science-Technology-Environment-Medicine), Digital Media, and General Journalism.

The Proposal looks to Fall 2006 as a target date for the Program to begin accepting students into the major, assuming the Proposal continues steadily on its path toward state approval. However, the Program will begin to offer courses out of its “new curriculum” beginning in Fall 2006.  Two-thirds of the proposed major’s 31 courses already are being offered by the Program.

“The response among current students and potential future students already has been strong, even with just word-of-mouth notice,” Dr. Rainbolt points out.

For example, the number of students minoring in Journalism has jumped from 106 in November 2003 to more than 180 in November 2005, with a large portion of that increase representing students who say they eventually want to declare Journalism as a major once it becomes available.

Introducing What you Used to Wear

Charmaine Cadeau, a third year doctoral student in the Ph. D. program, took part in the Fall 2005 Faculty Book Launch, held at The Book House in Stuyvesant Plaza. Cadeau, a 28-year-old native of Toronto, Ontario, majored in English Literature and History at Trent University and obtained an M. A. in Creative Writing from the University of New Brunswick before coming to Albany.

Her first book of poetry, What You Used to Wear, was published by Goose Lane Editions in 2004. The publisher describes it as a collection that looks beyond the satellite dishes, wagon-wheel flower planters, and ever-encroaching suburban sprawl of rural Ontario to uncover a luminous spirituality. Her poems, like spirited travelers, move deftly between the natural and the domestic, the physical and the metaphysical, the clothed and the naked. According to Andrew Vaisius, a reviewer for the Prairie Fire Magazine, Cadeau’s intentions are “to forge a corresponding identity relationship between biology and anthropology.” She “weaves anthropomorphic notions into nature and vice-versa.” Warren Heiti writes, "the first and last poems [of the collection] circulate from town to country and back to town.... The membrane is permeable, and the wild intrudes on the domestic: apple petals fall in a handmade pot, flies are invited into the house, a bat breaks into an art gallery" and "I get the sense that there is an implicit, undressed presence in this collection, that the presence cannot be domesticated" (The Fiddlehead no. 223).

When asked to comment on the prominent role of nature in her work, Cadeau responded:

I grew up in Toronto, in a very urban, destitute part of the west-end. I spent most summers traveling with my mother and brother – we did a lot of camping, and my father joined us on weekends. My interest in nature probably came out of staying at the Moose Factory, or tripping up to the east coast in a small camper. I don't see my current interest in nature as being nostalgic, or even escapist. Rather, I write about what bothers me or shakes me up. I think because non-urban landscapes were unfamiliar, I was able to see them in a certain way. I suppose my project in a way is to tackle my own estrangement--from nature, from history.

What can you tell us about the style of your work?

I think What You Used to Wear is underscored with the question 'is anyone listening'?

Is there anything in particular you hope readers will gain from your work?

My most successful reading was in a Public Library. The audience was mostly children and seniors. Both make time for books. I admire (envy?) that performance poets take language to the streets, the shopping market, the bus. But I don't have that kind of energy. I'm happy with confidants. With telling secrets through text and I keep my fingers crossed it's handled appropriately. I'd like to give voice to objects in the natural world. I know Vendler et al. have argued that lyric poets are trying to give readers a particular voice to mimic--a kind of template or ready-made commentary – a didactic education as such isn't my goal. The best you can hope for is that people read thoughtfully, attentively. One of my poems says "Take what you can." I guess that's my position.

An Interview with Helene Scheck

Helene Scheck was named to the tenure-track position of Assistant Professor in Fall 2002, having taught (beginning in 1996) as an adjunct & full-time lecturer, and worked in the Advisement Office. She obtained her Ph. D. from Binghamton University in 2001 in English Language and Literature with a specialization in Medieval Studies. She is active in the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program. Her graduate and undergraduate courses include Medieval and Early Modern English literatures and cultures and early English drama. Her intellectual interests include gender studies; performance and performativity; and women’s intellectual culture. She was recently announced as a recipient of the Dr. Nuala Mcgann Drescher Award for research leave in Spring 2006. Earlier this semester, she received acceptance of her first manuscript, Reform and Resistance: Formations of Female Subjectivity in Early Ecclesiastical Culture (SUNY Press). She will be returning to the English Department full-time in the fall semester. The following interview took place via email.

Congratulations on the acceptance of your manuscript. How does it feel?

OF COURSE IT FEELS WONDERFUL TO KNOW THAT THE STUDY THAT HAS OCCUPIED YEARS OF MY LIFE WILL ENTER INTO LARGER CONVERSATIONS IN THE FIELD. SUNY PRESS MIDDLE AGES SERIES IS ONE OF THE MORE INTERESTING SERIES IN THE FIELD OF MEDIEVAL STUDIES, SO I AM VERY HAPPY TO HAVE MY WORK PUBLISHED THERE.

Let’s talk about your new book. When people hear the term “Ecclesiastical Culture,” they may imagine a world of strict uniformity, and fixed social and ideological structures. Is that the case?

I THINK THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS BECOME AS POWERFUL AS IT NOW IS BECAUSE IT WAS ABLE TO BUILD A FAIRLY UNIFORM, RIGID STRUCTURE WITH FIXED SOCIAL AND IDEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES. OF COURSE NO SUCH WIDE-RANGING STRUCTURE CAN BE AS ORTHODOX, PURE, AND RIGID AS THE CHURCH WOULD LIKE TO BE, AND THAT IS EVEN MORE TRUE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES WHEN THESE STRUCTURES AND PRINCIPLES ARE STILL VERY MUCH IN THEIR FORMATIVE STAGES. THE BIBLE WAS NOT STANDARDIZED, THE LITURGY WAS JUST BEING FORMULATED, AND APOCRYPHAL TEXTS ENJOYED RATHER WIDE CIRCULATION. MANY OF THE IDEAS, ATTITUDES, AND VALUES THAT HAVE BECOME NATURALIZED OVER CENTURIES WERE STILL BEING DEBATED; SOME WERE NOT EVEN CONCEPTUALIZED. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND INFALLIBILITY OF THE POPE ARE JUST TWO SUCH IDEAS. EVEN THE EUCHARIST WAS NOT YET CLEARLY DEFINED AND WOULD CONTINUE TO EVOLVE IN SIGNIFICANCE AND SYMBOLIC RICHNESS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE AGES. IT BECAME IMPORTANT FOR ME TO DEFINE MY STUDY IN TERMS OF ECCLESIASTICAL CULTURE SINCE TEXTUAL EVIDENCE WAS PRODUCED AND/OR FILTERED ALMOST ENTIRELY THROUGH THE CHURCH; IT SEEMS MORE HONEST TO KEEP THAT CONTEXT, THEREFORE, CLEARLY IN VIEW, SINCE THESE TEXTS AND CULTURAL PRACTICES WERE INFORMED BY OR RESPONDED TO ECCLESIASTICAL AGENDA.

What led you to choose this line of inquiry into early Medieval culture in Germanic Europe?

REALLY THE TEXTS AND EVENTS THEMSELVES. I FOUND MYSELF DRAWN TO THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES BECAUSE I THINK IT IS UNDERVALUED, UNDERSTUDIED, AND GROSSLY MISUNDERSTOOD. MEDIEVALISTS AND NONMEDIEVALISTS ALIKE COMMONLY CONSIDER THE PERIOD TO BE A DIFFERENT ANIMAL, SO TO SPEAK--BARBARIC, RUDE, CRUDE, AND INFINITELY LESS HUMAN. A TIME OF CULTURAL AND INTELLECTUAL BANKRUPTCY. IT IS ACTUALLY A FASCINATING AND VIBRANT PERIOD DURING WHICH TIME LATER MORE RIGID SOCIAL, POLITICAL, INTELLECTUAL, ARTISTIC, AND RELIGIOUS STRUCTURES ARE BEING FORMED. TEXTS WERE PALPABLY FLUID. FOR ME, THE LACK OF CONCRETE AND RIGID SOCIO-POLITICAL STRUCTURES PROVIDE A MORE INTERESTING VENUE FOR UNDERSTANDING GENDER AND, SPECIFICALLY, HOW FEMALE SUBJECT FORMATIONS MIGHT BE FORMED WITHIN AND AGAINST INCREASINGLY RIGID ECCLESIASTICAL STRUCTURES.

Female subjectivity in the “Middle Ages” seems like a difficult topic to address given the perceived dearth of material. What kinds of sources were you able to use in your study?

YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT, DAN. FEMALE SUBJECTIVITIES IN ANY PERIOD ARE DIFFICULT TO ADDRESS, AS THE WORK OF JUDITH BUTLER, ELIZABETH GROSZ, JULIA KRISTEVA, TO NAME ONLY A FEW, ATTESTS. BUT THE LACK OF SOURCES IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES MAKES THE TASK EVEN MORE CHALLENGING. MOREOVER, THE MATERIALS WE HAVE TO WORK WITH WERE MAINLY EDITED FOR US BY CHURCH FATHERS AND NATIONALIST LINGUISTS AND PHILOLOGISTS OF THE 16TH THROUGH 19TH CENTURIES, WHICH MEANS THAT WOMEN SIMPLY WERE NOT ON THE RADAR. WHEN STUDIES OF WOMEN DO APPEAR, THEY MUST BE USED WITH CAUTION. IN RECENT DECADES MUCH WORK HAS BEEN DONE ON MEDIEVAL WOMEN MORE GENERALLY, BUT MUCH WORK STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE. THAT SAID, MY SOURCES ARE MOSTLY LATIN ECCLESIASTICAL TEXTS WRITTEN BY MEN BUT ALSO SOME WRITTEN BY WOMEN. THESE INCLUDE SAINTS'LIVES, POEMS, TREATISES, AND LETTERS. I GO TO THE MANUSCRIPTS KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN COPIED BY OR FOR WOMEN AND ALWAYS TRY TO KEEP THAT SPECIFIC CONTEXT IN MIND WHEN THINKING THROUGH THAT TEXT. I ALSO DRAW ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE PERIOD TO UNDERSTAND THE SPACES IN WHICH THESE WOMEN LIVED AND THE VISUAL TEXTS AVAILABLE TO THEM. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN VISUAL AND VERBAL TEXTS ARE PARTICULARLY EXCITING, THOUGH NOT EASY TO LOCATE, GIVEN THE SPORADIC SURVIVAL OF EVIDENCE, BOTH TEXTUAL AND MATERIAL. RESPONSIBLE STUDY IN THIS AREA ALSO REQUIRES CAREFUL HISTORICAL GROUNDING, SO I READ CHARTERS, LAW TEXTS, AND CHRONICLES AS WELL, RELYING ALSO ON THE WORK OF HISTORIANS, ART HISTORIANS, AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS.

What would you like people to come away with after having read your book?

I THINK MOST IMPORTANT WOULD BE SOME UNDERSTANDING OF THE COMPLEXITIES OF GENDER AND BEING IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. IT WOULD BE VERY EASY TO SET UP A DICHOTOMY THAT READ SIMPLY: CHURCH BAD, WOMEN SUBJUGATED. BUT SUCH A READING IS SUPERFICIAL AND SEVERELY LIMITED; MOREOVER, SUCH A READING ELIDES THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF MANY IMPORTANT WOMEN AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO EUROPEAN CULTURE IN THEIR OWN TIME AND AFTER. WHILE THIS BOOK IS CONCERNED MOSTLY TO DEMONSTRATE HOW WOMEN NEGOTIATED INCREASINGLY RESTRICTIVE ECCLESIASTICAL POLICIES AND STRUCTURES (FOR EXAMPLE, WOMEN WERE GRADUALLY PROHIBITED FROM SERVING IN ANY ACTIVE CLERICAL CAPACITIES AND WERE DISCOURAGED FROM LEARNING LATIN, READING SCRIPTURES, ETC, DURING PEAK MOMENTS OF ECCLESIASTICAL REFORM). MUCH INK HAS BEEN SPENT ON HOW WOMEN WERE DEFINED NEGATIVELY OR AS SUBORDINATE TO THEIR MALE GUARDIANS; FAR LESS HAS BEEN SPENT ON LOOKING AT HOW WIDELY THOSE VIEWS CIRCULATED AND WERE ACCEPTED, AND WHAT CONTESTING VIEWS OBTAINED DURING THE PERIOD. ALTHOUGH ONE CAN ONLY DO SO MUCH IN THE SPACE OF A BOOK, I HOPE THAT AT THE VERY LEAST I HAVE RAISED AWARENESS OF THOSE COMPLEXITIES AND REVIVED SOME SPECTERS OF WOMEN LONG SILENCED.

Sounds great! Do you have a tentative publication date?

MY BEST GUESS AT THIS POINT IS JANUARY 2007.

Can't wait. Do you have anything else in the works?

I AM COEDITING A VOLUME ON ANGLO-SAXON STUDIES, FORTHCOMING FROM MEDIEVAL/RENAISSANCE TEXTS AND STUDIES, ARIZONA, IN MAY 2007. AND I AM ALSO BEGINNING WORK ON MY NEW BOOK PROJECT, "CHARLEMAGNE'S SISTER: WOMEN'S INTELLECTUAL CULTURE, 750-1,000 CE." THE COMING SEMESTER WILL BE DEVOTED MAINLY TO THESE PROJECTS. I GAVE A PAPER IN MUNICH THIS PAST AUGUST AT THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF ANGLO-SAXONISTS, WHICH WAS VERY WELL RECEIVED. THAT BODES WELL FOR MY FUTURE WORK, SINCE THIS PAPER BRIDGES IN A SENSE MY FIRST AND SECOND BOOK PROJECTS.

Editorial note: Professor Scheck returns to full-time teaching duties in Fall '06.

Announcements

Faculty News

Thomas Cohen

Thomas Cohen's two volumes on Hitchcock's Cryptonymies--Secret Agents (1) and War Machines (2)--were published by Minnesota (2005), and an article, "J; or, Hillis le Mal" appeared in Provocations to Reading, a collection on Hillis Miller, this fall (Fordham, 2005).

He presented a lecture called "Family Plots, Archival Wars, Reinscription" at a Conference on Derrida at Yale at Yale University, October 16, and attended the conference on new horizons in critical thought at SUNY, Buffalo, inaugurating the new Humanities Center there. He has been invited to submit a monograph (called "Runic Wars--the Politics of Memory, Teletechnics, and the Post-Global Era") in the Frontiers of Theory series of Edinburgh University Press, and has articles forthcoming in collections on Spectrographics and, separately, on the work of Avital Ronell. In December he will be giving a seminar on his work at the University of Chengdu, China, and will be returning to a conference on "Alternative Modernities" in Wuhan, China, in June. In April, he has been invited to be a respondent to a presentation by Bernard Stiegler at UC Irvine. And in May, he will be participating in a week long seminar at the University of Nanterre, Paris, on Benjaminian "politics," to be followed by a conference in Naples on the Legacies of Theory. Currently, he is exploring inaugurating an East/West Cultural Studies Association with a possible initial conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

Randall Craig

Randall Craig's article, “Fictional License: the Case of (and in) Great Expectations,” appeared in the Dickens Studies Annual 35 (2005), 109-32.

In the Spring ’05 semester he presented a paper, “Homeopathic Rhetoric: the Defense of Lord Melbourne,” at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin.

In the Spring ’06 semester he will present two papers: “World Weary: Caroline Norton and the Literature of Exhaustion,” at the 2006 meeting of the Northeast Victorian Studies Association at Drew University; and “Telling the Story of Norton v. Melbourne: Meredith v. Thackeray” at the 2006 meeting of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and the Humanities at Syracuse University.

Eric Keenaghan

Eric Keenaghan has a critical article forthcoming: “Vulnerable Households: Cold War Containment and Robert Duncan’s Queered Nation.” Journal of Modern Literature, Special Issue: Poetry and Social Responsibility. Ed. Rachel Blau DuPlessis 28.4 (Winter 2005). (Forthcoming, December/January 2005)

Due out sometime in late Winter/early Spring: “World-Building and Gay Identity: Ronald Johnson’s Singularly Queer Foundations.” Ronald Johnson: Life and Works. Eds. Eric Murphy Selinger and Joel Bettridge. Orono: National Poetry Foundation, forthcoming 2006.

A major section of his poetry book-in-process (Love Letters to My Husband) has been published as one of the featured poets in a small press journal (due out any day now): "Now Is Taking Place" in The Ixnay Reader 2 (2005): 107 – 119.

Professor Keenaghan gave two papers this fall. One was an invited lecture at SUNY
Binghamton (in September): “High Risk: Queerness as the Unsettling of the Homeland and Its Securities.”

The other paper was a conference presentation at the Modernist Studies Association Conference (in November): “A ‘Cullud’ Queer ‘Don’t Know No English’: Langston Hughes and the Hopeful Impossibility of Racial Translation.”

Eric has been invited to run one of its "Seminars in the City" by CLAGS (the Center for Gay and Lesbian Studies) at CUNY, for 2005-2006. His seminar is titled “Queer Nationalism and the Security State."

He has been invited to contribute to a roundtable at the American Literature Association in May 2006 to discuss the role of American poetry in relation to the topic of "the aesthetic turn in queer theory." The roundtable will consist of: Dana Luciano (Georgetown), Thomas Glave (SUNY Binghamton), Beth Freeman (UC Davis), himself, and a few other younger scholars. The conference and roundtable organizers are
hoping this event will serve as the official inauguration of a queer studies society, a disciplinary collective associated with the ALA that organizes annual special symposia on American literature and sexual/gender minority studies and that will have a permanent presence at its major yearly conference.

Glyne Griffith

Glyne Griffith has a review of Shimmer Chinodya's Can We Talk And Other Stories appearing in the African-American literary journal, Callaloo (Vol.28, Number 3 - Fall 2005).

Marjorie Pryse

Marjorie Pryse has edited a reprint edition of In the "Stranger People's" Country by Mary Noailles Murfree, originally published in 1891, and included a critical introduction. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

William Rainbolt

William Rainbolt presented a program, “Reading a Film: An Introduction to Understanding How a Film Does What it Does,” for the OASIS Institute (Older Adult Services and Information Systems) in August. In addition, two of his entries appeared in the Encyclopedia of New York State (Syracuse: SUP, 2005): “Herbert H. Lehman,” and “New York Temporary Emergency Relief Administration.” He also presented a paper, “From Documents to Documentary: How It Works: A Response to Josiah Allen’s Wife: The Marietta Holley Story,” at the Conference on Researching New York 2005: Perspectives on Empire State History, in November. Finally, he was one of two judges for an annual competition for the Legislative Correspondents Association.

Leonard Slade, Jr.

Leonard Slade, Jr. has been elected by the Executive Committee of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture to serve as the Division's representative in the Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly. The election was held at the MLA Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in December 2004. His term of office will be for three years, from January 2005 through December 2007. His term covers meetings in 2005 (Washington, D.C.), 2006 (to be held on the West Coast), and 2007 (Chicago).

Teresa Ebert

Teresa Ebert will chair the session on "Marxism Now: Beyond Cultural Politics and For a Class Critique" at MLA and will present a paper on militarism, romance, and class in empire. She is also the co-author of Red Cultural Critique (in Dark Times), which will be published next fall. Her essay on food and class is being reprinted in the 6th edition of the composition reader, The Longwood Reader (Longman, 2006). A version of her public lecture on "Romance and Abu Gharib" will appear in the socialist journal, Against The Current.

Martha Rozett

We are pleased to announce that an article of Martha Rozett's is now in print: "Teaching Teachers: Othello in the Graduate Seminar" in Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare's 'Othello' (published by MLA, 2005).

Laura Wilder

Laura Wilder gave a presentation on November 4th at the University of Louisville, The Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society Faculty Research Forum: "The Rhetoric of Literary and Cultural Analysis: Bringing Writing in the Disciplines Research into the Literature Classroom" with Professor Joanna Wolfe.

On Nov. 18 at the NCTE conference presentation she presented "Sharing the Common Knowledge of Literary Scholars: The Effects of Making Disciplinary Conventions Explicit in Undergraduate Literature Courses".

She will be giving a presentation on March 23rd, 2006 at the CCCC "Building Coalitions between Rhetoric, WAC, and Literature: Using Special Topoi to Introduce Students to the Work of Literary Analysis".

In May 2006 she will be presenting at the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) biennial conference "Sizing Up WID: The Difficulties of Bringing WID Research to WID Instruction".

Kathleen Thornton

Kathleen K. Thornton chaired the panel "See and then speak yourselves": Shakespeare on film at the Film and Literature Conference at Dickinson College on October 12-14, 2005 where she presented her paper "But is it Shakespeare?"

Kate Winter

Kate Winter’s Film and Book Are Award-winners:

The PBS documentary on America’s “Female Mark Twain,” Marietta Holley had its regional premier in Albany  on November 17, a week before its release nationwide.  The film, completed in March 2005, has already garnered seven awards for excellence in all facets of the documentary process and product.  Written by Winter who also worked as a co-producer and co-creator and appears in the film, the documentary “The Marietta Holley Story” contextualizes Holley in the 19th century of upstate New York as well as the world of literary comedy.  That same week, Winter’s new edition of her award-winning book on Marietta Holley also won an a new award, the Helen Stringer Book Prize.

Undergraduate News

International Honor Society Has Induction

The UA Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta held its fall induction ceremony on Friday, Dec. 2. Seventeen new members were celebrated in the ritual while families, friends and faculty looked on. Guest speaker for the event was a new member of the English Department, herself a former member of Sigma Tau Delta, Laura Wilder.

2005 Fall Sigma Tau Delta new members- if you know any of these people, please congratulate them on their induction into the English Honor Society:

Nicole Chernyakhorsky
Victor Cubero
Chelsea Facci
Cristin Grenier
Samantha Henrickson
Stacey Husband
Joseph Jeziorkowski
Shaakima Mack
Kevin Meadows
Lauren Moshe
Vincent Porfirio
Stephanie McEvoy Pincar
Christina Russo
Vanessa Royce
Rachel Serkin
Alyssa Simms
Erica Vasquez

Sigma Tau Delta Activities

The UA chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society, continues its outreach activities on campus and in the community.  The creative writing project at Coxsackie Correctional Facility, the writing contest at Albany High School, and the various reading and writing projects at women’s shelters and libraries are taking literature and creative writing out of the classroom to citizens who would not otherwise have access to them.  The group has also hosted its fall “Take A Teacher To Tea” social event where English Department faculty and guests from other departments are invited to share good conversation and refreshments on an autumn afternoon.

Graduate News

James Fox

James Fox has recently published his poem, "Camille: Bay St. Louis, 1969", in a publication entitled, "Crossroads: A Southern Culture Annual". Macon: Mercier University Press, 2005.

On March 18, 2006 he will be participating on the "Poetry as Theory, Theory as Poetry" panel for the New Jersey College Education Association Conference, delivering a paper entitled, "The Agility of the Leap: Transdisciplinary Theory and the Reading, Writing, and Teaching of Poetry."

Robert Ficociello

Robert Ficociello chaired a panel, which included Matthew Pangborn and Paula Yablonsky, at the annual Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society conference at Rutgers University.

Kellyann Fitzpatrick

In October 2005 KellyAnn Fitzpatrick presented a paper called "Tennyson's Idylls and the Rhetoric of Memory" at the 20th International Conference on Medievalism, which took place at Towson University in Maryland. She was awarded a travel grant from the GSO (Graduate Student Organization) for this conference.

She also had a paper entitled "Guenevere's Children: Reading the 'Medieval' Body" accepted for the 41st Annual International Medieval Congress, which will take place at Western Michigan State University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in May 2006.

Anne Jung

Anne Jung presented her paper entitled "Was ever woman in this manner woo'd? Richard Loncraine's Richard III" in the Shakespeare on film panel at the Film and Literature Conference at Dickinson College on October 12-14, 2005.

Sabine Seiler

Sabine Seiler will present a paper at the NEMLA Conference in Philadelphia next March. The paper is part of the panel on British Romanticism and is entitled "The Making and Unmaking of a Genre: Shelley's Defence of Poetry."

Robert Wilkie

Robert Wilkie will present a paper entitled "Global Networks, Imperial Culture" on the panel "Marxism and Globalization" at the 2005 MLA convention in Washington D.C.

Tara Needham

Tara Needham's essay "Faux Factory: Barthes Walks into a Starbucks" was published in the premiere issue of riffrag, an on-line and limited print arts and politics magazine (http://www.riffrag.org) in July 05. Tara is a third year Ph. D student.

Tara also attended the New York State Summer Writers Institute, studying poetry with April Bernard and Roseanne Warren.

Karen Williams

Karen Williams presented her paper entitled "VisualMetaphors and Literal Images in Julie Taymor's Titus" in a panel entitled Shakespeare on film at the Film and Literature Conference at Dickinson College on October 12-14, 2005.