THE MASTHEAD
SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH GRADUATE STUDENT NEWSLETTER
Registration for Spring 2024 at SSU is upon us! In this newsletter, you’ll find descriptions of upcoming English graduate courses, as well as important dates. If you have questions about registration or need help deciding what to take, your graduate coordinator will gladly assist you. Feel free to contact the instructors of any courses you are interested in if you would like more detailed information.
SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY
ENGLISH GRADUATE PROGRAM
CONTACT INFORMATION
Keja Valens Coordinator, English Graduate Programs kvalens@salemstate.edu
978.542.7050
Scott Nowka Chair, English snowka@salemstate.edu
978.542.7183
Al DeCiccio Coordinator, Writing Center al.deciccio@salemstate.edu
978.542.3007
Sovicheth Boun Coordinator, TESOL Graduate Programs sboun@salemstate.edu
978.542.3071
English Department Faculty directory.salemstate.edu/english School of Graduate Studies
978.542.6323
IMPORTANT PROGRAM DATES
OCTOBER
Oct 6: Last Day to Withdraw from 1st Quarter Courses
Oct 7: Application for November Language Exam due to School of Graduate Studies
Oct 10: WRITERS’ SERIES: TIPHANIE YANIQUE - 7:30-9 pm
Recital Hall Classroom Building - Harrington Campus
Oct 16: Intention to complete a thesis or manuscript in the spring due
Oct 23: Faculty Reading 11 am - 12:30 pm, MLK Room, Ellison Campus Center
Oct 31: Registration for spring opens (current students) Reminder: No Classes After 4:30 pm
NOVEMBER
Nov 1: Thesis and manuscript proposals and course registrations for spring due
Nov 2: Language exam
Nov 3: CPS/G Last Day to Withdraw from Fall II Courses
Nov 9: WRITERS SERIES: BRIAN BRODEUR AND JD DEBSKI - 7:30-9 pm
Petrowski Room Marsh Hall - Harrington Campus
Nov 22: Advising/Reading Day (No CPS/G or Day Classes)
Nov 23-26: THANKSGIVING RECESS
Nov 27: Last Day to Withdraw from Full Semester Courses, Classes Resume
DECEMBER
Dec 4: Undergraduate Student Reading - 11-12:30 pm, MLK Room, Ellison Campus Center
Dec 8: Final fall thesis and manuscripts, with all signed paperwork, due for fall graduation; Intention to complete a portfolio in the spring due
Dec 13: Reading Day
Dec 22: CPS/G Classes End
Dec 22: WINTER RECESS (Begins at 2 pm)
JANUARY
Jan 16: First day of spring semester classes
FEBRUARY
Feb 3: Application for March Language Exam due to School of Graduate Studies
Feb 26: Registration for summer opens (current students)
MARCH
March 1: Language exam
March 9-15: SPRING RECESS
March 15: Graduation applications due (through Navigator)
APRIL
Please read information relevant to you about the process for thesis, manuscript, or portfolio submissions and follow all directions.
April 1: Intention to complete a thesis or manuscript in the summer or fall due; Fall registration opens (current students)
April 15: Thesis and manuscript proposals for the summer and fall due
MAY
May 3: Final thesis and manuscripts, with all signed paperwork, due for spring graduation; Intention to complete a portfolio in the summer or fall due; Intention to complete thesis or manuscript in the fall due
May 8: CPS/G Classes End
JUNE
June 9: Application for July Language Exam due to School of Graduate Studies
JULY
July 8: Language exam
SPRING 2024
Spring 2024
ENG 716 Ecopoetics
Professor: Theis
Tu 4:30-6:50 pm | In Person
ENG 716 “Ecopoetics” will explore what happens when we think about the world we inhabit through the prism of literature. How does literature construct the worlds we inhabit and the worlds we might inhabit in the future or we inhabited in the past? This will not be a nature writing course where we read descriptions of the natural world; rather, we will consider how ecocriticism (theory and practice) help human beings engage each other and the non-human. Surely, climate change will be a relevant topic, but so will other topics such as gender studies, animal studies, etc. The reading list is still in development.
ENG748 Young Adult Literature
Professor: DeFrancis
W 4:30-6:50 pm | Online Synchronous
Young adult literature has found its place in the middleand high-school curricula. It has also established itself within college curricula. This course will examine YAL in much the same way we would interrogate any literature coupled with a lens on whether the chosen texts should/ could be taught in middle and/or high schools.
ENG 831AN Topics in American Literature and Criticism
Professor: Damon-Bach
M 4:30-6:50 pm | In Person
This seminar in American Literature and Criticism will focus on the writing of 19th-century American author Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867), who published 20 books in multiple genres and over 150 short stories and sketches during her 40-year career. Haven’t you heard of her yet? Now’s the time! Considered a founder of American literature in her own time and admired nationally and internationally, Sedgwick was featured in The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Americans in 1834, one of only four writers and two women in the volume. In the past three decades, scholars have rediscovered Sedgwick and recognized her importance to American literature; as a result, her work is now included in all major anthologies of American literature, and all six of her major novels are back in print in scholarly editions, two reissued as Penguin Classics. Sedgwick’s life and writing career span the inauguration of George Washington through the Civil War; her books, short stories, and sketches address issues such as religion, slavery, women’s rights, Native American rights, education, economics, and labor, history, politics, travel, crime, poverty, social justice, and the environment. This seminar will study several of Sedgwick’s major novels and sample the range of her short works. In addition to analysis of her published writing, students will be introduced to archival work and the transcription and scholarly editing involved in the ongoing documentary digital edition, “Catharine Maria Sedgwick’s Online Letters.” We will take a field trip to the Massachusetts Historical Society, which houses most of Sedgwick’s correspondence, and participants will be invited to contribute their work to one of several ongoing digital projects devoted to Sedgwick and consider presenting their research publicly.
ENG 835 Mindful Writing
Professor: Peary
Th 4:30-6:50 pm | Hy-Flex
This course addresses a fundamental flaw in most people’s writing education: how school has trained us to overlook the present moment when we write in favor of dwelling on a future outcome with a future reader or a past outcome with a past reader. Traditional school has taught us to be mindless (to overlook the present) when we write, and the problem is that the majority of writing difficulties people experience can be attributed to mindlessness. Ignoring the present, we tend to think of judgmental readers from the past or future, and this blocks us from writing freely and with a focused mind. Ignoring the present means expecting automatic perfection from pieces of writing we haven’t even had the time to draft. Ignoring the present means falling under the sway of our monkey minds, believing negative storylines we tell ourselves about our potential. Finally, ignoring the present means denying ourselves access to a set of powerful resources for our writing—rhetorical factors that are only visible when the present moment is visible. This course introduces you to those present-based rhetorical tools and helps you ward off distracting past- or futurebased thoughts. When we stay focused on the present moment, every writing moment can be prolific and calm. Writing can become an important form of self-care and self-compassion, rather than something to dread or dislike. By the end of the course, you should see how prolific writing ability (the ability to write a lot whenever you wish) is obtainable because you know methods to decrease and even mostly eliminate your writing stress. This course will be useful to you if you are someone who occasionally or frequently struggles with writing or if you plan to teach or tutor in your professional lives.
ENG 820 Fiction and Narrative Forms
Professor: Scrimgeour
Th 7-9:20 pm | In Person
A workshop course concentrating on the short stories, novels-inprogress, and nonfiction narratives of the participants. Workshop members read and critique one another’s work and discuss works by accomplished authors. Topics include how to publish. This course may be repeated for a maximum of nine credits.
ENG 302/870 Writing Center Graduate Practicum
Professor: DeCiccio
W 1:40-3:30 pm | In Person
Welcome to ENL 302/ENG 870: Writing Center Practicum! In this course, we will examine the ways in which writing interventions can benefit writers by exploring a range of strategies for such interventions. We’ll explore everything from what makes a successful writing center session to new media and online tutoring, working with writers in the disciplines, working with multilingual writers, working with graduate student writers and faculty members, and investigating how different identities surface and play out in the Writing Center. In addition to attending and participating in our Wednesday meetings, you will be required to tutor (in person or remotely) in the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center for three hours each week. Your work in the Center will be the basis for the rest of our course. As you read, write, think, discuss, and research, you will always be reflecting on your tutoring sessions, using your experiences in the Center to push back on the texts we read and theorizing how to build new knowledge about writing centers. Any individual interested in working at the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center as a tutor must successfully complete this course. Invitations to tutor will be based on a comprehensive assessment of your work, your professionalism, and your enthusiasm for working with others.
COURSE
DESCRIPTIONS
