28 February 2022 Dear Everyone: I want to say something to you all about the invasion of Ukraine currently underway, to acknowledge the sorrow and fury that is immediate to the assault on the people there, and to do so in a way that recognizes the specificity of this iteration of war-making without exceptionalizing it.… Read More

22 Feb 2022 Dear Everyone:   Today’s abundance of 2s is supposed to be a day of harmony and balance, according to seemingly every piece of news coming across all the different platforms! Extra special for falling on a Tuesday, Twosday heralds a happy moment of appreciating the forces of the universe that provides for… Read More

14 February 2022 Dear Everyone: Today is a day to celebrate Frederick Douglass! He was born in 1818 and chose later in his life to celebrate his birthday on 14 February. I can’t remember when I learned this but so appreciated knowing and still do, as it gave reason to celebrate this day and welcome… Read More

7 February 2022 Dear Everyone: This past Friday, William Orchard spoke of spirals and stuckness in the course of his lecture, in ways that invited us (or at least me) to consider the grounds and conditions and course of desire. What holds us, and holds us up? The multiple valences of being held, held up… Read More

31 January 2022 Dear Everyone: Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve! We’re about to enter the year of the tiger — associated with strength and courage, and oh, that we would need less of either in the year ahead! This new year holds terrific events for us, to which you’re warmly invited. First, I’m delighted to… Read More

24 Jan 2022 Dear Everyone:   Here we are, on the eve of a new semester! I’m laugh-crying with you all about the state of things and wishing so much I was writing in pure celebration of a bright, fresh semester cleared of the strains and stresses of pandemic life, even if not quite yet… Read More

6 December 2021 Dear Everyone: The program zoom rooms were abuzz on Friday! With Faculty Membership, Executive, and Curriculum Committees meeting, the end of term open program meeting later in the afternoon, and capped by an intimate and sweet Revels hosted by ESA, English was popping on multiple fronts. What that means, of course, is… Read More

29 November 2021 Dear Everyone:   I hope this long weekend just past was sufficiently restorative so as to energize you through these final weeks of the term. I admit I sometimes (oftentimes, even) find the onset of winter holiday season more enervating than energizing, so am especially glad for quieter moments; hope you managed… Read More

22 November 2021 Dear Everyone: Of course it isn’t the case that it’s only on the holiday designated for giving thanks that we offer gratitude for the lives we lead, nor should it be the case that on this holiday, we ignore the foundational devastation that it is designed to occlude. Perhaps, then, as we… Read More

15 November 2021 Dear Everyone: Big thanks to everyone who joined us on Friday for the final seminar related to our search for a consortial appointment in US Latinx studies, with particular appreciation to Nik Valdez for most excellent respondent comments, and Nancy Silverman, for organizing and managing five of these this semester! This search… Read More