UW-L English Studies Blog

"Using Contemplative Pedagogies to Deepen Reading" - Friday, November 19, 2:30-3:45, 3310 Student Union

UWL English Department's William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series 2021-2022 presents:

"Using Contemplative Pedagogies to Deepen Reading" by Dr. Rebekah Fowler.

Our students are stressed and pressed for time. Using mindfulness or contemplative pedagogies provides a pause for our students that can also encourage deeper reading when used in the classroom. Contemplative pedagogies are experiential in nature, promoting recognition of how our senses and emotions influence our responses to learning and utilizing silence and reflection to connect more deeply with course content. This colloquium presentation will give participants the opportunity to experience two types of contemplative practices–lectio divina and beholding­–in readings of literary texts. Lectio divina, or "divine reading," uses a four-step monastic/religious reading practice as a fruitful approach to reading a passage of text more deeply, while beholding makes the link between the written word and images, inviting readers to visualize text, find an image that approximates that vision, and then closely examine the image before reflecting on how that image connects to the text.   

Participants will experience two types of contemplative practices: lectino divina and beholding.

ALL UWL INSTRUCTORS WELCOME!

Friday, Nov. 19
2:30-3:45 p.m.
3310 Student Union

Brittany Maule is the final presenter in this semester's "Futures in Writing Speaker Series" - November 11th, 5:30pm, Wing 102 and on Zoom!

The final presenter for this semester’s Futures in Writing Speaker Series will join us this Thursday (November 11th) at 5:30!

Brittany Maule is Communications & Research Specialist and Manager of Science & Standards at Green Seal.

Thursday, November 11, 2021
5:30 P.M. in Wing 102

Zoom link:

https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/my/uwlax1

For more information contact cmccracken(at)uwlax.edu

 

 

Cat Daly is the second presenter in this semester's "Futures in Writing Speaker Series" - November 3rd, 5:30pm, Wing 102 and on Zoom!

The second presenter for this semester’s Futures in Writing Speaker Series will join us this Wednesday (November 3rd) at 5:30!

Cat Daly is Communications Content Specialist at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.

Wed. November 3, 2021
5:30 P.M. in Wing 102

Zoom link:

https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/my/uwlax1

"Trans as Risk: Risk Communication in Anti-Transgender Rhetoric" - Friday, December 10, 2:30-3:45, 3310 Union

William J. and Yvonne Hyde Colloquium Series Presents:

"Trans as Risk: Risk Communication in Anti-Transgender Rhetoric" by Dr. Louise Zamparutti

In early 2020, Idaho introduced the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, banning transgender athletes from participating in sports. Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Florida soon followed with similar bills. This presentation analyzes the rise of anti-trans rhetoric in multiple forms of public discourse. Dr. Louise Zamparutti integrates stasis theory with Kenneth Burke's concept of piety to show how transgender personhood is negated as trans is abstracted into a nonhuman agent and communicated as a risk to cisgender individuals and to a cisgender worldview.

Dr. Zamparutti concludes by proposing Burke’s theory of Perspective by Incongruity and S. Scott Graham's Functional Stasis Theory as launching points for more equitable deliberation that would energize the action of change in language and concept-association, dislodging pieties from their fixed pillars and revealing human potential for transformation.

Friday, December 10, 2021
2:30-3:45pm
3310 Union

Also available on Zoom: https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/j/92861028299

Mary Purdy is the first presenter in this semester's "Futures in Writing Speaker Series" - October 27th, 5:30pm, Centennial 1404 and on Zoom!

The first presenter for this semester’s Futures in Writing Speaker Series will join us this Wednesday (October 27^th) at 5:30!

Mary Purdy is a former UWL English major. She worked at Kohl’s corporate office as a Communications Specialist and is now pursuing a J.D. at Marquette Law School.

Wed. October 27, 2021
5:30 P.M. in Centennial 1404

Zoom link:

https://wisconsin-edu.zoom.us/my/uwlaxl

 

 

"The Poems of Joy Harjo: A Pre-Visit Celebration!" - Tuesday, Oct. 19, 7:00-8:00pm, 3130 Union.

"The Poems of Joy Harjo: A Pre-Visit Celebration!"

Poetry lovers! Join us for a casual evening reading and discussing the poems of Joy Harjo! No preparation necessary.

Sponsored by the UWL Literary and Cultural Studies Program and the English Department.

Tuesday, Oct. 19th
7:00-8:00pm
3130 Union

A Reading, Discussion, and Book Signing with U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo - Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021, 7 P.M. Centennial Hall, Room 1400

Joy Harjo flyer - Oct 21

The first Native American Poet Laureate of the United States, Joy Harjo is a member of the Mvskoke Nation and belongs to Oce Vpofv (Hickory Ground). She has published 14
books, produced seven award-winning albums, and earned countless awards and honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement
from The Poetry Foundation. 

Sponsored by the Driftless Writing Center, the UWL English Department, the
College of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities and the Provost’s Office.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2021, 7 P.M.
CENTENNIAL HALL, ROOM 1400

 

 

UWL’s Creative Writing end-of-year recital/celebration 2019 - Thursday, May 9, 4:00 pm at Common Ground

UWL’s Creative Writing end-of-year recital/celebration 2019

Thursday, May 9
4:00 pm

Common Ground
1334 Pine St.
La Crosse, WI
54601

 

 

The UWL Poetry Club is hosting a reading and discussion with Dr. Lalita Hogan - Wednesday, April 24, 7:00-8:00pm, 3120 Union

The UWL Poetry Club is hosting a reading and discussion with Dr. Lalita Hogan, who will be reading from her book titled A Country Without Borders: Poems and Stories of Kashmir. Attendees are invited to bring a poem about their memories or experiences of "home" to share. Wednesday, April 24th, 7-8 pm, 3120 Union. Further Info: Marissa Davis ([email protected]) or Mya Lonnebotn ([email protected]).

“Transcorporeality and Eco-theory: A New Understanding of the Body” - Tuesday, April 23, 11:00-11:25am, Student Union, 3314

Graduating senior Mari Sweetman will present part of her honors thesis “Transcorporeality and Eco-theory: A New Understanding of the Body” on Tuesday, April 23 at 11:00-11:25 in the Student Union, Room 3314.  

“What is a body? Is it a mind, a soul, a physical form? The limits of the body are difficult to define. Experiences physical, mental, and emotional form a complex sensory existence, muddling what we understand to be a part of us. These are important to examine, for so much of what we do not only impacts us but all that is around us. Transcorporeality, a theory in which the body does not end with the physical or mental self but extends beyond, can help us grapple with this. In transcorporeality, the body becomes porous, ending not with the physical or mental, but with the actions, thoughts, feelings, and impacts of one’s actions. In this beings (both human and nonhuman) and matter are intermeshed within a web of consciousness and existence beyond human-centric thought. In response to a world damaged by this human-centric thought and action (i.e., human-driven climate change), I am compelled by the possibilities that an understanding of transcorporeality could bring to human understanding of human and nonhuman bodies, and the environment. In my oral presentation, I will address the connectedness between transcorporeality and the environment in through an exploration of both theoretical texts (including Alaimo, Barad, and Haraway) and  environmental literature (including Williams and Erdrich), with the aim of helping us go beyond our human-centric understanding of our own bodies in their interactions with the environment and in the marginalization of the bodies of others.”

“Robert Pirsig and Wallace Stegner: Crossing to Safety” - Friday, April 19, 2:30-3:30pm, Wimberly 104

Dr. Peter Olson will present “Robert Pirsig and Wallace Stegner: Crossing to Safety” on Friday, April 19 from 2:30-3:30 p.m. in Wimberly 104.

Robert Pirsig, the writer who transformed a startlingly original Chautauqua delving into the metaphysics of quality was also a reformer at the nexus of technology and art; Wallace Stegner, a writer raised on the plains of Saskatchewan, became the founder of Stanford’s creative writing program. Stegner divided his creative energies between didactic environmental writing and imaginative literature. Pirsig sought a reconciliation, perhaps futilely, between Western metaphysics and nominalist psychology. Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance traces a complex narrative that combines travel journalism, nature writing, rhetorical exhortation, and the implications of an “undifferentiated aesthetic continuum,” through the development of his alter ego Phaedrus. Pirsig’s narrative is a chiasmus, a crossing that witnesses failure and reversal. Stegner explores human relationships that survive by means of trust and empathy even as his perspective remains critical and ironic of human potentialities that appear to be incapable of transcendence. Stegner’s environmental writing attributes human action to the willful harm done to the natural environment. Both authors recognize their own sense of contingency with respect to place—the West—and to American cultural dilemmas precipitated by late capitalism. Both authors attempt to address their contingency through a movement of return, a crossing to safety through their ability to translate their experience into art. Their connections to the landscape and commitments to direct and original seeing ultimately illuminate what Lawrence Buell terms the “environmental imagination.”

"Patterns, Negotiations, Ideologies: Designing Grading Contracts for Anti-racist Classrooms" - Friday, April 19, 11:00-12:00pm, UNION 3105

"Patterns, Negotiations, Ideologies: Designing Grading Contracts for Anti-racist Classrooms"

Presented by Virginia Schwarz

Friday, April 19. 2019

11 :00-12:00 - Presentation
12:00-1 :00 - Brown-bag Lunch

UNION 3105

UWL English Department presents the Spring 2019 Professional & Technical Writing Speaker Series

UWL English Department presents the Spring 2019 Professional & Technical Writing Speaker Series

UWL English alumni and other professionals will share their perspectives on professional and technical writing, offer job market advice, and discuss important skills for contemporary workplaces. All UWL students are welcome!

Mary Purdy
Marketing - Loyalty Coordinator
Kohl's Department Store
APRIL 11
6:00-7:30
WING 102

Peyton Bentley
Lead Information Developer
Kaplan Professional Education
APRIL 17
6:00-7:30
UNION 3314

Fue Yang
Community Trainer
Independent Living Resources
APRIL 23
6:00-7:30
UNION 3130

Eric King
Technical Writer
Illumina Manufacturing
MAY 1
6:00-7:30
UNION 3314

Questions? Contact Dr. Chris McCracken - cmccracken(at)uwlax.edu

Hmoob Immigration Tour - Tuesday, April 9, 5:30pm

Our final public La Crosse Reads 2019 event is on Tuesday, April 9th, at 5:30pm, beginning at the corner of King/5th Street in Cameron Park. We have collaborated with Hear, Here to offer a specialized tour focusing on stories of Hmoob immigration, developed by Associate Director of Hear, Here and Associate Archives Librarian at the La Crosse Public Library, Jenny DeRocher. The tour will highlight local stories and histories that resonate with Kao Kalia Yang’s The Latehomecomer, elevating those voices from our community that join the novel in weaving a rich and varied tapestry of the Hmoob experience in the upper Midwest.

Questions and accommodations: Dr. Natalie Eschenbaum, Associate Professor and Chair of English, neschenbaum(at)uwlax.edu

English Honor Society 2019 Book Drive - April 1 through April 12

Boxes will be located at the English Department Front Desk, in the COVE, and by the Racquet Office. Donations will go to those in need, so bring everything from paperbacks to puzzle books!

When: Monday, April 1 to Friday, April 12

Where: English Dept. Front Desk, The COVE, Student Union