Subtext E-Newsletter Fall 2017


Hello from the Chair

By Maria Bullón-Fernández, Chair 

As we start a new academic year at SU, we’re happy for the opportunity to reconnect with you wherever you are. Much has happened nationally, globally, and locally, since we sent out our last issue of Subtext. These are troubling times, and faculty and students in the English Department are trying to do our part—with humility, but also with determination, in order to bring about positive changes. In the midst of these difficult times, we also have several successes that we are proud to share with you.

Let me start with these successes. Last year was a banner year for our Department. As you will see in this issue, several English faculty and students received College and University awards. Under the leadership of Dr. Charles Tung, we also received a $300,000 grant from the State Department to host and organize the Study of the US Institute for Scholars (SUSI) on Contemporary American Literature. We hosted 18 scholars from all over the world and many of our faculty had the good fortune to lead seminars with them. The Institute was a great success, thanks to the Dr. Tung’s vision and very hard work and we look forward to hosting it again next year. In my last communication with you, I announced a new university venture housed in our Department and led by Dr. Molly Clark Hillard: SUURJ, the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal. The first issue of SUURJ was very successfully launched last year and we look forward to this year’s second issue. To check out the journal go to: http://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/suurj/

In this issue of Subtext, you will meet our new hire in Creative Writing, Prof. Juan Reyes, and the new Director of the Writing Center, Dr. Hidy Basta. Professor Georg Koszulinski, unfortunately, left us last year; we are welcoming Prof. Craig Downing, who will teach primarily Production classes. We are very excited to work with these new colleagues.

These successes, though, do not distract us from the struggles we are facing. Racial divisions are more visible to everyone than they were just a few years ago. Students and faculty, therefore, are becoming increasingly aware of the need to challenge white supremacy and the ways it shapes and has shaped our institutions, curricula, and basic relationships among people. English faculty are responding to this increased awareness by working on two initiatives: teaching inclusively and decolonizing our curriculum. Last fall the Department posted a Statement of Values on our website, which expresses our commitment to teach inclusively. Last spring the faculty started a series of conversations, which we will continue this year, in order to better understand and commit more deeply to teaching inclusively in its many dimensions. We have also revised our curriculum with two aims: 1) to decenter the focus on nation (Great Britain and the US) in our teaching of literature and literary history and, thereby, 2) provide more opportunities to teach across cultures and across racial and ethnic identities. This year we are launching a new set of courses at the sophomore level, Encountering American Literatures, Encountering British Literatures, Encountering Intercultural Literatures, and Encountering Creative Writing. While at this level, we are introducing the idea of nation, “British” and “American” literature, we are also incorporating a focus on intercultural literatures. At the upper-division level, starting next year students will be required to take courses with an Intercultural and Intersectional focus as well as courses that are identified in chronological categories, pre-1800 and post-1800, rather than by national focus. With these two initiatives, deepening our sense of what it means to teach inclusively and revising our curriculum to decenter the concept of nation and, in the process, whiteness, we are taking some initial steps to address the issues that our students and the world around us demand that we tackle. As I mentioned last year, whether through stories, poems, films, or other media, literature and film enable our conversations about identity, ideology, and politics that take into account both individual experience and socio-political contexts in ways that can move and change us. We continue to be committed to fostering conversations that can lead to change.

We would love to hear how literature and film continue to challenge and change you. We would also love to hear what you are doing. Our students are eager to connect with our alumni and learn about different career options and life paths for English graduates. Please drop us a line at english@seattleu.edu, if you’d like to tell your story to our students.

If you would like to read more about what alumni like you are doing, check out the articles on our featured students and alums.

Keep in touch!

Department News

Creative Writing Annual Update

By Dr. Susan Meyers

2016-2017 was an exciting year for the Creative Writing Program. Book launches and student acceptances to graduate school marked our regular activities, and we likewise conducted a successful search for a new faculty member, Professor Juan Reyes, who joined our permanent faculty this fall 2017. An accomplished fiction writer, Professor Reyes recently published his first novella, A Summer's Lynching: a Novella in Thirteen Loops, which won the 2016 Quarterly West Novella Contest. In addition, he brings ample experience with program development; traditional and low-residency MFA programs; and study abroad courses, which he has offered in New Zealand and Chile.

In addition to making this successful new hire, we also welcomed two outstanding Distinguished Visiting Writers to our campus last year. First, we were delighted to have Daemond Arrindell join us again to offer his popular "Slam Poetry" class in the fall. Then, in the winter, we welcomed award-winning author Nicole Hardy to teach our program’s first memoir class. Nicole’s own memoir, Confessions of a Latter Day Virgin, was a finalist for the 2014 Washington State Book Award, and her other work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR's Modern Love series. Looking ahead to this year, we are delighted to be bringing two more new authors to campus: Theo Nestor and Anastacia Tolbert. Stay tuned for updates about their classes and events!

We were also proud to feature the book launch for Dr. Sharon Cumberland’s latest book of poems, Strange with Age. A crown of sonnets, this beautifully written book explores spirituality, life, and the grace and challenge of age. In addition, Father David Leigh, who teaches creative nonfiction in our program, won Seattle U's prestigious McGoldrick Fellowship; and Dr. Susan Meyers won a grant to attend the Hambidge residency center to work on her new novel. Finally, this year was one of the most successful for our alums, as several were accepted to top-notch MFA programs with generous funding packages, including Scott Broker, Sheldon Costa, Joe Kirk, and Katie Rubstello. Scott Broker also has forthcoming publications in DIAGRAM and The Masters Review, and Sheldon Costa published this year in Fourth & Sycamore .  Congratulations to our graduates!

Film Studies 2016-17

By Dr. Kirsten Thompson

2016-17 was a busy year for Film Studies. As the new Program Director, I joined other new faculty (John Trafton, Ben Stork, and John Comerford) in teaching new classes on Los Angeles and Cinema, Producing, Animation, and Crime cinema. $8000 of camera equipment was purchased, designs began for a dedicated film classroom, and the university agreed to hire two more full-time film faculty. The year’s high point was a visit to SU from Hollywood actor Val Kilmer in a special Q & A as part of his touring one-man film on Mark Twain.

Dr. Kirsten Thompson interviews esteemed actor Val Kilmer at a campus Q&A event.
Dr. Thompson with film actor and performance artist Val Kilmer.

The Film Studies Program bid a sad farewell to Professor Georg Koszulinski, who has been the mainstay of our film production program since 2013, as he joins the University of Wilmington, NC this fall. During the year, Georg hosted several screenings of his new or completed work, including White Ravens (on the Haida Gwaii) and Loa (on Haitian Vodou religion). Georg and I travelled to Washington DC this year to participate in the Million Women’s March and the protests around President Trump’s inauguration. Footage shot at the inaugural protests by Georg was turned into a rough cut called America is Waiting and was shown at Northwest Film Forum in June 2017. You can see Georg’s work at http://www.substreamfilms.com/.

Film studies sponsored visiting filmmaker Daichi Ito to Northwest Film Forum, as well as films and workshops at the Seattle International Film Festival. We are especially proud of our sponsored films, which included Jagger Gravning’s stunningly beautiful Wallflower, a film about the Capitol Hill shootings produced by film Instructor Bill Comerford, and with Prom King, a coming-of-age film about a young gay man directed by graduate Christopher Schaap (SU ’14). Film Studies students won top prizes at Seattle University Film Festival and graduated the largest class ever—with 16 majors—this year. Congratulations to all!

The English Department Welcomes New Faculty this Fall

By Shea Taisey

Writing Center Director Hidy Basta

Dr. Basta will be joining SU this fall as the new Writing Center Director, a key role in both the English Department and the Learning Commons Partnership. Born and raised in Egypt, Basta says she fell in love with English at an early age. She earned both her MA in TESOL and her PhD in Language and Rhetoric from the University of Washington. She comes to SU from Antioch University, also in Seattle, where she served as the Director of the Center of Teaching and Learning.

Basta says she is delighted to be joining the thriving Writing Center here at Seattle U. “We often think of writing as a cognitive activity and a talent or a gift that only a lucky few of us can practice in the quiet of our studies,” she notes. “This is, at best, partially true. I’m interested in another vision of writing. I see writing as a social activity that can truly change the way we see our world. Writing makes space for a multiplicity of authentic voices that should be nurtured by a thoughtful community.” Her vision is for the Writing Center to continue to be a safe space on campus for students to work out their ideas, playing with partially-articulated arguments, and experimenting with their style; where they can find “clarity in the middle of the noise,” and find the most effective way to share their voice.

Basta’s research interests are language and identity, language acquisition, critical discourse analysis, genre theory, interdisciplinary writing, and multilingual academic writers. In the last few years, her research has focused on exploring the role of feedback on students’ writing, and the role of peer consultations in facilitating creativity and risk-taking in academic writing. What’s she looking forward to most at SU? Meeting the peer consultants, and listening to the buzz of the writing consultations…as well as the beautiful walks on campus.

Creative Writing Professor Juan Reyes

Picture of Juan ReyesProfessor Reyes comes to us from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he earned his MFA in Creative Writing. Before joining Seattle U, Reyes taught creative writing and literature courses in the U of A’s English department and Honors College. Concurrently, he served as an instructor and the Interim Director for the MFA of the Americas at Stetson University, and directed two of U of A’s study abroad programs. Reyes brings a variety of scholarly interests to SU. One of his current projects is translating Chilean author Mike Wilson’s novella, Arctic. Reyes says translation has always been an important writing exercise for him, and he intends to continue producing translations between and among his own novel projects.

His current novel-in-progress, Abelard, is a 21st century take on Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, in which the narrator (instead of mourning the loss of chivalry) mourns the loss of privacy by invasively researching the life of the last person in the world with no online presence.. This past summer, Reyes visited Elliot Bay Book Company to read from his book A Summer’s Lynching: a Novella in Thirteen Loops, for which he won the Quarterly West 2016 Novella Contest.

Reyes is excited to meet SU students, learn about their academic ambitions, and find how the department can continue to pique their interests. Reyes enjoys working with photography and other physical materials to produce narratives on everything from bus advertisements to museum informational plaques. He says he loves the insight that experimenting with strange or alternative artifacts offers his long form and short form prose. “More often than not, I emerge with a new writing exercise for myself. I enjoy finding new approaches to learning about writing and bringing those creative lessons back to my students.”

Departmental Honors

By Dr. Charles M. Tung, English Honors Coordinator

The English Department Honors Program is now in its fifteenth year.  Dr. Molly Clark Hillard will be the Department Honors Coordinator from 2017-18 on.  Dr. Charles Tung ran the program for six years.

All 12 English Department Honors students presented their Honors projects at the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Association conference (SUURA).
Drs. Tung and Johnson with the Departmental Honors cohort after
a successful SUURA.

In 2016-17, the English Department had its largest cohort of twelve Honors students—nine who did critical studies projects, and three who pursued creative writing projects.  Thanks to the generosity of the Department, Dean, and the University research office, five of these Honors students went to National Council of Undergraduate Research Conference at the University of Memphis (the most we’ve ever sent to NCUR!) Additionally, three Department Honors students presented work at the University of Portland’s Northwest Undergraduate Conference on Literature.  The NUCL organizers acknowledged Seattle University’s regular presence at the conference. Finally, all 12 English Department Honors students presented their Honors projects at the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Association conference (SUURA).

The students and their faculty mentors were:

  • Annabelle Forster/Dr. Susan Meyers
  • Hailey Spencer/Dr. Sharon Cumberland
  • Juliet Von Rohr/Dr. Mary-Antoinette Smith
  • Emma Foster/Dr. Molly Clark Hillard
  • Jeffrey Harrell/Dr. Molly Clark Hillard
  • Natalie Jaech/Dr. Charles Tung
  • Brendan Kehoe/Dr. Charles Tung
  • Jane Kidder/Dr. June Johnson Bube
  • Molly Martin/Dr. Allison Meyer
  • Michael McDonnell/Dr. Mary-Antoinette Smith
  • Clarissa Olivares/Dr. Christina Roberts
  • Melissa Schade/Dr. June Johnson Bube

Check out the details of each student’s project, here.

Honors students often go on to graduate work—and not just in English!  From the 2014 cohort, Mary Thompson is attending the interdisciplinary MA in the humanities and social sciences at NYU, and Sheldon Costa received a fully-funded acceptance to an MFA at Ohio State. From the 15-16 cohort, Kasey Deems won a Fulbright to do graduate work in medieval history at the University of East Anglia, and Chloe Traynor is pursuing a Master’s in Teaching at Seattle University. From the 16-17 crew, Clarissa Olivares is going to Boalt Law School at the University of California, Berkeley, and others are gearing up for grad school applications. If we haven’t heard from you, please email us so that we can share your good news!

The Study Of The U.S. Institute On Contemporary American Literature (SUSI)

By Dr. Charles M. Tung

At the end of winter quarter 2017, I received some good news—we had just been awarded a renewable three-year federal grant to host The Study of the US Institute (SUSI) on Contemporary American Literature! This program invites literature professors from around the world who specialize in US literature to come for six weeks of academic seminars on different aspects and themes in post-WWII American culture (https://www.seattleu.edu/susi/). The goal of the SUSI is to offer international colleagues new research and teaching materials on the diversity and complexity of the contemporary US, and to create further opportunities for the meaningful exchange of ideas and experiences, the overarching aim of Fulbright-related programs.

International scholars from 18 different countries came to SU to participate in the SUSI on Contemporary American Literature.
The first group of SUSI participants represented 18 countries.

This summer, we enjoyed offering our first SUSI. During the four-week academic residency in Seattle, eleven SU faculty members led seminars—including seven English and Creative Writing professors and two Film Studies professors. You might know some of them: Drs. Christina Roberts, Nalini Iyer, Molly Clark Hillard, Susan Meyers, Sharon Cumberland, Hilary Hawley, June Johnson Bube, Georg Koszulinski, and Ben Stork. Special thanks to the Chair of English, Dr. Maria Bullon-Fernandez, for her support and for her powerful welcome to the 18 visiting scholars at our opening banquet; and to Dr. Roberts, Director of the Indigenous Peoples Institute, for the important seminars on indigenous perspectives in and on US literature and history, including a memorable session and dinner with author Sherman Alexie, all of which helped to unsettle preconceptions of “Americanness” held by our visitors (and indeed so many of us). SU English major Dan Bentson (class of 2013), now a PhD candidate in English at the University of Washington, served as an assistant coordinator and helped us run the Institute.  In our two-week study tour of San Francisco/Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Washington DC, we met novelist Percival Everett and a number of artists, visited many sites of cultural and historical interest, and had ten seminars led by professors from UC Berkeley, Florida State, Scripps, Loyola Marymount, Hamilton, Georgetown, and Rice.

For more on the SUSI:  https://www.seattleu.edu/artsci/about/news/study-of-the-us-institute-for-scholars-susi-on-contemporary-american-literature.html

For more photos of the Institute:  https://business.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10156627991746337.1073741835.334119876336&type=1&l=267d781920

Indigenous Peoples Institute Celebrates First Year

By Shea Taisey

It’s been a busy year for the Indigenous Peoples Institute (IPI), which launched in November of 2016. Highlights from the 2016-17 academic year included the organization’s first conference, facilitating the development of a Native American alumni network, organizing on-campus lectures, film screenings, and a faculty workshop, rejuvenating the First Nations Club, creating internship opportunities for Native American students, and hiring Diane Tomhave as IPI’s full-time Program Coordinator.

Tomhave and IPI Director Dr. Christina Roberts have connected with an estimated 500-600 SU students over the course of the past year, and have expanded into the community to open up additional opportunities with local organizations and tribal communities. Dr. Roberts says much of the work done so far has focused on relationship building and strengthening existing relationships, which is slow and intentional work.

The institute’s first conference, held on May 1, focused on celebrating the newly required and developing K-12 curriculum, Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State. The conference was well-attended and received enthusiastic feedback from participants. The institute is looking forward to continuing to offer these annual gatherings.

In the upcoming academic year, IPI will focus on programming and initiatives that surrounding the theme of “home,” and its many connotations for Indigenous Peoples. The institute will continue to partner with the Chief Seattle Club to support the Club's efforts and members, but also to engage in conversations about gentrification, the factors that contribute to the disproportionate number of Native American/First Nations/Alaskan Native peoples who are homeless in Seattle.

In October, IPI will host a screening of the film Promised Land to raise awareness about the complexity of federal recognition for local Indigenous communities. IPI is also seeking a dedicated space on campus that it, and SU’s Native students, can call home. Goals for the year emphasize accountability, such as developing a community council, and building two endowments: one that will allow for fiscal sustainability for IPI, and another to develop a scholarship fund to support students whose lives and future work are connected with Native American and Indigenous communities.

SUURJ: Research Journal Launches Inaugural Volume

By Emily Boynton


Student editor Jane Kidder unveils SUURJ
Volume 1 at the spring launch.

On May 12, The English Department, partnering with the College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of Research Services and Sponsored Projects, and the Office of the Provost, launched the inaugural edition of the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal (SUURJ), an online, peer-reviewed publication. The journal is a co-curricular endeavor; student editors gain editing and publishing experience for class credit, and student authors undergo a rigorous revision process with both student and faculty mentors.

The idea to create a research journal at SU originated with a group of student consultants from the SU Writing Center who wanted to create a platform where undergraduates could share their work. This vision was realized with the help of SUURJ’s Faculty Editor, Dr. Molly Clark Hillard. Dr. Hillard worked with a group of inaugural student editors to bring the project to fruition. Student editor Jane Kidder noted Clark Hillard’s focus on student professional development, stating “student editors are trained in copyediting, and student authors are given the opportunity to experience an in-depth editing process of their work that will help prepare them for writing and publishing professionally in their field.”

For student editor Emma Foster, it was the commitment to the journal’s mission and values statement—drafted by the student editors in fall quarter—that made her experience so powerful. “This journal contains the pieces that we believed best fit our mission, not simply because they are well written, but because they take on important conversations that the SU community strives to engage with.”

The inaugural edition of SUURJ contains ten essays from eight different majors. “We’re excited to showcase essays that cover matters like ecology, dental health, gender identity and bias, refugee mental health, disability studies, spirituality in college students, and reparations for Black slavery” said Hillard.

To read all the essays and learn more about SUURJ, visit the journal’s webpage, here.

Featured Student: Chris Lu (formerly Saul McGuire) ‘17

By Emily Boynton

Chris Lu (who formerly went by Saul McGuire) had much success in his senior year. He thrived academically and served as a representative for the English Department, all while working towards a larger goal—to become a librarian in Seattle. For Chris, completing his English Literature degree has been a big step towards reaching this goal.

As a nontraditional student, Chris’ undergraduate path wasn’t always linear. Chris has been in college before, considered ministry, and served in the military before his time at Seattle University. “While I was in the military, I was working in logistics, sorting and putting away parts. I liked the idea of getting into archiving, and then I realized there’s a lot more openings, especially in [Seattle], for digital media and information and being curator of that kind of thing. I moved to Seattle to eventually go into this specific program…It’s nice to set a goal and see everything line up along the way.”

Chris’ hard work will culminate this fall, when he begins the Masters in Library Information Science program at the University of Washington. From there, Chris aspires to work as a research librarian, “learning how to more efficiently find information for people, how to consolidate that information, and how to file, curate, manage, and archive information and forms.”

As for his time at SU, Chris notes, “I want to express my gratitude to the English Department and the professors I had, because I wouldn’t be getting into the program that is literally my dream if it wasn’t for them.” He also advises peers to “put your head down and charge through, it’s over before you know it, and see you on the other side.” Chris served the department as a student representative to the Student Outreach and Professional Development Committee, where he engaged in student recruitment and retention initiatives, and helped plan career and grad school information workshops.

Outside of the academic setting, Chris has spent the summer break traveling the West Coast with his husband and their dog.

Featured Alumni: Carlito Umali ‘08

By Shea Taisey

Carlito Umali graduated with his BA in English Literature in 2008. Today, five years into his teaching career, he is a middle school teacher at Renton School District’s Risdon Middle School, where his curriculum focuses on 21st century skills, STEM integration, and project-based learning.

He credits his various English faculty mentors for helping him to discern his career goals. Post-graduation, he worked for Seattle Central College, and Seattle University’s Center for Service and Community Engagement. These two experiences confirmed his passion for teaching, and from there he completed SU’s Master in Teaching program.

Umali says being an English major taught him how to define himself through writing. “Looking back at all the books I had to read and all those crazy essays – I learned my writing voice. At work, I am writing all the time. The speed, clarity, and confidence that I have in writing came from my training as an English Major.”

Umali advises current students to work and intern at different jobs, particularly before pursuing graduate school. He also emphasizes the importance of learning to work collaboratively. “Wherever you work, you will need to learn how to work with others.”

Umali describes the personal connections he made with faculty as his favorite SU memory. “I am so happy to have had Dr. Tung and Dra. Gutierrez y Muhs. In their classes, they got to really know me. I was working like crazy, hustling to get scholarships, and trying not to take out massive amounts of loans in an expensive, predominantly white institution. Finding them was like finding myself. They didn’t try to make me fit into a model of what an English major was, they allowed me to redefine it. I needed that connection to finish. I am so grateful to them both.”

Faculty News

María Bullón-Fernández continued her service as chair to the department. She published an essay titled “Gower and Gender” in The Routledge Research Companion to John Gower, eds. Ana Sáez-Hidalgo, Brian Gastle, and R. F. Yeager with Routledge Press. For the university she is currently serving as co-chair of the Provost Search Committee.

Molly Clark Hillard published an article the affect of reading in Boundary II Online, and brought two additional essays (one on Edward Burne-Jones’s painting “Cinderella,” and the other on Charles Dickens and representations of childhood) into press. In December, she delivered a lecture, “Sherlock Holmes and the Science of Literature,” at the Pacific Science Center in conjunction with their exhibit on Sherlock Holmes. This summer, Dr. Hillard presented a paper on Victorian roadmaps in Zadie Smith’s novel White Teeth at the British Association of Victorian Studies conference in Lincoln, UK. Later in the summer, she co-hosted a Victorian studies symposium in collaboration with the research consortium V21 Collective, and in partnership with faculty and graduate students from the University of Washington and the Simpson Center for the Humanities. Dr. Hillard also piloted and launched the Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal, SUURJ, with a dedicated team of students, faculty, and administrators. This year, she also takes on the directorship of Departmental Honors while the wonderful Charles M. Tung enjoys his sabbatical.

Sharon Cumberland has published a new collection of poems called "Strange With Age" from Black Heron Press. Her book was launched on May 3, 2017 in Casey Commons with family, friends, faculty, and students in attendance. http://blackheronpress.com/strange-with-age-by-sharon-cumberland/

June Johnson presented a paper on “Cultivating Citizenship through Rhetorical Practices in Ethical Listening, Collaboration, and Negotiation at the Conference on College Composition and Communication held in Portland March 14-18, 2017. For the 11th edition of Writing Arguments, she wrote a new chapter titled “An Alternative to Argument: Collaborative Rhetoric,” which moves beyond argument’s emphasis on persuasion to an approach to communication that focuses on nonjudgmental listening, self-reflection, seeking mutual growth in perspectives, and moving a community of stakeholders toward problem solving. This book is in press.

David Leigh had an article titled "Why Read Literature?" appear in a Dappled Things: A Quarterly of Ideas, Art, and Faith for Fall 2017, and an articled titled " Ultimate Meaning in Five Major Genres of Literature" appeared in the URAM Journal for July-Dec. 2017.  Father Leigh also presented a paper on "Spirituality in Fiction: The Awakening of Miss Prim" at the Conference on Christianity and Literature held at Point Loma University in San Diego in May, 2017.  On August 2--5, 2017, he attended a conference at the University of Toronto of the URAM Society, where he presented a paper on "Ultimate Meaning in Five Major Genres of Literature." This year, Father Leigh is serving as the McGoldrick Fellow at Seattle University, which allows him a quarter free to continue scholarship in the field of spirituality and literature.

Allison Machlis Meyer participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute at Indiana University in June 2017. The Institute, “Beyond East and West: The Early Modern World, 1400-1800,” studied the early modern period through the lens of cultural exchange and a decentering of Eurocentric narratives. While there, Dr. Meyer worked on both course design and archival research for her book project, which considers how compiled volumes—books that bind together separately-printed texts—uniquely contribute to early modern discourses about racial and religious difference. In March, Dr. Meyer delivered a guest lecture, “‘Quoted in the Margent of such a Story’: Elizabeth Cary’s Political History and the Limits of Biography,” to the Classics, Medieval, and Early Modern Studies Graduate Research Cluster at the University of Washington’s Simpson Center for the Humanities. Dr. Meyer also contributed a paper to a seminar on “Forgotten Histories” at the Shakespeare Association of America’s Annual Meeting in April. Dr. Meyer’s chapter on Shakespeare and gender in popular historical fiction will be published this month in the edited collection Shakespeare/Not Shakespeare.

Susan Meyers maintained her roles as a working writer and international consultant in writing programs, as well as continuing to serve the university by directing SU's Creative Writing Program and by taking on the role of Interim Director of SU's Writing Center. She oversaw the Writing Center through the process of hiring a new permanent director. Bringing her expertise to Latin America, she traveled to Mexico City in June of both 2016 and 2017 to deliver lectures and faculty workshops for international colleagues at the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana. She also delivered papers at the Creative Writing Studies Association and Convention on College Composition and Communication national conventions. In her own writing, she was first runner-up in the 2016 J.F. Powers Prize through the Catholic literary journal Dappled Things, and she received grants to attend the Brush Creek and Hambidge artist residencies, where she worked on her new novel project.

Charles M. Tung enjoyed his last year as Department Honors coordinator in 2016-17 with a great group of students.  He received the Student Executive Council Award for Advisor of the Year.  He gave the Touchstone Lecture in the University Honors program, presented two conference papers, and got invited to do two keynote lectures—one at the Florida State Graduate Literature Organization symposium on Bodies, Machines, and Objects, and one at The Space Between: Literature and Culture, 1914-1945 at the University of Mississippi.  For the latter, he was interviewed at http://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-space-between-literature-and-culture-1914-1945/conference-preview-q--a-with-keynote-speaker-charles-tung.  He applied for a federal grant and won a three-year award to host The Study of the U.S. Institute on Contemporary American Literature at Seattle U.  He two articles accepted for publication and received a contract for his book Modernism and Time Machines.  He’ll be on sabbatical in 2017-18, but feel free to send him a note!

Subtext Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Molly Clark Hillard

Managing Editor and Web Design: Shea Taisey

Send Us Your News

We’re counting on you to keep us informed!  Send Subtext all of your exciting career, continuing education, and other professional developments, and we will feature them in our next installment.  Your news is our pride!

Stay Connected

The English Department at Seattle University offers majors in English, English/Creative Writing, and Film Studies. Our faculty members are passionate about their teaching, scholarship, and creative endeavors. To learn more about our Department, we invite you to visit our website.  For those who are interested in re-engaging with the Department as either a volunteer or a donor, or if you would like to make a donation in honor of your favorite professor, please contact our Director of Development, Katie Chapman at chapmank@seattleu.edu.