The English Department is home to a productive, award-winning faculty whose members pursue research and creative activity across the many diverse fields of English Studies today. In celebrating that work, we would like to acknowledge some of our recent accomplishments.

On June 26, Dr. Jessica Berman gave a lecture, "Trans Reading and Comparative Modernism," at the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Later that week, she organized and took part in a roundtable on "Woolf by the Book: Reflecting on Woolf Editions and Companions," at the 28th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, University of Reading, UK. In July, she also gave a paper on "Resourcing Modernism Today: Handbooks, Companions, Guides," on a panel on "Packaging Modernism Today," at the Modernist Studies Association Conference, Amsterdam.

 In July, Professor Corbett was the subject of a column in the San Francisco Chronicle celebrating the role of the Pony Express in linking California with the rest of the nation in the early 1860s. To read the article, please visit http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-the-Pony-Express-linked-an-isolated-SF-to-the-11306475.php He was also a panelist in June in Kansas City on a panel discussion about Mark Twain in the 19th century West. The panel was sponsored by the Western Writers of America's annual meeting that also feature the writer William Least-Heat Moon, author of Blue Highways.

Professor Michael Fallon's non-fiction essay, "The Woman in the Window," was accepted for publication by the Concho River Review. 

Dr. McKinley will present a paper, "The Survival Table in Boccaccio's Decameron 5.9," at the 4th Annual Conference on Food History and Culture, "The Table of the Senses and the Senses of the Table," to be held at the Centre of Classical and Humanistic Studies/Food Heritage/DIATA, University of Coimbra, Portugal from October 25 to 27, 2017. She has also been invited to present a lecture on her book on Chaucer and Boccaccio in the lecture series of the Grellet & Dorothy C. Simpson Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredricksburg, VA, in March 2018.

Professor Purpura was on faculty this summer at the Chautauqua Writing Festival. She has a contract for a new collection of essays (as yet untitled) due out in 2019 with Sarabande Books. New poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Agni and Tin House. A broadside of her Pushcart Prize winning essay, “Scream, or Never-Minding,” will be issued in October from Washington College, where she will give a reading. Haystack School of Crafts recently published her monograph “In the Presence of Makers” (which included a photo by UMBC student Jane Lee). She was the recipient of a Dresher Center Scholarly Completion Grant last spring.  She recently performed with the Poulenc Trio at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC.

Dr. Christopher Varlack's book chapter, "'Towards a Trans-Atlantic Approach: Tracing the Modernist Psychodrama and Wasteland Critique--The Poetry of the Political Imagination," was published in Writing the Harlem Renaissance: Revisiting the Vision (Lexington), edited by Emily Allen Williams. This summer, he was invited to serve as the Special Topics Chair for African-American Literature for the 2018 College English Association Conference in St. Petersburg, FL. He will organize all African-American literature panels for the conference, helping to orchestrate the dynamic conversations of texts, history, and popular culture that attendees look forward to each year. He also accepted an invitation to serve as Program Director for the 2018 Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) Triennial Conference in Denver, CO. 

AFAC 

Fall 2017

Payroll calendar July - October 2017:

http://hr.umbc.edu/files/2017/06/2017-Payroll-Calendar-July-Oct.-External-FINAL-july-3rd-update.pdf

Adjunct Faculty Advisory Committee (AFAC) meetings are scheduled for 3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., on alternate Fridays. Room Admin 1005/A. Our meetings take place on payday Fridays (see HR calendar linked above), or about twice a month. At the end of the semester, we also meet with senior administrators at UMBC, and we also host an informal gathering on campus for all adjunct faculty. 

Please do keep in touch with us, and please do arrange to attend some of our regular meetings, your time permitting.

Per our by-laws,* all members of the AFAC are expected to attend and to participate. 

AFAC calendar       Fall 2017 regular meetings: 

September 8 

September 22 

October 6 

October 20 

November 3 

November 17 

December 1 

*The Adjunct Faculty Advisory Committee by-laws and mission statement are posted under the "Files" tab on the AFAC group page, in Groups, in myUMBC. Linked here and below:  

https://my.umbc.edu/groups/adjuncts/files

GE Aviation Female Diversity Recruitment Leadership Summit
October 19 – October 21, 2017
GE Aviation – Cincinnati, OH

The Female Diversity Recruitment Leadership Summit seeks to identify and recruit highly talented minority female students from a wide spectrum of backgrounds.

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE341LTPwQQ&feature=youtu.be

Romans 10:14-15 (NIV) - How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

“It’s a vivid metaphor, of course; neither the prophet (Isaiah) nor Paul suppose that people are going to examine the actual feet of the messengers and award them a high score on some objective scale of beauty. The point is that the news is so good, so welcome, that those who receive it are like people who want to kiss the person delivering the mail for bringing them such a wonderful message.  We can imagine someone, overjoyed with good news, feeling that even the wheels on the mail van were special because they had brought the vital letter.  That’s how Isaiah had prophesied that people would feel about the heralds as they ran to bring the good news of God’s salvation to Israel.  Paul has seen this again and again as he has gone around the Gentile world telling people that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, and as this powerful gospel message has struck home to hearts and lives, bringing healing and salvation.” (N.T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: Romans Part Two, p.36)

Prayer: Lord, thank you Lord for the good news that has brought healing and salvation!  Thank you for the beautiful feet that you sent to bring this good news!

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“Sing and Shout” by Matt Redman: https://youtu.be/Sw8lQ6dggGQ

EK

Attention all UMBC student employees!  
What could be better than having an on-campus job?

Having an on-campus job and getting a notation on your transcript that tells employers you made the effort to enhance your professional development!

Make your campus experience stand out and count!

Enroll in PRAC 102 Building Skills for Career Success TODAY!  Don’t worry, it’s not a formal class! With the minimal commitment of attending a few workshops and career events you will be better prepared for the world of work and have the proof on your college transcript to show your employer.  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by!

Click HERE to enroll in this zero credit practicum for Fall 2017.  Also, obtain the Syllabus below (SEE DOCUMENT DOWNLOAD).  Open to both undergraduates and graduate students from all majors/fields of study.

Deadline to enroll:  Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Must be a UMBC student employee working at least eight hours per week on campus.
Supervisor confirmation of employment will be requested.
QUESTIONS, please contact Caroline Bodnar at the Career Center at  carolc@umbc.edu or (410) 455-2216.