By Erin O'Hare '15
The 2014-2015 academic year brought great success to the Siena College English department. Five faculty members published books, all inspired by topics they explored with their students in the classroom.
Todd Snyder, Ph.D. saw the publication of, The Rhetoric of Appalachian Identity, a multi-genre text of ethnographic research, critical theory and creative nonfiction stemming from his hometown experiences as a native of Cowen, West Virginia.
"College, for me, was a transformative experience. I feel both a personal and scholarly obligation to tell my story so that it might help other Appalachian learners better understand their own educational journeys."
Snyder incorporates his knowledge and experience on the subject in his course Advanced Rhetoric and Writing, where he often teaches a unit on Appalachian culture under the theme "A Critique of the American College."
Pam Clements, Ph.D. proved to readers that Medievalism is timeless through her contribution in the 2014 publication of Medievalism: Key Critical Terms. Clements critically analyzed terms that often frequent this genre, specifically looking at the concept of authenticity in Medievalism. This will be the first time it has been codified and published, recognizing these modern forms as legitimately literary and artistic.
Clements shares her passion for Medievalism in classes such as Chaucer, and Survey of British Literature.
Lisa Nevarez, Ph.D. also showed her interest in the world of telling tales. Her recent publication, The Vampire Goes to College: Essays on Teaching with the Undead, is a collection of essays on the subject of teaching vampire texts. The essays contain a broad range of works from the classic Dracula to more recent works including the Twilight Saga.
"All of these essays offer suggestions for critical approaches for teaching the texts, such as classroom activities, writing prompts, methods for facilitating conversation topics such as diversity and sexuality, etc.," said Nevarez.
Nevarez shares her knowledge on vampire literature through her course "The Vampire."
Professor Karin Lin-Greenberg was awarded the 30th annual Flannery O'Conner Award for Short Fiction with the publication of her collection of short stories titled Faulty Predictions. Her collection ranges in subject from the exploration of youth to the regrets of older characters. The stories take place in a variety of geographic locations and feature characters with different cultural backgrounds.
"I am fortunate to have the opportunity to teach classes on writing the short story while also working on short stories of my own," Lin-Greenberg said. She cites Writing Short Fiction as one of her favorite classes to teach at Siena.
Department chairman Erich Hertz, Ph.D. brought together his passion for literature and music with his expertise in modernity and popular culture for the publication of his work, Write in Tune.
"My collection looks at the ways that novels have taken profound meaning out of the ephemera of pop music," said Hertz.
He attributes his inspiration for the text to some of the ideas conspired through class discussions. "As a professor of contemporary literature, I could never escape how often pop music made its way into some of the most important novels of the contemporary or postmodern periods."
As chairman, Hertz shares his admiration for this accomplishment for his department. "It is a rarity at Liberal Arts teaching colleges that professors have enough time to bring a book out; it is even more amazing that within our department five of us were able to do so." He regards this success as, "a testament to the support for research that we are given by Siena and a firm indication that my colleagues are as much scholars as teachers."
