Departmental Activities

2006-07 was an exciting year for the FSC English Department!

• We hosted former US poet laureate Billy Collins for a delightful night of poetry.

• Senior Victoria Sandbrook presented "Finding Myself Across the Pond: An Educational Experience in England" as part of "The English Department presents" series. She then presented her Honors thesis "Seeing The Light: A Literary Fantasy."

• The "English Department Presents" featured Dr. Pete Schreffler with his presentation "If no one notices a dangling modifier, is it still dangling?"

• We also hosted the annual meeting of the Florida College English Association. All faculty were involved, and many students presented papers. Lynsay McCauley, Kurt Poland, and Katie Smith shared their work on Harry Potter in the session "Harry Potter: Master of Media and Primary Paradox." Jennifer Allen, Thomas Banks, Melissa Iomelli, and Meghan Najduch delivered papers as part of a session on "Talking to the Enemy: Four Students' Experiences with Rogerian Argumentation." Caylee Moody, Megan Hoak, and Victoria Sandbrook read their papers on the work of Florida author

• Peter Mattheiessen. Recent alumna Joy M. Banks delivered her paper "Weaving Together the Threads of Life in Tennyson's 'The Lady of Shalott.'"

• Senior Tara Walker was recognized as the outstanding scholar-athlete for the women's soccer team.

• Visiting poet-in-residence Daneile Pantano offered both a reading of his own work and a master class on poetry.

• Poet Kimberly Johnson read selections from her book Leviathan with a Hook.

• Senior Lynsay McCauley was invited to present her paper "Heroism Amidst Ambiguity" at Prophecy 2007: From Hero to Legend, an international Harry Potter conference to be held in Toronto, Canada.

• English Department faculty continue to teach courses in Women's Studies, African-American Studies, and the Honors Program, even directing Honors Theses.

• Faculty members also made presentations throughout Lakeland, at places including McKeel Academy and Temple Emanuel.

Faculty Achievements

• Dr. John Crow led two round-table discussions on “Brain-Based Grammar” at the National Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference and presented an hour-long session entitled “Real-World Composition and Grammar” at the Florida Council of Teachers of English Annual Conference.

• Dr. Catherine Eskin presented "Putting Susannah in Perspective: Renaissance Constructions of the Apocryphal Susannah as Silent Rhetorical Subject" at the meeting of the Florida College English Association. She also presented “‘Then Susanna cryed out with a loude voyce’: Robert Greene’s Susanna and the Eloquence of Silence,” at the Sixteenth-Century Studies Conference.

• Dr. Keith Huneycutt both organized the entire meeting of the Florida College English Association and read his paper on "Judging Dr. Watson: Peter Matthiessen's Bone by Bone and Henry Flagler" at the conference.

• Dr. Claudia Slate published "Florida Room: Battle for St. Augustine 1964: Public Record and Personal Recollection” in Florida Historical Quarterly and “Teaching Slavery in Florida Through Florida Plantation Museums” in FCEA Florida Studies Proceedings (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006). She also chaired "The Legacy of Slavery and Sisterhood: The Life and Work of Harriet Jacobs" at a conference at Pace University, New York City, and she shared her work on "Imaginary Realism: The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks as a Conduit for the Emmett Till Story" at the meeting of the Florida College English Association.

• Dr. Mary Pharr attended the “Going Global: Environmental History” seminar at the National Humanities Center for three weeks in June. She also wrote a review of a new book on Stephen King and began work on a chapter in an anthology on science-fiction TV series. This anthology, to be published by the University of Kentucky, is being edited by J. P. Telotte. As well, she gave the plenary address, “Purely Theoretical: Postmodernism and Contemporary Film,” at the FSC Fall Faculty Forum in August. Additionally, Pharr read "Whoever Fights Monsters Fights Himself: Shifting Codes in Contemporary Fantastic Film" at the meeting of the Florida College English Association.

• Dr. Rebecca Saulsbury was selected to participate in the NEH Summer Institute, "The Continuing Significance of Tocqueville's Democracy in America."

• Dr. Peter Schreffler read his paper "Learning the Error of Whose Ways? A Discussion of How English Instructors Respond to Student Errors" at the meeting of the Florida College English Association.

• Dr. Alexander Bruce published “Princesses without a Prince: A Consideration of Girls’ Reactions to Disney’s ‘Princess’ Movies,” Children’s Folklore Review 28 (2005-2006): 7-21. He also published “Evil Twins?: The Role of the Monsters in Beowulf,” Medieval Forum 6 (Jan. 2007) http://www.sfsu.edu/~medieval/volume6.html. He presented "In the Eye of the Storm: Legends of Katrina" at the meeting of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, held in Copenhagen, Denmark. He also read "Echoes of the Epic in Andreas” at the annual meeting of The South Atlantic Modern Language Association“ and “The ‘Disney Generation’ Goes to College: Gauging the Influence of Disney’s ‘Princess’ Films on College Students” at the annual meeting of The Popular Culture Association in the South and the American Culture Association in the South. Bruce was also a plenary speaker at the annual meeting of the Florida College English Association where he spoke on "Frank Lloyd Wright at FSC: The Legend Continues."