On September 8, 2021, Rob Tally gave an invited talk, “On Academic Book Reviewing,” for a meeting of the Equipe de Récherche en Littératures de l’Afrique Noire et de la Diaspora, Université de Lomé, Lomé, Togo. On September 24, 2021, Rob gave the keynote address (“The Place of Geocriticism”) for Space, Place, and Topography: Geographical Imaginations in Indian Writings in English, a virtual conference sponsored by the Departments of English of Seva Bharati Mahavidyalaya, Kapgari, and Subarnarekha Mahavidyalaya, Gopiballavpur, West Bengal, India. On October 1, 2021, Rob will give a featured talk titled, “Critique as Virtue,” for The Ethics of Critique in a Time of Precarity and Pandemic, a research conference of the National Research Foundation (NRF) Korea–U.S. Special Cooperation Program. Rob is also the event’s co-organizer, with Dr. Youngmin Kim of Dongguk University in Seoul.
MFA fiction graduate and Lecturer Sandra Sidi has placed 2nd in Narrative Magazine’s 2021 Spring Short Story Contest for her piece “To Save a Butterfly.”
Geneva Gano presented research on poet Robinson Jeffers on the “New Scholarship in Jeffers Studies” panel sponsored by the Tor House Foundation and Robinson Jeffers Association on August 26.
Octavio Pimentel will participate in the City of Kyle’s “Dialogue for Peace and Progress 2021 – Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month” on Friday, October 1, starting at 7 p.m. Octavio will present “Empowering Latinx Composition Students: Recognizing their Lenguage y Cultura en la Clase de Escritura (Language and Culture in the Writing Classroom)” at the 2022 CCCC Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
Miriam Williams’ article, “Archives, Rhetorical Absence, and Critical Imagination: Examining Black Women’s Mental Health Narratives at Virginia’s Central State Hospital from 1891-1936,” (co-authored with Natasha N. Jones of Michigan State) has been accepted for publication in a special issue on social justice in IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.
Roger Jones’ tanka sequence “Early Pandemic” has been accepted for publication in Ribbons, the official publication of the Tanka Society of America. His tanka prose poem “Short Cuts” was published in Ribbons in August.
Susan Morrison presented a talk, “Pilgrimage and Metaphor: Agency for Medieval Women Pilgrims and Writers,” at the 13th International Colloquium Compostela on Medieval Women on Pilgrimage in Christianity, Judaism and Islam in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (entirely Zoom conference).