{"id":36528,"date":"2025-03-03T09:58:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T14:58:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=36528"},"modified":"2025-03-03T12:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-03T17:16:12","slug":"furman-english-department-prove-very-bookish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/furman-english-department-prove-very-bookish\/","title":{"rendered":"Furman English Faculty Turn Book Projects Into Mentoring Opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Margaret Oakes likes to bring a mess into her classroom.<\/p>\n<p>The English professor edits her scholarly writing on paper, a tactile process of literal cutting and pasting. And then she invites her students to look.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I tell you your first draft is going to be terrible, you\u2019re going to have to revise it \u2013 this is proof,\u201d she tells them.<\/p>\n<p>The recent publication record of Furman\u2019s English department tells a story of commitment to weaving professional work and classroom instruction into a deep academic experience for students.<\/p>\n<p>The faculty were especially busy in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/gretchen-braun\/\">Gretchen Braun<\/a>, a professor who also teaches in the women\u2019s gender and sexuality studies program, published \u201cNarrating Trauma: Victorian Novels and Modern Stress Disorders.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/joni-tevis\/\">Joni Tevis<\/a>, the Bennette E. Geer Professor of English, won her second Pushcart Prize for an essay in The Georgia Review titled \u201cIf Your Dreams Don\u2019t Scare You,\u201d a look at hazing through history, including her own experience.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/nicholas-f-radel\/\">Professor Nicholas Radel<\/a> wrote the introduction for the seminal \u201cKing Richard II\u201d in the anthology \u201cShakespeare: The Critical Tradition.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/gregg-hecimovich\/\">Professor Gregg Hecimovich<\/a> published \u201cThe Life and Times of Hannah Crafts,\u201d which won The Los Angeles Times Book Award, the American Book Award and many other honors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year, three English professors \u2013 Oakes, Laura Morris and Michele Speitz \u2013 each published books, continuing the department\u2019s high level of activity.<\/p>\n<p>Melinda Menzer, English professor and department chair, said teachers consistently incorporate their research into classroom conversations. They also conduct research alongside students and workshop their writing with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese collaborative projects are high-impact experiences for our students, and they broaden a Furman education from teaching to mentoring,\u201d Menzer said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter One: Learning Together<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/margaret-j-oakes\">Oakes<\/a> led a 2018 study away program in the United Kingdom. The group saw 16 plays and Oakes was struck by the fact that the UK is more experimental with gender in its production.<\/p>\n<p>Women played men more frequently, or characters were switched from male to female. Sometimes it worked well and brought fascinating insights to the play; sometimes it made no difference.<\/p>\n<p>The observation sparked the research that would ultimately become her 2024 book \u201cTo Gender or Not to Gender: Casting and Characters for 21st Century Shakespeare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oakes brought a student into the work in the most tangible way possible, by hiring a research assistant.<\/p>\n<p>Emily Enlow Banks \u201922 helped create a database for the project. She read theater reviews from the past 25 years to study how language has changed. She developed interview questions and participated in interviews with theater professionals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are learning as we do our research and this always gets passed into the classroom,\u201d Oakes said. \u201cWe have to grow in the field in order to serve our students.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter Two: Writing Together<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/laura-l-morris\">Morris<\/a>, associate professor of English, published her first novel, \u201cThe Stone Catchers\u201d in 2024. She published a book of short stories in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Through those same years, she also was shepherding students through their own submission and publication processes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy students and I, we\u2019re all working writers,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I treat us all like working writers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Morris would sketch out her book\u2019s plot structure on the board to identify gaps or flaws, while her students practiced the same process on their own writing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working through problems together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Morris considers any first draft a \u201cdiscovery.\u201d Her 80,000-word manuscript went through 11 drafts before publication. \u201cI want them to understand that is the reality of becoming a writer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After watching the draft process unfold, students learned about sending out a finished manuscript and saw what it takes to bring a book to the public after its release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat does it mean to market your book? What does it mean to attend events around your book?\u201d Morris said. \u201cI think it opens up their eyes a bit around what the world of writing looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her \u201cStone Catchers\u201d experience also led to the development of a new novel writing class that Morris is now teaching.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt never doesn\u2019t come back to the classroom,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chapter Three: Professional Together<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/people\/michele-speitz\">Speitz<\/a>, associate professor of English, published twice in 2024. Her book \u201cThe Romantic Sublime and Representations of Technology\u201d explores machines, tools and built environments in British Romantic literature. \u201cRomanticism and Sound Studies\u201d is an edited collection of essays.<\/p>\n<p>More than a dozen students were involved in the two projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou set out to write an article or a book and inevitably, as you write, you are learning and rewriting more than just what you set out to do,\u201d Speitz said. \u201cWe learn together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her students conducted research, learned coding and engaged with experts outside of Furman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese publications basically make an avenue for more of the Furman Advantage,\u201d Speitz said. \u201cThe more I\u2019ve been able to publish, the more I\u2019ve been able to work, the payoff for the students has been greater.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The professional research and publication process allows students to learn alongside their teachers while also beginning to pursue their own academic interests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll good teaching and all good research or writing comes out of a genuine passion for learning,\u201d Speitz said.<\/p>\n<p>When she asks students to critique each other\u2019s work, she walks them through the peer review process that her writing faces. The classroom assignment is \u201cnot a rote exercise; it\u2019s how we work in the professional world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Epilogue: The New Teacher<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Banks double-majored in theater and English. Her summer as a research assistant with Oakes was a valuable learning experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe prioritized me getting a fundamental understanding of the theories she was using,\u201d Banks said. \u201cShe was teaching me through her research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The work introduced Banks to the role of a dramaturg \u2013 the person who conducts research on what makes a play relevant and what directorial choices are consistent with the text.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt felt like the first time that I was really able to synthesize the English major with the theater major in a way that made sense,\u201d Banks said.<\/p>\n<p>She is now the musical theater teacher at River Bluff High School in Lexington, South Carolina. And her professor\u2019s book was part of her path there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are out doing the thing that they\u2019re teaching us to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The English Department&#8217;s high level of activity happens in a collaborative environment, with professors workshopping their writing with their students. It&#8217;s a high-impact experience for students that broadens a Furman education from teaching to mentoring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":36505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-the-furman-advantage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36528"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36535,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36528\/revisions\/36535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}