Division of Languages and Literature 2003-04

ENGLISH

Paul Craven

Attended:

• Sigma Tau Delta International Convention

• Sponsored two SHC student presenters and moderated their presentation

• SHC faculty workshops

Member:

• Modern Language Association

• Melville Society of America

Works in progress:

• Revising dissertation (a study of narrativizing strategies in four American novels) for submission for publication

• Several articles on works in American literature for submission for publication

• Partnership with Dr. Guido Arze to produce Spanish language textbooks (he writes them and I edit); have edited several chapters so far

Margaret Davis

Awarded:

• Sabbatical for Spring 2004

• Mini-grant from Alabama Humanities Foundation for the SHC Friends of the Library literary program

 Attended:

• Society for the Study of Southern Literature biennial conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• Presented conference paper: "Transforming Grace Through the Lenses of Will Campbell and Jason Naslund"

• Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Conference on General Education and Assessment, Long Beach, California

• Alabama Writers Symposium, Monroeville, Alabama

• SHC Friends of the Library literary program 

• Served as director of program and introduced program

Lectures/workshops/presentations given:

• Taught a four-session course on Flannery O'Connor for the Institute for Lifetime Learning, Fairhope, Alabama

• Led a writing workshop for high school teachers at Houston Academy in Dothan, Alabama, for the Alabama Humanities Foundation

• Did book review on The Secret Life of Bees at Trinity Presbyterian's summer program

Member:

• Friends of Spring Hill College Library:  Board of Directors

Nominated for editorial board of Conversations, National Seminar on Jesuit Education

Used the smart classrooms and increased use of technology

Two English majors revised their senior seminar presentations from my last year's seminar class for a well-received presentation at the Sigma Tau Delta national convention; they also presented a similar work at SHC's Celebration of Our Learning (COOL) Day

Works in progress:

• "Gerard Manley Hopkins: Subversive Poet in the Old Testament Tradition" proposed as a chapter on Psalms in the Early Modern World

• "Intersections of Race and Class in the Civil Rights Struggles of the South" proposed as a paper topic for the Conflict in Southern Writing conference at Troy University, Troy, Alabama, in September 2004

• "A Fairy Tale Beginning: Teaching Short Fiction in a General Literature Course" to be submitted to Academic Exchange Quarterly for a special issue on teaching short fiction

• Article on teaching the novel to be submitted to Academic Exchange Quarterly for a special issue on the novel

• Revision of the Naslund/Campbell paper (originally presented at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference) for submission to Christianity and Literature

• Article on Flannery O'Connor for submission to O'Connor Bulletin or Mississippi Quarterly

• Article on two early 20th century characters who murdered their mates (appropriate journal to be determined)

• Using ideas gained from talking to colleagues and from reading about effective pedagogical methods to improve interactive learning and assessment

Stephanie Girard

Publications:

• Making Sense: Constructing Knowledge in the Arts and Sciences (with Coleman, Brittenham, and Campbell. 2nd edition, Houghton-Mifflin (forthcoming, 2006)

• Article on faculty development at SHC for the alumni magazine

Attended:

• American Literature Association conference

• Council on Undergraduate Research Workshop: "Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research Institute" The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey

• Teaching and Learning with Technology Institute

Lectures/workshops/presentations given:

• Odyssey Program, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Alabama: "Something about Gertrude Stein" 

• Presentation to SHC Board of Trustees on faculty development

• SHC Women's Studies lecture on Ntozake Shange

• Worked with Dr. Larry Hall (Sociology) on Hope VI participation

Member:

• SHC's Howard Hughes Medical Institute Planning Committee: with committee's help, wrote proposal to support undergraduate research

With co-editor Thomas Crochunis, completed the manuscript of Profession and Practice and submitted it to MLA Publications which decided not to publish it despite two strong reader's reports and earlier support for the project; SUNY Press also declined to publish it; we are considering our next move

Organized (with Shawn Allin and Royce Simpson) SHC's first annual Celebration of Our Learning (COOL) Day

Two new course preparations:  ENG 246 Introduction to Hispanic-American Literature and WRI 495 Writing Creative Nonfiction 

Increased use of technology in all courses:  PowerPoint, ERes, videos

Works in progress:

• Revising ENG 243 Introduction to Nonfiction Prose, using the theme of solidarity and incorporating technology and possibly service learning

• Working on creative nonfiction

John Hafner

Publications:

• Published requested review of Michelle Richmond's Dream of the Blue Room on the American Center for Artists website (www.americanartists.org )

Attended:

• Alabama Literary Symposium, Monroeville, Alabama

Lectures/talks/readings given:

• Lectured on the book and film, A River Runs Through It, for Fairhope Public Library series

• Lectured on ""Notable Contemporary Writers from L.A. (Lower Alabama)" for the Mason School at Dauphin Way Methodist Church

• Discussed The Secret Life of Bees with Modern Classics Book Club

• Speaker and interviewer for Friends of SHC Library literary evenings with Brewster Robinson and with Suzanne Hudson and Sonny Brewer

• Delivered invocation for Alabama Humanities Foundation annual awards luncheon

Member:

• Alabama Humanities Foundation:  Board member

• Alabama Writers' Forum:  Board member

• Leadership Mobile:  Board member

• Friends of SHC Library:  Board member

Co-chair of Art Off Centre project for the Centre for the Living Arts 

Judge for Friends of Mobile Public Library high school creative writing contest

Completely reworked ENG 492 Special Topics in American Literature: The Bible in Literature

 Works in progress: 

• Several short stories, two of which were submitted for a publishing competition (results nit yet known)

• Work on Mary McNeil Fenollosa material

Michael Kaffer [Division Chair]

Awarded Altmayer Chair in Literature for 2001-2003

Publications:

• Article: "Women Trapped by Illusion," accepted for the annual Tennessee Williams Journal

• Article: "The Things They Carried; the Things They Left Behind," for a Modern Language Association (MLA) publication on teaching Tim O'Brien

Attended:

• 28th Annual Colloquium on Literature and Film: The Evolution of War and its Representation in Literature and Film, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia

• Presenter:  "The Things They Carried: the Things They Left Behind"

• Modern Language Association annual convention, San Diego, California

• Cooperative Center for Study Abroad briefing, Cincinnati, Ohio

Member:

• Modern Language Association

• American Studies Association

Audited first-year French

Serve as faculty representative to the Educational Policy and Academic Affairs Committee, SHC Board of Trustees

Moderator of The Motley (SHC literary publication)

Works in progress:

• Paper on David Mamet, "Language as Power in Oleanna," to be presented at the International David Mamet Conference 

• Revising a paper, "Chaos in the Plays of Stoppard," for submission to Modern Drama

• Continuing to study French

• Preparing to teach a Cooperative Center for Study Abroad summer course in London, England

Martha Patterson

Awarded:

• With a colleague from the University of South Alabama, applied for and won a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation to host nationally known African-American poet and novelist Ntozake Shange for a lecture 

Publications:

• Completed revisions of my book (Imagining the American New Woman, 1895-1914) which is now at the copy editing stage

• Book review of Middlebrow Moderns: Popular American Women Writers of the 1920s, Lisa Botshon and Meredith Goldsmith, eds., in Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 21.2, 2004

Lectures/workshops/presentations given:

• Two proposals accepted at the American Literature Association conference

• Presentation on conceptions of alcohol use in African-American literature and culture

• Panel presentation on how to integrate video-game technology into literary analysis assignments

• SHC Faculty Friday presentation on conceptions of alcohol use in African-American literature and culture

New course preparation: ENG 241 Introduction to Fiction. One assignment was giving students an option of designing a video game based on one of the novels read in the course; students produced wonderful projects which I will share with colleagues at the next American Literature Association conference.

New course preparation: ENG 190 Honors Composition and Literature I. I gave students a number of different creative options for their year-end projects.  One group did a presentation on the history of race and racism in Elizabethan England generally and Othello specifically; they shared this work with students and faculty at this year's Celebration of Our Learning (COOL) Day.

New course preparation: ENG 247 Women Writers. Used new texts; encouraged students to participate in a number of activities outside class (Vagina Monologues at the University of South Alabama, Jocelyn Moody's lecture on African-American women in education, Ntozake Shange's lecture, Mab Segrest's talk)

New course preparation: ENG 492 Special Topics in American Literature - Flappers, Gangsters, and Gin: Literature and Culture of the 1920s. Goal was to give students an in-depth look at a period so they could see how certain key ideas were debated and reimagined by different writers for different aesthetic and political purposes.  We discussed literature, film, and art of the period; students were then asked to situate the text they analyzing within the cultural context of a particular movement (New Negro, New Woman, Modernism, Prohibition, etc.).

Works in progress:

• Writing a book proposal for a collection of period essays on the American New Woman

• Article-length essay dealing with conflicting attitudes toward alcohol consumption in African-American writing and music of the 1920s

• Continuing to integrate technology into courses in ways that encourage student participation

David Sauer

Awarded Altmayer Chair in Literature for 2003-2005

Publications:

• David Mamet: A Resource and Production Sourcebook (co-authored with my wife, Janice Sauer), Greenwood Publishing (Westport, Connecticut, and London: 2003)

• Article in David Mamet, Harold Bloom, ed. (Chelsea House, 2004): "Oleanna and The Children's Hour: Misreading Sexuality on the Post-Modern Stage"

• Article with Janice Sauer for The Cambridge Companion to David Mamet, Christopher Bigsby, ed. (Cambridge, 2004): "Misreading Mamet: Scholarship and Reviews." 

• Reviewed article for the journal Modern Drama 

Attended:

• Modern Language Association Convention

• David Mamet Society meeting

Lectures/workshops/presentations given:

• "Shakespeare's Romances," Mercy Medical lecture, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

Member:

• David Mamet Society

• President (as of January 2004)

• Planning Second International Convention in London, England, in June 2004

• Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA)

• Board member

• Director of London Study Program

Works in progress:

• Revising book: Theorizing American Drama

Michael Williams, S.J.

Awarded the 2003 Mitchell Faculty Scholarship: used funds to further my research project of possibly to producing an anthology of contemporary Irish plays

Attended:

• International James Joyce conference, University of Miami

• Cooperative Center for Study Abroad Professional Orientation meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio

As part of the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad program, team-taught a course, "Inventing Ireland," in Ireland 

Serve as counselor/resource person to Mobile’s Twelve-step community

Works in progress:

• Reading and collecting contemporary Irish plays for my project of editing a new anthology of plays

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Charles Kargleder

Publications:

• Reviewed two chapters of Mas alla de las palabras  by Gallego and Godev. Wiley Press.

• Book review of Natural and Moral History of the Indies by Jose de Acosta, S.J., Duke University for 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, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

• Presented paper:  "Jose Leon Sanchez' Tenochtitlan: The Last Battle of the Aztecs"

• North American Christian Foreign Language Association (NACFLA) annual meeting, Northwestern College, Orange City, Iowa 

• Presented paper:  “A Perspective on Fray Luis de Leon's De los nombres de Cristo" 

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)

• North American Christian Foreign Language Association (NACFLA) 

Named to Who's Who in America, 2004 edition

Works in progress:

• Three articles on Costa Rican writers

• One article on a Spanish writer

• Continuing research in Costa Rican literature 

Colette Windish

Attended:

• 20^th-21^st-Century French Studies Conference, Tallahassee, Florida

• Heartland-Delta Faculty Conversations, St. Louis, Missouri

Lectures/workshops/presentations given:

• Presenter at SHC's Celebration of Our Learning (COOL) Day

Member:

• Mobile Alliance Française (French Institute to promote French culture and language in the United States and to strengthen Franco-American ties):  President (until January 2004)

SHC Study Abroad Coordinator

In coordination with the University of South Alabama, helped bring nationally known African-American poet and novelist Ntozake Shange to Mobile for a lecture  (funded by a grant from the Alabama Humanities Foundation)  

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 Verlaine (a section of my dissertation)

• Revising a 2002 conference paper in order to publish it in either French Cultural Studies or The French Review

• Revising dissertation for publication as a book

• Working on a paper to be submitted to the Twentieth-Century French Studies Conference

• Working on a paper to be submitted to the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Conference

• Continuing to improve teaching strategies in elementary and intermediate French 

• Revise the Issues in Women's Studies course to have a more global content

• Continuing to develop Study Abroad options and to increase student awareness of these options