A Feast of Words - Fall 2006 - Department of English - Virginia Tech

The Department of English Newsletter
A Feast of Words
Number 28 Fall 2006
In This Issue
From the Chair ..........................................................2
In Memoriam: Dr. Charles Modlin...........................3
Spring Commencement 2006...................................4
New Faculty Profiles................................................8
Graduate Student Conference..................................9
Undergraduate Student Conference ........................9
Representations of Race Symposium.....................10
A Celebration of Students.......................................11
A Tribute to Lucinda Roy.......................................12
The Steger Award...................................................12
2006 Virginia High School Poetry Contest
Winners...................................................................13
Join the Conversation: You Can Make A
Difference...............................................................14
From the Distinguished Alumni Board:
Lisa Marlene Derx ..................................................15
Alumni Notes ..........................................................15
Charles Modlin Memorial Scholarship
Established ............................................................. 16
www.english.vt.edu
During her fi nal commencement ceremony as department chair, Lucinda Roy
presents a diploma to Valencia Person.

From the Chair by Carolyn Rude
Carolyn Rude assumed the position of department chair in May, when Lucinda Roy stepped down to pursue her
creative writing and outreach projects. Carolyn joined the Virginia Tech faculty in 2003, after 22 years at Texas
Tech University. At Virginia Tech, she served as the Director of Graduate Studies in English from 2004 to 2006,
and she led the development of the PhD proposal in Rhetoric and Writing, which was approved in May 2006.
The English Department has been expanding its identity over the past several years as it has defined specializations
within the undergraduate English major, launched an MFA in Creative Writing, and proposed a PhD in
Rhetoric and Writing. The PhD program will admit students for fall 2007.
This expansion makes it clear that “English” has a complex identity. We have recognized and affirmed the
traditional study of literature and language, but we have also embraced cultural studies, creative writing, composition,
professional writing, and rhetoric. We seem to know intuitively that English is important in aesthetics
and academics, but those interests, which seem at odds with business and politics, are now yoked to them
within our department.
Our specializations within English Studies represent quite a lot of diversity, but to add to the complexity,
they are also interdisciplinary. We study literature in its historical and political contexts and draw from psychology and philosophy to explain
specific texts and to understand the role of literature in individual lives and in the world. Rhetoric, developed to enable citizens to
participate in a democracy, inherently connects to the political and social world. Professional writing moves English into business and the
work of nonprofits and government. Creative writing and composition know no limits for topics for stories, poems, plays, and essays. Our
reach is wide.
On the one hand, it is reassuring that English touches and influences all parts of our lives. That’s better than being on the margins as the
world races on. But what is our center? What connects all these uses of English? What do we contribute to the university and its students, to
the state and the public who help to fund the university, and to the world? How do we represent ourselves as we develop in multiple ways?
These are questions we will ponder as we implement our programs.
One thing that binds us is our common commitment to teaching and to our students. That value has not changed as we have moved in
new directions. I have been reading the spring teaching evaluations. Across specializations, students are enthusiastic about course content,
and they admire the knowledge of the faculty. They appreciate the interest and attention of the faculty. This excellence characterizes our
department throughout all the teaching ranks, including our beginning teachers, the GTAs. In this department, excellence is average.
Our use of words connects us. Whether we write stories or appeals, whether we read poems or proposals, we are engaged by our craft. We
love using words well, we are charged and moved by exquisite, sometimes surprising, uses of words by others, and we admire the revelation
of a fresh perspective on a problem as represented in a text. We are engaged by the power of words to articulate and shape feelings, beliefs,
values, and actions. We use words - in the senses of creating great metaphors, getting at something inexpressible, discovering something
we had not known before writing or reading, calling attention to a problem that had not been recognized, directing the energies of decision
makers. Sometimes we use words by writing them, sometimes by invoking them, sometimes by reading and interpreting them.
Our expansive directions confirm that our work, whatever the specialization, matters in the world. The stories we write define our culture
and make it cohere. Because people study these stories in our classes, there’s a shared sense of values. The whole culture nods at a quotation
from Shakespeare and understands, in a kind of shorthand, the meanings that it invokes. Our essays and proposals have the same kind
of power in other contexts.
We find our common roots in the liberal arts and the humanities, the studies that enable informed people to live together in freedom. Language
allows us to explore nuance, ambiguity, and diversity, passion as well as rationality, the human experience on the most intimate and
most grand scales. Language allows us to reason and to persuade. Our comprehensive English Department embraces all of these purposes.
Before I became chair, the faculty and its leaders set the department on an ambitious course by imagining what “English” could mean
in this university and beyond. We are moving in new directions while holding on to our common values. I celebrate our expansion, and I
am optimistic about our future as a department as we declare the reach and power of English Studies in the world and in our lives. I am
honored by the trust of the faculty in choosing me to be chair, and I am committed to continuing the work that has been started with such
energy and vision.
The world is a text. Read it. Write it.
2 A Feast of Words

In Memoriam: Dr. Charles Modlin by Hilbert H. Campbell
Probably the thing that most people will
remember about my good friend and colleague
Charles Modlin, who died on January 1, 2006, is
his ability to make and keep friends. Although
he was about as far from being a gladhander or
backslapper as one could get, Charlie genuinely
exemplified the term “good-natured.” Without
any tint of condescension, flattery, or insincerity,
he simply met people where he found
them and treated them as equals and friends. I
used to kid him about being the “friend to the
friendless,” meaning that he would find a way
to form friendships with people who otherwise
had no friends. For example, I had a colleague
at Marshall University in the 1960’s who was
notorious for either pointedly ignoring or insulting
his colleagues. I plead guilty to disliking
him thoroughly. So I was quite surprised to
learn, years later in talking to Charlie, that
not only had he been the man’s friend when
they both taught at West Virginia University
but that they also had remained friends and
correspondents through the intervening years.
This is but one example of his determination
to hold onto friends once made. I’ve never
known anyone who tried harder to keep up
contacts with friends from the past, ranging
from his fourth-grade teacher to schoolmates,
college friends, former neighbors or colleagues.
Charlie’s friends also agree that he was completely
unpretentious and that he reserved his
contempt – and privately it could be fairly fierce
– for any kind of pretentiousness.
Charlie was born January 23, 1937, at Sistersville,
W. Va. His father, Rev. H. Eugene
Modlin, was a distinguished Methodist minister
who was reassigned periodically to new
locations, so Charlie grew up in various West
Virginia cities and towns, including Fairmont,
Montgomery, Clarksburg, and Huntington. He
began college at Marshall in Huntington but
soon transferred to West Virginia Wesleyan,
where he not only completed his undergraduate
studies (1958) but also met his wife of almost
48 years, Marjorie McCullough of the Bronx,
New York. He completed a Master’s degree at
Michigan State University (1959) and began
his doctoral work at Brown University. The
responsibility for a young family, however (son
Andy, daughter Greta), meant that his further
graduate studies would be interrupted by periods
of teaching as an instructor at West Virginia
University and at Western Kentucky University
before he completed his Ph.D. in English at the
University of Tennessee (1968).
In 1968 Charlie began a long teaching career
in the English department at Virginia Tech,
continuing even after his normal retirement date
to serve the department as scheduler and also
to conduct for several years the department’s
Study Abroad program, carefully planning each
year to insure that the summers in England
and Scotland would be exciting and enriching
for his students. As an instructor of American
literature and other subjects, such as folklore,
Charlie was knowledgeable, personable, and
approachable; but he was also an exacting
teacher who did not seek an easy popularity.
His greatest satisfaction as a professor came
mainly, I believe, from his contacts with the
occasional undergraduate or graduate student
who was willing to engage genuinely with a
subject and wanted to go further with it. It was
not unusual for such students to seek him out
for independent study.
Although Charlie’s dissertation area was
Early American literature, he soon shifted
his principal scholarly interest to Twentiethcentury
American literature, and particularly
to the seminal Ohio author Sherwood Anderson.
I, of course, shared this keen interest in
Anderson with Charlie over many years. We
had the unparalleled advantages not only that
Anderson lived in Southwest Virginia for the
last fifteen years of his life but also that we met
and became friends with his widow, Eleanor
Copenhaver Anderson, who was an unfailing
source of inspiration, information, and support
for our studies over many years prior to her
death in 1985.
Going about his work without fanfare, Charlie
became one of the two or three key Anderson
scholars of our generation. In addition to
publishing a great many informative articles, he
edited two separate (and superb) collections of
Anderson’s correspondence, published a wellreceived
edition of the author’s short stories
and three additional books in collaboration with
other Anderson scholars, and for sixteen years
was the principal editor of the journal/newsletter
devoted to Anderson, called The Winesburg
Eagle and later The Sherwood Anderson Review.
Among numerous other contributions,
he was for twenty years the treasurer and most
active trustee of the Sherwood Anderson literary
estate; served for twenty-five years as a
judge for the annual Sherwood Anderson short
story contest; planned and administered an international
conference on Anderson at Virginia
Tech in 1991; organized programs and panels
devoted to Anderson at meetings of the American
Literature Association and elsewhere; and
for several years was one of the directors of the
Sherwood Anderson Foundation. Appropriately
enough, Charlie spent much time during
the last year of his life helping the University of
Wisconsin Press get Professor Walter Rideout’s
definitive biography, Sherwood Anderson: A
Writer in America, ready for publication, a task
that illness prevented Rideout himself from doing.
Volume One, with Charlie’s introduction,
was published earlier this year, and Volume Two
is soon to be published.
Certainly one of the most prominent and
meaningful strands of my own life has been
my long, close, and productive association
with Charlie. His affability and his tendency
to “compartmentalize” some main aspects of
his life caused many people to think of him,
I believe, as something of a one-dimensional
personality. Those who knew him better, including
myself, realized that he was much more
complicated, truly remarkable – among other
attributes – for intellect, humanity, and integrity.
His relish for the Carter family or the Grand Ole
Opry coexisted with a passion for Metropolitan
Opera broadcasts. Through the years of my
friendship with him, I was aware there were
aspects of his character and personality that I
was only glimpsing, if that. His family wrote
in his obituary that he was a good man, and I
certainly agree. But all I really know for sure
about Charles Modlin is that he was the best
friend I ever had.
Fall 2006 3

Spring Commencement 2006 by Dean Jerry Niles
2006-2007 Scholarships
George Burke Johnston Scholarship
Amber Smith
Hilbert Campbell Scholarship
Kathleen Cooperstein
Jenkins M. Robertson Scholarships
Donald Cash, Katie Catalano, Leigh
Johnston, Lisa McKittrick, Hali
Plourde-Rogers, Therese Sell
Joyce Gentry Smoot Scholarship
Evan Chapple
Knobler Scholarships
Christine Bychowski, Therese Sell,
Bonnie Short, Emily Sturgill, Sarah
Violette
Faculty Awards
The Joyce Gentry Smoot Award for
Outstanding Teaching
Julie Mengert
Diggs Teaching Scholar Award
Jim Dubinsky
State Council of Higher Education
Outstanding Faculty Award
Paul Sorrentino
Wine Award
Tom Gardner
Sporn Award
Paul Heilker
Alumni Outstanding Teacher Award
Fritz Oehlschlaeger
Alumni Advising Award
Jennifer Mooney
CLAHS Award for Excellence in
Research and Creative Scholarship
Ernest Sullivan
CLAHS Award for
Outreach Excellence
Mark Armstrong and Jane Wemhoener
CLAHS Award for Excellence in
Administration
Lucinda Roy
CLAHS Diversity Award
Virginia Fowler
Shaping a professional life: Making good
use of a liberal arts education
Graduation day
is a wonderful occasion
to celebrate
the personal accomplishment
that
has brought you to
this point in time.
It is also a time
to express appreciation
to family,
friends, former
and recent teachers,
and the many others who have helped you
reach your goal. As the joy and celebration of
graduation day recedes, your mind will return
to the question of what’s next. Many of you
have an idea of what that is – graduate school,
careers as teachers, professional or creative
writers, or perhaps working in business in
some capacity. Others of you may not be
sure yet what your next opportunity will be
and that is OK too, it will come.
As you think about what is next, I am sure
you will wonder what it is that will be asked
of you, if you will be successful, and if you
will enjoy what you will be immersed in.
These are natural questions for one to ask at
the beginning of your upcoming journey.
Today, I’d like to attempt to help you
with this reflective process by sharing with
you some of my own reflections regarding
this journey on which you are embarking. I
started on a similar journey 40 years ago and
I have almost completed it. I can assure you
that I, as have your parents, have asked the
same questions you are asking of yourself
now, the primary ones being, “where is this
journey going to take me and how will I find
my way?”
I would never presume to tell you how
your journey should unfold. Only you can
decide that. Rather my purpose is to offer
some advice that you might find useful
while you are on this journey to “shaping
your professional life.” Yours will be very
personalized. No one else has taken it. It
will be unique to you and that is what makes
it so special. Your journey will be filled with
travel down unknown paths, marked by a
myriad of successes, failures, and surprises
and loaded with emotional reactions of all
kinds and intensities.
To help you find your way, you can look
to your liberal arts education for some
navigational tools. Reflecting on my career,
I have found that these tools were essential in
helping me find my way to the place where
I am now, as there is no way I could have
ever envisioned this destination in 1967 when
I started my journey. I want to highlight
these tools today so that you might call on
them more readily for direction during the
vital parts of your journey. They are: 1) a
commitment to inquiry, 2) a recognition of
the power of collaboration, and 3) the prudent
use of intellectual autonomy. It is my
contention that inquiry, collaboration, and
intellectual autonomy are the fundamental
building blocks for shaping your professional
life. Think for a moment if you will:
• What was one of the most interesting
problem-solving ventures you
engaged in during your time at Virginia
Tech? It may have been a service learning
project or an important writing task.
How did you feel as you struggled with
the problem and its solutions?
• Think again about a time you were
involved in a satisfying collaboration
with one or more others while solving
a good problem. How did that feel?
What did you create? What were the
contributions of the others? Did they
help make your ideas better and enhance
the outcome of the process?
• Finally, think about times that you
had the freedom to generate problems
and select among choices on their solution.
Did you feel empowered? Did
that feeling of empowerment add to your
self-confidence and generate feelings of
personal satisfaction?
Let’s examine these three navigational
tools that are promoted in a liberal education
a little more closely and see how they
might influence the shaping of your profes-
4 A Feast of Words

sional life.
Inquiry, the first navigational tool, can take
many forms and is highly adaptable to infinite
situations. Virginia Tech and the English department
have tried to provide a broad-based
education that helped develop your powers
of critical thinking and problem solving.
These essential skills of inquiry are keys
to leading a productive and fulfilling work
life. An important part of life for humans is
driven by their need to inquire. That is, life
for the engaged individual is about having
good problems to work on. In whatever area
you choose to focus your energy, whether it
is graduate school, professional or creative
writing, teaching, business or any number
of others, the real challenge is framing your
work into an infinite set of good problems.
Human beings are happiest when they are
engaged in problems that are interesting and
important. Each time you teach a class that
your students find useful or write a text that
communicates clearly and effectively, for
example, you are solving
a good problem. Solving
these kinds of problems
increases our self-confidence
and makes us feel
worthwhile.
There is an important
corollary to keep in mind
as you inquire and engage
in solving good problems
throughout your professional
life. That is, the
most interesting and challenging
problems are by
far the most intimidating.
Often your first reaction
to a complex problem
is to step back and tell
yourself that it is too scary
or difficult to engage and
that avoidance is the more
sensible response. From
my own personal experience
I must confess to you
that the problems that I
approached that generated
the most fearful reaction
and self doubt for me initially,
resulted in the most personal growth in
the end because I chose to engage them.
Thus, when you come to junctions on your
journey that represent new opportunities
or problems that seem overwhelming and
raise your levels of fear and self-doubt, fight
your instinct to back away to a safe harbor
– forge ahead, as you too will experience the
greatest reward of all, personal growth. Have
you had that same experience already? Has
an opportunity presented itself to you that
initially intimidated you? Did you engage it?
If so, remember how you felt afterward.
One of the features of good problems is
that they often require that you collaborate
with others. For most of us, undertaking really
important problems can be overwhelming.
We need support in a variety of ways.
Think for a moment about some of the
problems you have engaged. Was there a
time when you were stuck or unsure that your
thinking or work was satisfactory? It is in
this state that collaborations are so essential.
The new graduates join Lucinda Roy in singing her original
composition "Hokie-Vice," sung to the tune of "Edelweiss."
Commencement continued on page 6
Special Awards
Undergraduate
The Creative Writing
Fiction Award
Timothy Edward Johnson
The Creative Writing
Poetry Award
Jane Fuquay
The Emily Morrison Prize
for Poetry
Timothy Lockridge
The Sharon Messer Award
Michael Honchock
The Charles Martin Award
for the Best Writing
by a Graduating
English Major
Virginia Garnett
The Robert H. Dedman, Jr.
Prize for Excellence in Professional
Writing
Christopher Bayne
The Robert Chermside
Award for Outstanding
Work in Linguistics
Samantha Dickerson, Lindsey
Norris, Angela Schulz
Graduate
The Caroline Pace Chermside
Award for the Best Thesis
Edward Andrew Lautenschlager,
Nita Newswander
The Richard L. Hoffman
Award for Superior Teaching by a
Graduate Teaching Assistant
Matthew Beale, Kara Haggard
The Poster Awards
First Prize - Cheri Lemieux-Spiegel
Honorable Mention - Emily Davis
and Mimi McDonald
Fall 2006 5

Commencement continued from page 5
Collaborations can be the source of additional
ideas for you at critical times, validation
when you are uncertain, and a source of
renewal when you begin to tire.
As you collaborate with others, you can
learn about yourself and help others grow.
This reciprocity is a satisfying by-product
of collaboration. Think about the collaborations
that you have participated in during
your years at Virginia Tech. Pick one that
worked and gave you great satisfaction. Select
another that was a source of frustration
and disappointment. Why did one work and
the other fail?
I am willing to wager that in the good
collaboration there was a group commitment
to a mutual goal - each member was
empowered to make unique contributions
that were focused on that goal. Members
of the collaboration valued contributions of
others and listened carefully to what each
was saying. Moreover, group members provided
emotional support for each other when
the work entered its most difficult stages or
when there were early failures. Finally, the
satisfaction and sense of accomplishment
was heightened because you were a part of
something that was much bigger than just
you. If you had these feelings, you were
experiencing a collaborative high. Learning
to be an effective collaborator can provide
you with opportunities for personal growth
that are unimaginable as an individual working
alone.
The third navigational tool I mentioned
is the prudent use of intellectual autonomy.
While we are social beings at heart and
benefit from collaborations, we are also
strongly individualistic and seek and value
intellectual autonomy in our work. To be
effective in our professional lives we need
to have ownership in the problems we work
on. This ownership grows out of our right to
have choices about what we work on and how
we do our work. Finding work environments
that provide opportunities for collaboration
Members of the faculty, including Katherine Soniat, retired department chair Johann Norstedt, Ginney
Fowler, and Nikki Giovanni enjoy Dean Niles' remarks.
but encourage your personal autonomy will
be crucial in shaping a satisfying professional
life. Intellectual autonomy can be exercised
in many ways, including the selection of the
problem you engage, shaping the problem,
choosing your role in the problem-solving
process and even selecting with whom you
might work. You may not get to control all
of these elements all of the time but you must
have the right to have control over some of
them some of the time. Think about the times
that you had the autonomy to select the paths
you wanted to follow. Sometimes you made
good choices and sometimes not so good.
However, whether you made the right choices
or wrong ones, I am certain that these choices
were the source of personal growth because
they were uniquely yours.
As you continue on your journey to shape
your professional life there is another device
you will need to guide your journey. You will
need to carry a moral and ethical compass
with you to help keep you on course.
As you shape your professional
life, you will be faced
with many opportunities to
do the right thing, the wrong
thing, or to equivocate. You
will be challenged to choose the
right path. How will you know
which one is right? You have
already faced these choices
numerous times in your life.
Most of the time these decisions
impacted primarily on you or
those closest to you. As you
enter your work life, the moral
and ethical decisions you make
will not only affect you but the
lives of many who are only
indirectly connected to you, as
for example, a student of yours,
a reader of your text, a colleague,
a client, or a consumer
of a product of your company.
There will be times when the
morally right decision will not
be the easiest one to make. You
will be challenged. You will
6 A Feast of Words

think of numerous reasons to take the wrong
path, reasons such as personal gain or the
avoidance of conflict with colleagues or a
supervisor that will encourage you to stray
from your true course. However, as you are
faced with such decisions time and time you
will discover the lesson that one of my mentors
taught me: “There is no right way to do
the wrong thing.” Thus, at critical moments,
ask yourself, “Am I on the right path or did I
choose the one I am on because it is the one
of least resistance?”
Another point on your moral compass has
to do with the acquisition of privilege. Today
we are here to recognize your achievement of
graduating from this great university. I am
certain this is only the beginning of many
distinguished achievements for you. The
question I ask is: Will you convert your
accomplishment to the privilege and entitlement
that often comes with distinguished
achievement or will you use the privilege
you accrue to assume more responsibility
for others? It is another important choice
you will have to make and the future of our
global society depends on it. The easy choice
is to use your achievements for your own
personal gain or entitlement. It is a human
tendency to enjoy the fruits of our labor but
is that enough? I encourage you to consider
that with the privilege that comes from your
achievement, also comes increased responsibility
on your part to help others have the
opportunities to have a better life as well.
Remember your university’s core value – Ut
Prosim. It is a message that unites members
of the Hokie Nation throughout the world.
A third point on your moral compass
should be caring. Caring is one of the most
powerful of human emotions. Caring acts
as a catalyst for action, action that makes the
world a better place to live in. Caring comes
in many forms. Think about the people
in your life who are the most caring. My
guess is that they are the ones who have been
most influential in your personal history to
this point. Thus, as you shape your professional
life, make sure that you care as well
so that those who are affected by your work
will benefit from
the way you care.
There can be numerous
points on
your moral compass
to help you
find your way and
you will add many
of your own points
over the years.
I have one last
piece of advice to
share with you and
that is related to
the state of being
a beginner. While
your graduation is
a testament to your
accomplishments
thus far, you will
soon enter the state
of being a beginner.
It is a state we have
all been in, most of
us more than once.
With a number of
colleagues I have
spent a lot of time
studying beginners
in professional settings
and I want to
pass on some understandings I have come to
regarding the rights of beginners:
• It is OK to make mistakes - your
colleagues will expect it.
• It is OK to disclose your anxieties
and inadequacies to a trusted mentor.
They will understand and they can help
you cope with the most difficult times
when you are experiencing feelings of
self-doubt and helplessness.
• It is OK to take time to develop
your knowledge and skills. Your new
colleagues know that it takes a long time
to become really competent.
• It is OK to realize that even if you
worked 24 hours a day you couldn’t
accomplish all you want to do as a beginner.
It is a fact of nature that it takes
Director of First Year Composition Diana George poses with Richard L.
Hoffman Award winners Matthew Beale and Kara Haggard.
beginners longer to do everything.
• Finally it is OK to pretend to be
a competent professional in your field
while you are a beginner. You are not being
dishonest. All of us have conducted
this same charade as we developed into
competent professionals.
The journey to shaping a productive and
satisfying professional life is a great one.
Savor it. But, don’t forget to keep your seat
belt fastened because it gets pretty wild at
times.
Good luck and best wishes for a great
journey.
Fall 2006 7

New Faculty Profiles
Kelly Pender, Assistant Professor, specialization in Rhetoric and Writing
Kelly is thrilled to return to the Southeast after six years in the Midwest (four in Indiana at Purdue and two in Iowa City),
especially since the April tornado that ripped through Iowa City missed her house by just a few blocks. She grew up in Monroe,
North Carolina, near Charlotte, and earned degrees at the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University.
As a beginning master’s student at NCSU, she remembers the sophisticated doctoral student, Clare Dannenberg.
Kelly is moving to Blacksburg with her husband, Matthew Vollmer, a fiction writer who will also teach in the department,
and their 3 1/2 year-old son, Elijah.
She is interested in non-fiction genres of all sorts: biography, autobiography, history, political essays, writing about food,
documentaries, and more. She also likes hiking, swimming, and the outdoors in general.
Kelly’s niche in Rhetoric and Writing is the history and theory of rhetoric. Particular interests are the history of invention in the classical period
and theories of invention, especially as they relate or are judged according to arguments about ethics, politics, and subjectivity. A new project in
rhetorical criticism concerns the rhetorics of “pathography,” i.e., the rhetorics of writing about illness. It springs from her interest in pathos. She
has also done some work in the rhetoric of the disciplines and Writing Across the Curriculum.
Kelly graduated from Purdue in December 2005 with “highest distinction” honors for her dissertation, Writing Beyond the Art/Chance Binary:
The Ongoing Debate About Techne in Rhetoric and Composition. An article, “Kairos and the Subject of Expressive Discourse,” was published in
Composition Studies in 2003.
Katy Powell, Associate Professor, specialization in Rhetoric and Writing
After six years in technical editing and government consulting in Washington, D.C., I knew I wanted to change careers,
but was having a difficult time justifying leaving a good salary for a graduate stipend. To help make the decision, I went to
Montana to hike Glacier National Park. While on the continental divide I figured life was too short not to go for what you
want, so I quit my job and went to the University of Louisville for a degree in Rhetoric and Composition. I had a wonderful
experience there as a student, and the faculty support confirmed my decision that teaching and researching composition would
be rewarding. My first position was at Louisiana State University. Again I had a wonderful experience, supported by wonderful
colleagues and challenged by very interesting students. In addition to teaching literacy, genre theory, and pedagogy, I also
taught feminist autobiography and participated in the Women’s and Gender Studies program. After several years there, I had this nagging desire to
return to Virginia. Again, I took a big hike to help in my decision - this time to the Grand Canyon. Since that physical challenge, I’ve been pursuing
a position in my home state, not only to be closer to my family but also to give back to the place that raised me. I am thrilled to become part of
Virginia Tech, and to help develop its Ph.D. program. My husband, a writer from Missouri, loves Virginia too, and we’re very pleased to settle here,
where hiking is right out our back door.
Katy’s forthcoming book (University of Virginia press), Rhetorics of Displacement, is a study of the ways in which the people who were displaced
by the Shenandoah Park project used words to represent their claims, needs, and attachment to the land.
Introducing Steven Salaita by Ginney Fowler
The Department is delighted to welcome this fall Dr. Steven Salaita, who joins us as an advanced assistant professor of
American and Ethnic American Literatures. Steve is no stranger to this part of the country, having grown up in Bluefield,
Virginia, which is still home to his parents. After completing his undergraduate work at Radford University, he entered
the doctoral program in Native American Literature at the University of Oklahoma, where he received his Ph.D. in 2003.
Although his primary focus at Oklahoma was Native American literature, he also studied Palestinian and Arab American
literature. For the past three years, Steve has been an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin/Whitewater, where
he has taught a range of courses in American and ethnic American literatures.
Steve’s research primarily takes the form of literary criticism, but he is also drawn to the essay, particularly the political
essay, and to creative non-fiction. Because his parents are both immigrants, he finds that his own writing, critical and
creative, is preoccupied with themes of immigration, American-ness, dislocation, cultural multiplicity, xenophobia, and racialization. In terms of
research, 2006 has been an annus mirabilis for Steve, who will have three books published by year’s end: Anti-Arab Racism in the USA: Where It
Comes from and What it Means for Politics Today (Pluto Press, UK); The Holy Land in Transit: Colonialism and the Quest for Canaan (Syracuse
University Press); and Arab American Literary Fictions, Cultures, and Politics (Palgrave Macmillan).
What does Steve do when he’s not working? He is an avid bike rider, so he’ll be able to reacquaint himself with some of the challenging bike trails
here in the New River Valley. But few activities, he says, make him happier than reading and writing, both of which he does at a prodigious pace.
He is also, I might add, a wonderful conversationalist who makes his research accessible and interesting to the non-specialist, a talent often hard to
find. I myself have already enjoyed many lively and provocative conversations with Steve, who brings new areas of scholarship to the department
and who we expect will play an important role in the shaping of our ethnic literature program. We are most pleased that he has joined our faculty.
8 A Feast of Words

Graduate Student Conference: With Pen in Hand 2006 by Tim Lockridge
When Matt Beale, last year’s EGSO president, asked me to sit on the Graduate
Student Conference planning committee, I agreed—and soon realized that
I was largely unsure as to what an academic conference is, or how it should be
planned. However, with the help of Matt, Cheri Lemiuex Spiegel, and Sarah
Mitchem, I was soon fielding abstracts and arranging a schedule of what would
become thirty student presentations—a number that made the 2006 installment
of With Pen In Hand the largest and most successful to date.
Outside participation at this year’s conference was particularly impressive,
as we received a number of abstracts from beyond the Virginia Tech community
and ultimately accepted presentations from students at SUNY, UNC-Greensboro,
Central Washington University, and Radford. Panel topics included Professional
Communication, Critical Theory, Southern Writers, Postmodern Writers, and
Feminist Theory.
With the department’s introduction of the MFA in Creative Writing, this year’s
conference also marked the addition of a Friday night poetry reading and Saturday
Cheri Lemieux Spiegel presents a paper at the 2006 graduate
student conference.
afternoon fiction panels. The planning committee was initially concerned with the juxtaposition of scholarly and creative presentations, but
all panels received consistent attendance and were regarded by the panelists as successful.
Planning for the 2007 Conference is already underway as part of a larger movement that will shift EGSO from a solely social enterprise
to a larger academic support network. Looking ahead, we hope to hold the conference at the Graduate Life Center and increase the number
of presenters from neighboring universities. As graduate studies within the department continue to expand, we hope that EGSO can offer
something of a support framework for all English graduate students—not just the GTA population. As such, the conference stands as an
excellent example of what graduate students can offer to the university, and to each other.
Crossing Divides: Undergraduate Research in the Department of English by Gena Chandler
On Friday, March 31, 2006, the English Department presented its
first annual undergraduate student academic conference: Crossing the
Divide: Criticism and Creativity in the English Writing Community.
The Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Mary Ann
Lewis, provided the welcome and ushered in a full day of critical and
creative exploration. Over 50 undergraduate students presented work in
the areas of Literature, Language, and Culture; Critical Literary Theory;
and Professional and Creative Writing. Faculty, staff, parents, and
other members of the University community were treated to a full day
of critical and creative thought by undergraduate students, traversing a
wide range of critical and creative interests in English studies. Papers
examined topics ranging from Keats’ editing process in the poem “Bright
Star” to Adorno and Horkheimer’s visions of culture. The conference
was truly a collaborative project between students and faculty. Students
from Eva Brumberger’s Designing Documents for Print class were responsible
for the winning design of the conference program, and eight
members of the English Department community were responsible for
the conference’s planning: Gena E. Chandler (conference chair), Robin
Allnut, Linda Anderson, Mikel Dimmick, Ginney Fowler, Lisa Leslie,
Scott Perkins (undergraduate representative), and Karen Swenson. The
conference was a resounding success and next year’s conference promises
to be even more successful.
Fall 2006 9

Symposium on Race and Representation Encourages University-Community Partnerships
by Katie Fallon
On Monday, April 24, 2006, the Department
of English’s new Center for the Study
of Rhetoric in Society, in conjunction with
the Office of Multicultural Affairs, sponsored
a symposium focusing on “Representations
of Race and the African-American Community.”
The day-long event featured plenary
and keynote addresses by nationally-known
scholars; panels comprised of students, community
leaders, and Virginia Tech faculty;
opportunities for small group discussions;
and a reading by poet Nikki Giovanni. The
symposium was attended by more than one
hundred Virginia Tech faculty, students, and
staff, as well as members of the New River
Valley communities. The Center for the Study
of Rhetoric in Society (CSRS), directed by Associate
Professor of English Kelly Belanger,
was created “to advance the study of rhetoric
and writing through projects and partnerships
that promote the public good.” According
to Belanger, the purpose of this symposium
was to “open lines of communication and
expand understanding about issues of race
and language while creating a foundation for
community-university partnerships that extend
beyond the event itself.”
After the program was opened by remarks
from Provost Mark McNamee, Barbara
Pendergrass, retired Dean of Students, and
Department of English Chair Lucinda Roy, the
morning session centered on Historical Representations
of Race. The first plenary address,
Panelists Tracey Patton and Jo Evans react to a question.
Keith Gilyard delivers the keynote address
at the Representations of Race and the African
American Community symposium.
“One Tall Order: Trust Production in the Face
of History,” delivered by Catherine Prendergast,
Associate Professor of Writing Studies at
the University of Illinois, analyzed the rhetoric
of several Supreme Court decisions, including
Brown vs. the Board of Education. The address
was followed by a panel discussion that
examined the ways trust can be produced or
broken. In addition to Prendergast, the panel
included Mary Bishop, a retired Roanoke
Times reporter; Elaine Carter, Director of the
Christiansburg Institute, Inc.; Fred D’Aguiar,
Professor of English and Co-Director of Creative
Writing at Virginia Tech; Charles Johnson,
owner of New Image Barber Shop and
longtime Blacksburg resident; and Lisa Tabor,
Center for Public Administration and Policy
doctoral student. The panel was moderated
by Virginia Fowler, Virginia Tech Professor of
English and Director of Literature, Language,
and Culture. Following the panel, groups of
audience members discussed issues raised
throughout the morning, especially ways to
rebuild broken trust and strengthen existing
trust among people of different races.
At the conclusion of the morning session,
lunch was served and poet Nikki Giovanni
read from her award-winning book Rosa.
Following the reading, Ben Dixon, Vice
President for Multicultural Affairs, presented
the CSRS with a framed copy of Virginia
Tech’s Principles of Community for working
towards making the campus environment more
inclusive.
The afternoon
session focused
on Representation
of Race Today
and began
with the second
plenary address,
“Jim Crow on
Fraternity Row:
The Phenomenon
of Blackface
in the White
Southern Fraternal
Order,” by
Tracey Patton,
Associate Professor
of Communication and Journalism at
the University of Wyoming. Patton’s presentation
explored the ways that African Americans
have been recently represented by members of
Southern fraternities. She showed slides of
images originally posted on fraternity websites
of white members dressed in blackface. The
panel discussion that followed, moderated by
Kelly Belanger, included Muriel Best-Vinson,
a tenth-grader at Christiansburg High School;
Jo Evans, Chief of Staff for Delegate James
M. Shuler; Penny Franklin, Chair of the
Montgomery County School Board; Ellington
Graves, Associate Director of Virginia Tech’s
Race and Social Policy Research Center; and
Giovanni Turner, a graduate student in the
Department of English. In the subsequent
small group discussions, topics ranged from
the Duke lacrosse rape case to symbols such
as the Confederate flag.
The keynote address, delivered by Keith
Gilyard, Distinguished Professor of English at
the Pennsylvania State University, summarized
the day’s events and offered suggestions for
further conversations. Gilyard commented
that research centers, like the CSRS, can
play an important role in shaping the way
race is talked about in our country. We at
the CSRS hope the conversations started at
“Representations of Race and the African-
American Community” will continue, and that
the campus-community partnerships formed at
the event will flourish.
10 A Feast of Words

A Celebration of Students, March 30, 2006
Leon Kok and Emily Reisinger entertained the guests with violin music
during the celebration.
Fred D'Aguiar and MFA student Tim Lockridge engage in
a lively discussion. Entries from the fi rst grauate student
Poster Awards competition are on the wall behind them.
The Distinguished Alumni Board honored Dean Jerry
Niles for his support of the English department.
Guest enjoy the hors d'oeuvres as Lucinda Roy, Virginia Fowler, and Nikki
Giovanni share a laugh.
Fall 2006 11

A Tribute to Lucinda Roy, Department Chair 2002-2006 by Carolyn Rude
Four years ago, Lucinda Roy assumed leadership of the Department of English. She was handed a 10% budget cut, which crippled some
activities and compromised morale in the department. Furthermore, the university was being restructured, and the department was placed in
a new college, without the familiar connections one counts on in running a large department.
Instead of retreating because of the cut in resources and uncertainty, Lucinda led the department in bold new initiatives. Under her leadership,
and with the members of the faculty,
• The undergraduate curriculum was revised to give students coherent choices for various options in English Studies, and new courses
were introduced.
• A Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing was proposed, and the first class enrolled last fall.
• A PhD in Rhetoric and Writing has been approved and will admit students for next year.
• The leaders and instructors in the composition program collaboratively write a custom textbook that creates consistency from section to
section, that features the voices of Virginia Tech students, and that develops expertise among the teachers of composition as they work
together each year on a new edition.
• Through celebrations of student and faculty achievement, the department has gained visibility and respect in the university.
• A Distinguished Alumni Board has been formed.
• Diversity of the faculty has increased.
• She has kept us laughing with her wit and positive outlook.
Lucinda has tirelessly advocated for the department. There’s a well-known saying around campus that “you can’t say no to Lucinda.”
People do say no, or they try to, but she comes right back with an even more persuasive argument. For all of her grand visions and strategic
leadership, she remains committed to individuals and their well-being.
While chair, Lucinda won a statewide award for outstanding teaching and a university award for administration.
These are highlights of what Lucinda Roy has meant to the department and therefore to faculty and students in it. This department looks
significantly different from the department of four years ago: it is ambitious, achieving, energized, exemplary.
Lucinda has a research leave for the fall 2006 semester. She is working on a novel and other creative projects. She hopes to travel to Africa
for an outreach project. An accomplished painter as well as writer, she will have some time to paint again.
The department applauds Lucinda’s leadership and offers its warmest wishes to her as she pursues her writing, painting, and outreach.
The Steger Award
Congratulations to Anhvu Buchanan, winner
of the inaugural Steger Award! Buchanan, who
graduated in May with a major in psychology
and a minor in creative writing, won for his
poem Mission Statement. He was presented the
award by University Distinguished Professor
Nikki Giovanni and President Charles Steger
at a ceremony in April. Developed through the
efforts of Nikki Giovanni, the award celebrates
the value of the arts at Virginia Tech and in
the lives of its students. Buchanan received a
$1,000 cash prize donated by President Steger,
and a custom-designed sculpture.
12 A Feast of Words

All Write @Virgnia Tech 2006 by Ennis McCrery
When we think about summer camp, that
bastion of summer fun, certain images and
memories instantly spring to mind: cookouts,
bug bites, crafts, swimming, archery,
and…creative writing?
For the second year, the All Write @Virginia
Tech Creative Writing Camp sent out a
call for young writers to bring their camping
gear (in this case, a legal pad, pencil, and a
few clever metaphors) and to set up camp
on the Virginia Tech campus. The turnout
was strong, with more than 70 kids between
the ages of 8-18 participating, including
many students who had attended the camp
last summer.
The young writers and their families were
welcomed to campus by Nikki Giovanni,
whose inspiring keynote address asked students,
“What’s the story?” She encouraged
students to look for the stories in their own
lives and in the world around them, urging
them to avoid taking things at face value. In
addition, Giovanni spoke of the need for artists
to trust their own voices and to embrace
their own, unique perspectives.
Campers exercised their creative voices
in daily workshops with creative writing
faculty, where they wrote fiction, poetry,
and creative non-fiction pieces and learned
to revise and refine their work. Following
the workshops, students participated
in theme-based specialty classes taught by
faculty and MFA students. Topics for these
classes included poetry self-portraits, writing
and photography, blues poems, text and
movement, writing and music, writing about
animals, and writing and film.
“One of the most valuable aspects of the
camp is that it gives students the chance to
work on the basics of creative writing in small
groups,” said instructor Katie Fallon. “These
small groups foster a sense of community
among the students--each of my students
worked on at least three collaborative pieces.
A supportive creative writing community is
important for writers of any age.” Fallon,
who teaches freshman composition and
creative writing courses to Virginia Tech students
during the school year, found the young
Nikki Giovanni signs autographs for campers after the keynote address.
writers she worked with to be more open to
collaboration than her college students, an
experience she called “refreshing from an
instructor’s perspective.” Also refreshing
for Fallon was the kids’ energy and level of
engagement. “It was a challenge to keep up
with them!” she said.
For the young writers, the camp presented
an opportunity to exercise their imaginations
with more freedom than they are often
allowed in their schools’ standardized, testdriven
curricula. “It gave me a chance to
open my mind a little more,” said Stuart,
a rising third grader. Other students noted
that they enjoyed being able to write about
their own interests, rather than in response
to specific assignments. “It was fun,” said
a student in Robin Allnutt’s class of rising
seventh and eighth graders.
Campers shared their interests and creative
work on the last day of camp at readings
attended by friends and family. Following
the readings, the writers and their guests
celebrated the camp’s creative community
at a pizza-and-cake reception.
The week was an overwhelming success,
thanks in part to generous scholarship
donations from English faculty and local
residents. The All Write staff would also
like to thank English major Michelle Billman
for producing a segment on the camp
for WVTF.
2006 Virginia High School Poetry Contest Winners
Sponsored by the English Department
Judge Tiffany Trent, Instructor of English
First Place: “the truth”
Kelly Knapp
Western Albemarle High School, Crozet
Second Place: “Tattoo Followers”
Mary E. Shreve
Grayson County High School, Independence
Third Place: “Behind a Curtained Window”
Rutledge Long
Episcopal High School, Alexandria
Fall 2006 13

Join the Conversation: You Can Make a Difference
Your gift to the English Department is important to the students we serve. Your generosity assists us in providing scholarships
for deserving and accomplished undergraduate and graduate students. In addition, your gifts help support student programs and
activities that enhance curricular education.
Please join the growing circle of alumni and friends who collectively are making a difference with a gift by visiting
www.givingto.vt.edu (specify “English Department”) or by mailing in the form below.
If you would like more information about assisting with our student scholarship and education programs through a bequest,
estate/trust, or outright gift, please contact Tysus Jackson, Director of Development, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences
at tysusj@vt.edu, direct 540-231-8734, or toll-free 866-261-4443.
Thank you to the following alumni and friends for their recent gifts and pledges to the English Department (as of June 30, 2006):
Patrons $5,000+
Alfred E. Knobler
Sponsors $1,000+
Anonymous
Robert Arthur
James & Carol Hoge
Robert & Theresa Lazo
Darrel T. Mason
Lucinda Roy & Larry Jackson
State Farm Companies Foundation
Eileen P. Stoner
Friends $250+
Anonymous
Frankie Bailey
Heather Barker-Church
James Beckner
Earving Blythe
Gerald Canaan
Thomas & Carol Gemmell
Friends, cont.
Sandy Hagman
William C. Hankla
Donna Mitchell
Marjorie Modlin
Philip & Janet Morrison
Carole Nickerson
Johann Norstedt
Robert Patzig
Raliegh F. Seay, Jr.
Donors $1 - $249
Arthur Bales
Jennifer Bay
Jay Bland
Jennifer L. Butlin
Janet & Jimmy Buttram
Lester Gerald Carter
Albert & Leisa Ciaffone
Jack E. Conn
Clara Cox
Donors, cont.
Ty & Cynthia Davidson
Lisa Derx
Charles & Deborah Epes
Marne & George
DeVaughn
Larry Elovich
Brian T. Ferrenz
Charles D. Fisher, Jr.
Rex A. Gearheart
Thomas & Carol Gemmell
Nikki Giovanni
Global Impact
Sara Goodwin
Cynthia Hamelmann
Patty & Sandy Harmon
Delores Hodge
Lauren Smith Johnson
David & Joann Jones
Kim B. Kennedy
Donors, cont.
Nathan Kilgore
Peter & Sugar Kipp
Rachel Laudadio
Dennis R. Mohr, II
Joseph P. Monoski
Virginia & Randy Morton
Kelleigh N. Moyer
Amy Musser Widner
Jeremy Olson
Patricia P. Olson
James Owen
Rebecca Ratliff
Kimberly L. Richards-Thomas
George Rhodes
Beth Rossi
Carolyn & Donald Rude
Evelyn Rupp
Robin Ruth
David Rutkowski
Donors, cont.
John & Rita Schafer
Angela M. Schneider
Jean Skelton
Ernest Sullivan
Rebecca G. Taylor
Peter & Vicki Thompson
Sabrina Tuttle
Paige & Richard Ware
William & Kathleen Weikart
Charles Wilson
T. Guy Wilson
Dale Winship
Join the Con ver sa tion
Yes, I want to join the conversation and make a difference for our students!
Patrons (over $5,000) Sponsors (up to $5,000) Friends (up to $1,000) Donors (up to $250)
Name: _________________________________________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Degree(s): _________________ E-mail: ___________________________ Phone: _____________________________
Check enclosed, payable to VT Foundation
memo line: English Department
Credit card: V M D AMEX
Card #: _____________________________________
Exp. Date: __________ Initials: ________________
Please return to:
Virginia Tech Foundation
201 Pack Building (0336)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
A Matching Gift Form from my company is enclosed.
I have included Virginia Tech in my will, trust, or estate
plans.
Please send me in for ma tion about the Virginia Tech
Legacy Society and how I may consider including
Virginia Tech as part of my charitable bequest or estate
plans.
14 www.givingto.vt.edu
A Feast of Words

From the Distinguished Alumni Board: Lisa Marlene Derx
Are English majors made or born? In my case – well – a little of both.
As I was the middle of five children born within six years, my mother was
pleased to find even before I turned two that I could entertain myself quite
well if handed a book or magazine. That early exposure to the printed
page gave way to a childhood filled with reading. In those halcyon
days, my mother would drop us off at the county library every Friday
for an hour or two. Summer was especially enjoyable, as, freed from
the schedule of school, I spent hours and hours of the hot days reading
book after book, never tiring, never reaching surfeit. Once, I overheard my parents debating
whether I was reading too quickly to retain any knowledge of what I read. Shortly after, they
called me into the kitchen and questioned me about the latest book I had read through in one
day. Happily, I passed the pop quiz and was allowed to read unfettered ever more.
Yet, despite my love of reading, when it came time to select a major, I chose Education.
Reading and writing were fun to me, so, of course, it didn’t seem serious enough for my major.
The year I entered Virginia Tech, I was required to take only one quarter of Honors English
– we were on trimesters then – and that was it for my college career. Thanks to Professor Jim
Owens, I enjoyed the class immensely. So, while registering for class for the next term, I randomly
selected an English class - American Literature of the 19 th Century for Winter Quarter
1984, taught by Nancy Metz.
January through March in Blacksburg was cold and so dreary that year, but Dr. Metz kept
the class lively with close readings and debates about books written centuries before. So it was
while reading and discussing works like Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser and The Prairie by
James Fenimore Cooper that I began to understand that I needed to be an English major. Dr.
Metz taught us to analyze, to probe, to dig deeper for meaning. These lessons, I realized, could
be applied to any endeavor, and I soon changed my major to English.
I have never regretted my decision to spend those years studying English. The glory of my
junior year at Virginia Tech was Dr. Metz introducing me to Middlemarch, a novel that enriches
my life even now. So, it is perhaps fitting to finish this story with the words of George Eliot,
who said, “What we have been makes us what we are.” What I am, always, is an English Major,
thanks to happenstance of birth and the inspired teaching of Dr. Metz.
Alumni Notes
Marion Stafford Butterworth (B.A.
1979) is a freelance writer and the editor
of Washington Home and Garden magazine.
She recently retired as an associate
editor at Harris Publications. Marion
lives in Clifton, VA.
Peter J. Donahue (M.A. 1990) won the
Langum Prize for Historical Fiction in
recognition of his debut novel, Madison
House.
Michael Germana (B.A. 1994, M.A.
2000) has accepted a tenure-track position
at West Virginia University in Morgantown,
WV. He earned his Ph.D. from the
University of Iowa.
Debra (Debbi) Cartwright Meade
(B.A. 1977, M.S. 1994) is the director
of advertising for The Roanoke Times in
Roanoke, VA.
Allan Wolf (B.A. 1985, M.A. 1988) is a
writer in Asheville, NC. His recent novel
in verse, New Found Land, which tells
the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition,
was chosen as an ALA Best Book
for Young Adults and an IRA Children's
Book Award Notable. His most recent
book, Immersed in Verse: An Informative,
Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous
Guide to Living the Poet's Life, was published
in April by Lark Press and was a
Children's Book of the Month selection.
We Want To Hear From You!
Our newsletter will continue to feature ar ti cles and notes about our English De part ment alumni/alum nae. We would ap pre ci ate in for -
ma tion about what you have been doing since leaving Virginia Tech. Please send material to feastofwords@vt.edu or A Feast of Words,
Department of English, 323 Shanks Hall (0112), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Name: ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Degree/Year:_______________________________________________ Email: ___________________________________________
Home Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Occupation/Title: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Professional Duties: ___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Recent Awards, Grants, Hon ors, Etc.: _____________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Most Influential Professor or Instructor: ___________________________________________________________________________
Other News and/or Story Idea: ___________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fall 2006 15

Charles Modlin Memorial Study Abroad Scholarship Established
A Feast of Words
323 Shanks Hall (0112), Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Main Office Phone: (540) 231-6501
Fax: (540) 231-5692
E-Mail: feastofwords@vt.edu
http://www.english.vt.edu
Contributors:
Hilbert H. Campbell, Gena Chandler,
Katie Fallon, Ginney Fowler, Tim
Lockridge, Ennis McCrery, Jerry Niles,
Carolyn Rude
The Department of English is honored to announce the Charles Modlin Memorial Study Abroad
Scholarship, a resource that will support two English majors or minors every year in their efforts
to study abroad. This memorial scholarship is established by the friends, family, colleagues and
students of Charles Modlin, who contributed so much - and so selflessly - to providing study abroad
opportunities to our students. Charlie was known for his caring and untiring support of our students
on campus and abroad, and he was particularly concerned that international programs remain viable
for students of all financial backgrounds. Remembering Charlie in this way is especially fitting.
The scholarship fund will support two English majors or minors with $500 each for study
abroad during this coming year, and we hope to continue this support to two new students every
year. Your contributions, in memory of Charlie and in support of our students, may be given to
Jane Wemhoener (Department of English) on behalf of the scholarship fund. Checks should be
written to the Virginia Tech Foundation, and designated for use of the Charles Modlin Memorial
Study Abroad Scholarship, Department of English.
Editing and Design:
Lynn Robinson
Special thanks to:
Nancy Metz, Carolyn Rude, Cheryl
Ruggiero
A Feast of Words welcomes and
encourages contributions from readers;
please send them to the above address or
e-mail them to feastofwords@vt.edu.
VT/004800/0906/4.1M/260556
Virginia Tech
Department of English
323 Shanks Hall (0112)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Blacksburg, VA 24060
Permit No. 28
16 A Feast of Words