James Archibald, director of the Translation and Written Communication unit at McGill University, was one of the keynote speakers at the International Meeting on Foreign Language Teaching in Quebec held on 13 and 14 November at the University of Montreal.
Doris Bachmann-Medick published a monograph, Cultural Turns: New Orientations in the Study of Culture and an edited volume, The Trans/National Study of Culture: A Translational Perspective (De Gruyter).
Jelena Borojevic’s essay, “Quenching the Quill: How Fan Art Builds Meaning, Creates Bonds and Triggers Imagination,” was published in Wizards vs. Muggles: Essays on Identity and the Harry Potter Universe (McFarland).
Jay Caplan’s new book, Postal Culture in Europe, 1500–1800, is published by the Voltaire Foundation this month.
Sarah Phillips Casteel published Calypso Jews: Jewishness in the Caribbean Literary Imagination with Columbia University Press in January 2016.
Pamela Herron’s recent talks include “Becoming Confucian in America” (University of Texas, El Paso [UTEP], Religion and Speakers Series) and “Rebuilding an Ethical World,” a literary and philosophical critique of the latest book by Henry Rosemont, Jr. (Asian Studies Development Program Conference). She chaired two panels at student conferences, “The Daodejing and Environmental Literature” and “Fostering a New Community: Women Mentoring Women.”
Renée Larrier edited Writing through the Visual and Virtual: Inscribing Language, Literature, and Culture in Francophone Africa and the Caribbean (Lexington Books) with Ousseina Alidou.
After sixteen years as an adjunct lecturer in the Barnard College English Department, Kate Levin is now working as an academic adviser at Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York.
Gretchen Martin’s Dancing on the Color Line: African American Tricksters in Nineteenth-Century American Literature was recently published by the University Press of Mississippi.
Ellen Mayock’s new book, Gender Shrapnel in the Academic Workplace, is due out next month with Palgrave Macmillan.
LaRose T. Parris has received the Nicolás Guillén Award for Outstanding Book in Philosophical Literature, bestowed by the Caribbean Philosophical Association, for Being Apart: Theoretical and Existential Resistance in Africana Literature.
Catherine Bourland Ross published The Changing Face of Motherhood in Spain: The Social Construction of Maternity in the Works of Lucía Etxebarria with Bucknell University Press.
William Thompson has been dealing with the aftermath of layoffs; negotiations related to layoffs; negotiations related to temporary givebacks; the proposed elimination of programs (and faculty members); the filing of grievances; unfair labor practices; lobbying legislators; and the organization of marches, rallies, and so on at Western Illinois University. The bright side has been seeing people respond to what feels like a carnival of incompetence with organized, intelligent, and vibrant outrage.
