Tag: Department of English

Humor writer Melissa Balmain honored by Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop
An adjunct instructor in the University of Rochester’s English department, Melissa Balmain is the Humor Writer of the Month this December.

Teaching the complexities of the Nobel Prize in Literature
English professor Bette London introduces students to Nobel-winning authors and the controversies surrounding the prize.

An adapted classroom: Students and faculty find new ways to engage in teaching and learning
Students and faculty members adapt to new—and safety-conscious—ways of interacting as teachers, scholars, and researchers.

Rochester project democratizes access to medieval English literature
The pioneering Middle English Texts Series “puts the literature out there for everybody,” making medieval English texts available to scholars and students around the world.

One of the world’s oldest globes is ready for its close-up
Rochester professor Gregory Heyworth and his Lazarus Project colleagues have created a 3-D model of one of the treasures of the New York Public Library, the Hunt-Lenox Globe, one of the first globes to show the New World — and to warn “Here be dragons.”

Multispectral imaging unlocks a Smithsonian treasure’s secrets
This tiny book was acquired by the Smithsonian in 1925. It’s made up of 147 folios of parchment, or treated animal hide, stitched together. The “over text”—the visible text—is of an Armenian prayer book, suspected to date from the 15th century. But there is also an “under text”—a work that was erased to recycle the parchment for the over text. The Smithsonian has turned to University of Rochester professor Gregory Heyworth and his Lazarus Project to help solve the mystery of what that long-ago effaced text might be.

Medals and teaching awards will honor outstanding achievement at 2019 Commencement
The University of Rochester will recognize the outstanding contributions of distinguished alumni, educators, and scientists by bestowing the Eastman Medal, Hutchison Medal, and awards for scholarship and teaching.

Has the Renaissance warped our view of the Middle Ages?
The picture of the Middle Ages as “awful, smelly, stinky, [and] dangerous” is not accurate, says medievalist and University of Pennsylvania professor David Wallace, this year’s Ferrari Humanities Symposia visiting scholar.

Fairchild Award recognizes literature in translation
Kaija Straumanis ’12 (MA) has received the Lillian Fairchild Award—which recognizes artists for their commitment to the Rochester community—for her work bringing world literature to new audiences.