Welcome TO THE

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
The Department of English provides courses in literature from the Middle Ages up to and including 21st-century writing. The comprehensive program exposes students to major works of prose, poetry and drama as well as new formats, including digitized writing. In addition, the Department offers an innovative creative writing and rhetoric program with courses in writing fiction, non-fiction prose, film scripts, plays and other forms of communication.

English Department NEWSLETTER 2011 2012 || SERIES 01 ||

Book Events

One of the highlights of the Fall 2011 semester was the event featuring visual artist Rosamond Purcell and Shakespeare scholar Michael Witmore who collaborated on Landscapes of the Passing Strange. The book is a compendium of photographic images paired with lines from Shakespeare. Ms. Purcell, whose previous books include Owls

administrators and other University community members. All Bookmarks events take place in the Institute for Writing Studies. Stephen Sicari, Ph.D., Chair and Professor of English, was the Spring 2011 featured author. Dr. Sicari discussed his most recent book,

Modernist Humanism and the Men of 1914: Joyce, Lewis, Pound and Eliot,

Head: On the Nature of Lost Things and Bookworm: The Art of Rosamund Purcell, and Mr. Witmore, Director of

the Folger Shakespeare Library and the author of such books as Shakespearean Metaphysics and Pretty Creatures:

telling attendees that, in the process of writing his book, he decided to eliminate a chapter on the poet Wallace Stevens to achieve greater narrative tightness. Derek Owens, D.A., Vice Provost and Professor of English, also spoke about his hybrid memoir/regional history, Memorys Wake, at the Fall 2011 Bookmarks event. Paul Devlin 04G, Instructor in English, will be featured in Spring 2012, speaking about the book he edited

Children and Fiction in the English Renaissance, discussed the relationship

between the visual and the textual in Shakespeares plays.

The event was made possible by Steve Mentz, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English. Some of Ms. Purcells prints are currently on view at the Universitys Institute for Writing Studies.

Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones.

In the fall, Stephen Paul Miller, Ph.D., Professor of English, will read from his latest collection of poetry, Skinny Eighth Avenue. He will be joined by local poets whose work is also included in the collection.a

Bookmarks

Bookmarks a series of informal conversations enabling faculty authors to discuss their latest works continues to attract undergraduate and graduate students, as well as

Remembering 9/11 As part of the Universitys 9/11 memorial commemoration, Dohra Ahmad, Ph.D., Associate

Professor of English, Robert Fanuzzi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English and John Lowney, Ph.D., Professor of English, organized a literary roundtable of authors writing in multiple genres about 9/11. Drs. Ahmad and Lowney moderated the lively panel discussion, which addressed the capacities and limitations of different genres in representing 9/11. The participating writers Lawrence Joseph, Amitava Kumar, Anne Nelson and Kamila Shamsie also read excerpts from their work. This event took place on the Manhattan campus.

FACULTY CORNER
An article by Dohra Ahmad, Ph.D., Productive Paradoxes: Vernacular Use in the Teaching of Composition and Literature written in collaboration with Shondel Nero, Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning at NYU was published by Pedagogy. Her poem, Conjunctions, Mostly, appeared in a special issue of the Journal of Postcolonial Writing on Pakistani literature. Critical Insights: the Aeneid, edited by Robert Forman, Ph.D., Professor of English, was published in the Fall of 2011 by Salem Press. Anne Ellen Geller, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum, received a 2010-2011 Conference on College Composition and Communication Research Initiative Grant for Seniors Reflect on Their Meaningful Writing Experiences: A CrossInstitutional Study. The study will compare student experiences in writing across the curriculum at St. Johns University, the University of Oklahoma and Northeastern University. Dr. Geller also received a 2011 Council of Writing Programs Administrators Research Grant for When Johnny Couldnt Write: What Came of the National Endowment Grants for Writing 1973 1987. Langston Hughes Cold War Audiences: Black Internationalism, The Popular Front and the Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949, written by John Lowney, Ph.D., appeared in the most recent volume of The Langston Hughes Review. Dr. Lowneys article Jazz, Black Transnationalism, and the Political Aesthetics of Langston Hughess Ask Your Mama, will appear in American Literature. Excitable Imaginations: Eroticism and Reading in Britain, 1660 1760, by Kathleen Lubey, Ph.D., will be published

by Bucknell University Press. On March 9, Dr. Lubey will give a lecture at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Pre-Romantic Discourses on the Rights of Women: Wollstonecraft and her Contemporaries. Gregory Maertz, Ph.D., Professor of English, completed a two-year sabbatical at the University of North Carolina as a National Humanities Center (NCH) Fellow and an American Council of Learned Societies Resident Associate. Dr. Maertzs article, Making Radioactive Art Safe will appear in Art and Shame, edited by Martha Hollander. The Last Taboo: The Rehabilitation of Nazi Artists in Post-War Germany, will be published by Dails istorijos/Art History Studies. In addition to curating an exhibition on The Struggle for Identity: Art and Non-Art in Norway and the Third Reich, scheduled to open May 2014, at the Bergen Kunstmuseum, Dr. Maertz is working on a new translation of Friedrich Nietzsches On the Genealogy of Morals and is in the process of completing a book, Modernism and Nazi Art: Images, Texts and Documents. A new collection of essays by Nicole Rice, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, titled Middle English Religious Writing in Practice: Texts, Readers and Transformations, will be published in 2012. Her essay on Reformist Devotional Reading: The Pore Caitif in British Library, MS Harley 2322, will also appear in 2012. Dr. Rice received a 20112012 American Council of Learned Societies Collaborative Fellowship to conduct research for her upcoming book, The Civic Cycles: Artisan Identity in Premodern York and Chester.

Modernist Humanism and the Men of 1914, by Stephen Sicari, Ph.D., was published by the University of South Carolina Press last spring. His essay, Pound after Pisa, appeared in Pound in Context, published by Cambridge University Press. He is currently at work on a study on the relationship of modern poetry and religion, tentatively titled Modernist Theologies. Jennifer Travis, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, contributed a chapter on Accidents, Agency, and American Literary Naturalism to American Women Writers, published by Cambridge University Press. She is also collaborating with Susan Rosenberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Fine Arts, on Calculating Risk: Image and Interpretation of Disaster, about St. Johns Kathryn and Shelby Collins Davis Library. Elda Tsou, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English, returned to St. Johns this fall after completing a one-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Tsous article, Catachresis: Blus Hanging and the Epistemology of the Given, was published in the June 2011 issue of the Journal of Asian American Studies. She also co-edited this special issue of the Journal of Asian American Studies, with Susie Pak, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History.a

tudent Corner S
Student Corner: Where Are They Now?
Diana Castaldini 09BA, 10MA
Like other inquisitive, bookish young adults, I decided to major in literature in college. I liked the way reading and writing made me feel, but it didnt occur to me how valuable this major could be. I had no idea how appealing an articulate, well-read job applicant with exceptional writing skills could be to an employer. Being an English major helped expand my knowledge while also preparing me for a satisfying career path in which research and writing would play an integral part. Shortly after graduating with a B.A./ M.A. in May 2010, I landed my first job as an Editorial Assistant with the Division of Humanities Monographs at Routledge Books. I was hired, not only because of my enthusiasm and familiarity with academia, but because of the critical thinking and writing skills I acquired at St. Johns University. In fact, what I learned about writing as an undergraduate, prepared me to excel at the rigorous editing test and to present myself well during the interviewing process. Next, I worked as an editorial assistant at Whole Living Magazine, a publication about holistic wellness, sustainable eating and green living, produced by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. I was in charge of the magazines Facebook and Twitter accounts, wrote and edited blogs and wrote sidebars for features.

The skills I acquired by virtue of being an English major the ability to ask the right questions, to interpret feedback, to synthesize information and to turn information into readingaccessible copy under deadline pressure have all helped me gain the trust and confidence of my superiors.

Paul Devlin 04MA

Since 2006, Ive been in the Ph.D. Program in English at SUNY Stony Brook, where I teach creative writing and introductory fiction and poetry. While finishing my M.A. at St. Johns, I taught English 1100C which proved to be one of my most enjoyable teaching experiences. I have given talks at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Tuskegee University and the Mobile Public Library in Mobile, AL. My articles have appeared in such publications as Slate, The Root, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times Book Review, The Daily Beast, The Brooklyn Rail, The Antioch Review, the 2008 edition of African American National Biography (Oxford University Press) and in Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination of a Nation (University of Alabama Press, 2010). I also edited Rifftide: The Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones and have been a member of the National Book Critics Circle since 2008. a

tudent News S
Student News
A chapter by Kerri Mulqueen Baldassaro 13DA called The Idea of a High School Writing Center, appears in The Successful High School Writing Center: Building the Best Program With Your Students, published by Teachers College Press. Shannon Doherty 11BA and Leah McGuckin 11MA were accepted by the University of Connecticut School of Law. Erin Ponton Fiero 13DA contributed an essay to Race and Identity in Barack Obamas Dreams From My Father, published by Edwin Mellen Press. Michael Johnson 11BA was accepted by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. John Nance 10MA is completing a doctoral program in English at Florida State University, where he is specializing in Renaissance literature. Regina Pagani 12BA won a Graduate Admissions Assistance Program (GAAP) award last summer to study the powwow and Native American identity. Aysha Preston 14BA was named a Robert McNair Scholar. Mohammad Saad Qasim 11BS received a Robert J. Connors Memorial Scholarship in recognition of his first-time presentation at the Northeast Writing Centers Association (NEWCA) and his role as a student tutor at the Institute of Writing Studies. Brian Quinn 10DA joined the Alfred State University Writing Program. Sharell Walker 11BA is pursuing her masters degree in Library Science at St. Johns. Elizabeth Walsh 12BA, 12MA won a GAAP award to do research on the tension between sensationalism and realism in Robinson Crusoe, which will be supervised by her mentor, Dr. Kathleen Lubey. Jessica Williams 15DA became a visiting instructor at SUNY College at Old Westbury in the Department of English. Her article, I would like to think that Refusal is worth making: The Future of the New Punk in SLC Punk, was published in A Creative Passion: Anarchism and Culture, edited by Jeffrey Shantz and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. She is scheduled to present her paper on The Appropriation of an Epic: Lucille Clifton and John Milton Retell Genesis at the 2011 Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) convention. Steve Williams 10BA, Sarah Goncalves 10BA and Jordan Baum 16MA read their work at the Dorsky Gallery in Long Island City. Samantha Wolner 09BA is pursuing a degree in museum studies at Columbia University. Justine Woods 11BA was accepted by George Washington University Law School and Northeastern University Law School.a
8000 Utopia Parkway Queens, NY 11439 www.stjohns.edu

Jessica Barros 12DA was awarded a Dissertation Fellowship by the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she is a Dissertation Scholar in the Black Studies Department. Tara Bradway 16DA published Transforming Shakespeares Revenge Play from Violence to Virtue in Titus Andronicus and The Tempest, an article about the Adirondack Shakespeare Company Bookend Project in the February 2011 edition of LOeil du Spectateur - Shakespeare en devenir. She presented a paper titled Branching Out: Digital Literacy and Writing Centers at the Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference. John Chen 16MA and Mohammad Saad Qasim 11BS, Institute for Writing Studies tutors, appeared with Dr. Geller to present their joint paper, Creating Fertile Environments for Transplanted Writers, at the 2011 Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference. Todd Craig 13DA will deliver When Gatekeepers are Kept from the Gates: The Exclusion of the Hip-Hop DJ as Writer/Composer in Writing Classrooms at the Conference of College Composition and Communication during the Spring 2012 semester. His short story, ...spy verse spy... will appear in an anthology called Staten Island Noir, published by Akashic Books.

Thanks Tara Bradway, John to Dohra Ahmad,

Lowney and Steve Mentz for helping to put this newsletter together.

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