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The Association of American Colleges & Universities includes a report on long -term salaries for liberal arts graduates and how they are compared with graduates in engineering and other professional fields.  The report here claims that while liberal arts graduates have more difficulty finding jobs right after graduation, their earning power increases steadily until it reaches that of graduates of professional programs. www.aacu.org/pres_room/press_ releases/2014/ liberalartsreport.cfm

Many writers are known at least as fully by their popular reputations as they are by their own work. Yet writers, like most people, are usually more complex and contradictory in their personal lives and in their work than the reputation that precedes them.  Emily Dickinson is one good example. She is often viewed as an idiosyncratic recluse, the nun of Amherst, the “Queen of Calvary,” as she sometimes refers to herself in her own poetry, as if she were the sexless Monarch of Divine Suffering.  Dickinson seemed to invite this reputation in her later life, dressing in her later years always in white and behaving in such theatrical ways as refusing to come out of her bedroom to greet a family friend, sending out on a plate instead a single red rose.  Possibly this was her way of drawing public attention to herself, a provincial form of self-promotion, a way of saying that something unusual was taking place in what might otherwise seem a dull, sheltered li...

In Fall 2013, the theme for the Core Humanities course English 338: Special Topics was Gender in American Genre Film. Dr. Maura Grady, who designed the theme and taught the course, says, “many scholars have argued that popular films, particularly genre films (sci-fi, slasher, film noir, caper, rom-com, etc.) are better at addressing gender tensions in American culture than are so-called ‘high art’ films.” This course used a number of scholarly texts, including selections from Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film; More than Night: Film Noir in its Contexts; Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts; The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film; Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance;  and more to examine messages about gender used in the assigned films.  Students were required to read, understand and use key works of film criticism in their writing and observations. In addition to writing several ...

Senior Meg Collier Presents a Birthday Cupcake to Dr. Hilary Donatini, the Chair of the Department of English and Advisor to Sigma Tau Delta Each semester, students in AU’s chapter of the national English honors society, Sigma Tau Delta, invite students and faculty across disciplines to get together to play games and enjoy pizza and sweets at the Humanities Hobnob. At the most recent event on Wednesday, March 19, hobnobbers formed teams to play a friendly and hilarious game of Taboo. The event was held in the lobby of the Center for the Humanities in Bixler, and the room was full of laughter and camaraderie. English and Spanish double-major Alaina Berry, who helped to organize the evening, says that the Hobnob “provides a great opportunity for Humanities students and faculty to come together in a relaxed setting where we can play games that really highlight our appreciation for words, writing, and language. It’s fun to be silly with other students and see professors outside of their cl...

By Amy (Lesniak) Hirzel, Class of 2009, Integrated Language Arts Major I’m one of the lucky ones.  I can honestly say that I am doing what I love and am passionate and proud of my career. I am currently the head of the English department at St. Paul High School in Norwalk, OH.  I teach AP Literature and Composition, senior British Literature, and sophomore English.  I also teach an energetic and fun-loving section of Speech and Drama.  Some of the highlights of my career have included writing a style guide used by my school from grades 7-12, starting a literary magazine and writing club at St. Paul, and developing a writing program for our English department. One of my main focuses as an English educator is ensuring my students leave my classroom with the ability to communicate effectively, especially in terms of college-level composition.  By dissecting my own writing process developed at Ashland, I’ve established my own writing “boot camp” which focuses on com...

On Tuesday, April 1, English (Integrated Language Arts) major David Mohn shared his research with fellow Ashland University students, faculty, and staff and the fifth annual College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Symposium.  The Symposium, which follows the submission and presentation format of an academic conference, enables undergraduates to work closely with a faculty mentor to develop original research projects across Arts and Sciences disciplines.  David shared his analysis of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel   Passing , which details the thorny personal and social issues entailed when light-skinned African Americans passed as white, either to pursue relationships or economic opportunities otherwise denied to them in the context of the racially segregated United States in the 1920s. David's mentor, Dr. Sharleen   Monda l , interviewed David to get some insight into how Ashland University's English Department helped him develop ...

Function of Sherlock Holmes and Phileas Fogg in the Late Victorian Period,” was recognized at the Honors Program Cording Ceremony with the Howard O. Rowe Scholarship for best Honors Capstone project.  According to Dr. Chris Swanson, Director of the Honors Program, "The award is given to the student whose Honors Capstone Project is considered to be the best among his or her peers." Eberly wrote the following reflection on her experience with the project. As a member of the Honors Program, I knew two things: 1) I had to do a Capstone Project and 2) I wanted to love my topic so much that a year of studying and writing about it would not dampen my enthusiasm for it.  When looking at past projects, examples from past English majors were sorely lacking, so I drew on my previous English classes for inspiration.  The three most influential classes on my project were Literature & Film, the Victorian Period, and Women’s Literature.  My film class introduced me to the ...