touchstones - marywood university · 2014-03-04 · wild: from lost to found on the pacific crest...
TRANSCRIPT
Touchstones
E n g l i s h D e p a r t m e n t
M a r y w o o d U n i v e r s i t y
If you have questions
or comments about
Touchstones, please
contact Bill Con-
logue:
This issue was written by
Marnie Azzarelli and
Allison Ranieri.
Inside this issue:
Alumni News 2
Book Swap & Sale 2
Theo’s Favorite Reads 2
Spring into Great Books 3
“A Little Night Music” 3
“You Ever Gentle
Gods”
3
Fall 2014 Courses 4
Volume 1, Issue 2 March 2014
I, Library
With Marywood’s centennial celebration just around the corner, the campus has been abuzz about the new Learning Commons. Touted for its convenience and ad-vanced technology, the Learning Commons has been aptly dubbed “the intellectual and social heart of the campus.” Sister Anne Munley, President of Marywood, told WNEP-TV that the Learning Commons marks “a moment where we’re touching the
future.”
The Learning Commons will have an assortment of “smart classrooms” and collaborative study spaces. Designed with “flexible walls,” several rooms in the Learning Commons will offer students and faculty the chance to manipulate space for almost any creative, social, or educational purpose. A “knowledge bar” will place in one location reference and help-desk personnel to answer all of a stu-
dent’s research questions.
Much campus talk has focused on the building’s Automated Storage and Retrieval Sys-tem (ASRS). Although popular and recent books and periodicals will be available to browse, ninety-nine percent of the library’s materials will be stored in the ASRS. A keyword and a click of a button are all anyone will need to activate the system, which will search among bins of books for the requested text. The temperature-controlled, enclosed system will deliver the right bin to a staff member, who will then find the book and send it on to the circulation desk. In addition to preserving texts and eliminating stacks of books, the compact ASRS will free up
space for people to socialize and study.
Marywood’s makeover will become a reality on 8 September 2015, the date of the building’s dedication. A modern look and space for creative collaboration will entice students
and alumni to experience this new heart of campus. With a variety of study and social spaces on all three levels, the Learning Commons will have enough room for
everyone!
Touchstones Page 2
Alumni News
Theo’s Favorite Reads
Book Swap & Sale!
On October 31, spooks and students
alike came out to haunt the Bi-annual
Book Swap and Sale, which is spon-
sored by the library and Lambda
Iota Tau (English Honor Society).
Scores of students and faculty
swapped and bought dozens of
great used books.
Lucky costumed shoppers got to take
home a free book of their choosing!
The next Book Swap is on March 25.
Good ole The-Saurus (Theo for short) has become a big part of our English Department family.
Standing stoically on a chair in the foyer of the department, Theo greets any and all guests with
his trademark toothy grin.
I asked him why he seems so happy all the time. “Oh, that’s easy. Books! I love books.”
When I wondered about his favorites, he said, “As a little hatchling, my favorite was the How
do Dinosaurs? series by Jane Yolen. The books really helped me learn my colors and social
graces. As I got older, I got a taste for adventure, and Jurassic Park became my go-to novel for
the longest time.”
Sensing a theme, I asked him what his favorite novel is today. “Oh, I love, love, love Heart of
Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Really deep, and kind of terrifying, but meaningful all the same.”
As I left, Theo was spreading his love of reading to yet another passerby. Theo does a little light reading with the editors
of Touchstones.
David Scarnato (2012) Kathryn Zurinski (2013)
works as a photojournalist works at C3i-A Global
with WHTM-abc27, Harrisburg. Technical Support in
Wilkes-Barre.
Kasey Lynn (2014) was Send us your news:
accepted into the MA program Touchstones @marywood.edu
in Government and Politics at
Georgetown University.
Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 2
Spring into Great Books We all know what we want to do during spring break...READ MORE! We asked faculty
and students through the English Department Facebook page what pages they’ll be
turning during the break.
Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)
The Divergent series (Veronica Roth)
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Cheryl Strayed)
Crank (Ellen Hopkins)
Ready Player One (Ernest Cline)
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Gregory Boyle)
And lastly:
A Little Night Music
The Marywood Players will be sending in the
clowns this spring with their rendition of the pop-
ular Steven Sondheim musical A Little Night Mu-
sic. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles
of a Summer Night, the romantic comedy is
about an aging actress, her mother, and their
eventful weekend in the country.
First performed on Broadway in 1973, with a
revival in 2009, A Little Night Music was made
in 1977 into a film that starred Elizabeth Taylor.
The play will be performed at the Sette
LaVerghetta Center for Performing Arts on
March 21 and 22 at 7:30 p.m. It’s free for
anyone with a Marywood ID. It’s $12 gen-
eral admission, $8 for senior citizens, and $6
for non-Marywood students.
If you would like to read the play before
you see it, Harold Wheeler wrote the
screenplay, which is readily available for
purchase online.
“You Ever Gentle Gods”
Beloved English Department professor Deborah
Brassard will soon see her article “‘You Ever Gen-
tle Gods:’ A discussion of Willa Cather’s novella
My Mortal Enemy” published in the journal Litera-
ture and Belief.
The article discusses the questionable resolution of
the main character Myra Henshawe.
Dr. Brassard argues that because of Cather’s ref-
erence to Gloucester’s cliff “Myra does achieve
absolution based on the evidence in King Lear that
Gloucester does.” The article draws “parallels
between his character’s development and
Myra’s.”
The article will appear in issue 34 of Literature and Belief, which is to be released in 2014.
Spring Events
2300 Adams Avenue
Scranton, PA 18509
Phone: 570-348-6219
E-mail: [email protected]
Or: W.A.S.T.E.
OUR MISSION
Eng l i sh D epa r tment
Check out the department
website:
http://www.marywood.edu/
english/
Touchstones is not responsible for sending in the clowns or for knowing the difference between Dame Judi Dench and
Angela Lansbury. (Sorry, Meg).
Laurie McMillan, Chair
English Department
The English Department at Marywood University is a dynamic
learning community dedicated to exploring the beauty and
power of language and literature. We offer a broad spectrum
of courses for literary study and teacher training. Majors in
English and minors in writing and women's studies are availa-
ble.
ENGL 310: Short Story
ENGL 321W: The Essay as Literature
ENGL 331A: Literature and Medicine
ENGL 337A: Contemporary Fantasy Literature
ENGL 339: Children’s Literature
ENGL 354: Contemporary American Novel
ENGL 357A: American Literature I
ENGL 364: British Literature II
ENGL 370: Shakespeare
ENGL 376: Poe and Twain
ENGL 399: 18th-Century British Literature
ENGL 412A: Teaching Writing
ENGL 470: Business/Technical Writing
ENGL 490: Feminist Writing and Rhetoric
ENGL H399: Digital Shakespeare
Fall 2014 Courses
Mark Meier, author of the novel the novel Wisecrack
(2013), will read from his short story “Undermined” on
Thursday, March 13, at 4:00 p.m. in LAC 212.
The class “Writing Poetry” will hold a reading on Thurs-
day, March 13, starting at 9:30 p.m. in the Comerford
Theater, Science Center.
The Book Swap & Sale will take place on Tuesday, March
25, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Fireplace Lounge.
The English Department will host Career Day on Tuesday,
March 25, at 6:00 p.m. in LAC 211.
The English Department Social will take place on Wednes-
day, April 16, at 3:00 p.m. in LAC 211.
Send event announcements to: [email protected].