Spring 2012 Dish: Student and Faculty News

Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor Society 2012 Undergraduate and Graduate Inductees

Undergraduate students Kimberly Daigle, Jonathan Dorn, Jenna Herbert, Rebecca Hosie, Alexandra Korcz, Jennifer Marsteller, Adrianne Purtell, Sarah Shaw, and Christopher Surprenant were inducted into the Sigma Delta Tau English Honor Society at a ceremony on April 22, 2012. English and English-Adolescence Education majors who have completed 18 credits of English courses at Saint Rose and have a GPA of 3.5 or above are invited to join the Honor Society. Graduate students Melissa Archambeault, Emily LaPointe, and Mary Catherine Owen were also inducted into the Honor Society on the 22nd. Graduate inductees must have a GPA of or above 3.75 to be invited to join this English Honor Society in their final semester of study.

Congratulations on all your hard work, 2012 inductees!

Graduate Student News:

Graduate student Mary Catherine Owen (left) has had her nonfiction piece, “I was (Almost) a Twentysomething Jeopardy! Contestant” was published on Splinter Generation, an online literary compilation. Regarding her status as a published author Owen remarked, “I was published in an online magazine called Defenestration in my sophomore year of undergraduate study at Saint Rose (and in Strose Prose after my freshman year), but this feels more like a real publication–particularly because my writing has improved so much in the past four years.” Read Mary Catherine’s piece!

Faculty Dish:

Dr. Alyssa Colton’s article, “Jumping Ship: Navigating the Waters of Alternative Career Options,” appeared in the AWP Job List in January 2012. 

Dr. Megan Fulwiler’s and Dr. Kim Middleton’s co-authored article, “After Digital Storytelling: Video Composing in the New Media Age,” is in the March edition of Computers and Composition. They also recently presented their paper, “From Center to Network: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century,” at the NITLE Symposium (National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education).    

Dr. Kim Middleton’s article “Remix Video and the Crisis of the Humanities” appears in the latest issue of Transformative Works and Cultures.

On April 14, Professor Marcie Newton presented her paper at the “Craving Happiness, Containing Anxiety” interdisciplinary graduate conference at Brown University. Her paper is titled “‘I Love You; I ‘ate You’: Oral Aggression and the Consumed Subject in Antonia White’s Autobiographical Novels.”    

Dr. Holis Seamon’s short story, “The Trojan Cat,” appears in the Spring 2012 online issue of Persimmon Tree Magazine. Dr. Seamon’s newest book, a collection of short stories titled Corporeality, will be published by Able Muse Press in spring 2013.    

Dr. Brian Sweeney has been awarded a CREST Residential Fellowship for 2012-13. Dr. Sweeney said about his upcoming work, “The award will support my ongoing research into literary depictions of servants and professionals in 19th-century U.S. texts. The title of my CREST project is “Hazards and Joys of Importing Servants: Race, Atlantic Migration, and Free Servitude in Antebellum Fiction” and concerns the so-called “servant problem,” the middle-class belief that republican ideals of social equality had made the “faithful servant” (as well as the respectable domesticity which was imagined to depend on the loyalty of servants) an impossibility in the United States.”

See also the previous blog post for information on undergraduate student Paige Maguire’s recent publication!

Publishing Announcement: Paige Maguire

Congratulations to undergraduate student Paige Maguire on publishing her short story “The Best Things You Get In Life Are Stolen,’ in the online literary magazine Write From Wrong. The story was written as an exercise in Dr. Hollis Seamon’s ENG 313 class in Fall 2011.

Write From Wrong is run by recent graduates of Loyola University Maryland. They welcome all writers from all over the globe and publish poetry, short fiction, and creative non fiction, as well as photography and art.

Paige Maguire’s story can be found here.

If you’re being published in the coming months, make sure to let us know to be featured on the blog!

Graduate Advanced Projects and Presentations

Eleven English Graduate students have been working to complete their advanced projects this semester. Some of the students who completed projects in fall 2011, as well as some of those working this spring, will share their work on two nights, Thursday, May 3rd and Thursday, May 10th. Both of these presentation celebrations will be held at 6:30pm in Albertus 369 (369 is a large room towards the Science Center side of the 3rd floor of Albertus). All are welcome to attend the presentations!

Presenting on May 3rd: Kaitlin Affrunti, Melissa Archambeault, Tony Carrano, Lisa Christopher, Mary Catherine Owen, Steve Woosley.

Presenting on May 10th: Jonathan Hall, Ashley Healey, Sarah Lahue, Emily LaPointe, Briana St. John.

The following is a list of the students working on advanced projects this semester, their degree concentration, and a little about their projects:

Melissa Archambeault, Literature. “I’m using the Horror/Gothic genre and looking at Lacanian Mirror Theory as a way to interpret the meaning between protagonist and monster in a piece.”    

Tony Carrano, Writing. “I’m looking at literary aesthetics and the possibilities opened up by Experimentalist approaches.”

Lisa Christopher, Literature. “My tentative title for my advanced project is “Behind the Social Tapestry: Race and Class in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.” I’m writing about the portrayal of race and class in the novel, arguing that race and class are collapsed together, and ultimately signify each other. Lily Bart, the protagonist of The House of Mirth, has trouble interacting with characters of a lower class than her own because she fears the contamination of her own status and bloodline.”    

Jonathan Hall, Writing.  “I’m working on a collection of poetry that explores the relationship between people and the places and buildings in which they live.”

Ashley Healey, Literature. “For my advanced project I am focusing on Shakespeare’s Macbeth and 2 Henry VI.  I will be exploring how Shakespeare creates characters that are constantly performing gender in different ways, which demonstrates how there is not one fixed definition of gender.”    

Sarah Lahue, Literature. “My advanced project looks at the character of Patrick Bateman in Mary Harron’s screen adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho as an example of the performativity of gender.”    

Emily LaPointe, Literature. “My project, “Captivity in ‘Asian America:’ On Susan Choi’s American Woman,” facilitates a conversation between Asian American discourse and the American Captivity narrative genre via Choi’s novel.”    

Meghan McCormick, Literature. “My advanced project is focusing on William Faulkner and the Postbellum South using the text Absalom, Absalom! I am analyzing the character’s storytelling style in comparison to Southern sermons of the Antebellum time, arguing that Faulkner uses traditional sermonic storytelling as a tool to produce a modernist text.”   

Mary Catherine Owen, Writing. “My advanced project is a collection of personal essays that explores the nature vs. nurture question of personality.”

Briana St. John, Writing. “My advanced project experiments with the form of fairy tales. I try to break away from some of the more standard formulas used to tell these stories, using present tense instead of past, direct address instead of third-person point-of-view, and using panels to tell the same story from different perspectives. Fairy tales are constantly evolving, being added to and subtracted from as they are passed down, and I try to extend that tradition by shifting the focus of my fairy tales from content to form.”    

Steve Woosley, Literature. “My project is entitled “Cutting a Bloody Swathe through History: Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and 16th century Samurai Culture.” I’m looking primarily at the film Throne of Blood and grappling with critics that say the film is nothing more than an adaptation, appropriation or transposition of Shakespeare’s Macbeth into 16th century Japan, arguing instead that if someone looks at the historical context in which the film is set, that person can see that the story of Throne of Blood (and also Macbeth to an extent) is unfolding and has unfolded repeatedly already.”

 

The Vagina Monologues: Monday, April 23 at 7pm

Join us for a performance of The Vagina Monologues in conjunction with

VDay2012. Written by Eve Ensler, the play is a series of monologues each having to do with a different issue that befalls women and their sexuality. All the proceeds from this event will go to the Domestic Violence Prevention Center at the Albany Equinox Shelter.

Hope to see you there in support of this worthy cause!

Student/Faculty Reading this Friday!

 The next reading in this semester’s Student/Faculty reading series will be held this Friday night! Join us in a night of original fiction read by your classmates and professors. This week’s participants are Dr. Rone Shavers, Tony Carrano, Emily Perez and Jay Frost. It will start at 6:30 at the Hudson River Coffee House at 227 Quail St. in Albany.

Hope to see you there!

It’s a Tie for Graduate Top Honors!

Graduate Top Honors in English this year is a go to Kaitlin and Brianna who tied it up for the top spot. Read on to probe the thoughts and aspirations of two truly talented students!

Kaitlin, originally from East Brunswick, NJ is in the Literature concentration. When asked what she would like to do with her diploma, Kaitlin said, “My plans after graduation are to go back further south. I’m looking at either the NYC or NJ area.” What about the question that haunts every English M.A. student to his/her core: Are you going to go for your Ph.D.? Kaitlin commented about further education and job prospects, “I’m not sure if I’m going to go on for a Ph.D. If I do, it wouldn’t be for another few years, but I’m going to look into adjuncting positions because I’ve always wanted to teach writing. I’m also interested in the publishing industry or anything involving new media.” What will Kaitlin do with all her spare time after studying is over (at least for a while)? She said, “I’m really looking forward to getting back into creative writing which I haven’t had much time for lately!” A fond memory for Kaitlin is the conference she attended last spring in Rhode Island. About the experience she commented, “I really liked going to the conference at URI and feeling like I was sharing my work in a professional setting outside of the comfort of St. Rose.” Kaitlin has gained a lot of wisdom as she comes to the culmination of her degree, so here are her keys to success: “I think the biggest lesson to be learned is start your research early! Not always an easy thing to do but definitely necessary when you’re juggling two to three final papers a semester. Also, I would say to branch out and not be afraid to explore the research topics that are the harder or more unfamiliar topics to you. I think I learned the most from the more difficult papers I wrote, but they were also the more rewarding. Lastly, invest in a Keurig.”

Brianna is a Writing concentrator and one of those brave souls that dare to do it all in five years—she is a dual B.A./M.A. major. About the next step Brianna said, “I have absolutely no idea. Being in the B.A./M.A. program has kept me pretty busy for five years. I may pursue a Ph.D. eventually, but I think I want to start the job-hunt. Whatever I do, I definitely want to keep writing. I’m going to keep trolling Project Muse, keep submitting stories and poetry for publishing. Having my Masters at 23 is still pretty good, so I figure I can take a year or two off without feeling too guilty.” Besides hard work and dedication, Brianna said that she has accomplished a lot with many thanks to Saint Rose. Brianna commented, “I’ve been lucky enough to be in a stellar program with exceptional professors and peers where dedication and hard work have become the norm. Doing my best has always been important to me, but I just simply like writing, I like reading and thinking about and discussing literature. Being able to do those things in such an encouraging and challenging environment has been fantastic.” Brianna also acknowledged the importance of the skills she’s obtained with her degrees and experiences at Saint Rose: “The skills I’ve learned will definitely be useful in the future. Learning to write and communicate clearly, being able to do thorough research and to synthesize information, and just to bring an analytic and critical eye to my own work will hopefully be beneficial. The writing skills I’ve learned at Saint Rose is already paying off, and I’m excited to see what else is in store.” Those writing skills are definitely paying off— Brianna’s poem “We Do Not Die” was recently published in  Thoughtsmith, an online literary magazine!

Finally, here are some memories and skills that will stick with Kaitlin and Brianna as they move on from Saint Rose:

Kaitlin: “Memories of, no matter how much work school was, being able to have friends in class who all were in the same boat. In other words, feeling like we were figuring out this grad school thing together. I really enjoyed doing independent work with Megan Fulwiler and being able to build my own projects and classes based on the specific things I was interested in. My Advanced Project was probably the favorite thing that I did in graduate school. I found the research fascinating on it and really enjoyed being able to look at real-time data from my classmates’ tweets! It was something I can say I was truly proud of by the time it was all finished!”

Brianna: “I’m an intern at a lobbying firm right now, and these skills have already helped me gain access to more interesting projects, like researching for new lobbying opportunities, reading through budget documents, and editing client memos and proposals. I may not get to write about Zizek and RHPS every day post-grad, but having written about Zizek and RHPS has sharpened my writing skills, and has allowed me to engage topics in more complex ways, which has made me a stronger writer and thinker. Saint Rose has given me the opportunity to explore creative ideas in both my creative and academic writing, and has granted me access to people with truly excellent minds.”

Congratulations on your outstanding work, Kaitlin and Brianna!

Call for graduate papers: The 6th Nomadikon Meeting

“Ecologies of Seeing or Seeing Whole: Images and Space, Images within Images”

The 6th Nomadikon Meeting

The Nomadikon Centre, The University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway and The College of St. Rose, Albany, New York, USA invite paper proposals for a graduate student program on the theme “Ecologies of Seeing or Seeing Whole: Images and Space, Images within Images.”  The one-day program will be held September 27, 2012 from noon to 5:00 pm on The College of St. Rose campus in Albany, New York, and will precede the Nomadikon/Saint Rose conference (which will run from Thursday evening, Sept. 27, through Sept. 29).  The conference theme reflects an overall interest in the process of seeing itself, where “seeing” suggests  but is not limited to physical sight and includes metaphors of an embodied “seeing.”  The conference is interdisciplinary and invites papers on film, painting, photography, performance, music, material culture, and literature.  Students who participate in this pre-conference event are invited to join the full conference that begins on Thursday evening, the 27th.

Papers may include, but are not limited to, the ethics and/or aesthetics of image, the embedded image, images that “make” space, and images that “are” space, the codification of image, and image that resists codification.  In reference to the conference theme, papers may also address themes of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, dis/ability and class.  The conference is small by design.  We will accept the ten (10) papers that best address the conference theme.

Student registration for the conference is $40.00 U.S.  Send proposals of 300-500 words to Mark Ledbetter at ledbettm@strose.eduby May 10, 2012.  For out of town guests, hotel information will be provided.

Nomadikon is a transdisciplinary research group and center for image studies and visual aesthetics at the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen. The center launched in the fall of 2008 with the project New Ecologies of the Image (2008-2012), and consists of a core team of six locally based scholars, international affiliates, and a global network of visual culture studies researchers.

Among the research topics pertinent to the Nomadikon project are the manifestations of iconoclasm and iconophobia; image wars and visual ideologies; the cultural performance of on/scenity (Linda Williams); the aestheticization of affliction; controversial and offensive images; media convergence and the formation of new visual ecosystems; the nomadicization of the image; and the visual codification of subjectivity and social value. For more information on Nomadikon and its previous meetings and publications, visit www.nomadikon.net.

The College of Saint Rose was founded in 1920. The primary academic purpose of the College is the full development of the person through a strong liberal arts curriculum.  The College of Saint Rose community engages highly motivated undergraduate and graduate students in rigorous educational experiences. In addition to developing their intellectual capacities, students have the opportunity to cultivate their creative and spiritual gifts in a diverse learning community that fosters integrity, interdependence, and mutual respect. The College delivers distinctive and comprehensive liberal arts and professional programs that inspire its graduates to be productive adults, critical thinkers, and motivated, caring citizens.