Antonio Barrenechea, associate professor of English, co-organized and co-chaired the panel “Mapping the Literatures of the Americas” at the annual conference of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA), held in Toronto, Canada from April 4 through 7. As part of the panel, he presented the paper “American Literature as Comparative Literature: Hemispheric Navigations in the Classroom.”
Marie E. McAllister, Professor of English, authored the lead article in volume 9 of Eighteenth-Century Novel, “Pox Imagery in Clarissa.“
Paul D. Fallon, Associate Professor of Linguistics, presented a paper at the 41st annual meeting of the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (NACAL), held at Yale University on 16-17 February 2013. His paper, “Appleyard’s Proto-Agaw vis-à-vis Ehret’s Proto-Cushitic” compared the historical reconstruction of the Agaw (Central Cushitic) languages of Eritrea and Ethiopia by two different scholars, analyzing 200 proposed roots and categorizing them. The paper contributes to the the study of Agaw and Cushitic linguistics by providing a critical assessment of two reconstructions of the same language family.
University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of English Gary Richards will discuss images of the U. S. South in Broadway musicals during an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The show, “The Gospel Roots of Rock and Roll,” will air beginning Saturday, Feb. 16.
Gary Richards
During the program, Richards will argue that despite the popularity of musicals like Porgy and Bess and Showboat, musicals with southern themes tend to have a negative view of the region and don’t reflect its diversity today. As part of the program, Longwood University professor Chris Kjorness will discuss the legacy of gospel musician and singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Richards, who serves as chair of the Department of English, Linguistics, and Communication, is an expert on southern literature and culture, American fiction, contemporary drama and sexuality studies. His book Lovers and Beloveds: Sexual Otherness in Southern Fiction, 1936-1961 was named Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2005. He has written several book chapters, including most recently “Everybody’s Graphic Protest Novel: Stuck Rubber Baby and the Anxieties of Racial Difference” in Comics and the U.S. South. His articles and essays have been published in Journal of American Studies, North Carolina Literary Review and Mississippi Quarterly, among other publications.
Richards earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. from Vanderbilt University and a bachelor’s degree from Trinity University (San Antonio). His understanding of various southern cultures draws in part on his years of residence in several major southern cities, including Dallas (1969-1987), San Antonio (1987-1991), Nashville (1991-1997), New Orleans (1997-2008), and now Fredericksburg.
“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.
“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public colleges and universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D.C.
The Creative Writing Concentration of the Department of English, Linguistics & Communication invites you to our first reading of the spring 2013 semester:
Lee Zacharias, professor emerita at UNC Greensboro, will be reading from her new novel, “At Random” (Fugitive Poets Press) on Thursday, Jan. 31 at 5 p.m. in Combs Hall, Room 139. A book signing and reception will follow the reading.
Zacharias is the author of “Lessons,” a novel, and a short story collection, “Helping Muriel Make It through the Night.” She has published numerous essays, short stories and photographs, and is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the North Carolina Arts Council.
On a rainy November night in 1991, Guy Ferrin and his wife, Eva Summer, are on their way home from an opera when a nine-year-old Montagnard boy runs in front of their car. Although his blood alcohol measures well below the legal limit, Guy is charged with felony death by motor vehicle. In luminous prose “At Random” reveals the complex mix of old vulnerabilities and new resilience in both characters, who badly want to do the right thing even as Guy’s case is sensationalized in the media and bungled through the judicial system, his guilt and sorrow turn to anger, and her relationship with their own son becomes erratic, alternately over-protective and resentful of the middle-class privilege he doesn’t appreciate. When the victim’s brother comes to them seeking ‘American insurance’ to help his sister escape an abusive marriage, Eva is drawn into the local community of Montagnard refugees. Compellingly real and beautifully told, “At Random” is at once the story of a middle-aged couple struggling to maintain their values, their marriage, and an increasingly tenuous hold on the middle class and the tale of a refugee family caught between a younger generation’s desire to assimilate and the older generation’s drive to preserve their own culture.
“Though the central dramatic incident that drives this novel is about as tragic as you can imagine, ‘At Random’ is filled with moments of tenderness and grace. It’s also a page turner in the very best sense: we want to know not only what happened, but how it will effect these characters, who are as complicated and flawed as the world they inhabit. ‘At Random’ is so satisfying because it refuses to sugarcoat the various ways in which our existence is precarious, our time limited, and our need to compromise–in life and in love–vital to our survival.”
— Michael Parker, author of “The Watery Part of the World,” “If You Want Me to Stay,” and “Virginia Lovers.” Parker is the recipient of the Hobson Award for Arts and Letters, and the North Carolina Award for Literature, among other honors.
This reading is sponsored by the Department of English, Linguistics & Communication and The Writing Center/WI Program and the Arrington Professor of Poetry.
For other readings this semester, please see the attached calendar.
