This semester, Prof. Cathy Day is teaching a special topics course entitled “Careers for English Majors.” Even if you’re not in the course, you can come to hear guest speakers and other presentations billed as “open sessions.” Undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in the English department are all welcome.

Freelance Editor Gretchen Stelter, “Making Books Happen” 
Tuesday, April 30th at 7:00 PM in RB 284

Gretchen will be joining us from Portland, OR via Skype.

Gretchen Stelter got her BA in English from Ball State in 2003. She studied in Australia before receiving an MA in professional writing from Portland State. Since then, she has worked with writers as an agent and editor for more than a decade. More than 500 books she has worked on have been published by traditional publishing houses. She’s worked on writing at every stage, from development to copyediting and proofreading. She also writes for Books for Better Living, Healthline.com, and Elephant Journal.

You can learn more about Gretchen in her “Stars to Steer By” post from last year.

Past Events

Anna Stumpf, “Using Your Golden Ticket on LinkedIn”
Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 6:30 PM in RB 284

Dr. Anna Stumpf teaches marketing in the Falls School of Business at Anderson University. She will lead a seminar on how students can best use LinkedIn to leverage their “golden ticket,” a concept that makes “putting yourself out there” a lot less scary.

“For four years, you have the ability to make a cold call, or to reach out to someone on LinkedIn, or to ask somebody to job shadow. All you have to do is use your golden ticket, which is starting any sentence with, I am a college student, and …  The person on the other end of that message will almost always listen, and they will almost always want to help.”

Dr. Stumpf will be speaking in Prof. Cathy Day’s career class, but anyone from the English department is welcome to attend, including graduate students and faculty. All you need to do is have created a LinkedIn account for yourself before you arrive.

David Griffith, “Pyramid Scheme: Making Art and Being Broke in America”
Thursday, Jan. 24 at 6:30 PM in RB 284

David Griffith is an award-winning educator, writer, and administrator with twenty years of experience creating innovative arts and academic programs at a variety of secondary and higher-ed institutions. He’s an Indiana native who earned his BA at Notre Dame and his MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. Griffith has taught at Sweet Briar College and served as a director at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School of the Arts, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and the Chautauqua Institute.

He’s the author of A Good War is Hard to Find: The Art of Violence in America, a collection of essays reflecting on the ways that images of violence in film, literature, and in news media shape our collective understanding of violence as a means of solving problems. Widely and favorably reviewed, most notably in The New York Times, Time Out Chicago called it “… a massively forceful piece of criticism.”

Laura MacLeod Mulligan, “Careers for Bookish People”
Tuesday, February 26 at 6:30 PM in RB 284

Laura is Head of Access Services at Ball State University Libraries, where she leads the Libraries in circulation, course reserves, stacks management, and resource sharing.

Previously, she worked as Information Services Librarian, where her role included reference assistance, liaison work and outreach to academic departments and faculty, and instruction to students. She earned her Master of Library Science from Indiana University-Bloomington in May 2010 and a Bachelor of Arts in English and Anthropology from Dickinson College in May 2004.

Prior to her career in librarianship, she worked for several years as a book editor for academic presses located at Indiana University and Dartmouth College.

Prof. Silas Hansen, “Publishing Jobs: Indiana University Press”
Thursday, February 28 at 6:30 PM in RB 284

During summer 2018, Prof. Silas Hansen completed a “faculty externship” at Indiana University Press in Bloomington, IN, a program offered through the Ball State Career Center.

You can learn more about this program at the Career Center website.

In this presentation, Prof. Hansen will explain the different types of careers available at university presses (editorial, sales, marketing, operations, design, etc.) and the skills and credentials you would need to pursue those careers.

Vicki Bohlsen, “Social Responsibility in Advertising, PR, and Marketing”
Tuesday, March 12 at 6:30 PM in RB 284

What’s the difference between advertising, PR, and marketing? And how do English majors break into these fields?

Vicki Bohlsen, President of the Bohlsen Group in Indianapolis will show you how. In addition, she’ll talk about her commitment to social responsibility and how you can prioritize making a difference in the world AND make a living.

Vicki makes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and community engagement a priority at Bohlsen Group. In 2014, Bohlsen Group became the only B Corp certified company in Indiana, a designation from a third party that endorses its commitment to socially responsible business.

You can learn more about Vicki on her company’s website.