Assistant Professor and Co-Director of General Education English Dr Erica Stone received a 2022 Outstanding Achievement in Instructional Technology Award for her work with Open Educational Resources, which help to reduce textbook expenses for students. Read more about Dr Stone’s efforts in the Fall 2022 issue of The Communicator, MTSU’s Instructional Technology Division Newsletter.
English Professor and Graduate Director Dr Rhonda McDaniel gave a powerful initiation address for MTSU’s Buchanan Fellows. You can read an excerpt in the Spring 2022 issue of Arete, the Honors Magazine.
The Honors College awards the Buchanan Fellowship, named in honor of alumnus James M. Buchanan (class of 1940), recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The fellowship is the highest academic award given to an entering freshman at MTSU.
MTSU online English program offers great flexibility, sparking student interest
Dr. Eric Detweiler’s new book Responsible Pedagogy: Moving Beyond Authority and Mastery in Higher Education, is forthcoming from Penn State University Press (October 25), now available for pre-order.
English graduate students Madonna Kemp, Heidi Blaisdell, and Elizabeth McGhee Williams published “Unapologetic Boundaries: Lessons Learned While Teaching During a Pandemic,” a collaboratively written and perfomed multimodal piece, in the latest special issue of the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics on carework.
With sadness and appreciation for all he did for MTSU English, we write to announce the death of professor and former department chair Frank Ginanni.
Professor Emeritus Kevin Donovan writes, “Frank was a good man and a good chair, who always kept an eye out for professional development opportunities for his colleagues. He was a jovial and generous host as well, a connoisseur of good food and drink who kept up with the Nashville restaurant scene until he became too frail. A man of progressive principles, he drew spiritual sustenance from the humanities and the liberal and fine arts, which he generously supported. After retiring he enjoyed traveling to Italy, France, and Ireland. He also amassed a small but enviable collection of paintings and prints. He was my friend, faithful and just to me (and to [Professor] Ellen [Donovan]). I miss him.”
Official Obituary:
Francis (Frank) Ralph Ginanni, whose last intelligible words were “Screw those assholes,” died on 9/19/2022 in Murfreesboro, TN. He was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Martina Moizuk Ginanni, and older brother, Joseph. He is survived by daughters, Kathryn Scott Ginanni (Murfreesboro, TN) and Claudia Neal Ginanni (Philadelphia, PA); daughter-in-law Heather Levi (Philadelphia, PA); nephews, Mark Ginanni (Palo Alto, CA), Joseph Ginanni (San Jose, CA); niece, Joanne Ginanni Caruth (Tucson, AZ); several great-nephews, great-niece, great-great-nephews, and great-great-niece.
Born on 10/3/1931, he was raised in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Frank served one year in the US Navy and was honorably discharged, which is surprising given how much he disliked it. He migrated to California with his family around 1950, and San Francisco was the home of his heart. He worked for some years at Eastman Kodak in Palo Alto, CA while finishing his undergraduate degree at San Jose State University. A football injury in a game against Cal Poly left him with an impressive scar on his right knee and caused him to change his major from physical education to English. In 1961 he married Mary Belle Neal, and they had the two daughters. The family spent a year in Charlottesville, VA, where he completed a master’s degree at University of Virginia. In 1964, the family moved to Murfreesboro, where both Frank and Mary Belle taught at Middle Tennessee State College (now MTSU). At the urging of his beloved department chair, Richard (Dick) Peck, he went to Auburn University for a PhD., and then returned to MTSU to teach in the English department for over 35 years. He served as chair of the department for several years before retiring in 1994.
Frank was active in the Murfreesboro Little Theatre, acting, directing, and serving on the board. One of his most memorable roles was that of King Henry II in “Lion in Winter.” He was also an avid golfer until arthritis in his neck finally caused him to give it up. Most of all, Frank loved to travel, eat good food, and cook. Many were the family, friends, and colleagues who enjoyed dining at his table.There will be no service; if you’d like to honor his memory, please consider donations to the Nashville Symphony, We Remember You (Murfreesboro), or the organization of your choice.
Beginning next month, Dr Elyce Rae Helford will be writing a monthly book review for the Nashville Jewish Observer. The new column, to be called “People of the Books,” will feature titles old and new on diverse topics, from Jewish American immigrants and the Holocaust to recent Jewish literature from around the world.
Dr. Laura Dubek and Dr. Ellen Donovan have had their special issue of the journal College Literature nominated for Best Public Intellectual Special Issue, awarded by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
“Children, too, Sing America”: A Special Issue of College Literature advances the democratic mission of higher education by calling for an end to apartheid in and of children’s literature. In their introduction, guest editors Donovan and Dubek situate their argument against apartheid within current debates about Dr. Seuss, so-called cancel culture, the politics of publishing, and the (historical) role of children’s literature in perpetuating White supremacy. In so doing, they build on work by public intellectuals of earlier eras, most notably Langston Hughes, from whom the Special Issue gets its cover art, title, and primary purpose—to call attention to the ways Black children “sing” America. In addition to its focus on inclusion, the Special Issue deviates from traditional formats in its presentation. Following essays on writers, artists and public intellectuals such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Faith Ringgold, bell hooks, and Jason Reynolds, Donovan and Dubek offer twenty-eight profiles of twentieth-century Black writers and illustrators whose literary and/or visual representations of Black childhoods deserve more scholarly attention. Written to appeal to a general audience, the “Dream Keepers” section also makes clear the Special Issue’s significance not only to literary scholars in the fields of African American literature, children’s/YA literature and US popular/material culture, but also to parents, librarians, publishers, and advocates for greater diversity in children’s books and anti-racist education.
Dr. Laura Dubek has just published “How Sweet the Sound: Celie’s Survival Story as Broadway Musical,” which discusses The Color Purple: The Musical in the context of the #MeToo movement. The publication is a chapter in Salem Press’s Critical Insights: The Color Purple.
Alice Walker novel and both the film and musical adaptations will be featured in ENGL 3320D: American Literary Icons, Dr. Dubek’s online course, debuting in Summer 2023.
The Victorians Institute Journal, co-edited by MTSU English professor Dr. Maria K. Bachman, is now partnered with Penn State University Press.
The Victorians Institute Journal is an award-winning, international refereed scholarly journal that publishes articles, reviews, and newly-edited texts of interest to scholars in nineteenth-century cultural studies. Dr. Bachman co-edits the journal along with Dr. Albert D. Pionke at the University of Alabama. The journal is currently supported by the Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University and and the Department of English at the University of Alabama. The Victorians Institute Journal is available online through the Scholarly Publishing Collective (https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/) and EBSCO International Journals Complete.