Yes, professors travel and shop and do all the kinds of things that students
do. But they also rigorously engage in scholarship to put their hard-earned
PhDs to use. Below are some of the activities (but not all!) that English
professors have been engaged in throughout 2019--though not everyone had time
to respond. If you have any questions or interest in any of the projects
listed below, please contact the professor and ask: they would LOVE
to tell you all about it. Trust me. We really would. :)
Dr. Steve Benton (PhD Univ. of Illinois-Chicago, 2008)
I was on a “Mediating
Theater” panel at the Literature/Film Association conference in Portland,
Oregon in September, the 11th year in a row that I have made a
presentation at this annual conference. My presentation--"All
About Eve Reborn, Once: Stage, Screen, and National Theatre Live"--was
about the production we screened at ECU on September 3rd and which we will
feature again for OLAF in November.
Dr. Megan Donelson (PhD Middle Tennessee State University 2018)
I attended the
Rhetoric Society of America Summer Institute at the University of Maryland, where I participated in a workshop called “Neurorhetorics’
Materialities,” in which we discussed the developing discipline of
neurorhetorics. Although the definition of ‘neurorhetorics’ depends on
who you ask, its focus tends to be the potential areas of research where
neuroscientists and rhetoricians might productively collaborate. It also
includes topics like applying rhetorical lenses to the texts that circulate in
the medical world, considering how scientific concepts are explained/translated
to the public, etc.
I presented at the conference of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on
Learning (part of NCTE) in Estes Park, Colorado. My presentation was “Crossing the Line:
Emphasizing the Threshold for First-Generation College Students.” It’s a more
flexible and laid-back academic conference featuring presentations on
everything from experiential learning to community-based pedagogy to dance in
the language-learning classroom.
Dr. Murphy and I attended a presentation at North Central Texas College just last week and heard a presentation on rhetorical listening and
cultural logics by Krista Ratcliffe (a big name in comp rhet!).
I just returned from the convention of the Rocky Mountain MLA in El Paso, where I presented “Threshold as Frontier: First
Year Composition for First Generation Students.” El Paso is lovely and I learned quite a bit about the
border (literally and figuratively) and about comp pedagogy and academic
publishing.
Joshua Grasso (PhD Miami University, 2006)
I recently published
articles on Mary Wollstonecraft's "Travels to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden," William Congreve's "The Old
Bachelor," and Samuel Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes"
for The Literary Encyclopedia (litencyc.com). Additonally, I have
an article pending for Oklahoma Humanities Magazine entitled
"Roads Go Ever Ever On: Why You Can Go Home Again in Fantasy
Literature."
I'm also an active SF/F
writer, and I've recently published stories in these magazines/anthologies: "Her
Mother's Eyes," Red Planet Magazine, "A World Without
Dragons" The End of the Dragons Anthology: Chipper Press,
"The Most Perfect
Creation of the Divine Katosha," Welcome to the Alpaca-Lypse Anthology:
Midnight Writer's Press, "Barbarians in the Boudoir," Broadswords
and Blasters 10, and "Strangers in the House," Apparition
Lit on-line (flash fiction).
Presentation-wise, I
recently gave a HEAD Talk (H.umanities E.nlighten A.nd D.elight) for the
Oklahoma Humanities Council's 2nd Annual Curiosity Fest at the OCU College of
Law. My presentation was "Metaphors of the Past, Prophecies of the Future:
The Importance of Speculative Literature." I also regularly contribute to
the Ada Public Library's Let's Talk About It Oklahoma series, which
is a community book club followed by dinner and discussion. Most recently I
presented on Weir's The Martian (July) and Robinson's Forty
Signs of Rain (October)
Dr. Ken Hada (PhD University
of Texas-Arlington, 2000)
Selected
Publications:
Not Quite Pilgrims (Chicago: Vacpoetry)
The Way of The Wind (2nd Edition)
“Growing Pain” &
“Train” Oklahoma Humanities Magazine. Fall/Winter 2019, 22-23.
“In Kyoto” Red Earth Review Vol VII, July, 2019, p.15-16
“Rim Shoals in the Dark”
Red Earth Review Vol VII, July, 2019, p17
“What Gandhi and Christ
Have Over Me” Red Earth Review Vol VII, July, 2019, 18
“Basket of Peaches” Tulsa Voice vol. 6 no. 14, July 2019, 23
“Speaking” & “When I
Have Fears” & “Would Woody Recognize Us?” Speak Your Mind: Poems of Protest
& Resistance. Woody Guthrie Poets, 2019, Dorothy Alexander ed. 74-76
"The House on Mango Street". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 June 2019
Selected
Presentations:
“Not Quite Pilgrims” Oklahoma Book Festival OKC Sept. 21
“The River White” Ozarks Creative Symposium West Plains, MO. Sept. 19-20
“The River White &
Workshop” Kansas Authors Club, Wichita, KS. Sept. 14
“Featured Author” Everett
Poetry Series. U of Oklahoma (Mainsite Gallery), Norman. Sept 10 (7:30 pm)
Workshop at Norman North
High School, Sept. 10 (10 am)
Workshop at Norman High
School, Sept. 10 (1pm)
Presentation at Dr. Hill’s
Class at OU, Sept. 10 (4:30 pm)
Invited Poet: “Writers for
Migrant Justice” – Commonplace Books, OKC, Sept 4
“A Long Walk To Water” Ada
Public Library, August 22
Feature Guest Poet:
Brewery Nonic, Menomonie, WI, July 25
Three poems: Woody Poets,
Woody Guthrie Center, Tulsa, OK, July 14
Dr. Errol King (PhD University of Arizona 2012)
'Designing High-Impact, Interdisciplinary Courses.” Spanish, ESL &
World Language Teacher Symposium. Fort Smith, AR. 2019.
“Go Fetch a Midwife:
Safeguarding Male Honor.” Association for Hispanic Classical Theater (AHCT)
Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium. El Paso, TX. 2019.
The El Paso symposium was
held in conjunction with the 44th Annual Siglo de Oro Theater Festival at the
Chamizal National Memorial on the US/Mexico border.
Dr. Jennifer McMahon (PhD
University of Buffalo 1997)
This past week, Dr.
McMahon presented a paper at the 4th Annual International Conference on
Gender and Sexuality at the University of Central Oklahoma (October
3-5). Her paper was titled, “Rebellious Bodies: Challenging Oppressive Ideals
of Femininity in Hairspray, Polyester, and Cry-Baby.” The paper
examines the ideals for feminine beauty that dominate mainstream media. As most
of us will attest, female leads in Hollywood movies have a
predictable profile: thin. McMahon’s paper discusses the work of
philosopher, Susan Bordo, who asserts that American culture elevates an ideal
of thinness that is so extreme it is pathological. Bordo’s work calls attention
to what she calls the “anorexic aesthetic,” and encourages individuals to
produce alternative models that celebrate a healthier standard. McMahon’s
conference paper looks at the way in which three John Waters films do
precisely this.
Her paper
analyzes Hairspray (1988), Polyester (1981), and Cry
Baby (1990), and argues that rather than the reproduce the reductive
standard of feminine beauty that prevails in mainstream media, these films to
encourage viewers to see feminine beauty and sexuality in diverse forms.
Dr. Robin Murphy (PhD
Bowling Green University 2007)
I’ve done some manuscript
reviews for Computers and Writing and The JUMP (an
undergraduate publication--jumpplus.net), as well as worked on ECU's Guide
to Writing revision.
I also am going to present
in November at the Feminism(s) and Rhetoric(s) Biennial International
Conference. My talk is called “Problematizing Shame in the Name of
Decorum”.
Joining Nicotra’s Enculturation discussion
of public shaming as epideictic practice, this presentation will discuss
epiplexis or “shaming” strategies to complicate and challenge activist acts
with decorum or propriety. My connection here will rely on material(ed)
resistance rhetoric, which is easily feminized - consider the knitted hats of
the Women’s Marches. Feminist rhetorical style is ripe with
epiplexic practices and acts of decorum; therefore, feminist activist
strategies and those materials produced in participatory practices can teach us
to challenge shame through decorum.
Dr. Rebecca Nicholson-Weir
(PhD Purdue University 2012)
This fall I am continuing
my research related to a book in progress on African American newspaper
comics, Origin Stories: The First Black Superheroes and the Golden Age of
Comics (the working title, it may change). This project started back in summer
2017, but while I've been on sabbatical I've been doing archival and microfilm
work on the Chicago Defender, Los Angeles Sentinel, New York Amsterdam
News, and other African American newspapers between 1930-1950. I am
giving a talk at SCMLA at the end of October in Little Rock, Arkansas related
to that research entitled “The Bronze Bomber: Los Angeles Sentinel and the
First African American Superheroes in the Golden Age of Comics.”
This January I will be
teaching a 4000 American Lit Seminar "Harlem Renaissance and Beyond,"
and we will be looking at the role of the African American press in there too
as part of a digital humanities unit I am developing, as well as working with
students to learn more about art and culture of African American Modernism from
the 1920s to 1950s. In February 2020 I will be giving a talk on this work at
the Ada Public Library as part of African American History Month. In late
Spring/Summer 2020, I am hoping to take a research trip to the Shomburg Center
for Research in Black Culture in NYC to work in their special collections.
Dr. Sarah Peters (PhD
Texas A&M University 2009)
On October 24 I am
presenting a paper titled “‘Ever Living, Ever Dying, Ever Alive!’:
Choctaw Epistemology in LeAnne Howe’s Shell Shaker” at the South Central
Modern Language Association conference in Little Rock. I am presenting on a
panel about 21st century reinventions of detective fiction, and my paper
explores how Shell Shaker presents a murder mystery that operates outside the
genre conventions of detective fiction, as well as the tradition of Native
American detective characters, because it relies on Choctaw ways of knowing and
underscores the importance of tribal specificity in works by Native American
authors.
I'm also leading a book
discussion on November 12 at the Ada Public library. I am hoping to bring
together members of the community and ECU students to discuss Sarah
Smarsh's Heartland. That book was this year's Honors Summer Read, and
my Comp I students have also read it this semester.
Dr. Mara Sukholutskaya
(PhD Kiev State Univ of Linguistics 1989)
1. Organized
the following cultural and educational activities:
a. Swan
Lake Ballet (Moscow National Ballet Company) for the Russian students,
Armstrong Auditorium,
January 2019
b. Study
Abroad trip to Russia- May 14-May 31
c. Opera
Golden Cockerel (OU Production), September 2019;
d. Secured
finances for the ECU screening of the Anna Karenina musical, Moscow
Operetta Theatre, February 2019;
e. Uncle
Vanya (Vakhtangov Theatre production), Harkins Theatre,Oklahoma City,
March 2019;
f. The
Man from La Mancha for the Spanish class, ECU, February 2019;
2. Moderated
a panel on Methods of Teaching Russian at the CARTA Conference, Albuquerque,
April 2019;
3. Presented
on the benefits of the Educational Quartet Game at AATSEEL Conference, New
Orleans, February 2019;
4. Judge
for the National Russian Essay Contest;
5. Advised Tyler Gifford
on his paper at CARTA;
6. Russian
Club sponsor
7. Honors
Society “Dobro Slovo” cosponsor;
8. Submitted
a paper proposal for the Russian Language conference in the Pushkin Institute,
January 2020
9. Submitted
an article ‘Russian Language in Oklahoma” for publication by thr Pushkin
Institute, Moscow. Don’t remember other things.
10. Advising
3 students on their papers at CARTA, in April 2020.
Dr. Mark Walling (PhD
Oklahoma State University 1994)
He has also published,
"Say It," in the magazine, Spitball. It appeared in the Spring
2019 special Black Sox Issue and is told from the point of view of Kate
Jackson, the wife of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Spitball is a print only magazine
(but you can snag a copy here: http://www.spitballmag.com/Store)
