eNOW: The Department of English Discusses Public Engagement

Please join the English Department for various discussions and presentations on Public Engagement and Service- Learning. The following link will bring you to dates and times for these events:


http://english.cla.umn.edu/engagement/events.html

UROP INFORMATION SESSION!

Monday, Sept. 28 9-10am 207a Lind Hall
With Bagels, Fruit and Juice!

Want to research something you love? Want to create a curriculum for your future teaching career? Want to study more in depth something you've learned in class? AND would you like to get paid $10/hour for it?
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) is your chance to work with a faculty mentor on a creative activity or research project with financial support from the University of Minnesota. UROP Students receive stipends of up to $1400 and expenses of up to $300. UROP is available to ALL students in ALL colleges. Come to Lind 207a to hear from past English UROP Students and Professors. Don't let this opportunity pass you by!

Thousands of students and faculty across the University have already discovered the benefits of these hands-on research opportunities in laboratories, studios, libraries, and field sites. Participating students have developed detailed knowledge of research methods while their faculty sponsors have gained the assistance of enthusiastic and capable students.

To find out more about undergraduate research and the UROP program, visit http://www.research.umn.edu/undergraduate/. Application materials for UROP are available on the web at http://www.research.umn.edu/undergraduate/UROP/urop_how_to_apply_2.htm. The application deadline for Spring 2010 projects is October 5. If you have questions about UROP, please contact Rebecca Rassier at rassi003@umn.edu.

UROP ALUMNI!! Have you participated in a UROP project that pertained to your English major? If so please send a short description of your project that details your experience in order to help fellow English majors with their literary research and endeavors. Please send information regarding your UROP project to Emily Claypool, clay0114@umn.edu.

Welcome, International Exchange Students!

Please Welcome International Exchange Students in English studies for 2009-2010: Xu C. (China), Hyoeun C. (Korea), Jeongwon L. (Korea), Maria F. (Austria), Joo Yun L. (Korea), Manuela N. (Austria), Silvio G. (France), and Morgane D. (Belgium). Some are here for fall semester only, others for the full academic year. They are taking a variety of courses in literature, American Studies, ESL, writing, business, and other subjects.

Welcome back!

The Undergraduate Studies Office in the Department of English would like to welcome three new student staff members to its office for the 09-10 Academic Year.

Both Raven H. and Moira P. are working as peer advisors. They are excited and eager to work with our staff and with students! Stop by Lind Hall 227 to meet Raven and Moira and ask them any questions you have about the Department or yours courses.

We would also like to welcome Emily C. as our Research Assistant!

We are thankful to have such great students working with us this semester. Remember to stop by Lind Hall 227 anytime to schedule an advising appointment or just talk with our students and staff.

UM Students and Alums in Alive

Five current or recently graduated English BAs contributed to the August-September issue of Alive Magazine, a national publication by and for young women that kicks the usual "celebrities, sex, and dieting" content to the curb. Two are Alive interns who wrote and/or designed for the issue: Regan Smith (BA '09) and undergraduate Meghan Hanson. Former Alive intern Jamie Joslin Millard (BA '09) is now Alive's development director. Spring '09 graduates Allie Riley and Derek Swart also wrote for the issue. All but Riley were members of the 2009 Ivory Tower staff, Hanson as co-Editor-in-Chief; Riley published a poem in the latest Ivory Tower, which is the undergraduate literary magazine of the University of Minnesota created by a year-long English course.

Department Welcomes Interim Chair

Geoffrey Sirc (PhD 1985) is now serving as the interim chair of the Department of English. Professor Sirc is the author of English Composition as a Happening (Utah State University Press, 2002) and, with Anne Frances Wysocki, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, and Cynthia L. Selfe, Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition (Utah State UP, 2004). He joined the Department in 2006 from the University of Minnesota General College. Former chair Paula Rabinowitz wrapped up her three-year term at the end of June. The Department offers our thanks for her dedicated service! . . .Thank you also to Professors Lois Cucullu and Julie Schumacher, who finished their terms as Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Creative Writing Program, respectively. Professor Ray Gonzalez takes over as the Director of the Creative Writing Program. Regents Professor Madelon Sprengnether is Director of Graduate Studies.

MFA Alumni Awards & Publications

The Dirt Riddles, a debut collection of poetry from Michael Walsh (MFA 2006), won the inaugural Miller Williams Poetry Prize from the University of Arkansas Press and will be published in 2010. His fiction can be found in the 2008 anthology Fiction on a Stick (Milkweed Editions). . . . Matt Burgess (MFA 2009) will publish his debut novel Dogfight with Doubleday in fall 2010. . . . Lightsey Darst (MFA 2003) publishes her first full-length collection of poetry Find the Girl with Coffee House Press in spring 2010. Her chapbook Ginnungagap is available now from Red Dragonfly Press. . . . Erin Hart (MFA 1995), the author of Lake of Sorrows and Hallowed Ground, presents the new mystery False Mermaid (Scribner) in spring 2010. Congratulations!