This Week in English | April 9 – April 15, 2018

Dylan Dryer Presents on Wednesday

The Faculty Research and Scholarship Presentation Series, which is organized by Assistant Professor of English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Elizabeth Neiman, continues its spring 2018 season with a lecture by Associate Professor of Composition Studies Dylan Dryer this Wednesday at 4pm in the Writing Center.

Dryer’s topic is “The Present Futures of Writing Studies in Departments of English.” Light refreshments will be provided through the Lloyd H. Elliott Fund. The faculty presentation series is intended to advance conversation and community among students and faculty. All are welcome.

Poet & Eco-activist Allison Cobb in NWS on Thursday

Allison Cobb is the author, most recently, of After We All Died (Ahsahta Press); Plastic: an autobiography (Essay Press EP series); Born2 (Chax Press); and Green-Wood, originally published by Factory School with a new edition forthcoming in 2018 from Nightboat Books.

After We All Died was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Oregon Book Award. The poet Carolyn Forché describes the book as “inventive, visionary, hard-thought, and impossible to put down.”

Cobb’s work combines historical and scientific research, essay, and poetry to address issues of landscape, politics, and ecology. She works for the Environmental Defense Fund and lives in Portland, Oregon, where she co-curates The Switch reading, art, and performance series.

She first read in the New Writing Series in April of 2007. She returns to Orono this Thursday for an event that starts at 4:30 in the Allen & Sally Fernald APPE Space (Stewart Commons 104). Ben Friedlander will host. All are welcome.

Department Business: Spring Withdrawals, Committee & College Meetings

The last day for students to withdraw from a spring class with a “W” on their transcript is this Wednesday, April 11, at 4:30pm.

The Peer Committee, which consists of tenured faculty members, meets on Wednesday, April 11, at 3pm.

The College holds its second Faculty Meeting on Thursday, April 12, at 3:15pm in Wells.

Accepted Student Day on Friday, April 13

Accepted Student Day provides admitted students an opportunity to visit campus and meet with representatives of the majors they might be considering. There are two such days scheduled this spring: the first was on March 26, and the second is this Friday, April 13.

Professor Neiman and I seek student volunteers to join us in the Wicks Room between 10:30-11:30am to meet and chat with prospective majors. There is no special qualification for participation beyond your already existing experiences in English and at UMaine more broadly. Please let me hear from you at <english.chair@maine.edu> if you’re interested in helping out with Friday’s event.

Student Advisory Group in English (SAGE) to Meet on April 16

On a related note, a second meeting of the Student Advisory Group is tentatively planned for next Monday, April 16, at 3pm in the Wicks Room. The purpose of SAGE is to ensure that students have a chance to participate actively and creatively in the improvement of their experience as majors, minors, advisees, members of the broader undergraduate community, and alums. If you’d like to join SAGE, drop me a line at <english.chair@maine.edu> and I’ll make sure you receive further information.

Quick Takes

  • Life After UMaine is the Office of Institutional Research’s annual report on the employment and educational status of recent baccalaureates (link opens as a pdf)
  •  Preview of Patricia Wen’s King Chair Lecture on April 20
  • Mark your calendar for 2018 Poets/Speak, organized by poet Kathleen Ellis, at the Bangor Public Library on April 26 (flyer attached)
  • Peter Kalliney’s Chronicle of Higher Education article on reversing declines in the English major at University of Kentucky (also attached as pdf)

Have a great week, everyone!

Steve Evans

English Department Chair

This Week in English 25 was circulated to faculty, students, and friends of the department on Monday, April 9, 2018. If you would rather not receive these weekly bulletins, please reply with <unsubscribe> in your subject line. Earlier installments are archived on our website.