"Department of English" Archive

Faculty books: June and July 2021

Congratulations to Wake Forest University faculty from the Reynolda Campus who reported publishing books in June and July 2021:

Categories: Faculty NewsInside WFU

Bob Shorter, retired English professor, passes away

We are saddened to share that retired professor of English Robert N. (Bob) Shorter died at Salemtowne on Saturday, July 10. He was 90 years old.

Professor Shorter grew up in New Rochelle and South Salem, New York. Headshot of Bob Shorter, retired professor of English at Wake Forest UniversityHe was educated at Union College, which maintained a special place in his heart, and received his MA and PhD at Duke. He taught medieval literature for 41 years at Wake Forest from 1958-1999 where he was chairman of the English department for 12 years and associate dean of the Graduate School.

Professor Shorter’s special love was Chaucer, whose description of the knight in the Canterbury Tales might well have fit him: “he loved chivalrie/ Trouth and honor, freedom and curteisie . . . .He was a verray, parfait, gentil knyght.”

He is survived by his wife Professor Emerita of English Nancy Cotton, who taught at Wake Forest from 1977-2002, his son Geoffrey who graduated from Wake Forest in 1983, grandson Duncan (Elyse), granddaughter Morgana, and great-granddaughter Letitia Marie.

A memorial will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 17 in the Smith Saal at Salemtowne. Memorial gifts can be made to Wake Forest University or to the Union Fund, 807 Union Street, Schenectady, NY 12308.

We grieve Professor Shorter’s death and extend our condolences to his family and friends, as well as those at Wake Forest who had the opportunity to know him.

Wake Forest offers support and counseling services for all students, faculty and staff. The Counseling Center may be reached at 336.758.5273, the Chaplain’s Office at 336.758.5210. For faculty and staff, there is also the Employee Assistance Program at 336.716.5493.

An obituary is available in the Winston-Salem Journal here.

Categories: Inside WFU

Laura Mullen announced as William R. Kenan Jr. Chair in the Humanities

Professor Laura Mullen has been appointed as the William R. Kenan Jr. Chair in the Humanities. Mullen — whose scholarship covers poetry, experimental prose, criticism, fiction, non-fiction and film poetry — will begin her appointment within the Department of English at Wake Forest in July. Headshot of Laura Mullen, Wake Forest University professor and William R. Kenan Jr. Chair in the Humanities

For the past 17 years, Mullen has been expanding the minds of her creative writing students at Louisiana State University, where she also served as the director of creative writing. Poetry has always been central in her esteemed career, including her selection as Brown University’s Poet-in-Residence twice, first in 2001 and then again in 2017, and as a visiting poet at Columbia College in 2003.

Mullen joins a storied lineup of Kenan chairs who left lasting legacies for their students and their chosen fields of interest, from Germaine Brée to Allen Mandelbaum and Julian Young.

Read the full announcement and a Q&A with Laura Mullen on the College News website.

Categories: Faculty NewsInside WFU

Faculty books: January 2021

Hughes, Michael L. (History). Embracing Democracy in Modern Germany: Political Citizenship and Participation, 1871-2000. Bloomsbury Academic. 2021.

Rapaport, Herman. (English). Derrida on Exile and the Nation: Reading Fantom of the Other. Bloomsbury Academic. 2020.

Categories: Faculty NewsInside WFU

Conference on the intersections of poetry, science and art, May 13-16

Art and science will come together at Entanglements: A Conference on the Intersections of Poetry, Science, and Art next week from May 13-16.

The 2019 Reynolda Conference at Wake Forest will bring together a diverse range of 10 leading poets, scientists, artists, and scholars from around the world whose work and/or teaching engages with trans-disciplinary investigations into shared principles and methods in literature, science and art.

Featured presenters will be joined by Wake Forest faculty and staff presenters, special guests, visiting attendees and the generalpublic for three days of innovative programming.

The conference is free. No registration is required. A schedule is available here.

Entanglements is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with an award granted to the conference convener, Amy Catanzano, by the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute and the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

Additional sponsors are the Wake Forest University Humanities Institute with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Creative Writing Minor in the Department of English, and the Interdisciplinary Performance and the Liberal Arts Center (IPLACe) at Wake Forest University.

Entanglements is named after the quantum mechanical phenomenon of entanglement in which states of subatomic particles are intertwined with each other despite being spatially separated.

Categories: Inside WFU

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