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“Remembering is not a passionate or dispassionate retelling of a reality that is no more, but a new birth of the past, when time goes in reverse. Above all it is creativity.” ~ Svetlana Alexievich, The Unwomanly Face of War (xvii) I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and paused at a National Geographic photo … Continue reading Undergrad Student Spotlight: Lillian Brownlee
On November 19, 1959, Truman Capote and Harper Lee visited Kansas State, initiating a connection between Capote and the university we can trace through the archives. As a 2011 news release about K-State Libraries's Special Collections explains, "Capote visited K-State several times while writing for the New Yorker magazine on the Clutter family murders in … Continue reading Remembering Truman Capote at Kansas State
The Midwest is not the first place you might think of to study U.S. empire in the Philippines and diasporic Filipinx culture. Its relational unexpectedness positions it as structurally queer to Philippine and diasporic Filipinx geographies, ontologies, and epistemologies. And yet, as Filipinx American cultural studies scholar Sarita See provocatively asserts, “America’s heartland is riven … Continue reading The Heartland of U.S. Empire: Tracing the Midwest’s Connections to U.S. Imperialism in the Philippines and to Filipinx Diaspora
As promised in the posts from September and last month, here's our next installment of faculty, student, and alumni achievements in research, scholarship, and creative activity. Looking to catch up on past success or to find future announcements? Visit our archive of Reading Matters, our monthly newsletter. Have news to report? Email us at english@ksu.edu. … Continue reading October 2019 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
— Karin Westman, Department Head
Last week on October 29, the Literature Track held an event at The Dusty Bookshelf celebrating the recent publication of Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments — the long-awaited sequel to her 1985 dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Both novels are set in an alternative present where the United States is overthrown by the authoritarian theocracy Gilead, … Continue reading Out from Under His Eye: A Discussion of Margaret Atwood’s Dystopia
My Master’s Project explores the complex relationships and tensions between cats, women, gender, knowledge, sexuality, and independence in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series in the context of other 20th century fantasy novels. So, why cats? Cats have been connected to women—and, especially, to witches—in literature for centuries, and my project interprets cats in Harry Potter … Continue reading Grad Student Spotlight: Katie Cline
Every year linguists come together to talk about what’s changing in language and how best to study it at the New Ways of Analyzing Language (NWAV) conference. This year, Lynsey Akin (BA '20) and I got the chance to join them in Eugene, Oregon, to share what we’ve been up to in the Kansas … Continue reading Ope! Midwesterners Venture to the West Coast to Talk about Language Change
If these at least one of these books doesn't give you the creeps, we'll give you a box of Milk Duds or something. Scratch that. We're so sure they'll scare you, we're not even going to buy any Milk Duds. Tricks only here—gorgeous, night-sweats-inducing tricks. As life makes it increasingly difficult to read every book … Continue reading Six Books to Scare You
If you’ve ever considered submitting a query letter to a literary agent, you might know they typically include a few paragraphs about your manuscript, where it fits in the market, and your qualifications or publication history. If you’ve never been an intern at a literary agency, you might not know that sometimes, in lieu of … Continue reading Grad Student Spotlight: Rebecca Nelson
