May 1 2023 Department Newsletter

Newsletter Editor Jane Weiss

Department Meeting Tuesday 9 May 2023: Election of Department Chair, P & B Members, and College Council Members

The English Department will meet on Zoom on Tuesday 9 May 2023 at 3:00. The meeting will be Zoom-only because the current procedure for electing the department chair, P & B members, and College Council representatives requires that each eligible voter vote from the voter’s individual Zoom account. Election The Zoom link will be sent to department members before the meeting.

Full Time Faculty: Spring 2024 Course Requests Due Friday 15 May 2023

Course request forms for Spring 2024 have been sent to full-time faculty KCC email addresses; please return the forms to Bailin Song (bailin.song@kbcc.cuny.edu) as soon as possible, but no later than Monday, May 15, 2023.

Professional Development Session Friday 5 May 2023: Source Use: Emphasizing Purpose in Source Use for Better Research

A Message from Hope Parisi, Faculty Mentor: Our new ENG 12 curriculum no longer requires students to complete a capstone project at the end of the term to demonstrate their ability to bring together classroom reading and independent research; however, one of the new CLOs is students are able to “Compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those of other texts.” What does it mean for ENG 12 instruction to substantively include material from texts (both classroom texts and texts students locate on their own)? What are some practical methods for supporting writing that brings together students’ voices and published authors? How can we help students toward clearer understandings of their purposes for source use, beyond what assignments just seem to require?

On Friday May 5, 2023 at 2pm by Zoom, we’ll hear instructors’ ideas on productive uses of texts in student writing and strategies to support these ways of learning about source use. It’s likely some concerns about ChatGPT will resurface in this discussion as well! Adjunct faculty attending this professional development opportunity will be paid for their time.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86519528395?pwd=KzNISE5YMy9hWlVpVHFtblZNeEMrZz09

Meeting ID: 865 1952 8395   Passcode: 030930        +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)

Education, The Front Line in the Fight for Democracy: Stopping Education Censorship in Today’s U.S.: A Talk at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture on Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 11:00 AM

On Sunday, May 7, 2023 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Maureen Fadem will speak at the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture: “The proliferation of state-level legislative efforts to impose educational gag orders must be understood urgently—and centrally—as a violation of student rights and academic freedom and as an attempt to mobilize fascism across the United States.” The event is open to the public and is hybrid, with in-person and online options. To join, please RSVP here.

Faculty Mentor and Support Hours in E219

Hope Parisi will be in E219 this semester, available for informal chats with new and experienced part-time faculty, and all faculty, on Wednesdays, from 1pm – 3pm, with more availability by phone or Zoom, along with Tuesdays as another on-campus day.  Please come by this welcoming environment, on Wednesdays, if you’re on campus, or get in touch for a time convenient for you.

Composition Coordinators Spring 2023 Office Hours

Gregory Bruno
Tuesdays in C309B: 12:30 pm – 1:15 pm
Wednesdays via Zoom: 10:30 am – 12 :30 pm
Thursdays in C309B: 12:30 – 1:45 pm   

Rachel Ihara
Tuesdays and Thursdays in C309B: 9:00 am – 10:00 am.
Fridays via Zoom: 9:00 am – 11:00 am

KCC Information Technology Services Office

You can call KCC’s ITS Help Desk at (718) 368-6679 or email helpdesk@kbcc.cuny.edu 9:00 – 5:00 on weekdays. For Blackboard support during hours when KCC’s Help Desk is not available, call 1-646-664-2024

Good News: Theatre Performance: The Art of Training a Goldfish

A theatre piece by department colleague Nicole Colbert, The Art of Training A Goldfish,  explores the complicated relationship of Mikhail Bulgakov, a Ukrainian writer, satirist and former medical doctor, with the rise of Soviet power, the purges of Stalin, and the space an artist lives between imagination and reality. The Art of Training a Goldfish, featuring Brandon deSpain, Lane M. Jackson, Tatyana Kot, Vadim Kroll, Iryna Malygina & Evelina Pristovšek, will be performed on Thursday, May 11 at 6:15pm, Saturday, May 13 at 2:15 and Sunday, May 14 at 6pm, at Teatro Latea, 107 Suffolk St. NY, NY 10002, as part of the New York Theatre Festival. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the event site!

A Note about the Newsletter  
The next issue of the Newsletter will come out on Monday 8 May 2023. Please send newsletter items by Friday, 5 May 2023 to Jane Weiss at Jane.Weiss@kbcc.cuny.edu. Please keep items brief (preferably 100 or fewer words). Longer items will be abridged. Items about publications and achievements are very welcome.