EL alum Andrea Palpant Dilley (’00) recently published an essay, “Suburbia Needs Jesus, Too: A Woman’s Take on the New Radicals,” on Christianity Today‘s Her.meneutics blog. Check it out!
by Ana Quiring (’14)
Last month, our Brontes and Gaskell seminar, led by the illustrious Pam Parker, had the chance to get back to our Victorian roots with a tea party as Taste and See Tea in North Spokane. We were treated to a delightful and never-ending parade of tea with names both titillating and sublime (Cabana Boy and Creme d’Earl come to mind), as well as a delicious tasting menu of dainty sandwiches and scones. The outing fit perfectly with our discussion of Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South, which features more than one tea party, always rife with careful propriety, class tension, and witty repartee. Although we can’t boast the first two nearly as well, I’d like to think we had the last in spades.
Ana Quiring is an English major, a Brontes and Gaskell enthusiast, on a good day, and a teacher’s assistant for whomever will have her, mostly Pam Parker.
It’s a season of congratulations here in the ol’ house of English. In addition to sending our warmest wishes to the class of 2013, we’re celebrating recent awards to EL faculty.
Laura Bloxham and Vic Bobb were recognized for their work as co-chairs of the English department!
Casey Andrews won the Innovative Teaching Award!
Please high-five these folks next time you see them. And cue the cartwheels!
Diana Cater (’13, above) and Blaine Eldredge (’13) recently presented at the Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature at the University of Portland. This annual conference is highly selective, so we’re especially proud that they were both able to represent Whitworth. Diana also presented her paper at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference last month.
Diana on Diana: “Diana cater is majoring in Biology and English. She thinks science and literature have fascinating things to say about doubt and our ability to understand the world around us, and wrote a paper to that effect. Lately, she’s been hanging out with tortoises, reading comic books, and co-parenting a pot of tulips with Michael Schmidt.”
Diana on NUCL: “Whenever I write a research paper, I have nagging doubts that anyone will be interested in my ideas other than me. Literature conferences always prove me wrong. At NUCL, I was so impressed by the audience’s ability to engage in topics that were perhaps previously unfamiliar—to ask questions, make connections, and expand ideas and concepts. My panel had papers about science and magic (basically the same things), and it was amazing to see how the audience found themes and connections among our topics. We ended up having a wonderful conversation about faith, doubt, and the ethics of living in a world where nothing is certain. Yeah, I didn’t see that coming either, but it was truly fascinating discussion. If we weren’t kicked out of the classroom, we probably could have kept talking for another hour. To me, that’s really encouraging. There are curious people out there, unafraid of engaging in new ideas.”
Diana recently sent us this dispatch about the experience
Cheers to Dr. Laurie Lamon for her poem “Not In A Certain Light” in Valparaiso Poetry Review!
John Taylor (’13) has a poem, “I Keep My Kidney Stones In A Salt Shaker,” in Booth Journal.
And hey, yours truly has a new short essay about my musical crush, Jason Harrod, at Antler.
Woo!
Photo above is from here.
On Friday, May 10, here’s what to do:
Get cash.
Attend the annual Hot Dog & Book Sale from 11:30-1:00 in the Courtyard Garden.
Perform your afternoon duties.
Arrive at the campanile by 4pm for a rousing reading from this year’s Script staff.
Get your paws on a copy of Script 2013. (It’s supercool. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.)
Take home your copy of Script 2013.
Read it.
Love it.
It’s a season of celebration here in the English department.
We had two winners in the recent campus-wide essay contest about the value of the liberal arts. Biology major and EL minor Alicia Peebles (’13) and EL major Ana Quiring (’14) tied for second place. They each win $50, and their essays will go on to the state-wide competition along with entries by 1st place winner Rebecca Kopf and honorable mention Hailey Smith.
Just this afternoon, Dr. John Pell emceed the 2012-13 writing awards, where our majors took home many prizes:
Mary Schmick (’14) won an award for writing in Political Science.
Josie Camarillo (’14) won for Psychology.
Winners of the EL department awards include Maggie Montague (’15) in the Narrative category, Addison Koneval for Lower Division Research, Jessica Weber for Poetry, Lauren NuDelman for Lower Division Research, Matt Comi (’14) for Essay, and Adriana Siefe for Writing I.
John announced the renaming of the Upper Division Research award to the Laura Bloxham Award for Writing Excellence. Taylor Countryman is our first winner of this honor.
Congratulations to all of our winners! You’ve done us proud.
The kitteh art, above, is from here.
On April 27, Dr. Laura Bloxham moderated two sessions about Jane Austen at the 2013 Spokane Intercollegiate Research Conference. Her Jan term Jane Austen course has generated a cult following. Laura sent the photos. Congrats to her and to her students!
Above: Kirsten Bleeker (’14) presents “Prose or Film: The Battle of Aesthetics Concerning Jane Austen’s Emma.” Below, Joanna Szabo (’15) discusses “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries Web Series: Why Jane Austen is best told in ‘vlog’ form.”
Below, Hannah Crawford (’14), on “Film Misnomers: How Culture Rewrote Mansfield Park.”
In the “Jane Austen: Gender and Money” session, Sarah Jaymes Kenney (’14) presents “‘Having Formed her Mind and Gained her Affections’: The Male-Female Relationship as Destructive in Mansfield Park.”
Willa Schober-Hockman (’14) delivers “Proposals and Power Plays in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.”
Mikayla Ludiker (’14) discusses “Entailment Entanglement: Inheritance Schemes in Sense and Sensibility.”
What the world needs now is another Ryan Gosling tumblr.
In our ongoing effort to help our majors discern their vocations and articulate their many marketable skills, behold the above advice from Incidental Comics.
