Sitescasts
Faculty Teaching & Mentoring Awards
The department's faculty have won such awards as the Chapman Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the James M. Johnston Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the department's Association of Graduate Students Mentoring Awards.
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Presented by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, March 21, 2012 at the Paul Green Theater.
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A graduate student conference jointly sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and King’s College London.
March 29-31, 2012
To learn more or to register for the conference, visit shakespeareconference.web.unc.edu.
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Last November, several UNC Graduate Students collaborated with Duke Graduate Students and Faculty to co-host "One Makes Many: A Conference of Poetic Interactions." The two-day conference saw panels convened across both campuses, featuring local, national, and international scholars. Discussions pushed poetry to the very limit of disciplinarity, mapping contemporary poetry's trespass into disciplines as various as religious studies, multimodal composition technologies, and pedagogical practice.
The SITES lab's own Adam Engel captured Saturday's panels, held at UNC's Campus YMCA, which are available for your viewing pleasure here. For video of Friday's events, held at Duke's Franklin Humanities Institute, as well as more information on panel topics and scholar bios, visit the conference website at http://onemakesmany.siteslab.org/.
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John Ribó, a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature, gives a talk entitled "Ground Zeroes, New Worlds: 'Race' and Post-Apocalyptic Mutants in Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao." January 25, 2012. Film by the SITES Lab.
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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.
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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.
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The Carolina Parents Council has recognized the People, Ideas, and Things (PIT) Journal for its contributions to student learning, awarding the journal a grant to fund the project’s continuing expansion during 2011-2012.UNC sophomore Sydney Stegall, along with Ph.D. student Ashley Hall, Prof. Dan Anderson, sophomore Ben Whitley, and junior Joe Albernaz, developed the successful grant application, which earned high praise from the Council:
The Committee was impressed with the efforts of those involved with the PIT Journal and with the opportunities for scholarship and publication for our students. This project is an excellent example of a student responding to the mission of the Chancellor’s Innovation Campaign. [ . . . ] The Parents Council is excited about your proposal and the value it places on student learning and the opportunity to engage in serious scholarship and is looking forward to receiving feedback from this program.
The People, Ideas, and Things (PIT) Journal is a scholarly, peer-reviewed, online journal run by and for University of North Carolina students.The broad lenses of people, ideas, and things are intended to offer undergraduates three flexible entry points for sharing scholarship about virtually any topic that is relevant to the UNC community. The PIT Journal invites submissions that take full opportunity of the affordances offered by publishing electronically on the Web including web texts, video essays, audio projects, visual projects, and mixed media projects. Navigate to http://pitjournal.unc.edu to learn more and browse the first issue of PIT.
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Caitlin Donovan, a senior English/ Medieval and Early Modern Studies double major, has been awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to teach in South Korea during the 2011-2012 academic year before attending graduate school at Stanford. Her experience will focus on cultural exchange and teaching English to high school students.The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” With this goal as a starting point, the Fulbright Program has provided almost 300,000 participants—chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns.
Caitlin is a UNC Teaching Fellow and Public Service Scholar. She recently wrote and successfully defended her Honors thesis with Dr. Jessica Wolfe titled, "Britomart's Mind: Reading and Thinking as Disambiguating Arts in Edmund Spenser's 1590 Faerie Queene." Caitlin will graduate Phi Beta Kappa and with highest distinction in May 2011.
For more information about the Fulbright Scholarship, click here.
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The First Annual UNC FOOD CULTURES Student Symposium took place March 24 and 25, 2011 at UNC’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities. UNC’s Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Department of American Studies, and the Honors Program at UNC sponsored the symposium. The event began with a keynote lecture delivered by Molly O’Neill, New York Times columnist and renowned food writer, followed by a day of presentations from UNC and Duke undergraduates and graduate students, representing a broad variety of disciplines.
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Thursday evening’s lecture, attended by students and faculty as well as community members, gave us a taste of Molly O’Neill’s fascinating experiences researching her new book, One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking (Simon & Schuster, 2010). O’Neill’s lecture was illustrated with contemporary and historic images that captured her culinary journey to every corner of the United States. These images also introduced the audience to the culturally and ethnically diverse home cooks who shared recipes and oral histories with O’Neill. After her lecture, O’Neill took questions about industrial agriculture, vegetarianism, immigration trends, and the profession of food writing.Friday’s symposium panels included both UNC and Duke undergraduate and graduate students from the departments of Chemistry, Anthropology, American Studies, Art History, English and Comparative Literature, Environmental Health Sciences, Folklore, Global Studies, Nutrition, Public Health, and Religious Studies. Each panel included three to four ten-minute presentations and a period for questions and discussion. The faculty committee for the symposium, Marcie Cohen Ferris (AMST, UNC), Inger Brodey (English-Comparative Lit, UNC), Kelly Alexander (Duke Center for Documentary Studies), Bernie Herman (AMST, UNC), and Danille Elise Christensen (Visiting Faculty, AMST, UNC), each served as chair for one of the panels.
The award for best graduate paper was presented to Courtney Lewis, (Anthropology, UNC) for her paper, “The Great Frybread Uprising,” from her dissertation, "Set Your Navigation to Authentic: Recursive Impacts of American Indian Small Businesses on the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians,” directed by Dr. Valerie Lambert. The undergraduate award was presented to Caitlin Nettleton (Anthropology, UNC) for her paper, “Edible Women in Atwood and Flaubert,” a paper she developed in Inger Brodey’s Comparative Literature course “The Feast in Philosophy, Film and Fiction.”
Three English/Comparative Literature students presented papers: Jessica Martell (PhD student, English), Austin Cooper (first-year undergraduate, Comparative Literature), and Corynn Loebs (senior undergraduate, Comparative Literature).
The day closed with a discussion led by Elaine Maisner, Senior Executive Editor at UNC Press. Chapel Hill Town Council Member and caterer, Penny Rich, catered a delicious vegetarian lunch.
For more information about UNC Food Cultures, see http://foodcultures.web.unc.edu/, and area food studies, Triangle University Food Studies http://sites.duke.edu/womenst194_03_s2010/. Please visit these websites to join listservs for both organizations.
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Kevin Kritsch, a PhD candidate concentrating on Anglo-Saxon and medieval Celtic literatures, is one of the 2010 recipients of the Dolores Zohrab Liebmann Fellowship. The Liebmann Fellowship “support[s] students with outstanding character and ability who hold promise for achievement and distinction in their chosen fields of study.” Kevin's 2010 fellowship follows in the footsteps of Dr. Bryan Carella and other UNC medievalists who have won this award. -
The Department's Darryl J. Gless is featured in a spotlight article on the UNC homepage. Dr. Gless is celebrated for his outstanding contributions to undergraduate education and the intellectual climate of the university. Some of his many accomplishments highlighted in the article include co-authoring the Robertson Scholars Program proposal and guiding the development of the First Year Seminar Program. -
Minrose Gwin will deliver the Lamar Memorial Lecture Series in U.S. southern history and culture at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia Oct. 18-20. The three lectures are entitled "Remembering Medgar Evers: Aesthetics, Justice, and the Long Civil Rights Movement." The lectures and other chapters on writings and songs about Medgar Evers will be published by the University of Georgia Press. Professor Gwin will also read from her novel, The Queen of Palmyra, while on campus and visit classes.
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Joe Viscomi received a three-year Scholarly Editions and Translation Grant from the NEH (2010-13) for the William Blake Archive's Phase IV development. This will support the Archive team's five ambitious goals to: (1) completely redesign the user interface with new features and tools; (2) incorporate Blake’s complex manuscripts into the production schedule; (3) acquire 500 images from 30 collections (22 of which are new); (4) deeply encode Archive images to make precise searches function across all categories; and (5) incorporate Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly (1968-present). -
Minrose Gwin's novel THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA has been chosen by Barnes & Noble as a "Discover Great New Writers" Book, and IndieBound has selected it as an "Indie Notable Pick." THE QUEEN OF PALMYRA will be released April 10. Minrose will read from it at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature in New Orleans and on Thursday, April 22, 3:30, at the Bull's Head. -
Jane Danielewicz, a professor of English and comparative literature, is enthusiastic about the value of undergraduate research. The College of Arts and Sciences has recognized her dedication by naming her one of four inaugural Research and Undergraduate Education Term Professors in the four divisions of the College: fine arts; social and behavioral sciences; humanities; and natural sciences and mathematics. A recommendation of the 2006 Quality Enhancement Plan, these professors will enhance the culture of undergraduate research at UNC."When students come to college, it’s about becoming someone, developing an identity … so finding out about research connects the students to their senses of curiosity and creativity,” said Danielewicz, the Richard Grant Hiskey Distinguished Term Professor in Research and Undergraduate Teaching. “You have an opportunity to engage them, to help them claim a space within the university. We’re a research university, and students should be a part of this when they first walk onto this campus."
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The UNC Board of Governors has selected Professor Christopher Armitage to receive the prestigious Excellence in Teaching award. This distinction recognizes excellence in undergraduate teaching, and is presented to just one faculty member on each UNC campus. Professor Armitage specializes in seventeenth- and twentieth-century English and Canadian literature, and has garnered numerous accolades for his exceptional teaching, including the Tanner Award (2003) and the Bowman and Gordon Gray chair for excellence in undergraduate instruction (2005-2010).
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Tyler Curtain, associate professor in the department of English and Comparative Literature, received the J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award, which goes to a faculty member teaching first-year students. The award was created in 1998 by the family of the late J. Carlyle Sitterson to recognize excellence in freshman teaching by a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences.
