Panels & Presentations

Maya Socolovsky presented "Patriotism, Nationalism, and the Fiction of History in Julia Alvarez's In the Name of Salome at the MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States) Conference in Boca Raton, Florida, April 10-13. According to Socolovsky, "In the Name of Salome is a historical fiction that considers how historical figures can be remembered despite the legendary status they have attained in public memory. In troubling national ghosts of Dominican history, Alvarez critiques methods of memorialization and counters narratives of patriotism, nationalism, and history that emerge from those national discourses. Through this deconstruction, Alvarez also addresses her work to English-speaking audiences and publishes it primarily for North American markets. Thus, her Dominican 'historical fiction,' both in terms of marketing and textual production and in terms of its implicit and explicit critique of U.S. foreign policy and imperialism, extends the American historical imagination, allowing Dominican events to write themselves into U.S. history, thereby troubling North America's own historical boundaries. The text shows that a history of the Americas needs to be re-written in order to understand the legacies of colonialism that dominate contemporary acts of imperialism."

On April 10, Sherry Southard presented "Careers and Challenges in Professional Communication," a presentation funded by Southwest Missouri State University Student Chapter of STC and Student Activities Association, Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. This presentation was video-taped for use in undergraduate and graduate classes. A related website is available at (http://core.ecu.edu/engl/tpc/careers.htm). Southard also presented "Web-based E-learning Resources for Virtual & Traditional, Face-to-face Learning Environments," co-authored by Philip Rubens, at SMSU's First Annual Conference for Teachers of Technical Communication on April 11. See (http://core.ecu.edu/engl/southards/tips/eResources/eResorcs.htm).

Jim Holte presented "Habitat for Inhumanity: Historical Fiction in the House of Horror" at the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 19-23. Holte considered three current writers of vampire series -- Anne Rice, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, and Fred Saberhagen. According to Holte, "What I found was that when you have a main character who doesn't die or change, and where the good/evil conflict gets muddied, setting becomes far more important, and in fact, Yarbro, herself, who attended the conference, told me she always considers setting a major character." Yarbro is the author of Hotel Transylvania (1978) which introduced the very popular Saint-Germain vampire series. Her latest novel, Night Blooming (2002), is available from Warner Books.

Marina Goltermann presented "Transportation in the Future: An Examination of Transportation Solutions as Presented in Feminist Utopian Fiction" at the SEWSA Conference at Virginia Tech on March 20-22 in Blacksburg, VA. Goltermann considered two works by Katherine V. Forrest: Daughters of a Coral Dawn (1984) and her more recent Daughters of an Amber Noon (2002); Starhawk's Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), a dystopian novel about a futuristic California, and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976). Also at the Southeastern Women's Studies Association Conference, Rick Taylor presented "The Faith of a Feminist." According to Taylor, "the talk was my first approach to feminist theology and to feminism as theology."

Dr. Erna Brodber, Whichard Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities, spoke on "Marcus Garvey and the Continent of Black Consciousness" Tuesday, April 1 at 7 p.m. in Bate 1018. Her talk was sponsored by the ECU Women's Studies Program and the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.

Tom Shields presented "Roanoke's Lost Colonies: How Many Ways Can a Story Be Told" at the Society of Early Americanists meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, on April 11. According to Shields, "the primary sources on the Roanoke colonies, especially John White's description of returning to Roanoke Island to find the 'Lost Colony' gone, is filled with descriptions of physical things he did find --cannons, chests with ruined books and maps in them, and, of course, the post with the carving of "CROATOAN" on it. These descriptions have served as guides to archaeologists about what to look for, yet none of these things have been found. For that reason, the material culture in the text becomes symbolic rather than historical or archaeological." Shields participated on the panel "Literary Archaeology" organized by Jeff Richards of Old Dominion University. The panelists discussed the connection between literature and archaeology by examining the various ways that material culture works within written texts and how written texts are used to represent material culture.

Marie Farr spoke on "Virginia Woolf: Modernist and Feminist" May 6 at the Kinston Public Library. On May 8 in Williamston, NC, Farr also spoke on Joan Chase's During the Reign of the Queen of Persia (1983), a story of twentieth century womanhood, of Gram, the Queen of Persia, herself, who rules a house in northern Ohio where five daughters and four granddaughters spin out tragic and triumphant stories of rural life in the 1950s. Both presentations were part of the "Let's Talk About It" series sponsored by the NC Humanities Council.

Mary Carroll-Hackett read her work with poet James Applewhite at Methodist College in Fayetteville on March 27 as part of the NCWN's Blumenthal Writers & Readers Series.

During the month of April, Peter Makuck gave readings from his new book, Costly Habits (U of Missouri P, 2002) at Kent State University, University of the South (Sewanee, TN), Brigham Young University, Bowdoin College, and University of New England.