News
Visiting Assistant/Associate Professor, Queens College (CUNY)
The English Department at Queens College (CUNY) invites applications for a one-year Visiting Assistant or Associate Professor in African American literature to begin August 27, 2012. Area of specialization is open, but a strong preference will be given to applicants with research and teaching interests in one or more of the following: 18th-19th century and/or contemporary African American literature; African American postmodernisms; African American literary criticism and theory; African American genres, including oral traditions; critical race studies, black feminist thought, and/or diasporic frameworks. Standard teaching load is a 3/3 (including upper-level electives and MA courses); salary and benefits are commensurate with experience. A Ph.D. by time of appointment is required. Candidates should submit a cover letter, CV, graduate transcripts, letters from three academic referees, and a short writing sample by March 12, 2012 to Dr. Glenn Burger, English Department, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11367-1597 (glenn.burger@qc.cuny.edu).
English Lecturer, Wake Forest University
Wake Forest University's Department of English is seeking Lecturers to teach First Year Writing in a new writing program. The positions are full-time renewable and include funds for professional development, the option for a long-term career path with the University, and the possibility of developing writing courses in the disciplines. Although ABD or PhD in Rhetoric and Composition is preferred, professional writers or scholarly writers in other disciplines with experience teaching academic writing will be considered. Candidates must share our commitment to high quality teaching and have an interest in curriculum design and writing across the curriculum. Teaching load is normally 3/3, with courses in small, first-year writing seminars. Wake Forest University welcomes and encourages diversity and seeks applications and nominations from women and minorities. It seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce to maintain the excellence of the University, and to offer students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, and ways of knowing and learning. Salary is competitive. For information about the Department of English, go to www.wfu.edu/english.
Applicants should apply at https://wakejobs.silkroad.com and submit a cover letter directed to Dr. Anne Boyle, Director of English Core Curriculum, Department of English. Also submit your vita, statement of teaching philosophy, and a 12-15 page writing sample. Confidential letters of recommendation must be sent via email by the recommender or dossier service to english@wfu.edu. Applications and other materials must be submitted no later than February 29 at 5:00 pm. Interviews will be conducted at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in St. Louis. EOE/AA
Questions about the application process may be addressed to wakejobs@wfu.edu. Questions about the position may be addressed to english@wfu.edu.
Poet Marilyn Nelson Awarded Robert Frost Medal
Marilyn Nelson has been awarded the 2012 Robert Frost Medal by the Poetry Society of America for her "distinguished lifetime service to American poetry." Nelson's collections include The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems, The Fields of Praise, and The Homeplace. Her work has also appeared many times in Southern Review. Nelson's latest work, Faster Than Light: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2011, is forthcoming from Lousiana State University Press in the fall of 2012. The 2012 Annual Awards ceremony will be held in April in New York City, where Nelson will receive the medal and give the Frost Medal Lecture. In addition to this honor, Nelson has been a National Book Award finalist on three occasions and has received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award, a Newbery Honor Award, and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award. She is professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut and served as Poet Laureate of Connecticut.
Associate/Full Professor and Director of the Institute for African American Studies
The University of Connecticut seeks applications for a faculty member at the rank of associate or full professor, to serve as Director of the Institute for African American Studies (IAAS). The Director should have a significant record of research and an active research agenda. He or she will be charged with the fostering of the Institute's interdisciplinary research activities in the College and wider university. The IAAS offers an interdisciplinary major and minor, with joint-appointment of ten faculty across two schools and seven departments. Its mission is "to enlighten and inform the University of Connecticut community and the people of the State of Connecticut, nation and the world about the history, culture, contributions and experiences of people of African descent in the United States and abroad." Additionally, the Institute supports programmatic endeavors such as symposia, conferences, and guest lectures. The Director will be expected to contribute to the intellectual life of the institute through his or her research agenda and mentor junior faculty. With full staff support (full time program assistant, GA, and student workers), the director will also coordinate and develop instruction and curricula to enhance the profile of the IAAS nationally through collaborative programming from within and without the University community. He or she will also be expected to develop long range goals for the growth and development of IAAS and its major and minor and provide leadership in moving towards those goals.
Minimum Qualifications: Applicants for this position must have a Ph.D. or an equivalent foreign degree, and they should be eligible for consideration for tenure in one of the departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The successful candidate will be expected to have a substantial record of scholarly research and publication in African American Studies and related disciplines and to demonstrate skills in academic leadership. Preferred Qualifications: Experience directing programs; a commitment to integrating theory, research, and practice into the major and minor; the ability to contribute through research, teaching, and public engagement to the diversity and excellence of the learning experience; and the ability to design and develop interdisciplinary courses in African American Studies. Also desirable is experience with graduate and undergraduate curriculum development.
This is a ten-month position, at the level of Associate or Full Professor, eligible for tenure upon approval by the University's Board of Trustees. Salary and rank will be determined based on the candidate's qualifications and research record. The Director reports to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Interested candidates should apply online using Husky Hire (http://jobs.uconn.edu/) and upload a letter of interest outlining full qualifications, a curriculum vitae, and a list of three references with full contact information. Review of applications will begin February 15, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled. The University of Connecticut is an EEO/AA employer.
2012-2013 Massachusetts Historical Society Fellowships
The Massachusetts Historical Society will offer short-term and long-term research fellowships for the academic year 2012-2013, including at least two MHS-NEH Long-term Fellowships made possible by an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Society also offers Short-term Fellowships, including the African American Studies Fellowship, and participates in the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium. For more information about the Society's research fellowships, please visit our web site, www.masshist.org/fellowships, or contact Kate Viens (fellowships@masshist.org), 617-646-0568. Application deadlines: MHS-NEH fellowships, January 15, 2012; New England Regional Fellowships, February 1, 2012; Suzanne and Caleb Loring Fellowship, February 15, 2012; MHS Short-term fellowships, March 1, 2012.
Links
New Letters: A Magazine of Writing and Art and its audio companion, New Letters on the Air, are part of a national literary tradition that serves readers and writers across the world. On this website, you can search for a particular poem, story or essay from the past seventy years of New Letters or its previous title, The University Review. You can search the database of over 7,500 poems, stories, and essays from over 120 back issues. New Letters actively maintains a calendar of literary events and readings in the Kansas City region, as well as information about international writing contests and two summer writing workshops.
The purpose of The Harriet Wilson Project is to raise awareness of Harriet Wilson and her literary work, to educate the public on her contribution to American history and her contribution to American literature, and to publicly honor her for her accomplishments. It is the intent of The Harriet Wilson Project to promote, preserve, and seek recognition of Harriet Wilson's book Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black for its historical significance, and to provide a fitting memorial in her honor. Incorporated as a non-profit organization in April 2003, The Harriet Wilson Project was formed by a group of civic-minded citizens of different ethnicities who came together to raise awareness, celebrate, and honor the life and accomplishments of Harriet Wilson, a pre-Civil War black author from Milford, New Hampshire.
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University is home to the Claude McKay Collection. McKay (1890-1948), one of the major figures of the Harlem Renaissance, wrote several collections of poetry, novels, short stories, autobiographical and other nonfiction books. Born in Jamaica, he lived in the United States, primarily in New York, from 1913-1919, and then spent most of the next fifteen years in England, Russia, France, Spain and Morocco before returning to New York in 1934. The collection has been reprocessed and consists of letters, manuscripts, personal papers, subject files, photographs and memorabilia. There is correspondence from many well-known writers and figures in the African American community from the first half of the twentieth century, including Langston Hughes, Countée Cullen, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, Harold Jackman, and Arna Bontemps. There are drafts of published and unpublished poetry collections, novels, autobiographical writings, and short story and essay compilations, including The Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953), Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940), "Romance in Marseille," an unpublished novel written in Spain in 1930, and My Green Hills of Jamaica (1979), McKay's autobiography of his youth. McKay contributed to many liberal and socialist journals, including Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers' Dreadnought and Max Eastman's The Liberator, and there are various pieces of nonfiction, most in draft form, as well as a few polemical newspaper articles dating from the early and late 1930s in which McKay responds to critics of his literary work and views on labor. The collection now includes previously unprocessed photographs and memorabilia. The two largest groups of photographs are those taken in Russia and North Africa, while McKay lived abroad, and studio portraits of well-known musicians and figures in the African American community. McKay was well received in Soviet Russia in the early 1920s, and there are photographs of Lenin, Trotsky and other high-ranking party officials, of McKay with members of the Russian Naval Academy and other groups, and of McKay addressing the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in the Throne Room at the Kremlin in Moscow. The memorabilia consists of clippings, photographs, program materials, and souvenirs from various events between 1979-1990 that honor McKay's life and work. The finding aid for the collection may be found at http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.mckay.con.html.
HBCU Mentor is the ultimate resource for students who are planning to attend a Historically Black College or University (HBCU). This free interactive website helps students choose a career and find the best school for preparing for that career. A free e-mail account lets them communicate with the schools of their choice. They can also apply for admission and financial aid online. A fully customizable MyMentor account allows them to keep track of their applications, and conform the site to include only those schools. Students can also record their courses and corresponding grades in a personal online portfolio. A financial aid estimator helps students and their families estimate the amount of aid they can expect to receive, and the world's largest database of available free money helps students find scholarships for which they may be eligible.