Like teachers around the world, English Department faculty at Kansas State find ourselves having to rethink our approach to our classes in order to provide meaningful instruction. I am missing the main thing that brings me joy in teaching: the real life presence of my students. I wanted to allay their anxiety and motivate … Continue reading On Teaching During a Pandemic: Exploring Creativity
Monday was the 116th birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. That morning, the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) emailed to ask if I would be willing to talk about Seuss live that afternoon on their Here and Now program. I said I would be glad to, and we had a pre-interview telephone chat. About 40 … Continue reading To Avoid Covid 19, Here’s What You Can Do; or, Seuss versus Coronavirus, a New Kind of Flu
In summer 2019, I was reading a myriad of folks on Twitter talking syllabi and assignments. The conversations were invigorating, and I was especially attracted to a syllabus that Dave Gaertner, a brilliant assistant professor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia, put together for a course on digital literacies. … Continue reading On Photo Essays and the Sharing of Knowledge: In Praise of New Assignments
For the past eight weeks, we have enjoyed the company and research talents of Kaiya Thompson (BA ’21, English, Spelman College). As we shared in an earlier post, Kaiya joined us as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (SUROP) sponsored by the Graduate School at Kansas State. This morning, Kaiya presented highlights … Continue reading SUROP 2019: Following the Trail of the Exodusters
It is with heavy hearts that we share news of our emerita faculty colleague, Dr. Bonnie Nelson, who passed away yesterday morning after a cancer diagnosis in 2017 and a move to hospice care in recent weeks. Friends and colleagues are invited to join family members for the burial service tomorrow (Wednesday, July 10) at … Continue reading Remembering Bonnie Nelson
Last Saturday, May 11, we celebrated student and faculty success at our 2018-2019 Annual Awards Banquet. We'll have photos soon from Kristen Schweitzer (K-State alumna in Biology and in Curriculum and Instruction), but for now, here are our award recipients. (Information about the student awards below is available from our department's web site.) Brink Memorial … Continue reading 2018-2019 Annual Awards Banquet
Earlier this week, we paused during the end-of-semester rush to recognize a key group within our department: our term instructors. Each academic year, we are fortunate to have 15-20 term instructors who help the department fulfill its mission. Hired on annual or semester contracts with university health benefits and dedicated office space, our term … Continue reading In Appreciation
Since the first of September I have been at the Internationale Jugendbibliothek (IJB) in Munich, Germany. Why? As part of a larger cross-cultural study of diversity in children’s literature, I’m exploring how multiculturalism functions in Germany, via German picture books — chosen in part because they pose the smallest barrier to my limited (but improving!) … Continue reading Fight Stupidity; Keep Reading: A Dispatch from the Internationale Jugendbibliothek
Editors' note: We asked some English Department faculty members to share one, or some, of their summer adventures — academic or otherwise. Here's Part 2 (of 2), answering the age-old essay prompt: "How did you spend your summer vacation?" At the end of June, a record number of K-State English faculty, current graduate students, and … Continue reading How I Spent My Summer: Part 2
"One thing I learned from teaching on-line this past spring: Build the entire course before the term begins": This week, we feature a blog post from faculty member Phil Nel who takes his readers behind the scenes as he creates an online version of ENGL 545 "Literature for Adolescents" for Fall 2018. The English Department at … Continue reading Teaching Literature Online
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