The Scarlet Newsletter is a production of the Department of English at The University of Alabama. “Going to Bat for Writers: An Interview with Melinda Fields” By Shanti Weiland “Michelle Dowd: New Director of the Hudson Strode Program” By Chris Koester “Cassie Smith’s New Book: Black Africans in the British Imagination” By Tasha Coryell “Shanti […]
Tag: Spring 2017 Newsletter
Going to Bat for Writers: An Interview with Melinda Fields
Since 2004, Melinda Fields has been an invaluable part of the First-year Writing Program, serving as a liaison between students, teachers, and the Director. One of her many tasks includes helping students register for 100-level courses, a duty that she balances with her work as a Well Bama Ambassador. When I first walk into Fields’ […]
Michelle Dowd: New Director of the Hudson Strode Program
Michelle Dowd joined the University of Alabama in the fall of 2016 as Hudson Strode Professor of English and Director of the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies. Before joining the faculty at Alabama, she taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and at Fordham University. Her work primarily concerns the intersection of […]
Cassie Smith’s New Book: Black Africans in the British Imagination
“Early” is the keyword when talking about Cassie Smith. Smith describes herself as an “early African Americanist and an early Americanist and an early Modernist.” Her new book, Black Africans in the British Imagination, explores representations of black Africans in the early Americas. Smith is interested in the narratives that lie outside the realm of […]
Shanti Weiland’s Sister Nun and the Zen of Typing
Shanti Weiland earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Mississippi and has been an Instructor in the Department of English since 2008. Her book, Sister Nun, recently appeared from Negative Capability Press in 2016. Did the poems in Sister Nun create a theme for you, or did you envision a theme […]
Report: English Major Recruitment Task Force
In the fall 2016, Department Chair Joel Brouwer put together an ad hoc committee, or task force, to look into recruiting new English majors. This faculty group, including Lauren Cardon, John Estes, James McNaughton, Luke Niiler, Deborah Weiss, Duncan Yoon, and, in fall semester, Ray Wachter—has extended its purview to increasing minors as well as […]
Report: Diversity Committee Achievements
The Diversity Committee is comprised of five members—two tenure/tenure-track faculty, one instructor, one graduate student, and one undergraduate major. These members are Dr. Cassie Smith (chair), Dr. Nikhil Bilwakesh, Dr. Mary-Margaret Popova, Stephanie Parker (graduate student representative), and Maya Perry (undergraduate English major). Our basic charge is to keep track of all the ways the […]