As March comes to a close, take a moment to help us celebrate all of our #bsuenglish accomplishments! Our faculty and alumni have a whole month full of new successes you just have to read about. 

Faculty 

Gui Garcia

  • Prof. Garcia’s book, Data Visualization and Analysis in Second Language Research, is now available for pre-order (to be published May 31st). The book focuses on statistics applied to language data using R, and offers a friendly introduction to coding for those with little or no background.  
  • Earlier this month, Prof. Garcia also gave an invited talk for the Abralin Ao Vivo series (phonology roundtable).
  • Finally, Garcia’s work has been accepted for an oral presentation at the 51st LSRL (Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages), virtually held at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign later this term—this is joint work with Dr. Natália B. Guzzo (McGill University), and involves the creation of a corpus of Brazilian Veneto based on written text.

Angela Jackson-Brown, Dr. Kiesha Warren-Gordan and two of their students did a presentation called “Black Feminist Womanist Pedagogy” at the Antiracism: Centering the Voices of Black Women Conference hosted by the Ball State African American Studies program.

Angela Jackson-Brown

  • On Saturday, March 27th, Angela Jackson-Brown and Jill Cox-Cordova will host a virtual event called, “Black Women, Laying Our Burdens Down: Dispelling the ‘Strong Black Woman’ Myth.”
  • In honor of “Shero Week,” Angela Jackson-Brown was invited to speak on the topic of “Black Girl Magic” to the 6th grade girls at Ivy Prep Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a virtual event and the girls and Angela had a phenomenal time sharing their various “Black Girl Magic” stories.
  • Alabama Library Association’s Alabama Authors Awards Committee has named Angela Jackson-Brown’s House Repairs the 2021 poetry winner. The Authors Awards Committee seeks to encourage and recognize Alabama authors and promote interest in local authors’ books, whether the books are about Alabama or another subject. Awards are based on literary merit.

Dr. Darolyn “Lyn” Jones

  • Dr. Jones’ article in the Journal of Teaching Writing was published in March 2021: “Unschooling Teaching Practices and Community Literacy,” (w/Michael Baumann, Ph.D. candidate in Rhet/Comp at the University of Louisville and Communications Professor at Marian University).
  • Dr. Jones was asked to write a blog on caregiving for the city of Fisher’s Disability Awareness Month’s blog series: What Can I Do To Help? Fishers has been awarded national attention for its leadership in Disability Awareness.
  • Dr. Jones was featured March 25 in the Indy Maven publication in the story: “The Indiana Writers Center and Me: One Woman’s Story of How the Indiana Creative Institution Changed Her Life—and Helped her Find Her Voice”  
  • Dr. Jones’ Black Children’s & YA Lit course hosted a Coretta Scott King Award Debate where Black poet/playwright and former nationally recognized journalist Celeste Williams and Indiana State Literacy Association Affiliate and Book Ambassador Emily Cepedes judged and helped moderate.
  • Dr. Jones’ Secondary Writing Methods students participated in a panel engagement on Diversity and Equity Work in the Schools  with the Racial Equity Community Network (RECN) which comprised of Equity Coaches in schools, Equity Trainers with the state of Indiana, and Parents. 

On March 26th, Dr. Allison Hitt delivered the keynote address for the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association Conference. This year’s theme was “Access & Equity: Writing Centers in Times of Disruption,” and Hitt’s keynote focused on disability accessibility and the shared responsibility and labor of maintaining equitable access for marginalized students both pre- and post-pandemic. 

Dr. Emily Ruth Rutter

  • Dr. Rutter published “‘Legitimate Black Heroes’: Amiri Baraka’s Prescient Views on the Politics of Sports” in Some Other Blues: New Perspectives on Amiri Baraka (Ohio State UP, 2021).
  • In addition, Dr. Rutter presented her research on Honorée Jeffers’s stunning poetry collection The Age of Phillis as part of the Black Feminist Poetry and Praxis roundtable at the Midwest Regional African American Studies Conference (March 12-13).
  • Along with Kiesha Warren-Gordon, Kendra Lowery, Debbie Mix, and Maria Hernandez-Finch, Dr. Rutter also hosted the Midwest Regional African American Studies Conference. 
  • Be on the lookout for Dr. Rutter’s book, Black Celebrity: Contemporary Representation of Postbellum Athletes and Artists, coming out later this year.

The podcast Stories from the Heartland, consisting of nine episodes written and recorded by Andrea Wolfe’s ENG 347 students and produced by the Digital Corps, is now available. The podcast came out of the first course in the Midwestern Stories project, spearheaded by Andrea Wolfe and Kathryn Ludwig.

Dr. Katy Didden

Cathy Day has been invited to speak at the ADE/ADFL virtual Summer Seminar on June 2-10, 2021. The ADE Executive Committee is hosting a plenary scheduled for Monday, June 7th on “English Majors and Careers,” and Cathy will discuss the Compass Advantage and the Ball State English department’s new course, ENG 269 English Career Discovery. 

Rani Deighe Crowe

  • Crowe’s short film, Quiet on Set, was selected for Findecoin International Short Film Festival in Venezuela, SPE (Society for Photographic Education) Media Festival, Sunscreen Film Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida, Vierte Welle Feminist Film Festival in Berlin, Boden International Film Festival in Sweden.
  • Her short film, Beautiful Eyes, was also selected for the SPE Media Festival.
  • Prof. Crowe was selected to participate in the 2021 Ball State Faculty Externship Program.

Alumni

Jordan Pridemore, English Education 2012 graduate, was awarded Teachers College’s Outstanding Alumni Award in the summer of 2020. The Young Alumni Award recognizes someone age 40 or younger for outstanding early career achievement. Pridemore is a literacy consultant and has recently been working in a collaborative partnership with Equitable Education Solutions.