Kentucky Women Writers Conference
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English FALL 2019 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER english.as.uky.edu English FALL 2019 DEPARTMENT NEWSLETTER Regular Faculty Jonathan Allison TABLE OF CONTENTS Frederick Bengtsson Jordan Brower Greetings from the Chair 3 Michael Carter Jeffory Clymer Welcoming New Faculty 4 Rynetta Davis Andrew Doolen Janet C. M. Eldred Luke Glaser (B.A. ’11) Leads Hazard Toward a Brighter Future 5 W. Andrew Ewell Kamahra Ewing Thompson Law Office Internship for Yohanan Andargachew (B.A. ’20) 6 Walter Foreman Michael Genovese Matthew Giancarlo Student Awards, 2018–19 6 Matthew Godbey Regina Hamilton Visiting Writers Series, 2019–20 9 DaMaris Hill John Daniel Howell New Books by Faculty Pearl James 11 Julia Johnson Peter Kalliney Faculty Highlights 12 Joyce MacDonald Andrew Milward Kentucky Women Writers Conference Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary 13 Alan Nadel Gurney Norman Hannah Pittard In Memoriam: Thomas Orville Blues (1937–2019) 13 Armando Prats Jill Rappoport John Cirigliano’s Donated Book Bench Installed at the Arboretum 14 Erik Reece Randall Roorda Marion Rust Steve and Cindi Sullivan Establish a New Writers Retreat for Students 15 Emily Shortslef Michelle Sizemore Giving Opportunities 15 Michael Trask Frank X Walker Crystal Wilkinson Nazera Sadiq Wright Cover Photo: MFA students in the Ekphrastic Writing class performed a dramatic Lisa Zunshine response to the work of celebrated American photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Artists in Residence: Catharine Axley Stay Connected… Ansel Elkins You can keep track of department events, our contact information, and alumni events via Staff the department web page: english.as.uky.edu Kristen Pickett Robin Rahija And Keep in Touch! Please let us know personal and professional news in your life, or if your address or Emeriti Faculty: Virginia Blum contact information changes. Send a note via email, or call: Joan Blythe William Campbell Kristen Pickett John Cawelti John Clubbe Department Manager Senior David Durant UK Department of English Nikky Finney 1215 Patterson Office Tower Kevin Kiernan Lexington, KY 40506-0027 Jerome Meckier Ellen Rosenman Greg Stump [email protected] Larry J. Swingle (859) 257-2901 Arthur Wrobel Like us on Facebook! @UniversityOfKentucky.English 2 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH NEWSLETTER FALL 2019 GREETINGS FROM THE CHAIR Dear UK English Alumni and Friends, As you see in these pages, our students are thriving in the classroom and finding new opportunities to learn both on and off campus. We are proud of our graduates who have moved on to graduate school or law school, or taken job opportunities in teaching, publishing, journalism, business, PR and other fields of endeavor. Our feature on Luke Glaser (BA ’11) demonstrates the adaptability of the English degree and the resourcefulness and passion of our students. They continue to impress us in the classroom, and many received academic prizes at our annual awards day in the spring, when our own Frank X Walker gave an inspiring address. We thank our donors who make these awards possible, and whose generous giving creates opportunities for our students to learn and succeed. Please think about ways you can help us enrich the experience of our students and build for the future at UK. We are delighted to welcome three new faculty members this year, bringing our total number of tenure track faculty to 32 professors. Yale Ph.D. Jordan Brower joins us from Harvard, where he was a Lecturer, and he will teach primarily in Film Studies. Regina Hamilton completed her Ph.D. at Rutgers and will teach courses in English and the African American and Africana Studies Program. Kamahra Ewing completed her Ph.D. at Michigan State University, and she will teach courses in Film Studies and in the African American and Africana Studies Program. This year our Visiting Writers Series brings outstanding authors to campus, and we draw your attention to readings by Chanelle Benz on 14 November and by Randall Horton on 11 December, both at the W. T. Young Library Auditorium. All of our readings are open to the public. The English Department is flourishing and developing in ways that will build on our tradition of success. Please visit us on campus next time you are in Lexington and send us an email ([email protected] or [email protected]) to keep us up to date with the important events in your life and career. I invite every one of you to consider giving to the Department to help provide learning opportunities for our students who hope to follow in your footsteps. With Best Wishes, Jonathan Allison Professor and Chair of English Department COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES 3 Left to Right: Regina Hamilton, Jordan Brower, Kamahra Ewing Welcoming New Faculty Jordan Brower joins us from Harvard, where he has been Lecturer in History and Literature. A graduate of Amherst College, he completed his Ph.D. at Yale, where his dissertation won the Yale English Prize for Best Dissertation of the Year 2015–16. Jordan has completed a book manuscript, Shadowing Hollywood: A Literary History of the Studio System, and he is co-editor of American Literature in the World: A Web and Print Anthology (Columbia UP, 2017.) He has published articles in Modern Language Quarterly, English Literary History, and James Joyce Quarterly. Kamahra Ewing completed her Ph.D. in African American and African Studies at Michigan State University, and she later taught at Wayne State University as Senior Lecturer in the Honors College and as a Lecturer in the Comprehensive Studies Program at the University of Michigan. Kamahra has published several articles in her chief area of research, which is the Brazilian audience perception of Nigerian (Nollywood) Cinema. She spent a year in Brazil completing research, and is fluent in Portugese, Spanish, and Japanese. Regina Hamilton completed her Ph.D. at Rutgers and is a graduate of Duke and Georgetown. Her research focuses on African American Literature, Caribbean and Postcolonial Literature, Black Feminist Theory, and Gender and Women’s Studies. Her dissertation is titled “The Speculative as a Mode of Critique in 20th Century African American Literature” and she has scholarly articles forthcoming in edited anthologies. Regina has previously taught literature and composition at Rutgers, Valencia College (Florida) and Middlesex County College (NJ). UK English Faculty 4 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH NEWSLETTER FALL 2019 Members of English Department at our annual faculty retreat Alumnus Profile: Luke Glaser Leads Hazard Toward a Brighter Future By Nathaniel Harling While many people dip their toes in the water and ease themselves into a new community, Luke Glaser (’11 B.A.) prefers to dive in head-first. He came to UK from Louisville Left to Right: Regina Hamilton, Jordan Brower, Kamahra Ewing to study English. Along the way, he picked up Spanish as a second major, participated in the Gaines Fellowship program, served as an Arts & Sciences Ambassador, and became so involved with Teach for America that he had a key role in their campus campaign his senior year. Upon graduation, Glaser committed to Hazard, Ky., to complete a two-year Teach for America assignment at Hazard High School. Seven years later, he is still there. Anchored by a slate of responsibilities that makes his busy college schedule seem leisurely, Glaser has become a vital part of Luke Glaser a community on the rise. When Glaser first arrived in Hazard with Teach for America, there was not a single student in the high school able to pass the national AP Calculus exam. By the end of his two years, 10 students passed the exam, and Glaser was offered a full-time position. Now he teaches AP calculus, pre-calculus, entrepreneurship, and theater. It may seem surprising that an English major would become a great math teacher right away, and Glaser admits that during his first year of teaching he would often spend the night before a lesson learning the material for the first time online. Glaser’s English degree, however, gave him the skills to do something more important than the math itself: the ability to make people care. “Instructing calculus to someone who is willing to learn it is not difficult,” he said, “but English taught me how to come up with a thesis, build an argument, and convince my audience. The hard part of teaching calculus in Hazard, especially AP Calculus, is convincing the students and their parents that it is worth putting in the hard work to take the class. The skills I learned as an English major helped me create a whole curriculum outside of the math itself based around why AP Calculus is worthwhile and what opportunities it can unlock for students.” Having stayed well past the initial two years he planned to spend in Hazard, Glaser was ready to expand his public role in the community and decided to run for City Commissioner. Already involved in leadership positions in two local organizations, Glaser was welcomed by the citizens of his new home with open arms and elected as the first ever Hazard City Commissioner born outside of Perry County. In his first few months in office, he has persuaded the city and county to pool resources to hire a downtown development coordinator; created a civic fellowship that is one of the most comprehensive city government internships in the state; and started a program to invite members of the community to commissioner meetings to increase public interaction with city government. Thinking of how his English degree has aided his work, Glaser recalls something Dr. Marion Rust told him in class: “the mission and gift of an English major is to create connections where none previously existed.” Glaser has taken this to heart, saying, “That is my strength. Whenever I find myself in a group of people who are coming at a problem from different perspectives, I have the ability to take person A and person B and find the commonality in their arguments so that we can get something done together.” Glaser’s talents, passion, and work ethic have had a vital impact on the Hazard community, both in planning the future of the city through government and in educating the young minds that will be instrumental in seeing those plans through.