We will be out at fall fest tomorrow handing out flyers at about 7:30 pm.

I hope everyone is having a great semester start. Last semester we really got a good start on the club, as well as our membership in Sigma Tau Delta. This semester, the goal is to recruit. We need more active member to take over for the senior core members that will be leaving soon. We have all put too much effort into the club for it to fall apart when the core members leave.

If you haven’t done so, make sure you are signed up on the ASUN portal under our club. If you qualify for sigma tau delta and want to join, email me back. There is a membership fee, but as I said last semester, if some of you can’t afford it let me know and we will try to work it out for you. We want everyone in that can possibly be in : ) Check www.sigmataudelta.org for info on qualifying.

Our club website is down for another week or so, but once its back it will again be at www.unrlinguisticsclub.org. It is just being revamped for the new year.

We should have our first meeting sometime in the next couple of weeks, the problem last semester was getting a good day of the week and time. Please if you have a preference let me know.

Best,

Joe Regalia veritseekar@gmail.com

Nahhh, it’s still August, despite cooler temps and some rain showers. But fall classes start today. Most faculty, students, and administrative staff will be in low gear, only to rev up during the next couple of weeks as campus life rises like the phoenix from the ashes of our summer reveries. A few thousand freshmen were welcomed on Saturday at the New Student Ceremony in Lawlor, with Professor David Ake of the Music Department encouraging them to listen carefully to details, and ASUN President Eli Reilly reminding them how quickly four (or five) years will pass.

So is it too early to start thinking about spring? The tentative (but 90%+ accurate) list of classes to be offered in English next semester is posted on the department homre page, at www.unr.edu/cla/engl.

Check out the recently updated Alumni News page for what our graduates have been up to lately. Graduate school admissions, online creative writing, law practices, fire science …

Congratulations to the 40 English majors graduating at Saturday’s commencement exercises: 8 in Language & Linguistics, 17 in Literature, and 15 in Writing. We wish you all the best in what is to come. [Read more →]

The English Department’s
Blood, Love, and Rhetoric School
Early Drama Reading Group
presents:
 
a reading of Christopher Marlowe’s manically Machiavellian medley of murder,

The Jew of Malta

Lecherous monks!  Poisoned porridge! Death by boiling! Maltese crosses and double-crosses!
               
Warning: The Jew of Malta portrays expressions of anti-Semitism, as well as anti-Catholicism, anti-Islamicism, anti-social behavior, and general misanthropy. It is, after all, an Elizabethan tragedy. Not for the faint of heart or stomach.

We will meet at 7:15 on Thursday, April 16, assign parts, and stagger bleeding through this masterpiece of manipulation and mayhem.  As always, daggers, wigs, tights, and dramatic talent are optional; only enthusiasm is required.

Copies of the play are available from the electronic reserves of Professor Mardock’s ENG 433B course at the Knowledge Center’s website, or from your local bookstore or library.

Please contact James Mardock (jmardock@unr.edu) to get directions of reserve a part.

GOOD NEWS FOR PART-TIME STUDENTS!

The English Department has been notified that the Anne Howard Scholarship in English has been funded. Two 2009-2010 scholarships ranging between $600-800 each will be awarded this spring. Dr. Anne Howard is an Emerita Professor of English at UNR who retired ten years ago and was a great favorite with her students and colleagues. She was instrumental in founding the Women’s Studies Program and the Women’s Center at the university, and she won both the Alan Bible and the Donald F. Tibbets teaching awards. It is her desire to direct the scholarship funds to help financially needy undergraduate and graduate students in English, preferably female, whose college education may have been delayed by family obligations.

Please consider applying for the Anne Howard Scholarship if you meet the following minimum criteria:

• you are a part-time undergraduate or graduate student majoring in English (taking fewer than 12 undergraduate or 9 graduate credits this semester)
• you have achieved a minimum 3.0 GPA as of January 2009
• you can demonstrate financial need.

 If you meet these criteria and wish to apply, write an approximately 500-word letter addressed to the Undergraduate Scholarship Committee, Department of English, University of Nevada, reno. Using your R number in place of your name (to preserve your anonymity), explain your career goals, your progress toward the English major, and the circumstances that have made continuing and financing your education difficult. Mention all other grants, loans, and scholarships for which you have applied. Write concisely and convincingly, in a clear and persuasive style, and remember to carefully proofread your letter before submission.

Then, download the scholarship application cover sheet from http://www.unr.edu/cla/engl/CoverLetterSchol09.pdf and fill it out completely, using your R number as the “title” of your submission. Attach two copies of your letter and submit to Lynn Weinstein, English Department office, FH 119, or to her mailbox in FH 127.

DEADLINE IS TUESDAY, APRIL 7^TH, 2009 AT 5 P.M.

Wanted to double check that everyone who has paid me, or been told that we are using club funds for their Sigma Tau Delta dues, has received an email/letter telling them that they were accepted.

If you have paid me and this hasn’t happened, or asked me for help, let me know asap so I can make sure the payment went through on the right person.

Hope you all are well-

Joe

Arctic exploration: who knew?! Anyone who has loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, followed the search for clues to the doomed Franklin expedition, or devoured the details of Shackleton’s and Scott’s amazing voyages knows the powerful influence this early version of space travel had on British art, literature, politics, and even advertising.

On Thursday, March 26th, at 6:30, Associate Professor of English Jen Hill will discuss her latest book White Horizon: The Arctic in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination at one of Reno’s biggest and best independent bookstores, Sundance Books, 4th and Keystone in Reno. You are cordially invited to attend. Dress warmly, in layers, and don’t forget your sealskin boots.

Undergraduate writing major Ashley Hennefer writes:

So many books, so little time. Do you feel frustrated at not having enough time to talk about all of the books you read in your English classes? English Literature major Ashley Hennefer wants to start a discussion group and/or podcast for upper-division English students in order to continue the conversations about challenging and unconventional texts being covered in classes in the department. If interested, please email Ashley at wordpainter2040@yahoo.com.

Also, I’ve started a group on Facebook for English department students: the link is

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=54382919332&ref=mf  

and it’s called “UNR English Department”

Thank you!

Ashley Hennefer

wordpainter2040@yahoo.com

You will find the announcement of English’s four scholarship awards (actually, three scholarships and one cash award) at http://www.unr.edu/cla/engl/scholarflier.pdf

 Please note that the deadline for submissions is 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 7^th.