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The Society for Critical Exchange is relocating this year’s annual Winter Theory Institute conference from the organization’s home base in Victoria, Texas, to Tallahassee, Florida, specifically the Department of English at Florida State University. As co-hosts, SCE and the Literature-Media-Culture program of the English department say that even though the conference site is different, the event’s atmosphere will be the same: intense.
The Southeast Review has always been a literary gem in the English department, but current Editor-in-Chief Dorothy Chan is curating content to reflect the diversity in the writing world.
Four undergraduate English majors—David Advent, Talise Burton, Colby Blackwill, and Erin Christopher—won 2018 IDEA Grants for their research projects, developed under the supervision of English department faculty members. FSU's Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement and the Office of the President sponsors the annual funding of the projects. Each student presented his or her project at the 2018 President's Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence.
Award-winning director Barry Jenkins is creating a buzz about winning more Oscars. The positive energy surrounding Jenkins’ new film If Beale Street Could Talk, in turn, is generating renewed appreciation for the Florida State University alumnus, especially in the English department.
Students, faculty members, and Tallahassee locals can find different, creative ways to spend a Tuesday evening in the capital city.
If a night of literary readings, a pleasant crowd, and delicious food sounds appealing, then The Bark at 8 p.m. is a good place and time to settle in.
The Department of English prides itself on offering students the most innovative scholarly programs with courses that cover a wide range of fields such as women’s studies, poetic technique, critical theory, film studies, and visual rhetoric, among others.
Ribó, assistant professor in the English department at Florida State University, has academic interests in Latinx, Caribbean, queer, border, cultural, and critical race studies that stem from personal experience, curiosity itself, and a love of literature, music, and film. He takes these interests and helps students explore them in class, around campus, and across Tallahassee, sharing an active and inquisitive approach to teaching.
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By Amber Deschene
Parking spots are going to be tough to find outside The Bark on Tuesday nights through the end of April.
When people find out a college student is earning an English degree, they likely think that student is focused strictly on historical or modern literature, creative writing, or rhetoric and composition. Most of those people probably have not stepped foot in an English department in many years, though.
Florida State University undergraduates who win IDEA Grants have to select a faculty supervisor to guide and mentor them through the research and completion of their project. Senior English major Colby Blackwill chose English Professor Jimmy Kimbrell, and Kimbrell has the highest praise for Blackwill and his academic excellence.
“I cannot recall ever having the honor of mentoring an undergraduate student who is more immersed, ambitious, and capable than Colby Blackwill,” Kimbrell says, “and I have had many wonderful students during my nearly two decades at FSU.”
Undergraduates at Florida State are familiar with the process of scouring course offerings and looking for classes they want to add to their academic schedules. Talise Burton, a senior majoring in English, decided she wanted to build one of those courses for students to consider. And FSU’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement rewarded Burton with an IDEA Grant to help carry out the unconventional plan.
Reading an author’s works allows a person only so much insight into what the author was thinking during the writing of the books. To gain a better understanding and more awareness of English novelist Thomas Hardy and his novels, Florida State University English major David Advent recently immersed himself in the Victorian realist’s environment.
When a writer wins an award, the honoree usually receives a certificate or a plaque, maybe even gets the opportunity to give a short thank-you speech in front of colleagues.
For her most recent honor, Florida State University English Professor Diane Roberts took a more celebratory route—literally. After FSU named Roberts its 2018 Alumni Distinguished Writer, she earned a slow-moving ride in the October 19 homecoming parade.
