University of Puerto Rico College of Humanities Department of English Annual Report 2008-2009 Summary of Outstanding Achievements The nine most outstanding achievements of the English Department of the College of Humanities for the academic year 2008-2009 were the following: A proposal to create undergraduate curricular sequences was drafted by the Curriculum Committee, approved at a Department meeting, and submitted to the Curriculum Committee of the College of Humanities (May 2009). A proposal to create two post-graduate certificate programs in applied Linguistics and Literature was drafted, approved at Graduate Committee and English Department meetings, and submitted to the Curriculum Committee and the Junta Graduada of the College of Humanities (May 2009). Retired Professor Andrew Hurley received the distinction of Professor Emeritus. The eleventh "Eastern Caribbean Islands in Between" conference on "Language, Literature, and Culture" took place in Curaçao from November 5-9, 2008. 57 conference papers were given along with special guest lectures from Henri Raoul Moen and Philippe Maurer-Cecchini. 8 of our graduate students presented at this conference. The 40th anniversary of Lewis C. Richardson Seminar, English Department, College of Humanities, UPR, Río Piedras was celebrated on October 24, 2008. Monthly poetry reading series (under leadership of Richard Weinraub)- Poetry slams were celebrated on 2/7, 3/6, 4/10, 9/25, 10/23, 11/13, and 3/24. They were all well-attended by enthusiastic participants and spectators. Seminar Room lectures-46 presentations by visiting speakers and graduate students defending theses have been held since Jan. 2008. The University awarded 6 M.A. degrees and 10 Ph.D. degrees to students from the English department. Two of the M.A. degrees were in Linguistics and 4 were in Literature; five of the Ph.D. degrees were in Linguistics and five were in Literature. 2 Several improvements to security and equipment were made to the physical spaces of the English Department and the instructional facilities. After our robbery in December, security bars were added to all windows. Deadbolt locks were added to all of the doors to professors' offices. The offices doors were repaired and repainted. Moreover, the Lewis Richardson Seminar Room was renovated (new computer, wireless connection, new blinds, photocopier, DVD player, screen, In Focus projector, refurbished door, hall cabinet, trash container, etc.) Departmental Publications Tonguas: Bilingual Student Literary And Visual Arts Journal, volume 7 (2008) and volume 8 (2009-in press), edited by Dr. Dannabang Kuwabong, published by the English Department of the College of Humanities. Sargasso, Editor Prof. Don Walicek and Founding Editor Dr. Lowell Fiet: These issues have come out in print this academic year: 2006-2007, II Re/Visiones de Santiago Apostol (issue editor Lowell Fiet) 2007-2008, I Alternative Identities: Belonging and Resistance (issue editor Don Walicek) These issues have been produced and edited this academic year and should go the printer in June 2009; they are in the final stages of editing and formatting: 2007-2008, II Urban Art (issue editor Lowell Fiet) 2008-2009, I Language and Gender (issue editor Don Walicek) 2008-2009, II Quisqueya, La Republica Extended (issue editor Maria Cristina Rodriguez) This year we also published all of the Sargasso interviews on-line. These come from the years 1984-2008 and are available as pdf documents. This is the direct link: http://humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/pubs/sargasso_interviews.htm English Academic Technology Bulletin #29, Nov. 1, 2008. Available on line at: http://humanidades.uprrp.edu/ingles/pubs/ATB.htm (Edited by Alicia Pousada). Publications by faculty Books Dr. Dannabang Kuwabong - Caribbean Blues and Love's Genealogy. Toronto, Ontario: TSAR Publications, 2008. Dr. Yolanda Rivera - Poemas a Medio Pollito. Argentia: iRojo. 2009. 3 Dr. Richard Weinraub - Maravilla Rebanada (Wonder Bread Hill , translated by Elidio La Torre). San Juan: Terranova Editores, 2008. pp. 1-93 Chapbooks Dr. Richard Weinraub - Heavenly Bodies , Hoboken, New Jersey: Poets Wear Prada, 2008, pp. 1-19. Books (forthcoming) Dr. Carmen Haydee Rivera - Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros . Praeger Press (forthcoming 2009) Edited Books (forthcoming) Dr. Mirerza González - Seminario para Maestros: Los Puertorriqueños en Santa Cruz, Islas Vírgenes Americanas: apuntes en torno al lenguaje, cultura e historia de una comunidad diaspórica en el Caribe Anglófono . San Juan: Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades, forthcoming June 2009. Articles in refereed journals Dr. Mervyn Alleyne - (with Rhoda Arrindell and Micah Corum). Locating St. Martin in Caribbean Sociolinguistics Typology. La Torre XIII, Num. 49-50. 2008. pp. 591-608 Gender in Caribbean Language and Society. La Torre XII, Num. 46. 2007. pp 731-38 Dr. Robert Dupey - "The Socio-pragmatic Functions of Code-switching in Narrative Performance: University of Puerto Rico Bilingual Students." Scholar and Educator - Journal of the Society of Educators and Scholars October 2009. pp. Dr. Janet MacLennan - MacLennan, J. (2008). 'Do the thing you think you cannot do': The imperative to be an adult learner in order to be a more effective adult educator." Australian Journal of Adult Learning , 48, 385-398. Dr. Alicia Pousada - Pousada, Alicia. 2008. The mandatory use of English in the Federal Court of Puerto Rico. Centro 20 (2), 136-155. (Journal of Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY). 4 Dr. Yolanda Rivera Castillo- 2009. Subsystem Interface and Tone Typology in Papiamentu. Special volume entitled "Language Change in Creole Languages: Grammatical and Prosodic considerations." Studies in Language, 33:2, 437-458. Dr. María Cristina Rodríguez - "La búsqueda de la casa perdida en el tiempo y la imaginación: dos novelas de Olga Nolla y Anagilda Garrastegui". Milenio 12 (2008): 64-75. Dr. María Soledad Rodríguez - "More than One Hundred Years in the Making: From Fuller's Spanish Creole to Jean Rhys's Antoinette." La Torre . Tercera Epoca. XIII. 49-50 (julio-diciembre 2008): 453- 462. Chapters Dr. Diane Accaria - "On the Road Again: Re-Imag[in]ing Identity and Nationhood with the Road-Trope-the Case of Miel para Oshún and The Motorcycle Diaries." In Latin American Cinemas: Local Views and Transnational Connections . Ed. Dr. Nayibe Bermúdez Barrios. University of Calgary Press, Canada (forthcoming 2009-10), pp. 188-227. Dr. Ann Albuyeh - a.) "Wars of Words: Enlisting Colonial Languages in the Fight for Independence in Africa." In Struggle for Representation: Narrating Wars and Peace in Africa , edited by Toyin Falola and Hetty ter Haar, under consideration by University of Rochester Press (forthcoming). b.) "Alive and Well in the Caribbean: How African Popular Culture is Reflected in Language and Culture in Puerto Rico." In Oral and Written Expressions of African Cultures, edited by Toyin Falola and Fallou Ngom. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2009, 143-163. c.) "'Africa Speaks in Me': How the Diaspora Shaped the Languages of the Caribbean, Then and Now." In Migrations and Creative Expressions in Africa and the African Diaspora, edited by Toyin Falola, Niyi Afolabi and Adérónké Adésolà Adésànyà. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2008, 147-177. Dr. Loretta Collins - "Journeying Towards Mount Zion: Changing Representations of Womanhood in Popular Music, Performance Poetry, and Novels by Rastafarian Women." In The Globalization of Rastafari . Ed. Ian O'Brian Boxill. Kingston, Jamaica: Arawak Publications, 2009, 141-181. 5 Rivera-Castillo, Yolanda y Lucy Pickering. 2008 . "Phonetic Correlates of Tone and Stress in Curaçaoan Papiamentu." In Linguistic Studies in Papiamentu , Ed. by Nicholas Faraclas, Ronnie Severing, and Christa Weijer. Willemstad, Curaçao: Institute for Language Planning of Curaçao. Dr. María Cristina Rodríguez - "Las dos Mayras [Montero y Santos] y sus geografías caribeñas". La narrativa de Mayra Montero: Hacia una literatura transnacional caribeña . Editores Madeline Cámara y Kevin Raúl Sedeño. Valencia: Aduana Vieja, 2008. 205-226. Dr. Michael Sharp - a.) "'Lament for the Casualties': the Nigerian War of 1967-1970 and the Poetry of J.P. Clark-Bekederemo" has been accepted for publication in The Struggle for Representation: Wars and Peace in Africa , eds. Toyin Falola and Hetty ter Harr, University of Rochester Press, accepted and forthcoming. b.) "'All a Prisoner's Predicaments': The Enduring Essence of Dennis Brutus' Letters to Martha" in Migrations and Creative Expressions in Africa and the African Diaspora eds. Falola, Afolabi, and Adesanya. Carolina Academic Press, Durham: 2009, Chapter 17, 361-376. c.) "Echoes of African Praise Songs in the Early Poetry of Kamau Brathwaite" in Facts, Fiction and Creative African Imaginations, eds. Falola and Gnom. Routledge, London: forthcoming 2009, Chapter 4, pagination unknown. Dr. Ray "Tony" Slagle " Language can kill: Metaphors and HIV/AIDS in the Puerto Rican Press, 1995-1997." In J. W. Chesebro & M. I. Castro de González (Eds.), Communication studies in Puerto Rico: Studies in Recognition of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Speech Communication Association of Puerto Rico . (Accepted). Dr. Martiza Stanchich - "'Borinkee' in Hawai'i: Rodney Morales Rides the Diaspora Wave to Trans-Regional Imperial Struggle." in Writing Of(f) the Hyphen: New Critical Perspectives on the Literature of the Puerto Rican Diaspora. eds. Carmen H. Rivera, José L. Torres-Padilla. University