Spring 2014 Africana Studies Course with Professor Carol Allen

Professor Carol Allen
HUM 193 -- THE BLACK DETECTIVE
Professor Carol Allen (English Department)
Tuesdays 6-8:30 PM

This course traces the emergence of the black detective from 1900 to the contemporary moment. Starting with background material and a glimpse at Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and a few of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, we will delve next into works by Pauline Hopkins (the first black writer to use the detective motif) and several short pieces by Harlem Reiiaissance and mid-century artists. The second half of the semester will be dedicated to contemporary black detectives in both film and literature: the popular and the avant-garde. Possible readings include a Walter Mosley novel and/or film; a Barbara Neely novel featuring Blanche, the domestic detective; a Hugh Holton work that splices the gumshoe figure with the graphic novel tradition; a Charlotte Carter work fixed squarely in the modern city; and Louis Edward's nonlinear N. Examining the black detective is a fun way to outline the emergence of a resilient genre in African American cultural traditions, and doing so becomes another occasion to think about modem life in general and black people inside modernity in particular. The black detective changes with the times but also mirrors the eras that it depicts, judging, sounding, rationalizing, witnessing, testifying, and in the case of black fiction, attempting to remedy or counteract the "evils" in society. Cynical and hopeful, battered and agile, the black investigator is an enigma, part warrior, part coward and perpetually uneasy. Assignments include two in-class essays, a final, leading class discussion, and informal writing.


Africana Studies Program: Roundtable Discussion & Film on Trayvon Martin & Racial Profiling



Spike Lee Screening Room
Library Learning Center 122
Thursday, December 5, 6-8 PM

For more information about this event, contact Professor Carol Allen (English Department) at 718 488 1050.

Africana Studies Courses, Spring & Summer 2014

SPRING 2014

HUM 193: The Black Detective
Professor Carol Allen
Tuesdays 6-8:30 PM

This course traces the emergence of the black detective from 1900 to the contemporary moment. Prerequisite: English 16.

MUS 106: The Jazz Experience
Tuesdays 6-8:30 PM

MUS 170: Jazz Clinics
Tuesdays 4-6 PM

ANT 173 / SOC 173 African Civilizations
Professor Yusuf Juwayeyi
Mondays & Wednesdays 12-1:15 PM

SUMMER 2014

CSP 746 Trauma in Contemporary Contexts
Professor Wendi Williams
Thursdays 4:30-9:30 PM

For further information about these courses and/or about the Africana Studies Program in general, contact Professor Carol Allen (English Department) at 718 488 1053.



Jessica Hagedorn Invites You to an Event for Typhoon Relief

Professor Jessica Hagedorn (Director of the English Department's Creative Writing MFA Program) and the Asian American Writers' Workshop are hosting this event for typhoon relief.

Professor Hagedorn writes: "If you are interested in coming, please RSVP to the organizers, since the AAWW is an intimate space with limited seating.

If you can't come, we hope you can send a donation through the AAWW website (see flyer). Any amount helps."

Voices of the Rainbow: Suzanne Corso

Suzanne Corso is the author of the coming of age novel Brooklyn Story and the sequel Brooklyn Story: The Suite Life. Her works deal with the struggles and aspirations of a woman living in the Italian American community in Bensonhurst.  

When & Where
Monday, November 18, 2013
6:30 PM
Library Learning Center, Room 124

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Writing Program Faculty Development Workshops

The Writing Program is hosting two faculty-development workshops for instructors.

Melissa Antinori
will lead the first workshop, which will focus on
the assignment for the reflective letter required in all English 13/14/16 portfolios this year.


Friday, November 15, 2013
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Spector Lounge, Humanities Building, Fourth Floor

Tom Peele
will lead the second workshop, during which he
'll be showing us how to use Mozilla Popcorn Maker, a simple video remix tool that students might use for a variety of purposes, including research.


Friday, November 22, 2013
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Spector Lounge, Humanities Building, Fourth Floor

A Reading From New Books by Barbara Henning & HR Hegnauer

Professor Barbara Henning (English Department) invites you to a double book-launch party to celebrate the publication of her new book, A Swift Passage (Quale Press), and the new book from HR Hegnauer -- Sir (Portable Press).

Friday, November 22, 2013

7:30 PM

Click image for more info.


Maria McGarrity to Deliver 9th Annual Senghor-Damas-Césaire Lecture in Africana Studies at Villanova University

Professor Maria McGarrity (LIU Brooklyn English Department) will deliver this year's Senghor-Damas-Césaire Lecture in Africana Studies at Villanova University. The title of Professor McGarrity's lecture is "Framed Forever in the Last Century: James Joyce and Dublin Museum Culture in Derek Walcott's Omeros."

Click here for event details from Villanova.

Thesis Meeting for MFA Students

All Creative Writing MFA students should review the Graduate Thesis Manual and have any questions or concerns ready for a mandatory meeting per request of the Director of the MFA Creative Writing program.

When & Where
Friday, November 15, 20133:00 PM
Spector Lounge, Humanities Building, Fourth Floor

Grant Writing Workshop with Deborah Mutnick

As part of the Provost’s Professional & Personal Development Academy, Professor Deborah Mutnick (English) will lead this workshop, in which participants will learn the basic steps in proposal development. 

When & Where
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
11:00 a.m. to 12:30 PM
Library Learning Center, Room 515

Specific objectives include:


  • Identify potential funding sources.
  • Identify the common elements of a proposal.
  • Write an effective problem statement.
  • Learn how to link elements of the proposal.
  • Develop goals and objectives.
  • Identify at least three possible funding sources for a project idea.
  • Learn basic facts about grant making and granting agencies.

A light lunch will be served.


RSVP to bkln-pppda@liu.edu, or call 718-488-3406.

Voices of the Rainbow: Naomi Replansky & Edward Field

When & Where
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
12:00 PM
Health Sciences Building, Room 121

Naomi Replansky was born in the Bronx in 1918. Her poetry and translations from German and Yiddish have won numerous awards. Her Collected Poetry was given the 2013 William Carlos Williams Award by the Poetry Society of America.

Edward Field, born in Brooklyn in 1924, has written prize-winning poetry, fiction, and memoirs. Recent work includes After the Fall: Poems Old and New.

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