Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department’s recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards.
As we enter a third year living with COVID-19, we continue to direct energies towards teaching our courses and to supporting others during the pandemic. We’re also happy to recognize the recent successes in research, scholarship, and creative activity outlined below.
Want to catch up on past successes or to find future announcements? Visit our archive of monthly newsletters Reading Matters as well as related blog posts.
Have news to report? Email us at english@ksu.edu.
— Karin Westman, Department Head
Publications
Traci Brimhall, “Book of the Dead,” “Joy: A Reprise,” and “Quiescent” (poems). Narrative Magazine, Winter 2022: <https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/winter-2022/poetry/quiescent-and-other-poems-traci-brimhall>.
Elizabeth Dodd, “Deflection Studies” (Hot Take review of Don’t Look Up, dir. Adam McKay). Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, Feb. 2022: <http://www.resiliencejournal.org/hot-takes-february-2022/>.
Gregory Eiselein, “Louisa May Alcott, Major Author: Little Women and Beyond.” Little Women at 150, ed. Daniel Shealy, UP of Mississippi, 2022, pp. 180–203.
Presentations
Traci Brimhall, reading with Broadsided Press & Fine Arts Work Center. Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Philadelphia, PA, 24 Mar. 2022.
Elizabeth Dodd, Terrain.org Reading Series (moderator, with panelists Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Sean Sam, Melina Walling, and Jennifer K. Sweeney). 28 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
“The Edited Voice: The Challenge of Maintaining a Writer’s Distinct Voice” (panelist). Associated Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), Philadelphia, PA, 24 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
Molly James (MA ’22), “Analyzing Performative Masculinity in Howl’s Moving Castle.” 8th Biennial Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) Conference, Manhattan, KS, 26 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
Michele Janette, “Southern Memory, Southern Metaphor: Representing South Vietnam through the US South” (panel respondent). The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), New Orleans, LA, 24 Mar. 2022.
Anne Longmuir, “Forms of Religious Belief” (selected research seminar participant). North American Victorian Studies Association, Vancouver, Canada, 6 Mar. 2022. Online.
Philip Nel, “Anti-Racist Research: Doctorandi Masterclass” (invited lecture/discussion). University of Antwerp, Belgium, 31 Mar. 2022.
“When Heroes Become Villains: What to Do When Good Authors Do Bad Things?” (invited talk). University of Antwerp, Belgium, 30 Mar 2022.
“What Is Critical Race Theory? And What Is It Doing in Our Children’s Literature Class?” (guest lecture for Children’s Literature, Media, and Culture course). Aarhus University, Denmark, 8 Mar. 2022.
Sara Partin (MA ’23), “‘He Was the Wind that Stirred Me About the World’: Postfeminism, Patriarchy, and the Reader in Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses.” 8th Biennial Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) Conference, Manhattan, KS, 26 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
Hunter Scott (MA ’22), “Sex List: Queer Form in Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘Inventory.’” “Embodied Forms & Entertaining Identities” Convening, Mid-America American Studies Association, 1 Apr. 2022. Zoom.
Adrien Sdao (MA ’23), “Radical Inclusivity: Diversity in New Queer Children’s Literature and Beyond.” 8th Biennial Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) Conference, Manhattan, KS, 26 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
Morgan Shiver (MA ’22) and Ashlyn Kullberg (MA ’23), “Perspectives from English” (moderators). 8th Biennial Children’s and Adolescent Literature Community (ChALC) Conference, Manhattan, KS, 26 Mar. 2022. Zoom.
Awards
Thai Lopez (BA ’22) has received a Robinson Family Multicultural Leadership Award from the K-State Alumni Association.
Q & A: Voices from Queer Asian North America (Temple UP, 2021), ed. Martin F. Manalansan IV, Alice Y. Hom, and Kale Bantigue Fajardo, which includes a chapter by Tom Sarmiento, has been named a finalist for a 2022 Lambda Literary Award in the LGBTQ Anthology category.
Featured in Media
Adrien Sdao (MA ’23) and Tom Sarmiento were guests on the “Queer Literature” episode of The Lavender Lounge K-State LGBT Resource Center podcast (recorded 27 Mar. 2022): <https://www.buzzsprout.com/1863595/10331985>.
Announcements
Tom Sarmiento has been elected to serve another term as Treasurer for the Mid-America American Studies Association from 1 Jun. 2022 to 31 May 2023.
Research and Creative Activity from Alumni
Michael Mlekoday (MA ’11) has published All Earthly Bodies, a finalist for the 2022 Miller Williams Poetry Prize, with the University of Arkansas Press.
K-State English 