April 2006 News
NEW PUBLICATIONS

Marcel Hénaff
"La condition brisée des langues: diversité humaine, altérité et traduction." La Pensée Ricœur. Ed. M. Foessel et O. Mongin. Esprit 323 (Mars-Avril 2006): 68-84.

Misha Kokotovic
“Neoliberal Noir: Contemporary Central American Crime Fiction as Social Criticism.” Clues Hispanic Detective special issue (Spring 2006).

“Transculturación narrativa y modernidad andina: nueva lectura de Yawar fiesta.” José María Arguedas: hacia una poética migrante. Ed. Sergio R. Franco. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, 2006. 39-60.

Lisa Lowe
Japanese translation of "Unfaithful to the Original: the Subject of Dictée." Ikyo no Shintai: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha wo megutte [Being in Exile: About Theresa Hak Kyung Cha]. Ed. Yasuko Ikeuchi and Masahiko Nishi. Kyoto: Jimbun Shoin, 2006.  188-240.

Foreword to Positively No Filipinos Allowed: Building Communities and Discourse. Ed. Antonio T. Tiongson, Jr., Edgardo V. Gutierrez and Ricardo V. Gutierrez. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

Meg Wesling
 "The Opacity of Everyday Life: Segregation and the Iconicity of Uplift in The Street." American Literature 78(1): 117-140 (2006); DOI:10.1215/00029831-78-1-117.


Wai-lim Yip
Listening attentively to the words of lakes and rivers. [a book of lyrical prose]. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, Spring 2006.

"Odyssey" [poem], The Epoch Poetry Quarterly [Taipei]146 (March 2006).


Yingjin Zhang published an academic book in Chinese:
Shenshi Zhongguo: cong xuekeshi jiaodu guancha Zhongguo dianying yu wenxue yanjiu (China in focus: Studies of Chinese cinema and literature in the perspective of academic history}, Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 2006. The book includes 21 essays and an interview.
 

NEW LECTURERS

Amra Brooks, Writing
LTWR 121 - Media Writing
 
Shawna Dolansky Overton, Literatures of the World
LTWL 131A - Topics in Early Christian Literature: New Testament

Philip Gunderson, Theory
LTTH 115 - Introduction to Critical Theory

James Meetze, Writing
LTWR 115 - Experimental Writing

Liyan Qin, Chinese Literature
LTCH 101 - Readings in Contemporary Chinese Literature
NEW STAFF

Mihai C. Anghel has been appointed the new Assistant Academic Files Coordinator, effective April 3. Mihai has a B.S. in Anthropology from UC Riverside and an M.A. in Urban Anthropology from SDSU. He has worked in several areas at the university such as the Cancer Center, Family and Preventive Medicine, and the PACE Program.
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS

Center for the Humanities Awards
2006-2007

Faculty Community Outreach Awards
Jorge Mariscal – for a contemporary Chicano poets reading series
Yingjin Zhang and IR/PS Professor Jim Cheng – for "Remembering the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976): A Multi-Media Presentation at UCSD"

Graduate Student Fellowships
Junghyun Hwang and Liyan Qin  
Neda Atanasoski has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at SUNY Stony Brook in the Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies department. She will be starting there in the fall. Dr. Atanasoski has also accepted the UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship. She will be going to UC Berkeley in the 2007-2008 academic year.
Benjamin Balthaser has been awarded first prize in the UC Poet Laureate contest for his entry of three poems: "Dedication," "The Tenant," and "On Finding a Note to Myself in an Old Russian Grammar Book." The Poet Laureate Prize, established by friends of Ina Coolbrith in 1933, comprises entries from all UC campuses, with each campus forwarding entries by up to three students – graduate and undergraduate.

Balthaser's prize-winning entry was one of the three selected by UCSD judge Rae Armantrout to advance to the final round of judging at UC Berkeley this year. Congratulations to Benjamin for capturing the honor of first place in this year's Poet Laureate contest and the $1500 award!
Emily Cheng has been awarded a Department of Literature year-long dissertation fellowship for 2006-2007.

Todd Kontje has been appointed Study Center Director for the Education Abroad Program in Germany for a two-year term, from July 2006 to June 2008.

Emily Kugler has been awarded a Department of Literature year-long dissertation fellowship for 2006-2007.

Hellen Lee is presenting “‘Her Transparent, Needle-Pricked Fingers’: Sewing, Racial Politics, and Social Mobility in the Short Fiction of Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Grace King” at the College English Association's 37th Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX, April 6, 2006.


Ali Liebegott's book, The Beautifully Worthless, has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the category of Lesbian Debut Fiction.

"This is a remarkable list of finalists," states Charles Flowers, executive director of Lambda Literary Foundation. "We are most proud of our debut fiction awards, which allow Lambda to recognize the emerging talent in our community that these publishers are investing in and introducing to the world."

Finalists, selected by some 72 judges, will be announced at a gala ceremony in Washington, DC, on Thursday, May 18, 2006.

The English Department of California State University, Long Beach is proud to announce that Bill Mohr has accepted a position as a tenure-track assistant professor beginning in the Fall, 2006. Dr. Mohr will be moving from Long Island, New York, where he is currently working at St. John's University, in June to take up his new appointment. Dr. Mohr will join poets Charles Webb and Patty Seyburn, both of whom also have Ph.D.s, in teaching in the MFA program at CSULB as well as teaching literature and writing courses. Mohr graduated from UCSD in 2004. Michael Davidson was the chair of his dissertation, "BACKLIT: Los Angeles and the West Coast Poetry Renaissance."  

David Morrow has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York.

Babak Rahimi appeared on the UCSD-TV program "The Body Politic - Iran and China," hosted by Dean Michael Bernstein. The program is scheduled for rebroadcast on April 2, 3, 4, and 7. For details, go to http://www.ucsd.tv/schedule/index.asp?keyword=11514.

He also appeared on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on April 7 and is scheduled to appear in an Islam segment on KPBS-TV's Full Focus, hosted by Gloria Penner. This program is scheduled to air at 6:30 pm and 11:00 pm on Tuesday, April 11, 2006, and then again on Wednesday, April 12, at 12:30 pm. For more information, go to http://www.kpbs.org/fullfocus/index_032806.php.
Priya Venkatesan chaired a session at the American Comparative Literature Association Conference held at Princeton University from March 23rd to March 26th. The panel was entitled "Literary Tropes and Molecular Biology in the Postmodern Era."

Pasquale Verdicchio will be reading at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco on April 27 in the occasion of the publication of some of his translations of Pier Paolo Pasolini in a special issue of Left Curve magazine.


EXAMS & DEFENSES

PhD Defense

Helen M. Higbee – March 20, 2006.
"Scholarship Staged: Interrogations of University Learning in Late Elizabethan and Early Jacobean Drama"

Qualifying Exams

Neel Ahuja – March 22, 2006.
MA in Literatures in English.

Elizabeth Steeby – March 22, 2006.
MA in Literatures in English

APRIL EVENTS

Bartolomé Clavero
Professor and Chair of Legal History
University of Seville

Wednesday, April 5, 2006 – 4:00 pm
deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building

"Indigenous Peoples between Mexican and American Constitutions (19th Century)"

Contact: Marcel Hénaff or Jaime Concha or Max Parra

For details, go to http://literature.ucsd.edu/news/currentevents/

Graduate Program Open House

Thursday, April 6, 2006

 9:30 – 10:30 am - Breakfast with Graduate Student Council (GSC)

10:30 -11:45 am - Q&A session with current graduate students

12:10 – 1:30 pm - Luncheon with faculty at the Faculty Club

 2:00- 3:15 pm - Section advisers available for office hours

 3:15 – 4:15 pm - Coffee, questions, and information about campus employment
                            (writing programs and language programs)  

SMART Conference

"Defending Academic Freedom, Promoting Equitable Universities"

Thursday, April 13th

For more information:  http://acs.ucsd.edu/~smartweb/ or contact Scott Boehm

The Departments of Communication, Ethnic Studies, and Literature at UCSD present

Ellen Samuels
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, UC-Berkeley

"A Complication of Complaints: Untangling Race, Disability, and Gender in the Nineteenth Century and Today"

Thursday, April 13, 2006 4:00-5:30pm
deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building

Contact: Michael Davidson

For details, go to http://literature.ucsd.edu/news/currentevents/


Moustafa Bayoumi

Associate Professor of English
City University of New York - Brooklyn College

"The Shebab of Brooklyn: Life Writing in Post 9/11 Arab America"

Friday, April 14, 2006 - 4:00 pm
deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building

Contact: Lisa Lowe

For details, go to http://literature.ucsd.edu/news/currentevents/


NEW WRITING SERIES
Spring 2006



Friday, April 7 – Ana Rossetti
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm

 
Wednesday, April 12 – Rikki Ducornet
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm

 

Tuesday, April 18 - Michael Kearns
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm



Thursday, April 27 – Annie Finch
deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building,
4:30 pm

.


Wednesday, May 10 – Kathryn Shevelow
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm




Wednesday, May 17 – Holiday Reinhorn
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm

 





Monday, May 22 – Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez
Visual Arts Performance Space, 4:30 pm

 


For details, go to http://literature.ucsd.edu/news/currentevents/writingseries.html

PS122, Beth Morrison Projects & People's Opera present

Hell

by Michael Webster & Eileen Myles

March 31-April 9
at Performance Space 122
150 First Avenue, New York City
For tickets call 212-352-3101
or visit http://www.ps122.org

The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College
and The Paterson Museum present

CROSSING BOUNDARIES:
VISUAL ART BY WRITERS

April 1 – May 28, 2006
Reception and Readings: April 1, 2006

Pasquale Verdicchio is among the artists whose work appears in this exhibition.

http://www.pccc.edu/poetry 

Iran: Nuclear Energy
or Nuclear Nightmare?
The San Diego World Affairs Council is proud to host two experts on Iran at a luncheon on Wednesday, April 20, to discuss the developing situation with regard to Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s place in the international community:
Gordon Gray is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. His responsibilities include the promotion of U.S. interests in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Iran.  
Dr. Babak Rahimi is an Assistant Professor of Iranian and Islamic Studies at the University of California at San Diego, focusing on Shi’i Islam, Medieval and early modern Iranian culture and society, and Iran’s public sphere and civil society.

Thursday, April 20, 2006
Check-in 11:30 a.m. -- Lunch 12:00 noon
Tom Ham's Restaurant, 2150 Harbor Island Dr. San Diego
(ample free parking available)
Price: $29 members / $34 non-members


The UCSD Center for the Humanities presents a new lecture series

THE CITY

 What do we want from a city?
How do we go about shaping the spaces that shape our lives and communities?
How do we envision the city, and how have those images or concepts changed across time and place?

 Thursdays, April 6 – May 18 at 7:30pm
Pepper Canyon Hall, Room 106

 COMING ATTRACTIONS
mark your calendars now ... and look for details later

May 2, 2006 - 7:30 pm, Eleanor Roosevelt College Great Hall
The James K. Binder Lectureship in Literature
 Gianni Celati
Italian writer, critic, translator, and filmmaker
"Federico Fellini and the Transformation of Italian Culture"

May 8, 2006 - 7:30 pm, deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building
The Robert C. Elliott Memorial Lecture Series
Carlo Ginzburg
Franklin D. Murphy Professor of Italian Renaissance Studies, UCLA
"Learning from the Enemy: On the French Prehistory of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion"

May 22, 2006 - 3:30 pm, Institute of the Americas, Weaver Room
UCSD Academic Senate Research Lecturer
 Page duBois
Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature
"Ancient Greeks in the Twenty-First Century"

May 25, 2006 - 4:00 pm, deCerteau Room, 155 Literature Building
The Department of Literature Alumni Lecture Series
Carol Becker
Dean of Faculty and Senior Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
"Gandhi's Body and Further Representations of War and Peace" 

For the late-breaking news on events, see:
Current Events on the Literature website at http://literature.ucsd.edu/news/currentevents
Literature Events Calendar at http://literature.ucsd.edu/calendar

Literature Notices
To receive e-mail notices of literature events, subscribe to the litnotices-l listserve. Directions are available here.
OPPORTUNITIES

Undergraduate Opportunities

Donald Wesling, Director of Undergraduate Studies, announces a number of undergraduate funding opportunities:

-The Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships, all expenses paid for two years at British universities in all fields related to Literature (apply by end of June at end of Junior year);
-The Thornley Scholarship for one UC San Diego graduate to do a one-year M.A. course at the University of Manchester, England: we send one student from here to Manchester every year, so the chances of winning are extremely good (apply Fall of Senior year);
-The Beinecke Scholarship: apply as a Junior, in February of Junior year: $32,000 for graduate study for students who have demonstrable financial need: only for students in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (so identify a likely sophomore for this—those who are Juniors now are already too late);
-The Mitchell Scholarship for a one-year M.A. degree to be taken at any University in Northern Ireland: Fall quarter of Senior year.
-The Udall Scholarship of $5,000 for a project in Environmental Studies (Literature students have won in the past: Sophomores and Juniors are most likely applicants this year).

Details about these scholarships and additional opportunities are available at: http://fao.ucsd.edu/Scholarships_UCSDScholarships_CurrentStudents_01.htm

Stewart Prize & Saier Award

Spring is upon us, and that means it's time for the Department of Literature’s annual Stewart Prize in Poetry ($300 prize) and the Milton Saier Award in Fiction ($1,000 prize)! Feeling creative? Please come by the Undergraduate Literature Office and pick up an entry form.

The contest rules are simple. To enter the Saier Award in Fiction you need to submit one piece of fiction, 25 pages maximum, and to enter the Stewart Prize in Poetry you can submit up to 5 poems. More detailed information is included on the entry forms. THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS WEDNESDAY, MAY 3rd. The winners will be announced at the Spring Celebration of the Arts Reading and Reception. We hope you will join us!

UCSD Instructional Improvement Program

UCSD Academic Affairs has circulated the 2006-207 call for instructional improvement proposals that would improve the quality of undergraduate education, impact many students, and enhance the interactions between faculty and students, particularly at the lower-division level. The

Deadline: Friday, April 7, 2006

NEH Fellowships and Faculty Research Awards

Fellowships and Faculty Research Awards support individuals pursuing advanced research in the humanities that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the general public's understanding of the humanities.

Deadline: May 1, 2006

Complete guidelines are available at http://www.neh.fed.us/grants/guidelines/fellowships.html

Lecturers, Discussion Leaders, Workshop Leaders Needed at Chautauqua

The Spencer Hotel is a literary theme property located on the grounds of the famous Chautauqua Institute for learning, arts, and culture. The Spencer is seeking authors, or individuals who can lead lectures or discussions on famous literary authors (i.e., Austen, Allende, Burns, Parker, Shakespeare, etc.). Events will take place at the hotel on Saturdays during the summer season, as well as in off-season (fall 2006). Individuals who can lead weekend writing workshops or artists' workshops are also of interest. An honorarium will be considered based on the type of program facilitated. All travel, hotel and food expenses will be provided or reimbursed. http://www.thespencer.com