October 9, 2013
It's advising time!
Major advising starts on October 16th! You can check here to see a list of what's being offered and where it fits into your major.
Posted by Helen Burgess on October 9, 2013 11:56 AM | PermalinkSeptember 13, 2013
Job Opening: Assistant Professor—Digital Humanities/Rhetoric and Composition, Fall 2014
Assistant Professor—Digital Humanities/Rhetoric and Composition, Fall 2014
The University of Maryland, Baltimore County seeks a tenure-track assistant professor specializing in Digital Humanities/Rhetoric and Composition to begin in the English Department in Fall 2014. The successful candidate should have a promising publishing agenda, proven excellence in the classroom, and Ph.D. in hand by August 2014.
The English Department desires a colleague whose research and pedagogy speak to the areas of Rhetoric and Composition, as well as the Digital Humanities, broadly conceived. Areas of specialty might include, but are by no means limited to, digital diversity, data/text mining, digital rhetorics and new media production. The successful candidate will be invited to contribute to department initiatives, including the new Master’s program in Texts, Technologies and Literature and the continued development of our dynamic, innovative first-year composition program. The English Department offers undergraduate tracks in both Communication & Technology (CT) and Literature, as well as a Master’s program in Texts, Technologies and Literature. The teaching load is currently 2/3, and every junior faculty member is entitled to 2 course releases, usually following contract renewal. Additional opportunities for reduced teaching loads exist. We are especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the track requirements in CT and, in keeping with a departmental commitment to a diverse curriculum, also develop new courses.
Ranked #1 in the U.S. News and World Report's list of "national up-and-coming" universities for four years running (2009-2012), UMBC is a dynamic public research university located in the Baltimore-Washington corridor. The campus, with almost 14,000 undergraduate and graduate students, reflects the wealth of ethnic and cultural diversity in the region. UMBC is especially proud of the diversity of its student body, and we seek to attract an equally diverse applicant pool for this position. We have a strong commitment to increasing faculty diversity.
Please send letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference to Professor Jody Shipka, English Department, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore MD 21250. Application materials should be postmarked no later than October 15. Review of applications will begin immediately. Interviews will be conducted using Skype or phone.
UMBC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
August 29, 2013
UMBC Poetry Slam, Oct 11th: Slam Big!
SLAM BIG! WIN BIG!
BIG PRIZE POETRY SLAM at UMBC's 2013 HOMECOMING!
$200 for the Grand 1st Place Prize, $100 for 2nd and $50 for 3rd Place.
Celebrate the NEW Performing Arts and Humanities Building (PAHB) on the Hill.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 6-8pm in the Atrium of the NEW PAHB Building. Refreshments will be served. The event is free.
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SLAM, submit a print and a video version of NO MORE than 5 minutes of original poetry to
HomecomingSlam@gmail.com.
by 5:00 pm on September 30. Entries will be judged on their Poetic Effects/Compelling Content/ and on Video Performance.
All UMBC students and Alumni are eligible.
Questions? Contact us at HomecomingSlam@gmail.com.
Sponsored by the UMBC Homecoming Committee, the Department of English, and Bartleby, UMBC’s Literary and Visual Arts Magazine.
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.
Posted by nkeister on July 17, 2012 2:19 PM | Permalink