NSU News Oct.09 - Northwestern State University

News from the Dept. of Language and Communication
Dr. Allen Bauman and
Dr. James Crank received
the news in the spring
of 2009 that their grant
proposal “Strengthening New
Concentration in Film Studies
through a Departmental Film
Library” had been funded
by the Board of Regents for
over $5,000. The proposal
intended to provide support to
the film studies concentration
in the most practical way
possible: by providing a film
library for the department
consisting of movies that have
been requested by faculty
as primary sources to be
used in classes. The grant
promotes the newly developed
“Film Concentration” within
our department’s major
curriculum. Second, the
departmental film library (the
result of the grant monies)
serves as a resource within the
university, and will allow the
expansion of our Master of Arts
in Entertainment Technology.
Finally, the Board of Regents’
grant also helps establish
Northwestern State University
and its Department of Language
and Communication as one
of the only sites for training
for the constantly-expanding
film industry in northern
Louisiana. We hope to train
and educate future directors,
lighting designers, grips,
and foley artists to work for
Louisiana’s film industry.
Dr. James Crank received
word that the manuscript for
his article, “Racial Violence,
Receding Bodies: James Agee’s
Anatomy of Guilt” has been
accepted for publication in the
collection Agee at 100 (U of TN
Press, 2010).
Dr. Julie Kane’s new
poetry collection, JAZZ
FUNERAL (Story Line Press,
2009) was launched this past
summer with a reading on
June 10 at the West Chester
University Poetry Conference
in West Chester, Penn. The
book won the 2009 Donald
Justice Poetry Prize, judged
by David Mason. On June 18,
there was a wine and cheese
reception/signing for the book
at The Book Merchant Book
Shop in Natchitoches, attended
by many NSU personnel. On
July 11, Julie gave a reading
in the Powow River Poets
series at Jabberwocky Books in
Newburyport, Mass. She also
signed books afterward. July
25 brought a reading and book
signing at the Garden District
Book Shop in New Orleans,
and the following weekend
Julie read on a double bill with
poet Robin Kemp at The Maple
Leaf in New Orleans. Aug.
5 brought a reading before
the “Young at Heart” group
of the First United Methodist
Church of Natchitoches at their
monthly luncheon meeting.
Julie made appearances
at the Southern Festival of
the Book in Nashville on
Sept. 9, where she read with
poets Grace Bauer and Diann
Blakely, and at the Louisiana
Book Festival in Baton Rouge
on Sept. 16, where she shared
a bill with Darrell Bourque and
Peter Cooley.
Also since the end of
the spring semester, Julie
introduced poet Ellen Bryant
Voigt, the winner of the 2009
Poets’ Prize, at the Poets’ Prize
awards ceremony May 21 at the
Nicholas Roerich Museum in
New York City, and interviewed
Kiem Do, the co-author of
her nonfiction Vietnam book
(COUNTERPART: A SOUTH
VIETNAMESE NAVAL
OFFICER’S WAR) during a
narrative stage session of the
Natchitoches/NSU Folklife
Festival on July 18. A poem
from JAZZ FUNERAL,
“Particle Physics,” was featured
on Poetry Daily http://poems.
com/poem.php?date=14500)
and was read by Garrison
Keillor on the Sept. 16
broadcast of Writer’s Almanac
. You can
purchase the book directly
from the publisher here . Also, please visit Dr.
Kane’s professional webpage
here .
Thomas
Reynolds delivered his paper
“Derrida’s Post Card and the
Erotic Triangle: Homosociality,
Power, and Beyond” in March
at the Louisiana Conference
on Literature, Language,
and Culture in Lafayette,
where he earned the Darrell
Bourque Award for the Most
Outstanding Paper. Also in
March, he travelled on an
NEF grant to the Conference
on College Composition
and Communication in
San Francisco, where he
delivered his paper “Franklin’s
Autobiography as a Model
of Empirical Rhetoric.”
Thomas ended the Spring
2009 conference season in
April at the Popular Culture
Association/American Culture
Association national conference
in New Orleans, LA, where he
delivered his paper, “’They’re
Not Paternity Pants; They’re
Fat Pants:’ The Growing
Discourse of Maternity
Literature for Men.”
Volume 33 No. 9
October 2009
9