Austin was recently selected as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in fiction at Stanford University, where he is also a Jones Lecturer. His first collection of poems, Almanac, was chosen by Paul Muldoon for the Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, and his most recent collection will be published in the same series this year. He graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2013.
Are there one or two books that were pivotal to you becoming an author? Do you remember your first encounter with them? What did they mean to you?
Melinda’s first collection of stories, Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories, won the 2010 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, the Maurice Prize, and was a 5 Under 35 selection by the National Book Foundation. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2006.
Are there one or two books that were pivotal to you becoming an author? Do you remember your first encounter with them? What did they mean to you?
Becky’s first collection of stories, Bad Kansas, won the 2016 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and was chosen as a 2018 Kansas Notable Book. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2016.
Are there one or two books that were pivotal to you becoming an author? Do you remember your first encounter with them? What did they mean to you?
Kirsten’s collection of stories, What We Do With the Wreckage, won the 2017 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. She graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2003.
Are there one or two books that were pivotal to you becoming an author? Do you remember your first encounter with them? What did they mean to you?
Jamil Kochai’s short story “Nights in Logar” was recently selected for the 2018 O. Henry Prize. He graduated from the UC Davis Creative Writing Master’s program in 2017.
Are there one or two books that were pivotal to you becoming an author? Do you remember your first encounter with them? What did they mean to you?
In addition to being an English major, Michael is a Research Assistant at the Center for Educational Effectiveness. He's currently working on a senior project that analyzes when and how first year, second year, and/or first generation students seek academic help. We asked him three questions about this research and his major.
Sophia is a PhD Candidate in English who has been selected for the department's Mainz exchange program in 2018-2019. We talked to her about the program, how it connects to her teaching and research, and how she got interested in it. (To find out more, you can also go to the information session TODAY in Voorhies 396!)
You've been chosen for the Mainz exchange next year! What is it, and how did you get selected?
Stephanie Keider received her B.A. in English and Child Development Psychology in 2011. She now works in feature film production at DreamWorks Animation in Los Angeles. We talked to her about working on movies such as The Boss Baby, and how this work connects to being an English major.
Could you explain your role at DreamWorks Animation?
Lindsay is a PhD Candidate in English and director of the Davis Feminist Film Festival. We talked to her about directing the festival (and its internship program), doing archival research, and the relationship she sees between the two.
Raul Castellanos is a fourth-year English major, a transfer student, and President of the official English club Beyond the Book. We talked to him about the club, getting involved, and some strategies for transfer students.
Nicolas is an Aggie football player who’s been devoting his free time to a new club on campus--Aggies for CureDuchenne. We talked to him about the mission of the club, being an English major with dyslexia, and some of his favorite experiences in the department.
Can you explain what CureDuchenne is, and how you're involved?
Jason is currently working to diversify the artwork displayed at Shields Library. We talked to him about his project and how it connects to his time as an English major.
You transferred to Davis this past fall, and upon studying in the library you found the “lack of cultural awareness exhibited by the artwork appalling,” so you've decided to make a change about that. Could you describe this change, and how the campus is contributing?
Rachel received her B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Education from UC Davis in 2012. She's now the author of the USA Today bestselling YA fantasy series The Black Mage. We spoke to Rachel about her time at UC Davis and the path she took to becoming a published author.
What was your favorite English class at UC Davis?
My favorite class (that I can recall) was Jane Austen. It was a privilege to read all her works and get class credit for it!
In addition to being a re-entry student (she came to UC Davis to get her BA after thirteen years away from school) Kristin Hogue is a Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellow through the UC Office of the President, and will be directing a student-led course this Spring. We asked her about the development of this course and her plans for the future.
Could you describe what the course you will be teaching is about, and how you got interested in doing a student-led course?
This winter quarter the UC Davis English Department is collaborating with the Internship and Career Center on an experiment.
We’re co-teaching a class called “Career Decision-Making and English.”
Everybody knows--or everybody really should know--that English majors have remarkably various careers (check out some of our grads and what they are doing here).
UC Davis English Professor Emeritus Gary Snyder, who is know for his work as both an environmentalist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, was inducted into the California Hall of Fame earlier this week.
John Marx, Chair of the English department, tells us about some of the many ways UC Davis alumni have transformed their English majors into a career. "Our majors go on to careers in the U.S. armed forces and Silicon Valley, medicine and the law," he writes.
Miles is an English and Political Science double major and an African Diaspora Community Coordinator through the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center. We asked him about his time at UC Davis and about Nu Review, the online publishing company he started to amplify the voices of artists of color. (Submissions for Nu Review can be sent to [email protected]).
What was one of your favorite classes in the English department?
UC Davis English Professor Katie Peterson and her husband / collaborator, UC Davis Art Professor Young Suh, join a bevy of artists in a new exhibit at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum. Each of them interprets a traditional story for Jewish Folktales Retold: Artist as Maggid Peterson and Suh chose “The Souls of Trees,” a tale about a childless couple that seeks the help of a rabbi to help them understand why they cannot conceive. The couple’s inn, it turns out, has been made from saplings—trees that were cut down before they had a chance to grow old.
Kristine Gilbert ’99 educates the next green generation
I have been a full-time professor of environmental studies and sustainability at Sierra College since the department was created in 2009. Every year, 300-plus students come through my classes with some or no knowledge of the human impact on the environment.
Emilia Varshavsky Shapiro says everything fell into place once she discovered how much she enjoyed her English major. She started as a technical writer and worked her way up to a senior communication position in LinkedIn. Emilia points to her sorority and the ASUCD Entertainment Council for her leadership skills.
Race and the Politics of Form Now Announcing the UC Davis English Department Fall Lecture Event!!! Joshua Clover Mark Jerng Desirée Martín Jacinda Townsend and Matthew Vernon Please join us Friday, the 13th of October in Voorhies 126 for our annual Fall lecture. This year’s event features a panel of department faculty speaking on the timely topic of race and literary form.
The first event from this year's new Mellon Foundation supported research initiative will try to answer that question along with a few others, including: "Why is thinking about race and capitalism together important today?" English Professor Mark Jerng and History Professor Justin Leroy are the brains behind this Davis Humanities Institute initiative, which holds its first event, "What is Racial Capitalism?" on October 4 at 4pm in 126 Voorhies Hall. Events to follow this fall feature English faculty Professor Joshua Clover--appearing with Duke Literature Professor
Rouzbeh Rahai is a senior majoring in English as well as Environmental Science & Management. We asked him questions about his experiences in these two fields and his future plans to WOOF (see definition below).
What's been one of your favorite/most memorable experiences being an English major at UC Davis?
We celebrate retiring Professors Margaret Ferguson, W. Jack Hicks, Richard A. Levin, and Evan Watkins with a series of interviews about their time at UC Davis.
Professor Margaret Ferguson
-What brought you to the field of English literature?
Seven English Department faculty tell us about what it was like to be first-generation college students.
“The defining feature of my educational experience as a first-generation student was doubt,” says Professor Matthew Vernon, who studies both African-American and medieval British literature. “Was I good enough to attend the schools that I did?... Could I make the most of the opportunity?” Years later, Vernon’s own first-generation students know the answers: Yes and emphatically yes.
We report from a recent Scholars Symposium panel with Becky Kling, Michael Martel, Meg Sparling, and Melissa Wills on the dramatic transformations that can happen through the dissertation process.
UC Davis English has vaulted to #20 in the new US News and World Report rankings of English PhD Programs (released March 14, 2017). We’ve jumped 6 places from our previous ranking of #26. UC Davis English is in good company at #20, alongside PhD programs at NYU, the CUNY Graduate School, and the universities of Wisconsin-Madison, Texas-Austin, and Indiana-Bloomington. Rankings of doctoral programs in the social sciences and humanities are based on the results of peer assessment surveys sent to academics in each discipline, US News explains.
Poet Gary Snyder, professor emeritus of English, has won the 2017 UC Davis Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation. This award recognizes career accomplishments that have led to a long-term positive impact on the lives of others.
Karen Xu is a senior majoring in English, Chinese, and Economics. We asked her questions about this impressive triple major as well as as working with English Professor Gina Bloom on the video game Play the Knave.
You're a triple major in English, Chinese, and Economics. What led you to such a diverse intellectual profile, and how do you see these three interests intersecting?
Short answer: Because I think these things are fun.
Play the Knave is an interactive digital game in which players act out scenes from Shakespeare’s dramas, karaoke-style. A Kinect motion capture camera lets players use their own bodies to control their avatar movements, making Play the Knave as fun as it is educational—whether one is playing in a classroom, theater, museum, or at home.
James Pierce graduated from UC Davis in 2014 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. He recently started medical school at Case Western Reserve University and is studying towards an M.D. We asked James three questions about his alumni story. Are You An UCD English Alumni?
We want to hear from you! Tell us what you are up to after graduation! Send your news to [email protected]
Emily Masuda is a fourth year English major and this year's winner of the prestigious Leon H. Mayhew award. This award is given each year to a single UC Davis senior majoring in music, art, or literature, and emphasizes academic and extracurricular excellence. We asked her four questions about her time at UC Davis and her plans for the future. The Leon H. Mayhew award is given to a student who demonstrates excellence both in and beyond the classroom. Can you tell us about some of your extracurricular activities while at Davis?
John Mac has a new book out, so in addition to asking him about life as an English professor at Florida State University, we asked about hisMania For Freedom, published by the University of North Carolina Press.
Congratulations on the book, to start. Could you tell us a little about it?
Award-winning journalist Daniel Brown (UC Davis English, 1992) returned to campus this week to speak with students.
Dan shared stories about his formative years writing for The California Aggie alongside, among others, Howard Beck (UC Davis English, 1991), a senior writer for Bleacher Report.
He also discussedmajoring in English, answered student questions about the challenging transition from college to career, and described some of the incredible stories he’s worked on as a reporter for The Mercury News.
The English Department and the University Writing Program held a plaque/bench dedication in the Voorhies courtyard in honor of longtime staff member, Janie Guhin, who passed away in 2016.
The California Aggie Marching Band-uh lead off the ceremony, and was followed by readings from Professors Pam Houston and Joshua Clover. Mike Hayes, a close personal friend of Janie, read a poem he had written for her.
Jennifer is fourth year English major getting ready to graduate. We asked her four questions about English and about the book she’s writing with her ultra-marathon runner dad, Luis Escobar. How has being an English major affected your life in ways you didn’t think it would? Being an English major has helped further develop my sense of empathy. Continuously reading such varied works by diverse authors has given me a wider perspective of the world around me. So, your dad is an ultra marathon runner and has asked you to help write a book.
Josef Nguyen (PhD Class of 2016) Job Title: Assistant Professor of Game Studies, University of Texas at Dallas Josef reports that he has found a lot of support at UTD’s School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication, from faculty collaborations in the Feminist Research Collective and the Feminist MakerSpace to critical game design and play sessions with undergraduate and graduate students.
Ethan is a senior majoring in English and a standup comedian. We asked him four questions about the funny side of being an English major. How and when did you get the idea that you wanted to be a comedian? I always wanted to be a comic, but I never thought that I could given how scared I get speaking to people. When I got to college, I noticed that there was a freshman seminar with Dr. Karma Waltonen in stand-up comedy. The final of the class is to go up and perform in front of an audience. This was going to force me out of my shell to talk to a large audience.
Every year, UC Davis English exchanges PhD students with the prestigious Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. This year, we are hosting Alica Buck, who is writing a dissertation on literature and the environment in Germany. Here, she has been teaching our introductory course English 3. We asked Alica four questions about how it’s going.
What do you like best about UC Davis so far?
There are two main things that I like most about UC Davis so far:
The press release announcing the appointment of incoming UC Davis Chancellor Gary May mentioned that he was inspired by "comic books and science fiction." Since the English department is inspired by them as well—regularly offering courses on both comics and sci-fi—we were curious about what Chancellor May liked best.
English Major and Peer Advisor Brian Wright wrote him to ask. The response was a list of May’s must reads.
Lindsey Gillespie graduated with an English Major in 2010. She is currently a librarian for the Rover Tobacco Control Library here at UC Davis. We asked her four questions about her work, her time at Davis English, and her current hobby: genealogy. Are You An UCD English Alumni?
We want to hear from you! Tell us what you are up to after graduation! Send your news to [email protected]
Alida is a fourth year English major pursuing a communication and technology management double minor. We asked her four questions about English and the UC Davis interdisciplinary ModLab, where she’s been very active in 2016-17. First off, we have to ask: What is the ModLab? The ModLab is located in Cruess Hall and is an experimental lab for media research and digital humanities.
Molly Ball Job Title: Assistant Professor of English at Eureka College, Eureka Illinois. At Eureka College, Molly focuses on honing students' written and analytical skills as they engage a wide range of literature. Her course on the American Gothic, for instance, asked students to examine works by authors ranging from Edgar Allan Poe to Alison Bechdel. In the foreseeable future, she looks forward to designing courses on science fiction and citizenship, African American literature, and monsters in nineteenth-century fiction.
Just announced: UC Davis English Professor Mark Jerng will be co-directing a new, three-year long research initiative supported by the Andrew Mellon Foundation on the topic of Racial Capitalism: Histories, Methods, Archives.
Mark is joined in this venture by Professor Justin Leroy in the Department of History.
This Mellon Research Initiative promises to focus on the historical relationship between race and capitalism, from the 15th century colonization of the Americas to the present.
Bryanna Mariel Andrews graduated from Davis in 2015, having double majored in English and Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology. She is currently enrolled in the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, where she is studying wildlife conservation medicine. We asked her three questions about her time at Davis English and her transition to life in Scotland.
