Faculty News 2020-2021
FACULTY NEWS 2020-2021
The Faculty of the Department of English marked the end of a productive year. Below is a partial list of achievements from the 2020-2021 academic year:
Books Published
Dr. Megan Hartman published a book, titled Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon, with Medieval Institute Publications. (Learn more HERE.)
Dr. Megan Hartman’s co-edited volume, Studies in the History of the English Language VIII, was published by De Gruyter Mouton. (Learn more HERE.)
Dr. Seth Long published a book, titled Excavating the Memory Palace: Arts of Visualization from the Agora to the Computer, with the University of Chicago Press. (Learn more HERE.)
Essays Published
Dr. Michelle Beissel Heath, "Reveling in Restraint: Limiting the Neo-Victorian Girl." Children's Literature, vol. 48, 2020, pp. 80-104. Project Muse https://muse.jhu.edu/article/756799/summary
Dr. Janet Graham, “Derek Walcott’s Poetics of Naming and Epistemologies of Place.” Journal of West Indian Literature, vol. 28, no. 2, 2020, pp. 33–47.
Dr. Maria O’Malley, Review of Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women of the American Revolution in Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, vol. 37 no. 2, 2020, pp. 321-323. Project Muse muse.jhu.edu/article/790231.
Dr. Annarose Steinke, "Parsimonious / Presentations’: Mina Loy’s Crisis of (Christian) Representation," Christianity and Literature, vol. 69, no.4, 2020, pp. 493-510. Project Muse muse.jhu.edu/article/776475
Dr. Rebecca Umland, "Presumed Dead: The Impact of Tennyson’s Enoch Arden on the Cinema" (2020). Society for the Academic Study of Social Imagery. 73-83. https://digscholarship.unco.edu/sassi/5
Dr. Denys Van Renen, “‘Art against art’: Sentimentality, Mid-Century Drama, and the North American Crises.” Comparative Drama, vol. 54 no. 1, 2020, pp. 51-72. Project Muse https://muse.jhu.edu/article/789756
Dr. Denys Van Renen, Entry on the book The Woman of Colour (anon. 1808) in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writing, edited by Natasha Duquette, Palgrave, 2021. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-11945-4_120-1
New Hires and Promotions
Dr. Janet Graham joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of English.
Dr. Seth Long was granted tenure (effective fall 2021).
Dr. Megan Hartman was promoted to full professor (effective fall 2021).
Dr. Susan Honeyman was named Martin Distinguished Professor of English.
Dr. Maria O’Malley was promoted to full professor (effective fall 2021).
…And a belated congratulations to Ms. Jessica Hollander who was granted promotion and tenure last year.
Retirements
Ms. Jane Christensen, Senior Lecturer in English, retired after 26 years at UNK. Ms. Christensen also served as the Associate Director of the Honors Program and for many years taught the honors section of ENG 102. As Dr. Angela Hollman wrote, “the Honors program has been home to anywhere between 400 and 800 highly gifted students annually. Jane has served a critical role in recruiting, advising, and mentoring every one of them; she has positively touched the lives of thousands of UNK Honors students.”
Dr. Samuel Umland, Professor of English and Chair (2012-2019), retired after 32 years at UNK. Dr. Umland taught courses in literature and film, and his most recent book was a study of the film director Tim Burton (LINK). In 2016, he was honored with UNK’s most prestigious faculty award, the Leland Holdt/Security Mutual Life Distinguished Faculty Award. As department chair, Sam was a staunch advocate for faculty research and creative activity.
Other Professional News
Ms. Jessica Hollander was featured in New Frontiers, an annual periodical that highlights outstanding faculty research and creative activity at UNK. (Learn more HERE.)
Dr. Brad Modlin served as faculty advisor for the undergraduate literary magazine, The Carillon. Issue 36 was published in April. (Learn more HERE.)
Dr. Marguerite Tassi was named co-editor of a book series, New Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Modern Culture: Confluences and Contexts, published by Routledge.
Dr. Amanda Sladek received a $4500 grant from the University of Nebraska to develop a course “English around the Globe” as part of NU’s Global Nebraska initiative.
Dr. Denys Van Renen was named co-editor of the academic journal Digital Defoe: Studies of Defoe and His Contemporaries.
The Department’s Curriculum and Teacher Education Committee (Drs. Rebecca Umland (Chair), Marguerite Tassi, and Janet Graham) planned and organized the annual Student Language and Literature Conference that was held on Friday, April 16. (Learn more HERE.)
Curriculum Updates
In fall 2020, the Department of English began offering a new online MA in English in addition to its in-person program. Find out more about the program here: https://www.unk.edu/academics/english/english-master-of-arts.php
