Dear Friends and Alums,
Happy Spring! As always, spring brings with it an excitement for renewal and beginnings, and this year the English department has enjoyed many.
Our faculty continue to be recognized and valued as superior teachers in a long tradition of excellent teaching. In fact, our department has received more Distinguished Teaching Awards than any other department in the university over the past ten years and is tied for the most in the past twenty-five years. The Distinguished Teaching Award (OTA) is the only university-wide award and the only one initiated by students, and thus is highly coveted. Rebecca Lorimer-Leonard in rhetoric/composition received at OTA for 2023-2024. I have just been informed that Malcom Sen in Irish literature is to receive one at the faculty awards ceremony in May. To this list, we add Ruth Jennison, our modern poetry specialist and a past recipient of the OTA, who this year received a College OutstandingTeaching Award. That's three teaching awards in a single year! Teaching remains a chief value in the department. I so admire our faculty and their connections to our students.
The department is launching new initiatives. Malcolm Sen has been taking the lead on the Environmental Humanities through his work with the School of Earth and Sustainability, developing a curriculum which emphasizes our role in addressing climate change. Laurie Doyle, along with other faculty, developed an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in Decolonial Global Studies, just approved by the faculty senate. This spring we launched a new undergraduate concentration in Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy. Continuing with the theme of the new, Brenna Casey, a 19th century Americanist, joined the faculty this fall. In Fall 2024 we will be welcoming a new writer in the MFA, Desiree C. Bailey, author of Wha t Noise Against the Cane, a Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Poetry.
Alas, the wheel turns, and alongside arrivals are departures. Stephen Clingman retired in December; Laurie Doyle and Joe Bartolomeo will retire at the end of this academic year. The contributions they've made to the department, the university and the academy at large surpass all measure. We are deeply grateful for those contributions, as well as their collegiality and friendship. Their generosity of spirit is a legacy we'll cherish and carry with us into the years ahead.
There is much more to share-the Troy and Kaplan lectures in the fall, the Collins lecture next week, and the Renaissance Center's ongoing exhibit, Shakespea re Unbound. Too much for one brief note. We promise a return to a fuller and more comprehensive newsletter next year. In the meantime, I invite you to check the website for many exciting upcoming events. I hope to see you at one of them.
The Department of English is grateful to the alumni and other donors whose contributions and support are key to our creating a vibrant experience for our students. Your generosity allows us to offer student scholarships, to teach innovative courses, and to sponsor visits by internationally renowned writers and scholars. Please consider making a contribution, thereby enriching the lives of our students and investing in our common future.
You may make a gift online or by mail. You may give to the English Department as a whole, or to individual funds within the department. See the link here for details.
https://www.umass.edu/english/making-gift
Thank you!
Donna Lecourt, Chair, Department of EnglishCover images are of the 2023 Department Awards Ceremony / credit: Maya Geer
