English Department
In this interview for the Duke Entertainment, Media, and Arts Network (DEMAN), Maureen Farrell ‘01 (English Alum) offers advice for students and alumni hoping to pursue a career in journalism after Duke. This Thursday, Oct 7 at 8pm, Farrell will be in conversation with her co-author Eliot Brown about their recently published book, “The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion.” read more about Q&A with Maureen Farrell ‘01, Reporter, The New York Times »
Upon reaching milestones of 10, 15, 20 or more years, staff and faculty reflect on their paths read more about Celebrating Staff and Faculty Career Milestones at Duke »
In this interview with the alumni network DukeJournos, alumna Kristen Bellstrom shares how she has navigated her career path in print media since her graduation from Duke in 1998. “Journalism has changed a lot since I got my first reporter job and I’m doing my best to change with it,” she says. read more about Q&A with Kristen Bellstrom ‘98, Features Editor, Fortune Magazine »
Outrageous Fortune, the country's first nationwide online literary magazine for and by undergraduates, is currently accepting submissions. They accept all areas of work, including digital files such as video-recorded spoken word and short films. Each semester, they look for fiction, non-fiction, drama, film, art, photography, and poetry. As professors and department heads, we would greatly appreciate it if you let your undergraduate students know about this opportunity to submit their work for publication. While… read more about Outrageous Fortune Online Magazine Calls for Submissions »
During Season 2, Novel Dialogue will alternate between blog posts and new episodes of the podcast series on Thursdays. English Ph.D. candidate James Draney's blog post "On the Audio Culture of Letters" is this week's Novel Dialgoue's feature. Novel Dialogue will feature blog posts on the weeks without new episodes of the podcasts. read more about Season 2 of Novel Dialogue: "On the Audio Culture of Letters" »
Abby Seeskin received her Ph.D. in English from Duke in 2017. For the past three years, she has been an Upper School English teacher at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. In July 2021 she started a new position as an Upper School English teacher at Cary Academy in Cary, North Carolina. read more about Duke the Graduate School Alumni Profiles Series: Abby Seeskin »
Four visiting humanities scholars from historically Black colleges and universities and liberal-arts institutions arrived at Duke this August to collaborate with Duke students, faculty and staff. Their projects will cover commemoration practices, early Christian manuscripts, a 17th century Mexican philosopher and the ephemeral nature of digital projects. The fellows are part of Humanities Unbounded, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded initiative designed to nurture collaboration and inventive expressions of the… read more about Duke Welcomes New Cohort of Visiting Humanities Scholars from HBCUs and Liberal-Arts Schools »
If you don’t think a laboratory is the ideal place to explore complex themes and methodologies like valuing care, ethnography, urbanism or games and culture, you may need to expand your definition beyond beakers and microscopes. Labs are hives of communication, cooperation and active collaboration. They are driven by a commitment to curiosity and exploration that often produces unanticipated paths and solutions. And utilizing those features for research in the humanities – a scholarly area that has traditionally focused on… read more about Innovative, Interdisciplinary Labs Reshape Humanities Research and Teaching »
Professor Sussman's "Peopling the World" is amongst the list of global perspectives books by Duke-authors. read more about 11 Duke-Authored Books On Global Perspectives »
Professor Akhil Sharma's novel Family Life is amongst the books included in The Chronicle of Higher Education interactive database of books selected as incoming first-year student readings over the past four academic years (2017-21). CUNY Baruch College selected Professor Sharma's Family Life for their incoming 2019-20 freshman class to read. The recent Chronicle of Higher Education article "These Are the Books… read more about "These Are the Books That Colleges Think Every Freshman Should Read" Includes Professor Sharma's "Family Life" »
English major Caroline Petrow-Cohen, '22, is an Opinion intern for the Los Angeles Times (Times). Her article, "Opinion: Microplastics Are Getting Into Our Bodies," was recently published by the Times. We Need to Understand What That Means." Caroline was the English department's digital media intern in 2020. read more about Opinion: Microplastics Are Getting Into Our Bodies »
In a recent Oxford University Press blog post, Professor Thomas J. Ferraro explores the unaddressed figuration of Catholicism in the Cather, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway novels. read more about Where Have You Gone, Jimmy Gatz? Roman Catholic Haunting In American Literary Modernism »
Professor Stan wrote a short op-ed for the Los Angeles Times about the value of reading literature during the pandemic. read more about Connecting with Kafka During Our Pandemic Isolation »
During the summer of 2021, several English Ph.D. students are gaining work experience through internships. Five of these students shared insight into their experiences: Shirley Li, '23, is interning at RTI International (RTI). She began her internship working on the "East Africa Energy Program Impact" project in early June. Li is designing and conducting a “most significant change” (MSC) study of the influence the East Africa… read more about Summer 2021 English Ph.D. Internship Experiences »
Toward the end of a conversation between Jacques Derrida and Ornette Coleman in 1997, the philosopher and the musician compare their experiences of estrangement from a “language of origin.” Coleman introduces the term to explain that, as a Black man from Fort Worth, Tex., whose first ancestors in America were slaves, he never knew the language his people originally spoke. Derrida offers in response that, as a son of French-speaking Algerian Jews, he maintains no connection to the language of his own ancestors. Both men now… read more about The Melody of Time: Nathaniel Mackey’s Double Trio. »
The Modern Language Association awards $3,000 grants every year to support the development of courses and other educational programs in English, languages, and related disciplines that build enrollments and revitalize student interest in the humanities. The grants seek to recognize interdisciplinary and collaborative projects that engage with questions of global, regional, or local significance; that have the potential to offer transformative experiences for learners; that foster lasting connections between individuals and… read more about Humanities Innovation Grants »
English is capable of defining gushes that the human nervous system is entirely unqualified of experiencing. However, today, people are afraid of studying English. They think it’s all about being bookish, but that’s an absurd misconception. read more about Seven Reasons To Study English As A Major »
When he was an undergraduate political science student, Kerry Haynie was never taught about the 1921 Tulsa massacre. Nor was there much discussion about the role of race in the founding political documents of this country or much examination of how race influenced public services such as sewer lines and zoning. In one sense, a lot has changed. In 2021, Duke’s faculty includes a strong lineup of leading scholars who examine how race is embedded in issues that cross all the schools of the university. This fall, many of… read more about University Course Raises Race as a Central Element of Undergraduate Education »
Working@Duke asked Duke staff and faculty to share books that send them to a new destination. Professor Tsitsi Ella Jaji shared two literary works that she will be reading this summer, “Cinéma” by the Guinean writer Tierno Monénembo and “Deluge” by Leila Chatt, a Tunisian-American poet. read more about Books That Will Take You Away This Summer »
This month's Duke Today collection of Duke-authored books that explore historical and current aspects of music in the United States and beyond includes books by English Professors Mark Anthony Neal and Tsitsi Ella Jaji. read more about 10 Books About Music From Duke Authors »
This month we feature a collection of Duke-authored books that explore historical and current aspects of music in the United States and beyond. These books, along with many others written by Duke authors, are available at Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. The Song is You by Bradley Rogers Musicals, it is often said, burst into song and dance when mere words can no longer convey… read more about 10 Books About Music from Duke Authors »