EDEN

English Department Electronic Newsletter

Volume 6, Issue 3

March  2007

 

 

Course descriptions for this summer and Fall 2007 can be found in this issue, along with the faculty and student accomplishments that you have come to expect from EDEN.  Registration will be taking place over the coming weeks, and we hope that you will find the descriptions for new or specially offered courses intriguing.  Please contact the instructor or the English Department with any questions regarding registration or the courses described in EDEN. 

 

I hope that everyone is enjoying a successful semester.  As always, please send me any professional or educational accomplishments or announcements that you would like to see in the next edition of EDEN.  Get out and enjoy the warming weather! 

 

Rachel Hovel

EDEN Editor

 

 

 

Someone Said It:

 

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.  ~Mark Twain

 

 

 

Announcements:

 

eThe North Wind editors are in need of good student writers to work for the paper.  Students are encouraged to stop by the North Wind office to speak with the editors and to fill out an application.  From the student’s point of view, the experience can be invaluable in the future, and those clips can help a student get that first job.  The North Wind even pays for each story!

 

eA reminder for graduate students interested in pedagogy courses: you can, with instructor’s permission, take any current graduate course with a “P” suffix to explore the teaching of that course’s material.  Directed Study forms, available from Mary or Lori, may be used for this purpose.

 

 

 

Upcoming Events:

 

e Celebration of Student Research and Creative Works

The 12th annual “Celebration of Student Research and Creative Works” is scheduled for Wednesday, April 4, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  The Student Celebration of Research and Creative Works is the only campus-wide opportunity for our students to showcase their scholarship and creativity. 

 

Abstracts are due on March 21, 2007.  The application form is located at:  http://www.nmu.edu/gradstudies/forms/celebration.doc.

 

e Ishpeming Poets and Jambalaya, featuring poets Martin Achatz, Beverly Matherne, and Helen Remien, will be held at Elixir, across from Butler Antique Mall, 114 South Main, Ishpeming.  This event will take place Saturday, March 31, at 2 P.M. and will be followed by open mike and copious refreshments!

 

 

Summer Courses 2007:

 

e EN 309 - The Teaching of Writing;  Summer II

This four-credit course is available for undergraduate credit only and is required of elementary and secondary English/Language Arts majors and minors.  The  class will meet July 2 - August 11 (M-Th, 7:30 - 9:40 a.m.).   EN 309, focused on principles of teaching writing for all subjects (grades K-12), involves writing, reading, research, creating lesson plans, and teaching demonstrations.   Students who are not morning people might want to BYOB - bring your own breakfast/snack!

Questions on this course can be directed to Dr. Richmond at krichmon@nmu.edu or 227-2713.

 

e EN 385/TH 385 - Theatre in Perspective: The Stratford Stage

Instructors James Panowski and James Schiffer

July 2-August 2, 2007

MTWR 2:50-5pm

Approved for Division VI Liberal Studies credit
             

In this team-taught, interdisciplinary course we will study four plays to be performed this summer at the Stratford Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario--perhaps the premier theatre festival in North America.  This year’s plays are Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and King Lear, as well as the musical Oklahoma.

 

Students who register for EN 385 or TH 385 will be encouraged to register at the same time for TH 493: Field Studies at the Stratford Festival (August 14 to August 18), so that they will also be able to view these same plays live in performance.  (Students may register for TH 493 even if they do not take EN/TH 385.)

 

A limited number of Dornquast Fellowships will be available to students registered for both EN/TH 385 and TH 493 to help defray the cost of travel, accommodations, and theatre tickets in Stratford.

 

If you have questions about the course, please contact Professor Schiffer at Ext. 2711 or Professor Panowski at 2553.

 

 

e EN 462 - Literature for Young Adults (also listed as ED 462);  Summer I 

This three-credit hybrid course (part on-line, part in person) is available for graduate credit or  undergraduate credit. (One additional research credit, which is recommended,  is offered as EN/ED 462 R.)

This YA lit class will meet in person on the following days: June 18-21 and June 25-27 (8 a.m. to 12 p.m.). Otherwise, discussions, readings, postings, and sharing of projects will take place on-line between May 21-June 13 and June 28-30.

This course will focus on reading, analyzing, criticizing, and planning to teach or research in young adult literature. Assignments for undergraduates will likely include YA lit responses, web site review, book review, and researched paper or unit plan. Graduate students can expect to lead discussions and write an annotated bibliography, a theory paper, and journal responses/lesson plans.

Questions on this course can be directed to Dr. Richmond at krichmon@nmu.edu or 227-2713.

 

eNAS 295 - Spec. Topics: Kinomaage (The Earth Shows Us the Way)

1st Summer Session TR 5:30-9:50 plus 2 out-of-class field trips

4 credits

Aimee Cree Dunn, Instructor

 

The Center for Native American Studies course "Kinomaage: The Earth Shows Us the Way" has been approved as a permanent course but will be offered again this summer as NAS 295: Special Topics.

 

The class is 4 credits and will be offered TR 5:30-9:40 with 2 field trips required outside of class.  For more information, see the course description, call 227-1397 or e-mail adunn@nmu.edu.

 

Course Description

For generations the plants and wildlife of the Northwoods have sustained the Anishinaabeg spiritually, culturally and physically. 

Ojibwemowin (Ojibwe language) reflects this in many ways from the names given to certain plants to the term “kinomaage” itself.

 

"Kinomaage,” meaning "to teach or educate,"  translates into English literally as “the earth shows us the way."  Drawing from this, the intention of this course is to enhance students’ understanding of the earth.

 

Three approaches are used in the course: botanical, philosophical and ecological. 

 

The botanical aspect acquaints students with various plants of the Northwoods traditionally used by the Anishinaabeg.  This involves learning the Ojibwemowin, English and Latin names for the plants along with the plants’ personalities, identifying characteristics, potential uses and other relevant material. 

 

The philosophical component asks students to compare and contrast the earth relations of the Anishinaabeg and Western cultures. 

 

The ecological part of the course informs students of the environmental problems affecting area plants and their communities.

 

Throughout the semester, lectures, discussions, consultations with the Ojibwemowin Language Advisor, local walks and field trips will be used to help students come to an understanding of the vibrant botanical communities in the Northwoods and the ways in which the Anishinaabeg traditionally interact with these communities.

 

 

New or specially offered courses for Fall 2007: 

 

eEN 495/595 - Special Topics:  The Short Story

Instructor:  Professor John Smolens

 

This course will examine the development of the short story from a historical, cultural, and thematic perspective.  We will examine the development of the short story, providing students with an opportunity to read, discuss, and write about a genre that has its roots in ancient myths, proverbs, folktales, and fables.  There will be considerable focus on the contemporary short story, which began to emerge in the nineteenth century.  Students will read works by masters of the short story; a partial list includes:  Washington Irving, Guy De Maupassant, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Anton Chekhov, Edith Wharton, Sherwood Anderson, Ernest Hemmingway, William Faulkner, James Baldwin, Flannery O’Connor, James Joyce, John Cheever, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Andrea Barrett, Andre Dubus, and Joyce Carol Oates.

 

e EN 510 - Teaching of Composition

This four-credit graduate course focuses on a review of current theories and practices in teaching writing at the secondary and college levels. Students should expect to do readings and lead class discussions; research on a topic related to composition theory and/or instruction will be required.

Questions on this course can be directed to Dr. Richmond at krichmon@nmu.edu or 227-2713.

 

eEN 595 - Special Topics:  Models, Copies, Simulacra

 

The problem of the simulacrum – the copy that resists the authority of its model – is a fundamental one for poetry and the other arts.  It goes back at least to Plato, who regarded poetry’s ability to function as a simulacrum  - and thus to distort or degrade eternal truths - as so dangerous that he banished from his Republic all poets but those content to write innocuous poems in praise of the state.  This course considers how western culture has responded to Plato’s negative critique of poetic representation.  But rather than narrowing its focus to some particular facet of culture, the seminar will attempt to comprehend as rich and complex a web of cultural phenomena as a 15-week seminar will allow.  Special emphasis will be placed on contemporary literary arts, in addition to visual arts, film, video and music, but we will also consider the problem of representation in contemporary culture from a theoretical perspective (in a highly abbreviated history of critical theory, from Plato to Postmodernism), and also as it emerges in other areas of human activity such as science (egs. mimesis, cloning),  technology (eg. digital), law (eg. copyright), popular media and culture (egs. the world wide web, fashion, “reality” TV).

 

This interdisciplinary course is designed to bring together students from both MA and MFA programs, who will be asked to determine, at the beginning of the semester, the relative emphasis they wish to place on three course assignments (one critical paper, one research-based presentation, and one creative or experimental work) based on their own needs and goals. 

 

Some of the texts under consideration for the course:

 

Literature:  Peter Carey (“American Dreams,” My Life as a Fake), Angela Carter (The Bloody Chamber), William Burroughs (The Western Lands), Jorge Luis Borges (Fictions), Vladimir Nabokov (Despair,  Transparent Things), Max Frisch, (I’m Not Stiller). 

 

Film: Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), Brian Forbes (The Stepford Wives - original version), David Cronenberg (The Fly, or Videodrome), Werner Maria Fassbinder (Despair), Phillip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix). 

 

Visual Art:  Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Charles Ray, Sherrie Levine.

 

Music:  Negativland, Plunderphonic, Copyright Violation Squad. 

 

Critical theory (short readings from):  Plato (Ion, Republic), Aristotle (Poetics), Ferdinand de Saussure, (A Course in General Linguistics), Jean Baudrillard (Simulations and Simulacra), Walter Benjamin (“The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production”) W.J.T. Mitchell (“Representation,” Iconology), Giles Deleuze (“Plato and the Simulacrum”), Brian Massumi (Parables of the Virtual), Michel Foucault  (The Order of Things, This is Not a Pipe).  

 

For more information, contact the instructor at rprather@nmu.edu.

 

eLB 121 - Western Values: The Ancient Greeks and the Bible

Course meets:  9:00-10:40, Tuesdays & Thursdays; Course #:  80829

Instructor:  Dr. Mark Smith, Professor of English

 

The course is organized around the following questions and individuals.

 

1.   What is worth dying for?                                                           Socrates and Christ

 

2.   What qualities should our leaders have? &                         Odysseus & Moses

How best can we form a community?

 

3.   How can we cope with human suffering? &                        Oedipus & Job

What should our relationship be to God?                

 

 

Works studied:        The Bible (Old and New Testaments),  Homer’s Odyssey,  philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle, plays by Sophocles and Aristophanes, and others

 

Counts for 4 credits of Humanities in the Liberal Studies Program

 

 

 

 

Faculty Accomplishments:

 

eDavid Boe gave a presentation titled “Chomsky’s Linguistic Historiography” at the annual meeting of the North American Association for the History of the Language Sciences (NAAHoLS) in Anaheim, California, on January 5th.  He also recently participated in two cross-country ski races, the Noquemanon (Marquette) on January 27th, and the Honey Bear Classic (Big Bay) on February 17th.

 

e Stephen Burn had a review-essay on the influence of David Foster Wallace's novel, Infinite Jest (1996), in the Times Literary Supplement in January.

 

eAimee Cree Dunn had a recent article, “Power of the People: Indigenous Resistance to Corporate Invasions,” detailing recent international Indigenous environmental activism, published in the Feb 21, 2007 Northwoods Wilderness Recovery Online Newsletter. http://www.northwoodswild.org/

 

ePeter Goodrich attended the 22nd annual meeting of the Medieval Association of the Midwest (of which he is currently President) in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, January 11-12.  He convened a meeting of the Executive Council and gave a paper entitled "What Were the Middle Ages, Really?"

 

e Marek Haltof published a book chapter in Polish on “Death, Mourning, and Memory in the Films of Krzysztof Kieślowski,” in The Cinema of Kieślowski, the Cinema after Kieślowski, edited by Andrzej Gwóźdź (Warsaw: Skorpion, 2006: 63-75). He also published a review of Ewa Mazierska and Elżbieta Ostrowska’s book, Women in Polish Cinema, in Canadian Slavonic Papers 48 (3-4) 2006: 426-427.

 

e Jennifer Howard has a story titled “What I Bring to the Table” forthcoming in the next issue of Crab Orchard Review.

 

eBeverly Matherne has a new poem, “Rattlesnake Blues,” in the current issue of Interdisciplinary Humanities: Blues and Jazz.

Beverly’s is the first entry in Louisiana in Words, a 2007 anthology of non-fiction shorts, each a minute or less, from 120 writers across the world, published by Pelican.

 

She also recently did a blues poetry performance at La Cave de Poésie, Brasserie du Théâtre, in Montauban, France.

 

e The Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters’ Annual Conference was hosted this year at Ferris State University on March 9th.  Four representatives from the English Department presented research at the conference:  Adjunct faculty member Jamie Kuehnl, teaching assistants Brianna Reckeweg and Elizabeth Grbavcich, and Sigma Tau Delta’s Co-President, Kyle Bladow.

 

e Stephanie McKenzie read Feb. 23 and Feb. 24 at the Brass Taps in Toronto, Ontario. This is the first time Newfoundland’s literary festival “The March Hare” has taken place in central Canada, and the show will then continue to Ireland. Accompanying the reading will be the launch of The March Hare Anthology (St. John’s, Breakwater Books) which includes the work of McKenzie, amongst others.

 

e Kia Jane Richmond's recent accomplishments include the following:
Presentations:

Committees/Activities/Awards

e Russ Thorburn’s Father, Tell Me I Have Not Aged, a book of poetry, will be published by Marick Press, Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, in the spring of 2007. Mariela Griffor is the publisher, a Chilean poet who fled Pinochet and married an American.  She considers Michigan home now.

 

 

Student Accomplishments:

 

eEric Smith has two poems forthcoming in 32 Poems and a review of Terrance Hayes’ Wind in a Box forthcoming in Pleiades.  He has also been accepted into the MFA programs in poetry at the University of Florida, University of Washington, and University of Arkansas.

 

e Ben Hagen (MA) has been accepted into the Ph.D. programs at the University of Rhode Island and the University of Iowa.

 

e Rehema Clarken (MA) has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at Michigan Tech.

 

e Abi Keller (MA) has been accepted into the MFA program at the University of Montana-Missoula.

 

 

 

Feedback:

 

*What did you think of this issue of EDEN?

 

*What do you want to see in the next issue?

 

*Email rhovel@nmu.edu with any comments, questions or concerns.  Faculty and students are asked to send announcements of courses and events, as well as news of your accomplishments.  Undergraduate and graduate students are also encouraged to submit poems for possible publication. 

 

Thank you! 

 

Rachel Hovel

EDEN Editor