April 23- May 7, 2021

Want to Attend a Summer Course but Don't Know What to Pick? Check These Courses Out!

ENGL 253: Intro to Poetry Writing- In this three week asynchronous course, taught by Dr. James Brunton, students will analyze work by poets in the LGBTQ+ community and BIPOC poets. The course will instruct students towards understanding how to talk and write about poetry like a poet, and help students form new techniques for experimenting with poetry. This is an introductory course, so no previous poetry knowledge is required. The course also fulfills ACE 7 and the writing requirement for the English major.

ENGL 413: Film- In this course Dr. Marco Abel will be hosting a three week in-person presession focusing on what exactly critics and scholars mean when they characterize a film as “realistic”? This course will use the case study of the films of the so-called “Berlin School”of German cinema—one of the most discussed “art cinema” movements of the last fifteen years—and put those films in conversation with films from South America, the US, Asia, and other European nations. The ultimate goal of the course is to provide students with not only an in-depth sense of a crucial development in contemporary cinema but also a nuanced understanding of cinematic realism and its politics. The course also fulfills ACE 7, and counts toward ENGL and FILM majors and minors.

ENGL 207: Bob Marley, Lyrical Genius- This five week webconference course, conducted by Professor Kwame Dawes, treats the lyrics of Bob Marley as a body of poetic art that offers insight into his social, political and spiritual impact on Caribbean society and the world. The course will follow the careful study of Marley’s lyrics in laid out in the book, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, which is a required text, while contextualizing Marley’s influence of film, fiction, poetry and art of the Caribbean. Students interested in poetics, popular culture, music, and political art will enjoy this revealing insight into one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The course also fulfills ACE 5, and with permission, can count toward ENGL major.

ENGL 317: Literature & the Environment- This is a field immersion course in literature and the environment taking place at Cedar Point Biological Station, near Ogallala, Nebraska next to Lake McConaughy. In this course, students will immerse themselves in literature of the Great Plains spanning the past century. Professor Emily Rau's syllabus prioritizes the work of Indigenous authors, weaving those texts together with works by canonical writers from a settler colonial context in order to offer a more comprehensive perspective on the stories of the Great Plains. This course will closely explore the complex history of the region, while looking towards potential methods for reconciliation and for cultivating a responsible relationship with the space we inhabit. The course also fulfills ACE 5, and counts toward ENGL diversity/global awareness or ENGL concentration.

Spice Up Your Fall Schedule With These Courses!

ENGL 211: Literature of Place- In this course students will look at writers and literary works associated with a particular place that would typically be defined by geographic factors rather than political boundaries. The place will vary from course to course, but will regularly include the North American Great Plains. The course fulfills ACE 5.

ENGL 277: Being Human in a Digital Age- This introductory course looks at some of the major implications of computer technologies to the humanities by examining the historical influence of new technologies on how we think of ourselves, how we determine public and private spaces in an increasingly connected world, and how we can use computer technologies to produce, preserve, and study cultural materials. The course fulfills ACE 5.

ENGL 303: Short Story- Expand your literary knowledge in this introductory course to the historical context, criticism, and interpretation of short stories. The course fulfils ACE 5.

The Verdict is in: Derek Chauvin Convicted on All Accounts for the Murder of George Floyd

Staff. “Portrait of George Floyd Reproduced on a Sign. Courtesy Artists for George.”
Behind The Scenes

On Tuesday April 20th, 2021, justice was served after ex-police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all accounts for the murder of George Floyd. This event, while important, is only one small step in the path towards police reform and racial equality.

Link For Full Article: https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/trial-of-george-floyd-killing

Senate Passes New Bill Made to Protect Asian Americans

On April 22nd the Senate passed a bill to address the rise in hate incidents and violence against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic ― a rare display of legislative cooperation. The issue has gained further urgency after a series of shootings at Atlanta-area spas last month.

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), would a federal review of coronavirus-related hate crimes, expand data collection and public reporting of such incidents, and provide guidance on best practices to mitigate racially discriminatory language in describing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Link For Full Article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/senate-hate-crimes-bill_n_60817045e4b0c1b896462472

10 Women Poets Who Inspired Me To Become a Writer

"As a kid, I never understood poetry. And I certainly never thought I was capable of writing it. Poetry felt like the top shelf I could never reach—there was just something you needed to be able to write it and I never thought I had “it.” As I got older, I looked back at the rhyming words I had strung together in my diaries realized that maybe it was a type of poetry. I kept writing, and I began to study the poets I had learned about in school—“canon poets,” mainly white men. Though I was completely and entirely captivated, I wanted to learn about the women who had the gift of creating worlds out of words too. So I began to research female poets, from all around the world, who never quite made it to the textbooks I received in school."

Read more from Aija Mayrock.

On the Long Tradition of the Imitative Performance of Blackness

"In Shakespeare’s lifetime, blackness was performed in two modes—exhibition (black people on display) and imitation (white men in racial prosthetics). Because in the exhibition mode all the power resided in the viewer (not the one exhibited), and because in the imitation mode all the power resided in the white, blacked-up performer, performances of blackness were a white performance property for actors and audiences.

In the 19th century, blackness and whiteness were performed by black actors for the first time in the United States and the United Kingdom, and their performances challenged the long-standing assumptions that (1) blackness was a white performance property and (2) only white actors could be virtuoso performers. These early 19th-century black performers were denigrated by white critics, white audiences, and their fellow white actors for “aping” white performance modes. The criticisms these black actors faced told them to stay in their lane, a lane which indicated they were only fit for imitation and “aping.”

In the 21st century, it is possible to see the legacy of these unequal horizons of expectations for black performers in three distinct performance modes: minstrelsy/imitation, exhibition/trauma, and anxiety/authenticity."

Read more from Ayanna Thompson.

It's Never Too Late! Get the Covid-19 Vaccine Today!

Pharmacies across nation are now offering vaccines. Look on Vaccinefinder today to find the nearest location to you that is offering vaccines.