AEOLIAN HARPINGS

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August 31, 2012 Department of English Volume XLIV Number 14

Baylor University

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Dr. Joshua King delivered a paper entitled “Coleridge’s Clerisy and Print Culture” at the Coleridge Summer Conference in Somerset, England on July 25, 2012.

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Dr. Michael-John DePalma’s book chapter, “Assessing Adaptive Transfer in Community-Based Writing,” will be published this fall in an edited collection entitled Service-learning and Writing: Paving the Way for Literacy(ies) through Community Engagement.

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Dr. William V. Davis was honored with the 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award from The Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. The presentation was madeat a special banquet at the Seminary during the AlumniDays festivities, April 26-28.

Dr. William V. Davis’s poem, “The Island,” has been published in The New Criterion, 30:5, 52.

Dr. William V. Davis’s poem, “Landscape Under Glass,” has been published in the Palo Alto Review: A Journal of Ideas, XXI (2)-XXII (1), 30.

Dr. William V. Davis’spoem, “Sestina: A Mystery (based on six signal words in ElizabethBishops’s ‘12 O’Clock News’),” has been published in Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry, VI:1, 99-100.

Dr. William V. Davis attended the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History’s Biennial Conference in Bangor, Wales in late July, where he gave a paper on the Welsh poet R. S. Thomas’s poems on prayer and also gave a reading of his own poems at a speciallyarranged session.

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Dr. Kevin Gardner’s essay, “‘Clio’s rambling bargain basement’: Peter Scupham and the Muse of History,” has been published in PN Review 206.

Dr. Kevin Gardner’s essay, “Patrician Authority and Instability in The Way of the World,” originally published in South Central Review, has been reprinted in Literature and Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Vol. 170.

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Dr. Robert Ray wrote the section on Twelfth Night for the recently published 5-volume Facts on File Companion to Shakespeare, edited by William Baker and Kenneth Womack, 2012. Dr. Ray's contribution appears in Volume 5, pp. 1985-2029.

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Dr. Richard Rankin Russell was promoted to Professor of English in August, 2012.

Dr. Richard Russell’s book manuscript, “Modernity, Community, and Place in Brian Friel’s Drama,” has been awarded a contract by Syracuse University Press for publication in its Irish Studies series.

Dr. Richard Russell has had the following essays accepted for publication:

Invited 10,000 Word Essay on Irish Playwright Conor McPherson for Scribner’s British Writers Series, Series Editor, Jay Parini. 2014.

“The Mortification Motif in Bernard MacLaverty’s Cal,” forthcoming in Literature and Belief 33.1, 2013.

“Brian Friel’s Transformation from Short Fiction Writer to Dramatist,” forthcoming in Comparative Drama, 2012.

Invited Review Essay, “‘Can we turn now to the important things’. . .?: Derek Mahon’s Poetry and Prose,” forthcoming in Irish Studies Review, 2012.

Dr. Richard Russell participated in the 2012 Lilly Fellows Program Summer Seminar during the weeks of July 7 - 28, 2012 with the theme “Teaching Peace and Reconciliation: Theory and Practice in Northern Ireland.” The seminar was held at the Corrymeela Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland. Dr. Russell was one of fourteen faculty chosen nationally for this seminar.

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Dr. Greg Garrett’s new book Faithful Citizenship was published by Patheos Press in March. In her endorsement of the book, Lucy Hogan, the Hugh Latimer Elderdice Professor of Preaching and Worship at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. writes, “As a man of faith who keeps a keen eye on politics, culture, and the church, Greg is just the person to assist us in finding our way toward becoming loving, informed, and yes, faithful 21st century Christian citizens.”

The Voice, a contemporary language Bible, was published in April by Thomas Nelson. Dr. Greg Garrett was part of the developmental team that proposed the project in 2003, and he has been involved in the writing, editing, and promotion of the project for the past eight years. He was the writer of ten books (Mark, Hebrews, First and Second Peter, Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, Micah, and Amos), provided commentary for half a dozen, and rendered some of the Psalms into contemporary English. In his endorsement of The Voice, Alan Culpepper, Dean of the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, observes that “Every generation faces the challenge of translating the Bible into the idioms of that generation so that it can communicate with the startling freshness of the original texts. The Voicedoes just that.”

Dr. Greg Garrett also published a scholarly article, “‘Now the Whole World Stands on the Brink’: Apocalypse and Eschatological Hope in Contemporary Superhero Comics,” the closing article in the collection The End Will Be Graphic: Apocalyptic in Comic Books and Graphic Novels, Ed. Dan. W. Clanton, Jr. (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2012), and an essay, “Hope Yet for Mainline Denominations,” in The Future of Religion: Traditions in Transition, Ed. Kathleen Mulhern, (Englewood, CO: Patheos Press, 2012).He continued to write his weekly column on religion, politics, and culture for Patheos, the world’s most-visited independent religion website, and wrote on religion, politics, culture, and travel for The Huffington Post and other print and online publications.

On January 8, Dr. Greg Garrett preached three services at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, Washington. On January 15 and 22, Dr. Garrett taught a course, “Faithful Citizenship,” at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Austin. On January 29, Dr. Garrett preached two services at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin. On January 30, he spoke on “The Order of the Phoenix: Christian Theology and Harry Potter” in Baylor Chapel. Dr. Garrett preached two services on February 25at St. James Episcopal Church in Pewee Valley (Louisville), Kentucky, and delivered five lectures February 25-28 for “The Art and Soul of Lent” lecture series at St. James. During the series, Dr. Garrett discussed and read from his books Crossing Myself, We Get to Carry Each Other, One Fine Potion, and The Other Jesus.

March 1, Dr. Greg Garrett hosted and was a panelist for the Winter Theology on Tap event at BookPeople, Austin. March 4 and March 25, he spoke on spirituality in film at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin, teaching classes on the movies The King’s Speech and Lars and the Real Girl. On March 10, Dr. Garrett spoke about his work on religion and culture at the annual conference of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes in Charlotte, North Carolina. March 13, Dr. Garrett delivered The Catholic Imagination in the Arts Lecture at Villanova University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; his topic was Augustinian spirituality and Harry Potter. March 18, he preached at two services at St. David’s, Austin. March 21 and 28, he spoke on his book The Other Jesus at First Baptist Church, Austin. March 30, he attended the board meeting of the American Friends of Gladstone’s Library; Dr. Garrett was named to the Board this year.

On April 5, Dr. Greg Garrett preached the Maundy Thursday service at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Austin. April 16-30, he was Scholar in Residence at Gladstone’s Library in Hawarden, Wales. May 7, he spoke to an assembly at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School on depression and faith. From June 6-27, Dr. Garrett was again Scholar in Residence at Gladstone’s Library, where he taught a June 8-10 creative writing class, “Making the Scene” for students from across the UK. On June 17, Dr. Garrett was the featured guest on BBC Radio Scotland’s “Sunday Morning with . . .” ; the hour-long interview spanned Dr. Garrett’s life and writing career. Dr. Garrett preached two services at St. David’s, Austin, on July 22, and two services on August 19. On August 16, Dr. Garrett spoke for the Austin Downtown Forum at St. David’s; his topic was his book Faithful Citizenship and the coming election.

This spring and summer, Dr. Greg Garrett was interviewed by media sources including BBC Radio Scotland, KUT (Austin), Busted Halo (The Catholic Channel, Sirius/XM Radio), BBC Radio Berkshire, BBC Radio Bristol, BBC Radio Cambridge, BBC Radio Cornwall,BBC Radio Gloucester, BBC Radio Jersey, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Oxford,BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Tees, BBC Radio York, The National (United Arab Emirates), Church Times (UK), The Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, Dallas Morning News, The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), The Palm Beach (FL) Proper, South Bend (IN) Tribune, Bellingham (WA) Herald, The Vindicator (Liberty, TX), Blast Magazine (blastmagazine.com), Moviefone, and BlogTalk Radio.

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Danielle Williams presented a paper titled “Naming the Unnamed: Reframing the Cultural Politics of Sexuality at Faith-based Universities" at the 2012 Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Philadelphia, PA on May 26.

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Ingrid Pierce’s note, “The Greek Chorus in Ben Jonson’s ‘Epitaph on S[alomon] P[avy], a Child of Q[ueen] E[lizabeth’s] Chapel,’” has been accepted for publication byNotes and Queriesand will appear either in the December 2012 or March 2013 issue.

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Courtney Bailey Parker's article, “Brian Friel's Household Vision of Spirituality in Philadelphia, Here I Come!,” will appear in Literature and Belief33.1.

Courtney Bailey Parker was selected as a 2012 Baptist College and University Scholar by the university.

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Dr. Naji Oueijan (Baylor Ph.D., 1985) has been elected Joint International President of the International Byron Society, which includes 40 societies around the world. Dr. Oueijan also organized the 38th International Byron Conference, which was held on the campus of Notre Dame University (Lebanon), July 1-6.

CONFERENCES—CALLS FOR PAPERS

Information has been received from Hawaii University concerning their International Conference January 6-8, 2013. Submissions are encourage and must be received by September 30, 2012. Topics include American studies, languages and literatures, philosophy, speech/communication and translation, linguistics, and many more. Please submit abstracts with a title page to . Nor more than two submissions will be accepted at a time. All accepted papers will be considered for publication in the conference proceedings, which will be made available. For more information, please visit their website at or see the flier on file in CS 106.

FURTHER STUDIES

Information has been received from the University of Notre Dame concerning their M.F.A. in creative writing program. Every student receives a full tuition scholarship, as well as fellowship opportunities. Students will have the chance to work on the Notre Dame Review and other literary magazines. For more information, please visit their website at or see the flier on file in CS 106.

Echoes of the Aeolian Harp

An article by Dr. William V. Davis entitled “’The Grave in Blossom’: A Note on James Wright” has been published in Contemporary Poetry.

From Aeolian Harpings 22:21 (19 January 1983).