English Department
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 »
Professor Priscilla Wald wrote an article for Public Books, an online magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship, that examines how the humanities can reveal the truth of the world’s crises from contagions like the COVID-19 pandemic to the historical roots of social inequities. read more about What Happens When a Metaphor Becomes Real? »
I dream of dog death. Every night for weeks sometimes. It comes in spells, dog dreams and then nothing. Back when I was a kid, my uncle Chris bred bullies and boxers. He fed stray mutts too and kept a blind teacup poodle that was forever falling off the front porch. The one that bit me was a chow mix. Bit me square in the ass. read more about Prof. Maren's Short Story Published in "JoyLand" »
![Melissa Malouf loved this photo "because the student is so engaged despite [her] costume and his mouthful of food." Courtesy of Melissa Malouf](/sites/english.duke.edu/files/styles/landscape_small/public/images/2f3f1344-700c-4f7a-b1ff-7cb077b1bf74.sized-1000x1000.jpeg?h=707772c7&itok=xbjYPU5Z)
Taylor Plett writes about Professor Melissa Malouf's career with the Duke English Department in this recent Duke Chronicle article. read more about From our obsessions: The story of Melissa Malouf, the diviner on Monmouth Avenue »
Theo Cai, ’21, recipient of the 2021 Anne Flexner Award for Poetry, shares their award-winning piece “Filaments.” The Anne Flexner Award is given annually as part of the creative writing contest sponsored by the Department of English at Duke University. Student submissions are judged by our Creative Writing Committee. This award was established in 1945 by family members and friends of former English student Anne Flexner to recognize undergraduates for their work in… read more about Theo Cai Reads “Filaments,” the 2021 Anne Flexner Award Winning Poem »
A new Trinity College of Arts & Sciences program offering peer mentoring to Ph.D. students in their first, second or third year at Duke will begin hosting meetings this fall, and has selected the inaugural class of fellows to lead those groups. read more about Trinity Launches Peer Mentoring Program for Early-Stage PhD Students »
A new Trinity College of Arts & Sciences program offering peer mentoring to Ph.D. students in their first, second or third year at Duke will begin hosting meetings this fall, and has selected the inaugural class of fellows to lead those groups. Designed as small, interdisciplinary mentoring groups each facilitated by a peer fellow, the program aims to help students flourish in their respective doctoral programs – providing a confidential space to navigate frustrations, offering a diversity of perspectives, encouraging… read more about Trinity Launches Peer Mentoring Program for Early-Stage PhD Students »
Congratulations to Shirley Li, the 2021 Stephen Horne Award for Excellence in Teaching winner. The English Department at Duke University is excited to award Li with this well-deserved honor. Li was selected by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) advisory committee based on course evaluations and nominations from the students in her Spring 2021 English 90S course, "The Spooky and the Sacred." One student wrote in her nomination: "Shirley is a wonderful, understanding, and… read more about Congratulations to Shirley Li, Ph.D. Candidate, 2021 Stephen Horne Excellence in Teaching Award »
Davide Carozza, English Ph.D. '20, will be the featured guest on The Alum Zoom series on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, from 11:00 am to 11:30 am. The Graduate School, the Duke Office of Postdoctoral Services, and the Duke Career Center are sponsoring this series of virtual career conversations with Duke Ph.D. alums and postdocs. Carozza is the Director of Federal Grants at the national nonprofit After-School All-Stars. During his presentation, he plans to share insight into conducting successful job searches in… read more about Five Career Questions with Davide Carozza, English Ph.D. Alum and Director of Federal Grants »
The Duke English Department's business manager, Catherine Beaver, is one of four Trinity College of Arts & Sciences staff members to receive the Dean's Pillar of Excellence Award. The Pillar of Excellence Award was established in 2017 to encourage and acknowledge staff members dedicated to the Duke Community. Honorees display a commitment to service, initiative, leadership, increased efficiency, enthusiasm, collaboration, mentoring, or diversity. Dean Valerie S. Ashby, Trinity College of… read more about Congratulations to Catherine Beaver, Dean's Pillar of Excellence Award Winner »
The Office of the Provost has selected 17 projects for funding through the Duke Endowment to study “Reckoning with Race, Racism and the History of the American South.” All research projects will be led by Duke faculty members; some projects include staff, students and community members. read more about New Faculty Research to Explore Race in the South from Diverse Angles »
On Tuesday, March 29, Professor Derrick Spires of Cornell University visited the English Department as a guest of the Ad Hoc Committee on Anti-Racism. Professor Spires visited virtually with a group of English Ph.D. candidates to discuss their work and offer advice. Following his meeting with the graduate students, Professor Spires and Professor Jarvis McInnis, Cordelia and William Laverack Family Assistant Professor of English at Duke University, had a virtual conversation via Zoom centered around Spires’ book… read more about Professor Derrick Spires’ Visit with Duke English »
Look back on sights, sounds and legendary moments from Duke University's undergraduate 2021 commencement ceremony. read more about Duke Commencement 2021 Glory »
Oftentimes, in my classes, you can hardly distinguish a current syllabus from one of years past. My teachers usually follow a fixed curriculum, a tried-and-true set of lesson plans, course readings, and homework assignments. But for Professor of English Thomas Pfau, PhD, that’s not the case at all. Even after thirty years at Duke, Pfau still searches for novel subjects to teach. “There are not many classes I repeat,” says Pfau. “I tend to always be prowling out for new materials and configuring new books.” This… read more about Designed for Digital: English 101, 2021 Edition »
In spring 2020, Duke’s campus cleared out and the classrooms were left empty. Students returned home and finished out the semester over Zoom. Like so many others, Nima Babajani-Feremi struggled to learn online. As the strangest semester most of us have ever experienced drew to a close, Babajani-Feremi, a sophomore at the time, decided that another semester of “Zoom University” was not realistic for him. Babajani-Feremi is no traditionalist — the bright yellow and blue floral print shirt he is wearing will… read more about Learning, Away From Duke »
When I was younger, I always fantasized about heading up North. I wanted to leave my hometown in Mississippi behind, and say farewell to the magnolia trees, to the humid summers and SEC football. The North was where culture was, and in my mind, it was where writers went. I had a particular fascination with New York. I associated the city with writing workshops, like Sackett Street or Gotham Writers. I was drawn to the intimacy of those spaces, and their dynamism, too—places where my… read more about English 322: An Exercise in Writing and Self-Kindness »
17-year-old Amin Ahmad might’ve been surprised by the trajectory of his life, three decades later. “It’s very strange where my life has taken me,” Ahmad says. “I didn’t expect to be in North Carolina—and I certainly didn’t expect to be teaching writing!” Last fall, Ahmad joined Duke’s faculty as a professor of English. While he’s new to Duke, Ahmad is no stranger to crafting an engaging story. In addition to his critically acclaimed novels, Ahmad’s work has appeared in a litany of… read more about Writing Across Borders and Genres: Amin Ahmad Brings Scaffolding to Creative Writing Faculty »
Cliff Haley’s “Stuck on the Spectrum” is a queer analysis of male heterosexuality within mid-20th-century American literature. Haley’s thesis begins with Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, then moves to Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises before returning to Baldwin’s Another Country. Within these texts, Haley explores the dilemmas of sexuality—and he argues that while we as modern readers better understand the sexual spectrum, we embrace… read more about What's in a Thesis? We Ask Undergrads What It Takes »
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Kathy Psomiades works on Victorian literature and culture. She is the author of Beauty's Body: Femininity and Representation in British Aestheticism (Stanford, 1997), and co-editor, with Talia Schaffer of Women and British Aestheticism (Virginia, 1999). She has been the recipient of an NEH fellowship, and a Kaneb award for undergraduate teaching at the University of Notre Dame. Her current book project,… read more about Victorian Lit, Dinner Parties, and Nuns: Q&A With Kathy Psomiades, PhD »
Christina Chia has been Associate Director of the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University since 2014. She received her Ph.D. in English from Duke in 2004 and worked at the Center for Multicultural Affairs prior to joining the FHI in 2006. read more about Alumni Profiles Series: Christina Chia »
Savannah Marciezyk’s cat is named Clio. Clio, named after the Greek muse of History, is a frequent visitor in the Zoom classes that fill Marciezyk’s day, and to any of the students in her classes, the cat’s name seems apt — Marciezyk can always be counted on to chime in with a shrewd comment on the historical context of a Dickinson poem or cite the customs of George Eliot’s England. Much to the advantage of her classmates, even as a graduate student, Marciezyk has begun to teach. Marciezyk’s natural tendency to share… read more about How a Passion for Poetics fuels a future PhD »
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is pleased to announce the 2021 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellows. These fellowships support promising doctoral students in the humanities and interpretive social sciences with a year of funding designed to help them complete projects that will form the foundations of their scholarly careers. The program, now in its fifteenth year, is made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. ACLS has named 72 fellows this year, the largest and most… read more about Congratulations Kathleen M. Burns, 2021 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow »
Duke’s theaters, galleries, and other arts venues are typically busiest in April! This year, we bring the buzz, artwork, and stages online. Our creative community has risen to meet the challenges of the pandemic while connecting us through making and sharing new work. The Duke Arts Student Showcase shines a light on Duke University academic arts departments—Theater Studies, Dance, Music, English, and Art, Art History & Visual Studies. Join us for the premiere of this produced special that… read more about Duke English Featured As Part of the Duke Arts Student Showcase »
We are excited to announce the winners of the 2021 Creative Writing Contests and the Creative Writing Scholarship awardees. Each year the English Department administers writing contests to recognize fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by English majors and non-major undergraduates. The department also awards three academic scholarships to undergraduate students who have been nominated by English faculty for work done in one or more creative writing courses. Congratulations to the following students! … read more about 2021 Creative Writing Contest and Scholarship Winners »
Duke English creative writing students have had the pleasure of creative writers visiting their classes to share their experiences, answer students' questions about writing, and provide tips on improving their writing skills. Guest authors to Professor Maren's "Intro to Creative Writing" class this spring have included Kendra Allen, Tyree Daye, and Paul Yoon. Professor JP Gritton’s “Intro to the Writing of Fiction” class enjoyed virtual visits from Cidinha da Silva and Adrienne Perry.… read more about David L. Paletz Creative Writing Guest Series Last Two Visitors for Spring Semester »
