Room Change

From now on our Monday class will meet in Susquehanna 1117, down the hall and around the corner from the original room. Our Wednesday meetings will continue to be held upstairs, in the New Media Classroom.

Citations and Certificates

A couple of local programs you should be aware of:

The Interdisciplinary Multimedia and Technology Citation, which several of you are already enrolled in. 16 credit hours; ENGL 467 is one of three requirements. Additional information is available here.

The Science, Technology, and Society Certificate. 21 credits. There is now precedent for using ENGL 467 as an elective.

Reading at Risk? A Panel Discussion

An event I've organized--mark your calendars!

READING AT RISK? A PANEL DISCUSSION

Released in July of this year, the National Endowment for the Arts' "Reading at Risk" report garnered widespread attention for its dramatic and troubling findings, chief among which were that there has been a documented 10% national decline in "literary reading" since 1982, with the drop-off even more precipitous among younger age groups. (The report is available in its entirety online at: http://www.nea.gov/pub/ReadingAtRisk.pdf). These findings are surely of concern to anyone who cares about the future of reading and a literate populace. But what *is* reading in the current day and age? What can we learn from the history of media change, where previous moments of technological transition have been accompanied by similar expressions of anxiety and concern? Or are we truly facing an uprecedented shift in what and how and why we read? What are the implications for education? The arts? Public policy and civics? Join us on Thursday, November 18th, 2:00-3:45, in the McKeldin Special Events Room for a discussion of this issue, featuring a number of distinguished speakers from the College Park campus and beyond:

MARK BAUERLEIN, Director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts. He is also Professor of English at Emory University. He has written many books and articles on American literature, history, and philosophy, and his commentaries and reviews have appeared in Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, TLS, Yale Review, Chronicle of Higher Education, and many other national periodicals.

MICHAEL COLLIER, Professor of English and Co-Director of Creative Writing at UMCP, and former Poet Laureate of the State of Maryland. Professor Collier is the author of several books and collections, and over 100 published poems.

LISA GITELMAN, Associate Professor of English and Director of Media Studies at Catholic University. Professor Gitleman is the author of Scripts, Grooves, and Writing Machines (Stanford UP, 1999) and co-editor of New Media 1740-1915 (MIT Press, 2003).

SHIRLEY LOGAN, Professor of English at UMCP and former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (the 4Cs). She is the author of "We Are Coming": The Persuasive Discourse of Nineteenth-Century Black Women (Southern Illinois, 1999) and co-editor of many other books.

CLIFFORD LYNCH, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. He is a past president of the American Society for Information Science and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Information Standards Organization.

NICK MONTFORT, co-editor of the New Media Reader (MIT Press, 2003) and author of Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interfactive Fiction (MIT Press, 2004). Currently a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the University of Pennsylvania, Montfort is also a highly-regarded writer of interactive fiction.

The panel will be moderated by MATTHEW KIRSCHENBAUM, Assistant Professor of English at UMCP. It is intended to be of broad topical interest to a diverse and interdisciplinary audience. Free and open to the public; entire classes welcome.

Sponsored by the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) and the Department of English. Please contact Matt Kirschenbaum (mgk "at" umd "dot" edu) with questions.

My HTML Sampler

It's right here.

Book Arts Fair and Conference

The 8th biennial Book Arts Fair and Conference, sponsored by Pyramid Atlantic. In downtown Silver Spring, November 19-21. A great line-up of speakers, and over 40 vendors/sellers. If you're interested in the present (and the future) face of the book, come on out.

Reminder: Reading at Risk Discussion

Please consider attending: Thursday, November 18th, 2:00-3:45, in the McKeldin Library Special Events Room (#6137), University of Maryland, College Park.

Catching Up

Folks,

We are exactly one week behind on the syllabus. Therefore, please have Borges' "The Interloper" read for the Monday after the break.

Have a good holiday!

Final Exam Review

Here is a review sheet for the final exam. To be distributed and discussed in class today.

Happy Holidays

Grades have been submitted to Testudo. A reminder that it is my policy, as stated on the syllabus, not to discuss grades via email.

Happy holidays to all. Here's one last link to play with.