4
Touchstones English Department Marywood University If you have questions or comments about Touchstones, please contact Bill Con- logue: [email protected]. 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 - Marywood University · 2014-03-04 · Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (Cheryl Strayed) Crank (Ellen Hopkins) Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) Tattoos

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    3

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

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:

[email protected].

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].