Introduction to Whaling: Melville

When it was time to pick classes for my senior year, I wanted to make a change from the traditional (hey, I wanted to challenge convention). I remember thinking, right around the time when registration was beginning for end-of-junior-year-me, This is my last-hurrah and I want to fill it with something personally meaningful. After some brainstorming, I decided that I wanted to make my own class on Herman Melville; or, my life’s obsession. So I approached Professor Neuman about helping me write a syllabus for a directed reading class that was Melville-intensive. I was met with great support immediately and I soon found myself enrolled in my own class. With the naming-suggestion by fellow English-major Jeremy Levine, I created “Introduction to Whaling: Melville.” I remember the happy-dance I did when the registrar told me “We have approved your directed study, to be named Introduction to Whaling.”

Herman Melville, Nick's Obsession

Now that I have been enrolled in this class for about half a semester, I have finally figured out what it is and what it is not. It is not a course where I will write long essays. Rather, Introduction to Whaling is a reading, discussion, and enrichment class. I am reading all of Melville’s short fiction and three of his more obscure novels by the end of the fall (Israel Potter, Pierre, and Redburn). Other than reading, the only other class requirement is the enrichment portion: field trips.

You might already be aware that Massachusetts is the perfect place for this Intro to Whaling class and for someone like me who has an unhealthy obsession with Melville. For one, my entire Capstone class (conveniently reading Moby-Dick…yes!!!) is taking a field trip in mid-October to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. I even went to the Nantucket Whaling Museum back in May to open up my Massachusetts Melville adventures. But one of the best trips ever was one Jeremy (remember him?), David Bertoldi (honorary English major for the day), and I took to David’s hometown of Pittsfield, MA back in late August to visit Arrowhead, Herman Melville’s home from 1850-1863.

Arrowhead, Melville's Home from 1850-1863

The day consisted of the three of us taking our first Saturday of the semester and driving one-hundred miles to Pittsfield, all the while filling the car with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. We came across the mustard-yellow Arrowhead and were soon enthralled in learning the history of the property. We learned about Herman Melville’s life, including some of his lesser-known but hilariously awesome anecdotes, like his escape from a Tahitian prison, his work in a bowling alley, and his AWOL travels in the South Pacific. We also saw the view of Mount Greylock which apparently inspired Moby-Dick because of its whale-like shape.

Mount Greylock, Lookin' Like a Whale

     
We  saw Melville’s writing desk, his family’s chamber pot (not sure how to feel about that one), and Mark Twain’s sheet music holder, which to our disappointment was not given to Melville by Twain but instead was part of the Berkshire Historical Society estate. We followed up Arrowhead with a trip to the Melville room at the Pittsfield Library, which had a first-edition copy of Moby-Dick under inches of protective glass. The extensive Melville collection was enviable. I wanted to live there. Arrowhead was an amazing trip, and I know that there will be more adventures to come. Introduction to Whaling is proving to be an invaluable experience and I am grateful to the English Department for supporting (enabling) my obsessions (passions).

Jeremy also wrote on this for his Admissions blog, so check out his perspective: http://admissions.clarku.edu/clark-diaries/2014/09/10/senior-years-some-subtle-differences/

Just What Can You Do With an English Major?

     It is a question that I get asked a lot: just what can you do with an English major? My answer: well, a lot of things. True, I want to be a teacher, the more "traditional" route (I am told), but there are a great number of opportunities for people who can write well, organize thoughts succinctly and cogently, and think critically about the outside world. These are qualities that often come with an English degree.

     But now for something perhaps unexpected; that is, what I did with my English major over the summer. This summer I spent some of my time completing a LEEP Project at the Worcester Art Museum (WAM), crossing over the English major that I know so well with an art history focus that I knew nothing about.

   I served as the Worcester Art Museum's Research & Writing Assistant for Educational Curriculum Guides. It was an opportunity that came to me via Clark’s Art History Department, though I found that my English major was very easy to carry over disciplines. Actually, it was essential, because of my limited experience in art history. 

    For WAM, I wrote a series of educational guides for the major galleries, to be used by visiting teachers and students. Before the project, teachers had no resources available to them on the Museum's website and only a few resources located inside permanent galleries. I researched, drafted, and wrote a series of targeted literature for teachers and their students to use while visiting the Museum. The guides allow students to have a deeper engagement with highlights of the collection. They provide students with images, discussion questions, and resource links so that they can better connect their content-area classrooms with art and art history. 

     For instance, one guide discusses Greek art with an emphasis on the literature of ancient Greece, including the early poet Sappho. Knowing that my research was interdisciplinary, I also wanted the guides to have an interdisciplinary emphasis.    

     Through my project, I was able to see the value of interdisciplinary study for the first time in my life because the project combined my interests in writing, photography/graphic design, education, and the arts. For example, I was often challenged at WAM not only to think about what I was writing, but also who I was writing for and why. I had to draw from English, education, art history, studio art, and philosophy classes. And the English major was the glue to hold everything together. My ability to write and think critically about what I read was invaluable to me while I was working. And as of a month ago, WAM published my fifteen-part curriculum guide series. The link is below!

Check out my summer work: http://www.worcesterart.org/education/school_programs.html and scroll to "Guides and Instruction Sheets". There are fifteen PDF links available to download, share, and read.

Cooking With a South African Master Chef: A Cape Town Study-Abroad Experience

We squeezed out of the crowded van with barely an idea of what the night would have in store--only the hint that we would be experiencing something called a “food jam.” Our group of giddy service learners, RAs, and a couple elegantly dressed CIEE staff members walked down the quiet suburban street and through the gates of the unassuming residence where the mystery was to reveal itself. Curiosity shaped into wonder as we were seated at a banquet-sized picnic table on the candlelit, stone-tiled patio. Cucumbers, mint, pineapples, and lemons hung like tree ornaments from the ivy-covered trellis above us. The scene was of a fairytale, and into it bounced our effervescent host, whose unique presence and boundless energy made her too resemble something from a storybook. She was introduced as Jade de Waal, a former Master Chef contestant who would be guiding us through culinary adventure. But first, like many great evenings, ours would begin with a drink. With the butcher knives laid out before us, we were instructed to cut down any ingredients that gave us inspiration and use them to construct the cocktail of our choice. The only prerequisites were playfulness and creativity, attributes that would ultimately compose the central theme of our experience.

Jade navigated through the throng of amateur mixologists, stopping to chat and pass out name tags for our foreheads. On each was a place, person, or object famous to South Africa that we were to guess by questioning those around us. After we found our answers (some through a bit of cheating), the instructions for the Food Jam began and our name tags were given an additional purpose. Waiting for us inside were various cooking stations labeled by the names on our tags. Our host explained that while each station was stocked with ingredients for a specific recipe, we should feel free and even encouraged to make it our own with anything we could find in the expansive kitchen. The goal of the evening was to channel creativity, have fun, and find inspiration in the food and each other--with maybe a bit of help from a hefty glass of wine. With excitement high, we entered the house to find our stations and our partners.

Paired with none other than CIEE’s own Alecia Ludidi, I began to peruse our recipe. We got chakalaka--a red pepper salad traditionally served over a stiff porridge resembling mashed potatoes called “pap.” As this dish is often served alongside barbecued meat, I had tried it once before at the famous braai restaurant, Mzoli’s. Alecia set to work on the pap, and I began cutting veggies for the chakalaka. Using a portable gas range, I cooked a chopped onion to translucency before tossing in a few cloves of garlic and grated ginger. Next was a couple diced red bell peppers and jalapeños along with a handful of curry powder. Once everything was coated in spice, in went a can of diced tomatoes and two tablespoons of tomato paste. I spent the next ten minutes diligently stirring with one hand and sipping Chenin Blanc with the other. The atmosphere was buzzing with energetic music and the dancing aromas of at least ten different in-progress dishes.

 

With an extra handful of ginger and a pinch of sugar and salt, my dish was complete and I had the opportunity to investigate the progress of the others. Behind me was a bubbling pot of chicken stew, and in front, a pile of beautiful pink prawns. I walked around the boisterous kitchen space to find lamb kebabs searing, gatsbys assembling, and pasta dough rolling. My personal favorite was sliced baguette topped with bleu cheese, roasted mushrooms, and crispy fried sage. Jade mingled as well to offer her experienced assistance and words of encouragement. One by one, dishes were plated and placed on the banquet table in the dreamy outdoors, each acting as a brush stroke painting the image of our feast. The energy from the process of creation soothed into a calm contentment as we looked proudly upon our collective accomplishment. Success was confirmed by that silence unique to hungry bellies enjoying a spectacular meal, which in turn created the opportunity for reflection. The boundaries between our various roles in our shared program were allowed to slip away into the evening through a method that only collaborative effort and good food can facilitate, and many found reward in stretching the limits of their abilities. A Food Jam could be described in many ways--a cooking lesson, a party, a gem in my experience of Cape Town--but most importantly it’s proof that only one ingredient is necessary to create something beautiful: good people working together.

j

Photos by Won Joon Lee

Click here for more information about Food Jams

What did you do on your summer vacation?

 English Major and Guest Blogger Sarah Wells shares what she has been doing this summer!

This summer I’ve been lucky enough to work with a group, as a publishing intern, that I used to be a part of in middle and high school. The group is a nonprofit for young writers based in Burlington, VT called the Young Writers Project. It is a community for elementary-high school students to come and share their writing, with other kids around the state as well as the staff at the nonprofit and mentors on the site. The goal of the project is to let kids know that their voices matter as well as to help them hone those voices.

The project works with local papers to publish students’ writing throughout the year and every fall the project releases an Anthology (a collection of the best student work from the previous year) at their “Celebration of Writing”. I started sharing my work on the site when I was in 8th grade and continued to do so through my senior year of high school and have been in three of their annual anthologies in years past.

This summer I’ve been working with the publishing coordinator and the other staff to create the project’s 6th annual Anthology. It’s been a process that has spanned many weeks -- pouring over 1,500+ pieces and narrowing it down to around 80 in the end. I’ve also been working with the kids this summer, in the site’s “Summer of Stories Challenge”, the goal of which is to combat the boredom of summer by challenging the kids to write everyday for at least 10 minutes on over 40 prompts given to them throughout the summer. The enthusiasm of the kids and their skill never ceases to amaze me.

I happen to be in the 2013’s annual Anthology on page 18 for anyone curious.

Welcome Professor Eric De Barros!

It seems only fitting that my final blog post for the English Department be to welcome someone who will be coming in to the department as I leave:  Professor Eric De Barros. As Senior Representative to the Chair, I had the pleasure of getting to take Professor De Barros on a tour of campus with Nick, our Junior Representative to the Chair, and to have pizza with him and various graduate and undergraduate English students. I was very excited when I learned Professor De Barros would be joining the Department and even more excited when he agreed to answer some questions for the blog.

Professor De Barros

Where did you attend college?

I’m a proud graduate of the University of Virginia (UVa).

How did you decide you wanted to have a career in academia?

I decided the first month or so of college. I’d always done well enough in school and enjoyed History and English.  However, because of the very practical and materialistic understanding of education that I took to college, I assumed I would do something that made economic sense to my family and community, something like law or medicine.  As I said, that all changed early in my first year of college, when I experienced how seriously my literature and philosophy professors took their disciplines. Somehow I had no idea that someone could make a career out of studying literature or other complex ideas. I loved everything about it—the reading, the research, the interpreting, especially the argumentative writing—and just went with it. 

What is your area of research?

My area of research is early modern (mainly sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century) English literature with an emphasis in educational theory and practice.  More specifically, I examine how early modern educational theorists and literary figures variously confront the tension between the body and discourse or nature and culture to re-think categories of embodied subjectivity such as race, gender, and sexuality.  

What do you like to do when you are not teaching/researching?

When I’m not teaching/researching, I’m spending time with my wife and daughter. 

      Who has most impacted your academic life and how so?

I’d have to say the late Richard Helgerson. I had an opportunity to study with him at UC, Santa Barbara for about two years early in my graduate education. More than any other scholar-teacher, he modeled for me that a commitment to students and a love for the classroom were not incompatible with research excellence.    

What is your favorite text? Why?

I’ve enjoyed way too many texts to select one as my favorite. However, I will say that George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four was particularly pivotal to my early intellectual development. I read Nineteen Eighty-Four for the first time when I was about thirteen and was profoundly struck by the idea that complex, creative expression is itself a revolutionary act. After the protagonist, Winston Smith, begins his diary, a “thoughtcrime” punishable by death, he unearths the complex range of emotions and fragmented memories that the state has systematically attempted to destroy. Those emotions and memories initially come back to him in the form of a dream, during which he vaguely remembers things like familial loyalty, maternal love, and erotic desire. He wakes up from that dream with “Shakespeare” on his lips.  In other words, in an anti-intellectual, authoritarian world, the emotional richness of Shakespearean expression is nothing short of revolutionary. Though at the time I didn’t understand it as such, Nineteen Eighty-Four provided me a compelling defense of literary studies that perhaps explains the ease with which I was able to accept and follow my interest in literary studies in college.

What are you most looking forward to next semester when you will be teaching here at Clark?

I look forward to everything, but especially the teaching. Once I’m done with this semester at SUNY Oswego, I will begin to develop the two courses I’ll be teaching in the Fall: Major British Writers I and Advanced Shakespeare. In both instances, I plan to engage students in a historicist, gender studies examination of a number of texts. More specifically, in the first course, I’m thinking of having my students examine selections from a range of texts— literary, educational, medical, military, travel, etc. — in the interest of developing a nuanced understanding of and appreciation for the complex ways in which gender— specifically masculinity—gets constructed. For the Shakespeare course, I plan to focus this critical orientation on what I term “the pedagogy of sexual violence.”  As a product of a grammar school education, Shakespeare inherited a classical tradition rife with scenes of male-defining violence and specifically violence against women. As I’m thinking about it, one of the governing questions for this course will be, “Why and how did Shakespeare, the most famous product of such a tradition, variously and creatively explore and even critique 'the pedagogy of sexual violence'?” I’m still thinking through both courses, but I’m really excited to explore these types of issues with Clark students. 

What advice would you give to any college student?

I guess the most important thing is don’t reduce your education (the major you end up declaring) to an uninspired matter of technical training deemed most employable or lucrative.  Follow what you enjoy doing—what you love, what you’re passionate about, what you would do for free—and then figure out how to get paid doing it or something as close to it as possible. You may or may not get rich this way, but you will definitely increase your chances of living a happy and fulfilled life.

Welcome to Clark, Professor De Barros! We are all excited to have you here next semester!

 

 

 

Guest Speaker Carl Keyes

"Disperse thousands ... in every direction or point of the compass":

Advertisements, Marketing Networks, and Late Eighteenth-Century Literary Magazines
Presented by Carl Robert Keyes

Friday, April 18, 3:00

Fuller Music Room

4th floor, Goddard Library

Advertisements printed on the wrappers that accompanied magazines in the late eighteenth century transformed  those periodicals devoted to poetry and historical and literary essays into utilitarian instruments for stimulating consumer demand for a variety of goods and services, thereby expanding commercial markets and maximizing profits for the publishers and advertisers.

Carl Robert Keyes is Assistant Professor of History at Assumption College. He is currently revising Early American Advertising:  Marketing and Consumer Culture in Eighteenth-Century America.  He is the author of "A Revolution in Advertising: 'Buy American' Campaigns in the Late Eighteenth Century<http://www.abc-clio.com/product.aspx?id=2147546740>," included in a three-volume anthology of essays exploring the history of advertising in America. His "History Prints, Newspaper Advertisement, and Cultivating Citizen Consumers:  Patriotism and Partisanship in Marketing Campaigns in the Era of the Revolution" will appear in the Fall 2014 issue of American Periodicals, the journal of the Research Society for American Periodicals.

 

 

Spree Day 2014

As a transfer student, I had never heard of Spree Day before last week. I only learned of the event, and what it entailed, when there were rumors circulating that it would be occurring on the coming Wednesday. I was told by experts on the subject that Spree Day involves being woken up at 6 a.m. by seniors rampaging through residence halls announcing the event with shouts and ultimately being surrounded by spectacularly drunk people for the entire day.

These things turned out to be undoubtedly true. However, there were a number of other things of which I was not informed ahead of time, such as what there actually is to do on Spree Day. It surprised me when I went outside (having slept another several hours after being woken up exactly at 6 by what sounded in my half-asleep state like a very angry invading army) and saw the green looking more or less like a local carnival. There were inflatables blown up on the grass, a stage constructed in Red Square, tables set up near the UC for an outdoor barbecue lunch, and plenty of little stations at which one could participate in activities, traditions, and overeating.

I partook in some of it, racing a friend up and down the slides, being willingly beaten up by a large, rotating sausage-like inflatable, watching guys and girls alike being flung off the mechanical bull in increasingly entertaining variations, and eating unhealthy amounts of fried dough and ice cream. The atmosphere was lively throughout the day, which culminated in an outdoors showing of Despicable Me, the movie which lent Spree Day its theme this year.

All in all, despite the (not-too-unexpected) insanity, I discovered that Spree Day is a fun event that gives us a much-needed, if brief, respite between spring and summer breaks. I look forward to being “surprised” by it again next year.   

Guest Speaker Jonathan Senchyne

           On Friday April 4^th, a special guest speaker will be on campus as a part of Professor Neuman’s American Print Culture : 1700-1900 seminar.  These talks are open to the Clark community and sponsored by Higgins through the faculty collaborative EMU (Early Modernist United).

           In Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson famously remarked on the ability of print periodicals to create a sense of communal affiliation among readers. But book historians and periodical printers know that a number of processes have to take place before a newspaper can be circulated, including papermaking. This talk explores how paper emerged as an important material and symbol for figuring community during both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, with emphasis on the role of women and domestic labor in print production.

           Jonathan Senchyne is an Assistant Professor of Library and Information Studies and Associate Director of the Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is currently researching his first book, a study of the resonant materiality of paper in early and nineteenth-century America, with the generous support of a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society. Part of this project was published in Early African American Print Culture (Penn 2012).

 

 

-Edward Peluso

Leroy Allston Ames Essay Contest!

The English Department would like to announce the Leroy Allston Ames Essay Contest  for the best essay on literature and/or history of England from 1750 to 1900 (limit one entry per student). Submissions are due Monday, April 28, 2014 at noon in the English Department Main Office at Anderson House! We encourage all undergraduates, including matriculated COPACE students to apply! Best of luck to all!



Robert Karockai's conference experience

Recently many of the graduate students at Clark’s English Department have been attending conferences to showcase their work. Robert Karockai, a graduate student at the English Department, has been kind enough to give us an account of his experience attending the HERA conference in Washington D.C. All of us at the English Department would like to offer a hearty congratulations to Robert, as well as all of the other Graduate students who were able to present at conferences.

Without further ado, here is what Robert had to say about his experience:

 

              A few weeks ago, I presented a paper at the HERA (humanities education research association) conference in Washington D.C. This was my first academic conference, first airplane ride, and first time out of New England. Full of anxiety and self-doubt, I arrived in Washington and took a train to the most luxurious hotel I've ever seen. Immediately upon entering the Fairfax  on Embassy Row (which I learned later was the childhood residence of Al Gore and Jacqueline Kennedy's favorite place to have a cocktail during the "Camelot" years ), I was greeted by a HERA representative, given a schedule of events, and invited to an informal cocktail reception in the hotel lounge.  Within forty-five minutes I found myself in the midst of an absolute Bacchanalia populated by academics. I learned much at that conference, perhaps foremost among them the absolute joy of being in the presence of seventy-five drunken P.h.d.'s. This first evening, sans drunkenness, set the tone for much of the rest of the conference. Simply put, I met an untold number of scholars whom I had become comfortable with and exchanged ideas with them. The conference became the perfect marriage of academia and blooming friendships as it progressed. My presentation went extremely well, in part because I suspect a number in the audience enjoyed my Worcester accent, which I employed without restraint. I left four days later feeling genuinely sad. My experience was so overwhelmingly​ positive that I plan to search for another conference in another part of the country as soon as I can afford to attend one. Thanks to Prof. Lisa Kasmer for teaching me to write and present a conference paper; Prof. Meredith Neuman for her almost supernatural ability to point out the exact sources I needed to add to improve my paper, and Prof. Peggy Korcoras for introducing me to the beauty and complexity I found within Hawthorne's short stories.

                                              Yours,

                                                  Robert Karockai  M.A. candidate

 

Featuring...My Honors Thesis

Like Lauren Cyr, I also have been working on an Honors Thesis this year. While I could give tips and tricks on navigating the process of very-long paper writing, I think Lauren already put it best (follow this link to see her post: http://clarkenglishblog.blogspot.com/2013_09_01_archive.html.) Instead what I would really like to do is just to tell you about how I came to my topic and what I have so far learned about it. Because for the first time in a while, I have found a topic for which I cannot exhaust my enthusiasm.

I knew I wanted write an honors thesis basically since declaring my major. To me, it had always been a part of my plan. However, when it came time to start thinking of a topic, I was 100% burnt out. My junior year beat me down and I found that during that summer I didn't want to think of anything academic at all. Furthermore, I knew I was tired of all the topics I had explored before. I never wanted to read Jane Eyre or Evelina again; no longer was I interested in the gendered advertising techniques employed by Dr. Pepper, Coca-Cola or any other company; I would not want to look at another colophon in the confines of Clark's archives; I did not want to read another autobiography. I wanted to take everything I had read and done and throw it across my room in a fit of childish catharsis. But more practically and reasonably, I knew I wanted to be excited about what I was going to do for a whole year, and I thought in order to do that, I needed to find something new.

It wasn't until I went to see The Great Gatsby movie--which I hated--that my thesis began to take shape. Nick, to me, is an iconic narrator. Yet in that movie, I felt he barely even needed to exist. He was just a vehicle for reporting the plot of the book and means through which the morality of the text could be interpreted. Looking deeper into Nick and narrative style, I began to realize that Nick's distance and possible objectivity allowed him to become a moral authority within his text. Furthermore, I saw this pattern in other narrators throughout the literary cannon:  Walton in Frankenstein, Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes. As I accumulated more examples, I began to find one major gap emerging. There were no female narrators of this type, no female authors writing this type.

Skipping forward a bit, I, with the help of Professor Huang found Jazz. Written by Toni Morrison and voiced by a complicated, implicitly female character, the novel happens to focus upon the same time period as The Great Gatsby, the Jazz Age in the United States. However Jazz focuses upon the Blacks of Harlem who barely enter the world of Gatsby's moneyed elite. Using these two books as my texts, I began to explore the world of narrative voice and narrative ethics, gossip and claims to knowledge, gender and canon-building.

I am not going to give you a huge summary of my paper. If you want a sense, look at the word cloud.

 

Word Cloud of my Thesis courtesy of Word it Out

No, instead I want to tell you what I learned. What I learned, topic-wise, is that Toni Morrison is a literary genius and a wizard. I learned that Fitzgerald's Nick is way more interesting than I or that dumb movie gave him credit for. More seriously though, I learned that gender still matters, especially in terms of what is taught and what books/characters become iconic. In excluding female authors and female narrators from the canon, female experience is discredited and erased. I also learned that reliability and objectivity are not intrinsically linked. There is truth in subjectivity, and there is reliability in acknowledging one's own subjectivity.

 

The most important things I learned, however, had nothing to do with my topic. I learned that I can sustain a project for a long period of time. I can do research, make deadlines, write pages I did not know how I was going to fill. I learned that I can be ambitious and push the limits of my own analysis. My topic was often messy and seemingly full of holes, and I was able to push past that.

 

I'm immensely proud of the work I have done. When I started this academic year, I really did not understand the word "Capstone". How could any one thing have been the pinnacle of achievement in my education? But this project/paper is my capstone, my crowning glory. I may not have worked on it through out my years at Clark, but my years at Clark lead me here and I am so glad they did.

 

 

 

2014 International Conference on Narrative

From Thursday, March 27, to Saturday, March 29, Clark University's Department of English, the Higgins School of Humanities, and the Dean of the College will be co-hosting the 2014 International Conference on Narrative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The conference will feature professors and students from all over the world presenting papers on questions of narrative in various media through many different theoretical lenses.

Three Clark professors will be chairs of panels at the conference: Professors Esther Jones, Lisa Kasmer, and Betsy Huang. Professor Jones will head a panel on the issue of “Narrative Ethics & the Intersectional Body,” featuring presentations of papers by Clark MA students Bella Che, Stephanie Grace, Nadia Gul, Natalie Kruse, and Ayesha Sindhu. Professor Kasmer will lead the panel “Gothic Narratives & Cultural Subversions,” in which she will present her own paper, “Traumatic Subjects: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Cultural Memory.” And finally, Professor Huang will be heading two panels: “Partial Minds & Cognitive Estrangement” and “International Epistolary Forms & Networks,” the latter of which will feature a presentation from Clark PhD research assistant Melike Sayoglu.  

If you have a chance, take a ride to MIT and support your Clark colleagues, teachers, and friends!

White Privilege Meets Interracial Adoption: Comments and Conversation

As part of the Higgins Faculty Series for this semester’s dialogue symposium sponsored by the Higgins School of Humanities, our department’s own Professor Fern Johnson will be giving a talk with her partner, Professor Marlene Fine of Simmons College, on the topic of interracial adoption.  The talk will be held on Thursday, April 3^rd at 4pm in the Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons.

Fern Johnson and Marlene Fine will talk about their perspectives on white privilege as the white parents of two adopted African American children. They are the authors of The Interracial Adoption Option: Creating a Family Across Race (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2013).  The book provides a beginning point for the white person who is contemplating or already has adopted a child of another race, but it is also a commentary on how blinded white persons- even those who have studied race- can be to the everyday realities of race.  The topic of interracial adoption remains charged, but it is taking on new meanings as our society becomes more multi-racial.

 

To see an article coauthored by Professors Johnson and Fine, see When White Parents Have 'The Talk' With Black Sons.

To listen to the authors discuss their new book, check out a talk they gave with Radio Boston, The Interracial Adoption Option.



 

Higgins School Event: Ted Chiang's "Technology, Memory, and the Narrative of the Self"

On Thursday, March 27, at 5:00 pm, acclaimed science fiction writer Ted Chiang will be coming to Clark University. Chiang, a graduate of Brown University and the writer of celebrated works like Stories of Your Life and Others, will present his paper “Technology, Memory, and the Narrative of the Self” in Higgins Lounge at Dana Commons as part of the Higgins School of Humanities’ Future of Everything series.

The presentation will concern our growing reliance on technology, and particularly video recording, which Chiang posits may significantly alter the previously constant use and undisputed importance of human memory. Chiang’s contribution to the Future of Everything series, sponsored by the Science Fiction Research Collaborative (an organization committed to collaborations between faculty and students in interdisciplinary study of science fiction literature and film), is bound to be an incisive look at increasingly alarming social implications of the role technology plays in our lives.

If you are interested in science fiction, computer science, or simply thought-provoking discussion on current events, be sure not to miss Ted Chiang’s talk!

UPDATE: Check out this interview Professor Betsy Huang conducted with Ted Chiang just last year to learn more about him: http://aalrmag.org/specfictioninterviewchiang/

Winter Months in Worcester

              Clark University: a campus where students love to sit out on the green to do homework, throw a Frisbee around and occasionally take selfies’ with Sigmund Freud in Red Square during the warm Spring/Summer months. The winter storms in the Worcester area unfortunately hinder the outdoor activities of Clark students, but leave a breathtaking gingerbread house-like icing of snow on the buildings around campus.  Clark University’s Anderson House, home of the English Department, looks as if a perfect snowfall had landed softly on its’ roof.  Although the snow makes travelling around campus a frigid and snow blown experience, the Worcester winter is a natural wonder that most see as a scenic time to say the least.  Currently for cumulative 2013-2014 snowfall, Worcester Massachusetts is ranked as the 9^th snowiest city in the US by the Golden Snow Globe National Snow Contest Committee.  As this relentless winter drags on into the month of February, residents of Clark University sit back and watch the icicles form until the warm weather of spring begins to appear.

 

An Update From Cape Town

So tomorrow marks the third week anniversary of my arrival in Cape Town, South Africa. So far I've met amazing people, seen unforgettable landscapes, and begun to catch a glimpse of the Capetownian lifestyle. Now that I'm starting to settle in, I've begun the overstimulating task of processing all these new experiences. Visiting a local township last week was one activity in particular that's required a lot of retrospection. The ethics of a shanty town tour were a big concern for me at first; the idea of a group of Americans walking through a neighborhood with cameras and objectifying gazes was discomforting, to say the least. My hesitations were met head-on by our enthusiastic guide and township local, Mike Zuma. With a conscious effort to avoid these issues, he provided us with introductions to residents and candid explanations of culture that allowed us to engage rather than observe. The visit challenged the common perception of most outsiders of the population as stereotypical "starving Africans." That story definitely exists, but it's not everyone's. As one resident put it, "I may live in a shack, but I have a satellite dish and an awesome car. We are not poor because we don't have enough; we're poor because we still want more." While different in many ways, I couldn't help but draw connections to a trip I made last year to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having had sufficient time to process that experience, here's my take on the perception of slum-life there.

   I’d never had so much fun going through airport security. It was an odd form of pride handing over my passport to the bored TSA employee and watching the smile form as they inspected my boarding pass. Yes, it was two days before New Year’s Eve, and yes, in a few hours I would be away from the slushy DC weather and in the arms of the famously beautiful Rio de Janeiro. While I nodded, said thank you, and reattached by belt and shoes, I neglected to shatter their image of a fabulous hotel vacation on Copacabana Beach by mentioning that my precise destination was somewhere in the heart of Rocinha, the largest favela in Brazil.
    For those of you who haven’t seen City of God, a favela is the Brazilian version of a slum or shanty town: countless little cement boxes literally stacked on top of each other and reaching up into the mountainy region between São Conrado and Gávea. As I would later discover, a twenty-something white American choosing to vacation in Rocinha (pronounced ho-seen-ya) was perplexing and met with near disbelief to the city-dwelling natives. Even I only had a vague idea of what I was signing up for, but my mind was set on two things: catch up with an old friend who had moved to Rio, and experience firsthand a city famous for having one of the most sharply defined divides between the rich and the poor.

Rocinha

     As distasteful as the common perception of slum-life seems to be, the quality of life in Rocinha and the surrounding favelas was surprising--and not just because they had the bare necessities of what is considered to be a modern lifestyle. Safety was ensured by the machine gun-armed police force stationed throughout the streets, every small business from haircuts to internet cafes could be found within the neighborhood, and, while the water delivery might be a day late, at least you could unfailingly find and access a Wi-Fi network. The surprising part was not that these amenities existed, but that some of those in the favelas were better than those in the city. Having divided my time between Rocinha and the mostly upper-class neighborhood of Botafogo, here is an overview of some of the most surprising differences.

Safety: As I mentioned before, the police in Rio are heavily armed. The difference is that in Rocinha the police make sure you know that they’re heavily armed. Within the last few years, the drug lords who governed the favela were pacified by the police who are now stationed sporadically throughout the streets with automatic weapons in plain view. This was shock at first as I had never seen a loaded gun in real life, but the trepidation passed within a day and I actually felt safer out in public than in my current residence of Worcester, Massachusetts. My friend, who had at this point lived in the city for a couple years, put it like this: anyone living in the favela who would potentially rob you was out robbing tourists outside of overpriced restaurants, not harassing their neighbors. While the pacification of Rocinha was beneficial for personal security, it did come with a few drawbacks:

Amenities and Utilities: Rocinha offered all the amenities of modern living you could hope for, but in previous years is was governed by drug lords. Recently the police pacified the favela by overthrowing the drug lords, creating both safety and a lack of supervision in the utilities department. The electricity that’s “included” in your rent is really wired into the favela through legally questionable methods, so while they’re willing to turn a blind eye, it’s unlikely that the government is going to repair your connection when it breaks. Some other issues come from negligence: the police threw out the people in charge of making sure the water was delivered to the roof tanks every week, so now there’s significantly less attention paid to the slum-dwellers and there was a two day period where we were waterless. Staying hydrated was easily solved by buying jugs of water down the road, but not being able to shower after climbing the enormous hill in 100 degree weather was a far greater price to pay. While the transition to a pacified neighborhood is still in progress, one thing the Brazilian government paid extra attention to was transportation.

Transportation: Getting around in the favelas can be difficult because of the haphazard development of houses. Rocinha is built on a hill, so its streets are winding and steep. Our apartment wasn’t even accessible by road for a large portion of the way and we had to find our way home through mazes of back alleys and slanted staircases. Two forms of transport were essential to getting anywhere in the favela. At the bottom of the hill, what appears to be a motorcycle gang is actually a group of moto-taxi drivers that are authorized to take you anywhere in Rocinha for R$2.50 (although the real fun can be had by paying a little extra to have them remove their IDs and take you outside the neighborhood—nothing is faster and more badass than showing up at the club or beach on the back of an illegally hired motorcycle). The other method is a series of vans that have specific routes throughout the entire city—R$5.00 (about $2.50) will let you stop at any point on the ride. While these vans are now officially recognized by the city government, they’re still considered a non-option by the middle and upper classes because of the stigma associated with the favelas. One of the most awe-inspiring forms of favela transportation is the billion-dollar sky tram looming over the vast Complexo do Alemao, which solves the issue of streets-too-narrow-for-cars by carrying you over the neighborhoods for the unbeatable price of R$1.00 (As a point of comparison, the tram leading to Pão de Açúcar was R$53.00)

    Experiencing the city of Rio from two opposite points of view was an unforgettably fortunate way to glimpse a new culture. If you feel comfortable, going to a favela can offer a rich experience that is largely free of the influence of the tourist industry (although ethically questionable tours have already begun to grow in popularity); nothing beats a favela funk, the transportation can get you where you want to go faster than physics should allow, and climbing up the mountain side to get back to your apartment will undoubtedly give you killer calves. My favela flat had an ocean view and was in walking distance from the beach--all for a rent that was maybe 5% of an apartment in Botafogfo. And before you criticize the trash on the streets and stray dogs in the alley, remember that anywhere you go in Rio is sure to smell like garbage.
   
   

Featuring English 253: Advanced Shakespeare

In my second post “Featuring” post, I turn to my other English course in my schedule, ENG 253/353 Advanced Shakespeare, taught this semester by Professor Vaughan. Like almost all of the English Department Seminars, Advanced Shakespeare is both an undergraduate- and graduate-level course, my classmates being mostly English majors and English M. A. students.

Last year, I began my Shakespeare journey by taking Intro to Shakespeare last spring semester. I took the course mostly because of Professor Vaughan’s reputation for being a highly-regarded Shakespeare expert and knowing she was retiring after that semester. The course was amazing, our TA Stephanie Grace was fantastic both directing student performances and taking on an entire play’s worth of teaching, and the students were really engaged with the material considering it was an introductory course.

I knew I wanted my last English Department seminar (I am a second semester senior) to be Advanced Shakespeare, and when I heard Professor Vaughan was being kind enough to come back for one more section of it, I was thrilled. The class is full of some of Intro alums, graduate students, and some undergrads who are interested in the topic. The class, while very different from Intro in structure (taking on a more student led discussion set up, working through a greater number of texts, and incorporating more literary criticism) has a great energy with everyone engaged with the text and willing to voice their opinions and consider the thoughts of others. I’ve enjoyed every minute so far—and that is saying something, because currently we are entrenched in Shakespeare’s histories, my least favorite category of Shakespeare’s works.

The huge "Brick o' Shakespeare", better known as The Norton Anthology of Shakespeare

This week I am presenting on both Richard II and 1Henry IV. These histories are the first two in Shakespeare’s second tetralogy. My research question is regarding the continuity between the two works as they share three characters. Henry Bolingbroke who becomes King Henry IV is, in my opinion, the most interesting character to see transform. While I will not get into the details of my presentation here, I will say this:  the second tetralogy appears to begin a meditation on the relationship between king and subject, more precisely reflecting on how one is to be a good ruler and how one can create stability when rule is interrupted. I am looking forward to what my classmates have to say on the topic.

Featuring English 165: Ethnic American Writers

This week I embark on a project I hope will prove to be a success. My hope is to feature some of the exciting and unique course offerings that are provided within the English Department, so as to show prospective students what they could do in their coursework and to celebrate what current English majors and minors and students outside of the department achieve in their English courses.

Professor Giaimo and students from ENG 165

American Ethnic Writers is one of the Department’s survey courses, which fulfills one of the Historical Survey requirements within the major. The class is intended to overview some of the many contributions that ethnic writers have made to contemporary American literature. The reading list this year includes Drown by Junot Diaz, Soldier by June Jordan, Maus by Art Spiegelman, and Who’s Irish by Gish Jen, among many more texts. 

Although the class may count towards the major and the reading load is intense, this semester’s class is full of a wide variety of students across a variety of disciplines, which speaks to the importance of the subject matter. As the professor of the course, Professor Genie Giaimo, said, Ethnic American Writers is a class about searching for origins. In this way, the stories of Ethnic Americans can connect us all, across discipline, across race, across culture, for aren’t we all in some way looking to understand why we are here and how we fit in to a larger narrative? Yet we cannot forget that Ethnic American authors also are writing about a controversial and fraught subject. Already the class has read articles on the immigration bans of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Eugenics movements of the early 1900s, and the recent controversial ethnic studies ban in Arizona. The fear of foreign influence still infects our political and national discourse. 

This past week the class discussed short stories from Drown by Junot Diaz. As the class broke out into sections, Professor Giaimo circulated among the groups and contributed to their discussions. My group focused upon “How to Date a Brown Girl, Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie.” Together with TA Ayesha Sindhu, we analyzed the short story, performing a close textual analysis in order to develop a short thesis regarding the story. Each student brought a different interpretation to the discussion; we were all fascinated by different aspects of the text. And the interests and topics that came out of group discussion grew exponentially when the class came back together. I am not sure if we will ever be able to complete the course work intended for one class session in English 165, but I think that speaks to the importance of American Ethnic Writers, and the richness of their texts, which are more than a site of academic interest; their work is significant to our everyday lives.

C25K Challenge

In my three and a half years here at Clark, not once had I ever been to the Kneller Athletic Center. That is…up until 3 weeks ago, I’d never been. Now, I find myself going regularly, and even wishing that I’d gone in previous years.

About three weeks ago, I decided to take up the Couch to 5K Challenge. It really was a fluke decision. A sort of halfhearted attempt at a New Year’s resolution. In the summer, I love to go hiking as I live pretty close to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. So I’m not totally inactive. But during the winter season and while I’m away at college, I’m pretty inactive overall.

The first time I went, I was pretty nervous actually. I’d never been to a gym before, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I was feeling pretty self-conscious. Although given how warm of an atmosphere the Clark Community is in general, I’m not sure why I was so hesitant. Because, just like the rest of this welcoming campus, the gym was no different.  

Everyone at the gym was very friendly and welcoming. Even the people at the front desk when you check in! The machines inside are all wonderful and varied. There are so many options. They have tv’s up with CNN and ESPN on. All of the machines have an option for you to plug your headphones into them so you can listen to the programs. There are plenty of people who sit on the cycle machines and read at the same time. Lots of people listening to music. Everyone is so focused on their own workouts that it really leaves you the space to try out new machines for the first time and get comfortable with the environment without feeling judged.

For now though, I’ve got my eyes on the treadmills! 

What I like about the Couch to 5K Challenge is how flexible it is to my schedule. Each session only takes about half an hour to complete, three times a week. So it’s not impossible to find the time to still go, despite my busy schedule. You get to determine your own speed while jogging/walking as well. The average recommended speed is running at 6mph and walking at 3mph. But the program is not so much concerned with speed as it is on increasing the time and distance you spend running. Therefore you can readily set your own pace. Go slow if you need to, and steadily increase when you feel you can. There’s a lot of freedom and fluidity to the program, as you are the one to set your pace and choose when you go. 

Although, with all of the freedom and liberty that’s granted to run at your own pace, you really have to be sure to commit yourself to doing the workouts as best you can. Sometimes I find myself missing the days of having a coach to yell at me. “Come on Cyr, you can do better than that! Take an extra lap!” Self-policing is key. 

One time, I did manage to sort of psych myself out and convince myself to quit the workout. I left feeling pretty discouraged. But decided to go back again the next day and ended up surpassing my running goals. Guess it really is true what they say about you being your own worst enemy! So along with finding the time and energy to go to the gym every week, motivation and inspiration can be just as important!

On that note, being the English Major that I am, I like to motivate myself while I'm running by imagining different scenarios as to why I’m running. My favorites so far have been picturing that I’m certain characters from different books. So maybe I’m Octavia Butler’s Lilith, running away from aliens in a post-apocalypse society. Or maybe I’m Hermione Granger, running after Scabbers in the dark and dodging the Whomping Willow. Oh the possibilities.

 

Take That!

Being an English major, I have often found myself having to justify my choice in major (as detailed in one of my prior blog posts which you can find here, http://clarkenglishblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-english.html). I have become used to the lectures about why my choice was a poor choice if I want to see a significant return on my investment. I have politely chuckled at the jokes of which I and my fellow humanities majors are the butts.

But no longer—well, probably yes, longer. In any case, people should perhaps think twice about teasing liberal arts majors. This week the higher education community was abuzz with a recent study conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities which shows that over the course of a career humanities and social science majors make more than those who obtained professional and pre-professional degrees. (To read one of the articles for yourself, see http://chronicle.com/article/How-Liberal-Arts-Majors-Fare/144133/ or http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/22/see-how-liberal-arts-grads-really-fare-report-examines-long-term-data.) While professional degrees may serve graduates well in the first few years after college, the findings show that as humanities and social science majors get older, their average earnings surpass the earnings of their professional and pre-professional counterparts.

What does this really mean though? It means I am vindicated! Just kidding…sort of. What it seems to indicate is that humanities and social science majors are getting advanced degrees as they get older. Forty percent of the older liberal arts graduates had some form of advanced degree on top of their bachelors. By getting their masters or doctorate, the liberal arts majors are ultimately gaining the earnings edge over the other majors within the study. In other words, liberal arts majors may lose the battle, but they are winning the war.

There are three important points that I take away from this news. The first is that my degree is not terminal; I will be coming back to academia for another degree. It is something I came to accept long ago. So while I do not want to get my masters next year, I know I will want to get it eventually, and maybe even after that I will want a Ph.D. For some people that may be a deterrent from selecting a degree in the liberal arts, but I do want to make the point that this is probably also true for many other majors and many other professions. We are all going to have to consider that perhaps the coming trend in education and in the job market is that graduate degrees are expected. Maybe no undergraduate degree will be able to be a final degree. My second take-away is that the money you earn just out of college—and even beyond that—is not everything. I study English because I like it, because I am good at it, because I know I can do good things with it, and because it matters. I may not earn more than an engineer, but I know I will be happy in what I do, whatever that will be. My final point is that the humanities majors and social science majors of the world no longer need to stand quietly while people give those lectures and make those jokes, feeling awkward and without defense. I know the next time my father brings up how I should have been a business major that I will be bringing up this article. So take that, doubters! I am an English major, and I will do just fine.