Location, Location, Location: On the Trail of The Learning Tree

Visiting the Gordon Parks Museum in Fort Scott: Undergraduate research assistant Natassja Norwood (BA '25), Museum Director Kirk Sharp, Stephen Antwi (MA '24), and Ademola Adefolano (MA '24) (25 Feb 2023) We spent last Saturday afternoon hunting down a barn. Not just any barn. This was the barn where Gordon Parks shot a pivotal scene … Continue reading Location, Location, Location: On the Trail of The Learning Tree

Early Local Indigenous Cultures and Histories: English Students visit Flint Hills Discovery Center

Students from ENGL 640 “Going Native: Literatures from Turtle Island” during our visit of the Flint Hills Discovery Center on 28 January 2023 (from left to right in back: Tucker Newsome, Kaleb Roberts, Erica Martin, Kyla Barry, Cassidy Hartig, Achilles Seastrom; from left to right in front: Cecilia Pick, Evan Saltare, Merissa Christensen, Mayci Armstrong, … Continue reading Early Local Indigenous Cultures and Histories: English Students visit Flint Hills Discovery Center

AFTLS and Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet

Faculty and graduate student presenters bask in a K-State purple glow of success following their lightning talks (11 Feb 2023) On Saturday, February 11, in McCain Auditorium's Kirmser Hall, faculty and graduate students shared a series of lightning talks, "Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet," in advance of the performance of Shakespeare's play that same … Continue reading AFTLS and Love Letters to Romeo and Juliet

Watching and Believing: The #MeToo Movement and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in Chloe Okuno’s Watcher

Julia (Maika Monroe) follows her neighbor (Burn Gorman) who she suspects to be the Watcher (IFC Midnight, 2022) Today we share the fifth of six pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English” -- and the second selection from Section A of ENGL 801, taught in … Continue reading Watching and Believing: The #MeToo Movement and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in Chloe Okuno’s Watcher

Undergraduate Research in English Literature: Vital Practice

Students in ENGL 310 "Introduction to Literary Studies" share their research at the public symposium, “Who Painted the Lion? Talking Back in/as Literature,” held at the Manhattan Public Library on 2 December 2022. Every semester the English Department offers multiple sections of English 310, “Introduction to Literary Studies,” a course that welcomes English majors and … Continue reading Undergraduate Research in English Literature: Vital Practice

How to Build a Hopeful Future: Reject Citizenship

A scene from the epilogue of Mockingjay, Part 2 Today we share the fourth of six pieces of public writing selected for publication from an assignment in ENGL 801 “Graduate Studies in English” -- and the first selection from Section A of ENGL 801, taught this fall by Cameron Leader-Picone: a piece of public scholarship … Continue reading How to Build a Hopeful Future: Reject Citizenship

Secular Nightmares: Mental Health and the Absence of God in Parker Finn’s Smile

Promotional image for Parker Finn's 2022 film Smile 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. … Continue reading Secular Nightmares: Mental Health and the Absence of God in Parker Finn’s Smile

Can YA Fiction Predict the Future? Political Mimicry in Kiera Cass’s The Selection Series

Original illustration by author Kiera Cass of her characters America and Maxon from Happily Ever After: Companion to the Selection Series (2015) 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 … Continue reading Can YA Fiction Predict the Future? Political Mimicry in Kiera Cass’s The Selection Series

Signs, Signs, Everywhere…The Hidden Depth of Japanese Signs in Spirited Away

From Spirited Away (2002) 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 graduate students … Continue reading Signs, Signs, Everywhere…The Hidden Depth of Japanese Signs in Spirited Away

From the Archive: Halloween Horror: The Tell-Tale Heart

Image Credit: Goodreads Since our blog debuted in 2017, we have published 300+ 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 address … Continue reading From the Archive: Halloween Horror: The Tell-Tale Heart