Voices of the Rainbow Event: Colum McCann

When & Where
Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 6:30 pm
Health Sciences Building, Room 121

Colum McCann, a native of Ireland, has written two collections of short stories and several novels, the most recent of which, Let the Great World Spin, recently won the National Book Award for Fiction. He has published widely in such venues as The New Yorker and Paris Review. His film, "Everything in this Country Must," was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.

Contact Professors Maria McGarrity or Louis Parascandola: (718) 488-1050

Directions to LIU, Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues Brooklyn
Q,M,R Trains to DeKalb Avenue
2,3,4 or 5 to Nevins Street
Funding by the Provost’s Office


Sigma Tau Delta chapter news

Five members of the Omicron Zeta chapter of Sigma Tau Delta will be attending the Annual Convention in St. Louis, MO, March 17-20.

Jon Peacock, Christine Gans, and Danielle Moskowitz will be presenting papers on a panel titled "Looking at Reading and Writing, Through the Eyes of a Graduate Instructor."

Lisa Huang will present her critical essay titled, "Shifts in Social Perspectives of Christianity over Time."

Tejan Green Waszak will present a creative nonfiction piece titled, "Home Tweet Hollywood."


Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Workshop

How to Create Independent Student Writing Groups

Professor Harriet Malinowitz (English Department) will lead this workshop, which is for faculty who would like to sow the seeds of independent student writing groups in their classes as well as for students who would like to start up their own groups. All are welcome to find out how small clusters of students can "workshop" their way together from freshman year to graduation (or for shorter stints, if desired), gaining valuable skills and confidence with peer support (and having fun).

We will discuss how such groups operate and how to form them, as well as demonstrate workshopping in action by students who have done it successfully in the past (with a Q & A). Follow-up information and support will be provided.

Lunch will be provided.

When & Where
Tuesday, February 23, 12-2 PM
Humanities Building, Room 213


MFA Reading Series Event: Alex Mindt

Alex Mindt, distinguished visiting writer in the MFA program at Long Island University, will be reading his work. There will be a reception and book signing afterwards.

When & Where
Friday, February 26, 6-8
English Department, 4th Floor Lounge, H Building

Alex Mindt is the author of a book of stories, Male of the Species, published by Delphinium Books in 2007.

"The stories in Alex Mindt's debut collection begin at a turning point in the lives of his characters and then proceed, with supreme skill and unerring pitch, to a miraculous moment of quiet revelation and grace, when their full humanity is revealed and our understanding of human nature is enlarged. This Chekhovian empathy for the wide-ranging cast of people who make up today's America is a rare gift, and one of the highest order. These unforgettable stories already feel like classics." --Jaime Manrique



Voices of the Rainbow: Merle Collins & Sandra Maria Esteves

Merle Collins, born in Grenada, is a poet and fiction writer. Her works include the novel, Angel, and the poetry collection, Lady in a Boat.

Sandra Maria Esteves, the “Godmother of the Nuyorican Poetry,” is a poet and visual artist who has published several collections of verse.

Monday, February 22
11 am
Health Science 121

Contact Professors Maria McGarrity or Louis Parascandola: (718) 488-1050

Directions to LIU, Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues Brooklyn
Q,M,R Trains to DeKalb Avenue
2,3,4 or 5 to Nevins Street

Funding by the Provost’s Office

Co-sponsored by the Gender Studies Program and the
Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program


Voices of the Rainbow--Michael Thomas

Michael Thomas, born in Boston, is the author of Man Gone Down, winner of the prestigious IMPAC Dublin award. The prize committee deemed the work “brilliant in its scope and energy, and deeply moving in its human warmth.” This debut novel is a luminous story of an African American man struggling over a period of 4 days to save his family.

When & Where
Thursday February 11
12 noon
Health Science 119

Contact Professors Maria McGarrity or Louis Parascandola : (718) 488-1050.

Directions to LIU, Flatbush and DeKalb Avenues Brooklyn.
Q,M,R Trains to DeKalb Avenue / 2,3,4 or 5 to Nevins Street.

Funding by the Provost’s Office.

Co-sponsored by the Africana Studies Program.


Workshop: "This is How We Think"--Getting Beyond the Personal: Research and the Visual Essay

When & Where
Friday, February 19, 2010
12:30-3:00 PM
Media Arts Conference Room
Humanities Building, Second Floor

"This is How We Think," continues the line of thinking begun in Miller and Hammond's YouTube piece, "This is How We Dream."

Part I / Part II

Professors Miller and Hammond will discuss the impact that digital technology is having on the organizing concepts of higher education: mastery, literacy, individual achievement. In a world where information abounds, where reading and research have moved from paper to screen, and where collaboration and networking have replaced the isolated scholar in the garret, what is the work of higher education? What does it mean to learn, to think, and to write in any discipline when literacy goes online? In this collaborative talk and multimedia presentation, Professors Miller and Hammond will introduce their most recent work with students from across the disciplines on writing with new media and on contending with the challenges of sustainability.

In this workshop, we will consider practical ways to get students from across the disciplines to reflect on what it means to do research when Google is always ready to hand. How do we generate thought in an information-saturated environment? What happens when students from the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences are asked to compose with images, interviews, sound, and text?

Richard E. Miller, Executive Director of the Plangere Writing Center, is the author of Writing at the End of the World (Pittsburgh, 2005), As If Learning Mattered: Reforming Higher Education (Cornell, 1998), and co-author, with Kurt Spellmeyer, of The New Humanities Reader (Houghton-Mifflin, Cengage, 3rd edition, 2008), a textbook used in first-year writing courses in high schools, colleges, and universities across the country.

Paul D. Hammond is the Director of Digital Initiatives in the Rutgers University Writing Program. He has a Ph.D. in German Literature and a forthcoming book on Thomas Bernhard, A Private Life as Public Discourse, but he is primarily interested in developing participatory, collaborative curricula for new media research and teaching across the humanities disciplines, which includes designing next generation teaching and learning spaces.

This event is sponsored by: The Richard L. Conolly College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Project Quest (Quality Undergraduate Expanded Science Training) at the Brooklyn Campus, and the Long Island University Teaching & Learning Initiative.

Click image to see flyer for this event.