February 2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover for West Branch, no. 104, Winter 2024:Digital Issue, which includes an essay by Traci Brimhall.  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 below.  Want to catch up on … Continue reading February 2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

What Makes My Heart Beat: AWP 2024

Catherine Strayhall (BA '17) in Kansas City for AWP 2024 The bar in the Crossroads Arts District is at capacity. Servers bustle hurriedly amongst the standing room crowd. Those who arrived late are out of luck. The people in the bar aren’t there because the hometown team plays in the Super Bowl in a few … Continue reading What Makes My Heart Beat: AWP 2024

Winter 2023-2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover for Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 3, Winter 2023-2024, which includes an article by Mark Crosby.  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 below.  Want to … Continue reading Winter 2023-2024 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Spring Preview

Spring flowers in Manhattan, KS (2023) Welcome to the spring semester! We hope that you are keeping warm and safe as 2024 gets underway. Here are some of the events that we're looking forward to in the months ahead. Please join us for community, creativity, and conversation! All are free but online access requires advance … Continue reading Spring Preview

The “Pretty” Trap

Photo: “Woman Putting on Red Lipstick” by Vitaly Gorbachev. 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 The “Pretty” Trap

November 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover for the special issue of Unsettling Global Midwests, a special issue of American Studies with American Studies International, vol. 62, no. 3, 2023, co-edited by Tom Sarmiento.  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 … Continue reading November 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Found Object: Poetry Harvest

Location: Poet Laureate of Kansas social media platformsObject: Poetry Harvest, sponsored by Traci Brimhall, current Poet Laureate of KansasObservations: 1) As part of her outreach to the state of Kansas as its current Poet Laureate, Traci Brimhall issued a call earlier this fall for poems about food and fall in Kansas. 2) As Traci explains … Continue reading Found Object: Poetry Harvest

October 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Traci Brimhall's poem "Arts & Sciences" appeared in The New Yorker   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 below.  Want to catch up on past successes or to … Continue reading October 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Recognizing Banned Books Week 2023 at K-State

Banned Books Week 2023 (Artwork courtesy of the American Library Association) Every time I find myself reading The Hunger Games I can’t help but feel inspired by the bravery and poise of Katniss Everdeen. I mean she staged an entire rebellion as a teenager. However, I didn’t know that just by reading that novel, I … Continue reading Recognizing Banned Books Week 2023 at K-State

September 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Cover image for Phillip Marzluf's Travel Writing in Mongolia and Northern China, 1860-2020 (Amsterdam University Press, 2023)   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 below.  Want to catch … Continue reading September 2023 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity