Events:
English & Comparative Literature: 2nd Annual San Jose Poetry Festival
English & Comparative Literature: Edgar Allan Poe Fest
The annual Edgar Allan Poe Fest is Friday, October 28, at 7 pm in the Spartan Memorial. Sponsored by the Department of English and Comparative Literature, this popular event gives students, faculty, and staff a chance to read, recite, and perform some of the spookiest works of one of the greatest—and most entertaining—of American authors. For more information, contact Ed Sams (Edwin.Sams@sjsu.edu).
Alumni News:
Art & Art History: Marianne Lettieri: Reflections
San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design is pleased to announce “Marianne Lettieri: Reflections.” The art exhibition, which runs August 20, 2016 through January 22, 2017, presents Lettieri’s vintage tools of domestic labor in new sculptural configurations, reinforcing the perpetual flux and interconnectedness of life and communities through time. Lettieri uses memory, the ritual of repetitive acts, and the accumulation of objects in the domestic sphere as a way to work through current social and political contexts. Her constructions contextualize overlooked relics of homemaking and celebrate their past lives. Leaving the patina of age and the visible traces of the personalities who once owned the objects, the contemporary sculptures retain a physical marker of their past. While the materials and processes used in this body of work change, they are linked by formal concerns and content. Lettieri’s arrangements are orderly, elegant and economical, relating back to the overarching theme of domestic labor that leads the content of the work. In 2013, Lettieri received her MFA in spatial arts from San José State University and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Cubberley Artist Studios in Palo Alto, California. For more information visit http://sfmc.org.
Faculty News:
Art & Art History: Integrating Sustainability
Dr. Elizabeth Consavari, SJSU Lecturer in Art and Art History, co-presented with SJSU Environmental Studies Librarian Peggy Cabrera, “Integrating Sustainability Principles in the Design Classroom: Art History/LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design),” at the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference at CSU Fullerton in June 2016. Cabrera and Consavari discussed the ongoing implementation of sustainability materials into Consavari’s ARTH 72 class entitled “Design in Society,” a lower-division major requirement for SJSU design students and general education course. Consavari adopted the sustainability module in Fall 2014 and has used it five semesters to provide students with the background to understand LEED concepts. Cabrera authored the module on King Library’s LEED features as part of the CSU Chancellor’s Campus as a Living Lab Program. As a guest lecturer in Consavari’s ARTH 72 classes, Cabrera talks to students about sustainability and introduces them to LEED. Students then explore King Library so they can identify features of a sustainable, high performance building. SJSU students contemplate ideas like ecologically-intentional design and scrutinize user experience in the areas of Interior Design, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, and Architecture at King Library. In culmination, students are assigned a final group project requiring them to investigate the LEED features of King Library.
English & Comparative Literature: Dr. Steven Bickmore’s YA Wednesday Article
Dr. Mary Warner published an article in Dr. Steven Bickmore’s YA Wednesday online publication on July 20, 2016; YA stands for Young Adult. To read the article, click here.
English & Comparative Literature: Reading at 2nd Annual San Jose Poetry Festival
English faculty Sally Ashton, a former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate (2011-2013), will be reading with current Poet Laureate Arlene Biala and keynote speaker, San Francisco Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, at this year’s San José Poetry Festival, Sunday September 18th from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. The event features readings and presentations, writing workshops, and a small press fair. For more information, please see pcsj.org/festival.
English & Comparative Literature: Assistant Professor of English publishes his first monograph
Ryan Skinnell just published his first monograph, Conceding Composition: A Crooked History of Composition’s Institutional Fortunes with Utah State University Press. Based on extensive archival research conducted at six American universities, this book argues that postsecondary administrators and faculty have historically introduced, reformed, maintained, threatened, or eliminated first-year composition for reasons that have less to do with teaching students to write and more to do with nondisciplinary institutional exigencies, such as earning accreditation or attracting Federal funding.
English & Comparative Literature: “A Few Light Poems”
One of Sally Ashton’s poems, “Lost Sonnet,” was featured as part of San José Downtown Association’s “A Few Light Poems” public display of poetry videos, produced by David Perez, during South First Fridays Art Walk and Street Market on August 5.
English & Comparative Literature: WC+WF (With Help from WAC) = Writing Support Services
We’re not only coining new acronyms—we’re expanding writing support services at SJSU. The university Writing Center (WC), located in Clark Hall, suite 126, offers workshops and tutoring services for all students in all disciplines. The hours of operation for the Center are M-Th, 9:30-5:30 and F, 9:30-2:00.
The student Writing Specialists at the Writing Center are creating original writing resources that are available online, such as handouts and video tutorials. By the spring 2017 semester, the Writing Center will be offering evening hours in the new Hub space on the fourth floor of the library.
The Writing Fellows (WF) program—a collaboration between Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and the Writing Center (WC)—also continues to grow. This fall, we have five Fellows working in 100W courses in seven departments and one Fellow working with graduate students in the College of Education.
Both programs are always looking for talented tutors. If you have a skilled writer in your class, please encourage him or her to apply for a job at the Writing Center or for a position as a Writing Fellow.
If you have any questions about writing support services, or any ideas for new acronyms, please contact Tom Moriarty or Michelle Hager.
Humanities: The Art and “Leap” of the Possible
Dr. Joan Stubbe serves on the piano faculty at San José State University. She is the creator of the Listening Hour Concert Series in the School of Music and Dance. On February 10, 2016, she earned her Doctorate in Education at Teachers College Columbia University with an emphasis on musicology, music theory, and piano. In the dissertation, the chamber works of Béla Bartók and Ludwig van Beethoven are used to examine the utilization of ambiguity in the music, and in particular the use of a four-note figure called the cambiata. The experiences of scholarly study with Prof. Lewis Lockwood, Harvard University, and Prof. Jonathan Kramer, Columbia University, are documented as part of a pedagogical journey of understanding and self-reflection. The importance of metaphor is explored as a means for increasing musical understanding and collaboration in the classroom. Lessons learned regarding the application of ambiguity and metaphor in the classroom are then given.
Linguistics & Language Development, World Languages & Literatures: LLD and World Languages Collaborate on Polygot Book
Faculty members in the Departments of Linguistics and Language Development and World Languages and Literature collaborated on the translation, editing, and annotation of a book by famed Hungarian polyglot Dr. Kato Lomb, published by TESL-EJ of Berkeley. The book, With Languages in Mind: Musings of a Polyglot (Nyelvekrol jut eszembe…), is a collection of short essays and reflections on subjects ranging from language differences, language use, the inherent compromises in interpreting and translation, and language learning. With Languages in Mind follows two previous Lomb books produced by SJSU faculty and published by TESL-EJ. SJSU faculty contributing to this volume are Scott Alkire and Reiko Kataoka (LLD) and Larissa Chiriaeva (World Languages).
Dr. Lomb is referenced in Michael Erard’s book Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners (2012). Linguist Stephen Krashen called Lomb “possibly the most accomplished polyglot in the world” and has discussed her language-learning strategies frequently in articles and presentations.
Music & Dance: Music in NYC
Dr. Brian Belet’s composition Ion Trails (Cloud Chamber Storms), for percussion and Kyma processing (2012) was performed at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in New York, New York, on June 18, 2016. More details are posted at www.BeletMusic.com.
Television, Radio, Film, and Theatre: Kepler’s Dream Premieres at Mill Valley Film Festival
Amy Glazer’s latest feature film, Kepler’s Dream, will premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, Oct 6-16. Many TRFT film and theatre students and recent graduates worked with Glazer on this YA coming of age story, which she directed in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
