Dept Newsletter

JULY 2021 Department of English Department News

A Year Like No Other Department continues important work throughout 2020

Joanna Scott, the Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English, meets outside with Kai Reed ‘22, a physics and mathematics major who’s working on a cluster through the Department of English. Scott used a tutorial structure that combined group classes with individualized meetings PHOTO CREDIT: J. ADAM FENSTER

English Department News is a regular publication highlight- IN THIS ISSUE ing scholarship, new initiatives, and Medieval literature grant Nobel Prize controversies collaborative projects The money will help the Middle Bette London is teaching taking place in the English Texts Series provide students the debates surround- University of Roches- critical works to scholars ing award-winning authors in ter’s Department of around the world. literature. English.

Book publications 3 Theatre reimagined Several English Department To submit a The fall theatre production was faculty had new works potential story, send performed virtually to be safe published in 2019, 2020 and for performers & audiences an email to engdept@ 2021. Take a look at what’s new during the pandemic. to book store shelves. ur.rochester.edu.

4 DEPARTMENT NEWS UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH JULY 2021 Raising Up Residencies and InVisible Voices Fellowships Associate Professors of English Joel Burges and Jeffrey Tucker co-edited a special issue of the journal “InVisible Culture,” which featured an essay by Assistant Professor of English Matt Omelsky.

EXPANDING ACCESS

TO MEDIEVAL TEXTS Professor of English Jennifer Grotz completed a multi-week poetry A pioneering initiative to make texts from the Middle Ages available to scholars and students around residency at the James Merrill the world has received continued support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. House (pictured above) this past Fall. As part of the writer-in- Hazel Carby (center), the 2019 Distinguished Visiting Humanist, speaks as part of the residence program, Grotz was able Teachers and students of different archives to compare copies— The National Endowment for the “Black Studies Now” roundtable, also featuring Assistant Professor Matt Omelsky (second medieval literature long faced a prob- and, if publishing an edition, decide Humanities (NEH) recently awarded to stay at his home, now a Nation- lem that people studying other literary which of the copies is most authorita- the project a three-year grant to sup- from right) at the University of Rochester. (Photo by Julia Tulke) al Historic Landmark, and draw periods did not: the scant availability tive and create the notes and context port its mission of offer- inspiration to work on projects of of texts. that explain the differences between ing the broadest possible Below is an excerpt from issue 31 of crucible of 1968: speak in a voice resonant “InVisible Culture,” entitled “Black with and resistant to power on a range of her own. the various manuscript copies. readership—from special- topics urgent to the world at present. That’s not because there wasn’t German scholars took on a lot of this ists to undergraduates Studies Now and the Countercurrents plenty of literature produced in the work 200 years ago. and high school students of Hazel Carby.” More than a year later, some of those Middle Ages or because not much who assembled for [Carby’s lecture] found to people simply curi- ourselves standing survived. The problem was access. “The German editions, they ous about the Middle In winter 2019, when were made for experts by experts. ... HAHN Hazel V. Carby came outside in the sun, Publishing medieval texts isn’t Ages—access to the full to the University of mobilized against They’re hard to use and hard to find,” range of literary output from medieval police brutality in like offering editions of literary works says Siebach-Larsen. As a result, Rochester (UR) as the Assistant created after the advent of the printing England. The latest award extends a Distinguished Visiting the midst of a pan- undergraduates studying medieval long history of support for the project Humanist, no one knew demic, rhythmically Professor of press. “Everything was copied by hand literature were largely confined to the global pandemic and chanting “WE. CAN. in the Middle Ages, and so every from the NEH. English James texts—frequently, just excerpts—avail- large-scale anti-racist NOT. BREATHE” with Rosenow re- medieval copy is different. And we able in anthologies. It left students— Thomas Hahn—a professor of protests awaited us one thousands of others almost never have the copy that was year later in the spring, worldwide, including cently finished and anyone else without access to a English, the consulting editor to METS, summer, and fall of 2020. in Rochester, NY. written by the author. We just have world-class library—high and dry. and the principal investigator for the an internal copies of copies of copies,” says Anna NEH grant—says the series “offers the We did not anticipate Since Carby’s visit to Siebach-Larsen, director of the Russell Peck, for more than 50 years a the rise of an anti-immi- UR in 2019, the cur- fellowship at richest portal into the Middle Ages to rents of our historical University of Rochester’s Rossell Hope Rochester faculty mem- the largest number of people with the grant visa crisis in higher the University Robbins Library and Koller-Collins ber and now a professor education as we began moment have shifted. ROSENOW widest range of interests and exper- to write this introductory They have gained of Rochester Center for English Studies. emeritus of English, knew tise of anything that exists out there.” essay, or the revelation mass and momen- Humanities Center, where she there had to be a better Each copy introduces differences. of the death of Daniel tum beyond the way. In 1990, working METS is a partnership between Prude as we were final- seminar rooms and was working on her book on The scribes made mistakes or re- with the Teaching Asso- TEAMS, scholars in the field, Roches- izing this issue of InVisible Protest signs outside Rochester City Hall lecture halls in which, American avant-garde film of peated words as they carried out the Culture. The unnecessary always taking Carby’s ciation for Medieval Stud- ter’s Department of English, and the indelible thinking and writing as points the 1930s. As part of her grueling work of copying. When work- PECK ies (TEAMS, of which he is River Campus Libraries, in particular, death of Prude—a Black man experiencing a mental health crisis in March 2020 while of departure, we shared ideas last winter. fellowship, she participated in ing in languages they did not know, a founding member), he the Robbins Library—the University’s they sometimes introduced mis- visiting Rochester, NY from Chicago, IL— Now we cannot enter those spaces so eas- established the Middle English Texts medieval studies library—and the In- has been declared a homicide ily. Now we find ourselves at home social bi-weekly Humanities Center spellings or substituted one word for Series (METS). It offers free digital and formation Discovery Team, along with resulting from asphyxiation while the distancing. Now we are in the streets seminars and in the Center’s another. Words, sentences, and even affordable print editions of a wide the Digital Scholarship Lab and other police restrained him with a hood over his protesting. Now we are fighting another other workshops, conferences, paragraphs might be omitted from a range of medieval writing. “It com- library metadata and IT experts. head in the midst of that crisis. xenophobic policy. Now we are trying to particular copy. figure out a new way forward. and programs. pletely changed the study of Middle Once she was able to make it to Scholars of medieval literature English literature,” says Peck, general Story above courtesy of freezing Rochester, Carby did what she Read the full piece here. have traditionally had to travel to editor for the series. University of Rochester Communications has done since she passed through the

2 https://www.sas.rochester.edu/eng/ 3 DEPARTMENT NEWS UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH JULY 2021

Classic comedic Newly Published Works Theatre play goes virtual Reimagined for Fall semester Continuing Professor Jen- Professor to publish nifer Grotz has James books, co-translated, Longenbach’s The University of short sto- with poet Piotr new book, Rochester’s International ries, col- Sommer, the “The Lyric Theatre Program stepped lections selected poems Now,” is now into new territory as they of poems of Polish poet out from the reimagined Nicolai Gogol’s Jerzy Ficowski, University of The Government Inspector and literary for an era marked by politi- translations is a hallmark entitled Chicago Press. “Everything I Don’t Know.” The It casts a more historical eye on cal turmoil and the global of our faculty accomplish- pandemic. book will be available this year lyric poetry, comparatively short ments, and we are proud with World Poetry Books. poems that focus on a speaker’s Often quoted as the to announce new works emotions. greatest dramatic comedy that are now available. in Russian literature, the play recognizes the pe- rennial nature of human greed, self-dealing, and Joanna Scott, Adjunct Adjunct corruption in a small town. the Roswell Instructor Me- Instructor “The play hilariously charts Smith Burrows lissa Balmain David Hansen how a small town tries to Professor of published “The had three of his shield itself from what they English, has Witch Demands stories pub- believe to be an impending two books a Retraction: lished in the governmental audit of their forthcoming: Fairy Tale past year: “My corruption,” explains Nigel “Conversations Reboots for Philosophy” Maister, the Russell and Syanis Vargas ‘21 rehearses through Zoom for the International Theatre Program’s production of “The Govern- Ruth Peck Artistic Direc- with Joanna Adults” with (Puerto del ment Inspector,” which premiered in December. tor for the International PHOTO CREDIT: J. ADAM FENSTER Scott,” a collection of inter- Illustrator Ron Barrett. The Sol), “My Body” (Chicago Re- Theatre Program, who views spanning two decades, collection of poems puts an view), and “Three Welsh Names” reconceived the political intended for theatrical use. Hernan Sanchez Garcia rience for someone who is a and a collection of short stories: adult, contemporary spin on (South Carolina Review). satire intentionally as an In some cases, the loca- ’21, who played the part of young actor. We work with “Excuse Me While I Disappear.” well-known fairy tales. online event. tions had to accommodate the corrupt mayor’s wife, a lot of cool professional more than one actor so the Melania, expressed a simi- level people, from directors “While significant liber- production crew installed lar sentiment. “It feels more to set and costume design- ties have been taken with a green screen. On top of like what filming or shoot- ers, and see how the whole the translation, the text is all the equipment require- ing a film might feel like. thing works, including this remarkably accurate,” says ments, adequate and The workload is still the one.” Maister, who sees the play stable internet connections same, if anything they’re as a mirror on the current had to be set up in rooms longer hours because you The cast of more than political climate. that might not have previ- might have to re-film it.” 50 actors included stu- dents and alumni across NEW FDI Constructing the ously equipped with an “There are things you the United States, and as production involved an Ethernet connection. have to focus on, the lines, far away as Guatemala and enormous logistical un- “It was a significant your appearance, breaths, China. “It represents a truly dertaking. A large number technical challenge,” says and the job of reading an global, intergenerational of locations in the theater DIRECTOR Maister, who is also a co- atmosphere which is not theatrical endeavor,” says building, including of- founding member of Alarm necessarily on you, it’s the Maister. Thirty-five alumni fices, classrooms, as well Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr., associate professor Will Sound and a recent editors,” says Garcia, an play small parts in the cast, as the copier room, were of women, gender, and sexuality studies fellow of the MacDowell English and history major. including Erica Fee ’99, transformed into unique Colony. But he took it as an and of African and African American stud- Elizabeth Winterbourne producer of the Rochester sets for on-campus actors. opportunity to “unleash ’22, an Arizona native who Fringe Festival. ies at Washington University in St. Louis, Individual spaces allowed creativity.” has been named director of the Frederick students to be unmasked plans to double major in Story above courtesy of University when acting on camera. “It was almost like theater and math, prizes of Rochester Communications Douglass Institute in the School of Arts Each acting station had to shooting a movie,” he the program’s emphasis have its own lighting with added. “Every shot had to on experimental theater. & Sciences. The Department of English is Stay tuned for delighted to welcome him to the university independent audio mics—a be set up and mixed in a She adds, “Going through Jeffrey Q. McCune, Jr. challenge since the major- particular way. Every mo- the process of doing these updates about our and we are excited to work with him. ity of the spaces were not ment choreographed.” shows is a really good expe- upcoming season!

4 https://www.sas.rochester.edu/eng/ 5 DEPARTMENT NEWS UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH JULY 2021 Empty Ballparks, Becoming Teaching the New Challenges a Hub for Complexities of Broadcast historian: pandemic poses problems, Textual opportunities for sports announcers the Nobel Prize as an ardent fan of the game. game’s coffers. According to the World Broadcast Feed Excerpt from Forbes (July 16, 2020) He also remembered Ronald fellow Forbes.com con- provided by the home team. By Dan Schlossberg Reagan, another former tributor Maury Brown, Major president, as a master of re- League Baseball earned a “Instead of using what When American poet Louise Glück go to the author who has “bestowed we know about positioning Science creating Chicago Cubs games record $10.7 billion last year. received the Nobel Prize in Literature the greatest benefit on mankind” and things like that, we’ll be for 2020, she expressed astonish- and created “the most outstanding In this strangest of over powerful Des Moines station WHO. Reagan relied This year’s financials fig- depending upon technology ment—and even a note of ambiva- work of an idealistic tendency.” As all baseball seasons, the ure to be different because to be our eyes,” he told me lence. As she told the New York Times, often as not, the prize functions as a strangest development just on a printed tape that might read “B1 S1 Single to left” teams will not derive game- by phone. “We’ll try to trans- A collaborative project between it “seemed to be extremely unlikely kind of lifetime achievement award, might be the return of the day revenue from games late that to the fans so they’ll that I would ever have this particular says London, a specialist in 19th- re-created game – albeit a but provide no detail. When RIT students and the University of Western Union stopped, the played without fans in the know what’s going on.” event to deal with in my life.” and 20th-century British literature 21st century version with stands. But teams are count- Rochester uncovered new infor- whose research video feeds replacing Western broadcaster had to improvise Even with fans absent, The complexi- and teaching is during his re-creation, Smith ing on retaining fan interest mation about a medieval manu- ties of the prize Union ticker tape. through a wide variety of ballparks won’t be silent at oriented toward recalled with a laugh. home or on the road. “We script. The students developed a are nothing new issues of author- That’s the broadcast outlets, including to Bette London, a “The broadcasters made local stations and regional got word Tuesday that MLB is system that uses ultraviolet-flores- ship. view of providing all the teams with professor of English broadcast us fall in love with the game,” sports networks in addition cence imaging to read text that’s at the University of The capa- he insisted. “Those guys were to MLB Network, ESPN, FOX, some semblance of crowd historian noise,” Caray said. “It’s going invisible to the naked eye. Rochester. In fact, ciousness of the Curt Smith, artisans of the language. and TBS. Re-created road they’re the basis Nobel Prize in We have a chance where we games will represent half of to sound a lot better than if In the process, of a course she’s Literature is part long-time Acuna hits a home run in an speech- can revert to a world of re- that regular-season package, they discovered created, as well as of what makes creation, with one story after with each team playing 30 empty ballpark and you hear the subject of her it, like the Nobel writer for the ball clattering around in lost text on a 15th- George another.” games at home and the same current research. Peace Prize, number away from home. the bleachers. century manu- sometimes a H.W. Bush, Smith, 68, is writing a London has source of conten- author of 16 books, includ- “There will be a lot of script, revealing it taught the course new book, due out [in 2021], Asked about the situa- tion. There’s a ing ‘Voices of the Game,’ and on the history of baseball tion, Atlanta Braves televi- time for story-telling. One was a palimpsest for 11 years, in- kind of public Senior Lecturer in English at thing that baseball has not troducing it when broadcasting. It will include sion voice Chip Caray said, — a manuscript investment in the University of Rochester. re-creating a game, an art “We’ll be broadcasting done a good job of is market- Rochester launched its programs both the literature and the peace ing its players. When Mike on parchment in literary translation. “I thought it Smith said he’s relishing that vanished 65 years ago, games off the monitors so HEYWORTH prizes, and the accessibility of the with a few exceptions (Les it’s not a total re-creation Trout is the 97th or 98th with multiple lay- would be an excellent way to intro- accomplishments they recognize—in the news that Major League most popular sports figure in duce students to outstanding but of- contrast to physics research, for Baseball, as part of its safety Keiter used telegraph reports where we’re getting games ers of writing. The discovery and ten unfamiliar literature from around and sound effects to re-create off the Western Union ticker our country, that’s terrible. example—can add to popular second- protocols in this Year of the Nobody tells stories bet- the system the students created the world, but I was also interested in guessing of the academy’s selections. Pandemic, has ordered teams games of the San Francisco tape. We’ll be able to see the the politics of prizes and the institu- Giants over New York’s WINS field, we just won’t be there ter than the players them- will help libraries around the not to send their broadcasters selves.” tional structures that support them,” London helps her students look on the road. after the team went west). physically. We’ll be relying world learn more about medieval she says. at the Nobel Prize in Literature with a on really good camera work. “That’s the beauty of critical eye, considering how winning Thanks to safety pro- Most current announcers texts and collections. The literature prize’s suspension Since we won’t see where it; we can’t be afraid to writers’ works are viewed in their own tocols produced to protect have never had to deal with the ball is, it will be a chal- in 2018—in response to the Swedish country versus the authors’ inter- re-creations. “They’ve got fail. We’re going to try new Associate Professor Gregory Academy’s handling of sexual abuse baseball personnel during the lenge.” things. We’re going to try national reputations; what sorts of raging coronavirus pandemic, to practice this,” Smith said. Heyworth, who assisted on the allegations—was only the latest inci- writers are chosen for the award and “We need a spring training Caray, whose FOX Sports new things that will become dent in a long history of controversy broadcasters will be relying standard fare in years to project, spoke on “Connections those who are never considered; and on video feeds and canned for broadcasters too – so that South partners are Jeff Fran- surrounding the prize. Some of the how to assess works that a reader come. It’s a matter of finding with Evan Dawson” on WXXI debates over prize winners involve crowd noise to re-create away everyone is reading from the coeur and Tom Glavine, said might be able to read only in transla- same page.” the Atlanta TV crew will use our footing and getting used about how this project and friction between ideas of national tion. games while working from to the new normal.” broadcast facilities in their cutting-edge research being literature and what London calls the Broadcasting means “potentially homogenizing concept of The sheer variety of nations, home ballparks. big bucks for Major League conducted by students and international literature.” languages, literary traditions, cultural Baseball. FOX signed an ex- contexts, and genres—ranging from “This is a great opportu- faculty at the U of R are helping Less than 5 percent of the litera- novels and poetry to journalistic oral nity for baseball broadcast- tension in 2018 that starts in Rochester become a hub for stud- ture published in the United States histories (as in the case of the 2015 ers to really tell stories, to 2022 and runs through 2028 ies in textual science and cultural each year is literature in transla- winner, Belarussian author Svetlana let their descriptive powers with a reported value of $5.1 tion—and for many US readers, Nobel Alexievich) and songwriting (when blossom,” said Smith, who billion, a 40 per cent increase heritage objects, allowing them Prize–winning authors provide their Bob Dylan received the prize in 2016, now teaches public speaking from the current agreement. to uncover secrets of the past. primary exposure to literature from for “having created new poetic ex- at the U of R. “They won’t be Just last month, Turner around the world. “The Nobel Prize, pressions within the great American chained to a cascade of mean- Sports also re-upped with a with its visibility and prestige, is one song tradition”)—makes it impossible ingless numbers. 40 per cent hike, agreeing to of the major ways that international for any person to be an expert in the pay an average $470 million a literature gets publicized and made works that receive the prize, she says. “If I’m a big-league broad- year through 2028. That’s up Listen to the full available to large audiences that caster, I’m looking forward to from $325 million a year un- might not otherwise read it,” she says. She transforms that conundrum this. Baseball fans will get a der the prevailing eight-year program here. into an opportunity for her students. chance to hear what baseball The prize’s renown belies its con- “All of us,” she tells them, “will be deal that ends after 2021. ceptual unwieldiness. It’s unlimited learners together.” is all about.” by nation, genre, language, or year of FOX, Turner, and ESPN publication. In his will, Alfred Nobel Smith, who spent 15 years are MLB’s primary partners stipulated only that the award should Story above courtesy of writing speeches for Bush, re- for the postseason play, University of Rochester Communications membered the 41st president which raises millions for the

6 https://www.sas.rochester.edu/eng/ 7 DEPARTMENT NEWS UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Awards Articles, Essays & More & Honors Below is a selection of articles, essays and other written works recently published by our faculty. Kenneth Gross on Sir Thomas Wyatt’s ‘They Flee from Me,” Poetry Daily, 3 February 2020. “Angus Fletcher’s Precious Idiosyncrasy: Hum- Adjunct Instructor ming with Mind.” Forthcoming in boundary 2, Katherine Mannheimer Melissa Balmain 47 no. 4 (2020), 157-79. “We Miss Each Other, But Do We Even Know won the 2020 Poetry “Some Romantic Children.” Literary Imagina- Each Other?” The Yale Review, Summer 2020 by the Sea Sonnet tion 22, no. 3 (2020), 1-9. John Michael Contest for her poem, “Shakespeare’s Puppets.” In Shakespeare’s “Niagara Overlook” Things. Edited by Brett Gamboa and Lawrence “World Theory: Amitav Ghosh on Being at in June 2020. A virtual Switzky. Routledge, 2020, 173-92. Sea,” symplokè 28:1-2 (2020) 331-48. event to celebrate Jennifer Grotz William Miller her achievement was “May,” Birmingham Poetry Review, 2020. “Innocence after Experience: Robert Herrick’s held in May. Counter-Epithalamia,” Studies in Philology “January,” Birmingham Poetry Review, 2020. 117.1 (Winter 2020), 129-150. Balmain was also named the Hu- “March,” Birmingham Poetry Review, Winter Matthew Omelsky mor Writer of the Month in December 2020. Reprinted on Poetry Daily July 25, 2020. at the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Work- “Being and Becoming: The Grammar of Black “Self-Portrait in an Unnamed Foreign City,” Theory,” InVisible Culture, 2020. shop at the University of Dayton. More Truly and More Strange: 100 Contempo- rary American Self-Portrait Poems, edited by “African Fugitivities,” The Black Scholar, vol. Lisa Russ Spaar, Persea Books 2020. 50, no. 1, Spring 2020: 56-69. Jennifer Grotz’s poem Bette London Supritha Rajan “The Conversion of “Reading British Modernist Texts: A Case in “The Future of Economic Criticisms Past.” Paul” was selected Open Pedagogy” (with Mantra Roy and Joseph Routledge Companion to Victorian Litera- Easterly), in Open Pedagogy: Varied Defini- ture. Eds. Talia Schaffer and Dennis Denisoff. to be included in the tions, Multiple Approaches, eds. Kimberly New York: Taylor and Francis, 2020, 237-247. new Best American Hoffman and Alexis Clifton (June 2020) (invited essay) Poetry 2020 anthol- James Longenbach Steven Rozenski ogy. This is Professor “The Point of Poetry,” Poetry 217 (Jan. 2021): “Ave Ave Ave [Ave]: Bruder Hans and the Multi- Grotz’s fifth appear- 405-13. lingual Poetics of Exuberance.” New Medieval ance in the annual Literatures 20 (2020): pp. 107-42. “What Sparks Poetry: James Longenbach

For up-to-date information and stories about our faculty, students & alumni, visit www.sas.rochester.edu/eng.

CONTACT US

Katherine Department Chair Mannheimer Phone: (585) 275-9257 E-mail: [email protected]

Sherri Gunter Department Administrator Phone: (585) 275-9258 E-mail: [email protected]

Ezra Tawil Director of Graduate Studies Phone: (585) 275-4092 E-mail: [email protected]

Jeffrey Tucker Director of Undergraduate Studies Phone: (585) 275-2064 E-mail: [email protected] Department News is compiled by Kathy Kingsley, program coordinator for the department, with editing and direction from Main Office Morey Hall, Room 426 the Department Chair. Phone: (585) 275-4092 E-mail: [email protected]