English

The zombie trend continues to spread across the pop cultural landscape and shows little sign of slowing down. Speaking with The Baltimore Sun‘s John-John Williams IV for a June 9 story entitled “Pop culture’s undying affection for zombies“, Arnold Blumberg, adjunt faculty member in English and co-author of Zombiemania: 80 Movies to Die For, illustrated the history of this now-ubiquitous staple of modern popular culture, as well as theorizing as to why the walking undead seem to have captured our culture’s imagination in recent times. “There has never been a figure that has reflected all the fears we have as the… Continue Reading Arnold Blumberg, English, in The Baltimore Sun

In aJune 5 article entitled “What’s the Buzz? Beehives Burgeon in Baltimore Backyards,” Rachel Wilkinson, adjunct professor of English, recently reported on the local beekeeping community for the website BmoreMedia. Over the course of the piece, Wilkinson explores a number of facets to the practice and its prevalence within Maryland, noting that there are 1,751 registered beekeepers with about 12,000 colonies in 1800 locations according to the state’s Department of Agriculture, and that “[a]ccording to to state apiarist Jerry Fischer, Baltimore alone was home to about 29 registered beekeepers keeping more than 100 colonies in 45 locations as of February.” Wilkinson… Continue Reading Rachel Wilkinson, English, in BmoreMedia

The never-ending battle between advocates of the prescriptive and descriptive schools of language was touched off in the last few weeks, starting with a May 14 article in The New Yorker titled “The English Wars”, written by the magazine’s dance critic Joan Acocella. Weighing in with Acocella on the side of the prescriptive approach was lecturer Ryan Bloom,  English, who in a May 29 blog post on The New Yorker‘s website noted one contradiction in particular on the part of many descriptivists: “When it comes time for them to write their books and articles and give their speeches about the… Continue Reading Ryan Bloom, English, in the New Yorker, Mentioned in Slate

Piotr Gwiazda, associate professor of English, read at the Walters Arts Museum on March 10 as part of the Smartish Pace Reading Series. A video of his reading appears below. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–AjVlrPmtI&list=UUBSIwT0uXt_RZ_v_u3RMdsg&index=9&feature=plcp]

On saturday, April 14, Michael Fallon, senior lecturer of English, read at Baltimore’s City Lit festival.  Below is a video of his reading. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irNrpMdg-lg&list=UUBSIwT0uXt_RZ_v_u3RMdsg&index=4&feature=plcp]

The Department of English is pleased to announce that Deborah Rudacille, will join the department as a visiting professor of the practice this fall. A 1998 science writing graduate of Johns Hopkins University’s Writing Seminars program, Rudacille has been published in various local and national magazines, as well as authoring three books: The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The War Between Animal Research and Animal Protection (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2000), The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism and Transgender Rights (Pantheon, 2005), and most recently Roots of Steel: Boom and Bust in an American Mill Town  (Pantheon, 2010), a work of history whose subject… Continue Reading Deborah Rudacille Joins English Faculty

English lecturer Ryan Bloom was recently published on the New Yorker’s “Page-Turner” blog. His post, “Lost in Translation: What the First Line of ‘The Stranger’ Should Be” discusses the first sentence of Albert Camus’s book. “Within the novel’s first sentence, two subtle and seemingly minor translation decisions have the power to change the way we read everything that follows. What makes these particular choices prickly is that they poke at a long-standing debate among the literary community: whether it is necessary for a translator to have some sort of special affinity with a work’s author in order to produce the… Continue Reading Ryan Bloom, English, in the New Yorker

Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, reflected on his local farmer’s market in his latest essay for Style magazine. “Rain or shine, every Saturday morning, if I am in Baltimore, I swing by the 32nd Street Farmers Market, a habit of city life for me since I moved to Baltimore 32 years ago… I like ritual. And I love the farmers market,” he writes. He says that one of his favorite things about the market is the variety in both people and what you can find there. “People talk a good line about diversity hereabouts. But you rarely… Continue Reading Christopher Corbett, English, in Style Magazine

Raphael Falco, professor of English, has been named the Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences for the 2012-2013 academic year. Falco is one of the foremost scholars, nationally and internationally, of the English Renaissance. “Professor Falco is a very distinguished and productive scholar, one who brings recognition and distinction not just to himself and his department but to the university. It is thus altogether fitting that he has been named Lipitz Professor,” said John Jeffries, dean of the college of arts, humanities, and social sciences. The Lipitz professorship was established by Roger C. Lipitz and his family… Continue Reading Raphael Falco, English, Named 2012-2013 Lipitz Professor

Christopher Corbett, professor of the practice of English, writes about Baltimore’s 32nd Street Farmers Market in Style. Rain or shine, every Saturday morning, if I am in Baltimore, I swing by the 32nd Street Farmers Market, a habit of city life for me since I moved to Baltimore 32 years ago. Thousands of people whom I sort of know in that strange two degrees of separation that exists on the north side of the city share this ritual with me. I like ritual. And I love the farmers market. Read the entire article here.