English and Comparative Literature

Click here to see the Fall/Winter 2011 Newsletter for the Comparative Literature Program!

The UniVarsity Film Series began last evening with a screening of The Last Wave at 7pm. This was the first of nine fantastic films that the department will be showing, in their original and glorious cinematographic format, over the course of the semester at the Varsity Theater.  All of the films in the series are free and open to the public--so, please, come, bring friends and colleagues, etc. You won't be disappointed!  For more information about upcoming films and screenings, please follow the link below.

Spring 2012 UniVarsity Film Series

The Department of English and Comparative Literature recently honored Dr. Rebecka Rutledge Fisher with its Graduate Student Mentoring Award, recognizing her commitment to guiding and directing the professional development of its graduate students.  Dr. Fisher, while describing some of the tasks she performs as a mentor, discussed editing dissertation chapters and articles for publication; guiding graduate students toward appropriate venues for the publication of their research; writing letters of recommendation for a wide range of fellowships, awards, and job placements; and helping graduate students locate and apply for funding. 

When asked to describe her secrets to being a successful mentor, Dr. Fisher observed that mentoring is an essential part of her graduate teaching, one that requires a substantial time commitment.  “My students are on a deadline just as I am,” says Fisher, acknowledging that she frequently privileges the work of her students over her own demands and deadlines in order to provide them with timely feedback.  Dr. Fisher’s intention in offering this diligent attention is to help graduate students discover their unique voices as writers, to highlight their original ideas as researchers and thinkers, and to develop their professionalism and collegiality, empowering them to participate respectfully and meaningfully in discursive scholarly communities.     

Perhaps Dr. Fisher’s greatest secret to being a successful mentor is that she remains actively engaged in her own discursive communities even as she dedicates time to the work of her students.  She has recently completed a manuscript of her new book Habitations of the Veil: Metaphor and the Poetics of Being in African American Literature, to be published by the State University of New York Press in their philosophy and race series. Her article, "The Poetics of Belonging in the Age of Enlightenment: Spiritual Metaphors of Being in Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative” will appear in a special issue of Early American Studies, dedicated to the study of empire. She will also contribute an essay to South American Quarterly (SAQ) in a special issue focusing on W. E. B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction (1935). Dr. Fisher’s commitment to making critical contributions to her field enables her to advise her students about the most recent trends in scholarship, allowing them to become current, informed professionals.  Dr. Fisher’s generosity, her kind professionalism, and her commitment to serving students not only make her a worthy recipient of the Graduate Student Mentoring Award but also an invaluable resource to her mentees and an asset to the university.

The Comparative Literature Program hosted its first annual Welcome Back Reception to tremendous success on October 6th in the Anne Queen Room of the Y-Building.  Students from both the graduate and undergraduate colleges mingled with faculty members over a decadent array of autumnal foods.  Numbering nearly eighty in all, the assembled faculty and students created the largest gathering of comparatists since the university hosted the ACLA in 2001.  Of the Comparative Literature faculty, Professors Inger Brodey, Marsha Collins, Rebecka Fisher, Shayne Legassie, Diane Leonard, Erika Lindemann, Federico Luisetti, John McGowan, William Race, and Alicia Rivero were all in attendance.  Toward the end of the evening, the Comparative Literature Program presented the prizes for the best graduate and undergraduate essays and unveiled its course list for spring 2012.  The evening’s company and conversation combined with its ceremony to make the whole event a pleasure and a success.
Please visit the CMPL facebook page to see more images from the event.