Helene Meyers, Professor of English and McManis University Chair, presented “Here and/or Elsewhere?: Locating Contemporary Jewish American Literature” at the annual conference of MELUS (the Society for the Study of the Multi-ethnic Literature of the United States) in Santa José, CA, on April 20.

David Gaines, associate professor of English, gave a talk entitled “A Dylan Fan’s Notes” at the American Culture Association meeting in Boston, MA on April 12, 2012.

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, gave a talk entitled “Moving Mountains: Matterhorn and the Canon of Vietnam War Literature” at the American Culture Association meeting in Boston, MA on April 11, 2012.

Michael Saenger, associate professor of English, participated in the seminar “Shakespeare’s Theories of Translation” at the Shakespeare Association of America Annual Meeting on April 6, 2012 in Boston, MA.

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, gave a talk entitled “Big Ideas and Small Steps: Lessons from a Hmong Empowerment Organization in Sapa, Vietnam” at the 4th International Conference on Hmong Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul, MN on March 31, 2012.

Eileen Cleere, professor of English, gave a paper at the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies (INCS)  Association conference in Lexington, KY, March 23, 2012.  Her talk, “Tactile Values: Touching the Renaissance in late Nineteenth-Century Art Criticism,” was subsequently solicited for publication in the scholarly journal Nineteenth-Century Contexts.

Students David Boutte, Jacob Brown, Paige Duggins, and alumnus Graham Oliver offered a panel presentation entitled “The Diamond Miner’s Union: Faculty and Your Writing Center” at the annual meeting of the South-Central Writing Centers Association in Little Rock, AR on February 24, 2012. Associate Professor Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton gave a talk entitled “The Writing Center Way to a Jerk-Free Workplace” at this same meeting.

Writer-in-Residence and part-time assistant professor of English John Pipkin delivered a plenary lecture entitled “Romanticisms: Understanding an Ambiguous Literary Movement” at Spalding University in Louisville, KY on Nov. 12.  Pipkin is also a faculty member of Spalding’s Low-Residency MFA program.  His 2009 novel Woodsburner was the featured fiction Book-in-Common for Spalding’s fall semester. Pipkin also has been named the fiction editor for the spring 2012 issue of The Louisville Review published by Fleur de Lis Press

David Gaines, associate professor of English, presented “Who Responds to Dylan and How: Fandom, Gender, and Bob Dylan” at the American Studies Association of Texas meeting on Friday 11 November at Schreiner University in Kerrville.

Carina Evans, assistant professor of English, presented a  paper entitled “A Kind of Family: Interracial Female Friendships in A Mercy” on November 6 at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) meeting hosted by Scripps College in Claremont, CA.

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, contributed a chapter titled “Doing Gender and Going Native in ‘Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong’” to a new book titled Approaches to Teaching the Works of Tim O’Brien published by MLA Press.

Helene Meyers, professor of English and holder of the McManis University Chair, was the keynote speaker for Austin’s Florence Melton Adult Mini-School graduation in May. Her commencement address was titled “Jewish Talk, Jewish Texts: Identity in the Making.” In June, Meyers’ book Reading Michael Chabon was added to Gale’s Virtual Reference Library. 

David Gaines, associate professor of English, and Southwestern graduate Deann Armstrong have essays published in a new book titled Dylan at Play published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Gaines’ essay is titled “Transnational Dylan: Bob Dylan and Some Thoughts about Homes and Homelessness, Nations and Borders, The Whole Wide World, and What’s Real Forever.” Armstrong’s essay is titled “Look Out Your Window and I’ll Be Gone: Dylan’s Art of Abandonment” and is an extension of work she began in Gaines’ class on Bob Dylan. Read more about Gaines and his teaching and research on Bob Dylan here.

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, delivered the keynote address at the Southeastern Writing Centers Association conference at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa Feb. 17-19. Her talk was called “Shape or Be Shaped: Outcomes Assessment as a Defining Moment for Writing Centers.”

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, served as an outside program evaluator at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, associate professor of English, spoke at the plenary session of the North Texas Writing Centers Association conference held in Fort Worth last week.

Helene Meyers, professor of English and holder of the McManis University Chair, had an article titled “On Homelands and Home-Making: Rebecca Goldstein’s Mazel,” published in the most recent issue of Journal of Modern Literature. 

English and American studies major Katie Mead is attending the Young Rhetoricians Conference in Monterrey, Calif., June 24-26. She will present a paper on the trickster figure in Allen Ginsberg’s work.

Helene Meyers, professor of English and holder of the McManis University Chair, spoke on feminist mentoring and teaching at Celebrating Susan Gubar, Teacher and Writer, a symposium held at Indiana University. 

Eileen Cleere, associate professor of English, is a featured speaker at the 18th and 19th-Century British Women Writers Conference at Texas A& M University April 8-10. Her paper, “Aesthetic Anachronism: Mary Ward’s 1913 The Mating of Lydia and the Persistent Plot of Sanitary Fiction,” is part of the last chapter of her book manuscript, The Sanitary Arts: Aesthetic Culture and the Victorian Cleanliness Campaigns.

A book by Helene Meyers, professor of English and holder of the McManis University Chair, has just been published by Greenwood Press. Reading Michael Chabon is designed for general readers and is the first book devoted to the Pulitzer-Prize winning author who bridges the gap between literary and popular culture. For more information, follow this link.

Professor Emeritus Walter Herbert is participating in a March 27 and 28 symposium being held in conjunction with the Dallas Opera’s world premiere of the Gene Scheer-Jake Heggie opera Moby-Dick. Herbert is speaking at a session on “Melville, the Man.” That will also include Duncan E. Osborne, Melville’s great-grandson.

Eileen Cleere, associate professor of English, will introduce and edit the final installment of a six-part collection of archival materials on 19th-century sanitary reform for Pickering & Chatto.  Her volume is provisionally titled “End-of-Century Assessments and New Directions,” and will be comprised of rare and undercirculated materials on sanitary architecture, health and hygiene, and eugenics. She hopes the entire series will be available by 2012.

Professor emeritus Walt Herbert was elected president of the Herman Melville Society.