Events 2012-2013

Undergraduate Awards Ceremony

Friday,  April 12, 2013

2:00 p.m.

LB 646

This event recongnizes excellence in undergraduate creative writing and literary study.  The following prizes will be presented:

A.G. Hooper Prize;  Compton-Lamb Memorial Scholarship;  Irving Layton Awards for Creative Writing (in both Fiction and Poetry);  the MacGuigan Prize.

Approaching the Poetry Series Conference

Using Literary Recordings as Scholars and Digital Designers
A Mini-Conference at Concordia University,  LB 646
5 April – 6 April 2013

Jason Camlot's spokenweb team will be hosting a mini-conference on Friday, April 5th, and Saturday April 6th at Concordia in which scholars and digital designers engage directly with the recordings of "The Poetry Series" and present work that explores historical, methodological and technical approaches to documentary literary recordings.  The Poetry Series recordings feature readings by a wide range of North American poets held at Sir George Williams University form 1966-1974.  For paper abstracts and detailed conference schedule go to <spokenweb.ca>.

As part of the conference, spokenweb will also host a series of a night of poetry readings at the VAV Gallery (1395 René Levesque West) on Friday, April 5th, starting at 7pm.  Readers will deliver poems and pieces they have developed through their engagement with the audio from The Poetry Series sound archive. And undergraduate student Stephanie Colbourn will present her Can Lit Soundscape installation "Where is Hear?"  Admission is free and all are welcome.

Plucking Fluxes: Media Archaelogy to the Metal

a public talk by
MATTHEW KIRSCHENBAUM (University of Maryland)

Wednesday, March 20,  6:15 pm,  CJ 1.114

This talk will adopt a media archaeological framework for considering floppy disks (the ubiquitous remnant of the first great home computer age) and their virtual simulacra, the disk image. The conceit of an “image” confers a complex epistemological status, bearing the inheritance of centuries of Western philosophical thought about the nature of mimesis and representation, with concomitant implications for archival notions of evidence, authenticity, and integrity. We will therefore descend to the ferro-magnetic surface of this unique class of media objects to examine their import and legacy from both a technical and theoretical standpoint.

Graduate School Application Workshop

Friday, March 8th from 10am-11:30 a.m. in  LB 649

The workshop will feature four panelists: Dr. Sharma, from the Graduate Committee, and three students, one from Option C Master's program, one in the academic stream, and one who just completed her own Master's degree applications and will speak about the process as well as requirements for application. It should be a helpful workshop for those who are completing late applications or are interesting in applying in the upcoming year.

Jobs Outside the Academia

Friday, March 8th from 2:00-4:00 p.m. in  LB 646

Four panelists will speak about their current careers, how they got involved in these careers, and how their English degrees have helped. The talks will be followed by a lengthy Q&A period. We have a journalist, a technical writer, a translator/editor, and a government employee. This workshop is applicable to both graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in career options for those who have English degrees. 

"The Ground of Beachy Head: Charlotte Smith's Geological Poetics of the Historical Present"

Friday, February 15, 2013  at  3:30 pm   --   LB 659-4

Kevis Goodman is Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Georgic Modernity and British Romanticism: Poetry and the Mediation of History (Cambridge UP, 2004), and numerous articles on aesthetics and poetics, science and literature and literary historiography.

Comics 2.0: Graphic Narrative at the End of Print

Friday, February 8, 2013,  2:30 pm  in the de Seve Cinema

Dr Jared Gardner is Professor of English and Film and Director of Popular Culture Studies at the Ohio State University and author, most recently of Projections: Comics and the History of Twenty-first century Storytelling (Stanford 2012) and The Rise and Fall of Early American Magazine Culture (Illinois, 2012).

Applying to Graduate School

Friday, November 9, 2012,  2-4 pm   --   LB 646

Drs. Stephen Yeager and Jessica Langston will lead you through the process of applying to Master’s or PhD programs in English, focusing specifically on how to choose where to apply, what to consider in preparing your application materials, and why the big picture matters.

The first hour will include presentations by Drs. Yeager and Langston. In the second hour there will be an opportunity to have any of your own questions or concerns answered.

Annual Lahey Lecture

The Pataque(e)rical Imperative with Dr. Charles Bernstein

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 5 pm

Atrium, Samuel Bronfman Building

1590 Dr. Penfield

Dr. Charles Bernstein is Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. The author of over 40 books, ranging from large-scale collections of poetry and essays to pamphlets, libretti, çs, and collaborations, most recently All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems  (2010) from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Attack of the Difficult Poems: Essays and Inventions (University of Chicago Press, 2011), Bernstein is also the co-founder and co-editor, with Al Filreis, of PennSound.