Category: Faculty Voices

September 10, 2021 English Corner Faculty Voices, Faculty Voices

Speaking of place: Joshua Cross on perspective and the short story

Joshua Cross, lecturer in Coastal Carolina University’s Department of English, held a reading and discussion of his newest work, Black Bear Creek, for the Words to Say it Visiting Writers Series in September 2021. We had a moment to talk to Cross about his background, his process and how he applies his expertise in the classroom.

Black Bear Creek is a collection of short stories connected by a fictional town in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia. Cross grew up in Beckley, W.V., and says elements of the stories are loosely inspired by the communities that surrounded him. He also finds influence in other authors of the region including Ann Pancake, Breece Pancake, Pinckney Benedict, and Jayne Anne Phillips. “There’s a lot of Southern writers, such as William Faulkner or contemporaries like Randall Kenan, who focus on fictional towns in a way that I admire,” said Cross.

Black Bear Creek began out of Cross’ work on his doctoral dissertation at Oklahoma State University.  His primary focus in writing was poetry, until he found great influence in a writing workshop with Dr. Aaron Gwyn, professor at UNC Charlotte. “That class was sort of what changed things for me. It really got me started with writing fiction,” said Cross. “I never found that I could write about southern West Virginia until I moved to Oklahoma.”  After finishing his Ph.D. and accepting a position at CCU, he continued revising and adding stories to the collection. “There was something about getting so far away from [my hometown] that allowed me the space to write about it.”

I never found that I could write about southern West Virginia until I moved to Oklahoma.

Joshua Cross

Cross notes the distinction between the short story and novel genres. “I think a really good short story does a lot of what a novel accomplishes,” said Cross. “The condensed form adds difficulty to the writing experience, since you don’t have as much time and space to invest your reader in characters and setting, but I think it also makes for a more appealing read.”

Cross finds his work in the CCU classroom rewarding. “I like to teach and talk to students about things that interest them,” he says. “In my creative writing classes, I like when students connect their own experience to what they’re reading; in composition, students can write about their identity and the communities that they come from.”

Cross at CCU English Department’s Words to Say It series.
Photos courtesy of Kelsie Crough.
November 11, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

Woodwind wizardry

As an award-winning clarinetist and emigrant to the South by way of New York and Wisconsin, Eric Schultz, assistant professor in the Department of Music, is eager to explore CCU’s potential as his new academic and professional home.

Schultz comes to CCU in the midst of a prestigious career as an internationally renowned musician who has performed with the Chelsea Symphony, toured as a member of the orchestra in Tony Award-winning Broadway musicals, and was scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall in May 2020 (rescheduled for 2021).

In his shift to a position that blends performance with teaching, Schultz is excited for the opportunities that CCU offers.

One of Schultz’ goals is creating new chamber music groups for students and other musicians, taking advantage of CCU’s facilities.

“The Wheelwright Auditorium recording studio is a great benefit for students,” Schultz said.

In the classroom, Schultz’ goal is to push students out of their comfort zone.

“I will challenge you,” he warns fledgling musicians, “but that is done out of love. It means I believe in you. I want to help you find your path.”

Being pushed out of one’s comfort zone is nothing new to Schultz; it’s how he discovered his love for teaching.

“An undergraduate teacher inspired me quite a bit. My clarinet teacher at the time, Melissa Koprowski, really pushed me in every way possible,” Schultz recollects. “On top of her excellent teaching, she also has one of the most beautiful clarinet tones I have ever heard… I never thought I would want to teach, but as I went on to teach privately and later even teach in Melissa’s studio during a leave, I fell in love with teaching.”

Teaching at the university level is very liberating for Schultz.

 “Now I get to do everything,” he says, noting that being a professor affords him the opportunity to perform, write about music, commission new pieces, learn about new technology, conduct, and, of course, teach.

The pandemic has offered Schultz some time to engage with his other interests, however. To stay sane during quarantine, Schultz has watched the series The Magicians on Netflix, and he enjoys reading books about language learning.

“My cat, Andreas, is also very entertaining,” he notes.

In his off time, Schultz enjoys binging on ice cream and balancing out the calories with one of his favorite hobbies: running, weightlifting, or yoga.

To keep up with Schultz and his work, check out his website. 

To view a full video interview with Schultz, visit the CCU Edwards College Facebook page.

November 11, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

Rethinking the book

Emily Brooks, assistant professor of digital culture and design in the Department of English, shares her interests in multimodal composition, the digitization of books, and non-standard book objects.

To Emily Brooks, “book” has a wide definition. It’s not limited to the traditional bound paper item we all keep on our shelves.

Brooks’ teaching focuses on “critical making,” which includes traditional print books, but also interactive fiction. Her students have created photo-poetry books; 3D-printed books; and choose-your-own-adventure narratives using Twine, an open-source tool for telling non-linear stories. As a “makeademic,” Brooks also makes and creates digitizations of non-standard book objects, such as touch-and-feel books, movable books, and treasure bindings (books that include precious gemstones or ivory carvings).

Her scholarly interests, Brooks said in a recent interview, are rooted in the early days of her undergraduate experience. Having started college as a pre-med student, Brooks then considered photography and graphic design before settling on English as her major discipline. Discovering that English has a home outside of traditional media was a key moment in the commencement of her academic journey.

“My first English course as an undergraduate was a very non-traditional approach to studying English; it involved combining comics and science studies with Romantic poetry and printmaking… it really got me started with combining creative and making projects within more traditional literary studies.”

Brooks’ creative making involves books’ content and makeup, but also how a story’s topic affects its interpretation – a concept she applies in the classroom as well. Brooks is interested in giving students a new appreciation for the things that they may take for granted when evaluating creative works.

“The creative work itself can transform the creator as well as the viewer,” Brooks said. “Teaching through the creative process gives students a much more nuanced and richer understanding of the things that they’re viewing.” 

For the full interview of Emily Brooks and other new faculty , check out our Facebook page.

Learn more about Emily Brooks through her website.

Learn about about Emily Brooks through her CCU profile.

August 24, 2020 Faculty Voices 1 Comment

Gary Schmidt on cross-disciplinary language study

Gary Schmidt

Gary Schmidt, professor and chair of the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, has been awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant for $191,000 over two years to support the development of an Intercultural Language Resource Center. Schmidt offered his insights on the impetus for the project and his vision for the future of language incorporation across disciplines at CCU.

Schmidt reflected on the grant and the center as a tool to allow  students to not only learn but apply the languages they acquire in authentic settings.

“My vision for the center has been guided by something I’ve been trying to do since I got here to CCU: create more connections for studying language and culture across the disciplines,” said Schmidt. “We need to foster ways for students to apply language study to other disciplines, to actively use their language knowledge in research questions or some sort of active engagement in another discipline.”

Who needs language?

Two examples Schmidt gives are students in an intelligence and national security studies class who would benefit from reading intelligence and news briefs in the original language, or students in a Russian literature class having the ability to read the original text rather than an English translation.

“The center will be a place that supports these types of activities,” said Schmidt. “It will provide resources such as film and media databases and subscriptions to specialized proficiency analysis sites. These will help students may acquire the advanced proficiencies they need to utilize the language in real-life situations, in contexts that cross disciplinary boundaries. The center and its resources may also bring in students from other disciplines who might otherwise have not seen the connection and the relevance of language study.”

A center with a mission

Schmidt said the center will have two major goals.

“The first goal is to increase the number of students doing area studies [such as Asian studies, European studies, or Middle Eastern studies] with a language component, so they’re doing language culture study across disciplines,” said Schmidt. “Secondly, the center will increase substantially the number of students who have a certain level of proficiency in any language, but especially a critical language: Chinese, Russian, or Arabic.”

At the end of the two-year grant period, Schmidt hopes to have built a new dimension in cross-disciplinary language learning and proficiency at CCU.

“My vision is that after the grant period ends, we will have created new interdisciplinary courses in which foreign language skills are utilized,” said Schmidt. “We will have a center that regularly offers events and programming related to language and cultural learning across the disciplines: a place where we have guest speakers, film screenings and discussions, readings, reading  groups, language group meetings, and the like, with involvement from other faculty and students from other disciplines. It will also be a place where students in the college can go and be advised on opportunities related to interdisciplinary language studies including study abroad and scholarships. And we will see, as a result of available resources, demonstrable improvement in number of students leaving CCU with advanced proficiency in a language.”

August 20, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

Tim Koch and artistic innovation

Tim Koch, CCU Director of Choral Activities and music director of the Carolina Master Chorale

Tim Koch, lecturer in the Department of Music; CCU director of Choral Activities; and music director of the Carolina Master Chorale, is carving a pathway forward for his arts organization within the current context of COVID-19. He’s created a platform for artists to not only perform but also share their reflections on related issues most important to them. This is one way, Koch believes, that artists and audiences can mutually support one another in a new reality.

The State of Things

Koch’s biweekly virtual event, titled “The State of Things: House Concerts and Conversations with Artists,” takes place over three consecutive sessions in September and October and is made accessible through the Carolina Master Chorale’s Facebook page.

The musician and director took a few minutes recently to talk about the series as well as the long view for the performing arts field.

Koch acknowledges that his particular industry is among the most vulnerable to long-term detrimental effects of COVID-19.

“My profession is all of a sudden one of the world’s most dangerous professions,” Koch said. “All the research says singing in groups, particularly indoors, is impossible. We’re trying to find solutions to that part of it, but in the meantime, my choir, the Carolina Master Chorale, which has a wonderful interface with Coastal, had to cancel our last concert, as lots of performing arts organizations have been forced to do. Our long-term viability is in jeopardy if we have to cancel another entire season.”

 And, of course, no concerts means the community loses the shared artistic experience.

“Right now, we’re not engaging the public,” said Koch, “and I wanted to find a way to do that.”

“Not just pretty music”

Offering purposeful art is already a tradition in the CMC, Koch said.

“I’ve always tried to make the music-making more than relevant, to try give it a real purpose. We’ve done concerts to recognize heroes, we’ve done concerts for the Boys and Girls Clubs – we regularly try to lift up our community. I don’t want people to come just to listen to pretty music; I want the music to be a vehicle for making our little corner of the world a better place.”

Garnering support

In creating this event, Koch drew upon his relationships with musicians and artists across the country and around the globe, in addition to his knowledge that artists often hold strong, informed views on various social and political issues. He wanted to highlight both the talent and the passions of the artists involved, so he tested interest in the event by sending some emails.

“I wrote to 25 friends,”  said Koch. “A number are local, a number are CCU faculty, and others are varying degrees of nationally and internationally recognized. I said ‘I know you care about what’s going on in the world and that you care particularly about some aspects rather than others. I wonder if you would just say a few words about the state of things, and then could you pair that with some sort of performance? And, I’m not going to pay you; I’m going to use what you do to generate help for the Carolina Master Chorale.’ I’m going to try to make this a forum where people might hear it all over the world, and I asked them to spread the word among their friends.”

A gracious response

The artists responded, not just gradually, but quickly and in impressive numbers.

 “All of these people said yes,” Koch said.

The recordings came in, and Koch compiled them into a comprehensive, sequential series of recitals.

The artists’ performances range from piano and flute to singing and poetry, and each artist shares insights on an issue close to their heart: Alzheimers research, the legal and penal system, and the plight of American Indians, to name just a few.

Much like so many factors of the COVID-19 pandemic, the compilation of these pieces was piecemeal, and participants were given very little guidance on logistics. The result, Koch said, is a beautiful and eclectic array of expression.

“They’re so varied,” said Koch. “They were all done in people’s homes — some performers are dressed up, some don’t have any makeup on. I wanted them to convey however they were feeling and whatever they wanted to talk about; I didn’t let them see what anyone else was doing, It looks a little ragtag now and then, but it’s authentic. I’m super excited about that.”

June 9, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

Jacqueline Kurlowski’s Desk

My name is Jacqueline Kurlowski and I am the director of the Edgar Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy. Welcome to my desk! I am lucky to have a home office, but I have to share it with my husband who teaches at CCU. My two small children also like to play in the office, so I am often scuttling about with my laptop. I have come to enjoy working on our porch and have decided it the best place to ZOOM. 

In addition to wrapping up Dyer Fellowship student projects, I am currently working on the analysis portion of a report for Conway Medical Center which examines patient experiences. The Institute is also involved in the SC7 Expedition – check it out! As a partner in this project, the Dyer Institute is developing and overseeing a multi-regional survey which examines changes in climate. This fall I will be offering an on-line course in grant writing (take a look at this video to learn more) and I will also be teaching a course on Public Policy.

I know that the world is full of uncertainly right now and this can be a source of anxiety for everyone. I feel it daily, so please know you are not alone in these feelings. I want to also share that in my house, we get a daily dose of Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood and I was recently reminded by him to always look for the “helpers.” Please know there are many helpers in our community and at CCU who are doing their part to keep everyone safe and to develop a path forward. I challenge you to do to your part to be a helper too!

May 26, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

From Easton Selby’s Desk

Easton Selby, Professor of Visual Art, is about to finish his first year as Associate Dean in the Edwards College. He offered his perspective on teaching, his creative production, and the transition to remote instruction.

What classes are you teaching this semester?

Fall 2020 I am teaching ARTS 262 Introduction to Photography. This will be our first time offering a full-on all digital introductory photography course.

What is your primary area of creative production?

Photography. I love documentary work and have a deep passion for the darkroom. The smell of photo chemicals gives me the feels.

What are you working on right now in your creative work?

Right now my life is devoted to work in the dean’s office. I am however working through a few ideas to expand my Conjure series. This involves objects encased in silver and a few other fancy things.

How are you handling the transition to the online environment?

I have been using Moodle for a while, but I have enjoyed having TEAMS conversations with my students. This past Spring I only taught independent studies and I have to say those students rocked out producing some beautiful work from home.

What are you doing to keep busy in your downtime?

There is no downtime in the Deans office.

You can learn more about Easton’s creative work on his faculty profile.

May 5, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

In the kitchen, German-style

Alex Hogue, assistant professor of German, and Simone Boissonneault, lecturer of German, both in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies, created a video to supplement their instruction on cooking in which they prepare Käsespätzle in their home kitchen. Below, Hogue explains the motivation and purpose behind the video. Watch the entire video here.

What’s cooking? Käsespätzle!

The video goes with a lesson on understanding recipes in German, which, if we were in the classroom, would be based on working through recipe texts (ingredients, measurements, processes, etc). In years past when this lesson has come up, I’ve always lamented to my classes how cool it would be if rather than just talking about cooking, we could actually do it as part of the lesson and now, since we can’t be in the classroom and Simone and I love to cook, making a cooking video seemed like a way to bring some life and fun into this really stressful situation.

When I lived in Tübingen during my doctoral work, my roommates taught me how to make Käsespätzle just like this and, since this dish is relatively simple, can be made vegetarian, and is everything macaroni and cheese ever wanted to be but couldn’t, it seemed like this would be a good introduction to German food for our students. Besides, cheesy noodles are comfort food, and who couldn’t use some comfort during a crisis?

Pedagogically speaking, we run our German 115 classes on the flipped classroom hybrid model. The students had already worked through several lessons covering types and nationalities of food, nutritional values, metric measurements, and restaurants, so this lesson served half as review of much of that material and half as a way to contextualize the content in something practical and potentially familiar. It also introduced the command form of verbs, which is why I make a point of telling Simone to do the various prep activities (fry the bacon, grate the cheese, etc).

The students were not required to cook for themselves (they were encouraged, though!), but I posted the recipe on Moodle and tasked them with working through it and rewriting the commands from the formal you (Sie) into the informal you (du) and then video chatting with their usual partners/groups to practice these forms. These exercises mirrored activities in the book which we would have done in class, but with the added benefit of the video which allowed us to demonstrate the meanings of the German vocabulary, rather than relying on translations back to English when things were unclear. 

April 29, 2020 Faculty Voices Post a Comment

Art historian in action

Elizabeth Baltes has been awarded prestigious grant to continue her research on portrait sculpture in Athens, Greece.

What do faculty members do during quarantine? If you’re Elizabeth Baltes, you earn prestigious grants for international research projects.

Baltes, assistant professor of art history in the Department of Visual Arts, has won a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant that provides for study of portrait sculpture from the ancient agora, or marketplace, in Athens, Greece. (The grant and related trip is being deferred to Summer 2021.) The NEH funded just 11 percent of submitted summer stipend proposals.

Baltes’ grant will fund an extension of a collaborative team book project that began in Summer 2019 with six weeks of field work studying excavated fragments in the Athenian agora. The team has a projected goal of finishing field work and research by 2024. Baltes explained in a recent interview the nature of the project and what she hopes to learn on her next trip.

What will you be doing on your research trip?

I’ll be doing two things. The first is working with my  team to actually look at sculpture. None of this has been studied systematically since the 1950s, and when it was studied then, the person studying it was only interested in portrait heads — because that’s the easiest thing to identify as part of a portrait. But there are thousands and thousands of fragmentary pieces of sculpture that have been excavated from this site, and so we’re working to go through all of them to try to identify  as many pieces that we can confidently associate with portrait sculpture as possible. And that takes time, and it takes teamwork, to actually look  at something and talk about it and figure out what it is and how it was working.

The sacred processional way that runs through the Athenian agora in Greece, facing south towards the Acropolis.

And what is the ultimate goal?

We’re broadly interested in reconstructing the history of portrait sculpture in Athens. A lot of the portrait sculpture from the Agora dates to the Roman period, essentially when Rome was in control of Athens.  So these are largely talked about as Roman portraits. And so the narrative has been traditionally that portraits in Athens were driven by what was going on in urban Rome. And so one of the things that we’re finding out is that that doesn’t seem to be the case, that these portraits of local people are representing very much local concerns and interests and they’re not closely adhering necessarily to exactly what’s happening in urban Rome. So it makes us question, ok, so, so traditionally these have been called Roman portraits, but what’s Roman about them?

Do you know others, including those on your team, who have applied for and/or won this grant?

I was the only person who applied for this because most of my team members are at institutions that have more plentiful research funds. For me, it was really important to get outside funding so I can continue this work as part of this team.

Otherwise, I don’t know anyone else who has won this grant.

Technically this grant was supposed to be for this summer, 2020. However, Greece has essentially shut down — none of the archaeological sites are open, so it isn’t going to be possible. But luckily, the NEH is allowing recipients of summer stipends this year to defer as late as next summer, so that’s exactly what’s going to happen, so the plan now is to tentatively shift everything a year forward. …..This grant will cover two months of work.

How does this work fit into your scholarship niche?

I’ve been working on various aspects of portrait sculpture since I was in grad school, and I’ve been working closely with material from the Athenian agora for the last few years, and so this is sort of a natural extension of the work I’ve already been doing, both at the agora on portrait sculpture more generally.

Will it apply to your teaching?

I’m hoping it will. I’m really interested in developing an upper-level seminar on portraiture because I am interested actually in public portraits from all eras. So I’m hoping that will happen in the future.

How did you react when you learned you received the grant?

I screamed a lot. It is a pretty big deal. It was really exciting to receive that kind of recognition and acknowledgement of the importance of the scholarly work that I do.

To learn more about Baltes and her research, visit https://www.coastal.edu/academics/facultyprofiles/humanities/visualarts/elizabethbaltes/

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