epartmental ews ulletin

Volume LV Number 26 20 April 2018

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Laura Moriarty

Laura Moriarty to Receive University Scholarly Achievement Award

Fiction Writing Professor Laura Moriarty will accept her presti-gious 2018 University Scholarly Achievement Award from Chancel-lor Douglas Girod at an awards program on Monday, 23 April, at 4:30 pm at The Commons. She is one of five faculty members to be recognized this year for “significant scholarly or research achievements . . . in the middle of their careers.” In Moriarty’s case, “scholarly” and “research” are, of course, code words for creative work. The KU news release for the event notes Moriarty’s five published novels, all from respected presses. Special attention is given to her popular first novel, The Center of Everything (2003), which served as KU’s Com-

mon Book in 2014-2015. Her fourth novel, The Chaperone (2012) made The New York Times best-seller list and has been adapted as a feature film to be aired by PBS Masterpiece later this year. The DNB has been waiting for this moment to recognize Moriarty’s fifth novel, American Heart, which came out in January from HarperTeen. American Heart is a young adult novel set in a slightly futuristic United States in which registries and detainment camps for Muslim Americans are a reality. Taking the form of a thriller designed to be

accessible to both young adults and adults, the novel explores extrem-ist ideologies, the dangers of mob violence, and the responsibilities and limitations of those not directly in danger. Congratulations, Laura!

Beginnings and Endings

CalendarF 20 Patrick Gabbard, PhD Defense, 1:00 pm, 2648 Wescoe

(Graham, Harrington, Lorenz, Rowland, Antonio).

M 23 Tim Lantz, PhD Defense, 10:00 am, 3001A Wescoe (Canady, Harrington, Kim, Stalling, Linden).

Poetry Reading by Raquel Salas Rivera, Philadelphia Poet Laureate, 7:00 pm, Raven Bookstore.

T 24 Katie DuBois, RDP, 12:30 pm, 3025 Wescoe (Fischer, Johnson, McKitterick).

English Department Special Lecture, “Tales of a Not-So-Innocent Abroad: From a KU Liberal Arts Degree to Writing Professionally in Europe,” Russ Hodge, KU alum, science writer, Max Delbrück Center, Berlin, Ger-many, 4:00 pm, Pine Room, Kansas Union.

R 26 3rd Annual Department of English Writers’ Faire, featuring work done by students in 100- and 200-level English classes, 11:30 am-3:30 pm, Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union. Co-sponsored by the Office of First-Year Experience.

Department of English Milestones Celebration, to honor retiring colleagues, faculty members advancing in rank, and graduate students who are completing degrees, 3:30-4:30 pm (program at 4:00), North Gallery, Spencer Research Library. Light refreshments and beverages provided.

T 1 Voting Department Meeting, 4:00 pm, 4051 Wescoe.

W 2 Big Botany Lecture Series, “Inside Big Botany,” Timo-thy Morton, Guffey Chair in English, Rice University, 5:30-6:30 pm, Spencer Museum of Art Auditorium.

R 3 Coffee@The Commons with Timothy Morton, 10:00-11:00 am, The Commons, Spooner Hall.

Gender Seminar, “A Creative Strategy to Considering Gender in the Canon,” Kij Johnson, English, 3:00-4:30 pm, Hall Center Seminar Room.

F 4 Stop Day

The Department of English at the University of Kansas will hold its annual

Thursday, 26 April 20183:30 - 4:30 pm

North Gallery, Spencer Research Library

The English Milestones Celebration is an end-of-year meeting and reception to honor retiring colleagues, faculty members

advancing in rank, and graduate students who are completing degrees.

There will be a brief program beginning at about 4:00 pm.Light refreshments and beverages will be provided.

Celebration

Two events on Thursday, 26 April, celebrate the bookends of the work done in the KU English Department. The 3rd Annual Writers’ Faire, set for 11:30 am-3:30 pm in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union, will feature outstanding projects by the Department’s youngest stu-dents, creators and authors from 100- and 200-level English courses. Besides a gallery walk, there will be interactive activities like “Poetry on Demand,” not to mention refreshments. The Writers’ Faire is sponsored

by FSE with involvement this year from KU’s Office of First-Year Experience. As the Writers’ Faire ends, KU English’s 2018 Milestones Celebration will get underway in the North Gallery of the Spencer Research Library. In a program beginning at approximately 4:00 pm, the Department will recognize graduate students who are finishing advanced degrees this spring. Milestones also provides everyone an opportunity to congratulate our four assistant professors who have earned tenure and rank advancement, Phillip Drake, Kij Johnson, Megan Kaminski, and Jonathan Lamb. There will also be special presentations to Professors Frank Farmer and Edgar Tidwell, who are retiring this year, as well as a memorial tribute to Senior Lecturer Steve Evans, who passed away in February. Refreshments will be served at Milestones as well, with the beverages especially abundant. Please attend one or both of these end-of-semester events if you can.

PublicationsEllis, Iain“What Happened to British Culture When Alternative Comedy Went

from Posh to Punk?” (essay). Popmatters (located at popmatters.com), 19 April.

PresentationsBoynton, Anthony“’I Lost an Arm on My Last Trip Home’: Trauma, the Neo-Slave Narra-

tive and Octavia Butler’s Kindred,” College Language Association, Chicago, IL, 4-7 April.

Fuller, Randall“Finding Zenobia: Recovering a Lost Voice from the Archive,” Ameri-

can Literature and the Archive, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland, 13 April.

McComb, Morgan“Detroit’s Native Daughter: Naomi Long Madgett and the Intersections

of Black Female Identity,” College Language Association, Chicago, IL, 4-7 April.

Omni, Vince“Showtime and the South Side of Chicago,” College Language Associa-

tion, Chicago, IL, 4-7 April.Peace, Chris“The Spook, Movement and Consciousness,” College Language Asso-

ciation, Chicago, IL, 4-7 April.Wilmot, Jennifer, “’They Would Not Like to be Black Here’: James Baldwin and the Poli-

tics of Desperation in Education,” College Language Association, Chicago, IL, 4-7 April.

Accepted for PublicationBensel, Alyse“[plant life]” (poem). West Branch (forthcoming).Wheeler, Lesley Ann“Lower Third” (poem). Bear Review.

HBW NewsThe Project on the History of Black Writing celebrated its 35th anniversary during the 78th annual meeting of the College Language Association (CLA), April 4-7, in Chicago, IL. HBW alumni, board members, and former participants in HBW’s NEH institutes from across the country turned out to help commemorate the milestone. A KU legacy continued at this year’s CLA. Angela Dye and Rachel Kersey, students of DaMaris Hill (PhD ’12) took first place for poetry and short fiction,

respectively. Vince Omni, MFA student and HBW staffer, earned an honorable mention in short fiction for Loose Strands, the first chapter of his unpublished manuscript. Several English graduate students active in HBW, as well as Project Coordinator and Education PhD student Jennifer Wilmot, presented papers at the conference (see “Presentations”). Three KU undergraduates (Mona Ahmed, Kyndall Aleece Delph, Ariel Vanece Heim) presented as well on subjects ranging from the African water crisis to black women in ‘40s cinema to a civil rights perspective on biracialism in the Chicago media. HBW’s 35th Anniversary Panel featured Dr. Jerry Ward, Dr. Patrick Alexander, Dr. Dorothea Williams, and Dr. Kenton Rambsy.

Raquel Salas Rivera VisitThe University of Kansas Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Department of English will welcome Raquel Salas Rivera, 2018 Poet Laureate of Philadelphia and CantoMundo Fellow, for a poetry reading at The Raven Book Store on Monday, 23 April. As a person of mixed ethnicity and heritage born in Mayagϋez, Puerto Rico and based in Philadelphia, identifying as queer and nonbinary (that is, not fitting traditional categories of male or female), Rivera’s poetry pushes political conversations about race,

code-switching, sexual/gender identifications, and oppressive social and economic pressures predominantly affecting marginalized communities.

KU and Regional Events

● Colonialism Seminar, “Anticolonial Interventions on Puerto Rico (Pre/Post Maria),” Raquel Salas Rivera, Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania, 23 April, 3:00-4:30 pm, Hall Center Seminar Room.

● Resident Humanities Fellows, “Written Oaths and State Formation in 5th Century B.C. China,” Crispin Williams, East Asian Languages and Cultures, 25 April, 12:00 pm, Hall Center Conference Hall.

● Research on the Leading Edge, “Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City’s Underground Economy,” LaShawn D. Harris, History, Michigan State University, 25 April, 3:30 pm, Hall Center Seminar Room.

● Almost Alumni Party, for all graduate and undergraduate students graduating from CLAS, 25 April, 3:30-5:00 pm, Adams Alumni Center.

● Sneakers & Scholarship, visit to Spencer Museum of Art with John Pultz, History of Art, 26 April, 12:10-1:00 pm. Meet by the bronze Jayhawk outside Strong Hall.

● Disabilities Studies Seminar, “My Horse is On Fire! Digital Media, Disability, and Anxieties in Emergency Media,” Elizabeth Ellcessor, Media Studies, University of Virginia, 26 April, 3:00-4:30 pm, Hall Center Seminar Room.

● Colonialism Seminar/Nature & Culture Seminar, “Playing Pioneer Woman: Reckoning with a Settler Colonial Childhood,” Margaret Jacobs, History, University of Nebraska, 27 April, 3:00-4:30 pm, Hall Center Seminar Room.

Raquel Salas Rivera