This February was full of good news— from published articles to film festivals. Read on to learn more!

Faculty

Prof. Molly Ferguson published her article, “‘I retract that bit…’: Hypermasculinity and Violence in Martin McDonagh’s films” in Literature, Interpretation, Theory for the first of two special issues with the theme “Violent Feelings”.

Prof. Michael Begnal has two new poems in the February 2019 issue of Anti-Heroin Chic. They are titled “Spun” and “Crimson Clouds” and can be read here.

Prof. Emily Rutter was named the Ball Brothers Foundation Honors College Faculty Fellow for 2019-2021.

Prof. Rani Crowe

• Her short film, Heather Has Four Moms, has recently  been selected to screen by the Festival Feministes in Montreal; Reelout Film Festival in Kingston, Canada; Immaginaria International Film Festival of Lesbians and Other Rebellious Women in Rome; Amarcort Film Festival’s “Around the World in 80 Shorts” in Rimini, Italy (hometown of Federico Fellini); FINDECOIN Independent International Short Film Festival in Venezuela; The Colony Short Film Festival in Marietta, Ohio;  Beeston Film Festival in Nottingham, UK; the Louisiana International Film Festival in Baton Rouge; Oxford International Film Festival in Oxford, UK; and the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival.
  
  
• Heather Has Four Moms won the Best LGBT Short Film Award at South Texas Underground Film Festival.
  
  
• Rani’s Heather Has Four Moms half-hour pilot television script (inspired by her short film) was a Quarter Finalist selection at the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition. The quarter finalists represent the top 20% of over 1,200 screenplays submitted.
  
  
• Rani’s short-short film, The Test, was accepted to the Berlin Flash Film Festival.
  
  
• Rani’s 10-minute one act farcical play about disability in theater, Why You Can’t Put a Wheelchair on the Stage, was published in Santa Ana River Review. 

Prof. Silas Hansen’s essay, “Fifteen Things I’ve Noticed While Trying to Hit 10,000 Steps Per Day: Muncie, Indiana Edition,” was accepted by Hobart and will be published in late spring/early summer. His first issue as Nonfiction Editor of Waxwing was also published in February 2019.

Prof. Laura Romano has been awarded a fellowship from the Virginia Ball Center for Creative Inquiry for the Fall 2019 semester. Her project: “”Makerspaces: Opportunities for Cultural Identity in Post-Industrial Cities” will investigate the “maker’s movement” and “makerspaces” through oral history observations and ethnographic observation. Laura will be partnering with the Muncie Arts and Culture Council in this project.

Prof. Mary Lou Vercellotti

• Her research about English learners’ self-correction was published in TESL-EJ. Read the article here.
• She also collaborated with Dr. Julie Griffith (Speech Pathology and Audiology) and her graduate student Hannah Folkerts to research interactive learning spaces. Their paper “What’s in a question: A comparison of student questions in two learning spaces” was published in Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Read more about it here.
• Mary Lou Vercellotti will also be leading a workshop on creating rubrics for language classrooms at the Pre-Conference Institute of the TESOL 2019 International Conference in Atlanta, GA on March 11, 2019. Find out more.

Prof. Kathryn Ludwig recently had a paper accepted for a special issue of the journal Humanities. The issue is entitled “Theology of Marilynne Robinson in a Postsecular Age.”

Alumni

Brandon Buechley (BA in CW 2015) has been promoted from Editorial Assistant to Assistant Editor at Alpha Books, DK Publishing, a division of Penguin Random House, in Indianapolis. He’ll be on campus Thursday, March 14 at 6:30 PM in Bracken 104 to speak at “Stars to Steer By” about how to find a job in the publishing industry. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.