Download Newsletter
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This is a pdf version of the Friends of Rutgers English newsletter. Supporting members get a printed booklet in the mail. See http://english.rutgers.edu/alumni/ or call 7329329896 to learn more about supporting Rutgers English. Friends of Rutgers English Spring/Summer 2006 A Newsletter for Alumni and Friends of the Department of English Barry Qualls as New Vice President By Monica Barr e are proud to announce that Barry V. Qualls, Professor of English and the Dean of Humanities, W has been appointed to a new role. Professor Qualls will serve as Interim Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Rutgers–New Brunswick/Piscataway, an important new position in the academic restructuring of the University for the future. “Undergraduate education has been my central concern since I first came to Rutgers,” he said, “and I think it’s won derful that we now have the opportunity to make undergraduate education a real priority at a worldclass re search institution.” He looks forward to the transformation, and noted, “This is the first time in a generation that we’ve been able to rethink education here. It’s very exciting.” The main priorities of the reorganization are to strengthen the connections between students and faculty, and to make the best opportunities of this state and research university more widely available to all students. As the first Vice Presi Dean Barry V. Qualls, recently appointed as Interim Vice dent for Undergraduate Education in the new structure, President for Undergraduate Education Qualls is charged with instituting a single schoolwide hon ors program, creating a scholarship office for students seeking national scholarships like the Rhodes or Fulbright, improv Inside This Issue ing undergraduate involvement with research, and developing From the Chair ..........................................................2 programs that increase facultystudent interaction. “We’re Derek Attridge Departs .............................................2 John McClure Wins Susman Award .........................4 talking about changing the faculty culture,” he said, “but also Regina Masiello Honored for Teaching .....................4 changing the student culture, helping them see the excite Aresty English Researchers ........................................5 ment of learning in a highcaliber research environment and George Levine Retires ...............................................6 the benefits of getting to know the faculty who teach them.” Richard Miller Wins ScholarTeacher Award ...........7 Martin Gliserman Wins Teaching Award .................8 The reorganization will unite parts of Rutgers that previ William Walling Retires .............................................8 ously were separate, helping the University run more smoothly Cheryl Wall Wins Research Award ...........................9 overall. Students are often frustrated by Rutgers’ complicated Writers at Rutgers .....................................................10 bureaucracy, and will benefit from a more centrally organized A History of Rutgers English ....................................12 administration with clearer connections to faculty. “For a In Memoriam: Horace Hamilton, Peggy Friedman .......................................................14 research university, Rutgers already has a remarkably high level Student Awards and Honors .....................................15 continued on page 3 An English Major in England ....................................16 Howard Fellowship Continues ..................................17 New Face at the Plangere Center ..............................17 Thanks to Our Supporters ........................................18 This is a pdf version of the Friends of Rutgers English newsletter. Supporting members get a printed booklet in the mail. See http://english.rutgers.edu/alumni/ or call 7329329896 to learn more about supporting Rutgers English. From the Chair Dear Friends, course, but when they do they can really has never faced the level of budgetary cuts Momentous changes are afoot for get somewhere. For the last twenty years or that are currently being entertained in Tren Rutgers. This spring, the Board of Gover so, Rutgers has been concentrating on be ton. Whatever number gets settled on, the nors approved a plan to reorganize the coming a toptier research institution University is in for some challenging times. university’s administrative structure and serving a welleducated and technologyfo I have no doubt that we will survive this improve the quality of undergraduate edu cused state. Everyone knows Rutgers is a round of cuts, but I also know that Rutgers cation on the New Brunswick/Piscataway leader in scientific and agricultural re English will need help to keep building on campus, rethinking everything from admis search. The less tangible benefits, however, our own momentum. sions standards to the core curriculum to come from having a state university that’s So, if you’ve enjoyed the newsletter the honors program to the quality of life also a leader in humanities research and and what you’ve seen here about our dedi for students on and off campus. Our own artistic creation: philosophy, history, the cation as a department, please consider Barry Qualls, who chaired the committee study of other cultures, the fine arts, mu making a contribution to support Friends to draft the plan, has accepted the posi sic, and of course, English. By rededicating of Rutgers English, and to help us continue tion of Interim Vice President of itself to undergraduate liberal arts educa developing new opportunities for students Undergraduate Education (the “interim” tion, Rutgers is committing itself to and new resources for excellence in teach is at his insistence; for the rest of the educating a young generation for whom ing. And, if you value the work of the Rutgers community, it is impossible to think all things can connect, for whom the study Department and of higher education more of anyone better qualified to fill this role), of how to make a living and how to best generally, please consider writing to your and is already hard at work setting these remake the world are joined. Rutgers En NJ state representatives or to Governor changes in motion. He will be assisted by glish is proud to play its part in this Corzine, and sharing your thoughts. Now administrators, staff, and faculty from ambitious mission. is the time to speak out for the future of across the university, including the tireless With New Jersey currently in a state of education, and for the humanities. Cheryl Wall, who is serving as the CoChair financial crisis, some might be tempted to of the Implementation Committee. With see these ideals of education as a luxury we Keep in touch, such significant changes afoot, we’re proud cannot afford. I do not, nor do thousands to have Barry and Cheryl leading the way. of alumni, nor do the current students, Big organizations carry a lot of mo who may be asked to bear the brunt of mentum – it’s tough to get them to change that crisis. I think it’s fair to say that Rutgers Richard E. Miller Derek Attridge Departs utgers English bid farewell to Professor Derek Attridge this broadly through theoretical spring, when he finished his tenure as a Distinguished and philosophical questions R Visiting Professor. Professor Attridge has taught at Rutgers about what qualities make lan since 1984, and was the Director of the Graduate Program from guage literary, and what 1994 to 1998. He has supervised the work of many Ph.D. students, responsibilities literary lan both as a fulltime Rutgers professor and since, as a frequent visitor. guage entails. Along the way, He is currently a Leverhulme Research Professor at the University he has published influential es of York in the UK, a position he has held since 1998. says and books on James Joyce, Although his Ph.D. thesis at Cambridge University was on on the philosopher of ethics poetic meter in Elizabethan verse, his interests since then have ranged Emmanuel Levinas, on the phi losopher Jacques Derrida (whose writings he has also ed Friends of Rutgers English Newsletter ited), and on the Nobel Prize Published twice a year by Friends of Rutgers English winning South African author Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey J. M. Coetzee. His last official 7329329896 visit to Rutgers was to present Professor Derek Attridge Email: [email protected] new work at a symposium on Editorial Staff: Monica Barr, Sarah David, Jie He, Coetzee, held in Professor Attridge’s honor in April. Elizabeth Heisler, Rebecca Hu, Lauren N. Vitale. As a scholar, a mentor, and a warm and friendly colleague, Editor: Vic Tulli Professor Attridge will be greatly missed by Rutgers English. We wish him all the best. b Friends of Rutgers English 2 This is a pdf version of the Friends of Rutgers English newsletter. Supporting members get a printed booklet in the mail. See http://english.rutgers.edu/alumni/ or call 7329329896 to learn more about supporting Rutgers English. Barry Qualls, VP (continued from page 1) of teaching, along with excellent mentoring programs for various Douglass Residential College will help us advance even more op groups of students within the colleges,” Vice President Qualls portunities for women’s leadership, while continuing Douglass’s explained. “Now we need to work on extending those kinds of history and traditions.” resources to all students.” Vice President Qualls has a long record of exceptional service The biggest step of the reorganization