University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jonathan Holden On December 20, 2024, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jonathan Holden passed away. (His obituary is available here.) I had the good fortune to know Jonathan as a colleague in the Department of English since my arrival in 2000. When I became Department Head in 2007, I enjoyed learning even … Continue reading Remembering Jonathan Holden
As 2024 comes to a close, we send warm wishes to students, colleagues, and alums with this photo featuring a field trip earlier this fall to The Rabbit hOle Museum in Kansas City -- a wonderful winter break to all, and we'll see you in 2025!
Cover for Philip Nel's new book How to Draw the World: Harold and the Purple Crayon and the Making of a Children's Classic (Oxford UP, 2024). Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department's recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards. We're happy to recognize the recent successes in research, scholarship, … Continue reading November 2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
Frankenstein+AI (FuturePrint) Today we share the third of six pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English”: a piece of public scholarship (700-1,000 words) which tailors an academic paper and its scholarly intervention of 10-12 pages for a general-interest audience. Read more about the assignment and … Continue reading It’s Alive
Spring 2024 English majors elected to Phi Beta Kappa Each year, we assemble an end-of-year card for our donors and friends, seeking input from our faculty and students -- and, as of 2020, from you, our readers! Below are twelve images that have been popular on our social media platforms this year and that capture … Continue reading 2024 Holiday Card
“An astronaut in a space suit writing in his journal on Mars” (Adobe Express) Today we share the second of six pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English”: a piece of public scholarship (700-1,000 words) which tailors an academic paper and its scholarly intervention of … Continue reading Journaling on Mars: The Pen is Mightier Than the Planet
"Dracula + Jonathan Harker" by ofbeautsandbeasts In ENGL 801 "Graduate Studies in English," a required course for incoming M.A. students, we have always asked our graduate students to develop an original contribution to a current scholarly conversation about a literary or cultural text. Starting in 2020, we added a final writing assignment: we asked our … Continue reading Men, Monsters, and Maidens: Gender in Dracula
From Spirited Away (2002) Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 500+ posts. While some of you may have been with us from the start (thank you, loyal readers!), others may have joined us more recently. So, we're highlighting periodically some of the posts that have garnered a lot of views or that … Continue reading From the Archive: Signs, Signs, Everywhere…The Hidden Depth of Japanese Signs in Spirited Away
Even though I read the interview with Traci Brimhall over a decade ago (shortly after she joined K-State’s English faculty), I still remember her comment: “I’m just this meat sack with a conscience trying to make sense out of all this bright noise.” And I remember not just because I then added her words to … Continue reading Language and Light: Traci Brimhall at The Dusty Bookshelf
Mark Crosby's archival discovery of poet and artist William Blake's earliest engravings was featured in a number of international news venues, including The Times of London. Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department's recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards. We're happy to recognize the recent successes in research, scholarship, … Continue reading October 2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
K-State English 