Note from the Chair...
Dear lovers of words—in literature, journalism, creative writing, and foreign languages. Welcome to the new electronic version of the LJML newsletter. Some years ago, we had a printed version entitled The Newslitter. Our present version is produced by the good work of Phil Bowles, linguistics professor, and Rachel Mournian, intrepid department assistant and desktop publishing guru. The title for our newsletter was chosen from an LJML faculty contest; it is the joint effort of Charlene Pate, assistant professor of writing and head of our college composition program, and Katie Manning, visiting assistant professor of writing. Our goal is to reach students, faculty, and alums with the current happenings of all of our constituents; to that end, we welcome your submissions—news of graduate school, employment, remembrances of the past, etc. Please share your good news and experiences with us.
Dr. Carol Blessing - ChairDepartment receives Blessing in leadership
On July 1 Carol Blessing, professor of literature at PLNU since 1993, succeeded Karl Martin as chair of the department. Martin had served
a four-year term in that role. The department of literature, journalism and modern languages boasts the greatest number of units taught in the university. It is also the largest department, with some 25 full- and part-time instructors.
Blessing, whose specialty areas are British, medieval and renaissance literatures, has contributed to the life of the department by recently leading the literature section as well as founding, administering and hosting the LJML annual Poetry Day, which was begun ten years ago with the visit of her cousin, the renowned W. D. Snodgrass.
Three book chapters by Blessing will come out within the academic year: “The Trials of Mary Stuart: Anxious Circulations in John Webster’s Drama,” in Gendering Justice in the English Renaissance, Farleigh Dickinson Press; “Exile and Maternal Loss in the Poetry of Patricia Jabbeh Wesley,” in Poets and Writers in Exile, Cambridge Scholars’ Press; and “Gilbert and Gubar’s Daughters: The Madwoman in the Attic’s Spectre in Milton Studies,” in Madwomen in the Attic After Thirty Years, University of Missouri Press.
Faculty News
Carol Blessing, professor of literature, published a chapter entitled “Queen Elizabeth as Deborah the Judge: Exceptional Women of Power” in Goddess and Queens: The Iconography of Elizabeth I, Annaliese Connolly and Lisa Hopkins, editors (Manchester: University of Manchester Pres, 2007). She presented a paper, “‘Oh, That the Mantle May Rest on Me’: Mary Tooth in Methodist Ministry” at the American Academy of Religion Conference November 1. Her article “‘Most Blessed Daughters of Jerusalem’ Aemilia Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum and Elizabethan and Jacobean Bible Commentary” will appear in the winter 2008 issue of The Ben Jonson Journal.
Kara deFreitas, adjunct professor of writing, translated for her architect husband, Kevin, when he made a presentation at the International Congress on Green Architecture, in Tampico, Mexico. Kevin has been the recipient of several architectural and sustainability awards recently for the design of the family’s house in Point Loma.
Alain Lescart, associate professor of French since 2005, recently published his doctoral thesis: Splendors and Miseries of the Grisette—Representation of an Emblematic Figure. In his monograph Lescart traces the evolution of the representation of the grisette, a particular class of seamstress and coquettish woman, in French literature and its impact on the depiction of the Parisian woman in English-language literature.
Katie Manning, visiting professor of Literature and Writing has had the following poems and works published: “Fire Casts No Shadow.” Kansas City Voices. Vol. 6, 2008. Poems: “Black and White” and “Although I Love Being a Brunette.” PoetryBlitz! CD. Produced by The Writers Place and Johnson County Library. 2008. Book review: Houses Fly Away by Leigh Anne Couch. Boxcar Poetry Review, September 2008.
Kathy McConnell, who normally heads up all things Spanish, is on a much needed sabbatical of rest and research.
She recently presented a paper at the International Film Conference at the University ofTexas, San Antonio, Sept.7-11, entitled, "David Trueba's Relato Real:“Soldados de Salamina.”
Bettina Tate Pedersen, professor of literature, was one of the keynote speakers for the launch event of the new Gender Studies Institute at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, Canada. Trinity joins the 10-12 other CCCU schools out of 105 who have some kind of Gender Studies or Women’s Studies Institute or program.
Carl Winderl, Professor of Writing, has published a new poetry collection, “La Via De La Croce—The Way of the Cross,” released by Finishing Line Press.
Galen Yorba-Gray, associate professor of Spanish, and Scott Bennett, assistant professor of Spanish, are local chairs for the spring meeting of NACFLA (the North American Christian Foreign Language Association), which, after the 2000 meeting, chaired by Kathy McConnell, professor of Spanish, and Hadley Wood, professor of French and literature and now vice provost, will be the second meeting of NACFLA on the PLNU campus.
Galen Yorba-Gray’s essay “The Maccabean Recollection in the Poema de Fernán González” was published in the Winter 2008 issue of Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos.
Dean Nelson, recipient of awards, passes guild torch to colleague
Dean Nelson, professor of journalism and director of the PLNU journalism program, took home the top award in three magazine categories at the San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2008 Excellence in Journalism Awards. He took first in the magazine category for feature writing for a story he wrote for San Diego Lawyer Magazine on PLNU adjunct professor Bob Goff and his nonprofit organization, Restore International. Nelson also won first place for investigative reporting in the magazine category for “The Un-Civil War at City Hall,” a story looking into who is really running the city of San Diego that was published in San Diego Magazine. The same story was also awarded the prestigious “Best of Show” award for the magazine category. Nelson, a member of the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, served some 18 years on its board in the roles of president, vice president and secretary, ending his service in 2006. Sue Atkins, PLNU professor of journalism, now serves on that board. (Copy adapted from PLNU institutional website.)
Professor and faculty spouse run departmental “auxiliary”
Professor emeritus of literature Jim DeSaegher and Peter Atkins, husband of Sue Atkins, help the department by working one Friday per month on the LJML Book and Bake Sale. Their earnings buy down the cost of seniors’ meals at the annual LJML Senior Brunch, held the last two years in the Fermanian Conference Center. Their work reminds us that devoted people’s giving doesn’t stop just because a person has retired from his job.
LJML Participants in Honors Program
The PLNU Honors Scholars Program, a year-long process with professors and in the presence of a cohort of peers across disciplines, allows a senior to complete an individual discipline-specific or interdisciplinary scholarly project and graduate with distinction. Interested juniors should talk with a professor about proposal ideas. Dean Hadley Wood directs the campus-wide program.
Journalism major Heather McClure, has chosen to take on an honors project entitled “An Analysis of Media Involvement in the Rwandan Genocide: From Western Media Ignorance & Incorrectness to Rwandan Media Propaganda & Panic.” Her committee consists of Sue Atkins, Dean Nelson, Jeff Bolster and Senyo Adjibolosoo as mentors.
Lisa Reynolds, a literature and creative writing major, is working on an honors project entitled “Uncovering a Feminist Theology in Jane Eyre: Bertha as Jane’s Sister.” Heather will be focusing her work on the novel's definition of orginal sin and the sisterhood formed between Jane and Bertha. Bettina Tate Pedersen is her advisor for the project.
Mike McKinney is directing a project by Blake Nelson entitled “Hank and Walter: Love and Loss in Pen, Paint, and Picture. ”This is a study in genre and medium in which Nelson is creating a short story, a short film, and a comic book.Each presents different parts of Hank Morgan and the Rev. Walter Baltimore.
Heather Stout’s honors project is “Personal Desire versus Communal Good in Tristan and Iseult and The Scarlet Letter.” Carol Blessing (mentor) leads her committee which also, includes Karl Martin and Alain Lescart.
PLNU Journalism Major Shines!
LJML Alumni News
Karen Dawson (99) – owner of marketing and public relations firm in Seattle, Dawson Communications Group
Kelly Bennett (06) – writes for VoiceofSanDiego.org
Danielle Cadieux (06) – photographer for the La Jolla Light
Kahaulani Cerizo (04) – writer for the Maui News
Deborah Erikkson (07) – photographer, based in Brussels, lives around the world, working for an economic development agency
Valerie Jennison (06) – writer for San Diego Magazine
Jen Lebron (08) – writer for San Diego Daily Transcript
Jaimy Lee (04) – recently left San Diego Business Journal to work for PR Newswire in New York
Tracy Nelson (06) – writer for a local magazine
Jimmie Presley (99) – photographer, Samaritan’s Purse,
based in Africa
Andrew Schweizer (08) – writer for San Diego Business Journal
Courtney Smith (08) – writer for San Diego Daily Transcript
Jemeli Tanui (99) – employee in the advancement office of Syracuse University
Amy Winter (07) – recent employee with Creators Syndicate. Her business-finance column is syndicated in print and cyber-media nationwide
Molly Yanity (96) – sports writer for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
14th Annual Writer’s
Symposium by the Sea, February 2-6, 2009
How do we thoughtfully address the deeper heart issues of life and faith? Isn’t there more for us to understand and experience beyond the pale of the everyday? Each of the speakers in the 2009 lineup brings a deeper look at ideas we either shy away from or embrace without closer examination and challenges us to look for that which has been hidden. Guests include Dr. Pauline Chen, a liver and cancer specialist, author of The Final Exam: A Surgeon’s Reflections on Mortality and UCLA outstanding physician of the year; Karl Giberson, science writer and author of Saving Darwin; lyricists Richie Furay, founder of Buffalo Springfield, and PLNU alum and alternative singer/songwriter Greg Laswell; Bridge to Terabithia movie producer David Paterson, and Christian activist Brian McLaren.
On-line registration for these events opens December 17 and continues through January 29. Last year’s event was a sell-out, so be sure to order your tickets early. For more information about our speakers, go to www.pointloma.edu/writers. To view interviews from past Writer’s Symposium events go to www.ucsdtv/writers
The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Point Loma Nazarene University Department of Literature, Journalism, and Modern Languages, the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies, PLNU’s Cultural Events, and The Society of Professional Journalists.