Three Courses

A few weeks back I sent out an email to over 1000 LITT/LANG alums. Some of those emails bounced, but most did not.

I put out a call for meaningful anecdotes about time spent in Stockton’s Literature classrooms. What has stuck with you? A particular day, lesson, or something more general about a teacher or the college.

So far I’ve received 22 responses which will be published in the next Irregular Littonian in early December. There’s still time to write your piece (or peace).

I’m accepting submissions up until Thanksgiving. Please send submissions to kinsella@earthlink.net.

Thanks,

Tom Kinsella

Dear Alums,

The next issue of the Irregular Littonian is devoted to celebrating 42 years of Literature at Stockton. But it’s only a party if you send in your remembrances.

After the first email call, several of you sent in great pieces, but we hope for many more. Please take a moment to think back to the olden days when you wandered the hallowed halls of academe near the shores of lovely Lake Fred. Are there brief stories, meaningful anecdotes, or comments you would like to share?

If so, send them along. I’ll be putting together the issue in late November.

Thanks for reading this far. I hope you are all warm and happy,

Tom Kinsella

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DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:

Monday, November 25, 2013. I’ll stitch this together over the Thanksgiving break.

Please send text and pics to me, Tom Kinsella, at Kinsella@earthlink.net.

This will probably be your last notice

We are distributing the newsletter through our Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Keep your eyes open for it in Early December

Blog: https://blogs.stockton.edu/literature/

Facebook: The LITT Program at RSCNJ

Twitter: @litrscnj

Dear Alums,

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to keep up with the workload. Stockton celebrated its 40th anniversary two Septembers ago. I attended the celebrations; wrote about the LITT/LANG program for the book Ken Tompkins and Rob Gregg put together; and thought swanky thoughts about Stockton all year round. But I didn’t get around to asking you to join in celebrating 40 years of Literature at Stockton.

Well, I’m getting to it now. I have been tasked with writing the next issue of our newsletter, the Irregular Littonian, and I have decided that we should celebrate 42 years of Literature at Stockton!

To that end, I need your help. I am asking for submissions of the following sorts (see further details and submission deadline below):

• Brief, sweet or meaningful anecdotes about the Literature faculty or your time within the program;
• Pictures of you during your time at Stockton or of LITT faculty or of LITT related events or of Stockton that you don’t mind having published in pdf format for all the world to see;
• A gnomic or epigrammatic statement that describes the impact of literature upon your life.

I don’t want this email to go long (“You have already gone past short, Tom”), but remember the stories that some of the LITT faculty told about their own professors way back when? For example, if you were in my classes you probably heard tell of Bob Gross teaching me how to use the semicolon in 17 seconds. Or Paul Fussell telling me, much to my chagrin, to “Think Smarter, Write Better!” Those are the sort of moments – about LITT faculty – that you might want to share. But any memory is fine. As for the gnomic description, I’ll provide a silly example: “Literature introduced me to good books, the world, and late-night snacking.”

Thanks for reading this far. I hope you are all warm and happy,

Tom Kinsella

Teaching Literature at Stockton (since ’89)

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DETAILS

I won’t put a word limit on your memories, and feel free to submit more than one, but strive for compression in your prose (as I am currently telling the students in Shakespeare).

Please tell me the name you want used as attribution below your memory or picture, and please let me know your year of graduation. If you want to submit memories, pics, or gnomic wisdom anonymously or without years appended, just let me know that and I shall honor the request.

I may not be able to use all pics (but I will try). As long as the memories are not slanderous (and I hope they will not be) I will use them all; same with any epigrammatica.

I am looking for numerous submissions from early, middle, and recent grads, so I hope you all wade in. I’d love to have anecdotes about every LITT professor ever, but we’ll see what we get.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION:

Monday, November 25, 2013. I’ll stitch this together over the Thanksgiving break.

Please send text and pics to me, Tom Kinsella, at Kinsella@earthlink.net.

This will probably be your only notice

We are distributing the newsletter through our Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Keep your eyes open for it in Early December

Blog: https://blogs.stockton.edu/literature/

Facebook: The LITT Program at RSCNJ

Twitter: @litrscnj

Marion Hussong’s Spring 14 Senior Sem:

Literature and Exile
During the reign of National Socialism in Germany, many talented writers were forced to emigrate from Germany and Austria, to various destinations of safety around the globe. In this senior seminar we will investigate the vibrant literary production of the pre-Hitler Weimar Republic in Germany, the conditions of literary life under Hitler, and literature in exile while Hitler was in power.

Tom Kinsella’s Spring 14 Senior Sem:

Writing South Jersey
Tuesday – Thursday, 2:30 – 4:20
This seminar will explore the culture and history of Southern New Jersey in order to create texts that highlight its noteworthy features. Projects will include writing for newsletters and exhibitions, creating maps, postcards, and pamphlets, and republishing of out-of-print texts. We will be working with archival materials located in Stockton’s Special Collections but also heading off campus to explore local oddities and treasures. Findings will be disseminated using a variety of traditional and new media formats. Participants will be asked to explore “What constitutes South Jersey?” and to focus on small, less-well-known aspects of this community. Students from all areas in New Jersey are very welcome.

In Spring 2014 the Literature Program will be offering Designing Literary Apps, a new course in which students will create content to be made available on various tablet platforms (initial stages will be aimed at iOS devices). Class participants will assess current apps for quality of content, presentation, usability, and style. They will work in teams and on their own to create content for a Stockton-based app, TextScape. We will create intelligent, useful content for anyone with a tablet or smart phone: our audience will be the world.

Alison Byerly, the new president of Lafayette, was a classmate of mine; we came out of Penn the same year. Good work Alison. Be good.

Ellie Green has put together an entertaining introduction to Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesy. It’s approx. a 10 minute video. If you are going into course overload, take a break by taking a look.

P. S. KT complains that it doesn’t work in Firefox.