English Department @ George Mason University

Congratulations to Tulane Simpson, who has been selected to present their Honors Thesis, “Ecoandrogyny: Environmentalism Beyond the Gender Binary,” as part of Posters on the Hill, a virtual event showcasing undergrad research to lawmakers in the hope of influencing policy. More here: https://english.gmu.edu/articles/17432

So what kind of jobs do English majors get? So many possibilities! Join us Thursday at 3 on zoom and we'll discuss!

Posted @withregram • @gmu.grad.english Join us on March 1st from 12:00-1:00 (ET) for a virtual session with the Professional and Technical Writing program director, Dr. Heidi Lawrence. She will offer a talk on Writing Samples and Preparing for Success in your application process (whether applying for higher education or a job).

In the second half of the event, Dr. Lawrence will also talk a bit about our Graduate Professional and Technical Writing Programs (the MA & the Certificate) and offer space for Q&A towards the end.

Please register to receive the zoom link for the event and reminders closer to the event. If you are unable to attend the event but want to receive a recording, you can also register to get an email with the link after the event.

Contact: [email protected] for more information.

Registration link: https://writingandrhetoric.gmu.edu/events/13100

Posted @withregram • @cheusecenter We are pleased to announce this year’s MFA Travel Fellows. We are hopeful that our students will be able to travel internationally for the first time in two years. Thank you to Jung Yun, Catherine Olien, and Elizabeth Gutting for reviewing applications. We are very excited to support these projects.

Ashlen Renner, going to Germany, Emilee Knudsen, going to the Scottish Highlands, and Chelsea Lebron, going to Peru, Argentina, and Chile.

We can't wait to see what they write!

To read more about their travels, click the link in our bio!

https://cheusecenter.gmu.edu/articles/17011

Posted @withregram • @gmufolklore Mason Students!
The first GMU Folklore Roundtable event of the year is this TONIGHT! Join us, virtually at 8PM ET! Make sure you’re registered via Mason360, contact Betty, [email protected] for more information, or check the link in our bio!

Come join the LGBTQ+ Faculty Staff Alliance for a chance to meet with other queer parents and/or parents-to-be at a virtual social Friday February 25th noon-1:00pm (ET)! This event is for all faculty, staff, and GTAs/GRAs who are LGBTQ+ parents and/or queer individuals in the process of building a family.

Register here: go.gmu.edu/lgbtq-parents

Photos from Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice's post

Top Ten Black Science Fiction/ Fantasy Books for Young Readers - I Am Black Sci-Fi

Congratulations to Leon L. Langford! STAR LION is #1 on Black Sci-Fi's "Top Ten Black Science Fiction/ Fantasy Books for Young Readers"

Top Ten Black Science Fiction/ Fantasy Books for Young Readers - I Am Black Sci-Fi I Am Black Sci-Fi is a media organization founded in 1999 and focuses on celebrating the fandom and many contributions of Black people to sci-fi, other speculative fiction, and S.T.E.M.

Alums, coming soon to a mailbox near you! Students, stop by the English Dept (4200 Horizon Hall) if you'd like a copy of the Fall 2021 English Matters!

See you tonight at our first Fall 2021 Visiting Writer event with novelist Tope Folarin! For more info and to register, visit http://ow.ly/Gm9k50G6ZSh

“What would you do with a half million dollars?"

Find out how Don Gallehr, the original founder of the Northern Virginia Writing Project, answered that question! 📝 Learn about NVWP's past and its bright future here: https://english.gmu.edu/articles/16330

Adjusting your schedule? Consider ENGH 333: British Novel of the 18th Century!

The novel has been the most popular of literary genres since at least the nineteenth century, but it is also among the most modern. In English, the modern novel really only emerges in the eighteenth century and fairly quickly displaces the ancient genres of drama and poetry as the most popular literary genre. The “rise of the novel”—its consolidation as a genre of writing and its slow gain in respectability as “serious” literature (without ever entirely shedding the disdain directed toward it as frivolous entertainment)—has been one of the important themes in modern literary history.

In this course, we’ll examine some of kinds of fiction that feed into the novel across the eighteenth century: among others, allegorical narratives and fables, utopian fiction, amatory fiction, gossipy secret histories, picaresque narratives and rogue biographies, Oriental tales, object narratives (featuring non-human protagonists), sentimental fiction, and Gothic narratives. We’ll read a sampling of works from across the century to get a sense of the “ingredients” that went into the development of the novel in its early, inchoate period and that remind us of possibilities and precedents in the novelistic tradition. (Authors in this vein include John Bunyan, Aphra Behn, Delariviere Manley, Eliza Haywood, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Sarah Fielding, Charlotte Lennox, Oliver Goldsmith, Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne, Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, William Godwin and numerous others: we’ll read a selection from among them—whatever we can fit into the space available!)

Read some of the most interesting international writers and translators working today in ENGH 309: Contemporary International Writers with Professor Matthew Davis, the founding director of the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center!

Did you know Professor Davis joined the Peace Corps in Mongolia after college, lived in Syria and Jordan as a Fulbright Fellow and worked with the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa? Grab this opportunity to learn about international literature with him!
http://ow.ly/iTID50FBDuE

@cheusecenter @mason__cw

Make the NBA Great Again, by Michael Don

We're thrilled to see this delightful new piece from Professor Michael Don in World Literature Today! It's Friday--take a breather and read "Make the NBA Great Again"! 🏀 💈
http://ow.ly/I4qb50FxJmn

Make the NBA Great Again, by Michael Don Despite political differences, a client finds common ground with his barber in 1990s NBA players and teams.

Join Cheuse Center Director Matthew Davis this Thursday @ 9:00 PM for "Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison," part of the 1455 Literary Arts Summer Festival.
Register here! http://ow.ly/waOP50FvpNj

Matthew will be in discussion with Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji about his time spent in a Cairene prison for violating public decency laws in his second novel, "Using Life." Being a prisoner forced Ahmed to examine the role of literature in society; meet the fabled Average Reader and a man named Rhinoceros; and confront his own ambivalence in calling himself a writer.

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center 1455 وسع خيالك - Ahmed Naji

What does the post-COVID classroom look like? Catch Mason Creative Writing Director Gregg Wilhelm's panel with fellow educators in the 1455 Lit Arts Summer Festival this Thursday from 5-6 pm to find out!
http://ow.ly/JfVQ50Fvphm
@1455LitArts @gregglitpub

Check out our new Literature and Composition Certificate! This 18-credit certificate program is ideal for high school teachers seeking dual degree certifications and for anyone starting out in teaching.

Read more here: https://english.gmu.edu/programs/la-cerg-ltco/overview

Questions? Contact [email protected]

Professor Hatim El-Hibri's NEW BOOK "Visions of Beirut" is available now from Duke University Press!
https://www.dukeupress.edu/visions-of-beirut

In VISIONS OF BEIRUT Hatim El-Hibri explores how the creation and circulation of images have shaped the urban spaces and cultural imaginaries of Beirut. Drawing on fieldwork and texts ranging from maps, urban plans, and aerial photographs to live television and drone-camera footage, El-Hibri traces how the technologies and media infrastructure that visualize the city are used to consolidate or destabilize regimes of power.

Catch Mason MFA Program Alums Danielle Badra & Holly Mason at RAWI Fest! https://arabamericanwriters.org/rawifest/

• Friday, June 11th at 1 PM EST: KURDISH AMERICAN POETS IN CONVERSATION (Holly Mason)

• Friday, June 11th at 6PM EST: DEBUTS PANEL W/ KUNDIMAN & CAVE CANEM (Danielle Badra)

RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers) presents a weekend celebrating spoken word, poetry, and oral traditions in SWANA (Southwest Asian & North African) literature, and featuring new work from Arab artists and writers. Free & open to the public!

Life, Death, and Twine

We're so excited to see this new article by Professor Suzy Rigdon on digital creative writing and Twine in Teachers & Writers Magazine!

http://ow.ly/HwoE50ERqPc

Life, Death, and Twine Writer Suzy Rigdon shares how using technology as part of storytelling “presents a radical shift in thinking about how language can tell a story.” Students use a program called Twine an…