March 27, 2013
Speaker: Mike Fallon: April 10, 2013
April 10, 12 noon PAHB 428
“Poetry and the Root of Dreams"
A Colloquium by Michael Fallon
…We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. –The Tempest Act 4, scene 1, 148-158
Powerfully visionary and disturbing dreams have not gone away with the shaman, the dream visions of the Middle Ages, the Gothic novel, or Surrealism. The language of dreams will always fascinate artists, story tellers, and poets because it is the language of the imagination, the vocabulary of deepest meaning. This colloquium will examine the relation between poetry and dreams, as well as the process by which some of my own poems—rooted in and inspired by dreams—have metamorphosed into poems.
March 13, 2013
Advising for Fall 2013
It's advising time! Make sure to make an appointment with your advisor to discuss your course selections for the summer and fall semesters.
Some useful links:
List of courses for the fall semester, showing where they count in your major.
List of course descriptions for topics classes.
List of registration dates.
Finally, don't forget to ask us about the new accelerated BA/MA program in Texts, Technologies and Literature (TTL).
Posted by Helen Burgess on March 13, 2013 4:37 PM | PermalinkNovember 14, 2012
Jessica Berman
Many professors within the English Department are involved in exciting research projects, including former Department Chair Jessica Berman. Her research focuses on modernism and politics, and her upcoming book explores the connection between narrative and world politics. Professor Berman also teaches English 401 at UMBC, which discusses theory and methods to think about how literature works in the world. She has loved reading and writing since high school, and has been hooked ever since she first read Virginia Woolf in the 11th grade. Although her undergraduate degree is in history, her PhD is in comparative literature and she draws on both for her teaching and research.
In addition to independent research, Professor Berman also collaborates with other professors. She is currently co-editing a book series for Columbia University Press with Professor Paul Saint-Amour from the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Berman says that the collaborative experience is “very different, but exciting.” Independent research can be isolating, so she likes how collaboration allows for the possibility of challenging and expanding her own ideas. She also says that “teaching is like collaborative research,” explaining how the ideas a student explored in a paper for her Virginia Woolf seminar got her thinking and inspired an idea for her own paper. Because of her positive experiences with her research, Professor Berman is an avid supporter of any undergraduate that wishes to carry out their own project: “Any student who wants to do research should just ask! I love to help them explore, read, and learn.” If you have an idea that you want to investigate, Professor Berman will be sure to point you in the right direction.
-Laura LeFavor, Class of 2012
Posted by Helen Burgess on November 14, 2012 1:04 PM | PermalinkOctober 30, 2012
Speaker: Joseph Fruscioni, November 5th
Monday, November 5, 12 noon Commons 329
“Faulkner and Hemingway: Overview of a Rivalry”
Joseph Fruscione
Department of English, UMBC and First-Year Writing Program, George Washington University
William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, both winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature, carried on a nuanced and complex literary rivalry. At times, each voiced a shared professional respect; at other times, each thought himself the superior craftsman and spoke disparagingly of the other. Through a sense of competition, though, came an equally strong sense of psychological influence. In this talk, Fruscione will give a kind of overview of their multi-decade relationship, with special emphasis on their correspondence and Faulkner’s late novel, A Fable.
Posted by Helen Burgess on October 30, 2012 4:50 PM | PermalinkSpeaker: Junot Diaz, RESCHEDULED November 7th
7:30 p.m. Proscenium Theater
Short Story Reading
and Discussion of
This is How You Lose Her
Junot Díaz
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author
Nancy Allen Professor of Creative Writing, MIT
Co-sponsored by the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, Department of Psychology, Division of Student Affairs, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, Office of Institutional Advancement, the Provost’s Diversity Initiative, and UMBC’s Latino Hispanic Faculty Association
Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao which won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Díaz will discuss his new collection of short stories.
Posted by Helen Burgess on October 30, 2012 4:40 PM | PermalinkJuly 17, 2012
Graduation Day 2012
Congratulations to all our 2012 English graduates! Following the ceremony, we had a great time celebrating with graduates and their families at the Department Reception.
New M.A. Courses
The Department is pleased to announce that the Graduate Council has approved several new courses at the Master's level for possible offer in 2012-13. Click here for a complete listing of our graduate courses.
Posted by nkeister on July 17, 2012 2:09 PM | PermalinkJanuary 30, 2012
Speaker Events: Spring 2012
Monday, Feb 27
4:00 p.m., Library 7th floor
The Korenman Lecture
Kathy E. Davis (Institute of History and Culture, Utrecht University, The
Netherlands)
"Feminism as Traveling Theory: The Case of Our Bodies, Ourselves"
co-sponsored with the Gender and Women’s Studies Program with additional
support from the Dresher Center for the Humanities.
Thursday, March 1
4:00 p.m., UC 310
Louis Bayard (novelist, George Washington University)
Reading and Booksigning.
Wednesday, April 18
4:00 p.m., Library 7th floor
Mrinalini Sinha (Department of History and Women's Studies, Pennsylvania
State University)
"Totaram Sanadhya's Mere Fiji Dwip me Ikkis Varsh (My 21 years in Fiji)
and the Second Abolition"
co-sponsored with the Asian Studies Program, the Gender and Women's
Studies Program, and the Departments of History and Political Science.
Raphael Falco
Professor Falco teaches courses in early modern literature and culture at UMBC. His own research has allowed him to explore cultural genealogy in early modern discourse.
Professor Falco is also Director of the English Honors Program. UMBC strives to provide its undergraduates with unique research opportunities. The English Honors Program pairs its students with a faculty advisor who guides them while they pursue an independent capstone research project. Professor Falco discusses research interests with the students and ensures that they have a strong plan to develop their project.
In addition to a major GPA of 3.5 and a non-major GPA of 3.0, students interested in applying to the program must submit a current transcript and two college-level essays. After review by the Honors Program Committee, all admitted students are required to enroll in English 399. At this stage, the students will produce an annotated bibliography under the direction of their faculty advisor. The next course, English 499, is a continuation of previous work and requires the writing of a 25-50 page research paper. If interested in this opportunity, students can email Professor Falco at falco@umbc.edu for additional information.
Fine Arts 449