Tags: English

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The Jill and Marvin Willis Center for Writing: Where Creativity, Community and Culture Meet

In the fall of 2024, the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Office of Development hosted a naming ceremony for the Jill and Marvin Willis Center for Writing.  The event took place in the Miller Learning Center, one of three locations where the Center is housed. Associate professor and director of the Center, Rebecca Hallman Martini, English department head, Roland Végső, Franklin College Dean, Anna Stenport, University of Georgia…

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UGA's Obioma among 100 Most Influential Africans

University of Georgia faculty member Chigozie Obioma was recently honored by New Africa Magazine in its list of the most influential Africans of 2024. Obioma, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English, is a native of Akure, Nigeria. His two novels, The Fishermen (2015) and An Orchestra of Minorities (2019) were finalists for The…

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UGA professor authors 'Educator’s Guide to James Baldwin'

Penguin Random House published "An Educator’s Guide to the Works of James Baldwin," written by Ed Pavlić, Distinguished Research Professor of English, African American Studies and Creative Writing in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English. The "Educator's Guide" is a product of Pavlić's work with the James Baldwin Estate and the Estate's relationship to Random House as Baldwin's major publisher. In honor of his…

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kudos, September 2024

We welcomed new faculty and staff colleagues into the Franklin College, celebrated new professorships, a Hall of Fame induction and so much more in this first month of the fall semester 2024. Congratulations to our colleagues for outstanding contributions and career achievements: Kelly Dyer, professor in the department of genetics, director of the Integrated Life Sciences Program and co-director of the NIH T32 Genetics Training Grant program, is…

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Celebrated novelist Obioma joins UGA faculty

Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma has been appointed the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences department of English. Born in Akure, Nigeria, Obioma is the author of three novels, "The Fishermen" (2015), "An Orchestra of Minorities" (2019), both shortlisted for The Booker Prize, and "The Road to the Country” (2024), a novel about the Nigerian Civil War published in…

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Jordyn Faucette named Beinecke Scholar

University of Georgia senior Jordyn Faucette was one of 19 students across the nation to be awarded the Beinecke Scholarship this spring, UGA's third winner of the scholarship and its first since 2019. A first-generation college student and a McNair Scholar, Faucette is majoring in philosophy and English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and political science in the School of Public and International Affairs. She is also working…

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Intern Appreciation: Jason Hawkins

The Franklin College office of communications was very fortunate to have two terrific interns during the 2023-24 academic year. We had the chance to speak with each of them about their UGA experience – and their experience working with us. Our communications writer intern Jason Hawkins (AB '24) shares some thoughts and his future plans in this video.  Thank you, Jason! We enjoyed working with you.


Intern Appreciation: Pearl Lin

The Franklin College office of communications was very fortunate to have two terrific interns during the 2023-24 academic year. We had the chance to speak with each of them about their UGA experience – and their experience working with us. Our graphic design intern Pearl Lin (BFA '24) shares some thoughts in this video. Thanks, Pearl! We enjoyed working with you.    

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UGA doctoral student wins multiple accolades during 2023-24

Saurabh Anand, a multilingual rhetorician, and an ESL writing pedagogue originally from India, has enjoyed a tremendous academic year with state and international awards for his scholarship. In 2023 he was awarded the John R. Stowe Cultural Immersion Grant by The Georgia TESOL Association and a Future Leader Award from the International Writing Center Association.  2024 brought a Short-term Research Grant from the German…

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kudos, January 2024

Prestigious awards, scholarships, fellowships, innovative courses, conference presentations and a Broadway star headline our congratulations to alumni, faculty and students over the previous month. What fantastic company you keep in the Franklin College: Alumnus Peter Schreiner (M.S, chem '91, Ph.D '95) wins 2024 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, one of Germany's most prestigious research awards The Modern Language Association of America…

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Divisional Spotlight: Humanities

Much like the Earth has five oceans, teeming with life and mysteries in its great depths and powering the Earth's natural systems and cycles – it is the Blue Planet after all – the Franklin College has five divisions powering UGA's unprecedented march to excellence. We continue to welcome 2024 by highlighting this element of our organizational structure and the academic units contained in each division. Today, we highlight the HUMANITIES:…

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Morales-Franceschini wins MLA book prize

The Modern Language Association of America announced its thirty-third annual Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize for an outstanding book published in English or Spanish in the field of Latin American and Spanish literatures and cultures. The winner is Éric Morales-Franceschini, associate professor of English and Latin American and Caribbean studies in the University of Georgia Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, for The Epic of Cuba Libre…

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Favored by the Muses

The department of theatre and film studies and the Willson Center present an original performance presentation Favored by the Muses, the culmination of a year-long collaboration between UGA and TCU Humanities and Education programs that celebrates the literary and cultural legacy of America’s first published black female poet, Phillis Wheatley Peters(1753-1784), and the sesquicentennial of her collection, Poems on Various Subjects,…

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Mentoring + Law School

The UGA Mentoring program connects students with alumni to gain insights into the connections between campus and career. This invaluable exchange allows our alumni to give back in ways that help individual students during their educational journey.  Coordinated through the UGA Career Center, the Mentoring program is a critical asset for both alumni looking to stay involved on campus – no matter where they are – and students looking for…

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UGA's Haworth wins Silvers Foundation grant

Creative Writing Program doctoral student Holly Haworth is among the winners of the prestigious 2023 Robert B. Silvers Foundation grant for her book-in-progress. The Robert B. Silvers Foundation is a charitable trust established at the bequest of the late Robert B. Silvers, a founding editor of The New York Review of Books, with the aim of supporting writers in the fields of long-form literary and art criticism, the intellectual essay,…

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UGA doctoral student named finalist for major poetry fellowship

The Poetry Foundation announced that UGA doctoral student Abhijit Sarmah is among 12 finalists for the 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships. The five Fellowship recipients, who will be announced in late August, will each receive $27,000 and an invitation to publish in Poetry magazine. All 12 finalists will receive a stipend to attend a professional development opportunity of their choice. Abhijit Sarmah…

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Poetry in motion: Jed Rasula

Jed Rasula, a poet in the Department of English and 2023 winner of the Albert Christ-Janer Award for Creative Research, has produced a dozen scholarly books, three poetry collections and two omnibus anthologies, held an assortment of editorial positions, and earned multiple prestigious awards and honors. Our colleagues in UGA Research Communications profiled Rasula and his career-long advocacy for the arts – especially poetry:   While…

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First-generation Graduate empowering generations of Bulldogs

Franklin College Advisory Board member Neicy Wells' (AB '96) commitment to Franklin and love for UGA is a building on her legacy of greatness at the university:   When Neicy Wells’ grandmother encouraged her to go to college and insisted she apply to the University of Georgia because “it was the best,” she had no idea the legacy of greatness she was setting into motion. Neicy (AB ’96) began making her presence felt on campus with her…

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UGA writing center receives major gift

The University of Georgia Writing Center is being renamed for Jill and Marvin Willis III.  Housed under the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences in Park Hall, the Writing Center is now known as the Jill and Marvin Willis Center for Writing in recognition of their $1 million gift. “From the moment I met Jill, I sensed her generosity of spirit and her sincere interest in the work we do to support writers,” said Rebecca…

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National Poetry Month

Athens Poet Laureate – and lecturer in the department of English – Jeff Fallis leads celebrations of National Poetry Month on campus, in the community, and on the phone. Fallis, a University of Georgia Franklin College instructor, is in the second year of his two-year term as Athens Poet Laureate, a position funded by the Athens Cultural Affairs Commission. Through his office and events planned throughout April, Fallis hopes to provide…

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English faculty member receives UGA Award for Excellence in Teaching

Nancee Reeves, senior lecturer in the department of English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has received the 2023 University of Georgia Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award was established in 2021 based on a recommendation from the UGA Teaching Academy. It recognizes teaching faculty who exemplify the university’s teaching mission by offering outstanding instruction, promoting innovation and providing an engaging environment…

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On science fiction & Afrofuturism: Q&A with Isiah Lavender III

For Isiah Lavender III, science fiction isn’t just a passing interest or favorite genre. The Sterling Goodman Professor of English in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences says science fiction is a storytelling device that can capture the human experience on an otherworldly level. In this Q&A, he goes over his earliest memory of “Star Wars,” the history of science fiction and Afrofuturism, and his latest book on intersectional…

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Cody Marrs and beauty as an omnipresent force

Over the past few years, the entire world has faced some harsh realities. A pandemic seemingly without end. A war between Ukraine and Russia. An international social movement in Black Lives Matter. For many, these moments in time are only seen through the lens of the fear, unrest and change they ignite.  Cody Marrs takes a different approach. Head of the English department in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences who…

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Franklin students, alumni lead UGA as top producer of Fulbright students

For the fifth time in 11 years the University of Georgia has been named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students, a recognition given by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to the U.S. institutions that received the highest number of Fulbright offers. Eleven UGA students and alumni were offered Fulbright awards for 2022-2023, with 10 students able to accept. Seven are teaching English in countries…

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Unscripted: Coleman Barks on the poetry of Rumi

We've posted a new Unscripted podcast episode, a conversation with UGA emeritus professor of English Coleman Barks about his life and work: The author of twenty-one volumes, including the bestselling “Essential Rumi” (1995) and “Rumi: The Big Red Book” (2010), which collects 34 years of his work on Rumi’s ghazals and rubai, Coleman Barks has spent the past sixty years exploring the possibilities of American ecstatic poetry through his…
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