Welcome from the New Chair
 

I wish to take this opportunity as the new chair of the Department of English to welcome both students and faculty to the 2005-06 academic year. As we begin the year, the department says goodbye to Drs. Chris Coffman and Kim Coles who accepted teaching appointments at other universities; to Dr. Steve Carter who completed a year's post-retirement lecturership; and to Dr. Merry Pawlowski who retired as chair and full-time faculty and is now FERPing. Drs. Carol Dell'Amico and Marit MacArthur join the department on our main campus while Dr. David Witzling joins the Antelope Valley campus. I am very pleased to welcome them and all the part-time faculty to our department.   I would like to encourage all students to use available department resources to ensure that they complete their degrees in a timely manner. There is a wealth of information in this newsletter, on our website and in our Advising Office, not to mention what students get from having direct access to various English faculty members. Continuing English majors still have the option of adding on the English Teacher Preparation Program (ETPP) if they desire to have the Single Subject Certification required for secondary school teaching.

But thanks to curriculum revision that the department embarked on last year, incoming (2005) freshmen and those after them have the benefit of choosing between an English Major with a Specialization and an English Major with Credential Emphasis (EMCE). The latter program (Credential) has been streamlined while interesting sub-fields have been included in the straight major. These changes should make both programs appealing to students.   Finally, I would like to invite our majors to join the English Club and use it as a forum for interacting and for organizing activities and events that will involve, not only the English Department, but also the university and Kern County communities.  Welcome to 2005-06. May it be a most productive and fulfilling year for both faculty and students. Chair and Professor, Sophia Adjaye

New Course — Winter 2006

English 404: Creative Writing - Poetry

For the first time in several years, English 404 Creative Writing - Poetry will be offered in Winter Quarter 2006, taught by Assistant Professor Marit MacArthur. The course will begin with Ezra Pound’s dictum that “Poetry should be at least as well written as prose,” to question and explore distinctions between poetry and prose. Assignments will include creative non-fiction prose and formal and free verse poems, as well as brief analyses of outstanding poems from the Anglo-American tradition, to understand better how they achieve their effects.

Spring 2006 Schedule
(schedule subject to changes; confirm courses with the department)

(schedule subject to changes; confirm courses with the department)

2005 Sigma Tau Delta Writing Awards

 Sigma Tau Delta is pleased to announce the 2005 Sigma Tau Delta Writing Awards!  We will be accepting papers written by undergraduates and graduates written in English classes at CSUB and CSUB-AV.  All papers will require the sponsorship of a faculty member.  Winners of the writing awards will receive prizes and be honored at the 2006 Sigma Tau Delta initiation dinner.  We are very excited about this new endeavor and look forward to your submissions!  Awards will be given in the following categories:

English Advising

English Composition

Handbook

Over the last year, we have been extensively revising our Composition Handbook, which includes a variety of department and course information for both students and faculty.  The Handbook is available in hard copy and will be available online fall of 2005.  This handbook serves as a training manual for new faculty, as well as a resource manual for returning faculty.  Next academic year, we will be publishing a shortened version of this handbook with a brief summary of our program and its goals in a small, more accessible format for campus-wide distribution.  In the meantime, students can access the handbook at 

www.csub.edu/english/composition/

Classes of Possibility

Faculty and Student Updates

Charles MacQuarrie will be directing a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer seminar in 2006. He will be taking 15 of the nations top high school teachers to the Isle of Man and to the University of Cambridge for five weeks to study insular medieval language and culture. In 2005 MacQuarrie presented a paper on Irish and Scottish Themes in Shakespeare at the University of Georgia, one on Yeats and the Anglo-Irish Revival at the University of Riverside, and one on Dark Celtic Roots in the English Language at Western Michigan University (the Medieval Congress). His article "Yoknapatawpha County and 'Cracker Culture: A Study of the 'Celtic' Component in Faulkner's Mythical South" was published in English and Japanese by the Faulkner Journal of Japan (University of Tokyo) and his chapter on the Isle of Man in Medieval Gaelic literature will appear in volume 3 of the New History of the Isle of Man (University of Liverpool), which is due to be in print by October of this year. He continues on as Editor of the Celtic Studies Association of North American Newsletter and as a member of the executive board of CSANA.

CSUB-AV graduate student Alan Noble's paper is titled "Unity Through Fragmentation: An Examination of the Relationship Between the Themes and the Ending of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Christabel'". He's presenting at the International Conference on Romanticism in Colorado, Springs, October 15th 2005.

Last summer, Michael Flachmann dramaturged three plays at the Tony-Award-winning Utah Shakespearean Festival--Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labor's Lost, and Dr. Faustus--along with one play for the fall season, All's Well That Ends Well.  He also offered my "Camp Shakespeare" educational programs at the festival for the twentieth consecutive year.  He just had an article entitled "Great Teachers and Dead Sharks" published in The Art of College Teaching (a new book from the University of Tennessee Press).  He and Kim Flachmann are also hard at work on the seventh edition of The Prose Reader, soon to be published by Prentice Hall.  He still runs the University Honors Program, which brought in 124 new freshman students this fall--approximately 1/6th of the incoming freshman class (despite the fact that our honors entrance requirements are among the highest in the CSU system).  In addition, he continues to teach the Judo and Self-Defense classes on campus and serve as assistant coach for our intercollegiate women's tennis team. 

Two Poems

Usually, I can answer any question given to me pretty quickly. However, for some reason when Mr. Woodman asked me, “Why did you choose English as a major?” I was extremely surprised to realize that I did not have an answer, not even a clue as to why I chose English as my major. I was so surprised that I did not know why I chose English as my future that I went home and sat down to think about why it came down to English. All throughout my high school career I had been in the Medical Academy and knew for a fact that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My aspirations were to major in Medicine in hopes of one day becoming an anesthesiologist. My first year of college was great, except when it came down to starting the pre-med track courses; it was then that I realized how much dedication it would take and how much little dedication I had.  Don’t get me wrong; school is my life, and I have dedication for completing my goals and education. However, I do know that that career choice would take sacrifices I did not want to make. I do want to have a family, and I knew that if I was planning to have a career in Medicine that would have to be postponed for a really long time. So it was then that I realized I needed to change my major and find a new career choice. The funny thing is, it did not take long for me to realize that I would major in English in hopes of one day becoming a teacher. My entire life English was my strongest subject, so I knew that that would be a great choice for me. I knew that I wanted to help others in whatever career choice I chose, so it seemed most obvious to me that if I wasn’t going to become a doctor, that I wanted to become a teacher in order to inspire the minds of others that way. Now that I have taken a couple English courses, I know that this is what I am great at and that I made an excellent career choice for me. So to everyone who is unsure of what they want to be, just remember that no matter what major you choose be sure it is something with which you can spend the rest of your life involved.

New Concentration Outline — Languge and Literature 
2005-2007

English department

California State university, Bakersfield

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