Timothy J. Cook delivered a paper on March 12 at the 53rd Annual Northeast Modern Language Association Convention that was hosted by Johns Hopkins University and held in Baltimore, Maryland. As co-chair of the panel “Generosities of Ezra Pound: A Caretaker of Poetry and Culture,” Cook shared his work, “‘I had a little note from Ezra...’: Revisiting Pound and H. D.”
As part of National Book Foundation (NBF) Presents, Jamaica Baldwin will be moderating a discussion between NBF-honored authors Grace M. Cho and Erika L. Sanchez. The authors will be reading from and discussing the books Tastes Like War and I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter respectively. The event will take place at the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha on Tuesday April 5th at 12:30.
During March, Tara Ballard received funding from the Joy Currie Fellowship for Professional Travel and a Graduate Student Travel Award. These awards allowed her to attend two conferences: both the virtual Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC), where she presented on the panel “Addressing Equity Gaps in First Year Writing,” and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) in Philadelphia. She is grateful to UNL’s English Department and the Graduate School for providing the financial assistance that allowed this opportunity to be possible.
Chaun Ballard recently presented at two March conferences: both the virtual Conference on College Composition & Communication, where he participated on the panel “Addressing Equity Gaps in First Year Writing,” and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Philadelphia, which included his panel “Socializing the Nature Poem.” He is grateful for the financial assistance provided through the receipt of a Joy Currie Fellowship for Professional Travel and a Graduate Student Travel Award.
Kathleen Dillon received the Joy Currie Fellowship and attended the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s Annual Convention for the first time this year. She writes: “Having left my career as an Academic Advisor to return to school in the fall of 2020, I anxiously anticipated attending this conference, wanting to learn more about our field and network with fellow teachers of writing. Even though the conference was online, I was able to connect with colleagues via breakout room discussions and on Twitter. I was thrilled to be able to present on my own scholarship with Dr. Nicole Green and Dr. Debbie Minter via our engaged learning ‘Fostering Vulnerability Through Critical Collaborative Reflection.’ Having vulnerable conversations on disability disclosure and institutional barriers with our attendees really helped solidify that I have a community in our field. Additionally, I attended a number of informative, engaging sessions. The ‘Demystifying the Dissertation’ session framed the dissertation as a ‘hunch’ and a ‘kernel of something.’ Hearing what I have been building up in my head as magnum opus framed this way was quite helpful. I received lots of advice on balancing both working within and critiquing the institution, especially as contingent labor, in the ‘Community Writing’ session. I was also incredibly moved by Anita Hill’s keynote, in which she acknowledged how difficult our work is as writing educators but said that she ‘knows we are up to the task.’ I believe her. Thanks for the support in attending this conference. I feel so much more connected to our field and had a wonderful experience.”
At CCCC, Erika Luckert and Stacey Waite presented on a roundtable titled “The Transformative and Political Potential of Creative Writing.” Erika also moderated a roundtable titled “Pursuing Social Justice in Writing Workshops,” which featured Celie Knudsen and David Winter as panelists.
At AWP, Erika Luckert, Katie Marya, and Jamaica Baldwin presented as part of a discussion room titled “Breaking the Silence: Ways for Writers to Speak in Workshops.” Erika appreciates the financial assistance for attending the conference provided through the Joy Currie fund in UNL’s English department.
Briar Essex presented a paper at the Northeast Modern Languages Association Conference. As part of the seminar session “Sapphic Echoes: Representations of Female Love and Desire in Global Literatures,” Briar presented their work “Are They Women? Are They Married? Does This Matter? - Gender Roles, Marriage, and Ambiguity in Aimeé Duc’s Are They Women? A Novel Concerning the Third Sex.
Marco Abel and Roland Végső published Hatred of Sex by Oliver Davis and Tim Dean as the 7th book in their Provocations book series published by the University of Nebraska Press.
Brie Owen’s A Queer History of Adolescence: Developmental Pasts, Relational Futures (U of Georgia P, 2020) was selected to receive the Children’s Literature Association Honor Book Award for books published in 2020.