English Department — News & Events

 

News

Tesdell awarded Fulbright

Dr. Lee S. Tesdell has been awarded a Fulbright research scholarship to work and study at the Center for Continuing Education at Birzeit University, Birzeit, West Bank, Palestine.

His project is titled Distance teaching and learning: Mutual development, planning, and scholarly investigation at Birzeit University’s Center for Continuing Education and has three parts:

• To work with the director of the Center of Continuing Education, to design curriculum for teaching technical communication online.
• To foster long-term e-learning connections between Minnesota State University, Mankato and Birzeit University.
• To publish his research about online pedagogy.

Dr. Tesdell has taught technical communication at MSU for six years, specializing in documentation, international technical communication, and online pedagogy.

Dr. Tesdell will attend orientation for his Fulbright from July 9–11, 2008 in Washington, D.C. He will conduct his study and research during spring semester 2009.

Each year, the Fulbright Program, named for J. William Fulbright, former U.S. Senator from Arkansas (1944-1974), sponsors about 1,100 U.S. scholars and professionals to teach and to research in more than 130 countries.

Birzeit University enrolled 7796 students (56% men and 44% women) during the 2007-2008 year. Arabic is the official language of the university though some courses are taught in English. The institution was founded in 1924, when a local woman, Nabiha Nasir, started a school in the village of Birzeit, just north of Jerusalem. In 1975, it became a full-fledged university and has since added several graduate programs.

Dr. Kay Puttock and Dr. JoAnna Mink Retire

At the College of Arts and Humanities spring meeting, Dr. John Banschbach, chair of the English Department, announced their retirements as follows:

Dr. Kay Puttock

Kay Puttock joined the department in 1987. In addition to general education courses and the British literature surveys, she has taught courses in women’s literature, 19th century American literature, Shakespeare, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, post-colonial English literature, and mythology, in particular the King Arthur legends.  In addition, she has been an indispensable part of the university’s humanities program. Her work in humanities has led her to some off-campus research projects: a trip to Greece as part of her research on Pan-Hellenism in archaic and classical Greek literature, particularly drama, and a sabbatical trip to India to study dramatic presentations of the Indian epic poem, the Mahabharata. She has published articles and made presentations on Huckleberry Finn, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, the Harlem Renaissance, and the effect of learning disabilities on students in composition. At the beginning of her career at Mankato State, Kay’s primary teaching responsibility was courses in basic writing. At that time she also directed the department’s writing center, served on the Executive Committee of the national Conference on Basic Writing, and edited that conference’s newsletter. She was also chair of the children’s literature section of the Midwest Modern Language Association.

This variety of academic activity indicates an openness to almost every aspect of English studies and a willingness to explore each one in some depth and so to continually enrich her teaching. A report of her trip to India provides a clear example of the depth and dedication of her scholarship: “Traveling all over the southern Indian state of Karnataka, I shot loads of footage of folk performances (including three different performances of folk opera, a production of the Mahabharata by university students, and a puppet show depicting the same episode). I also filmed carvings and other representations from temples and other historic and modern sites that depict famous scenes from the epic. I then spent about two months learning to use film-editing software and putting together a film I called Indian Epics in Context, which is very accessible to Americans and which combines the locally shot footage with voice-overs based on my reading and research. The film also includes an interview (in English) with experts on the yaksagana form of folk drama.  I included enough local scenery, action and ritual to make the whole thing accessible and interesting.”

Kay will retire to Ames, Iowa, where she will work in her garden and complete her book on middle-class unmarried women in nineteenth-century British literature.

Dr. JoAnna Mink

Jo Mink joined the department in 1990.  She is a specialist in later British literature. She has taught a variety of general education courses, the surveys in British literature for undergraduate majors, and courses on specialized topics for undergraduate majors and for graduate students.  The topics of these courses include the Gothic tradition in British literature, family relationships in literature, British and American women in literature, painting, and photography, and several different courses on the British writer Thomas Hardy.

Jo has been the co-editor of four books: The Significance of Marital Status in Literature, The Significance of Sibling Relationships in Literature, Feminist Collaboration in the Academy, and Communication and Women’s Friendships: Parallels and Intersections in Literature and Life.  She has made conference presentations and published articles on a great variety of topics, such as the collaborative research paper, the needs of adult learners in composition, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  But the continual focus of her scholarly life, resulting in numerous articles and numerous conference presentations and numerous trips to Dorset, England, has been the fiction and poetry of Thomas Hardy.  Jo has been engaged in Hardy studies as a scholar and a teacher and in several other ways.  For six years Jo was the director of the program, The England of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, a five-week summer course in England.  She helped to organize the most recent Hardy Society Conference, held in Dorchester, and she is the society’s archivist.  As the first international professor-in-residence at the Hypatia Institute in Cornwall, she gave lectures on Hardy and the Brontes.  And she has served as a docent at Max Gate, Thomas Hardy’s home.

Jo’s biography is included in the Contemporary Authors series and in the Directory of American Scholars.  Jo has retired to Normal, Illinois, and she tells that she "looks forward to retirement and its new intellectual and creative challenges.”

Suzanne Bunkers Selected as a Distinguished Faculty Scholar

Dr. Suzanne Bunkers has received one of three Distinguished Faculty Scholar Awards honoring faculty who have distinguished themselves as outstanding scholars and whose scholarship has earned them national or international recognition. Rather than recognizing a particular accomplishment, the Award recognizes a body of work—a substantial amount of which must have been completed at Minnesota State Mankato.

Other recipients are David Dickau, Department of Music, and James Robertson, Department of Sociology and Corrections. These three faculty members are the first recipients of this award in the history of the University and will maintain the title of Distinguished Faculty Scholar for the duration of their tenure at Minnesota State Mankato.

2009 Italy Trip

During spring break (March 5-15, 2009), Dr. Joseph Kunkel and Dr. Suzane Bunkers will lead the Italy 2009 Political Science/English study tour, which will visit the clasical sites of Rome, Pompeii, and Sicily (Palermo, Taormina, Siracusa).

The first informational meeting will take place at 3:00 pm, Thursday, May 1, in AH 321.  Please join us if you would like to learn more about our study and travel plans.

MFA Alum Wins Award

Minnesota State alum Thomas Maltman recently won an Alex Award for his novel The Night Birds. The Alex Awards were created to recognize that many teens enjoy and often prefer books written for adults and to assist librarians in recommending adult books that appeal to teens. His award was one of ten given by the American Library Association.

Maltman's essays, poetry, and fiction have been published in Briar Cliff Review, Georgetown Review, Great River Review, and Under the Sun. He currently teaches creative writing and literature at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The Night Birds is his first novel.