September 2021
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
Dear Colleagues,
It is hard to believe that September is coming to a close. I hope your semester has gone smoothly thus far and that you and your students are staying well. Campus vaccination rates are strong and, while cases of COVID-19 have occurred, those numbers are not high: https://emergency.charlottewp.psapp.dev/covid-19-dashboard. I remain optimistic that we will get through the semester successfully.
Thank you for your hard work and the on-going support you’ve given your students and each other as we navigate yet another pandemic semester. I have been so happy to see colleagues in person this fall—you are the real bright spots in my days. I am sure the staff feel the same way. As we go through the fall and winter, if you run out of masks, wipes, or sanitizer, please let me or Angie know, and we will provide more supplies for you. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your classes, I am happy to help.
Congratulations to the individuals below on their recent successes! If you have news that I should include in the monthly missives, send me the details and please don’t hesitate to remind me if I have overlooked anyone’s accomplishments.
KUDOS
Christine Arvidson is a featured poet with the Of Earth and Sky project (https://ofearthandskyclt.com/), which includes a Walking Tour of Poetry in uptown Charlotte and poems and videos of poets reading their work online. Chris’s video and poem “In Front of Yer Face” can be found here: https://ofearthandskyclt.com/chris-arvidson/
Pilar Blitvich is under contract to write an Element e-book with Cambridge University Press as part of the Cambridge Elements in Pragmatic Series. It will focus on the pragmatics of intergroup communication, specifically the online practices of thin groups in the context of Cancel Culture.
Chris Davis is serving as a faculty advisor for the LGBTQ Graduate Coalition, which was planned and recently launched by English M.A. student Anthony Mungo (Congratulations, Anthony!).
Allison Hutchcraft gave a virtual poetry reading for the September Poetrio event at Malaprop’s bookstore in Asheville, NC.
Janaka Lewis has been named as a Gambrell Faculty Fellow as a part of a team with Dr. Kendra Jason and Dr. Tehia Starker Glass to study Black women’s mobility relating to the economic impact of COVID-19, specifically the impact on parents of K-12 students.
Juan Meneses’s book, Resisting Dialogue: Modern Fiction and the Future of Dissent, was favorably reviewed recently in MFS: Modern Fiction Studies.
Lara Vetter was interviewed for “WordPlay,” a public radio show in Asheville, NC. She spoke about H.D.’s By Avon River and related current projects; you can listen at <http://stream.ashevillefm.org/afm-word-play-08152021.mp3>.
REMINDERS
Don’t forget that we have a department meeting on Friday (October 1) from 11:00-12:30. Angie sent out the agenda earlier this week. Here is the link to the meeting: https://uncc.zoom.us/j/95973312878
Unsatisfactory Mid-Term Grading access opens tomorrow (9/30). Unsatisfactory Mid-Term Grades are due by noon on October 15th.
Book orders for the spring semester are due October 15th.
Best wishes,
Paula