The Peripatetic Observer

Volume 8 SUNY College at Geneseo, Department of English Fall 2005

Walter Harding Lecture Series Continues to be Rewarding

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT FORUMS:
YOUR ONE-STOP SOURCE FOR NEWS,
ADVICE, AND AUDIO
The English Department Forums page at
http://english.geneseo.edu/bb/ is a great place to go
when you have questions about courses or major
requirements, need information about upcoming
events, want to hear recorded audio of special
events you missed, or feel the urge to catch up with
English majors past and present. If you're an alum,
please use the "News from Graduates" forum to let
us know what you've been up to. To start using the
Forums, you'll need to register, but registration is
simple and free. Send questions about the Forums
page to schacht@geneseo.edu.
The Geneseo Literary Forum continues its
work bringing contemporary writers to campus to give
readings from their work and to meet with students both
informally and in workshop settings. Last year, in
conjunction with the Dean of First-Year Students, Dr. Celia
Easton, and the Summer Reading Program, we brought
novelist Deborah Larsen to Geneseo. Larsens historical
novel The White is about Mary Jemison and was required
reading for all incoming students. Larsen read to a large
audience, signed copies of her book, and answered questions
about her creative process. She spoke earlier that day to the
Advanced Fiction Writing Class about the challenges and
rewards of writing historical fiction, a genre the class was
exploring as well.
In the Spring, poet Erika Meitner visited and read
from her collection of poetry Inventory At the All-Night
Drugstore which won the 2002 Anhinga Prize for Poetry.
Meitner led a small workshop for student poets. Lisa Buckton
(05) said the workshop was one of the best experiences of
her years at Geneseo.
This years series began with Osage poet Carter
Revard whose reading celebrated Geneseos new Native
American Studies minor. He read from his work on October
5th in Sturges Auditorium. Plans for the Spring include a
creative nonfiction writer and a novelist.
The Department of English and the college community welcomed
Professor Ronald A. Bosco and Professor Jayne Gordon to celebrate the second
annual Walter Harding Memorial Lecture, September 15-16, 2005. A scholarly
and instructive highlight of the academic year, the lecture is endowed by the
Harding family as a tribute to Walter Harding, a distinguished and widely
recognized expert on the philosophy, writing, and life of Henry David Thoreau.
Harding was a founding member of the Thoreau Society, and from 1956 to
1983, was a member of the English faculty at Geneseo. He retired in 1983 as
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of American Literature, and in 1984 he
became SUNYs first named Honorary Doctor of Letters. In 1983 Hardings
The Days of Henry Thoreau was published to great regard.
In his evening address to a large audience in Newton Hall, Dr. Bosco,
Distinguished University Professor of English and American Literature at the
University of Albany, reiterated Thoreaus and Emersons understanding of
Walden Pond as metaphor, literal place, and symbolic influence.
The following afternoon, September 16, Professor Bosco was joined
by Professor Jayne Gordon, Executive Director of the Thoreau Society, in an
engaging and thoughtful conversation with students in Red Jacket Dining Hall.
The occasion provided students and faculty members of various disciplines the
opportunity to exchange information and observations in a relaxed atmosphere,
reaffirming Thoreaus influence in contemporary life. The discussion was
centered on, but not limited to, Thoreaus Life Without Principle.
The Department of English is honored to be indebted to Mrs. Walter
Harding and her family for their generous and thoughtful support of this
exciting and enriching scholarly series.
Last years lecturer was Dr. Joel Myerson, University of South
Carolina. Plans are already underway for next years presentation.
Senior English major Gregory Fair was
named one of this years Link Scholars on
August 30, 2005. The scholarship is a one-
time award of $2,000 given yearly to three
students who have completed at least 16
credits at a SUNY campus and have an
overall GPA of at least 3.75. Recipients
must show evidence of good character and
service to SUNY and the community.
They must be full time (at least 12 credits)
and demonstrate dedication to labor-union
(Gregory Fair and parents) values and to social justice.
We congratulate Greg on this
outstanding achievement.

Geneseo Freshman Screenwriter

First-year student Esther Fogel is the winner of the Young Filmmakers Short Screenplay Competition at the Austin Film Festival. First
written for a high school class during her junior year at Schreiber High School in Port Washington, Bending Light gained a full production
with professional filmmakers prior to its premiere in Austin, Texas, during late October of this year. Set during the Holocaust, the film
examines the ethical dilemma faced by a father who has the choice to save his son by sacrificing another child. You can see images from the
film at http://www.austinfilmfestival.net/aff/new/bside.jsp?page=filmdetails&filmId=60
After winning the award, Fogel was flown to Austin by the film festival to accept her prize, make a speech, and begin participating in
the filming of her script. She did probably 40 rewrites of the initial draft and, later, worked with a professional screenwriting consultant to
prepare the script for filming. Unlike Hollywood writers, Esther was able to maintain significant control over the filming, which was done
by professional directors, cinematographers, and actors. She is very pleased that the final version of the film realized her vision for the story.
Fogel has been interviewed by the New York Times and other media organizations in New York and Texas, including T.V. stations on
Long Island. She hopes to be a professional screenwriter but is keeping her options open while she is currently taking courses in English and
Spanish at Geneseo. The Austin production company that made the film is planning to enter it in the short films category at the Academy
Awards.
Rob Doggett Joins English Faculty
The Department welcomes Dr. Rob Doggett as its newest faculty member. Dr. Doggett
completed his undergraduate degree at Gettysburg College and his doctoral work at the University
of Maryland. Before accepting his positionN.at Geneseo, he taught for three years at SUNY Potsdam.
Dr
Doggetts interests center on twentieth-century British and Irish literature, with special
emphasis on poetry and W.B. Yeats. In 2002 he received the Adele Dalsimer Prize for a
Distinguished Dissertation in Irish Studies, awarded by the American Conference for Irish Studies.
In 2006 The University of Notre Dame Press will publish his book Deep-Rooted Things: Empire
and Nation in the Poetry and Drama of William Butler Yeats.
Dr. Doggett looks forward to teaching at Geneseo and hopes to lead small groups of students on trips to study in Ireland and England.

We wish him the best as he begins his work.

Asian American Literature The Readers Corner

Returns
In the summer of 2005, Dr. Alice
Rutkowski applied for and was awarded a grant
from the State of New York/United University
Professions for the purpose of developing a new
course on Asian American literature. The course,
ENGL237: American Visions: Asian American
Literature, will be offered for the first time during
the Spring 2006 semester. This marks the first
time since the 1970s that such a course has been
offered at Geneseo.
Woidat Awarded Drescher Leave
Caroline Woidat has been awarded
a year-long leave through the Dr. Nuala
McGann Drescher Affirmative Action/
Diversity Leave Program. She is using the
time away from teaching to work on two
related book projects. In the book-length
monograph The Indian in the Mirror:
Women Writers, White Feminism, and the
Native American Other, she examines white
women authors intellectual, imaginative, and
political responses to Native Americans over
several centuries. Woidat will also be editing
a collection of texts by nineteenth-century
feminist writer Elizabeth Oakes Smith, whose
writings about Indians are currently available
only in the microfilm holdings of certain
libraries. With Elizabeth Oakes Smiths The
Western Captive and Other Indian Stories,
she hopes to recover these texts for students
and scholars and to diversify studies of this
period and subject. The books both explore
the relationship between the development of
middle-class feminism and the presence of
Native American in white womens
consciousness, a topic that has been of
interest in Woidats courses in literature,
Native American studies, and womens
studies.
Eugene Stelzig recommends Immortality by Milan Kundera,
described by the reader as a brilliant novel of ideas. A few other
must reads are: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole,
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre by B. Traven, and Europa,
Europa by Shlomo Perel.
Graham Drake recently finished reading Guy Vanderhaeghe's
The Last Crossing. The novel tells the story of two British brothers
in the late nineteenth century who set off to find their third brother,
who is lost on the Great Plains. As is true of the title, they encounter
many crossings, between Brits and Americans, Canadians and
Americans, immigrants and "native-born" Americans, Indians and
whites, and even the rigid binary of male and female. Vanderhaeghe
allows his characters to narrate the story in a series of vignettes, and
his description of the prairie landscapes and badlands will break
even the hearts of coastal die-hards.
Vanderhaeghe is an award-winning Saskatchewan novelist (he
lives in Saskatoon) and is just one of Saskatchewan's
disproportionately significant contributions to CanLit (as the
Canadians risibly call their national literary product). Other
novelists to look out for from Saskatchewan include Sandra
Birdsell, Sharon Butala, and Rudy Wiebe.
Richard Finkelstein recommends Middlesex by J.
Eugenides.
Walter Freed suggests the novels of Dashiell Hammett,
specifically Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, and The Glass Key. A
writer of energy and period, he captures the extraordinary mayhem
of convoluted plot and eccentric characters. Hammett takes
ambiguity into the realm of the inexplicable, presented as a puzzle,
without solution. The read is a delight.
Rachel Halls recent finds include: Tender Hooks, poems by
Beth Ann Fennelly; What You've Been Missing, stories by Janet
Desaulniers; and First Desire, a novel (set in Buffalo from 1920-
1950s), by Nancy Reisman.
Maria Lima recommends that you do not start Zadie Smith's
last novel, On Beauty (443 must-read pages), unless you are ready
to stop everything else to get to the end--as she has done. Like E.M.
Forster, Zadie Smith creates an intricately realistic world,
impossible to resist.
Another must read is our own Rachel Halls exploration
of motherhood and writing in the collection of essays titled
Mamaphonic; Balancing Motherhood and Other Creative Acts.
Maria states I read this during the break, and learned something
about both. Of course I was lucky to get a copy.

The Peripatetic Observer

Department of English Newsletter
Editor * Dr. Walter B. Freed Jr.
Associate Editor * Michele E. Feeley
Visit us on the Web: http://english.geneseo.edu
email us at: mailto:english@geneseo.edu
 From the Chair.

It was exciting for me to return to your English Department this fall after a semester-long sabbatical. We continue
to attract terrific students, including, by all measures, some of the best students at the college. We have had the largest
number of students at the college elected to Phi Beta Kappa (joining the ranks of our instructors, themselves the biggest
contingent of faculty members in this most distinguished of national honor societies). We have had yet another student,
Greg Fair, receive one of two statewide Eugene Link Scholarships, sponsored by United University Professions. Jon
Senchyne won this prize three years ago. And one of our first-year students, Esther Fogel, last summer won the Austin
Young Screenwriters Competition. As I write, a film of her screenplay is being readied for its festival debut (see the
article on page 1). We have sent our graduates to some of the nations most distinguished professional and graduate
schools, a sign of the increasing recognition that Geneseo and our department have received.
We have been listening hard to the needs of our students and the suggestions of our alumni. In turn, people seem
to be telling us that we have heard them. Geneseo students have been voting with their feet in favor of their experience
in the department. The numbers of our majors have risen 30% in the last four years to a level not seen since the college
was much bigger in the 1970s. That high figure doesnt even take into account the proliferation of film minors and
concentrators. And it also doesnt include students now entering the first full year of our new Creative Writing major.
We have for years heard from you, both as undergraduates and alumni, about the need for such a program. Im thrilled
that we could be responsive to what weve heard. We are grateful for the hard work and dedication of the faculty, as well
as for the support of the Administration. Our unified effort has strengthened and diversified our programs.
Most of all, your own support and encouragement have made much of our work possible. Privately endowed
sponsorship has brought us the annual Walter Harding Lecture, which in September found an audience of over 150
students to hear from Professor Ronald Bosco, a distinguished Harvard University Press editor of Emersons works.
Recently we welcomed over 100 students to a reading given by the distinguished poet, Carter Revard, in honor of our new
interdisciplinary minor in native-American studies. The reading was in part sponsored by the Geneseo Literary Forum.
You help maintain the health of the Literary Forum and of our annual student awards, student research, and the film
program. This year I would like to begin organizing an Alumni Council that would provide us with new perspectives on
what we do, as well as ideas and support in the areas of visiting speakers and career connections. If you are interested in
helping us be still more responsive to student and alumni, please consider taking a role in this group. You can e-mail me
about your interest at finkelst@geneseo.edu.

Best wishes for the winter holiday season.

Richard Finkelstein
finkelst@geneseo.edu

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Voices from Past & PresentAlumni News
ELIZABETH TRAVER ADOPLHUS
(1992) married David Adolphus in May of
1999. After spending nearly five years in
Burlington, Vermont, working as the
Director of Communications for the Lake
Champlain Regional Chamber of
commerce, she moved to Bennington,
Vermont, in December 2001 to be a part-
time caregiver for her mother. She is also
working as the editor of a weekly
community newspaper, serving
southwestern Vermont and surrounding
areas in MA and NY. After many years of
stalling, she has also begun working
seriously on writing fiction.
SUSAN J. ARCHER (2004) has been
working at ABC News in NYC since early
August. She was hired as a tape
coordinator/ production assistant for the
weekday and weekend editions of Good
Morning America.
ANNA BALOK (2005) is teaching
elementary school in Seoul and trying
to keep in mind bell hooks' teaching
mantra: to start at where they are; in other
words, first and most importantly to find
out where the students are coming from,
what they already know and don't know,
what their needs, goals, strengths, and
weaknesses are, and to work from there.
Shes enjoying spending her spare time
with new and old friends and touring the
countryside on her new bike.
SAMANTHA BELL (2003) graduated
from SUNY Brockport with an M.A. in
English. She returned to the Geneseo
English Department to teach for a semester
before heading off to graduate school in
Kansas to study for a Ph.D. in English with
a concentration in Creative Writing.
BRET BIRKINBINE (2003) worked at
WROC in Rochester for 4 years while
going to school. He is now the 6am
Producer at KTRK ABC-13 Eyewitness
News in Houston and quite happy to have
lived through his first hurricane (Rita)!
HEIDI BOLLINGER (2003) is in her
second year of graduate school at the
University of Colorado and teaching
courses there.
EMMA BOYER (2005) is studying for an
M.A. in Literature at Carnege Melon.
LISA BUCKTON (2005) was chosen to
have her poem merge published in Lake
Affect magazine (vol. 27), and she plans to
pursue a graduate degree locally.
ANDREW CAMPBELL (2005) is
pursuing an M.A. at Columbia University.
EMILY DeFRANKS (2002) received an
M.A. in English from Syracuse University
after passing her Masters dossier hearing
with distinction. She is currently working
as a copywriter for a design company in
beautiful Skaneateles, N.Y.
emilydefranks@yahoo.com
KATHRYN DRURY (1994) is an editor
at Honolulu Magazine. She is planning a
wedding with 1993 University of
Rochester graduate Brett Wagner.
MARIANNE (UPHAM) ERHARDT
(2003) is one of six poets who started the
M.F.A. program at UW-Madison this Fall
and is a Teaching Assistant for creative
writing workshops.
ROSEANNE FARANO (1973) her book
The Dove in Downward Flight has been
met with a 4-star rating and named an
exceptional book for 2002.
LINDA FORESHA (1986) resides in
Virginia and is a math teacher at a school
in Wilmington, DE.
THOMAS FORMICOLA (1985) runs a
speakers bureau at North Eastern and
resides in a western suburb of Boston. He
and his partner of fourteen years, Lenny
Goldstein, were married more than three
years ago by a rabbi in Boston.
KEVIN FRYLING (2003) is currently
working on an M.A. in English at the
University of Buffalo with a focus on
Victorian Literature. He works part-time
as a correspondent with the Daily News in
Batavia, NY, and as a graduate assistant
with the Department of News Services at
the University of Buffalo. He also writes
for the colleges in-house newspaper The
Reporter. (www.buffalo.com/reporter)
KATHERINE FUSCO (2003) is in her
second year of graduate school at
Vanderbilt University and is teaching
courses there.
JENNIFER GARVEY (2003) was
actually a Business Administration major
who partook in various English department
offerings and is now a Public Relations
graduate student at Syracuse University in
the MNO program (Magazine, Newspaper,
and Online Journalism).
PAIGE GAYNOR (2004) is attending the
University of Colorado at Denver with
plans to obtain an M.A. in English
Education.
DEANNA KARCH (2005) is teaching
tenth-grade reading in Lantana, Florida.
She resides in North Palm Beach and
spends her spare time coaching a
multicultural dance team, The Soul Jets.
RITA J. KING (1996) was recently
honored with two first-place awards from
the New York Press Association for in-
depth reporting and spot news coverage of
the nuclear industry, especially Indian
Point nuclear power plant in Westchester
County, NY. She also won a third-place
award for her weekly newspaper column,
Ruminations. Her work has also
appeared in The New York Times, The
Village Voice (including a cover story, "I
was an AOL Censor") and in various
national magazines and newspapers. One
of her stories (about eight brothers who
went to World War II and returned home
unharmed) appeared on MSNBC's "The
News with Brian Williams."
CAITLIN LANGELIER (2005)
continues at Geneseo studying for her
M.A. in Education.
ERIN McCLURE (2003) is studying for
an M.Ed. in Special Education at Peabody
College of Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, TN, in addition to working in
Nashville City Schools as part of a
research assistantship through Peabody.
SHAWN McCONNELL (2000) has been
working for the New York State Assembly
as a writer for Assemblyman N. Perry and
was accepted to graduate school at Albany.
CHARLOTTE McCORKEL (2005) is
pursuing graduate studies in social work at
Columbia.
EMILY McCORMICK (2005) is at UB
studying for a Masters in Library Science.
MEGHAN McKENNA (2004) is living in
Brooklyn and working at the imaging
company Quad/Graphics which does all of
the image retouching for Conde Nast and
Fairchild publications. She is an account
manager for Vogue, Teen Vogue, and
Lucky magazines and enjoys seeing the
industry behind the scenes. Meghans
younger brother started at Geneseo this
Fall.
EDRIC MESMER (1999) completed
studies (with Distinction) at Manchester
through the Centre for the Study of
Sexuality and Culture, with the M.A. thesis
entitled Gender, Sexuality, & Culture.
COURTNEY MINNICK (2004) attended
the Denver Publishing Institute during
Summer 2005.
JESSICA PURPLE (2005) is pursuing an
M.A. in Childrens Literature through
Penn State. She and her husband are also
expecting their first child.
DENISE ROMANO (1989) is employed
by the Hudson River Trust and feels lucky
to work with such interesting, great people:
Architects, Lawyers, government people,
education people, Finance people, etc. She
has three masters degrees and is looking
into psychology doctoral programs.
JENNIFER C. ROSSI (1995) received a
Ph.D. in American Studies with a
concentration in Womens Studies from
SUNY Buffalo in Fall 2003 and has been
teaching several literature courses at
Eastern Michigan University.
Jennarossi73@yahoo.com
REGINA (DARCANGELIS) SEGUIN
(2004) married her college boyfriend,
Brian Seguin (Anthropology and History
major), on Aug. 6, 2005 on Long Island,
where her family lives. Regina and Brian
are now living in Florida, near Orlando.
She spent the past year at the University of
South Florida in Tampa working on a
Masters in Library Science and
certification as a school media specialist.
JONATHAN SENCHYNE (2004) &
ANA B. GUIMARAES (2004). Jon is a
graduate student in English at Syracuse
University. He is also an instructor in the
Writing Program there. In 2004 and 2005
he revised and expanded his undergraduate
Honors thesis (directed by Ed Gillin) into
two conference presentations, an
encyclopedia entry, and an article that will
appear in the 2005 edition of h. He
delivered papers at the 2005 North
American James Joyce Conference
(Cornell University) and the 2005 Working
Class Studies Conference (Youngstown
State University). He also has written
encyclopedia entries on Horatio Alger,
Jacob Riis, Frederick Winslow Taylor, and
Deindustrialization for Routledge and
Greenwood Press. This year he is editing
two volumes, one entitled Teaching
Working-Class Studies and another,
Class, Inequality, and Possible Futures.
Ana was an administrative assistant at the
Syracuse office of Robert Half
International, Inc., an award winning
office/accounting staffing firm. This fall
Ana is studying for the Master of Library
Science degree in the School of Library
and Information Science at Syracuse
University. She holds a graduate
assistantship there. Ana also attended the
2005 Conference of the Western New
York/Ontario Chapter of the Association
of College and Research Libraries.
DANIELLE SICARI (1996) lives in
Flushing, NY and is working at an
insurance defense firm in Brooklyn
Heights as an insurance defense attorney.
BRYNN SPEER (2004) began graduate
school this Fall at SUNY Albany in the
Library Science Program.
VALERIE SPRAGUE (2005) is at UB
studying for an M.L.S.
AARON STRAHL (2005) recently joined
the team at Guiliani Capital Advisors.
TRACY STRAUSS (1996) was recently
promoted to co-head of the writing center
at Boston University and had a critical
essay accepted into The Hopkins
Quarterly.
JENNIFER THOMPSON received her
M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought
from NYU and has decided to pursue a
Ph.D. in literature and dedicate her life to
teaching.
JULIE M WALINSKI (2002) finished
her M.A. in English at the University of
Rochester and has been teaching English
composition and humanities at Monroe
Community College. She is planning a
December 2005 wedding to Professor Jeff
Johannes.
ROBYN WALKER (1999) is currently
living in Buffalo, NY, and is a Ph.D.
candidate at the University of Toronto.
She has presented such papers as
Christianity & Literature in New
Orleans, LA, and Feminist Traditions in
Savannah, GA.
MIKE WALSH (1970) will soon be
completing thirty years of employment
with Social Security. He has worked in
Oeonta, NY, South Florida, and South
Carolina. He attended graduate school at
Brockport State and Cortland State and
taught middle school English at
Skaneateles High for one year. He looks
forward to retirement and perhaps taking
some more graduate courses. His wife
Paula was an opera/voice major in college
and is a music and liturgy director at a
church. Mwalsh1644@aol.com
CHERYL WILSON (2000) is enjoying
her work as an assistant professor at
Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She
has a graduate research assistant (!), is
teaching two sections of composition this
term, and will teach a graduate course in
19th-century literature in the Spring.
MATT ZAMBITO (1998) currently lives
in Columbus, Ohio. His poem R.I.P. was
recently published in Ascent, and he is a
drummer for Cropchecker.

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Return to: Department of English, SUNY Geneseo * 1 College Circle, Welles 226 * Geneseo, NY 14454
 2005 English Department Honors and Awards

Graduating Senior Awards

The William T. Beauchamp Literature Award
Whitney Crispell
The Patricia Conrad Lindsay Memorial Award
Colleen Butler
The Rosalind R. Fisher Award for Student Teaching in English
Andrew Campbell
The Walter Harding American Studies Award
Janine Giordano
The Calvin Israel Award in the Humanities
Laura Miller
The Joseph M. OBrien Memorial Award
Charlotte McCorkel

Scholarships
The William Cook/Walter Herzman Memorial Scholarship
Duncan Carranza
The Hans Gottschalk Award
Class of 2006: Greg Fair
Class of 2007: Maria Gigante
Class of 2007: Katie Owens
The Natalie Selser Freed Memorial Scholarship
Ian Todd
The Joseph OBrien Transfer Scholarship
Christine Biermann
The Don Watt Memorial Scholarship
Andrew Coats

Annual Writing Awards

The Jrme de Romanet Award in African American Studies
First place: Kate A. Steinnagel
Second place: Lauren Whaley
The Creative Non-Fiction Award
First place: Whitney Crispell
Second place: Bradley Kerr
Third place (co-winners): Anna Balok & Michael Yagnow
The John H. Parry Award in Critical Essay
First place: Caitlin Langelier
Second place: Kate A. Steinnagel
Third place: Ian Todd
The C. Agnes Rigney Award in Drama
Michael Yagnow
The Lucy Harmon Award in Fiction
First place: Ashley Pankratz
Second place: Bradley Kerr
Third place: Monica Wendel
The J. Irene Smith Award in Freshman Writing
First place: Alex Egan
Second place: Lisa Marie Parisio
The Mary A. Thomas Award in Poetry
First place: Lisa M. Buckton
Second place: John DiSarro
Third place: Alaina Maggio
 English Club
The English Club continues to be busy:
! Revival of the Talent Show on Thursday, December 1st will include faculty (Ron Herzman, Tom Greenfield, Eugene Stlezig,
and Shawn Adamson) and students (Geneseos Juggling Club, students from Graham Drakes British Literature class).
! The student-run magazine OPUS continues to grow. Submissions include poetry, fiction, and artwork.
! A successful Open-Mic was held in October with a several students performing.
! Through the Volunteer Center the Club has adopted a family for the holidays. We have collected childrens books, clothes,
gift cards, etc. from students and faculty members.
! The club sold English Club tee-shirts with a catchy slogan suggested by Tom Greenfield. As more people wear them, more
are requesting them. We will have another sale in the Spring with a new design/slogan available for purchase to majors,
faculty and alum.

Please feel free to email us with questions or comments at englclub@geneseo.edu

Study Abroad with English Department Faculty

I once had a philosophy professor who had never ventured
east of Kingston, Ontario, or west of Regina, Saskatchewan. He
took eccentric pride in never having beheld the ocean and
enlisted an admirable train of his philosophical brethren to
bolster his argument that travel teaches us nothing.
Perhaps travel teaches some people nothing. One can cross
half the globe yet never see past ones own iPod. But if I had a
chance to speak to him now, I would probably remind my
former professor that he had barely tested his thesis on himself.
Travel can and should be, I would argue, an empirical
immersion in the Otherhelping us to recognize how much
we, ourselves, are really the Other, decentering our self-
satisfaction.
Here at Geneseo we do believe travel teaches us
that (North) America is not the only place that
has every existed
that we, too, are foreigners anywhere but here
that some of the roots of our history happened
elsewhere and that we can observe its material
remains and its impact on the various places our
ancestors left behind.
Our own department continues to promote these lessons and more in several Study Abroad Programs.
Gene Stelzig will be teaching Western Humanities II in July 2006 in our New College, Oxford program. New College isn't really new; it
was founded in 1379 and contains a number of original buildings, plus part of the old city wall of Oxford that predates the College by several
centuries. Over the past decade or so, a number of English Department faculty have taught this course, including Gene, Ken Asher, and Graham
Drake. All of them can testify to a superb experiencepleasant food, decent accommodations close to large gardens and quadrangles, and a high
standard of good work (and good fun) among students who participate. The program includes side-trips to Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, and
London (though last years group visited Exeter, Torquay, and Tintagel Castle after Geneseo decided to cancel any official college-related travel
to London).
For students who may be interested in other cities, the College also offers Western Humanities I in Rome, Athens, and Paris. Some students
opt to join both the Continental Humanities I and the Insular Humanities II.
Also in Britain, Graham Drake and Kathryn DeZur of SUNY Delhi are offering Literature and Early London (English 250), a course in
Medieval and Renaissance literature. Students will read Chaucer, Arthurian literature, Shakespeare, and Sidney while visiting museums and
historical sites in London, Oxford, Winchester, Durham, Penshurst, and Stratford-upon-Avon. The course will run in the second half of June
2006.
Also in London (18 June-10 July), Maria Lima will be teaching ENGL 218 Contemporary British Literature, at Goldsmith's
College/University of London (on the south side of the Thames). Maria will be focusing again this year on her specialty, Black British writers.
Across the Irish Sea, the annual Spring Break course, Literary Dublin, continues this coming March. Our own Tom Greenfield normally
teaches this class, but he will be traveling instead to Oxford in July to serve as Gene Stelzigs Program Director. Instead, Jennifer Rogalsky
(Geography Department; rogalsky@geneseo.edu) and Kim Davies (College Libraries; davies@geneseo.edu) will be leading this class. Students
will take in important literary sites in Dublin and the Irish countryside.
These are just some of the growing selection of study abroad courses offered by Geneseo alone. For more information, see
http://studyabroad.geneseo.edu/. The Study Abroad Office in Erwin can also give advice about financial aid and other essential matters for
foreign travel.
Other SUNY colleges offer a veritable smorgasbord of study abroad courses. Two of interest to our majors include SUNY Binghamtons
internship program in London and SUNY Brockports semester-abroad studying literature in Oxford and at numerous Australian universities.
.These, among many others, appear on SUNYs own study abroad website at http://www.studyabroad.com/suny/ .
We invite our students to cross oceans, continents, and culturesto make new friends, to learn a new culture, discover career opportunities,
and to gain fresh perspectives on a complex world. This is a way to live in more of the world than the way we live now. (And maybe we can
prove my former professor wrong while were at it.)
Graham N. Drake
 In Loving Memory of Dr. Alan Lutkus

Alan Lutkus, who passed away in the summer of 2004 after a courageous struggle with cancer, joined
Geneseo's English Department as a full-time faculty member in 1973. Alan, who is fondly remembered by his
students and colleagues as a dedicated teacher and scholar, came to us by way of Harvard (B.A.) and Indiana
University/Bloomington (Ph.D.) and a stint as an instructor at Northern Illinois University. He was hired
principally for his expertise in linguistics and Renaissance literature, but when in his first decade here the
English Department lost its full-time film position, Alan stepped forward enthusiastically when his Chair asked
him to take up the teaching of the subject. Although Alan continued offering a variety of courses, including both
the history and structure of the English language as well as composition and Shakespeare, film studies became his
main pedagogic and scholarly gig for the remainder of his long career at the College. As Ron Herzman, a longtime
friend of his has observed, Alan accumulated thousands of films and devoted himself to his new field with a vengeance: "When he
went into something, he went into it pretty fanatically." A fitting culmination of Lutkus' teaching film courses to generations of
Geneseo students is the implementation of the Film Studies minor introduced in 2002, and toward which Alan had worked for over
two decades.
In addition to his academic interests, Alan was also a very accomplished musician who played the piano, the saxophone,
and the accordion. His talents as a satirical songwriter were on display for the English Department many years ago when he and
Ellen Herzman co-wrote a musical comedy spoof of Shakespeare's Othello, punningly titled, "For He's a Jolly Othello" that was
performed to great acclaim as the after-dinner entertainment of the annual English Department banquet. Alan's musical talents
were already on display in college, where he was a member of the Harvard marching band, then under the direction of Geneseo's
James Walker, Professor of Music. Walker recalls one amusing incident in which Alan turned in the wrong direction on the field
and marched off according to his own saxophone, and away from the band, in front of thousands of spectators. Lutkus was also a
member of Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club, "whose legendary, irreverent humor," according to Geneseo President Christopher
Dahl, coincided perfectly with Alan's own."
Alan's sparkling wit was a striking and endearing trait of his that stood out for his many colleagues and friends at
Geneseo. In the best tradition of Shakespeare, it was devilishly punning as well as eccentrically allusive and elusive: many of us
(including this writer) felt themselves at times so many Sir Andrew Aguecheeks left in the wake of his Mercutio-like sallies,
accompanied--of course--by an irrepressible Puckish grin. His irreverent humor was on display in his office as well as in his home,
where he and his wife Anne (the two had met as graduate students in Bloomington) would frequently host a large circle of friends
from Geneseo and the greater Rochester area for dinners and other get-togethers. Their annual Christmas day brunches that ran
well into the evening have become something of a Geneseo legend.
When I think of Alan, as I often do, the image that immediately comes to mind is his roguish, witty, ironic, and knowing
yet delighted smile. And the fact that he was so tall that he had to stoop to talk to me.
Gene Stelzig

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