Tag: English
NIU alumnus Okaka Dokotum is returning to DeKalb in impressive fashion this semester – on a prestigious Fulbright faculty award. Dokotum, a native of Uganda, is in residence in NIU’s Department of English while researching African film adaptations of African literary works. As part of the department’s brown bag lecture series, he will deliver a...
Dan Klefsted of WNIJ radio invited me to have a beer with him one afternoon. We met at Twin Taps in DeKalb, and he had a proposal.
In the name of free speech and democracy, NIU English instructor Dan Libman is going bar hopping. In anticipation of the November elections, Northern Public Radio (WNIJ and WNIU) decided to go beyond its usual in-depth coverage of the issues and candidates. So the radio station invited Libman, a Pushcart Prize-winning author, to visit places...
James (Jim) Mellard, a Professor Emeritus in the NIU Department of English, died Sunday, July 27. Mellard leaves his wife, Sue Gilbert Mellard; three daughters; and two grandchildren. Mellard was widely published, with 70 articles to his name. He wrote many books, including, “Beyond Lacan; Using Lacan, Reading Fiction;” “The Exploded Form: The Modernist Novel in America;”...
NIU alumnus Ian Stansel published his first book last year. And now it’s up for a top literary award from PEN America with a prize of $25,000. Almost all of the nine short stories in Stansel’s book, “Everybody’s Irish,” take place in Illinois, and a common theme in the book is parenthood and childhood. “Geography may seem...
NIU has received a grant of $4,500 from the Illinois Humanities Council (IHC) to support cultural events affiliated with the 24th annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf, co-sponsored by the NIU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Loyola University Chicago. The grant from the IHC will enable students, clients, and staff of northern Illinois...
The First Year Composition Program, with assistance from the Office of Student Engagement & Experiential Learning, is now accepting applications for peer advocates for fall English 103 classes. With intensive focus on written communication, critical thinking and information literacy skills, the FYComp program at NIU prepares students to be successful academically and professionally throughout their undergraduate years, leading...
Sean Farrell, an NIU associate professor of history, has been named to the Irish Education 100 for 2013. The Irish Education 100 gives tribute to those of Irish descent who have proven successful in education, especially at the university level. Farrell currently teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on early modern and modern British and...
Graduateprograms.com has named the NIU Department of English to its “Dean’s List” of top English graduate programs for “career support.” NIU’s program was ranked ninth nationwide. The career support category takes into account the quality of career planning resources and support received both during and after graduate school studies. Using a 10-star system, rankings were...
Copywriter by day, supernatural communicator by night; it’s all just another day in the life of NIU alumnus Neil Tobin. For more than 10 years, Tobin has entertained audiences with his one-man show “Supernatural Chicago,” a unique blend of comedy, magic and psychic demonstrations performed at Castle nightclub, formerly known as Excalibur. The show engages...
NIU alumnus Kenneth Womack makes writing seem easy, considering he has more than 25 books to his credit as an author and editor. After a year of touring the country to share stories about the Beatles, Womack has just released “The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the group’s appearance...
NIU alumna Melissa Leisner, a seventh-grade English and reading teacher at Prairie Knolls Middle School in Elgin, has won the prestigious Milken National Educator Award. The honor, which includes an unrestricted cash prize of $25,000, was dubbed “The Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher Magazine. Joining Illinois Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch to present the state’s 2013...
