Location: A box discovered during summer cleaning in the ECS Building.Object: Photo of a faculty/grad student performance of William Wycherley's The Country Wife (1675), 10 Dec 2002.Observations: 1) During the 2000s, for department holiday parties we often performed scenes from Restoration and 18th c. plays as a holiday entertainment, drawing on the expertise of Bonnie … Continue reading Found Object: The Country Wife
Cassandra Griffing (BA '21) If someone asked me a year ago what I wanted to do after I complete my undergrad degree, I wouldn’t have had the slightest idea how to respond. An English degree can lead to many career paths, which is both exciting and daunting. When I set out to find an internship, … Continue reading Undergrad Student Spotlight: Cassandra Griffing
You probably won't see the new English graduate students at Kansas State University without masks for a while, but you can see their full faces and learn about them here. Here's some foreshadowing: They love their pets! We're thrilled to welcome them to campus, and wish everyone a safe and enriching and healthy semester. Name: … Continue reading Meet the New Grad Students
From "Kansas Fall Color Parade" (Photo: Dr. Megan Kennelly, 2014) It's been a challenging summer, following on a challenging spring, as we navigate a world with COVID-19, but the fall semester is underway -- partly face-to-face and mostly online. We're keeping six feet apart to keep each other and everyone else safe. Until we can … Continue reading Fall Preview
As we get ready for the start of classes on August 17, we’ll soon be back to our regular schedule of twice-weekly posts. In the meantime, watch for another update this coming week, as we prepare for the return of faculty and GTAs to the ECS Building! — Karin Westman, Department Head … Continue reading Found Object: Preparations for a COVID Fall Semester
Counting down the hours until you can experience Hamilton: An American Musical on the small screen? Re-watching to catch all of the details you missed the first time? We've got you covered, courtesy of student projects from our department's Hamilton course which I had the pleasure to teach in Spring 2018 and Fall 2019. … Continue reading Hamilton in Context
I asked the students in my Spring 2020 English 725 "African American Children’s Literature" course to produce a piece of public writing that answers the question of Why African American Children’s Literature Matters. Everyone from ill-informed pundits to well-meaning relatives question the value of courses in the humanities: "Why do universities offer such classes?" Or, … Continue reading “Ain’t Nobody’s Respect Worth More Than Your Own”: African American Children’s Literature, Self-Esteem, Education, and Hope
As we shift into summer mode, we’ll have intermittent contributions to the blog. Watch for some updates during the weeks ahead, and we’ll be back with our twice-weekly posts when the semester resumes in August! — Karin Westman, Department Head
As we conclude the spring semester and remote teaching in response to the spread of Covid-19, we offer a look at recent faculty, student, and alumni achievements in research, scholarship, and creative activity. Want to catch up on past successes or to find future announcements? Visit our archive of monthly newsletters Reading Matters as well … Continue reading April 2020 Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
I turn here to Part Two of two blog posts on teaching, reading, and writing the apocalypse during a moment of real dystopia. Part One sketched out the initial seven weeks of a class on dystopic fiction and film. Part Two below considers the last seven weeks after the rise of Covid-19 and our move … Continue reading On Teaching and Reading the Apocalypse . . . in the Apocalypse — Part II
K-State English 