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.