News
Dr. Moores Joins the Department of English
Donald J. Moores, Ph.D., joins the faculty of the Department of English and will be teaching at Kean Ocean. His teaching and research interests include (1) British, American and transatlantic Romanticism, (2) mystical/ecstatic poetry, (3) world literature, and (4) classical mythology. An avid interdisciplinarian, he approaches these subjects holistically from a variety of critical perspectives. Dr. Moores is the author of several scholarly articles and conference papers, as well as two books—Mystical Discourse in Wordsworth and Whitman (Peeters 2006) and The Dark Enlightenment: Jung, Romanticism & the Repressed Other (forthcoming 2010). He is currently editing an anthology of ecstatic poetry and researching the psychological and cultural implications of ecstatic experiences.
Susanna Rich Nominated for 2009 Mid-America Emmy Awards
Susanna Rich and Craig Lindvahl have been nominated for 2009 Mid-America Emmy Awards in the category "Writer/Program" for the documentary film Cobb Field: A Day at the Ballpark. The awards ceremony will be held on October 3, 2009, in St. Louis, MO.
Dr. Zamora receives NEA Grant
Dr. Zamora Obtains NEA Grant
Dr. Mia Zamora, Coordinator of World Literature, the Department of English, has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to host The Big Read between September 2009 and May 2010. The Big Read gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate a common reading selection. Kean University’s launch of The Big Read is a General Education & World Literature Program initiative.
The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts grant designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. To read more ...
Awards Ceremony
The Department of English held a combined Awards Ceremony on April 22, 2009 (CAS 106, 5:30 - 6:30 pm. The winners of the awards were as follows:
W. John Bauer Endowed Scholarship in English: Tim Lowe
McDonnell-Millard Teaching Excellence Award: Professor Johanna Church
McDonnell-Millard Distinguished Student Writing Award:
- First place: Rhonda Grindell (Instructor: Dr. Maria Montaperto)
- Second place:Jerome T. Derios (Instructor: Dr. Sally Chandler)
- Third place: Benito Nieves (Instructor: Prof. Cynthia Cavanaugh)
Stephen J. Haselton Excellence in Scholarship Award
- James Metzger (Instructor: Dr. Susanna Rich)
- Amanda Sabo (Instructor: Dr. John Gruesser)
Kean University Poetry Contest:
- First Place: Jennifer Filannino, "Earthen Aria"
- Second Place: Ruby L. Simmons, "I'm Enough"
- Third Place" Elisa D'Amico, "I Was Losing You"
- Honorable Mentions:
- Patrick Sullivan, "Clothes Can Wait"
- Tim Lowe, "I Like Poetry"
Journey of a Feminist Scholar
The Women's Studies Program celebrated the scholarship of Dr. Carole Shaffer-Koros on March 25, 2009, reading and discussing three of her articles.
In addition to Dr. Shaffer-Koros discussing her scholarship, participants included Dr. Linda Cahir (Middle and Secondary Education), who spoke about her Edith Wharton scholarship and editing of The Edith Wharton Review; Dr. Susanna Rich (English), who talked on her teaching; Dr. Anthony Scelba (Music) addressed her service as Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts; and Dr. Celine Krauss (Sociology), who spoke on her work with Women's Studies.
Master of Arts in English
The Department of English now has a Master of Arts program with classes beginning Fall 2009. It aims to meet the needs and interests of several groups: teachers in the region, across disciplines and levels, who wish to integrate writing into instruction in support of student learning; teachers who want to learn pedagogy and strategies to improve their teaching of writing as well as enhance their workplace writing skills; and aspiring career writers who wish to build credentials in the field. The scope of the M.A. in English is broad, pointing to a variety of options in the discipline for the targeted groups, and includes course work reflecting the range of expertise among the Department’s writing faculty: writing theory, writing pedagogy, writing center administration, creative writing, and professional writing. For further information, visit the website for the MA in English.
Kean University Writing ProJect
In 2008, Kean University became affiliated with the National Writing Project as a writing project site.
Writing @ Kean
In 2007, the English Department received a Quality First Initiative to launch Writing@Kean, a website to support writing across the disciplines at Kean University.
2007 Literature Institute
Our institute, "Cultural Literacies in the Twenty-first Century: The New Roles of Literature" addressed the following questions:
- What roles, purposes, and functions do literature and the teaching of literature serve in our complex, digitized, multicultural and trans-national world?
- Does reading 'great books' merely help one accrue 'cultural capital'?
- Or does reading literature advance crucial literacies and skills?
Geared toward middle and high-school English teachers, our institute aimed to challenge, provoke, and spur thought about the new roles that old texts might take in the classroom with respect to the intersections between Literature and Globalization, Literature and Technology, and Literature and Ethics.
Poster by Alex Taner
2007 Writing Institute
Active Writing, Active Learning:
Teaching Writing to Learn and Writing Across the Disciplines
What is Writing to Learn?
What is Writing across the Curriculum?
And why are they important in the classroom?
Research shows that writing improves knowledge acquisition and retention across subject matter--from history to the hard sciences. Although many teachers from kindergarten through college already know this, we struggle with incorporating writing-based learning into our classrooms. To meet these needs, The Kean University English Department hosted the Active Writing, Active Learning Institute.
At the Institute, K-16 teachers discussed and designed interactive writing assignments to help students remember, understand, and synthesize classroom learning.
Keynote speaker Joan Mullin, a nationally-known expert in Writing Across the Curriculum at the University of Texas, Austin, introduced strategies to engage students in using writing to learn without increasing our workload, and participants explored these principles in facilitated groups and develop dynamic, usable
2006 Graduate Seminar Workshops in Literature and Writing
Graduate Seminar Workshops in Literature and Writing, a series of seven workshops, was provided by the English Department to serve the New Jersey community.
2006 Sigma Tau Delta Induction Ceremony
In December 2005, Kean University inducted students into Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors Society. Poet Jay Wright joined the celebration by reading a selection of his poetry selections.
Photograph by Diane Krajenski