New Year! New Faculty! Fall 2025 News from SDSU's Department of English and Comparative Literature, aka ECL

ECL Bulletin 8.20.25

literature.sdsu.edu

Dear Colleagues, 

Welcome to the Fall 2025 semester. I hope everyone had a good summer. 

A particularly warm welcome to our two new colleagues, Brenda Lara and Tyler Grand Pre. We will celebrate their arrival at the first department meeting, Wednesday 10 September, but please feel free to say hello before that.

More info here: https://cal.sdsu.edu/news/new-faculty-2025

Welcome back to Dekel Shay Schory, who taught here in Spring 2024 and reprises her position as a Murray Galinson visiting scholar. 

More info: https://www.lfjcc.org/cjc/_Schory.aspx

I am appending a draft copy of this semester’s meeting calendar to this email. At its meeting next week the AC will determine the service roster for the upcoming academic year. Please let me know of any special requests before then. Separately, please let me know if you plan to apply for promotion during this year’s RTP cycle so that workload can be allocated according to department policies.  

I know it might seem a way off, but if you are interested in teaching an online, asynchronous course in summer 2026, please let me know by the end of this week. Faculty who teach in the summer are required to have completed specific online training. Please let me know if you would like to be nominated for this training. And, of course, please feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss the options. 

Please take a moment to run through this bulletin. There are a number of important informational items at the end.

Upcoming Events: 

1. The department and a number of its associated organizations and publications will be represented at the KPBS San Diego Book Festival at USD this coming Saturday. We will have a couple of tables at the event, showing off SDSU Press, Poetry International, and West Coast Review. Stop by if you're in the area. In addition, members of the department will be on the following panels: 

10:35 AM -11:20 AM: BUILDING HOPE ON TRAUMATIC TERRAIN IN SCI-FI & FANTASY  Location: (KIPJ SECTION B) PANEL DISCUSSION B

(Moderator: Diana Leong, Assistant Professor of English & Comparative Literature, SDSU)

11:40 AM -12:25 PM: WHEN SCIENCE & MAGIC ENTWINE IN YA FANTASY

Location: (KIPJ SECTION B) PANEL DISCUSSION B

(Moderator: Phillip A. Leavenworth, MFA Fiction, Filmmaker, SDSU)

11:40 AM -12:25 PM: PUBLISHING POETRY

Location: (KIPJ SECTIONS E/F) PANEL DISCUSSION E

Sandra Alcosser, Director & Founder SDSU MFA Program, Editor-in-Chief, Poetry International, Montana’s First Poet Laureate, Author

Blas Falconer, PhD., SDSU MFA Professor, Author, Editor-in-Chief, Poetry International Online

Meagan Marshall, PhD., SDSU Professor, Managing Editor of Poetry International & PI Online, Poet, Performer

Poetry International Editorial Team: Artrice Bennett, Jon Tobias, & Sam Yaziji

2:55 PM - 3:40 PM: MELDING THE REAL AND UNREAL IN ROMANCE

Location: (KIPJ Section B) PANEL DISCUSSION B

(Moderator: William A. Nericcio, PhD., Director of MALAS program, Director & Editor of SDSU Press, Professor, Author)

2. As we do every year, the department will be hosting the “Annual MA & MFA Meet n Greet” mixer for the incoming graduate students (and all our graduate students) on Wednesday, September 3rd. We very much encourage all of you to attend as well. The mixer is an excellent opportunity to meet the new students and to connect with our community after returning from the summer break. New students very much enjoy meeting both faculty and current students at these events. The event will be held at Oggis. The department will provide pizza, salad, and Oggi's Stixs. Please RSVP (mmgarcia@sdsu.edu) no later than Friday, August 29, if you are able to attend the mixer. 

3. On Tuesday, 16 September, from 3.30 - 4.45 in the DH Center, Professors Pressman and Leong will be in conversation with Dr. Steve Mentz (Professor of English at St. John’s University) about Ecocriticism, the Blue Humanities, Moby-Dick, and more. He will answer questions about interdisciplinary creative-critical research from all in attendance.  Dr Mentz is a pioneer in Blue Humanities, a Shakespeare scholar, poet, and ocean swimmer. He is the author of An Introduction to the Blue Humanities (2023), Ocean (2020), Shipwreck Modernity: Ecologies of Globalization, 1550–1719 (2015), At the Bottom of Shakespeare’s Ocean (2009), a poetry chapbook, “Swim Poems” (2022), and a book of poems Sailing without Ahab: Ecopoetic Travels (2024).

Good news: 

Check out this story on the E-Lit studio in the Digital Humanities Center, and congratulations to Jessica Pressman and ECL students Joey King, Kasside Sahagun-Escalante, and Jon Tobias.  

Congratulations to Bill Nericcio, who presented "Deus [M]ex Machina: Brown Bot Fantasias, AI Hysteria, and the Algorithmic Unconscious in the Age of Angst, Hate, and Resistance” at UC Riverside in the summer: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10163602059703653&set=a.10150661484513653

Recent MFA graduate Robert Lang is featured in a CSU piece about Fulbright scholars. 

Informational items: 

 
Calls for 220 and 280 TA-ships are going out this week, so please be aware that students might ask for references earlier this semester than previously. 

As always, please let me know details of recent publications or upcoming events. I look forward to seeing you in the coming days. 

All best, 

Quentin Bailey

Chair, ECL @ SDSU

The Chair’s Newsletter, January 2024

 

I hope you’ve had a good break over the past few weeks and that you’ll excuse a pre-semester bulletin with several important items. 

Please find attached the report from the external reviewers. Our response is due by the end of February, and will form a major part of the business at our 31 January meeting. Please put that date in your calendars. I’m also appending the meeting schedule for the Spring semester, which includes other important dates such as candidate talks and graduation ceremonies. 

We’ll be welcoming the finalists for the position in Black Atlantic and/ or Diasporic Literatures and Cultures to campus in the first week of February: Emad Mirmotahari, Duquesne University, will present Thursday 1 February at 12.30 pm; Cristovão Nwachukwu, University of Florida, will speak Monday 5 February at noon; and Lindsay Griffiths Brown, Princeton, at noon on Wednesday 7 February. I hope you will be able to make some of those talks in person (and a big thank you to the search committee, Jessica Pressman, Diana Leong, Lashon Daley, and Blas Falconer, for their work on this). We will, of course, be looking for volunteers for lifts to campus, coffee hosts, etc. in due course. A department meeting to vote on the finalists will be held Wednesday 14 February.  

It seems likely that there will be a systemwide strike 22 - 26 January. The CFA has posted an FAQ page outlining some of the key issues, particularly as they relate to teaching, students, and other responsibilities. 

Finally, please let me know by the end of the week if you would like to attend the MLK Luncheon on Friday 19 January. The department sponsors a table at this important event and has, in the past, had a good mix of faculty, staff, and students. 

All best, 

Quentin Bailey

Tuesday 16 January: First Day of Spring Semester 

Wednesday 17 January: First Day of Classes, AC Meeting

Friday 19 January: MLK Luncheon, 11.30 am - 1.30 pm, Montezuma Hall

Wednesday 31 January: Department meeting 

Thursday 1 February: Candidate presentation 12.30 - 1.45 pm

Monday 5 February: Candidate presentation 12 - 1.15 pm 

Wednesday 7 February: Candidate presentation 12 - 1.15 pm

Wednesday 14 February: Department meeting 

Wednesday 21 February: Grad/ MFA committee meetings 

Wednesday 28 February: Lecturer meeting

Wednesday 6 March: AC meeting 

Wednesday 13 March: Grad committee (MA apps); MFA committee (MFA apps)  

Wednesday 20 March: Department meeting 

Monday 1 April - Friday 5 April: SPRING BREAK 

Wednesday 10 April: Grad and MFA committees (220 and 280 apps) 

Tuesday 16 April: MA Portfolios due

Wednesday 17 April: AC meeting  

Monday 22 April: MA Portfolio defenses commence 

Wednesday 1 May:  Department meeting 

Thursday 2 May: Last day of classes 

Friday 10 May: Commencement, 1 pm Viejas. 

Sunday 12 May: Graduate Ceremony

Quentin Bailey, DPhil

Associate Professor and Chair

Department of English and Comparative Literature 

San Diego State University 

qbailey@sdsu.edu

619 594 5271

Pronouns: he/ him/ his

Indigenous residence: Kumeyaay

literature.sdsu.edu, aka ECL, formerly ENGL Bulletin for October 9, 2023

From: Quentin Bailey, ECL Chair <qbailey@sdsu.edu>

Date: Mon, Oct 9, 2023 at 3:57 PM
Subject: Bulletin 10.9.23

Dear Colleagues, 

I imagine that, like me, you are shocked and saddened by this weekend’s attacks. As you may know, the department has hosted a number of award-winning Israeli screenwriters, scholars, and poets in recent years, including this semester, in partnership with the Murray Galinson-San Diego Israel Initiative. Our students have benefited from their expertise and kindness, and our thoughts are with them, their families, and all those affected in these difficult days.  

Reminders:  

A quick reminder that the NCSCL Grad Writing Group, which is open to all ECL faculty and staff, meets every Monday from October 9 until November 14 from 2:30pm to 4pm in AL-379. Feel free to drop in! You can contact Lashon at Ldaley@sdsu.edu to learn more. 

The department, through Humanities in Action, is hosting Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy this Wednesday, 11 October, at noon in the Shiley BioScience Center. He will speak about his book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s Idea of a University. I hope some of you will be able to make this event. 

Dates: 

10.11.23: Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, will discuss his recent work The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind at the Shiley Bioscience Center, 12 - 1 pm. 

10.18.23: RTP Committee meeting, AL 266. 

10.18.23: Tracy Badua will share excerpts from her recent novel, This Is Not a Personal Statement, at the Laurie Okuma Memorial Reading (LL 430, 7 pm). Find out more about Tracy here!

10.25.23: AC Meeting, AL 266 

10.25.23: Applications for ECL 220/ 280/ ISA positions due. 

10.26.23: Hal Jaffe reading and presentation (Love Library, 3 pm) 

10.30.23: Tools workshop–Twine and Visualizations–for Grad Students, 12-1:30 in Digital Humanities Center (lower level of Love Library). This event will be led by Dr. Pam Lach. For examples of what past students have done with Twine, take a look at Katie Chestnut's "Medusa’s Laughter" (2018), Adrian Belmes, "Recursion"(2018), or

Brenda Taulbee's "Sensational Silence: Against Erasure"  (2019)

11.6 & 11.7.23: Site visit by external reviewers 

11.23.23: Join NCSCL for the Global Renderings Research Luncheon featuring Quentin Bailey on Monday, November 27 at the Faculty Staff Club. Registration is required. To register, click here: https://forms.gle/D4Sq5NWYEpuT9rYx5. For more information, click here: https://childlit.sdsu.edu/global-renderings?utm_source=salesforce&utm_medium=email or email Lashon Daley at Ldaley@sdsu.edu.

As always, please let me know of any accomplishments or upcoming events.

All best,

Quentin

Last Bulletin of the Spring Semester, ECL 2023!

https://literature.sdsu.edu

Dear Colleagues,

We’ve made it to exam week! I know this will bring the extra strain of grading, etc. but I hope it’s also an opportunity to reflect on the successes of the past academic year. 

I hope many of you will be able to make it to the department’s pre-commencement ceremony at Scripps Cottage this coming Friday at 10 am. We’ll be recognizing the winners of this year’s outstanding essay awards as well as the outstanding graduating seniors and their most influential faculty members. A big thank you to Iris Quiroga for all her work organizing (and designing) this event. 

Congratulations to all who participated in the MFA Reading on Friday evening and particularly the MCs for the event, Stephen-Paul Martin and Blas Falconer. It was a lovely evening, and the students were clearly delighted to be able to share their work with friends, family, and mentors. A big thank you to Mary Garcia and Olivia Perez for their work making this evening such a success. 

Thank you, too, to all who attended the Graduate Student Celebration at Oggi’s last Monday, and particularly to Diana Leong, Mary, Iris, and Olivia for their organizational work. 

One final thank you and apology: to Lashon Daley, whom I inadvertently omitted last week from the list of faculty who served on MA portfolios. Thank you, Lashon, for all your hard work for the department and its students. 

source

Wishing everyone a good summer,

Quentin Bailey