WNMU HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT PH:575-538-6525 FAX:575-538-6535 Bowden Bulletin Volume II, Issue I Spring 2015 Celebrating Success Inside this issue: Beginning at 5:00pm on Friday May 8, 2015, the WNMU Humanities Department will be hosting its second annual celebration for Humanities graduates. The festivities will take place on the second floor of the Student Memorial Building, in the cafeteria‘s Sunset Room. Recognition of the accomplishments Humanities Events 2-4 of graduating students will be given, scholarships will be awarded, and light refreshments will be served. Anyone wishing to attend the celebration is more than welcome to drop by! For more information on the event please call 575-538-6644 or email [email protected]. Faculty Updates 4-5 Graduates of 2015 MAIS with a concentration in Writing OR B.A English B.A Elementary Summer Course 6 English Maria Camunez Education: Language Descriptions Janet Bro Evan Long James Clark Arts Chris Burbine Debra McReynolds John Thrasher Abby Harvey Jessica Cabrera Neal Mills Fall Course 7- Stephen Carr Charlene Montoya BAIS with a B.A Secondary Descriptions 10 Bonita Chavez Grace Santamaria concentration in Education: Language Stephanie Clarke-Mahoney Angela Sisson Writing OR English Arts Ryan Cordle Wanda Snyder John Durham Diedra Leatherman Jessica Enriquez Eric Yankee Catarina Fuentes Forrest Watson Janet Gilchrist Stephanie Moore Donna Griggs Sara Roethle Raymond Jurisic Indira Khalsa Congratulations James! James Clark has been accepted to the MFA program in Creative Writing--Fiction at Mills College in Oakland, CA. He plans to attend this fall! Page 2 Bowden Bulletin Humanities Events Sigma Tau Delta On December 5, 2014, Sigma Tau Delta inducted four new members into the society—Nadia Nolan, Mary Lucero, Dana Farr and Marissa Aguirre— and celebrated with a Southern-food themed dinner. However, the highlight of our year was attending the International Sigma Tau Delta Conference in Albuquerque from March 18-22. Over 800 students submitted work to the conference, and only 200 papers were accepted. STD President James Clark‘s original poetry ―Nothing but a Voice‖ was among the work selected for presentation. He read his work as part of a panel titled ―Health, Wellness, and the Body: Original Creative Writing,‖ which explored the meaning of living with ―invisible illness‖ in our society. His panel was moderated by our own Nadia Nolan. Students also attended workshops on publishing, preparing for graduate school, preparing for the job market, Jane Austin, Shakespeare, Harry Potter, Zombies, and many other exciting topics. Students also heard writers Gary Soto, Simon Ortiz, and Leslie Marmon Silko speak. They were especially excited to meet Silko, who pub- lished the first novel written by a female Native American, and get their copies of Ceremony signed by her. We also got to experience some fine cuisine in Albuquerque, as well as take a trip to the top of the Sandia Mountains on the Sandia Tram, where there was snow! We will be giving a roundtable discussion about our trip (with photos!) on Thursday, April 23 at 2 PM in the Seminar Room on the third floor of the SMB. Next year‘s conference is scheduled for March 2-5, 2016 in Minneapolis, MN, and we will also be discussing ideas about how to prepare for next year‘s conference and what to do to be able to at- tend. Please join us, and join Sigma Tau Delta! Contact Dr. Michaelann Nelson about joining! Writing Across the Curriculum Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Director Dr. Debbie Heller organized WNMU‘s first-ever celebration honoring Women‘s History Month. This event— ―Women‘s Lives and Writing‖—took place March 21 and featured eleven guest speakers from a variety of disciplines. The speakers and their topics included: Andrea Jaquez, Public Services Technician, Miller Library The Women of Fort Bayard Manda Jost, Professor of Biology Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: seventeenth-century Mexican female polymath Barb Ann Matson, Adjunct Professor of English Helen (Hunt) Jackson, Indian Advocate: her mission lives on Scott Fritz, Assistant Professor of History Gender Equity in Early America: the feminism of Judith Sargent Murray Patricia M. Cano, Professor Emerita of Chicano/Chicana Hemispheric Studies The Life and Writing of Santa Teresa de Jesus Sharman Russell, Professor Emerita of Writing Celebrating Patty Jo Watson: her interpretations of archaeology and her life as a scientist Jose Herrera, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): the scientific interest of her letters from Turkey Bruce Wilson, Adjunct Professor of History The Many Pleasures of Reading Margaret Atwood Jessica Enriquez: Office of Business Affairs Lessons in Parenting: looking anew at Mary Shelley‘s Frankenstein Allison Evans, Assistant Professor of Political Science Anna Akhmatova: a great Russian poet of the Silver Age Cynthia Ann Bettison, Director of WNMU Museum Interpreting Prehistoric Mimbres Women‘s Lives Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 3 Humanities Events Continued Writing Across the Curriculum Continued Dr. Heller has already started planning another celebration for next year to honor the 400th anniver- sary of the death of Shakespeare (1564–1616). She says the reason it‘s important to celebrate Shake- speare next April is because ―he is the most phenomenal writer the world has ever known; his works appeal to all ages, all cultures (England, the U.S., Africa, Russia, Japan) and all kinds of people—men and women, conservative and liberal, white and non-white, religious and secular. And she adds, ―we have only one opportunity to dedicate a day to celebrating him because many of us will not be alive in th 2064 (the 500 anniversary of his birth) and none of us will be alive for the next anniversary of his ―Celebrating death (2116).‖ Shakespeare‖ April 22, 2016 Writing Contest Over 30 students entered work in five categories (Fiction, Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, Freshman Essay, and Academic Essay) for the reinvigorated WNMU Undergraduate Creative Writing Contest. $50 was given to first place winners in each category, and $25 was given to second place winners in each category. An award ceremony and reading was held on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 and was well-attended. Funding for the contest is provided through the office of Academic Affairs. Fiction 1st Emily Rosa ―Stroj‖ 2nd Kaitlin Gregory ―Rapture Poetry 1st Gabrielle Eyrich 2nd Nadia Nolan Creative Nonfiction 1st Gabrielle Eyrich ―Gentle‖ 2nd Daniel Eady ―Shameless in Black‖ Academic Essay 1st Serena Pack ―What Will Grow‖ 2nd Alice Webb ―Pueblos: Strength Through Tradition‖ Freshman Essay 1st Romeo Cruz ―Water of Life‖ Page 4 Bowden Bulletin Humanities Events Continued Dr. Debbie Heller‘s edition of essays on early-modern women, Bluestockings Now! The Evolution of a Social Role, has just been published by Ashgate Press. An article by Heller on early-modern women and friendship is forthcoming in HLQ (Huntington Library Quarterly). One Day University On Friday, April 10, Dr. Michaelann Nelson and Dr. Kate Oubre teamed up for a presentation enti- tled ―Protesting Women: Southwestern Artist/ Activists Terry Tempest Williams and Katie Lee‖ at the One Day University sponsored by the WILL pro- gram. English major Mi- guel Gutierrez did a great job of introducing the panelists, Dr. Oubre spoke about how Terry Tempest Williams writes about becoming an activist Faculty Updates in her memoir Refuge, and Dr. Bill Toth is presently writing reviews of Sharman Russell‘s most recent books, Teresa and Diary Dr. Nelson discussed of a Citizen Scientist which will be published in ISLE, the journal of the Association for the Study of Katie Lee‘s music as well Literature and the Environment. He is also working on a paper presentation on the fiction of Don as her memoir, All My DiLillo for the up-coming ASLE conference in Moscow, Idaho, in June. Rivers Are Gone. For those of you interested in this Dr. Benjamin Cline has had a busy academic year 2014/2015. While enjoying his family, being an topic, be sure to sign up active member of his faith community, serving on numerous committees, and teaching an overload, for Dr. Nelson‘s American he has managed to get quite a bit of writing done. His chapter ―Media Ecology in the 21st Century Environmental Literature Classroom‖ was completed and is in press to appear in the Handbook of Research on Media Literacy in class this fall (ENGL 461)! the Digital Age. He has presented at a couple of conferences. Media Ecology and the Flipped Classroom was presented at the Teaching Professor Technology Conference in Denver. The Dark Knight of the Existential Soul: The Rhetoric of Social Intervention in Batman movies (1989-2012) was presented to the Southwest Popular Culture Association in Albuquerque. He served as a peer reviewer for communi- cation texts from Oxford University Press and Kendall Hunt. He also has several other pieces out that are in various stages of the review process. Dr. Lydia Huerta has been busy planning events for The Center for Gender Equity. There is now an ongoing open mic night--so if you have poems, plays, music, come to 1211 Mississippi 8-10pm and let your creations be heard. She has also been busy working on two articles and expects to send them out for publication this summer. Dr. Faye Vowell is enjoying working with her students in developmental writing and composition and rhetoric. This spring she is teaching ―Introduction to the Short Story‖ and finding the discussions with students invigorating. Volume II, Issue I Page 5 Faculty Updates Continued Dr. Kate Oubre presented her working paper, ―Transforming Inscribed Genealogies of Vio- lence: The Role of ‗Tribal Knowings‘ in Linda Hogan‘s Solar Storms,‖ as part of a panel on contempo- rary Native American Literature at the MLA International Convention in Vancouver, BC in January.