The Masthead | Summer and Fall 2023

THE MASTHEAD

SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY ENGLISH GRADUATE STUDENT NEWSLETTER

SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY

ENGLISH GRADUATE PROGRAM CONTACT INFORMATION

Keja Valens Coordinator, English Graduate Programs kvalens@salemstate.edu

978.542.7050

J.D. Scrimgeour Chair, English jscrimgeour@salemstate.edu

978.542.7422

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

Registration for Summer and Fall 2023 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 be happy to assist you. Feel free to contact the instructors of any courses you are interested in if you would like more detailed information.

IMPORTANT PROGRAM DATES

MAY:

May 2: Phi Kappa Phi Initiation Ceremony

May 22: Full Summer and Summer Session I Classes Begin

May 23: Full Summer and Summer Session I Add/Drop Period Ends

May 29: MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY

JUNE:

June 2: CPS/G Make-Up Day for Memorial Day Holiday

June 12: Last Day to Withdraw Summer Session I

June 19: JUNETEENTH HOLIDAY

June 30: Last Day of Classes Summer Session I

JULY:

July 3-7: INDEPENDENCE DAY RECESS (No Classes)

July 4: JULY 4 HOLIDAY

July 8: Language Proficiency Exam

July 10: Summer Session II Classes Begin

July 11: Summer Session II Add/Drop Period Ends

July 31: Last Day to Withdraw Summer Session II and Full Summer

AUGUST:

August 19: Last Day of Classes Summer Session II and Full Summer

SEPTEMBER:

September 4: LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

September 5: Opening the University/Advising Day and Convocation

September 6: First Complete Teaching Day (Day and CPS/G, Fall I)

September 12: Full Semester ADD/DROP Period Ends

OCTOBER:

October 6: Last Day to Withdraw from 1st Quarter Courses

October 9: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ DAY HOLIDAY (COLUMBUS DAY)

October 13: CPS/G Makeup Day for Indigenous People’s Day Holiday

October 31: No Classes After 4:30 pm

NOVEMBER:

November 3: CPS/G Makeup Day for October 31 (as needed)

November 3: CPS/G Last Day to Withdraw from Fall II Courses

November 10: VETERANS DAY HOLIDAY

November 17: CPS/G Makeup Day for Veteran’s Day Holiday

November 22: Advising/Reading Day (No CPS/G or Day Classes)

November 23-26: THANKSGIVING RECESS

November 27: Last Day to Withdraw from Full Semester Courses

November 27: Classes Resume

DECEMBER:

December 13: Reading Day

December 22: CPS/G Classes End

December 22: WINTER RECESS (Begins at 2 pm)

WRITERS SERIES

The Salem State Writers Series invites noted authors of short stories, biography, poetry, memoir and essays to share their work at free readings throughout the academic year. These events also include annual student and faculty readings.

All Writers Series events are free and open to the public.

Writers Series: Colleen Michaels and P. Djèlí Clark

Thursday, March 30, 2023

7:30 – 9 pm | Classroom Building, Central Campus

Colleen Michaels is a poet and educator living on Massachusetts’ North Shore. She directs the Writing Studio at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, Massachusetts, where she hosts the Improbable Places Poetry Tour, bringing poetry to unlikely places like tattoo parlors, laundromats, and swimming pools. Yes, in the swimming pool. Her poems have been published, anthologized, and commissioned as installations for The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, The Peabody Essex Museum, and The Trustees of Reservations. She serves on the board of trustees for the Beverly Public Library. Prize Wheel, her debut collection, will be published by Small Bites Press early in 2023.

Phenderson Djéli Clark is the award winning and Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy nominated author of the novel A Master of Djinn, and the novellas Ring Shout, The Black God’s Drums and The Haunting of Tram Car 015. His stories have appeared in online venues such as Tor.com, Daily Science Fiction, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Apex, Lightspeed, Fireside Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and in print anthologies including, Griots, Hidden Youth and Clockwork Cairo. He is a founding member of FIYAH Literary Magazine and an infrequent reviewer at Strange Horizons.

Born in New York and raised mostly in Houston, Texas, he spent the early formative years of his life in the homeland of his parents, Trinidad and Tobago. When not writing speculative fiction, P. Djèlí Clark works as an academic historian whose research spans comparative slavery and emancipation in the Atlantic World. He melds this interest in history and the social world with speculative fiction and has written articles on issues ranging from racism and H.P. Lovecraft to critiques of George Schuyler’s Black Empire, and has been a panelist and lecturer at conventions, workshops and other genre events. At current time, he resides in a small Edwardian castle in New England with his wife, daughters, and pet dragon (who suspiciously resembles a Boston Terrier). When so inclined he rambles on issues of speculative fiction, politics, and diversity at his aptly named blog The Disgruntled Haradrim.

Writers Series: Lulu Miller

Thursday, April 27, 2023

7:30 – 9 pm | Ellison Campus Center

Lulu Miller is the co-host of Radiolab (a podcast about science and curiosity), host of Terrestrials (an occasionally musical podcast about nature), co-creator of NPR’s Invisibilia (a podcast about psychology) and author of national bestseller Why Fish Don’t Exist. Her writing has been published in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, VQR, Orion, and beyond. She has won honors from the Peabody Awards, the Associated Press, and the National Center on Disability and Journalism. She lives in Chicago with her wife and two sons.

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Summer 2023

ENG 718: Literature of the Sea

Professor: Keja Valens

Summer I | Online Asynchronous

The Atlantic Ocean laps against the North Shore; it reaches the Arctic, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Europe. It is the sea that we encounter in our everyday and across the global literary imagination. It is the site of the adventures of Moby Dick, the horrors of the Middle Passage, and the wonders of Mami Wata. In this course, we will read stories of adventure and disaster at sea, historical and speculative poetic renderings of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. Texts will include short stories by Herman Melville, Edwidge Danticat, Thomas Glave, and Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel and novels by Rivers Solomon and Rita Indiana. Students will have the opportunity to consider how to write about, teach, and create digital projects that engage literature of the sea. This is a literary studies course.

ENG 761: Shakespeare Teachers’ Institute

Professor: Jeffrey Theis

Summer II | Institute, August 7-11

Are you a teacher and want to bring new life to how you teach a Shakespeare play? ENG 761, Shakespeare Teacher’s Institute, is for teachers and teachers-in-training and brings Shakespeare’s plays to life through performance techniques and scholarly research. The institute is co-taught with Actors’ Shakespeare Project. Each summer we focus on one specific play. In a low-stakes setting, students will do some acting, work on curriculum development, and write an annotated bibliography based upon scholarly research. You will deepen your knowledge of Shakespeare and develop ways to make him more engaging to your own students. Online discussions and the writing of the annotated bibliography occur in the week/s right after the institute. May be repeated for credit or taken only for professional development points. Email Jeff Theis (jtheis@salemstate.edu) with any questions about the course or to indicate your contact info (mainly email address as well as mailing address). This is a literary studies course that can also be used as a substitute for ENG 821 Contemporary Methods of Teaching Literature, for students in the MAT and MA/MAT programs.

ENG 830: Digital Writing

Professor: Tanya Rodrigue

Summer I | Online Asynchronous

Digital writing is an umbrella term that encompasses writing that is composed with digital tools and often shared in digital spaces. This class will focus on one kind of digital writing, podcasting. Students will analyze podcasts based on a variety of subjects such as music, sports, and true crime, and their corresponding genres such as interviews, discussion, and narrative stories. Students will learn the process of creating a podcast, the technical skills needed to craft professionalsounding audio work, and techniques for distributing a podcast to a target audience. With that knowledge, students will create their own podcasts individually or in small groups, compose and produce a trailer and 1-2 podcast episodes, and share their podcasts in digital spaces. This is a writing course and counts for the Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric.

ENG 745: Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric

Professor: Al DeCiccio

Summer II | Online Synchronous

Welcome to ENG 745: Introduction to Writing and Rhetoric. Studying writing and rhetoric is intrinsically interdisciplinary. Understanding writing and rhetoric can help us to determine what’s real and what’s fake. Practicing writing and rhetoric allows us to contribute to what Michael Oakeshott calls the ongoing conversation of humankind. This course introduces students to the discipline of writing and rhetoric, its formation, histories, theories, and methodologies. Students will study key concepts, theories, and practices as well as trace and explore historical and ongoing conversations in the discipline. ENG 745 is fully online and requires regular engagement with synchronous class meetings and asynchronous course discussions. This is a writing course and is a required course for the Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric.

Fall 2023

ENG 725: Intro to Graduate Studies in Lit

Professor: Keja Valens

M 5-7:20 pm | Hybrid (meets in person every other week) This course introduces students to literary study and creative writing in the context of literary theory. It considers big questions such as: what is literature and what does it do?  What is language and how does it function?  Who writes and how? Students develop methods of participating in debates relevant to the field, engaging literary theory and criticism, and writing for scholarly audiences. The hybrid nature of this course is to meet face to face every other week and to work asynchronously online in between. In-person meetings on the following dates: 9/18, 10/2, 10/23, 11/6, 11/20, 12/4, 12/18. This is a required course for all programs of study.

ENG 794: Studies in Literature of the World Professor: Stephenie Young

Tu 5-7:20 pm | In-Person

Dictators, Fascists, and Fanatics: Tragedy on Page and Screen  They say that bad politics make great literature, so there is never a shortage of amazing stories out there for us to read on the subject. This course focuses on mostly modern tales of dictatorship and disaster through page (novels, short stories, non-fiction) and screen (Hollywood film, documentaries, shorts). By looking at powerful stories, we will study the social structures that create and uphold dictatorships and “the strong man,” discuss the predicament of the citizen who, among other things, must decide between personal ethics and state rule of law, and consider questions about the aestheticization and artistic rendering of public and private/domestic violence. This course will include an out-of-class film component which students can complete from the comfort of their couch!

Readings may include: Voices from Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus), In the Time of the Butterflies , Julia Alvarez (Dominican Republic), The Cellist of Sarajevo,  Galloway (Bosnia), The Leopard , Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Sicily), The Hour of the Star, Clarice Lispector (Brazil), Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo (Mexico), On Heroes and Tombs , Ernesto Sabato (Argentina), Blindness , Jose Saramago (Portugal), Persepolis , Marjane Satrapi (Iran),

The Pianist , Władysław Szpilman (Poland), and The Three Theban Plays (Sophocles).

Films may include: The Great Dictator (Chaplin, 1940, USA), The Godfather Part I and II (Coppola 1972 & 1974, USA), 1900 (Bertolucci, 1976, Italy), The Official Story (Puenzo, 1985, Argentina), American History X (Kaye, 1998, USA), Pan’s Labyrinth (del Toro, 2006, Mexico/Spain), City of God (Meirelles, 2002, Brazil), Ida (Pawlikowski, 2013, Poland); There is No Evil (Rasoulof, 2020, Iran), Tár (Field, 2022, USA).

Check with Professor Young in August 2023 about the final reading and screening list. This is a literary studies course and counts for the Certificate in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

ENG 822A: Nonfiction Workshop

(cross-listed with ENL 421)

Professor: John Scrimgeour

W 5:30-7:50 pm | In-Person

In this course, students will write in three of the major forms of creative nonfiction: memoir, personal essay, and literary journalism. The course will look at developments in creative nonfiction, such as the lyric essay, the collage essay, and multi-modal composition. Students will have the opportunity to explore the boundaries of the genre through low-stakes writing exercises. Course time will be devoted to discussing student work and readings in contemporary nonfiction. This is a writing course and counts for the Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric.

ENG 827: Scriptwriting

(cross-listed with ENL 420)

Professor: Kevin Carey

Th 5:30-7:50 pm | In-Person

Scriptwriting will focus on the principles and practices of modern dramaturgy as it relates to the writing of film scripts and stage scripts. Characters, story, plot structure, and dialogue will be discussed and analyzed in contemporary and classic film scripts and plays and in the developing works of students. Scriptwriting is a rigorous craft and, at its best, a fine art. It involves practical analysis of short and feature film scripts and play scripts as well as writing assignments which are tailored to help students master the basics of the art. This course can help students to polish up that script/play idea and get it ready to pitch or produce. This is a writing course and counts for the Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric.

ENG 832: Topics in British Literature and Criticism: British Romanticism

(cross-listed with ENL 445)

Professor: Jude Nixon

W 5-7:20 pm | In-Person

ENG 832 and ENL 445 focus on British literary Romantic writers. Emphasis will be placed on individual writers and seminal works, the major characteristics of the literary/cultural period including, but not limited to, the shift from heroic verse to a lingua franca, the turn from religion to myth, and the complex relationship between author and audience. The course will also examine the many historical, cultural, and political forces that shaped the period: the French Revolution; the rise of science; the view of man as divine; the fraternal relationship between humans, each other, and nature; emerging industrialism; ecocriticism. The final grade will be determined from class presentations, class participation, two formal papers (with and without research; with research paper written as publication practice for MA students). Graduate students will be expected to do presentations and research/ lesson plans/digital projects in keeping with their degree programs. This is a literary studies course.

ENG 870: Writing Center

(cross-listed with ENL 302)

Professor: Al DeCiccio

W 1:10-3:30 pm | In-Person

Welcome to the Writing Center Practicum! While the course is required of graduate assistants assigned to the Writing Center, it is also open to other graduate students. The course examines the ways in which collaborative learning can benefit writers, and students practice a range of tutoring strategies. The Practicum explores everything from what makes a successful writing center tutoring 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. Requirements include regular weekly tutoring in the Writing Center and a research project on Writing Center theory and practice. Prerequisite: Permission of the Instructor. This is a writing course and counts for the Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric.

ENG 770N: Context and Culture TESOL

(cross-listed with EDC 361)

Professor: Amy Minett

Online Asynchronous

This course provides a foundation for understanding the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Local, national, and international contexts are examined and used in investigating various historical and current approaches to teaching linguistically diverse learners. Topics include laws and language policies, cultural identity, language diversity, and culturally responsive and affirming teaching to forge family and/or community relations. This is a TESOL course and can be used as an elective for the Literary Studies and Writing tracks.

ENG 771: Sociolinguistics

Professor: Sovicheth Boun

Mon 4:30-6:50 pm | Hybrid

This course investigates the relationship between language and human society. Students will evaluate current and classic sociolinguistic theory and research and will gather original data in an original research paper. Students will become familiar with a variety of topics applicable to this field including language variety; language and ethnicity; language, literacy and education; language choice; language and gender; and aspects of language and culture. In-person meetings on the following dates:  9/11, 9/25, 10/16, 10/30, 11/13, 11/27, 12/11. This course is a TESOL course and can be used as an elective for the Literary Studies and Writing tracks.

ENG 839: Research in TESOL

Professor: Melanie Gonzalez

Tu 4:30-6:50 pm | Hybrid

This course examines current research methods in the field of TESOL and students will develop the ability to read and conduct classroom research. Quantitative and qualitative methods, such as quasi-experiments, focus group, case study, and action research will be considered. Teacher research in the TESOL classroom will be emphasized. Students will develop a detailed research proposal and conduct a pilot study designed to investigate language acquisition, learning, and teaching. This is a TESOL course and can be used as an elective for the Literary Studies and Writing tracks.