News & Events

Rackham Scholarship Established; Fall 2011 Offerings Detailed

December 6, 2010

May 2011

The Department of Literature and Language has established a scholarship fund in honor of our late colleague, Dr. Jeffrey Rackham, who was for many years a mainstay of UNC Asheville as well as a noted writer and gifted teacher. The Jeff Rackham Scholarship is an award that will go to the graduating senior selected as showing excellence as a future teacher of English language and literature. The department welcomes monetary contributions to help sustain this scholarship. If you choose to make a donation, please send a check to:

Julia Fuog Caudill, Director of Advancement Services
UNC Asheville
One University Heights
CPO #1800
Asheville, NC 28804
828-251-6016
jcaudill@unca.edu

Please designate your donation for the "Rackham Award" and put "Fund: 333559" on your check. The department is grateful for your support in memory of Dr. Rackham.

Fall Course Offerings

Literature 489: Seminar in a Major Author (George Eliot). Moseley. A reading of much fiction and a little bit of nonfiction by one of England's greatest novelists, George Eliot. The centerpiece will be Middlemarch, recently identified by Julian Barnes as "probably the greatest English novel." Through Eliot's fiction we'll address ourselves to important questions about women's roles, progress and its discontents, sexual expression, faith and faithlessness, love and marriage, and the role of the artist.

LANG373: Business and Professional Writing will be offered by our newest faculty member, Amanda Wray.

Consider Taking Dr. Hopes's 1 Hour course in Oral Interpretation of Poetry in the Fall. LANG371, Performance of Poetry, will meet once a week and is a continuation of the Asheville Poetry Theater that was a smash a few years back. Dr. Hopes says: "We'll treat literature as theater and put on a show at the end of the semester." See Dr. Hopes for permission to enroll.

Greetings from the Department Chair!

Fall 2010 was an active semester in the department. Despite the multiple demands on faculty, I’m always impressed with the amazing quality of their work. My office is close enough to be able to eavesdrop on classes, and many a day I find myself drawn into the action in the classroom. It’s no surprise that we had several faculty nominated for outstanding teaching awards, including Merritt Moseley, Gary Ettari, Jim Driggers, David Hopes and Rick Chess. Please remember to congratulate these nominees,

and take a minute to thank your teachers for the great work they do. Congratulations are also due to all students who successfully completed this year’s comprehensive exam. We had two students achieve a “high pass” this semester, a rare and distinguished category! Sign-up for spring exams is currently available in Dawn McCann’s office.

We have had several students presenting papers at local and national conferences this fall semester. Danny Resner and Hannah Doyle will accompany Blake Hobby to a national Cormac McCarthy conference, and Erica Abrams Locklear took two of our students, Hannah Epperson and Hannah Montgomery, to the Southern Appalachian Culture Series Ron Rash Festival at Gardner Webb University, where they presented papers from last spring’s Appalachian Literature class.

You will also have the opportunity to observe our current group of senior seminar students presenting at the UNC Asheville

Undergraduation Research symposium in November, as well as our creative writing seminar students who will read from their work near semester’s end.

As always, it’s my pleasure to serve such a wonderful group of students and colleagues. Best wishes for a great spring semester, 2011.

Sincerely,

Lorena Russell, Chair

Literature and Language

Department Contact Information

223 Karpen Hall, CPO # 2130
One University Heights
Asheville, NC 28804
Office: 828.251.6411
Fax: 828.251.6603
Email: dmccann@unca.edu