When the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies began in 1990, the University of Alabama and the discipline of literary studies were very different from what they are today. At that time, UA had a total enrollment of under twenty thousand students. Now commonplace scholarly methods like, the digital humanities, were either unheard of or just emerging. The majority of literature faculty were tenure-stream, both here and nationally. Much has changed in thirty years. UA has doubled to nearly forty […]
Category: News
Tuscaloosa Through Time: A Local Journey with Serena Blount
Serena Blount earned her bachelor’s degree from Mississippi University for Women and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Alabama in the field of American Literature. She lives in one of Tuscaloosa’s historic districts and is currently compiling historical documents relating to the settlement of Newtown, which slightly predates the establishment of Tuscaloosa, and which was once Tuscaloosa County’s primary commercial center. She recently spoke with UA MFA graduate and instructor, Heather Wyatt. What is it about Tuscaloosa […]
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Faculty Profile: Dr. Robert Poole
Robert Poole joined the faculty at The University of Alabama in Fall 2018, but his arrival marked a homecoming, as he received both his undergraduate degree and his M.A. at Alabama. It was his journeys far from Alabama, though, that led him into applied linguistics and TESOL. After earning his undergraduate degree, Poole worked for several years in the Peace Corps in Guyana and later spent time teaching overseas in Nicaragua and South Korea. “In South Korea is where I […]
Heather Wyatt’s New Book My Life With(out) Ranch
According to her publisher, Heather Wyatt is a “teacher and writer by day and food-TV junkie by night.” As an undergraduate, she majored in American Studies at The University of Alabama and earned her MFA from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Her poetry has been published in a number of journals including Number One, Puff Puff Prose Poetry and a Play, The Binnacle, ETA, Writers Tribe Review among others. Her first book, My Life With(out) Ranch, is a collection of […]
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Welcoming UA’s New Victorianist: A Conversation with Professor Daniel Novak
Associate Professor Daniel Novak recently joined UA’s English department after previously teaching at Tulane University, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. He received his doctorate from Princeton University in 2002, specializing in Victorian literature. He is the author of Realism, Photography, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and co-editor of ‘Masculinity Lessons’: Rethinking Men’s and Women’s Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011). His research interests include Victorian and visual cultures. I recently spoke with Dr. Novak about his research […]
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Public Statement to President Bell regarding Dean Riley’s resignation
Note from the Chair: On 9/23/19, the English department faculty voted unanimously to release the following statement. –David Ainsworth, Chair Dear President Bell, This letter is written on behalf of concerned faculty in the English Department in the wake of the recent departure of Dr. Jamie Riley, formerly Vice President and Dean of Students at UA. On Sept. 5, 2019, after less than a year on the job, Dr. Riley tendered his resignation. The resignation came one day after Breitbart […]
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Freedom to Write: The University of Alabama Prison Arts Fellowship
The most direct route between the William E. Donaldson Prison Facility and Tuscaloosa, Alabama winds through the bucolic hills of the Cumberland Plateau, along the Black Warrior River. It’s a road that Brett Shaw came to know well while serving as a University of Alabama Prison Arts Fellow. In 2017, Shaw led a class on rationality for thirteen students at the facility. Founded in 2001 by the poet Kyes Stevens and based out of Auburn University, The Alabama Prison Arts […]
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Dr. Deborah Weiss Discusses The Female Philosopher and her Afterlives: Mary Wollstonecraft, The British Novel, and the Transformation of Feminism, 1796-1811
Deborah Weiss has taught in the English Department since 2008. She received her BA summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis and her PhD from the University of Chicago. A specialist in the long eighteenth century, Professor Weiss is particularly interested in the engagements of women novelists with the ideas of the Enlightenment. In addition to her book on Mary Wollstonecraft, she has published on the works of Maria Edgeworth, Jane Austen, and other women writers of the […]
Eighteen Views on Thomas Carlyle
Albert Pionke joined the faculty in 2005 as an assistant professor. He was awarded tenure and the rank of associate professor in 2009, and was promoted to professor in 2014. In fall 2016, he began a three-year appointment as a College of Arts and Sciences Leadership Board Faculty Fellow. He recently edited a book about Scottish philosopher and writer Thomas Carlyle entitled Thomas Carlyle and the Idea of Influence. Does our 2018 understanding of “influence” as a term differ from Carlyle’s […]
An Interview With New Faculty Member, Dr. Alexis McGee
UA English’s newest addition to the CRES Program is Alexis McGee. Dr. McGee received her PhD from The University of Texas at San Antonio in May of 2018 and joined UA in the fall. She recently sat down with Amanda Snyder to discuss her research interests and pedagogy. What led you to study English and eventually to The University of Alabama? By the time I was eight or nine years old, I learned how to work our turntable and play […]
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