Heather Barrett, Amy Bennett-Zendzian, and Holly Schaaf organized a panel titled “Lost and Found in Translation: The Challenges and Benefits of Content-Based ELL Writing Courses” at the University of Connecticut’s 10th Annual Conference on the Teaching of Writing, held on March 27 in Storrs, Connecticut. Each of them presented a paper on their experiences teaching WR 100 ESL sections on Gothic literature, fairy tales, and unique and universal languages, respectively.
Jay Atkinson will publish his Massacre on the Merrimack: Hannah Duston’s Captivity and Revenge in Colonial America In September 2015. Following is the announcement from the publisher’s page: In March, 1697, Abenaki warriors in service to the French raided the English village of Haverhill, MA. The Abenaki killed 27 settlers, and took 13 captives, including 39-year-old Hannah Duston and her week-old daughter, Martha. During the attack, one of the warriors murdered the infant by dashing her head against a tree. Two weeks later, Duston and her companions, a 51-year-old woman and a 12-year-old boy, moved among the sleeping Abenaki with tomahawks and knives, killing two men, two women, and six children. After scalping their victims, Duston and the others escaped down the Merrimack River in a stolen canoe. In Jay Atkinson‘s eighth narrative book, he explores whether Hannah Duston was the prototypical feminist avenger, or the harbinger of the Native American genocide.
Seth Blumenthal’s article, “Children of the ‘Silent Majority’: Richard Nixon’s Young Voters for the President, 1972” is published in this spring’s Journal of Policy History.
Deb Breen recently gave a talk at an event at BU International History Institute: a symposium to mark the centenary of the Ҫannakale ǀ Gallipoli campaign in WWI. The symposium was called The Road to Peace out of War where she was one of three speakers (Turkish, New Zealand, and Australian). Her talk was called “Mutable Memory: An Australian Perspective on the Changing Commemoration of Anzac Day.” She also had an article published recently: “Imperial Mobility: The Colonial Worlds of Sir Anthony and Lady Jeanie Musgrave” in American Review of Canadian Studies 45: 1 (2015), 93-112.
Dora Goss had an essay come out in Faerie Magazine 30 (Spring 2015), titled “Into the Dark Forest: The Fairy Tale Heroine’s Journey.” It was directly inspired by the class Dora has been teaching on fairy tales. The article is about an underlying pattern she identified in a number of different fairy tales that she calls the “Fairy Tale Heroine’s Journey.” In February, Dora was an invited panelist at the 7th Annual Yale Women in Leadership Conference, in New Haven, Connecticut. She spoke on a panel called “Switching Your Career: When Life Calls for a U-Turn” about leaving the practice of law to go back to graduate school, get a degree in English literature, and become a writer and teacher.
Somy Kim published the book chapter, “Mapping Dystopia in Ebrahim Golestan’s Mud Brick and Mirror” in A Persian Mosaic: Essays on Persian Language, Literature, and Film. Her translation of Shahriyar Mandanipur’s “The Blind Deer” was published with the Association for the Study of Persian Literature.
Tom Oller is Vice Chair of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, or AHA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public about Alexander Hamilton’s legacy and his contributions to the founding of this country. The AHA holds events in New York, New Jersey, and other locations twice a year: on the anniversaries of his birthday, on January 11, 1757, and of his death, on July 12, 1804. You can find more info about the AHA and its activities on these websites.
Anna Panszczyk’s article, “The Power of the Vulnerable Body: From Sappho to Erin Belieu” was published in Women’s Studies: An Inter-disciplinary Journal earlier this year.
At the recent TESOL Conference in Toronto Sarah Hanselman, Kim Shuckra-Gomez, and Maria Zlateva presented a session “Context in Genre: Helping L2 Students Access Course Content.” Based on their experiences in both ESL and mixed courses, particularly from the recently developed Mediated Integration (MI) cluster, they provided both theoretical and practical suggestions for identifying and providing context for ESL students in both ESL and mainstream classes.
Joelle Renstrom has a collection of essays that is due to be published by Pelekinesis in August 2015. Closing the Book: Travels in Life, Loss, and Literature explores the intersection of literature and life in personal essays about traveling, teaching, reading, writing, living, and dying. Each essay’s narrative arc is formed and informed by the act of reading literature that makes a reader feel like the book she’s reading was somehow written specifically for her to read in that exact moment. Joelle teaches in the Writing Program focusing on space, artificial intelligence, and science fiction. Joelle’s award-winning blog Could This Happen? explores the relationship between science and science fiction. Her work has appeared in Slate, Guernica, The Toast, and others.
Jason Tandon is happy to announce (belatedly) that he and his wife Whitney welcomed Harper Elisabeth Tandon to the world on February 23rd. Baby girl, mom, and little brother Charlie are all doing very well! (And in the middle of this post, Dad had to change a diaper!). In addition, poems from Jason’s new manuscript have been accepted this year by several journals, including Poetry East, Spoon River Poetry Review, Patterson Literary Review, Salamander, South Carolina Review, Ruminate Magazine, Folio, Gargoyle, and Modern Haiku.
Tony Wallace’s short story “Miniature Lives of the Saints” will be published in the Spring 2015 edition of The Missouri Review. This past spring he served on the CAS Lecturer Promotion Committee. On Thursday, May 7 he will be reading from The Old Priest at Davio’s in Lynnfield, MA. Chris Walsh and Michelle Hoover will also be reading from recent work. This is a ticketed event organized by Kim Shuckra-Gomez and will begin at 7pm. For complete information and to reserve tickets, please contact Ann Glyn at damien.glynn@verizon.net.
Boston University Writing Program 