Beth Staley: ABD

Yesterday afternoon, Beth Staley dazzled her committee with her discussion of Emily Dickinson, aural theory, and nineteenth-century soundscapes. Tim Sweet (Chair), Julia Daniel, Katy Ryan, Marta Werner (of D'Youville College), and yours truly had a thoroughly delightful time and concluded, almost before Beth could leave the room, that she had clearly passed her Qualifying Exam for Doctoral Candidacy.

Congratulations to Beth!

"Beckett Spams Counter-Strike": May 6th

Professor Baldwin sends along the following invitation. There is no mention of cosplay, but I don't think anyone would mind if you showed up as your avatar:

"Come join us for an evening of performance and intense gaming. We will begin with a performance of Beckett's Endgame in the game space of Counterstrike, followed by open mic performances.

7 pm, 123 Pleasant Street, May 6"

Live feed of the event: http://bambuser.com/channel/sbaldwin

Aren't these pics great?

It was a super nice MFA reading this past Thursday in the Rhododendron Room. Thanks to Melissa Ferrone for getting an "official" shot of our graduating writers...

... and for capturing their true spirit...

Congratulations and all good wishes to Xin Tian Koh, JoAnna St. Germain, Sadie Shorr-Parks, Patric Nuttall, Morgan Lipkin, Mari Casey, Jessica Guzman, and John Bryant.

Dr. McKinney Is Now Also Professor McKinney

The Tenants are pleased to announce that Kayla McKinney (Ph.D. 2015) has been offered and has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position at Alderson-Broaddus University.

Allyson DeMaagd, ABD

Either Picasso's Le Gourmet or Allyson's encounter with the Bowl of Knowledge

After an interesting discussion this afternoon, which ranged from questions like "What is the smell of Modernism?" to a discussion of primitivism in Dude, Where's My Car? to an analysis of the impact of technology on perception, Allyson DeMaagd's booklist committee (Julia Daniel, Chair; Lara Farina; Lisa Weihman; Pamela Caughie from Loyola University of Chicago; and yours truly) concluded that Allyson had clearly passed the Qualifying Examination for Doctoral Candidacy with her typical aplomb and charm. She is now ABD.

The Tenants are delighted to join with the committee in giving her their congratulations

Alan Sondheim talk on Thursday, April 30 on the Real and the Virtual

 

Real and Virtual in the Broken World
a talk by Alan Sondheim
Colson Hall 130, WVU
4pm, April 30, 2015
free and open to the public

Building on early work done at WVU, Alan Sondheim will discuss the nature of avatars, virtual worlds, mixed realities, and their relationship to the physical world we inhabit. The presentation will include video, still images, and audio, including a demonstration of "revrev," a mockup of reverse reverberation, in which, during live performances, tones and sequences are announced from elsewhere before they appear. This is related to a politics of hope — How can we imagine a future, when world-wide extinctions and slaughter seem to be the order of the day?

Online Summer Courses in Women's and Gender Studies

The 1975, "Heart Out"

I can't say how much I like the concept of a middle school dance troupe named OMG Bae. Oh, and the actual song is pretty good too.

Katherine Richards, ABD

Either a portrait of Katherine sketched during her Qualifying Exam or 18th-century celebrity Sarah Siddons.

This just in from Professor Francus:

"It is my pleasure to announce that Katherine Richards successfully completed her oral exams today, in the fields of celebrity studies, 18th-century theatre history, and medical theory and history. Katherine's committee included Laura Engel (Duquesne University), Lara Farina, Catherine Gouge, John Lamb, et moi."

The Tenants heartily congratulate Mlle. Richards!

Impressive work, PWE interns!

Colson 130 was packed yesterday as 14 Professional Writing and Editing (PWE) capstone students displayed the work they produced in their PWE internships this term. Thank you to all who came out to support them! For those who couldn’t make it, brief descriptions of each intern’s work are below.

Also, prizes were awarded for the top three posters. First place went to Jordan Lovejoy for her poster "Scholar Activism: My Internship with Aurora Lights," which showcased her work on the “My friends are my heroes” series of stories about West Virginia women making an impact on their communities and the state.

  

Second prize went to Taylor Staffileno for her poster “WVU Eberly Writing Studio: Creating Student Resources.” Her multimedia poster highlighted instructional videos and aids she developed for SpeakWrite and English 101 courses.

Third prize went to Kiersten Woods for her poster “(More than Just) Editing at FiT Publishing.” Her poster contrasted her expectations for an editing internship with the diversity of tasks she was involved in – from stock-photo selection to digital work. 

Congratulations to all of the interns on their accomplishments this term, including:

•  Jordan Bailey, who interned with My Morgantown Magazine. His poster highlighted the article creation process – from interview preparation to published feature.
• Victoria Bittorf, who interned with the Monongalia County Clerk’s Office. Her poster described her 100-documents-a-day work as a proofreader of 32 types of public documents.
• Amber Dunlap, who interned with the CLC. Her poster highlighted the typical work of a book editor – from cover blurbs and bar codes to sentence-level edits of a digital manuscript.
• Erica Heyer, who interned with Geostellar in Martinsburg, West Virginia. Her colorful poster highlighted the research she conducted and web content she developed about solar power.
• Anna Kiriluk, who interned with the Eberly College Office of Undergraduate Studies. Her “on the road” themed poster highlighted communications she helped develop for STEM, international, and visiting students to WVU.
• Tarin Kovalik, who interned at the California-based company Living Full Out. Her poster highlighted her work in drafting proposals and radio-show content for a professional motivational speaker.
• Julie Manning, who interned with the Eberly Communications Office. Her poster highlighted her work drafting press releases and editing program and event information.
• Zach McWhirt, who interned with the Literacy Volunteers of Monongalia and Preston Counties. He discussed his work on learner intake essays, a non-profit newsletter, and legal contracts.
• Cassandra Rinker, who interned with WV Free. Her poster highlighted work on advocacy communications both here in Morgantown and at the State Capitol in Charleston.
• Ashley Wentz, who interned with the Washington DC-based HVACR Workforce Development Association. She discussed the process necessary for researching and writing about a technical subject to non-experts.
• Kayla Wolford, who interned with the CLC. Her poster focused on tips and tricks of working with InDesign for editing book layout and styles.