English News 2004-2005




2004-2005 What's New in the English Department Greetings from the Chair Faculty Features Pete Fairchild Retires Worth Reading In brief: Faculty & Graduate Student Professional Activities Year-End Notes Alumni & Other Friends Write to us Acknowledgments Note: Please use your back button to return to English News after accessing external links What's New in the English Department The English Department will join the University community in commemorating CSUSB's 40th anniversary and the university's "Legacy of Pride and Promise" during 2005-2006. And as we mark this big milestone and head into our fifth decade, we'll be seeing changes in the department's curriculum. Significant revisions to the department's undergraduate curriculum are now in place for 2005-2006, and the MA program will also have a revised curriculum beginning in 2006-2007, with the most notable change being the addition of a comprehensive examination option in addition to the thesis, currently required of all students. More details about these changes can be found on the graduate program's website. Awards and Honors: Margaret Doane followed up her 2002-2003 Golden Apple award for outstanding teaching by being named the 2004-2005 CSUSB Outstanding Professor, an honor recognizing her achievement in teaching, scholarship and service. A crowd of well-wishers greeted Margaret at President Karnig's traditional "ambush" on March 1. And Salaam Yousif kept our streak of College of Arts and Letters awards going by earning well-deserved plaudits for Outstanding Service this year. Our creative writers continue to shine. Bret Johnston received an award for "Best Debut Fiction" from the Texas Institute of Letters, and has been short-listed for the Frank O'Connor Short Fiction award; Bret will be off to Ireland in September for the awards ceremony. Alexandria LaFaye's novel Worth won the 2005 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, an annual $5000 prize, and a Silver Medal in the California Book Award, sponsored by the Commonwealth Club of California. Juan Delgado was awarded the 2005 Esperanza Award by the California Chicano News Media Association. You can read a little later in this newsletter about the recent activities of Pete Fairchild, who is opting for the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP), and Jim Brown, at work on a second memoir to follow The Los Angeles Diaries. Our students are pretty impressive, too: John Garcia, this year's recipient of the Kellie Rayburn Memorial Award for the year's outstanding thesis and the College of Arts and Letters "Outstanding Graduate Student" award, will attend UC Berkeley this Fall to pursue a PhD in Rhetoric. John completed a dual concentration in Composition and Literature in our MA program, writing his thesis on "The Uses of Sight in Nature Writing" under the direction of Mary Boland, with Holly Henry and Jenny Andersen also serving as thesis readers. Regarding his plans at Berkeley, John notes "Many people say that one of the Rhetoric department's greatest strengths is its interdisciplinarity, and I look forward to taking courses in UCB's broad humanities offerings in English, Comp Lit, Classics, etc. Within Rhetoric, my immediate plan for next year is to take courses in the history and theory of rhetoric as well as in political philosophy." John adds, "Many thanks to the graduate coordinators, my thesis readers, and all of the professors at CSUSB who have supported my work." Honorable Mention for the Rayburn Award went to Richard Sabolick for his thesis "The Split Dark Rider: An Examination of Labor Conflict and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men." Suzanne Lane chaired Richard's thesis committee, and Dave Carlson and Yvonne Atkinson served as readers. German Loustaunau, who earned a dual BA in English and Liberal Studies with minors in Chicano/Latino Studies and Sociology in 2004, was one of 14 student winners in the CSU system of the 2004/05 William R. Hearst/CSU Trustees' Award for Outstanding Achievement. The systemwide award provides $3,000 scholarships to financially needy students who demonstrate superior academic performance and outstanding volunteer community service. The award supports German's work on his single-subject teaching credential in English. Creative Writing student Alba Cruz-Hacker was selected as the College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Undergraduate Student. A published poet, Alba is a native of the Dominican Republic whose first language is Spanish. As an undergraduate at CSUSB, she maintained a 4.0 GPA, was president of the Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society, vice president and secretary of the Golden Key International Honor Society, a member of Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society and the managing editor for The Pacific Review. She also was a McNair Scholar. She has received a full fellowship at UCR to pursue her MFA. Creative Writing students Richard Sanchez and Jessica Hayes were accepted to present their work at the National Undergraduate Literature Conference at Weber State University in Utah. Richard read a short story and Jessica, a critical essay. They were recommended by Bret Johnston. [top] Greetings from the Chair A Department Chair at a California State University is likely to utter the exclamation “whew!” when he or she speaks about the year of 2004-2005 in the past tense. After all, the CSU has sustained one of the deepest budget cuts in its history. As the proud chair of the English Department at CSUSB, I am no exception, but I will follow that “whew!” with an even louder “wow!” History will record 2004-05 as a year of significant curricular change for our department. As you can see from our website, we are saying “good-bye” to an undergraduate program that has sent out several thousand English majors to Southern California and beyond. Beginning 2005-2006, a rather different program will be in place. The new program responds to changes in the larger world out there as well as changes in our disciplinary fields in the past decade, is more thematically coherent, and offers our students more freedom to take courses that interest them. The cliché that students are everything to us is a cliché because it speaks the plain truth, and our students this year have done much to make us proud. They were accepted to reputable graduate programs such as U.C. Berkeley; they won awards and prizes (this may be the first year that a department swept the Outstanding Graduate Student Award in both the Graduate and the Undergraduate categories); and they were engaged in various activities that created a lively atmosphere in the department. The Spring Poetry Reading event, featuring four poets in our own department and organized by the CSUSB chapter of the English honorary society, Sigma Tau Delta, was among the best attended event that CSUSB has ever witnessed. Our faculty have done remarkably well, too. The year of 2004-2005 saw two books published, two book contracts secured, and two previously published books translated into other languages. Several won national prizes in their fields; one was awarded the College of Arts and Letters Outstanding Faculty award; and, to top it all, Professor Margaret Doane was selected as the Outstanding Professor of CSUSB, the highest honor that the university bestows on its faculty. If there is anything “negative” I am responsible to highlight, it is the retirement of Professor Pete Fairchild, who has been placed in company with the finest poets of our time. But Pete will still be around, thanks to the Faculty Early Retirement Program (FERP), teaching in the Spring Quarter and showing up—he can’t seem able to stop doing that—in other quarters. Year 2005-2006 marks the 40th anniversary of CSUSB and we are looking forward to it as another opportunity to serve our students and community. We will be happy to hear from you. My email address is rchen@csusb.edu and my phone number is (909) 537-5834. [top] Faculty Features The best news: we are very glad indeed to report that Cindy Cotter, who has been undergoing treatment for breast and ovarian cancer, returned to teaching this summer and will be back with us again in Fall '05. Cindy told English News "I feel a bit like the correspondent in Stephen Crane's 'The Open Boat' who sees that horrible ordeal as one of the best experiences of his life, because I have been so blessed with wonderfully supportive friends, colleagues and doctors." Congratulations to Holly Henry, recently tenured and promoted to Associate Professor, and to lecturer Nika Hogan, who has accepted a tenure-track position at Pasadena City College. The German edition of James Brown's The Los Angeles Diaries came out in August from Droemer Publishers, and another British edition came out in mass-market paper from Bloomsbury Publishers. The literary magazine Santa Monica Review is publishing a piece this Fall called "Talking to the Dead" from his new memoir-in-progress, and another new piece titled "The Screenwriter," appeared in an anthology called The Cocaine Chronicles in June. Jim also reviewed The Lost Night: A Memoir by Rachel Howard in August for the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, and did a reading/signing at Grossmont College in San Diego and has another scheduled at Ohio Wesleyan for September 15. The Los Angeles Diaries has or is being used as a required text in writing classes at Loyola Marymount, Five Towns College in New York, the University of Baltimore, San Francisco State, San Jose State, West Los Angeles College and Grossmont College. Best wishes to lecturer Luanne Castle, retiring from CSUSB. Luanne earned both an MA and MFA from Western Michigan University and a PhD from UCR. A published poet, she has won a number of awards for her poetry. Her most recent article on Sylvia Plath, "Higgeledy Piggledy, Gobbledygoo: The Rotted Residue of Nursery Rhyme in Sylvia Plath's Poetry" has been reprinted in a collection entitled Twice-Told Children's Tales, edited by Betty Greenway. She has taught a wide range of courses for the department since 1991. We also wish all the best to Carmen Fye (BA '96, MA '02) who has accepted a position at ESRI, a GIS and mapping software company in Redlands. Carmen has taught for the department since 2000, specializing in teaching a networked computer classroom, working to thoughtfully integrate technology into the study of writing. Before entering the classroom as a teacher, she worked at CSUSB's writing center as a writing tutor, and her thesis, "Examining Liminal Space," addressed computers and writing. Juan Delgado has done readings at the William Andrews Clark Library in Los Angeles, at the 14th Annual Latino Social Work Network Conference, at the "Revolution and Resistance Conference" sponsored by the Center for Ideas and Society at UCR, and at the annual conference sponsored by the American Association of Higher Education. His poems have appeared in Faultline, The Melic Review (www.melicreview.com), Tertulia Magazine (www.tertuliamagazine.com), Hubbub, and other literary journals. And Juan has been kept busy serving as Interim Chair of the Communications Department. The Delgados have recently moved to Forest Falls and are enjoying living in the mountains. Jackie Rhodes reports that she and Aurora Wolfgang, along with Kim Costino and Nika Hogan, were grand marshals (four of about 400) of the Palm Springs Pride Parade in November. Jackie says "the event organizers invited all lesbian/gay couples who had been married in San Francisco last spring to marshal the parade. Two hundred couples (out of about 4500) participated, and it was great--after the California Superior Court had dissolved our marriages in summer, it was heartening to have several thousand people cheer and congratulate us anyway. Vive la révolution!" Mary Boland was elected to the MLA Division on The Teaching of Writing and began her five-year term in January. Ron Chen is now one of four "Main Editors" for COGBIB and METBIB, two large online bibliographical databases published by the International Cognitive Linguistics Association. Sunny Hyon received a 2005 Research Summer Study Award which she used to attend the Summer Institute in Applied Linguistics at Penn State University in July. Bret Johnston organized a Creative Writing Club, now numbering more than thirty members. Alexandria LaFaye again coordinated the popular Creative Writing Contest for local students. Renée Pigeon took a break from teaching and coordinating the graduate program to spend a Spring 2005 sabbatical researching adaptation theory and detective fiction. Luz Elena Ramirez received a number of grants recently: a 2004 Summer Research Fellowship for research on John Dryden at the British Library in London (and while in England, Luz Elena had the opportunity to see Shakespearean theatre at the Globe, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Cambridge), a Fall 2004 International Institute Course Development Grant for development of a web-assisted course, Chicano Literature she taught in Spring 2005 (faculty.csusb.edu/ramirez/spring05/chicano.html), a Spring 2005 Young Scholars Award to edit The Encyclopedia of Hispanic American Literature (a volume in the American Ethnic Literature series to be published by Facts on File), and finally a 2005 Summer Research Grant to revise a critical essay on Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano. Recent arrivals: congratulations to Tim Melnarik and Kelly Duenckel, who welcomed William Arthur Duenckel (shown napping at left) to the world on August 23 at 5:05 a.m. (21.5 inches, 10 lbs., 8 oz.). And congratulations to new grandparents Phil and Reba Page: Madeleine Page Davis was born in Seattle to parents Katie Page and Charles Davis on September 7 at 5:00 am (18 inches, 7 lbs., and "lots of hair," adds the new granddad). Best wishes all round! [top] Pete Fairchild Retires B. H. (Pete) Fairchild has decided to join the ranks of our FERPers (participants in the "Faculty Early Retirement Program") and will now be teaching one quarter per year. A native of Houston, Texas, Pete grew up there and in Oklahoma and Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas for his BA and MA and the University of Tulsa for his PhD. He joined the department's faculty in 1976. This year, he was awarded a $20,000 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in poetry and also received the $10,000 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress for the "most distinguished book of poems published during the preceding two years." Other recipients have included James Merrill, Mark Strand, and Louise Glück. He recently received a Lannan Foundation residency at the Lannan House in Marfa,Texas for October 2005. He has previously received Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships. His Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest (New York: Norton, 2003) won the Texas Institute of Letters' 2003 "Best Book of Poetry" Award, a $5000 prize, as well as the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Of this work, Anthony Hecht wrote, "There is no more lyric celebration of America's grandeurs and desolations than in this superb collection of poems." The Art of the Lathe (Farmington: Alice James Books, 1998) received, among other recognition, the William Carlos Williams Award, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the California Book Award, the Natalie Ornish Poetry Award, and the PEN Center USA West Poetry Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Asked for his thoughts on retirement, Pete responded: "I don't see it as retirement at all but rather simply becoming a full-time writer rather than a full-time teacher. Writing 42 weeks out of the year and teaching 10 has a certain appeal to me . . . " Hear Pete read his poetry at Bookfest '03, the 2003 National Book Festival. [top] Worth Reading What we've been reading this year: Tim Melnarik: (1) Why People Believe Weird Things, by Michael Shermer. One of our foremost skeptics takes a closer look at why we're attracted to stories about psychic contact with the dead, alien encounters, and pseudoscience of every sort. This is a particularly engaging book if you're interested in psychology, popular culture, or history (he has chapters on witch hunts and Holocaust deniers). Shermer also offers a quick tutorial in critical thinking. (2) Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld by James B. Twitchell. Twitchell demonstrates how even the high cultures of religion, education, and art are not immune to the same market forces that shape our popular culture. In discussing branding as "commercial storytelling," he explains why even institutions that we might have thought were immune to McDonaldization have eventually succumbed to it. He doesn't see this as the death of culture, however, but as a revitalizing of it. Renée Pigeon: (1) Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susannah Clarke. The Washington Post called this novel about the "revival of English magic" in the early nineteenth century "magnificent and original," and it certainly is. I agree with the reviewers who found that at 800+ pages, Clarke's novel ends too soon, and I hope she's hard at work on a sequel (2) Looking forward to teaching Detective Fiction again in Winter '06, I've been reading a series of novels by Swedish author Henning Mankell--very popular in Europe and recently translated into English--gritty police procedurals featuring Inspector Kurt Wallendar. The first in the series, Faceless Killers, is particularly good. Jackie Rhodes: (1) To keep up on my French--and because I like smart comic books--various adventures of Tintin (so far, Tintin au Tibet is my favorite). (2) Keeping with the "graphic novel/bande dessinée" theme, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which are graphic autobiographies drawing from Satrapi's experiences during the Islamic Revolution in Iran. (2) Bill Richardson's Waiting for Gertrude, which is an odd (and enjoyable) tale about stray cats in Père-Lachaise cemetery (the cats are all reincarnations of famous folk buried there). Keeping with the theme, I'd say one of the best websites I've discovered this year is www.pere-lachaise.com, which provides, through all sorts of Flash-animation magic, a virtual tour of the cemetery. (3) Lots of Hannah Arendt, for a new book project I'm working on. [top] In Brief: Recent Professional Activities of Faculty & Graduate Students *Faculty & Graduate Student Publications & Presentations* Mary Boland gave a paper at the 2005 CCCC conference in San Francisco entitled "The Myth of Academic Discourse as Access." Dave Carlson organized a panel on "Law and Literature in Early America" and delivered a paper at the Society of Early Americanists conference in Virginia this spring, titled "Democratic Readers: Legal Nationalism in John Neal's Rachel Dyer." Dave also signed a contract to write a chapter on Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature. In July, Ron Chen gave a talk on "Grammatical elements as physical objects: evidence from English inversion" at the 9th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, in Seoul, Korea, and delivered a plenary talk to the 9th China Pragmatics Conference at Fudan University, Shanghai. His "Universalism vs. Particularism: Whither Pragmatics?" has been translated into Chinese and will be published in Foreign Languages Research (China), 2005. He has also published six book reviews and notices. Graduate students Amy Clark and Star Harvey joined Gabrielle Halko and Alexandria LaFaye to present a panel on "Representations of Captivity in Children's Literature" at the International Humanities Conference in Hawaii in January. Kim Costino presented "Access Denied: Literacy as a Racializing Force in Public Discourses on Affirmative Action" at the 2005 CCCC in San Francisco. Margaret Doane published "Action without Reaction: Cather's Use of Violence as a Device for Revealing Character" in the journal Teaching Cather, Spring 2004, and presented three papers: "Not Under Sixty: The Treatment of Old Age in Cather's Novels" at the Western American Literature conference, October 2004, "Old Age in Cather's Short Stories" at the Pacific Northwest American Studies Conference, April 2005, and "'Do Talk to Me': Violent Deaths and Isolated Survivors in Cather's Novels" at the International Cather Conference, June 2005. Ellen Gil-Gomez presented "América in the Borderlands" at the National Association of Hispanic and Latino/a Studies, and published "'The Other White Meat: A Conversation with Erika López" in Meat: A Journal of Writing and Materiality (www.meatjournal.com ) and "Olmos Productions: Balancing Activism and Commodification" in the collection Ethnic Media in America (Kendall/Hunt 2005). Carol Haviland presented "Affirming Writing Centers and Basic Writing Programs: How Does 'Crisis' Shape our Roles and Relationships?" with Maggie Cecil and Joanne Maestre and "Cross Disciplinary Concepts of IP: How Does What Scholars Own Shape Their Understandings of IP?" at the 2005 CCCC in San Francisco. Sunny Hyon & Ron Chen co-authored "Beyond the research article: University faculty genres and EAP graduate preparation," which appeared in the journal English for Specific Purposes in 2004. Renée Pigeon reviewed Stephen Knight's Crime Fiction: 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity (Palgrave, 2004) and The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction, ed. Martin Priestman (Cambridge, 2004) for In-Between: Essays & Studies in Literary Criticism. Luz Elena Ramirez presented “Mexico in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano” at the London Network for Modern Fiction Studies, hosted by the University of Westminster, London, in July 2004, "Dryden's Vision of Mexico and Peru: The Indian Queen and The Indian Emperour" at the South Central Modern Language Association Conference in New Orleans in October 2004, and "British Literary Representations of Latin America" at the Third Annual Latin American Studies Conference here at CSUSB in April 2005. Jackie Rhodes published “Homo Origo: The Queertext Manifesto” in Computers & Composition: An International Journal for Teachers of Writing 21.3 (September 2004): 385-88, and “Risking Queer: Pedagogy and Performativity in the Writing Classroom” in JAC: A Journal of Composition Theory 24.1 (Summer 2004): 79-91 (with Connie L. Monson). She also co-founded/edited/published Meatjournal.com (ISSN 1549-4454, available at www.meatjournal.com) with Jonathan Alexander of the University of Cincinnati. In addition, she was an invited guest editor of Computers & Composition Online, Special Issue on Sexualities, Technologies, and the Teaching of Writing, Fall 2004 (www.bgsu.edu/cconline/home.htm). Ted Ruml's essay "The Boundaries of Bishop Burnet's History and Henry Fielding's Fiction" will appear in Historical Boundaries, Narrative Forms: Essays in Honor of Everett Zimmerman, eds. Lorna Clymer and Robert Mayer, to be published by the University of Delaware Press. Peter Schroeder presented "Secrets, Surprises, and Conversational Games in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight " at the 40th International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan in May. Wendy Smith contributed "What can pragmatics tell us about developing writers?" Chapter 15 in C. Holten and J. Frodesen, eds.,The Power of Context in Language Teaching and Learning (Boston: Thomson Heinle, 2005). [top] Year-End Notes *Department Events in 2004-2005* This year's Friday Forum speakers included Peter Schroeder on "An Overview of Literary Studies," Wendy Smith and Ron Chen on "Linguistics: You Thought It Didn't Matter To You," and Visiting Professor Dr. Sofija Micic on "English for Medical Academic Purposes: Research and Practice." The new Creative Writing Club, led by Bret Johnston, hosted its first official event in May, a reading by author Michael Jayme Becerra, author of the highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Every Night is Ladies Night (Harper Collins, 2003). Becerra is a native of El Monte, and all of the stories in the collection are set in that locale; they explore the lives of various members of the Mexican-American community in a series of linked narratives. Becerra won the prize for "First Fiction" from the Commonwealth Club of California. A splendid time was had by all at the Spring Poetry Reading sponsored the CSUSB Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta International English Honor Society, in cooperation with the Golden Key International Honour Society, The Pacific Review, and the CSUSB University Honors Program. Faculty poets Pete Fairchild, Juan Delgado, Christi Rucker and Jaqueline Wilcoxen shared their work, and the CSUSB Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Professor Robert Knop, performed. In the photo at left, Sigma Tau Delta adviser Ted Ruml enjoys the evening with student organizers Joy Scheetz and Alba Cruz-Hacker. Departmental Honors A host of English majors earned Departmental Honors in 2004-2005 by completing ENG 516, Honors English, and presenting the following papers: Spring 2005: Jan Hudson, "Themes of Masculinity and Sex in Othello and Macbeth" Michael Kern, "Imagination and Process Drama in Teaching" Joy Scheetz, "Modals and Children's Literature: More than Butterflies and Rats" Alba Cruz-Hacker, Original Poetry Jeni Bradley, "Codeswitching: A Sociolinguistic Analysis" Janelle Parmer, "Beckett and Nietzsche" Jennifer Griffis, "Cather's Sensitive Men" Beatty George Henson, "Where the Earth Meets the Sky: Willa Cather's Personification of the Southwest" Nicole Bennett, "Contrasting Manifestations of Culpability & Reparation in Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and Shelley's Frankenstein" Diana Ramirez, "Grown in the Dark" Tim Devore, "Triumphantly Tragic: Religious Symbolism and Biblical Allusions in Zora Neale Hurston's 'Sweat'" Cassie DiThomasso, "The Beauty of Point of View in Willa Cather's Short Fiction" Mary Copeland, Original Poetry Fall 2004: Jessica Hayes, "Age of Society" Rillene Nielsen, "Working the System: 'Contemplations' by Anne Bradstreet" Deena Baker, "No Power to Resist: Gilman, Chopin and Freeman use the Short Story to Protest Patriarchal Pressures on the 19th-century American Female" Jeff Marino, "Allusion and Intertext in John Edgar Wideman's 'Philadelphia Fire'" 2005 Graduating Students Several soon-to-be graduates from the English Department gathered for a group photo this Spring. Congratulations to all! Back row (from left to right): Albert Diaz / Tim Devore / Andrew Castillo / Cynthia Janssen / Fiona Ramsby / Chuck Murillo/ Center row (from left to right): Beatty George Henson / Adam Yerima / Jennifer Griffis / Jimmy Gondos / Jan Hudson / Front row (from left to right): Alba Cruz-Hacker / Joy Scheetz / Diana G. Ramirez / Gloria Wilkinson / Elva Ortega / Nicole Miller / Janelle Parmer Alumni and Other Friends In Memoriam A very special alumnus of the MA program, Glenn E. Moore, died from lung cancer on June 21, 2005. Glenn was born June 1,1924 in San Gabriel, California. He entered the Marine Corps in 1940 and served at the Battle of Midway. He then entered the Army, achieved the rank of captain, and served as chief Chinese interpreter at the peace talks at Panmunjom, Korea. He was a graduate of the Army Language School, Monterey, in Russian and Chinese. Glenn became an entertainer after the service, first in Pasadena, then moving to Apple Valley in 1970 where he played guitar and sang at the Steak Fries and the Western Bar, Apple Valley Inn for 17 years. He earned a BA and an MA from UC Riverside; in our MA program, Glenn opted for the TESL concentration and maintained a 3.96 GPA, writing his thesis on "Anxiety and motivation in second language learning." He was awarded his degree in September 2004. He is survived by one daughter, Vivienne Moore of Pacific Grove; a grandson, Rhys, and his wife, Jen, and one great-grandson, Peter, of Cupertino; three sisters, Inez of Eugene, Oregon, Florence of Upland and Virginia of Pasadena; and his loving companion of 32 years, Martha Keefe. Donations may be made in Glenn's memory to the Victor Valley Community Hospice. Recent Grads Mary Copeland has been offered full scholarships at both the Vermont College and UCR MFA poetry programs. Jeff Marino was accepted to the graduate program at UC Santa Cruz. Anna Morrison was accepted into the Spalding University MFA program with a concentration in Creative Writing. Laura Westengard has been accepted into the Fall 2005 MA program in English at UCR with the "Dean's Distinguished Fellowship Award." The fellowship provides a stipend, tuition and fees for the first year and tuition plus Teaching Assistantship for the subsequent four years, should she be advanced into the PhD program. Laura will be studying 20th Century American literature (specifically minority and gender discourse). Larry Whittaker was accepted for the USC Professional Writing Program and the Fairleigh-Dickinson MFA Program, for which he received a scholarship for having the best creative nonfiction portfolio among all applicants. Alumni News Doris A. Anderson (MA '95) writes "since I retired in 2000 after teaching 36 years for the San Bernardino Unified School District, I've enjoyed writing. I've published Tackling Tough Choices: Discussion-Starting Skits for Teens, a play, and articles on teaching. I am working on a young adult novel." Doris adds "Congratulations to James Brown on his excellent memoir, The Los Angeles Diaries." Shaylesa Borchard (BA '02) is now a college campus minister with the Campus Crusade for Christ in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cathy Brostrand (MA '97) is a tenured assistant professor of English at Mt. San Jacinto Community College. Khetam Dahi (MA '01) is teaching at Long Beach City College and also at Santa Ana College, and her family has now grown to two girls and two boys. Jeremy Denson (BA '97) is teaching 8th grade Language Arts in Moreno Valley and working on a Master's in School Counseling and Administration at the University of Redlands. Christine Dettlaff (BA '89) was promoted to the Director of the Learning Resources Center at Redlands Community College in El Reno, Oklahoma. Christina J. Dickson (BA '90) is completing a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential at CSU Fresno. Gary Drysol (BA '02) is teaching English at Arlington High School in Riverside and planning to earn his master's degree in summer '05. Katherine DuPerron (BA '02) is teaching English at Bloomington High School. Katherine and Matthew Applebee (BA '02) were married on March 26, 2005. Our congratulations to the newlyweds! Cassie Erickson (BA '03) is teaching English at Rancho Cucamonga High School and just completed her MA in Education with an emphasis in curriculum. Susan Farley (BA '93, MA '96) accepted a full-time position at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. Amy Garrett (BA '95) teaches English at Enterprise High School in Redding, California. "This is my fourth year teaching 7th grade English at Piñon Mesa Middle School," writes Reina Gott (née Adame) (BA '01), " and I absolutely love it. I got my teaching credential and MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University. I married my high school sweetheart, Bryan, on October 13, 2001, and we had our first child on November 11, 2004. Her name is Lauren. I just wanted to let you all know how amazingly wonderful my life is right now!" Tim Johnson (BA '01, MA '04) and fiancée Evie Houlton plan an October wedding. Congratulations to the soon-to-be newylweds! Naoko Kato (MA '03) has been admitted to the PhD program in applied linguistics at Ball State University. Ann Modzelewski (BA '01, MA '03), at work on her PhD at UCR, declared her primary concentration (Rhetoric/Composition) and two others: 20th Century American Literature and Genre Studies (Autobiography). Rise Axlerod will be her dissertation director. Congratulations to Joe Noterangelo (MA '01), who passed his PhD exams at UCR in March. Paula Priamos-Brown (BA '99) has an essay appearing this October in The Los Angeles Times Magazine, titled "Marrying My Father." We also heard from Diana Ramseyer (MA '01), who reports that alumnus David Ramsey (BA '96, MA '98) will spend another year in Japan teaching English. She also shared the good news that her son's naval service has concluded and he is safely home and back to civilian life after two deployments, to Afghanistan and Iraq. Diana writes "I am teaching at RCC workforce prep and MSJC (Menifee) while finishing up my course work for my doctorate in education. I have formed my dissertation committee and will take comps next summer." Charles Williams (BA '95, MA '00) was voted BY STUDENTS as the outstanding professor for 2004 at Chaffey College. [top] Write to us Alumni Updates: Thanks for writing--we really do want to hear from you! Send an e-mail with your news & digital photos to rpigeon@csusb.edu, or write to: Professor Renée Pigeon, Dept. of English, CSUSB, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407-2397. And please remember that when you contribute to the University's Annual Fund, you can designate the English Department to receive your contribution. [top] Acknowledgments Thanks for assistance with this issue of *English News* to Ron Chen, Ted Ruml, Joy Scheetz and special thanks to Bruce Golden. *English News* Editor: Renée Pigeon © 2005 CSUSB Department of English FastCounter by bCentral

2004-2005

What's New in the English Department

In Brief: Recent Professional Activities of Faculty & Graduate Students