continue the ongoing con-

versations regarding these

themes.

The conference drew such

distinguished speakers as

John Duffy, University of

Notre Dame; Michelle Hall

Kells, University of New

Mexico; Nancy Welch, Uni-

versity of Vermont; David

Jolliffe, University of Arkan-

sas at Fayetteville; Jerrold

Hirsch, Truman State Uni-

versity; Elenore Long, Ari-

zona State University; and

David Gold, University of

Tennessee-Knoxville.

For more information,

please contact Shannon

Carter.

Renowned scholars from

across the nation convened

this March to mingle with

Literature and Languages

graduate students, faculty,

and the TAMU-Commerce

community at the Federa-

tion Rhetoric Symposium/

EGAD conference hosted in

March.

The conference theme, Writ-

ing Democracy: A Rhetoric

of (T)here, was the brain-

child of Shannon Carter,

TAMU-Commerce, and Deb-

orah Mutnick, Long Island

University-Brooklyn, who

sought to do something dif-

ferent. Rather than featur-

ing simply written presenta-

tions, this conference en-

couraged active, roundtable

discussions between the

most influential individuals

in the fields associated with

composition and rhetoric.

Workshops initiated produc-

tive discussions about liter-

acy, and a website is cur-

rently being constructed to

discuss relevant rhetoric and

composition topics, and to

The Spanish Graduate

Program at Texas A&M

Commerce has a new

Certificate in College

Level Spanish Teaching.

This is a post-

baccalaureate program

for those who hold a

bachelor‘s in Spanish

and are interested in

teaching Spanish at the

community college level.

Pre-service and in-

service teachers who

need to improve or en-

hance their Spanish

skills will also benefit

from this certificate. Our

Spanish Certificate con-

sists of seven courses…

Continued on page 2

EGAD Hosts Conference Writing Democracy: a rhetoric of (t)here

New Certificate in College Level Spanish Teaching

S p r i n g N e w s l e t t e r

Lit & Lang M a y 2 0 1 1

W h a t w e ’ r e r e a d i n g

Uncertain Al-lies—Mark Del Franco

Shadow and Claw—Glen Wolfe

Princeps’ Fury - Jim Butcher

Straight Man—Richard Russo

Fanon—John Edgar Wide-man

Not Entitled: A memoir—Frank Kermode

Feminism for Real: Decon-structing the Academic In-dustrial Com-plex of Femi-nism— Jessica Yee

Hell is Empty—Craig Johnson

Fall of Giants—Ken Follett

My Antonia— Willa Cather

P a g e 2

Mayo Review Launch Party

Pop Culture, San Antonio

Certificate in College Level Spanish Teaching continued from page 1

providing a flexible course

of study combining teach-

ing methodologies, ad-

vanced grammar, chil-

dren‘s/adolescent litera-

ture written in Spanish, as

well as survey courses in

literature and culture.

Highly trained and special-

ized faculty holding doc-

toral degrees conduct the

courses taught for the cer-

tificate. Our objective is to

educate students in those

key and fundamental

areas of Spanish teaching

to make them highly ef-

fective college instruc-

tors.

We offer online, distance

education and face-to-

face classes on our cam-

puses in Mesquite and

Commerce. Moreover, we

teach classes during the

summer, winter, and

May mini semesters.

If you are interested in ob-

taining a Certificate in Col-

lege Level Spanish Teaching,

please contact Dr. Mariá

Fernández-Babineaux at

Maria_babineaux@tamu-

commerce.edu or by calling

903-886-5270

took place in San Antonio

this April. The PCA con-

ference is known for at-

tracting scholars from a

wide variety of fields to

present on topics ranging

from video game narra-

tives to linguistic peda-

gogy. An impressive

Pop Culture

Texas A&M University-

Commerce made an im-

pressive showing at the

national conference of

the Popular Culture As-

sociation/American Cul-

ture Association, which

thirty-six students and fac-

ulty members from A&M-

Commerce presented at the

conference, including twenty-

nine individuals from the

Department of Literature and

Languages. The group from

Commerce included a num-

ber of Master‘s students who

contributors. To cele-

brate the publication of

the 2011 issue, students

and faculty gathered in

The Club at the Sam

Rayburn Student Center

for a reading by featured

contributor, poet Bruce

Bond. Bond is on the

creative writing faculty at

the University of North

Texas in Denton and has pub-

lished seven books of poetry.

A lively open mic followed

Bond‘s reading.

Copies of the current issue of

the journal can be purchased

in the main office of the Hall of

Languages for $10. For more

information, visit themayore-

view.wordpress.com

Thursday, April 28th

marked the launch of The

Mayo Review‘s 2011 issue.

The Mayo Review is the

literary arts journal pub-

lished each spring by stu-

dents in the Department of

Literature and Languages.

The journal takes submis-

sions of artwork, poetry,

and prose and draws local,

national, and international

L i t & L a n g

Pop Culture continued from page 2 conference for the first time.

Presenters enjoyed the op-

portunity to meet and net-

work with other scholars in

their areas, and a number of

students were able to make

connections that may lead to

publication opportunities.

Between attending panels,

LitLangers enjoyed strolling

the River Walk, shopping,

and sampling the local cuisine.

Below is the list of those who

presented at Pop Culture, rep-

resenting TAMUC, 35 total.

Embracing the Darkness in the Mir-

ror: Vampires as Doppelgänger -

Teresa Huggins / The Other Side

of the Track-Luca Morazzano /

Caught between Shadow and Light:

Modernist Fear of Liminality in Lew-

ton's I Walked with a Zombie -- Mi-

chelle Pirkle / Riches to Rags--The

Beales of Grey Gardens: Adaptation

in Three Mediums -Melissa

Gantt / Tradition and Modernism

in Ousmane Sembene's Xala -Lami

Adama / Imagery and the Elements

in The English Patient, Novel and

Film -Jennifer Jones / What Ex-

actly Are You Trying to Teach Me?:

The Educational Nature of Female-

Oriented Video Games -Alexandra

Pirkle / Feminist under Glass:

Power and Agency within CLAMP's

Chobits -Rachel Cantrell / Christ

(opher Hitchens) and Composition:

One Teacher‘s Experience with a

Religious Documentary and the

Teaching of Argumentation -

Brandon Barnes / Feminist Fair-

ies: A Discussion of Terry Pratchett‘s

Adaptations of "The Witch and the

Princess" -Cortney Phifer / In

Whose Image? Conservapedia's Con-

servative Bible Project -

Christopher Basnett / "The Price

You Pay may be Heavy Indeed":

Shadow of the Colossus and Player

Interaction/Implication - Sean

Kennedy /

―The Pragmatics of Teasing in Soc-

cer Fandom: The Nigerian Exam-

ple‖ -Akinbiyi Adetunji / ―It‘s a

Stereotype, But it‘s Good‖ -Laura

Di Ferrante / Oscar‘s Voice in

Volker Schlöndorff‘s The Tin Drum

-Margaret Pena / RENT-ing Bo-

hemia: Adapting No Day But Today

-Angela Kennedy / The Many

Roads of Oz: An Existential Read-

ing of Maguire‘s Wicked Witch of

theWest -Sean Ferrier-Watson /

Becoming Bella: Examining How

Twilights' Lack of Characterization

Lends ToIdentification and Pop

Culture Success -Toni Taher-

zadeh / Playing in the Text:

Meaning Making of Gender Repre-

sentation in Mass Effect --

Amanda McCain / What Can

―The Tell-Tale Heart‖ Tell About

Gender? -- Mary Couzelis / The

Folklore of Household Pests: Rats

and Pixies in the Novels of Terry

Pratchett -- Danielle Browns-

berger / The Heady American

Dream: Intoxication as a Symbol of

Excess in the Modernist American

Novel -- Allyson Jones / Being

Dyslexic: How Identity Is Spelled in

a Web Community That

―Reads‖Differently -- Sergio Piz-

ziconi / Our Own Personal Jesus:

Corpus Christi, Angels in America,

and the Theater of Reconciliation --

Jomar Daniel Isip / Metafic-

tional Morrison -- Charles

FACULTY: What's it all About,

Alife?: Why All this Fuss about Ad-

aptation? -Gerald Duchovnay /

'S'pose you jus' call yourself the

Boss?' L Frank Baum's Sky Island -

Richard Tuerk / Racefail 09 Part

Nth: Citizenship Fail -Robin Anne

Reid / Raising History from the

Dead: Actual and Imagined Reali-

ties in Aleksandar Hemon's The

Lazarus Project -Dan Jones

ALUMS (Lit and Lang):

Tolkien‘s Queer Spiders and Binary

Codes of Gender Performativity -

Stella Ray / Healing in the Bor-

derlands: Hybrid Cultures in Louise

Erdrich‘s Fiction -Wilma Shires,

Southeastern Oklahoma State Uni-

versity

OTHER DEPTS IN CAMPUS:

Bikes, Motorcyclists, and the Me-

dia: Myths and Realities -William

E Thompson / Starve for the

Devil: Arsis, abjection, and Ano-

rexia Nervosa -Brad Klypchak /

New Members of the Fellowship:

Teaching Tolkien in the 21st Cen-

tury—Judy Ford / The Master of

Melodrama, Women's Films, and

Adaptation: Shadow of a Doubt --

Marilyn Lewis

Graduate student Erin Bullok

(right) enjoying the River Walk

in San Antonio.

P a g e 3

Faculty Publications and Accomplishments

Donna Dunbar Odom:

―Local and Global: The Writing Class‘s Vital Role in Composing Citizens.‖ Issues in Writing. Forth-coming.

―The Activist Writing Center.‖ Co-authored with Shannon Carter and Tabetha Ad-kins. Computers and Composition Online (Fall 2010)

Gerald Duchov-

nay:

General Editor,

Post Script: Es-

says in Film and

the Humanities

Hunter Hayes:

―Local and Global: The Writing Class‘s Vital Role in Composing Citizens.‖ Issues in Writing. Forth-coming.

―The Activist Writing Center.‖ Co-authored with Shannon Carter and Tabetha Ad-kins. Computers and Composition Online (Fall 2010)

Kathryn Ja-

cobs:

In the last year

and a half Dr. Ja-

cobs has pub-

lished over fifty

poems in a wide

variety of national

and international

journals. She has

also published a

chapbook of po-

etry (Signs of Our

Time) from Pud-

ding House Press;

it‘s sequel, Signs

and Portents, is

due out this April

from Finishing

Line.

Mariá

Fernández-

Babineaux:

―Antoniorrobles y

su versión cen-

surada de ‗La Ce-

nicienta‘‖

Hispania 93.4

(2010): 575-586

―La Madre Santa y

la madre sexual:

Subversión cul-

tural en Elogio de

lamadrastra‖

Espéculo 45 (Jul-

Oct) published

online October, 15

2010

October 2010

LASA 2010 Latin

American Studies

Association To-

ronto, Canada

―A Jungian Read-

ing of Eltit‘s El

cuarto mundo‖

Robin Reid:

"Mythology and

History: A Stylis-

tic Analysis of The

Lord of the

Rings." Style Vol-

ume 43, Number

4. Winter 2009.

517-538.

"Thrusts in the

Dark: Slashers'

Queer Practices."

Extrapolation.

Volume 50, Num-

ber 3. Fall 2009.

463-483.

Grants: 2010 In-

terdisciplinary

Research and

Creative Activisms

$15,000

With Dr. Sang

Suh, Computer

Science

Guest and Visiting

Lecture:"Slashing

the Fathers:

Who's Anxious

Now? Queering

Harold Bloom and

J. R. R. Tolkien in

Female-Authored

Fantasy." IAS

Benjamin Meaker

Visiting Professor,

University of Bris-

tol. Public Lec-

ture, and post-

graduate seminar

on theories of re-

ception, reread-

ing, rewriting, and

"Where No

Straight Man Has

Gone Before:

Queering Star

Trek" for Ameri-

can Studies Divi-

sion, University of

Göttingen

(Germany), July

5.

Tabetha Ad-kins:

With Shannon Carter and Donna Dunbar-Odom. ―The Activist

Writing Center.‖ Computers and Composition Online. Spring 2011.

―‘To Everyone Out There in Budget Land‘: The Narra-tive of Community in the Interna-tional Amish Newspaper, The Budget.‖ Issues in Writing 18.1. Spring/Summer 2010.

―Losing Their Religion: The Problem of Lost Language, Liter-acy Practices, and Local Relations Among the Amish.‖ Confer-ence on College Composition and Communication. Atlanta, GA. April 2011.

―Worked Over and Working for Change: The Struggle for/of Agency Among Disenfranchised English Users.‖ Thomas R. Wat-son Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. Louisville. Octo-ber 2010.

―‘Pay It Forward‘ Literacy Sponsor-ship: Remixing the Mainstream Model.‖

Conference on College Composi-tion and Commu-nication. Louis-ville, KY. March 2010.

Award:Junior Faculty Research Award. Texas A&M University- Commerce.

P a g e 4

Grayson County College where she

served as Dean of Academic Instruc-

tion from 2005 to 2009.

Lauren N. Glenn: Lauren Glenn is a

Doctoral student in the Department of

English, Film & Media Studies at the

University of Florida. This past aca-

demic year, she received the 2010-

2011 Graduate Student Teaching

Award for her excellence in teaching

freshmen composition courses. This

award is only given to one student out

of all the Teaching Assistants on cam-

pus.

Sean George, PhD: Dr. George has

accepted a position as Assistant Profes-

sor at Dixie State College in St. George,

Utah. He will be teaching full-time and

is head of English Education, which

prepares individuals for a career as a

future educator in the field of English.

Ann Kirch, PhD: Dr. Kirch has re-

cently become the new Vice President

of Instruction at Lone Star College-

Montgomery in Montgomery County,

Texas. Previously, she worked as Vice

President of Instruction at McLennan

Community College in Waco, Texas,

and before that, spent twenty years at

Debra Dear: Debra Dear was an

undergraduate student at Texas

A&M University –Commerce, and

was the first student from the De-

partment of Literature and Lan-

guages to graduate under the new

honors program. She received a

Bachelor of Arts with High Honors

and wrote her thesis on the writing

process, entitled, ―Like Heaven,

Bursting: An Exploration of Writing

and its Process.‖

Her advisor was Dr. Hunter Hayes.

Alumni News

What's New in the Writing Program This spring has seen a number of exciting changes in

the writing program. Dr. Tabetha Adkins published

a new textbook entitled Ethnographic Inquiries in

Writing, which is being implemented in the 1302

courses. The textbook supplies students with theo-

retical approaches to help them frame the ethno-

graphic studies they conduct over the course of the

semester. 1302 students further their understand-

ing of literacy by entering local communities and

observing their literacy practices. They present their

findings at The Celebration of Student Writing,

which takes place at the end of each semester. The

new textbook has been an invaluable resource for

1302 instructors and students because it is tailored

to help them with this research.

Dr. Adkins also created a series of pedagogy workshops

to mentor Graduate Teaching Assistants in their teach-

ing practices. Experienced instructors teamed up to

lead these workshops. Topics included: helping stu-

dents with research, helping students with grammar

and style, designing a course from scratch, and grading

essays. The Writing Center welcomed a new Assistant

Director this January. After former Assistant Director

J.P. Sloop took a faculty position at Brigham Young

University in Idaho, Stephen Whitley was hired on to

lead LitLang‘s team of writing tutors. Stephen has cre-

ated a series of workshops designed to help students

improve their basic writing skills. The first workshop,

an APA workshop hosted by Rick McCraw, was a huge

success.

Dr. Laurence Raw, senior lecturer in the Department of English, Faculty of Education, at Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey, spoke to students in film classes and the university community on February 17, 2011. Through visuals, film references, an-ecdotes, and open discussion, Dr. Raw highlighted features of, and dif-ferences in, British and American cultures in the 1960s, including mu-sic (Beatles, glam rockers), fashion,

theatre, and film. A second presentation involved the use of phrases that were popular in England in the 60s. With stu-dent participation, Raw demon-strated how our current under-standing of certain words and phrases reflect differences across cultures and time peri-ods. Following these sessions, students joined Raw and other departmental faculty members

at a local restaurant for informal dis-cussions about his presentations and teaching in Turkey. Dr. Raw, who recently completed a fellowship at the Harry Ransom Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin before returning to Turkey, was the guest of the Honors Program, Alpha Chi, and the Department of Litera-ture and Languages.

Visiting Lecturer: Dr. Laurence Raw

P a g e 5

Students and Faculty Out and About

Students, faculty, and significant others at the

reception for Professor Laurence Raw at Izzy‘s

Café and Bistro.

Professor Raw enjoys the Nasher Sculpture

Center in Dallas.

Graduate students at Izzy‘s smile for the cam-

era.

Students socializing with Professor Raw (third

from left).

Some of our current and former students and

faculty from the department who presented

talks at the Popular Culture/American Culture

Film Certificate students with film scholar Jay

Telotte (Georgia Tech, 4th on the left) and sig-

nificant others breaking bread in New Orleans

after sessions at the Society for Film and Media

conference.

P a g e 6