issue 2 | 2007 - 2008 Future Traditions THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF RUTGERS ENGLISH MURRAY STEALING BEAUTY by Richard E. Miller GIVING INSPIRATION by Carolyn Williams TRANSFORMING UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION by Barry V. Qualls PLEASE GIVE BACK TO RUTGERS ENGLISH • POSTAGE-PAID ENVELOPE INSIDE Future Traditions CONTENTS MAGAZINE about RUTGERS ENGLISH EDITORIAL OFFICE FEATURES 4 Office of Alumni and Public Relations Department of English The Department of English is the largest humanities department in the School Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Our faculty strives to instill students with a deep and lasting understanding of literature 4 Stealing Beauty Murray Hall • 510 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1167 and literary traditions. Each year, more than 11,000 undergraduates receive by Richard E. Miller Phone: 732.932.9896 instruction in humanistic reading and writing through our writing program. Fax: 732.932.1202 Our comprehensive undergraduate program reaches more than 900 majors Website: english.rutgers.edu and enrolls more than 8,000 students annually. Our top-ranking graduate program prepares the next generation of literary scholars and teachers for 6 Giving Inspiration professional success. by Carolyn Williams EDITOR AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR Rick H. Lee The Department of English is proud to be home to the Plangere Writing Center, the Center for Cultural Analysis, and Writers House, which represent DESIGNERS the department’s commitment to excellence in written expression, to the 16 Transforming Maritza Cruz interdisciplinary study of culture, and to the promotion of creative writing and Abigail McClure multimedia composition. In addition to its curricular programs, the department Undergraduate Education Anna Witek sponsors lectures, conferences, and readings for the university community and by Barry V. Qualls the general public. 6 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Amy Meng FACULTY WRITERS about Emily C. Bartels FRIENDS OF RUTGERS ENGLISH Ann Baynes Coiro Marianne DeKoven NEW FACULTY PROFILES Members of Friends of Rutgers English (FoRE) include alumni of our Elin Diamond undergraduate and graduate programs, faculty, current students, staff, and other Richard Dienst supporters of the Department of English. Cheryl A. Wall established FoRE in Kate Flint 1998 during her tenure as departmental chair. Richard E. Miller, the chair of the William H. Galperin 10 Lynn Festa English department, also serves as the executive director of the organization. Myra Jehlen by Michael McKeon Ann Jurecic FoRE raises public awareness about the value of studying literature and the literary arts, broadly construed. The organization also raises funds to support the John Kucich 11 David Kurnick Ron Levao scholarly and pedagogical endeavors of Rutgers English faculty and students. by Kate Flint Meredith L. McGill Michael McKeon Richard E. Miller about 12 Henry S. Turner 16 Barry V. Qualls FUTURE TRADITIONS MAGAZINE by Emily C. Bartels Henry S. Turner Keith Wailoo (History) Future Traditions Magazine is published by the Department of English at Rutgers, Rebecca L. Walkowitz 13 Rebecca L. Walkowitz The State University of New Jersey. Views expressed in these pages do not Carolyn Williams by Marianne DeKoven necessarily reflect the opinions of the editor or official policies of the university. Edlie L. Wong © 2008 by Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. ALUMNI WRITERS Jaya Bharne (BA 2007) Louis R. Carlozo (BA 1986) Hillary Chute (PhD 2007) LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ADDRESS CHANGES AND ALUMNI UPDATES Sara Grossman (BA 2007) Future Traditions Magazine welcomes To change a mailing address or to submit news of your 19 What Is a Learning Community? feedback and comments regarding stories in professional activities, please contact: Rick H. Lee (MA 2001) by Marie T. Logue its pages. Alumni: Please include your degree Ron Levao (BA 1970) and year of graduation in correspondence. Rick H. Lee Marie T. Logue (PhD 1983) Director of Alumni and Public Relations Department of English 66 Rutgers in the Late 1970s Bill Matthews (BA 1981) Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey by Bill Matthews At a Glance Colleen R. Rosenfeld (MA 2008) Murray Hall, 510 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1167 Martha Nell Smith (PhD 1985) 15 Jersey Roots, Global Reach Ken Urban (PhD 2006) Email: [email protected] by Rick H. Lee Faculty Primary Areas of Specialization Alexander G. Weheliye (PhD 1999) Phone: 732.932.9896 8 56 Alumni Showcase STUDENT WRITERS 58 First Thoughts, Fresh Ideas Chris McGowan (Class of 2010) 59 Numbers + Quotes Amy Meng (Class of 2011) 64 Looking Back: Rutgers in the 1970s CONTRIBUTING WRITERS ON THE COVER FACULTY WRITERS Danielle Ferland Class of 2010 REBECCA L. WALKOWITZ is the coordinator of the Modernism & Global- EMILY C. BARTELS is the author of Spectacles of Strangeness: Imperialism, ization Seminar Series and the author of Cosmopolitan Style: Modernism Chris McGowan Alienation, and Marlowe, and, most recently, Speaking of the Moor: From beyond the Nation. Class of 2010 “Alcazar” to “Othello.” CAROLYN WILLIAMS is the director of the undergraduate program in Eng- Amy Meng ANN BAYNES COIRO is the author of Robert Herrick’s “Hesperides” and lish, the executive director of Writers House, and the author of Transfigured Class of 2011 the Epigram Book Tradition. World: Walter Pater’s Aesthetic Historicism. Dan Marchalik MARIANNE DeKOVEN is the author of Utopia Limited: The Sixties and the EDLIE L. WONG is the author of Neither Fugitive Nor Free: Slavery, Freedom Class of 2007 Emergence of the Postmodern; Rich and Strange: Gender, History, Modernism; Suits, and the Legal Culture of Travel, which is forthcoming from New York and A Different Language: Gertrude Stein’s Experimental Writing. University Press. Sarah C. Alexander Doctoral Candidate ELIN DIAMOND is the director of the graduate program in comparative Graduate Program of literature and the author of Unmaking Mimesis: Essays on Feminism and Literatures in English Theater and Pinter’s Comic Play. ALUMNI WRITERS RICHARD DIENST is the author of Still Life in Real Time: Theory Photos by Nick Romanenko after Television. RU HAPPENINGS JAYA BHARNE (BA 2007) is the recipient of the 2007 Jordan Lee Flyer KATE FLINT is the author of The Victorians and the Visual Imagination and Honors Award for outstanding promise and achievement in the study of The Woman Reader, 1837-1914. language and literature. 24 Modernism & Globalization Seminar Series INSTITUTIONS AND ARCHIVES WILLIAM H. GALPERIN is the author of The Historical Austen, The Return LOUIS R. CARLOZO (BA 1986) is a features staff writer at the Chicago Tri- by Rebecca L. Walkowitz bune, lead music critic for the Christian Century, and a writing instructor at 60 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of the Visible in British Romanticism, and Revision and Authority in Words- 24 Rutgers British Studies Project worth: The Interpretation of a Career. Loyola University Chicago. by Richard E. Miller by Michael McKeon 61 The Folger Shakespeare Library MYRA JEHLEN is Board of Governors Professor of English and the HILLARY CHUTE (PhD 2007) is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Soci- 25 Modernity and the Native American author of Readings at the Edge of Literature; American Incarnation: The ety of Fellows and the author of recent and forthcoming articles in PMLA, by Ann Baynes Coiro Individual, the Nation, and the Continent; and Class and Character in Mfs: Modern Fiction Studies, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. by John Kucich 63 Northwestern University Music Library Faulkner’s South. SARA GROSSMAN (BA 2007) is the recipient of the 2006 Irving D. Blum 25 Sexuality Speakers Series by Louis R. Carlozo ANN JURECIC is a specialist in composition studies and the author of Prize for the best essay written in coursework. by Rick H. Lee 63 Hackensack High School articles in Pedagogy and Literature and Medicine. 26 Making History at Rutgers by Ann Jurecic RICK H. LEE (MA 2001), the director of alumni and public relations for the JOHN KUCICH is the director of the graduate program of literatures in English department at Rutgers University, is completing his dissertation 64 The Library of America by John Kucich English and the author of Imperial Masochism: British Fiction, Fantasy, and examining the problem of cultural literacy and generational transmission by Myra Jehlen in gay male culture. 26 What Does Historicism Make Possible? Social Class; The Power of Lies: Transgression in Victorian Fiction; Repression in Victorian Fiction: Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Charles Dickens; by Henry S. Turner and Excess and Restraint in the Novels of Charles Dickens. MARIE T. LOGUE (PhD 1983) is the assistant vice president for academic BEYOND THE CLASSROOM engagement and programming at Rutgers University. 27 Lost and Found in Translation RON LEVAO, an alumnus of Rutgers College (BA 1970), is the author of by Elin Diamond Renaissance Minds and Their Fictions: Cusanus, Sidney, Shakespeare. BILL MATTHEWS (BA 1981) is the senior director of development research 70 From Page to Stage and prospect management at the Rutgers University Foundation. 27 Bookmark This! by Ken Urban MEREDITH L. McGILL is the director of the Center for Cultural Analysis 71 Prescribed Reading and the author of American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834- COLLEEN R. ROSENFELD (MA 2008) is the recipient of the Graduate 1853. School–New Brunswick Louis Bevier Dissertation Fellowship. WRITERS AT RUTGERS READING SERIES by Ann Jurecic 30 Jayne Anne Phillips MICHAEL McKEON is Board of Governors Professor of English and the MARTHA NELL SMITH (PhD 1985) is a professor of English and the found- author of The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division ing director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities by Carolyn Williams HONOR ROLL of Knowledge; The Origins of the English Novel, 1600-1740; and Politics and (MITH) at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is the author of 31 Mark Doty Poetry in Restoration England.