Book of the Month
"A novel of ideas examining two 'tribal' societies: the colonized island of New Ulster in Papua New Guinea and Laird’s native Northern Ireland."
Nick Laird was the Gerson Irish Reader on April 9.
—Mary Burke, Professor of English; Honors Program Director;
Irish Concentration Coordinator
Why Study English?
"Heads up, business majors: Employers are newly hot on the trail of hires with liberal arts and humanities degrees.
Class of 2015 graduates from those disciplines are employed at higher rates than their cohorts in the class of 2014, and starting salaries rose significantly, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers' annual first-destination survey of recent graduates in the workforce."
Read the rest of this article and see more arguments for studying English.
Upcoming Events
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Sep
23
Registration Due for Fall Teacher-Writer Retreat12:00am
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Sep
24
Shusenjo Film Screening & Discussion4:00pm
Shusenjo Film Screening & Discussion
Tuesday, September 24th, 2019
04:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Storrs Campus Konnover Auditorium, Dodd Center
Miki Dezaki, a Youtuber who was threatened and harassed by Japan`s notorious netouyo (cyber neo-nationalists) for his video on racism in Japan, is not shying away from controversial topics with his debut feature length documentary on the comfort women issue. The film, titled “Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue,” dives deep into the most contentious dispute between Japan and Korea, and finds answers to hotly debated questions, such as: Were the comfort women “sexual slaves” or prostitutes? Were they coercively recruited? Were there really 200,000 comfort women? And, does Japan have a legal responsibility to apologize?
Dezaki masterfully interweaves footage from demonstrations, man-on-the-street interviews,
news and archival clips with in-depth interviews with the most prominent scholars and
influencers from both sides of the debate, including Yoshiko Sakurai (journalist), Kent
Gilbert (lawyer/celebrity), Mina Watanabe (secretary-general of the Women`s Active
Museum), Koichi Nakano (political science professor) and Yoshiaki Yoshimi (historian).
The screening will take place from 4-6 pm, followed by a discussion with director Miki Dezaki until 7 pm. -
Sep
25
Humanities Fellow Research Talk: Daniel Cohen4:00pm
Humanities Fellow Research Talk: Daniel Cohen
Wednesday, September 25th, 2019
04:00 PM - 05:30 PM
Storrs Campus Humanities Institute Seminar Room, Babbidge Library 4th Floor
Our UCHI Fellow will be presenting their research talk on “Burning the Charlestown Convent: Private Lives, Public Outrage, and Contested Memories in America’s Civil War Generation” followed by a light reception. For more information, please visit https://humanities.uconn.edu/fellowships/current-and-previous-fellows/. If you require accommodation for this event, please contact uchi@uconn.edu at least one week prior to the event. -
Sep
26
Colson Whitehead4:30pm
Colson Whitehead
Thursday, September 26th, 2019
04:30 PM - 06:00 PM
Storrs Campus, Storrs Campus, Storrs Campus Konover Auditorium
The Africana Studies Institute is hosting #1 bestselling author Colson Whitehead.
Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad (an Oprah’s Book Club selection and winner of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize), The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and one collection of essays, The Colossus of New York. He was named New York’s 11th State Author in 2018. His next book, The Nickel Boys, is set for release in July 2019.
Colson Whitehead’s reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper’s and Granta.
He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, A Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Dos Passos Prize, a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for John Henry Days.
He has taught at the University of Houston, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, New York University, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and been a Writer-in-Residence at Vassar College, the University of Richmond, and the University of Wyoming.
He lives in New York City.
This event is cosponsored by the Provost's Office, the Humanities Institute, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Department of History, the Department of English and the Creative Writing Program -
Sep
27
Conference for Secondary School Writing Centers8:30am
Conference for Secondary School Writing Centers
Friday, September 27th, 2019
08:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Storrs Campus Student Union Theater
Our conference is designed for middle and high school teachers and students who are interested in starting or maintaining peer-based writing centers in their schools. We will feature presentations by schools that have successfully developed peer writing centers and interactive workshops for students and teachers. We encourage participation at all stages of the writing center process, from newly interested to veteran schools. Go to: http://writingcenter.uconn.edu/high-school-outreach/ for more information. -
Oct
2
Digital Humanities & Media Studies talk: Annette Vee, "Algorithmic Writers and Implications for Literacy"2:00pm
Digital Humanities & Media Studies talk: Annette Vee, "Algorithmic Writers and Implications for Literacy"
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2019
02:00 PM - 03:30 PM
Storrs Campus, Storrs Campus, Storrs Campus UConn Humanities Institute
Writing today is inextricable from computation: we write on and for computers. But computers are no longer just word processors or distributors of our writing. Algorithms, which enter our lives through computers and crowd our writing spaces, affect what we write, who reads it, and how. Algorithms read our emails in order to write our emails. They correct our grammar, they can summarize and simplify texts, and they choose what we read online. If you write on or with computers (and you do), your algorithmic coauthors influence what you write and how you write it. Algorithms are more active agents than pencils or coffeeshops—other materialities that affect our writing processes—and they have complex relationships to the humans who produce and use them. What is literacy when it’s learned, performed, and subjected to algorithmic writers? And how should literacy be taught in the context of ubiquitous algorithmic writing? In this talk, Annette Vee will describe contemporary scenes of algorithmic writing, place them in the history of literacy and computation, and present some implications and applications for literacy learning now.
Annette Vee is an Associate Professor of English at University of Pittsburgh, where she directs the Composition Program, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, and is involved in various initiatives that connect the humanities, digital media and computation. She is the author of Coding Literacy (MIT Press, 2017) and various articles on computation, literacy, and intellectual property.
This UCHI Digital Humanities & Media Studies event is co-sponsored by the Aetna Chair of Writing and the Neag School of Education’s Reading and Language Arts Center. -
Oct
3
The Cherry Orchard7:30pm
The Cherry Orchard
Thursday, October 3rd, 2019
07:30 PM - 10:00 PM
Storrs Campus Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre
One of the great plays of the 20th century, Chekhov’s final masterpiece captures a world and a family in transition. Faced with the sale of their cherished orchard, the Gayev family returns home in an attempt to preserve what they can of their family’s once great estate. This magnificent work combines the hope and absurdity of the human spirit. A stirring, touching piece of theatre you won’t soon forget.
Letters About Literature
The English Department, Connecticut Writing Project, and Neag School of Education are the CT sponsors for this Library of Congress writing competition for grades 4-12.
Professors are People Too
Ali Oshinskie ('17) interviews professors for a podcast series, "Professors are People Too." Read the transcripts to her introduction and interviews, and listen to the podcast on WHUS.