Division of Languages and Literature 2002-03
ENGLISH
Awarded:
Sabbatical for Spring 2004
Teagle grant with Dr. Melissa Schaub to revise freshman English program
Publication:
"We All Learn Through Service Learning." Forthcoming in The Journal for the Art of Teaching, May 2003 (refereed)
Attended:
National Hawthorne Conference, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts
Association of College English Teachers of Alabama, Troy State University
Jesuit Core Curriculum Conference, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio
Presenter
SHC Core Development Committee Seminar
SHC Opening Week workshop: "Aligning Pedagogy with Learning Objectives," Dr. Robert Leamnson
SHC academic computing workshop on portfolios
Lectures/workshops/presentations given:
SHC Faculty to Faculty presentation during Fall Opening Week with Dr. Martha Patterson: "Using SWAs and Writing Conferences"
Presented Core Mission Statement to SHC faculty for revision, Fall Opening Week
SHC Faculty Friday lecture: "Learning About Service Learning"
Member:
Friends of Spring Hill College Library: Board of Directors
Interviewed Kathryn Tucker Windham for Southern Voices: A Literary Evening at Stewartfield for the Friends of the SHC Library
Led literature discussions at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairhope, Alabama, in the Listening for God series
Worked with Dr. Melissa Schaub to revise ENG 121 Composition and Literature I and ENG 123 Composition and Literature II; revisions were approved by the department
New course preparation: ENG 498 Senior Seminar - required fair amount of research regarding several novels I had not previously taught
Continued to work on new collaborative learning techniques, especially the "write, pair, share" technique learned in one of the faculty development workshops
Developed new service learning experience for WRI 418 Advanced Composition: Students visited 15 Place, a coalition for the homeless in downtown Mobile, interviewed clients, and wrote their stories; also took same students to the Exploreum to see the American art exhibit and then asked them to write about one of the paintings
Helped to write and received mini-grant from Alabama Humanities Foundation for the Friends of the SHC Library literary series, Southern Voices: A Literary Evening
Served as director of Southern Voices: A Literary Evening
Publications:
Article for Alumni Monthly on women's issues in curriculum
Attended:
Southern Regional Faculty Instructional Development Consortium conference, Atlanta, Georgia
Teaching Learning Mentors Institute
Teaching Learning Mentors Alabama meeting
Signing events for Mobile Memories at Oakleigh Mansion's Christmas Jubilee
Lectures/workshops/presentations given:
University of South Alabama Odyssey Program (allows senior citizens and other community members to take non-credit courses designed specifically for them): "The Story of Jon and Oprah, or Guess Who's Not Coming to Dinner?"
Lion's Club: on Mobile Memories
Presentation to Development Office staff about the needs of the faculty and faculty development
Contributed to revision of ENG 121 English Composition and Literature I
Worked with Dr. Steve Wilson to complete the proposal for a writing center at SHC
Worked with science faculty on proposal to the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research/Lancy Foundation for undergraduate research program at SHC
Organized and participated in the Summer Seminar on the Core Curriculum
Participated in review of Alabama Prospective Teacher Test (at Dr. Ann Adams' request)
Administered Teagle Grant, including writing proposals for matching funds
Works in progress:
Revision plan for second edition of Making Sense
Compiling final manuscript for Pressure Points
Publications:
Edited Literary Mobile (a collection of essays, stories, and poems about Mobile) with Sue Walker and Mary Riser
Attended:
Monroeville Literary Symposium
Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers meeting
Read my short story
Lectures/talks/readings given:
Speaker and interviewer for SHC Friends of the Library evening with John Sledge and Sheila Hagler
Reading of Celtic poetry in the Sundays at Oakleigh series
Discussion leader for William March and The Bad Seed in the Saenger series
Narrator in Tom Loehr's film about Joe Langan
Lecture/discussion: First Baptist Church
Appear in the Tricentennial film about Mobile
Member:
Alabama Humanities Foundation: Board member
Alabama Writers' Forum: Board member
Leadership Mobile: Board member
Friends of SHC Library: Board member
Literary projects judge for Alabama State Council on the Arts
Co-chair of Art Off Centre project for the Centre for the Living Arts
Significantly revised ENG 244 Asian Literature
Works in progress:
Preparing stories for publication
Work on Mary McNeil Fenollosa
Revising the Bible in Literature course for next fall
Awarded Altmayer Chair in Literature for 2001-2003
Attended:
Southern American Studies Association biannual conference, Tallahassee, Florida
Presenter: "Pittsburgh in the Literary Imagination of African-American Writers"
Conference sponsored by the State University of West Georgia, Atlanta, Georgia
Presenter: "Order and Chaos in the Drama of Tom Stoppard"
Modern Language Association annual convention, New York, New York
Lectures/presentations/workshops given:
SHC Altmayer Lecture: "From Chaos to Pittsburgh and Back"
Member:
Modern Language Association
American Studies Association
Educational Policy and Academic Affairs Committee, SHC Board of Trustees
Accepted to attend a symposium at Oxford University last spring but had to cancel; have been invited to reapply for next spring
Led department in major curriculum revisions of the major and the freshman literature and composition sequence
Reviewer for new drama text for Harcourt Brace
Completed student evaluation for the State Department of Education
Judge at annual poetry slam
Works in progress:
Paper under consideration for publication by Modern Drama: "What Happens When the Door Slams? Shirley Valentine"
Paper on Stoppard under consideration for publication by State University of West Georgia
Presentation accepted for conference in October 2004 in Atlanta: "Silence and Laughter in Milan Kundera"
Proposal under consideration for presentation at a September conference at West Virginia University: "The Things They Carried; The Things They Left Behind"
Proposal under consideration for a paper at the 2nd International David Mamet Conference next summer in London: "Language as Power, Silence as Powerlessness"
Working on a paper on Albert French and Ernest Gaines: "The Rejection of God in Two African-American Novels"
Beginning preparation for a Cooperative Center for Study Abroad course that has been accepted for London in summer 2004
Research in New York this summer at Columbia University for a book on Shakespeare
Martha Patterson
Publications:
Completed a revision of my book (Imagining the American New Woman, 1895-1914) which is under contract with University of Illinois Press; book then went to a third reader who has requested additional revisions
Attended:
Association of College English Teachers of Alabama Conference, which focused on means of detecting and preventing plagiarism
Awarded:
Teagle Summer Research Grant for 2003
Worked with ENG 240 Introduction to Poetry students to host SHC's third annual poetry slam
Developed new course in women's studies -- HUM 395 Issues in Women's Studies: prepared assignments, did background reading, and used funds from the Teagle Interdisciplinary Partnership Grant to choose relevant films to enhance the course's effectiveness
Incorporated technology more effectively in classes: taught two courses in the wireless classroom and consequently was better able to integrate information literacy instruction more directly into classes; also used ERes to post course syllabi
Worked with webmaster Chris Hughes and the Women's Studies Committee to develop a women's studies website
Works in progress:
Revising Imagining the American New Woman, 1895-1914) for University of Illinois Press
Paper (on attitudes toward alcohol consumption in the creative work of black women in the 1920s) for the Modern Language Association conference in December 2003
Continuing to strategize about how most effectively to integrate information literacy into courses
Working with department colleagues to learn what they have found to be the most effective means of teaching ENG 121 Literature and Composition I and ENG 123 Literature and Composition II
Continuing to develop active learning strategies based on Barbara Walvoord's workshop
Working with a colleague at the University of South Alabama to apply for an Alabama Humanities Grant to host a speaker in women's studies and to promote women's studies at SHC and in the community at large
Awarded Altmayer Chair in Literature for 2003-2005
Publications:
David Mamet: A Resource and Production Sourcebook (co-authored with my wife) is now at Greenwood Press
Finished article for The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet edited by Christopher Bigsby (due out February 2004)
Will finish four entries on S.N. Behrman for the Grolier Encyclopedia of Modern Drama by June 2003
Have sent proposal to Palgrave for my next book, which will be on 20th century American drama -- status pending
Attended:
Modern Language Association Convention
David Mamet Society meeting
Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA) meetings
Member:
David Mamet Society
Steering Committee for the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's "Theatre in the Mind" program which gives scholarly/performance-based lectures for each play produced at the Festival
Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA): Board of Directors
Taught ENG 123 Literature and Composition II in the wireless classroom; students reported every day on a website resource relevant to the readings, thus helping them learn to assess and evaluate websites
Works in progress:
Book on American plays of the 1920s and 1930s compared with those of the 1970s-1990s
Paper for Modern Language Association Convention in December 2003
Have submitted a proposal for the International Mamet Society Convention in June 2004
Publications:
Have submitted two articles for publication to journals -- status pending (one article was a substantial revision of the article that was submitted to Sel last year and finally rejected after conflicting reader reports)
Attended:
Modern Language Association annual convention, New York, New York
Northeast Modern Language Association meeting, Boston, Massachusetts
Presented paper: "The Impersonal Jane Austen: Narrative Technique and Modern Mystery Novels"
British Women Writers Conference, Fort Worth, Texas
Presented paper: "Jane Austen's Body: Narrative Voice and Author-Reader Relations"
All SHC faculty development teaching workshops
Awarded:
Teagle Curriculum Grant (with Dr. Margaret Davis) to revise ENG 121 Literature and Composition I during spring 2003
As part of the Teagle Curriculum Revision Grant I shared with Dr. Margaret Davis, surveyed peer institutions to learn about the national state of composition teaching
Three new course preparations:
ENG 121 Composition and Literature I: Used writing textbook specifically designed for college freshmen making the transition from high school writing to college-level analytical writing
ENG 247 Women Writers: Piloted the use of the ERes discussion board
ENG 306 British Literature 1660-1900: Continued using the ERes discussion board
Substantial revision of ENG 123 English Composition and Literature II: used new writing textbook specifically designed for college freshmen making the transition from high school writing to college-level analytical writing; changed requirements for informal writing assignments so that none could be skipped
In higher level courses, used discussion board on ERes to enhance and enforce participation in response papers: required students to post their papers in advance and then required other students to read the posts before class and do group presentations and class activities based on the results
Wrote a large portion of the plagiarism section of the Freshman Seminar handbook and led a meeting on the topic of plagiarism for SHC tutors (both at Leslie Armstrong's request)
Works in progress:
Revising dissertation for publication
Awarded the 2003 Mitchell Faculty Scholarship in support of my project to produce/publish an anthology of contemporary Irish drama
Attended:
Western Regional Conference of the American Conference on Irish Studies, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California
Western Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature, Seattle University, Seattle, Washington
Presented paper: "Staging the Troubles: Drama as Reconciliation in Northern Ireland"
Served as chair/responder at the session at which my paper was presented
Lectures/workshops/presentations given:
Delivered invocation at the 15th anniversary luncheon of the Shoulder, a local drug/alcohol treatment center
Several talks for 12-step groups in the Mobile area
SHC Faculty Friday lecture: "The Ratio Studiorum and Jesuit Liberal Arts Education"
SHC Faculty Friday lecture: "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola"
As part of the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad program, team-taught a course, "Inventing Ireland," in Ireland for two weeks; course was an intense experience of living, teaching, and traveling with more than 50 students
Serve as counselor/resource person to Mobile’s 12-step groups
Works in progress:
Assembling and publishing an anthology of contemporary Irish plays
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Publications:
Article for Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies (SECOLAS)
Attended:
Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies annual meeting, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Presenter
Wrote "Why I Like Teaching at SHC" for the faculty and staff section of the SHC 2003 Yearbook
Developed proposal for new Spanish course: Spanish for Medical Personnel
Four new course preparations: SPA 105 Elementary Conversational Spanish I, SPA 106 Elementary Conversational Spanish II, SPA 312 Survey of Spanish-American Literature I, SPA 313 Survey of Spanish-American Literature II
Major course revisions due to departmental decision to change course content: SPA 105/106 Elementary Conversational Spanish I and II, and SPA 201 Intermediate Spanish I
Used more audiovisuals in elementary language classes and began tutoring program for students who needed individual attention
In intermediate language classes, students wrote short scripts in English and Spanish and then played them in front of class; writing the scripts was an excellent tool for reinforcing writing skills, grammar knowledge, and creativity; playing the scripts improved oral skills
Works in progress:
Evaluating student performance in Spanish language courses in order to identify common lowest performance causes and then develop a new approach, using statistical tools and pedagogical criteria, for improving my teaching
Publications:
Book review on Father Jose Acosta, S.J., is ready for publication in SELA (Southeastern Latin Americanist, published by SECOLAS [Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies] and the University of Central Florida) (refereed)
Attended:
Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies (SECOLAS) annual meeting, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Presented paper: "Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes' Campamento: Fiction and Reality During the Mexican Revolution"
Southwest Conference on Latin American Studies (SCOLAS) annual meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana
Presented paper: “Francisco L. Urquizo's Tropa Vieja: A General's Memories of the Mexican Revolution"
Member:
South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA)
Alabama Association of Teachers of Foreign Languages (AATFL)
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP)
Southwest Conference on Latin American Studies (SCOLAS)
Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies (SECOLAS)
Works in progress:
Article on the Costa Rican poet Ana Antillon to submit for publication
Two articles on Costa Rican literature ready for submission to editors
Continuing research in Costa Rican literature and Mexican fiction
Awarded:
Teagle Interdisciplinary Partnership Grant for Spring 2003 (with Dr. Martha Patterson) to revise the Issues in Women's Studies course
Attended:
Nineteenth-Century French Studies Conference, Columbus, Ohio
Presenter
Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) Conference, Seattle, Washington
Alabama Council for International Programs/Alabama Association of International Education (ACIP/AAIE) Conference, Anniston, Alabama
Member:
Mobile Alliance Française (French Institute to promote French culture and language in the United States and to strengthen Franco-American ties): President
SHC Study Abroad Coordinator
Revised FRE 101/FRE 102 Elementary French I and II due to changing to a new textbook that was much better than the previous text
Added new texts and art forms to LAN 302 French Heritage II
New class preparation: HUM 395 French Cinema
Maintained and strengthened contacts with the French faculty at the University of South Alabama; since I am the only person teaching French at SHC, this helped me stay current in my teaching and research field
Works in progress:
Revising a paper to be submitted to Nineteenth-Century French Studies on Stendhal's La Chartreuse de Parme
Revising dissertation for publication as a book
Working on a paper to be submitted to the Twentieth-Century French Studies Conference
Working on a chapter to be submitted for a book on nineteenth/twentieth-century French drama
Continuing to improve teaching strategies in elementary and intermediate French
Continuing to revise the Issues in Women's Studies course
Continuing to develop Study Abroad options and to increase student awareness of these options