newsletter (APRIL 2014)

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to students of the English Honors Program (EHP) at Lehman College! It’s
been a busy academic semester for us all, so let’s begin with our news.
The English Honors Program is thriving. We currently have 21 students.
(And can always use more—ADVERTISE the EHP to fellow English majors and in your English classes!!!)
Here’s a list of current twenty nine
:
Kenny Aguirreche, Sheema Alamari, Stephanie Chung, Sandra Cortez, Stephanie Crotty,
Grecia Dominguez, William Elston, Sean Engeldrum, Veronica Garcia, Kashif Graham,
Vicky Guidos, Rik Lee, Shabraj Miller, Danyelle Milton, Jasmine Miranda, Nora
Moncada, Jennifer Morin, Yocasta Novas, Octrisha Parker, Bianca Ruiz, Madeline Scher,
Veronica Seda, Rebecca Severn, Jean Carlos Soto, Alexandria Torres, Jodell Ulerie, Julieta
Velazquez, Sumaya Yafaie, Ebba Zajmi.
Please spread the EHP word to your peers in English classes!!!
We always particularly want to welcome any interested and qualified Juniors, as students should be EHP
members by the Spring Term of the calendar year in which they do their Fall ENG/ENW 481/482 English
Honors Project.
Here's what you have been up to this semester/year:
This past fall, ten seniors completed their
:
Kenny Aguirreche: Escaping the Shadow of the System examines English and American utopian
and dystopian literature in an attempt to understand the phenomena of oppressive social, political, and
philosophical systems, as well as the creative alternatives that authors have developed in response to
those systems. This thesis explores the unexpectedly oppressive nature of both ideal and nightmarish
systems in five literary works—Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, FrançoisMarie Arouet Voltaire’s Candide, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty
Four. It also shows how several of these writers understand genuine human conversation as a
valuable alternative to systemized life. Voltaire and McCarthy in particular see conversation as a
source of community, morality, peace, and life, though in Orwell even this haven is perverted to serve
the demands of the system known as the Party.
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Sandra Cortez: Embracing Duality and the Need for Expression: Women’s Roles in Gothic
Literature analyzes the destruction that occurs when women are not given a space for expression of
duality. Duality, living with a set of different desires and values that contradict established social norms,
is present in the roles of each heroine in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” The Awakening, Carrie, and the
Twilight Saga. By exploring the role of women in gothic literature through themes of isolation,
unfamiliar spaces, and the catastrophic effects of restrictive roles, the need for a space where women
can exist without the confined definitions of social norms becomes blatantly important in its relevance to
the success of women. Furthermore, by exploring the perspectives of multiple critics on each text, the
importance of gothic fiction in the exploration of duality and women’s roles proves its value in its
accurate reflection of society.
Stephanie Crotty: Tragedy: A Conundrum of Green Stilettos focuses on ordinary, everyday
things. The poetry highlights something about the item that is overlooked or glanced over in the
everyday bustle. Each poem consists of a prose section and a poetry section working together to
present the ordinary object. The prose and poetry work together to give a different perspective of the
whole of an object and through this allows the reader to experience the object anew. Prose is the
standard writing used every day in schools, companies, and institutions. The standard rules of prose
may limit the amount of perspective or meaning that is intended by the writer. Poetry follows a different
set of rules to describe an object by experimenting with line breaks, punctuation, and spacing in order
to create more meaning in text, creating a new depth of perspective. In this collection, the prose comes
before the poetry section of the piece and introduces the subject matter with distinct voices and focuses
the idea of the poetry. The distinct voices include a woman narrating her life, two small town people in
conversation, a ringmaster, and a man discovering his feelings for someone. The prose introduces the
topic and allows the poetry to change the perspective of the object mentioned in the prose.
Sean Engeldrum: Bronx Destiny follows three generation of the Huebner family as they pursue
their American Dream. In “Bronx Deutsche,” the German immigrant family finds relocating harder than
they expected, and they end entangled with the mob. In “Bronx Summer,” two Huebner brothers are
waiting to inherit the station, but one has a dark secret. In “Bronx Destiny,” the family’s gas station is in
disrepair, and it will be sold unless the youngest Huebner can rescue it.
Veronica Garcia: The Tropical Negro: Rethinking The Identity of The New Negro Through the
Writings of Claude McKay and Eric Walrond. The contributions of Caribbean writers to the literary
phenomenon known as the Harlem Renaissance has received little recognition. The aim of this paper is
to highlight some of the contributions that these writers made to establishing the Harlem Renaissance,
also known as the New Negro Movement, beyond the borders of the United States and the redefining
of the New Negro in literature. This paper examines through Jamaican-born Claude McKay’s novels
Home to Harlem and Banjo as well as Guyanese-born Eric Walrond’s short story collection Tropic
Death the identity of the New Negro. Both McKay and Walrond saw the way forward for the New Negro
has been linked to his African heritage and the uniting of black people. These writers established that
issues, such as racial oppression, were common to all black people and that black writers needed to
create black characters that were realistic representations of black people.
Kashif Graham: “A Place Espyrituell”: Looking at Shakespeare’s Gardens as Places of
Human Interaction looks at three gardens in Shakespeare’s Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream as places of human interactions. The work begins by surveying the
Renaissance disposition toward gardens, looking at the function and usage during this period. It finds
that wealthier English citizens were accustomed to seeing drama in residential gardens. These types of
grounds were places where people expected to see intrigue and action. This is then tied to the
Renaissance heatergoer in order to surmise how they might have received and interpreted garden
scenes in the theater. Secondly, the paper looks at the human interactions in the gardens in each:
Othello, business interaction, Romeo and Juliet, romantic interaction, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
as interaction between the spiritual realm and carnal. Finally, the work presents the need for such
places in the Bronx, NY, and possible ways to attain or reclaim these places.
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Rik Lee: “Weaving Words Together”: A Diachronous History of the English Dictionary. The
dictionary is an icon of the English-speaking world. In all areas of usage, it is widely regarded as the
last word of linguistic authority. Yet, lexicons of English are far from objective. The history of the
English language, its development and study, as well as the influence of generations of dictionarymakers, has meant that the identity and purpose of the dictionary has, like the language itself, shifted
constantly over time. While, ostensibly, it seeks to objectively reflect the spoken and written language
of an ever-expanding people, the dictionary has, to a greater or lesser degree, always reflected the
beliefs, aspirations and prejudices of both those who create it and those who consult it. The dictionary
represents a history of the English-speaking people. It is this history of the dynamic between those
who seek to prescribe and those who describe the language that will be examined in this paper.
Madeline Scher: WTH Happened? Technology, Education, and the Decline of Professional
Communication Skills in the Millennial Generation. The group of Americans born from the late
1980s through the late 1990s suffers from a verbal and written communication deficiency. Millennials,
unlike any previous generation, grew up conversing via technologies that encourage high frequency,
low quality communication. They also grew up with education reforms that unwittingly promote
mediocrity. This combination of technology and education has produced sub-par workers whose weak
communication skills put both themselves and the country as a whole at a disadvantage.
Rebecca Severn: Leaping Over Fences: A Repertoire of Gender Performance in Peter Pan.
“All children, except one, grow up,” and that one is Peter Pan. For over a hundred years people have
been delighted and puzzled by Peter’s wish to remain a boy instead of becoming a man. Many fingers
point to why this might be, and many more point back at those that accuse him of having a defect.
Research into profeminism and queer theory, coupled with a historical look at restrictive gender roles,
help to uncover the motivation to stay young in order to escape strict gender binaries that limit human
potential. These confines placed on experience begin in childhood and are cemented in adulthood. The
texts have many departures from traditional gender performance as well as the implementation of
Roget’s Thesaurus as the means to help those emotionally stunted from fully expressing themselves.
Peter Pan has an underlying message that calls for a plurality of femininity and masculinity.
Alex Torres: Who Are You. I explore interconnections through fiction and how they are built. “Who
Are You” is a tetrapytch, a story in four parts which rotates perspectives. It is based on a video with the
same title from whoareyou.co.nz, expanding on the universe they’ve created to illustrate the ways
people can touch a life, and perhaps even save it, while going about their own days. The story is about
a girl named Dani, and the perspectives are of those she interacts with throughout the night. On one
end of the spectrum are those closest to her, her best friend and her roommate, and on the other, those
who don’t know her at all, a bartender and a complete stranger. All four of these characters will paint a
picture of Dani’s night, and more importantly, all four of these characters had a chance to make a
profound impact on the course of Dani’s life: all four characters had a chance to prevent her eventual
rape.
Faculty mentors who guided this year’s seniors are Professors Amend, Atkin, Blanco, Bullaro, Cleland,
Loscocco, Mifflin, Schmidt, Valgemae, and Yood.
Congratulations to this year’s EHP seniors, one and all. Excellent work well done! The seniors will
reading from their thesis at the Senior Honors Project Presentations on Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at
9:00-11:30 a.m. in Shuster 336: come listen, applaud, and (rising seniors especially) learn! Seniors
graduating with English Department Honors will be recognized at the English Awards Ceremony the
same day at 12:00-2:30 in the Lehman Art Gallery. And: Don’t forget the Obscura Launch at the Art
Gallery at 3:30 that same afternoon! ENGLISH, ART, and HUMANITIES RULE!
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Congratulations to the following EHP students, who will graduate
from Lehman College, the English Department, and the EHP in May: Kenny Aguirreche, Sandra Cortez,
Stephanie Crottie, Veronica Garcia, Kashif Graham, Maddie Scher, Rebecca Severn, and Alex Torres.
And congratulations again to Sean Engeldrum and Rik Lee, who graduated in January! News from recent
graduates includes the following: Michelle Cantey, Suely Riordan, and Viviana Ocampo are in graduate
school at Lehman; Shabana Yusuf is finishing up her MA in History at Lehman and joining Teach for America
(where EHP/LC graduate Sharene Shaw is also working); Delfin Alvarado landed a great educational job that
your poor correspondent has forgotten but that uses all of his learning, computer skills, and people-smarts to
make good things happen in classrooms; Brian Rivera’s acing it as a high school English teacher while also
going to school to earn a Master’s in Counseling; Tihela Feit is Development Coordinator at the Tenement
Museum downtown; Jordana Lopez-DaSilva has done a whirl-wind of creative and professional things since
graduating (including workshopping poetry with Billy Collins), is currently employed by Barnard College, and
is heading for an MFA.
Proud congratulations to the many EHP
members who will be showing up to receive well-earned prizes at the April 30 English Awards Ceremony at 12
noon in the Art Gallery:
WRITING PRIZES
Bernard L. Einbond Prize for Prose Fiction
Jasmine Miranda
Honorable mention: Alexandria Torres
Claire Giegerich Memorial Award for Creative Nonfiction
Madeline Scher
Terry De Antonio Memorial Prize for Criticism of the Arts
Alexandria Torres
Honorable mention: Kashif Graham
William C. Hess Memorial Prizes for Literary Criticism
Undergraduate
Veronica Garcia
Herman Melville Prize for Literary Criticism
Richard Lee
Patricia A. Cockram Portfolio Prize
Kenny Aguirreche
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
Marjorie Anderson Scholarship
Rebecca Severn
Leo and Roslyn Gilbert Memorial Award
Sandra Cortez
John W. Wieler Award
Kashif Graham
Ruth Kolbe Mischkind Scholarship
Jasmine Miranda
Nora Moncada
Rose and John Hutton Award
Jean Soto
Patricia A. Cockram Scholarship
Octrisha Parker
Gordon Lea Scholarship Award
Madeline Scher
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: Kenny Aguirreche (PBK) will be spending the summer
with family in Venezuela before hitting the job market, studying for the GREs, applying to graduate school, and
writing fiction. Veronica Garcia will be working next year with the NYC Department of Education as a
middle school English Language Arts teacher. Kashif Graham (PBK) will be attending theological seminary
for a four-year Master of Divinity, either at Nyack College’s Alliance TS or at the Pentecostal TS in
Tennessee—but will also continue to write poetry and essays about gardens, Shakespeare, and much more!
Maddie Scher will be working at Hess Energy Trading Company, a subsidiary of Hess Corporation—you go,
girl! Rebecca Severn (PBK) will eventually make up her mind about whether she wants to go to graduate
school in early childhood or middle/high-school education—but either way, graduate school is where she’s
going next, whether through the NYC Teaching Fellows Program (at a CUNY school most likely) or at Bank
Street, Teacher’s College, Columbia, or some other local private institution. She and her husband will also be
publishing a novella by Andrew Durbin at their snackspress this summer. Jasmine Miranda is working as a
Jeanette K. Watson Fellow Intern for Lid Publishing; she is also the treasurer for Obscura. Alex Torres (PBK)
is the vice president for Obscura; she’s also going to Japan to study film this January. Other EHPs working for
Obscura include Jennifer Morin, Nora Moncada, Stephanie Crotty, and others whom your secretary here
cannot name for lack of information. Other new Phi Beta Kappa (PBK) members include Sandra Cortez and
Sean Engledrum. Congrats to all!
TALK TO US! TELL US YOUR NEWS! PUBLICIZE WHAT YOU DO SO OTHER CAN DO IT TOO!!!
Send news about your personal, academic, and professional accomplishments at
[email protected]! Anytime you do anything—get published, get a reading/writing-related
job or internship, take a course elsewhere, run a blog, win a contest, ANYTHING—let the EHP know & it
will show up in the next Newsletter!
Heads up, folks: New York is a city for English (and Humanities) majors if there ever was one! Take
advantage of its offerings, many of them free or cheap (especially to college students)! Look around when you
attend a museum or library exhibit—not only at what’s being covered, but at who’s working there, what ages
they are, what professions are involved, etc. Your secretary went to a Silk Road exhibit at the Natural
History Museum a few years ago and saw evidence of training in history, anthropology, storytelling, art, design,
museum education, technical production, online writing and presentation, and endless amounts of “technical”
writing that translates great amounts of complex information into easily accessible copytext for viewers. Talk
to educators and docents: are there any internships available? summer jobs? what training do they have?
There are lots of places where English majors might find themselves stumped, but NYC is not one of them!
Explore! A random sampling of places to check for internships (go for deep pockets): Natural History
Museum, New York Historical Society, Tennement Museum, Morgan Library, any library, any museum,
Random Penguin ;-), Norton, any foundation. And keep in mind the PR department of any place you look at:
these places hire people who can communicate well in writing!!! If you’re interested in business writing
possibilities, talk to Professor Cleland, who will help you broaden your horizons!
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Not sure of what to do with all your free time this summer? Use the following
find something close to home or in the city:
to
exhibits and events: http://www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/gallery/.
programs: http://lehmantheatredance.org. One of the
school’s best-kept secrets—do not miss these free & usually excellent events!
: http://wp.lehman.edu/city-humanities/
: http://lcmeridian.com/
: http://obscuralitmag.wordpress.com/
: http://www.thebronxjournal.com/
: http://www.lehmanstages.org/. Big-ticket items from around the world for a LOT less
than elsewhere in the city.
events at Lehman: http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/view-allevents.php
Lehman’s list of
: http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/artsresources.php. A
nifty list of major museums all in one place. Keep in mind you pay-what-you-want at the Metropolitan Art
Museum (i.e., $1 despite what “suggested price” is, though this perk will end someday), that you can get student
seating for $25 at almost any classical concert at Lincoln Center, and that many museums have “college student
nights” and generally late nights on Fridays and Saturdays. (The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) has a free
Friday night for anyone, so long as you’re willing to wait in line at 5:00.)
Also, always check the web-pages for museum, libraries, and shows
:
•
New York Public Library: The main library on 5th Avenue and 42nd St. is a treasure with great
exhibits: http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions. Other favorite places for bookworms to check
occasionally include the Morgan Library, the Jewish Museum, the Schomberg Center for Research
in Black Culture, El Museo del Barrio, the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), the Poets
House, and many others!
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.5344998baa00eff6a62fa24601c789a0/
•
For theatre/dance/performance buffs, remember that Lehman College has a partnership with the Theatre
Development Fund (TDF): http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/bodylehman.html. For
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as low as $10 for your first year of membership, you have access to hugely discounted Broadway, OffBroadway, and Off-Off Broadway tickets. *****Also, if you ever want to see an opera or ballet at
Lincoln Center, show up at a box office on a weekday with your student ID and see what you can get—
usually something amazing for incredibly cheap! Many institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera
have fabulous student deals (they want to grow their audiences!): click on a site, look for “college
student” information, and use your phone to sign up for alerts and free/cheap tickets! *****Finally, do
not forget Shakespeare in the Park (http://www.shakespeareinthepark.org/about.aspx). Every summer,
the Public Theater does two plays for FREE—and these performances can be unbelievable. The last two
or three summers, free tickets were available after a two-hour wait at the Lehman Performing Arts Box
office—a big improvement over sitting out in Central Park all day in 90 degrees waiting for tickets. It’s
not clear what the deal will be next summer—we’ll see! This summer’s shows will be Much Ado
About Nothing (June 3 – July 6) and King Lear (July 22 – August 17).
•
Many of you find out about wonderful cultural opportunities and events in your travels around
the city. Share them with the rest of us via email: someone in the group always takes advantage of
such notices!
EHP Creative Writing and Professional Writing students must take HUM 470 (Internship), which is usually
but not always satisfied by working either for the literary magazine Obscura or the student newspaper
Meridian, usually beginning in the Fall of students’ junior year.
queries should be directed to [email protected]; make sure to contact both the
student editor-in-chief and the faculty advisor (Professor Amend). Related links include the new homepage at
http://obscuralitmag.wordpress.com/ as well as http://www.facebook.com/ObscuraLiteraryAndArtsMagazine
and http://twitter.com/#!/Obscura_LitMag.
inquiries should be directed to the student editor and/or Professor Mifflin, faculty
advisor. Related links include: http://lcmeridian.com/, http://twitter.com/#!/LehmanMeridian, and
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Meridian-at-Lehman-College/254143694617613.
Last year several EHPs won writing prizes or academic awards. NOW IS THE TIME TO START THINKING
ABOUT WHAT WORK YOU’LL SUBMIT FOR DEPARTMENTAL COMPETITIONS NEXT YEAR. The
2015 deadline for submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, arts criticism, critical essays, and portfolios of
coursework done in 2015 is February 28, 2015. Look for flyers and posters starting in December and strongly
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consider submitting your work. All of the prizes come with cash (most modest, some not), and all recipients are
recognized in the annual English Awards Ceremony in May.
is awarded annually for an outstanding essay done in an
undergraduate writing class—including literacy narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles,
evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, mixed-genre pieces, and more. The winner receives $1,500; the
two runners-up receive $1,000 apiece: http://books.wwnorton.com/books/norton-writers-prize/.
Professor Cleland, mystery writer among many other talents, wants students to take a look at
: you can become a published romance writers very fast!
http://www.avonromance.com/avon-romance-submission-guidelines/
There’s a
of other opportunities for writing out there. *****National Novel Writing Month is
already upon us (http://www.nanowrimo.org/). *****Visit “Pineapple and Milk,” a multimedia site run by
two recent Lehman English graduates, Nabil Rahman and John Paul Infante:
http://www.pineappleandmilk.com/. *****The Washington Pastime is run by Paul Karaffa and has a new
Promising Young Author (PYA) program that is seeking student leaders to set up campus support groups
(Chapters) for writers, where they can learn to work as a team, professionally edit literature, and have the
opportunity to have their work published: http://www.washingtonpastime.com/drupal/pya. You can find links
to submit work for the site’s monthly publication and for the site’s Literary prize at this website.
More: *****Inkpop http://www.inkpop.com/ is a writing community created by HarperCollins to give young
adults and those who write for young adults a showcase for their work; at the end of each month, the Top 5
pieces (Fiction, Short Writing, and Poetry) are reviewed by the HC editors (and may get an offer if lucky!).
*****Authonomy http://www.authonomy.com/ is another HC creation, but not limited to YA.
*****Bookjobs.com http://bookjobs.com/index.php lists internships and jobs available in the publishing
world.; the links are updated regularly but you should check the separate websites. *****Penguin has
internships throughout the year: see
http://www.us.penguingroup.com/static/pages/aboutus/employment/index.html for details and check out the
PenguinGroup (USA) Careers at https://www.facebook.com/PenguinGroupUSACareers?sk=wall.
EHP graduate Shabana Yusuf recommends that writers create Twitter accounts. Most publishers and many
agents and editors have Twitter accounts. They share contests, new members, internships, job opportunities,
what they are currently looking for, what is big in the market now/how it's changing. It's also good for just
fostering contacts.
If you’re working on
, here’s a very useful guide:
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/studentservices/cds/repository/files/CDSResumeWritingGuide.pdf.
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EHP graduate Jordana Lopez recommends a good program for teaching English in Spain:
http://www.mecd.gob.es/eeuu/convocatorias-programas/convocatorias-eeuu/auxiliares-conversacion-eeuu.html
Send in any additions or corrections here! You are the EHP’s best resource for current information!
:
The English Honors Room was refurbished and redecorated a few years ago: it now features desks, chairs, a
sofa, pillows, lamps, rugs, and inspiring literary wall-art. The small library now includes two very full shelves
of major works from the massive Library of America collection, gift of Professor Billy Collins, plus a
chronologically arranged selection of works from Old English to contemporary fiction. E-readers are available
to all EHP students, just ask at the 302 office or talk to the Chair or the EHP director: the Department would be
happy to download books you need to build the EHP’s electronic “library.” Laptops are also available to you in
the English office. WHEN YOU UNLOCK THE ROOM, HANG THE KEY ON THE INSIDE OF THE
DOOR; WHEN YOU LEAVE, RETURN THE KEY TO 302; IF YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON TO
LEAVE & THE KEY IS STILL THERE, RETURN IT TO 302!
All desktops in the room should be up and running, and connect wirelessly to the terrific laser printer (that will
accept wireless printing so long as the computer closest to it is on). Please be mindful of paper use, and
let Ms. Ocasio, the English Chair, or the EHP director know if the printer cartridge or paper-supply runs
out or if there are any problems with computers, printer, furniture, lights, etc.
Enjoy your room, as many of you now have. It’s a great place to study, log-on, socialize, sleep, eat, and it’s all
yours. Thanks for keeping it in good repair! The English Chair, the EHP director, and Ms. O’Casio all have the
key, which you can sign out in Carman 302.
The EHP director provides major advisement for all English Honors students as they work their way
through their major and specialization. You MUST meet with her for advisements, permissions, thesisplanning, etc. at least once a semester, by appointment. Students seeking permission for HUM courses
(including HUM 470) must contact Prof. McElligott. Rising seniors wanting to enroll in ENG/ENW
481/482 during Spring registration must get a tutorial form from the EHP director or CA302, obtain the
signatures of their mentor, the EHP director, and the English Chair, and then submit their signed
tutorial-request form to the English Department secretary in 302. Only once the form has been
processed will they be given permission to register.
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is your ONLY access to all things pertaining to courses and registration. Access
CUNYfirst at http://www.lehman.edu/cunyfirst/.
After you’ve met with the
EHP director for advisement, put the courses you’ve agreed on in your CUNYfirst SHOPPING CART,
with or without permissions. Once registration opens, you can register for all courses with permissions
with a single click! Remember that the EHP director handles all ENG/ENW permissions and that Prof.
McElligott handles all HUM permissions.
All courses are now available on CUNYfirst prior to registration; once they appear on CUNYfirst they
are eligible for permissions. The EHP director also distributes an updated list of courses and coursetimes for the upcoming Winter/Spring or Summer/Fall terms at the pre-registration meeting in CA384
each November and April. English Major Worksheets are always available on the EHP website at
http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/english/honors_program.php
Summer / Fall 2014 courses:
COURSE
TITLE
TIME
INSTRUCTOR
SUMMER
–
A
SESSION
ENG
307
Novel
M/T/W/TH
5:45‐7:55
COTTO
ENG
328
Poetry
M/T/W/TH10:20‐12:30
PURVES
ENG
344
Women
Writers
in
English
ONLINE
QUARRELL
SUMMER
–
B
SESSION
ENG
308
American
Lit
M/T/W/TH10:20‐12:30
MCCLENDON
ENG
334
Drama
M/T/W/TH
5:45‐7:55
SLUGOCKI
ENG
355
Special
Topics:
ONLINE
HOLLANDER
Art/Lit/Modernism
ENW
304
Writing
Humanities
Marketplace
ONLINE
ANDERSON
11
FALL
2014
ENG
300
Intro
Lit
Methods
T/TH
11‐12:40
PM
YOOD
ENG
300
Intro
Lit
Methods
M
6‐9:30
PM
FISHER
ENG
301
English
Lit
I
M/W
2‐3:15
PM
FISHER
ENG
302
English
Lit
II
T/TH
9:30‐10:45
AM
LOSCOCCO
ENG
303
English
Lit
III
W
6‐8:40
PM
TBA
ENG
304
Structure
English
M
6‐8:40
PM
TBA
ENG
307
Novel
TU
6‐8:40
PM
(hybrid)
YOOD
ENG
308
American
Lit
M/W
12:30‐1:45
PM
O’BOY
ENG
312
Shakespeare
T/TH
2‐3:15
PM
VALGEMAE
ENG
334
Drama
T/TH
11:00
AM‐12:15
PM
VALGEMAE
ENG
335
Children’s
Lit
TH
6‐8:40
PM
MCELLIGOTT
ENG
337
Irish
Lit
F
12:‐2:40
PM
O’BOY
ENG
338
Postcolonial
Lit
T/TH
12:30‐1:45PM
AHMED
ENG
340
African/AmericanLit
T/TH
12:30‐1:45
PM
SCHMIDT
ENG
347
Western
Narrative
T/TH
12:30‐1:45
PM
JOSEPH
ENG
350
Senior
Seminar
TU
6‐8:40
PM
MCELLIGOTT
ENG
350
Senior
Seminar
TH
2‐4:40
PM
SCHMIDT
ENG
355
Special
Topics:
global/migrant
TU
2‐4:40
PM
BULLARO
ENG
381
Tutorial
ENG
or
ENW
481
Honors
Tutorial
ENG
482
Honors
Colloq
TH
4:45‐6:00
PM
LOSCOCCO
ENW
301
Poetry
Writing
M/W
12:30‐1:45
PM
BRYANT
ENW
302
Fiction
Writing
M/W
11‐12:15
PM
TBA
ENW
304
Grant
Writing
I
ONLINE
ANDERSON
ENW
305
Professional
Wrtg
M/W
2‐3:15
PM
CLELAND
ENW
308
Playwriting
TU
2‐4:40
PM
HOFFMAN
ENW
3100
Writing
for
New
Media
Online
CLELAND
ENW
324
Literary
Essay
TH
2‐4:40
PM
MIFFLIN
ENW
330
Adv.
Playwriting
M/W
11‐12:15
AM
STOWE
ENW
333
PR
&
Marketing
TU
2‐3:15
(hybrid)
ANDERSON
12
The main new thing you need to know about is the NEW
which will launch this
fall. English majors may take this minor as a practical complement to their major—see Professor
Cleland for details. ENW 201, 304, 333, and 3100 are all being offered in Fall 2014 (though ENW 3100
hasn’t yet showed up on CUNYfirst).
13-credit Minor in Professional Communications
The Interdisciplinary Minor in Professional Communications provides students with the opportunity to develop high-level skills in multimedia
communications. These professional communications skills are increasingly and urgently required by businesses, public sector and non-governmental
organizations, and in the fields of healthcare and science. A range of relevant courses enables students to hone their skills in professional writing, using
both traditional formats and new media platforms, and to prepare and deliver in-person and web-based presentations. The 13-credit Minor is designed
for students majoring in various departments within the Schools of Arts and Humanities, Social and Natural Sciences, and Nursing and Health Sciences.
These majors include but are not limited to English, Multimedia Journalism, Computer Graphics and Imaging, Business Administration, Health Services
Education and Promotion, Health Services Administration, and Nursing. Students from any department seeking to burnish their professional writing and
presentation skills for the twenty-first-century marketplace will find the Minor in Professional Communications an invaluable complement to their chosen
major.
Degree Requirements
Undergraduate students may declare the Minor in Professional Communications upon successful completion of ENG 111 and ENG 121. Students
satisfy the requirements for the 13-credit Professional Communications Minor by taking four courses, three of which are at the 300-level.
13-Credit Minor in Professional Communications
Writing Skills Core (4 credits):
ENW 201: Advanced Expository Writing (4)
Professional Writing Elective (3 credits):
ENW 300: Business Writing (3)
ENW 304: Non-Profit Grant Writing I (3)
ENW 3070: Health and Science Writing (3)
ENW (MMS) 333: Marketing and Public Relations Writing (3)
ENW 335: Technical Writing (3)
Multimedia Communication Courses (6 credits):
ENW 3100: Writing for New Media (3)
ENW 3200: Professional Communications and Presentations Seminar (3)
ALSO:
ENW 306 Peer Tutoring is always recommended as it involves good mentoring, paid work (next term),
and conference opportunities!
ENG 463 Literary Criticism and Theory is required of English Honors Literature students and should
ideally be taken in the Spring term prior to the semester in which they take ENG 481/482. The course
will cover library instruction, bibliographical methods, practical criticism, and literary theory.
HUM 470 Internship is required of English Honors Creative Writing and Professional Writing
students. It is normally taken during a student’s Junior year, starting in the Fall Semester. CW students
may want to work on Obscura (see Professor Amend); PW students may want to work on The Meridian
(see Professor Mifflin).
ENG 350 Senior Seminars should not be taken the same semester as ENG/ENW 481/482.
13
Do not forget HUM 150 City and the Humanities, which is a one-credit course in which students attend
performances, meet with Professor McElligott to discuss them, and write up short reviews. Easy and
fun for any educated New Yorker!
Finally, keep in mind that the Department of Education is changing their degree programs, which means
that the joint ENGLISH/ECCE program NO LONGER EXISTS. If you are minoring in Early
Childhood or Childhood Education and want to be an English major, you now MUST declare as a
Literature, Creative Writing, or Professional Writing major. (The Department of Education
STRONGLY prefers Literature Majors.) If you want to get certified in ECCE as part of your
undergraduate degree, you no longer can. But you may apply for entry into a five-year BA/MA
certification sequence that will allow you to realize your goals effectively. See the Department of
Education for details
Research and citation information for all courses. Professor Farrell and Professor Havelka at
the Lehman Library have kindly put together a most useful
for EHP students, which you can find at http://libguides.lehman.edu/eng481/482. Make good
use of this valuable resource. Pay particular attention to the horizontal row of blue tabs near the
top: you’ll see what’s there immediately if you click on “Database Searching” or “Citation
Guides” (the MLA Guide is there!). Provides valuable links to library resources, online
databases (primary and critical), bibliographical information, and schools of criticism and theory.
Missing courses: Try as we might, we cannot always offer all the courses you need when you need
them. Talk with the EHP director about ways of working through your specialization even if courses
aren’t available (there are always alternatives); look for internship opportunities (HUM 470); and trust
that if courses are missing one term they’ll show up in another. Core courses show up every semester;
required electives usually show up every semester or every other semester; some electives repeat every
three semesters. ENG 307 and/or ENG 308 are usually the only English Major courses reliably offered
in Winter and/or Summer, though the Department is currently making an effort to offer others.
DegreeWorks: At present, DegreeWorks is less than useful to English students, as it has yet to catch up
to major curriculum changes enacted over the past two or so years. This should change by Spring 2014,
however, at which point DegreeWorks will function as a valuable tool for keeping track of BA and
English Major requirements & proving your academic status/progress to the Financial Aid Office.
14
Sophomores who are considering eventual doctoral study may want to think now about applying
to the
in their Junior year. Pipeline provides
first-class support for graduate-school-bound juniors (who become seniors while in the program).
Accepted students take a summer honors course to prepare them for senior-year study, receive
assistance in preparing and paying for the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and graduate-school
applications, work on an independent project of their own devising with a mentor from their
home institution during their senior year, and receive a generous stipend of around $4,000. The
program is a wonderful combination of educational and financial support, coupled with the
flexibility of doing most of the work at Lehman. Students who have gone through the program,
including former EHP student Michelle Cantey, speak of it highly, as does Professor Schwartz
(director of Macaulay and Lehman Scholars) and a number of English Department faculty. The
deadline for applications—application-form, essay, and two letters of recommendation—can be
found at http://web.gc.cuny.edu/oeodp/resources/pipeinfoapp.pdf. If you’re interested in
applying, brainstorm with professors and recommenders this spring and/or early next fall.
Full-time Lehman sophomores with a 3.3 GPA or higher and majoring in a liberal arts field are
encouraged to consider the
, which is open to first-years and sophomores. The deadline usually is in February. The
Fellowship provides students with three years of paid summer internships, a yearly stipend of
$6,000, mentoring, and enriched educational opportunities. Lehman students, including EHP
sophomore Jasmine Miranda, have won these—apply! See www.jkwatson.org. Professor
Schwartz oversees Lehman applications and welcomes ALL comers.
Another fantastic funded prize is the
: $1000 first prize
and $250 Honorable mention to “an . . . undergraduate student . . . Asian or non-Asian, who has
demonstrated creativity in the communication of the concerns of the Asian American community
in areas such as Health, Education and Culture.”
Check out details
at http://aaari.info/tomtamscholar.htm. No one from Lehman has yet applied for this scholarship,
so it’s YOUR TIME NOW! Go for it!
15
Here’s another fellowship program to discuss with me or any other professor (especially Prof.
Schwartz):
. See details at
http://carnegieendowment.org/about/?fa=jrFellows. You have to be nominated by faculty to
apply—so find out if this is for you & make someone consider you for nomination!
The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture (affiliated with the NY Public Library)
runs the
an incredible six-week opportunity for rising seniors to do research in any aspect of black studies
that includes a $3,000 stipend plus free housing, free meals, incredible mentoring—an
unbelievable deal. Deadline is usually around APRIL 1. http://www.nypl.org/help/aboutnypl/fellowships-institutes/schomburg-mellon-humanities-summer-institute
EHP student Stephanie Chung attended Queens College’s
and recommends it
highly. Good if you have pre-existing summer funding!
http://www.qc.cuny.edu/Academics/GlobalEd/StudyAbroad/Pages/LondonCalling.aspx
There is money out there for all kinds of intellectual endeavors: do
not make the mistake of thinking you do not have a chance—you do! (Lots of prizes and
fellowships are under-applied-to, which means there is a smaller pool of applicants and a larger
chance of success.) There’s a CUNY site that lists every kind of funding under the sun:
http://cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships.html. Pay particular attention to the
“Prestigious Scholarships” link: http://cuny.edu/admissions/financialaid/scholarships/pscholarships.html. CUNY students—departmental honors students as well as
LSP and Macaulay students, Lehman students as well as students from the other senior
colleges—do get these goods. If you don’t believe me, go to
http://cuny.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/pscholarships/recipients.html and type
“Lehman” into the “find” box.
If you find scholarship or fellowship that seems to match your strengths and interests, bring it up
with a professor. Get that conversation going—you never know where it may lead!
16
Anyone thinking of
—an MA in English, an MS Ed English
Teacher degree, an MFA in creative writing, or doctoral study—should TALK EARLY AND OFTEN
TO FACULTY MEMBERS, who will always help you think through your educational and
employment options. If you plan to attend graduate school right after Lehman, you should consider
taking the
during the summer or early fall of your
senior year. Lehman’s Department of Continuing Education offers courses each semester and every
summer. Go to http://www.lehman.edu/academics/continuing-education/documents/brochure.pdf (p.27)
or http://www.lehman.edu/academics/continuing-education/documents/testprep.pdf . Summer course
begins
: RISING SENIORS TAKE NOTE!
If you decide to apply to graduate schools (or jobs), here are a few tips:
1. Stay in close communication with faculty members—don’t be strangers.
2. Apply to SEVERAL schools!!!! It’s expensive, but you don’t know where you will or will not
get in and you don’t know who will or will not give you money.
3. Do your RESEARCH. CUNY and SUNY for sure, but also local (or far) PRIVATE institutions,
which often have money for scholarships. Fordham, for example, sometimes funds students for
5 years with teaching duties during only part of that time.
4. Never ever send in an essay/application without having a faculty member review it!
5. LETTERS. You’ll need faculty letters and really should try to give people a month’s notice.
People will do it in less time, but you should know that’s the norm. Plan to WAIVE your write
to see the letters (or no one will believe what they say) & to supply your letter-writer with a few
paragraphs on what you want to do, why you want to do it, and why schools/jobs should take
you. Add in a resume and unofficial transcript, as well as a list of all schools/jobs and deadlines.
Almost all letters are submitted online these days, so stay on top of your faculty members, nicely
reminding them of letter-requests in their inboxes.
Do not ignore Lehman’s Career Services Center
(Shuster 254): Erin Reilly ([email protected]) fields all queries from English majors
about cv’s, applications, cover-letters, internship opportunities, career-planning, jobs, you name
it. Ms. Reilly’s focused, energetic, practical, and tells the English faculty to get you there by
sophomore year at the latest—so go, even if you’re a senior! For a sense of what the CSC offers,
see http://www.lehman.edu/vpstud/careerservices/.
17
Almost all EHP information, including vital information about the Senior Honors Tutorial and Colloquium, can
now be found online at: http://www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/english/honors_program.php. The
following merely repeats/clarifies that information:
ENG or ENW 481 is a three-credit Honors Tutorial in which students meet weekly with a faculty mentor,
researching, writing, and revising the English Honors Project that is a principal requirement for departmental
honors. ENG/ENW 482 is a co-requisite one-credit Colloquium that meets once a week (or once every two
weeks) on Thursdays 4:45-6:00: it is an opportunity for students to share the results of their tutorial work with
each other and to receive feedback and guidance about deadline, strategies, etc. Students’ primary relationship
is with their faculty mentor; the colloquium supports this tutorial work.
The English Honors Project may not overlap with regular coursework or course-related writing (though it
may be inspired by something you read or wrote previously). EHP students who are also Lehman Scholars
and/or Macaulay Honors College students are equally bound not to overlap their ENG/ENW 481 work with
regular coursework, but they may use their English honors project to satisfy the honors-project requirement of
both the English Department and their College Honors program, with the approval of Professor Schwartz.
CUNY Pipeline students may not overlap their English Honors and Pipeline Honors work in any way.
Students take ENG/ENW 481/482 in the Fall term prior to their year of graduation. (A student graduating
anytime in 2014 should take ENG/ENW 481/482 in Fall 2013.) Students find a mentor (and very rough topic),
fill out a tutorial form, and register for ENG/ENW 481 during Spring Registration. Go to the EHP director
or CA302 for a tutorial form, get it signed by mentor, EHP director, and English chair, and submit it to Ms.
Ocasio in ENG 302. Once the Department has set up your tutorial, you will be given permission for the course
and may register. Be absolutely sure to register for both ENG or ENW 481 and ENG 482. Lit majors
register for ENG 481 and ENG 482. PW and CW majors register for ENW 481 and ENG 482.
By the last day of Spring classes, rising seniors must have metwith their faculty mentor and develop a detailed
Summer Reading List, with at least eight titles,some of which must be a piece of literary criticism or theory.
Student and mentor will also fill out and sign a Summer Contract that details reading, reporting, and meeting
plans for the summer and fall: student, mentor, and EHP director should all have a copy of the contract by the
last day of spring classes. Keep in mind that previous EHP students have stressed the vital role summer
reading/note-taking for later work.
College requirements for Departmental Honors:
To graduate with English Honors, EHP students need to maintain a 3.2 overall GPA, maintain a 3.5 English GPA, and complete ENG/ENW
481/482 in the Fall term prior to their year of graduation.
English Department requirements for Departmental Honors:
Graduating with Departmental Honors is a function of several things:
•
College requirements for College and Departmental GPA
•
GPA in 300/400-level English courses
•
Grades received (from mentor and Colloquium leader) for ENG/ENW 481/482
•
Grade received (from anonymous faculty readers) for senior honors project.
Qualifying students will be awarded English Honors at the English Awards Ceremony in April/May.