Spring Preview

Spring Lilacs in Manhattan, KS (2022) Welcome to the spring semester! We hope that you are keeping well and safe as 2023 gets underway. Here are some of the events -- some online only, some HyFlex, some only in person -- that we're looking forward to in the months ahead. Please join us for community, … Continue reading Spring Preview

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

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

November 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for The SAGE Encyclopedia of Filipina/x/o American Studies (SAGE, 2022), where Tom Sarmiento has published under the letter M “Midwest, Filipina/x/o Americans in the.”  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 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

October 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for B is for Baldwin: An Alphabet Tour of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature (U of Florida Press, 2022), where Anuja Madan has published “A is for Anglophone.”  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 … Continue reading October 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Research and Road Trips: K-State English, the Western Literature Association, and the Road to Sante Fe

Four Kansas State University professors (Valerie Padilla Carroll, Michele Janette, Mary Kohn, and Lisa Tatonetti) and three students (Bailey Britton, Meghan Luttrell, and Kinsley Searles) attended the 56th annual Western Literature Association (WLA) conference, which took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico last week, October 19-22. The conference, “Palimpsests and Western Literatures: The Layered Spaces … Continue reading Research and Road Trips: K-State English, the Western Literature Association, and the Road to Sante Fe

September 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for The Material Culture of Writing, edited by Cydney Alexis and colleague Hannah J. Rule (Utah State UP, 2022)   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, and creative activity outlined … Continue reading September 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Kansas State Indigenous Peoples Day

Prairie Band Potawatomi Chairman Zeke Rupnick, Chairman of the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas Lester Randall, and Communications Director of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Olivia Brien speak at the 2022 Indigenous Peoples Day Conference (10 October 2022) Monday, October 10, 2022 was Indigenous Peoples Day. At Kansas State, it was the seventh year that the … Continue reading Kansas State Indigenous Peoples Day

Summer 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover for Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice (Utah State UP, 2022), co-edited by Abby Knoblauch and Marie E. Moeller. Each month during the academic year, we assemble a newsletter of the department's recent publications, presentations, announcements, and awards. The issue for September showcases a greater range of research, scholarship, and creative … Continue reading Summer 2022 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity