ENGLISH v
DEPARTMENT VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 FALL 2019
NEWSLETTER Eugenio MarÃa de Hostos Community College, CUNY
Sharing our passion
for great books
English Department
Chair’s Message Well Wishes for a Successful Term
Newsletter \\
Volume 2 | Issue 1 Table of Contents
Chair’s Message
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Editor’s Note
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Happening This Term
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Faculty Spotlight
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Learning with Library Liaisons
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Faculty Summer Reading List
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Welcome back to the new Academic Year and to the fall semester. I hope we have all had a chance to rest and recharge over the summer. I am so happy to once again be able to offer words of welcome to our department newsletter; it is a wonderful celebration of all of our accomplishments. Congratulations and thank you for the energy you bring to the classroom, the professionalism you exhibit in scholarship, and the commitments you make to serving our college community. I wish us all the best for a terrific year ahead.
Editor’s Note
Catching up with “Core Books” 3
Celebrating Great Books
WGS Fall Film Series Calendar
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Start-of-Term Checklist
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In Memoriam
4
Spring 2019 Festivities
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As English professors, we have a knack for spotting overarching themes. On this occasion, I felt an inexorable call to “Great Books.” This past summer, CUNY community college faculty gathered at Columbia University and Hostos CC for a summer institute devoted to Core Books, a program started by our own Professors Andrea Fabrizio and Gregory Marks and generously funded by the Teagle Foundation. Invited speakers discussed best practices for teaching selected core texts, and faculty bonded over a shared appreciation for the written word. With the recent passing of literary giant, Toni Morrison, whose Song of Solomon (1977) is among the key texts taught in Core Books and who is featured twice in the Women and Gender Studies Fall Film Series, it seems especially timely that this program uses literature to address the humanistic questions of our society. As Morrison noted in The Source of Self-Regard (2019), “a writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity.”
Recognizing Faculty Excellence 5 Departmental Contacts Andrea Fabrizio, PhD Chair of Department afabrizio@hostos.cuny.edu Heidi Bollinger, PhD Deputy Chair of Department hebollinger@hostos.cuny.edu Shalema B. Averett-Hunt CUNY Office Assistant saverett-hunt@hostos.cuny.edu Diosa Carmona College Assistant dcarmona@hostos.cuny.edu Questions or submissions? Victoria Muñoz, Editor vmunoz@hostos.cuny.edu Elizabeth Porter, Assistant Editor eporter@hostos.cuny.edu
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In keeping with our theme, this issue also features a new segment: the Faculty Summer Reading List, which originated with a suggestion by Professor Craig Bernardini. We hope you will enjoy this selection of great books recommended by our faculty. Special thanks is also owed to our issue contributors: Anne Rounds and Linda Miles coauthored the piece on learning with library liaisons. Greg Marks wrote the feature on the Core Books Teagle Institute, and Dag Abebe, Writing Fellow, provided the photographs (cover and page 3). Photographs celebrating the May Senate meeting and Diosa’s retirement were provided by Alex Milsom and Heidi Bollinger, respectively. Finally, thanks is also owed to Elizabeth Porter, Assistant Editor, and Anne Rounds, Learning Commons Liaison.
Happening this Term Meetings Course-level Meetings Schedule All Meetings at 3:30 PM in English Conference Room, B-502 Developmental Courses: ENG 111 Courses: Wednesday, September 25thMonday, September 23rd Tuesday, October 15th Tuesday, October 29th th Wednesday, December 4 Monday, December 2nd ENG 110 Courses: Tuesday, September 17th Wednesday, October 23rd Monday, November 25th
Elective Courses: Wednesday, October 16th Tuesday, November 19th
Upcoming Events Monday, October 7th (3:30 PM; TBA): Sailing Towards My Father A One-Man Play About Herman Melville Contact: cbernardini@hostos.cuny.edu Tuesday, October 29th (4:30 PM; C-391): Mother of Exiles: Refugees in American History and Myth A lecture by Mae Ngai, Professor of History & Co-Director of Columbia University Center for the Study of Ethnicity & Race Contact: afreeland@hostos.cuny.edu
Faculty Spotlight Krystyna Michael, PhD Assistant Professor, English Q: What most excites you about your new position at Hostos CC? A: I am thrilled to be working with the Hostos student body. I received my PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center, and I have been teaching in the CUNY system for years, so I am really committed to CUNY’s mission. I have found the students at Hostos to be both very serious, and at the same time fun. Q: What is unique about this institution? A: I think Hostos is unique in its deep relationship to its surrounding community. Hostos came out of a community call for an institution of higher learning for the South Bronx and it works to open up onto and bring the community into its work in many ways that I find really exciting. Q: What are you teaching during Fall term? A: I am teaching ENG 110; I have organized my courses this semester around Nonstop Metropolis, a collection of alternative maps of New York City with accompanying essays edited by Rebecca Solnit. The maps cover topics ranging from music to climate change and capital, and they will help us to imagine and understand New York City’s cultural and political impact in new ways.
Learning with Library Liaisons By Linda Miles & Anne Lovering Rounds During the past year, the Senate Library Committee investigated how professors at Hostos continue to benefit from relationships with liaison librarians. Through the Library Liaison program, individual librarians are assigned to work directly with faculty members in each discipline to support their teaching and to collaborate on collection development. English Professor Victoria Muñoz set up a library workshop with her liaison librarian, Professor Haruko Yamauchi, to help her students to devise a research topic and identify relevant, appropriate sources. The workshop introduced students to different types of sources, and it helped them to identify the right kind of source for each research stage; students wrote down “takeaways and lingering questions.” “Whether Professor Heidi Bollinger reports that for her students, Professor Ya- students or mauchi developed customized mascholars, we terials, and she facilitated a workshop for her Honors English elective on Gra- can all use phic Novels, noting that “[Professor the opporYamauchi] was encouraging and genuinely enthusiastic and also followed tunity up with several students via email... Students appreciated this especially.” to practice Natural Sciences Professor Kath- research leen Delgado (Food Studies) has also taken advantage of the Library Liaison skills in a program. She held one of her lecture supportive periods in the library, where her liaison, Professor William Casari, guided environment.” students in the use of library resources. According to Professor Delgado, this intervention helped her first-year students to produce well-researched projects. Professor Delgado was able to adjust the timeline of her assignments in future semesters so students could be more prepared to “extract more information” from Professor Casari. Several faculty members in Behavioral and Social Sciences reported using library liaisons to support student assignments and skills, including identifying peer-reviewed journal articles. Curious? The new library website has a Faculty Toolkit designed to support professors’ teaching and research across the college. It includes a listing of faculty liaison librarians by discipline. Find out about how to arrange for a customized library instruction workshop in the library or your classroom. Beyond the library workshop program, you will find specific library-designed low-stakes activities that you can adapt yourself to help students to develop needed skills and understanding for research projects. Whether students or scholars, we can all use the opportunity to practice research skills in a supportive environment.
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Summer Reading List
Catching Up with “Core Books”
Great Books Recommended by Faculty
By Gregory Marks
“Wallack argues for…the essay as a form in which the writer “shows up” on the page...” – Prof. Freeland
“[Re-reading], I was struck anew by its profound engagement with the politics of Catholic Emancipation.” – Prof. Milsom
“Rosenbloom expands on the virtues of solitude, disconnecting and exploring on one's own. [She] makes you want to jump on a plane to Paris!” – Prof. Widney
“I devoured [Rooney’s] novel about young love, loss, and late capitalism in one day.” – Prof. Porter
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“Maybe not the best, but Saunderslevel funny for sure. About Amherst: "Each house and each church probably knew someone who knew Cotton Mather."Prof. Bernardini
For three years now, several sections of the English Department’s composition sequence of 110 and 111 have included texts from Columbia University’s famous Core Curriculum. The thinking of co-PIs Professors Fabrizio and Marks was that Hostos CC students deserve access to the same materials and opportunities as students attending an Ivy League university. That is, studying these texts will not only strengthen students’ reading and writing skills, but also bring them into age-old questions about humanity. Just this spring, the NYCbased Teagle Foundation, headed up by Melville scholar and now Teagle President Andy Delbanco, decided to support and help expand the program to other CUNY campuses with a grant of $275K. So, from June 10th – June 12th, 2019, Columbia University and Hostos CC hosted a gathering of about 40 faculty from Hostos, BMCC, Laguardia and City Tech. Led by Columbia faculty, participants of this Teagle Institute discussed and developed teaching materials for works such as Plato’s Republic, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication, and Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon—this was all with an eye to encouraging CUNY students to engage with the important humanistic questions raised by these texts. Teagle Institute Part II, coming June 2020!
WGS Fall Film Series @ Hostos Breaking Boundaries/Crossing Borders Monday, October 7th: 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. in B501
Sex, Lies and Gender
National Geographic investigates the science behind gender, how doctors and parents approach gender decisions at birth, and the conflicts that emerge when children aren’t accepted as sex-variant.
Tuesday, October 15th: 9:30 – 11:00 a.m. in B501
Knock Down the House
This documentary follows newly-elected NYC Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three other inspiring grassroots female candidates challenging local male incumbents in the 2018 Democratic primaries.
Wednesday, October 16th: 11:00 – 1:00 p.m. in B501
Lady Macbeth
Adapted from an 1865 novella, this film explores the struggle of a young woman named Katherine who is stifled by a loveless marriage to an older man. Inspired by Shakespeare’s infamous villainess, Katherine is both victim and victimizer; the film makes a radical and timely statement about intersections of racism, classism, and sexism.
Monday, October 21st: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Faculty Dining Room BlacKKKlansman, directed by Spike Lee This film is based on the true story of black police officer Ron Stallworth who manages to infiltrate and expose the Colorado KKK with the help of a white Jewish colleague. Discussion will focus on the role of white women in the KKK and Black women in the Black Panthers. Thursday, October 31st: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. in MPR, Savoy Manor
The Pieces I Am
This recent documentary gives tribute to Morrison’s monumental accomplishments as a literary icon. More intimately, people close to the Nobel Prize-winning author explain the little-known barriers that the celebrated author faced in her career. Event features guest speaker Ileana Jiménez, leading feminist/social justice educator and lifelong teacher of Morrison’s work.
Start-of-Term Checklist Requirements
Check
Akademos (CUNY Online Bookstore) Get new semester sticker for ID. Deliver syllabus to the English Department (hard copy). Email syllabus to course managers. Complete Office Hours, Adjunct Hours, Teaching Hours forms. VOE (Verification of Enrollment) Roster deadline 9/16. Deliver VOE Roster printout to department Complete schedule grid for next semester. CUNY Edge (Attendance Submission (ongoing) Succeed@Hostos (ongoing) Prepared by Prof. Juan Soto-Franco
In Memoriam Professor Bowman Wiley, former Chair of English “[Professor Wiley] was a passionate and dedicated academic who served this institution with distinction for nearly four decades from 1973 until his retirement in 2009.” - David Gomez, College President “He was incredibly bright, self-oriented, and self-determined.” – Lucinda Hughey, Lecturer
Wednesday, November 6th: 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. in B501 Beloved, starring Oprah Winfrey Based on Toni Morrison’s celebrated novel, Beloved tells the story of Sethe, a freed slave, and the spirt that haunts her house: her daughter, Beloved, whom she killed out of mercy before emancipation, intending to spare her child the horrors of slavery. Wednesday, November 6th: 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. in C390 Y este cuerpo también (This Body Too) In this autobiographical film, a Dominican immigrant and intersex woman—the filmmaker herself—grapples with concepts of femininity and gender norms as she contemplates personal decisions about her body. Event features discussion with the filmmaker, Arisleyda Dilone. Tuesday, November 26th: 2:00 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. in A432
Women in Neuroscience
This event showcases inspiring women taking their place within this male-dominated STEM profession, and interviews with the centenarian founder of neuropsychology, Brenda Milner.
Above: Lucinda Hughey, aged 39, and Bowman Wiley, aged 46, at their NYC wedding; 1986. A longtime Long Island resident, Prof. Wiley passed away in Boston, MA on August 21st.
Those who wish to celebrate Prof. Wiley’s life are asked to make a donation to: The Art Students League of New York 215 West 57th Street 4 New York, NY 10019
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Spring 2019 Festivities Celebrating A Curricular Milestone
Recognizing Faculty Excellence Publications Bernardini, Craig. "Graveyard." Juked, 30 June 2019. Bernardini, Craig. "The Age of Virtual Children." Puerto del Sol, 12 July 2019. Buchanan, Jason. “Like a Scattering from a Fixed Point: Austerity Fiction and the Inequalities of Elsewhere.” Studi Irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 9 (2019), pp. 179-201. Soto-Franco, Juan. “Reading Comprehension: An Action Research Involving The New York Times, the Free Dictionary app and Smartphones.” Touchstone, Hostos Center for Teaching and Learning. Vol. 10.1 (Spring 2019). McLennan, Leanna. “Highfield Street.” Taddle Creek, 43: Pulp Fiction Issue (Summer 2019), pp. 54-57. Milsom, Alexandra. “Tourists of Eden.” The Rambling, 19 August 2019. Milsom, Alexandra. “Reading Ruskin in Cataclysmic Times.” Los Angeles Review of Books, 23 July 2019.
News Profs. Andrea Fabrizio and Gregory Marks received a $275,000 grant from the Teagle Foundation for Core Books: A Multi-Campus CUNY Humanities Proposal, an initiative inspired by Hostos’s application of Columbia University’s core curriculum.
Honors and Awards
Above (from top to bottom and left to right): Image 1: Professors Hubner, Robertson, Rice-González, Bollinger, Fabrizio, Nguyen, and Bury Image 2: Professors Bury and Rice-González Image 3: Professors Milsom, Gerrity, and Porter
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Muñoz, Victoria. CUNY Book Completion Award for “Spanish Romance in the Battle for Global Supremacy, 15781631” (tentative title), CUNY Office of Research, 20192020 award cycle. Muñoz, Victoria. Honorable Mention, Exemplary Online Course Award, CUNY Bronx EdTech Showcase, 28 May, 2019. Porter, Elizabeth. "Plotting and Plodding London: Women in Eighteenth-Century British Novels." Four-week Visiting Fellowship from the American Society of EighteenthCentury Studies (ASECS) and the Yale/Lewis Walpole Library. 2019-2020. Farmington, CT. Widney, Chris. "Miss Stump's Got It." Winner, Heartland Theatre Company Ten Minute Play Festival. July 2019, Heartland Theatre, Normal, Illinois. Widney, Chris. "Why?" Winner, Rockford National Short Play Festival. West Side Showroom. September 2019, Rockford, Illinois. Widney, Chris. "Greenville Tomorrow" Finalist, American Stage's 21 Century New Play Festival. September 2019, American Stage. St. Petersburg, Florida. Widney, Chris. "We're All Picassos" Winner, Volo Press Pocket Poetry Contest. July, 2019, Jackson, Georgia.
Spring 2019 Festivities Presentations and Performances Buchanan, Jason and Heidi Bollinger. “Reading for Readiness: Integrating Reading and Writing in the Accelerated Classroom." Restructuring First-Year Writing at CUNY: Access and Equity in the 21st Century, 5 April 2019, New York City College of Technology CUNY, Brooklyn, NY. Panel Presentation. Freeland, Anne. “The Production of Prison Narratives and Social Death.” International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, 26 May 2019, Boston, MA. Milsom, Alexandra. “Crossing the Waters to Take the Waters: Caribbean Guidebooks, Spa Tourism, and Plantation Proximity.” North American Society for the Study of Romanticism (NASSR) Annual Conference, 8 August 11 August 2019, Chicago, IL. Milsom, Alexandra. “‘All Men Hate the Wretched’: Why Mary Shelley Belongs in the South Bronx.” International Conference on Romanticism (ICR) Annual Conference, 31 July - 2 August 2019, Manchester, England. Muñoz, Victoria. “‘I’ll There Begin Their Endless Tragedy”: Politicizing Genre in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. Panel paper pre-circulated for “Jacobean Hispanophilia and English Drama.’” Shakespeare Association of America, 18 April 2019, Washington, D.C. Muñoz, Victoria. “Digitally Staging Shakespeare in the Literature Classroom.” CUNY Bronx EdTech Showcase, 28 May, 2019, Lehman College, Bronx, NY. Soto-Franco, Juan. “Soaring to New Heights in ELT.” 2019 Annual Conference for Teachers of English. Instituto Cultural Domínico-Americano, 2 August 2019, Hotel Catalonia, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Participant. Soto-Franco, Juan. “Reading Comprehension: A classroom research involving the New York Times, the Free Dictionary app and Smartphones.” Dominican Republic TESOL International Conference, 26 July 2019, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Soto-Franco, Juan. “Techniques to engage students in reading and reading comprehension by using The New York Times, the Free Dictionary app and smartphones.” Recorded interview for “Hostos Community College Tidbits” Center for Teaching and Learning. Bronx, NY. 12 April 2019.
Diosa Carmona’s Retirement Party
April 8th Faculty Reading Series
At right (from top to bottom): Image 1: At the Spring Party, English faculty honored Diosa’s departmental service. Image 2: A cake to celebrate Diosa’s famous catch-phrase. Image 3: Prof. Anne Freeland presented a talk on “Latin American Prison Literature.” Prof. Alex Milsom (not pictured) also delivered a talk on the subject of “Anti-Tourism.”
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