Drs. Hollynd Karapetkova and Bess Fox presented papers at the International Society for the Study of American Woman Writer’s Conference in Philadelphia, PA. They presented together on a panel that investigated the writing life and legacy of four American women writers working beneath the “anxiety of influence,” to borrow from Harold Bloom, of the modernist movement.

Dr. Karapetkova presented “Chatterton, Shelly, Keats, and I: Reading Anne Spencer in the White Literary Tradition.” Her paper reads Spencer’s poetry beside the poetry of Yeats and Browning, arguing that, in joining the company of these canonical figures, Spenser does not deny her blackness or womanhood, but manages with incredible skill the mutually exclusive terms of black, woman, and poet, marking through the white tradition every time she picks up the pen.  Dr. Fox presented “Diary of an Author as a Young Theorist: Reading Susan Sontag’s Journals.”  Her paper analyzed reviews of Sontag’s recently published journals, exploring the effect of the private journals on the public icon. In particular, she traces the connection between the accessibility the journals offer and Sontag’s burgeoning status as a woman writer, a status Sontag, herself, resisted.

Dr. Bess Fox presented a paper at the 7th Biennial Feminisms and Rhetorics Conference in Lansing, Michigan. Her paper, “Disembodied Images: Exploring the Relationship between Material and Discursive Production in Multimodal Writing,” explores multimedia writing as a composing practice that can bridge the academic divide between mind and body, compelling the academy to revise its vision of writing as a purely intellectual practice.

7:00 PM Tuesday, November 3
Lee Reception Room

Join the Marymount community on the evening of November 3 for a reading and book signing by Laura J. Rosenthal, Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. She will be discussing her most recent volume, Nightwalkers: Prostitute Narratives from the Eighteenth Century (Broadview, 2008).

Dr. Rosenthal is the author of numerous scholarly articles and monographs, including Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture (Cornell UP, 2006) and Playwrights and Plagiarists in Early Modern England: Gender Authorship, Literary Poperty (Cornell UP, 1996). Refreshments will be served.

Dr. Holly Karapetkova, current Marymount student Abubakarr Massaquoi, and recent graduate Kirsten Porter will give a poetry reading on Wednesday, October 21, 7:00 pm, at the Riverby Bookstore on Capitol Hill. Their reading is a part of the Space Inside monthly reading series.

Arshia, a 2009 graduate of the Literature and Languages program, won the Elizabeth Holtze Creative Nonfiction Award for her essay “Faded and Bronzed,” an essay written in our EN 301: Writing Process course.  Arshia’s essay was selected from over 1,000 submissions to the Sigma Tau Delta Review!  You can read this essay online in Magnificat.

Congratulations Arshia!

To celebrate the National Day on Writing coming up on October 20, Marymount has opened a writing gallery through the NCTE National Gallery of Writing Website. Marymount students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to contribute their writing: essays, poetry, blog entries, love letters, lists, lab reports, Facebook updates, etc., etc.–whatever you would like to share. You can submit in two ways. Either go directly to the gallery at http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/129213 or go to the general gallery page at http://galleryof writing.org and search under Marymount or Arlington. The gallery will be unveiled on October 20. Spread the word and help us grow our gallery with all of your writing!

The beginning of the new semester includes a number of  administrative and faculty transitions:

• Dr. Marguerite Rippy will take over as Chair of the department.  Dr. Fay is stepping down after completing her 3-year rotation as chair.
• Dr. Sean Hoare is the new  Director of the Graduate Program.  Dr. Lillian Bisson, who has served as director for the last three years, will be on leave this fall and return to the faculty in the spring semester.
• Dr. Laura Valdez-Pagliaro is on leave of absence for the ‘09-10 academic year.  She and her family are spending the year in Kuwait.
• Professor Judith Tabler joins the  faculty on full-time temporary appointment this year.

MU Instructional Resources

Writing instructors should note that Dr. Fox of the English department has put together an online resource collection for composition 101, containing sample syllabi, assignments, links, ideas for sequencing your course, and more. Check it out, and don’t forget to tell us what you think!

Also newly available for faculty across campus is MUir, a participatory website devoted to helping you find all the information about campus and area resources you need to teach your courses. Learn about technology training, library resources, faculty development opportunities, campus services feedback, frequently asked questions, and more. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Please feel free to leave suggestions and other forms of feedback on our forum, where your knowledge can help the site grow.

The department celebrated the publication of  Dr. Marguerite Rippy’s book, Orson Welles and the Unfinished RKO Projects: A Postmodern Perspective, at a reception in late May.   Her book  provides the first in-depth examination of early film and radio projects shelved by RKO or by Welles himself. While previous studies of Welles largely fall into the categories of biography or modernist film studies, this book extends the understanding of Welles via postmodern narrative theory and performance analysis, weaving his work into the cultural and commercial background of its production. By identifying the RKO years as a critical moment in performance history, Rippy synthesizes scholarship that until now has been scattered among film studies, narrative theory, feminist critique, American studies, and biography.

Class of 2003 graduate Jeb Butler returned to campus to address graduating seniors, faculty, and friends at the department’s annual spring celebration in April.  His topic, “What Can You Do with an English Major?” was of particular interest to the graduates.  The department honored 11 undergrads and 5 graduate students completing their studies in May.   The evening included a poetry reading by graduate Carlos Benavides, distribution of the this year’s edition of Magnificat, the department’s journal of undergraduate non-fiction, and   announcement of this year’s academic awards.  Arshia won the Ludlow Prize for the best piece of research produced in the Senior Seminar course.  Kirsten Noelle Porter received the departmental award for most outstanding undergraduate.  Emily Dewey was honored as most outstanding graduate student of the year.