North Dakota State University

The Department of English honored the annual scholarship award winners and also celebrated Dr. Bob O’Connor’s 28 years of service and retirement during the Spring Awards Luncheon held in the Memorial Union on May 1, 2013. O’Connor announced his retirement as of the end of the spring 2013 semester. Each year the department gives out over $10,000 in scholarships and we proudly announce the outstanding scholarship and award recipients for the 2013-14 academic year. We commend the award winners on their dedication in continuing their own educations and to the education of others.

Each year the Department invites a nationally recognized scholar to teach an intensive course in his or her area of expertise. Dr. Paul Prior of University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign is scheduled to lead the 2013 Summer Scholars course titled, "Writing, Disciplinarity, and English: A Global Perspective." The week-long intensive course is slated for June 10-14,  and runs from 9am - 4pm daily.

Globally, English—as language and discipline—has been playing increasingly central roles across a wide range of fields, although some trends suggest the dominance of English in many disciplinary forums is also being challenged. Writing remains central to all aspects of disciplinarity, serving key roles in individuals' trajectories of learning, in institutional assessments of competence and value, and in disciplinary communication. This course examines theory and research on the connections among writing, disciplinarity, and English in global contexts.

Paul Prior is Professor of English and Professor and Director of the Center for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In a series of situated studies that draw on theoretical frameworks from cultural-historical activity theory and dialogic semiotics, Paul has explored connections among writing, reading, talk, learning, and disciplinarity. Prior’s current projects study the writing process as dispersed, embodied, and situated literate activity and research that traces the remediation of an interactive online art object. Prior has taught English in Saudi Arabia, directed the first-year writing course at Illinois, and led Writing-Across-the-Curriculum workshops over 700 faculty and 1200 teaching assistants at Illinois.

Welcome to the summer edition of our newly titled, Pen & Pixels: Notes from the NDSU Department of English. Besides the new name, this issue is a couple of pages longer than in the past and there still wasn't room to list all of "The Buzz." In this issue we sadly say goodbye to Dr. Bob O'Connor who retired after 28 years of dedicated service. We also say congratulations to our 2013-14 award and scholarship winners.

Your comments are always welcome and you can help in our attempt to keep track of our alumni by letting us know how you've been and where you are. Please send your stories, article ideas, and comments to Tina Young.

As we head into the summer months, we are already preparing for our fall issue which can be expected in late September or early October. The latest and all archived issues can be found at the newsletter page on the Department of English website.

Enjoy the bright sunny weather and happy reading!

June 10-14: ENGL 758, Summer Scholars Course with Dr. Paul Prior, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign

June 10-21: Red River Valley Writing Project, Summer Workshop

June 2-July 12: North Dakota Governor's School

See our wiki for a list of additional local events and national conferences.

English Department
NDSU - Dept. 2320
P.O. Box 6050
Fargo, ND  58108-6050
Office Location: Morrill Hall 219
Office Phone: 701-231-7143