Wilmington English Sigma Tau Delta
By Professor James I. McNelis, III, Ph.D. This page is hosted on my personal server; the contents express my opinions, not those of Wilmington College (though, of course, they are a substantial component of the opinions held by WC English).
Page created on 26 September, 2013. Last modified 12 April, 2014.
This page serves both to announce upcoming events, and as an archive proudly displaying our activities to date. Let's just say WC English hit the 21st century rolling! It's our third century since we began at National Normal University of Lebanon, Ohio in 1855 (which merged in 1917 with Wilmington College, founded 1870).
The contents will be inclusive, not restricted to Sigma Tau Delta or my own (Dr. McNelis's) exploits--anything our current students, alumni, faculty or other colleagues do is fair game to be recorded here for convenient one-stop reference.
WC ALUM AMANDA SCHEAR
Named OCTELA Outstanding English Language Arts Educator, High School, Ohio, 2014
See also OCTELA's Awards Archive, and below for:
- Stephenie Ericksson, WC alum, winner 2013;
- Gloria Flaherty, winner for the college level in 2010;
- and Karla Hieatt, WC alum, winner 2007.
If the question in your mind is "Are we kind of a big deal?" the answer, for those of you playing at home, is YES.
UPCOMING EVENTS
- May 1, 2014: the Research (Poster) Symposium at Wilmington. Several English majors (and the faculty) will present on their teaching and research.
- May 3, 2014: the Dayton Book Expo.
- May 10, 2014: Graduation.
- And, in Fall 2014--
Dr. McNelis's Twitter Feed
(Contents may be more than usually random.)
PAST EVENTS
- April 10, 2014: Dr. McNelis and Gus Sevastos will present the second in an occasional series of lectures on Videogame Studies: "#2: Survival Horror 101."
- Jan. 23, 2014: Dr. McNelis and Gus Sevastos will present the first in an occasional series of lectures on Videogame Studies: "#1: Beginnings."
- WINTER IS COMING: Game of Thrones Day at OSU, Feb. 8, 2014. I (Dr. McNelis) will be presenting on a panel discussing medieval falconry, and we will have an actual falconer with live falcons too--Joe Dorrian. Photos of the falconry session by Desiaire Rickman, OnCampus (the OSU faculty newsletter).
- The 2014 OCTELA Conference will be held Feb. 28 to March 4 in Worthington--all LILA/sec ed English majors are urged to attend (WC students have even presented there in recent years, also a good idea professional-wise).
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- Jan. 24-26, 2014: Ohayocon in Columbus (their Twitter feed); as last year (see below for pics), we hope to go up as a group.
- Due to NaNoWriMo, during November, the biweekly "English club" meeting at Generations will occur every Thursday except Thanksgiving, so the Nanos can meet and confer. Open to all English nerds, otaku, gamers, alums, and if need be, even non-nerds. Dutch treat!
October 23, 2013, 7:30 p.m., McCoy Room, Kelly Center, WC: Scott Kenemore, author of Zombie, Ohio, will read to us from Zombie, Ohio and discussed freelance writing, publishing in the digital age, and how to get your fans to pay for your research trips. Scott participated out of his own generosity in distance-teaching my Fall 2012 course, "Zombies: The Walking Dead" (see below), and responded in egregiously courteous detail to the not-always-as-courteous student critiques of his work (though in fairness, they had no idea he'd get to see them). He's a class act all the way. His blog is at scottkenemore.com.
See Scott in action here, in Youtube of his recent appearance at Comic-Con's Zombies in Pop Culture panel (July, 2013). I also like this clip from 2011, where he and Max Brooks get into it over "Return of the Living Dead". (Note that Max had already pre-emptively swapped their name cards.)
Oct. 22, 2013: The University of Dayton graduate English program kindly invited our English senior seminar to visit. We enjoyed Prof. Slade's program presentation, and it's a safe bet the tradition of Wilmington English grads applying to the UD MA will continue.
Oct. 13, 2013: We had a pizza party at Donato's to take in the opening of Season 4, "The Walking Dead," starting 8:00ish on the 13th. Remember it's a restaurant and a business: no outside food, and you have to buy something.
February 2013: Stephenie Eriksson, WC alum, named Ohio Outstanding Language Arts Educator--High School by OCTELA.
2012
2011
2010
2008
This invited presentation ultimately led to Prof. Sharma's publication, "Slumdog Millionaire: The Film, the Reception, the Book, the Global,"in Literature Film Quarterly, 2012, 40 (3): 197-215.
2007
- February 2007: Karla Hieatt, WC alum, named Ohio Outstanding Language Arts Educator--High School by OCTELA.
2006
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Poet Bob Randolph (WC English '66) signs his Floating Girl (Angel of War) during his invited presentation on Nov 30, 2006. President DiBiasio (center) and Professor Marcusen (right).
2003
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2003: I invited CSF to play MND at WC, and we took them out for pizza and beer at the now-lamented Bunkers.
2002
The Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival meets with my students during their class visit in Spring, 2002.
2001
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Fall, 2001: The first class I (Dr. McNelis) ever taught at WC (our first day of fall term was Tuesday back then).
The 20th Century