Ray Wachter After teaching the EN 102 “Advancing Mind & Body” course several years in a row, I became interested in researching and writing a general nonfiction book about the mind-body connection. Since then, my reading has expanded into some really fun areas. My first new author in this realm was Bruce Lipton, a former academic who taught Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. I’m really fascinated by his theories of “epigenetics” and its implications for […]
Tag: Fall 2014 Newsletter
What We’re Writing
Albert Pionke Of late, I have been writing about two mid-nineteenth-century novels: the first is a book that almost no one has ever read, William North’s The City of the Jugglers (1850); whereas the second is one that almost everyone has been assigned to read, Charles Dickens’s Hard Times (1854). The first imagines a commodities market for human souls leading to a writers’ strike that precipitates the fall of the British government. The second, written in the context of an […]
The Robert Milton Young Memorial Lecture
In March, The University of Alabama Department of English hosted the Robert Milton Young Memorial Lecture, a bi-annual lecture that pays tribute to Dr. Robert Young, a beloved professor who passed away in early 2010. This year’s speaker, Dr. Robert Reid-Pharr (photo above) presented his keynote lecture at The University of Alabama on “Pagan Spain.” The organizer and host of the Robert Milton Young Memorial Lecture, Dr. Yolanda Manora, was a colleague and friend of Dr. Young. She offers a […]
Such Sweet Shakespeare: UA’s Shakespeare and American Integration Symposium
Last November, The University of Alabama played host to the “Shakespeare and American Integration” a symposium linking two topics that, at first glance, may seem dissimilar through an unlikely musical commonality. I had the opportunity to sit down with Professor Sharon O’Dair, director of the Hudson Strode Program and organizer of the symposium, for an enlightening discussion of the event. Could you briefly describe the symposium? “Shakespeare and American Integration” began a discussion that we hope will continue about how […]
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Sally Rodgers: MFA Candidate
Sally Rodgers, a graduate student from Tuscon, Arizona, pursuing her MFA in Poetry discusses her time here at UA. Through her work with the university’s Writers in the Schools program she is able to share her passion for English with the children of the Tuscaloosa community. During her undergraduate career, Sally switched majors from Linguistics to Philosophy, before beginning her MFA program in English and Creative Writing. Sally really enjoys working with children in helping them to expand their writing […]
Shakespeare in Our Backyard
The Rude Mechanicals combines the famous workings of Shakespeare with the warm and open summer evenings of The Park at Manderson Landing to create a one of a kind live show for Tuscaloosa residents. The Rude Mechanicals were formed in 2003, by then directing graduate student Andre LaSalle and Tuscaloosa News journalist Mark Hughes Cobb who both shared the same passions for writing and Shakespeare. They set out with the intention of only producing one show that summer, A Midsummer […]
Department of English Promotional Video
A video promoting the Department of English was in production last spring. The video is the first of its kind for our department and features testimonies from several undergraduate students who are currently majoring in English and studying in the department. Before the video’s production last spring, I sat down with Peyton Moss, Everett Secor, Leslie Leonard, Elizabeth Kierman, and Katherine Grandy to discuss what we can expect from the video. View the video here or on the Department of […]
Dr. Tricia McElroy: Associate Dean of Humanities
Dr. Tricia McElroy is Associate Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences. English student Meegan Gildehaus interviewed the newly appointed Associate Dean to learn about her journey to this position and plans for the future. I met Dr. McElroy in an office heavily decorated with drawings and photos of a smiling little girl. There is a large window overlooking a courtyard that is attractive when there is no construction. Now it resembles more of […]
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Jazz, Poetry, and Progress with Dr. Hank Lazer
Dr. Hank Lazer was an administrator here at The University of Alabama until his retirement on the first of January, 2014. Before retiring he had worked as a professor and in various departments of the administration since 1977, a total of 37 years. He is a published poet, currently with eighteen books of poetry, and he often travels around the country and to other countries performing live readings. An interesting aspect of this performance, which he began factoring into his […]
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Kevin Waltman: Composition Writing Fair
Kevin Waltman is an Instructor of English at The University of Alabama. He lives in Coker with his wife, Jessica. They have a daughter named Calla, and a dog named Henry. He is the author of several young adult novels, most recently Next in 2013, with its sequel Slump due to appear in late 2014. He has published short fiction with The Emerson Review and others. He heads the writing fair every year, with the help of the English 102 […]