Because I am the 2022–25 Cora A. Babcock Chair in English, I again have a course release this spring. As such, I’ll only be teaching one class this semester, but I’m super excited to teach ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies again.
Archival Pedagogy
The 2023–24 Visiting Writers Series at Hartwick College
This year, Hartwick College and the Department of Literature, Media, and Writing will present four readings in the 2023–24 Visiting Writers Series. Readings take place at 7:00 in the Eaton Lounge, Bresee Hall at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York.
Novelist and essayist Shena McAuliffe will read on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 from her new book of short stories, We Are a Teeming Wilderness: Stories (Press 53, 2023).
Poet and emeritus Hartwick professor Robert Bensen will read from his new book, What Lightning Spoke: New and Selected Poems (Bright Hill, 2023), on Wednesday, November 8, 20223.
Yumei Kitasei will read from her new novel, The Deep Sky (Flatiron Books, 2023), on Monday, March 4, 2024.
And poet essayist Joshua Zelesnick will read from his forthcoming poetry collection, Insert Coin (Finishing Line Press, forthcoming 2025), on Thursday, April 11, 2024.
For more information, visit the Visiting Writers Series webpage.
Summer and Fall 2023 Links
Manfred Laber, Zeitpyramide (1932-3183), concrete, 9.2 x 15 meters, Wemding, Germany.
The links have really gotten away from me. This summer, I was prioritizing finishing up a chapter for Too Big to Read, and this fall the semester just hammered me; I basically haven’t had a single free moment. So, better late than never, huh? Over six months of links. Enjoy.
Nuclear and Environmental
Apocalyptica, a new journal.
Jeff VanderMeer, “Florida’s Environmental Failures Are a Warning for the Rest of the US.”
Lydia Millet, “Biden’s Green Energy Money Is Sugar on a Poison Pill.”
Tina Cordova, “What Oppenheimer Doesn’t Tell You about the Trinity Test.”
Brad Plumer and Elena Shao, “Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast.”
Alexis Pauline Gumbs, “Heat Is Not a Metaphor.”
David Gelles, “Climate Disasters Daily? Welcome to the ‘New Normal.’”
Tom Engelhardt, “Humanity Has Created Too Many Ways of Destroying Itself.”
Kim Tingley, “‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Everywhere. What Are They Doing to Us?”
Azby Brown, “Just Like That, Tons of Radioactive Waste Is Heading for the Ocean.”
Raymond Zhong, “Something Was Messing With Earth’s Axis. The Answer Has to Do With Us.”
Damian Carrington, “Canadian Lake Chosen to Represent Start of Anthropocene.”
Ralph Vartabedian, “A Poisonous Cold War Legacy That Defies a Solution.”
The Washington Post, “Where Dangerous Heat Is Surging.”
Michael Levenson, “Heat Wave and Blackout Would Send Half of Phoenix to ER, Study Says.”
Jessica Hurley, “The Irradiated Body as Postcolonial Lost Edge.”
Hoyt Long and Aarthi Vadde, “We Want Our Catastrophe TV.”
Fall Semester 2023: Syllabi
Looking forward to another busy fall semester at Hartwick College with four courses I have taught before. I’m especially excited to be returning to the ENGL 190 Introduction to Textual Analysis classroom.
ENGL 190 Introduction to Textual Analysis
ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing
Spring Semester 2023: Syllabus
Because I am the 2022–25 Cora A. Babcock Chair in English, I have a course release each spring for the next three years. As such, I’ll only be teaching one class this semester, but I’m super excited about it: ENGL 412 Advanced Poetry Workshop.
Fall Semester 2022: Syllabi
This coming fall semester looks like it will be as close to “normal” as it’s been in some time. I’m teaching some familiar creative writing classes that I usually teach in the fall (syllabi below), and filling in for the first half of the semester in our ENGL 101 Writing Tutorial class (syllabus not included). I will again also be teaching our methods course for senior theses in creative writing (ENGL 489).
Spring Semester 2022: Syllabi
This spring semester at Hartwick College, I’m teaching two classes, ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing, as usual, and a brand new course, ENGL 352 Critical Game Studies. I’m especially excited about the latter, as this was a course I developed at the University of Pittsburgh in AY 2015-16 with the aid of a course development grant but that I have not had a chance to teach until now.
The syllabi:
Promotion and Tenure at Hartwick College
Today, I was officially promoted to associate professor of English with tenure at Hartwick College.
This is the result of many years of hard work, but to a large degree, I owe this success to decades of support from friends, family, teachers, mentors, and colleagues. The people I would like to thank are too numerous to name individually, and I fear I would leave someone out if I attempted doing so, as so many have done so many things to help me achieve this lifelong goal.[1] But I would like to thank, first of all, my wonderful students and current and former colleagues in and out of the Department of English at Hartwick College, all those who took the time out of their day to visit my classes, all those who wrote letters of support, including my external reviewers and students, and all those who talked with me about the process, providing crucial advice. I would also like to thank my colleagues up the road at SUNY Oneonta, my amazing students, teachers, mentors, fellow graduate students, and other colleagues at the University of Pittsburgh, and my students and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University. Thanks to all the anonymous reviewers over the years, the sometimes unseen/unheard but not unacknowledged people who have suggested my name for peer review or to contribute to a journal, and the many editors and publishers who have supported my work, with particular gratitude going to the editors and publishers of boundary 2, Blue Sketch Press, and Salò Press. And I have the deepest abiding gratitude and appreciation for my family and their endless patience listening to me talk about the job market and the tenure process. Most importantly, my partner and spouse: Racheal, I simply could not have done this without everything you bring to our family’s life and your oh-so-keen eye for errata. Your support has meant everything. And if I have somehow overlooked you amongst those mentioned above: thank you thank you thank you.
Thank you.
[1] For some of these individual thanks, see the acknowledgment pages of my dissertation, “The Apocalypse Archive: American Literature and the Nuclear Bomb” (2013), of my two books of poetry, The Rocking Chair (2015) and The Shape of Things (2017), in various articles (here, here, here, and elsewhere too) and interviews (also here), and in works in process and to come.
Fall Semester 2021: Syllabi
The start to this academic year is again unconventional, but feeling much closer to normal, especially owing to Hartwick College’s reopening plans. I’m again teaching two frequently taught creative writing courses and revisiting Poetry and Technology. The syllabi:
ENGL 213 Introduction to Creative Writing
Spring Semester 2021: Syllabi
During another unconventional spring, I’m revisiting an introductory course I taught frequently at the University of Pittsburgh (ENGLIT 0500 Introduction to Critical Reading) and reprising two creative writing courses. The syllabi:
ENGL 190 Introduction to Textual Analysis and Criticism
The Hyperarchival Parallax 