SFSU Department of English

11/16/2021

No one ever says "heveled" or "gruntled." Do these words even exist? Not every word needs an opposite to prop it up. Here's why.

11/12/2021

“‘Disheveled,' 'Disgruntled': Why Are Some Words Only Used in Negative Form?” Dr. Jenny Lederer, Associate Professor in our Linguistics Program, weighs in on the “lonely negative.”

No one ever says "heveled" or "gruntled." Do these words even exist? Not every word needs an opposite to prop it up. Here's why.

10/06/2021

Reflecting on the Black Lives Matter uprising of 2020 in Richmond, Virginia, Will Clark considers how recent anti-racist activism can guide instruction in the university classroom. Comparing Confederate monuments to the racist history of campus spaces and disciplines, he revisits Cheryl Harris, Said...

09/19/2021

Professor Will Clark writes about his experiences teaching in Richmond, Virginia, as he and his students watched the monuments fall in 2019.

Reflecting on the Black Lives Matter uprising of 2020 in Richmond, Virginia, Will Clark considers how recent anti-racist activism can guide instruction in the university classroom. Comparing Confederate monuments to the racist history of campus spaces and disciplines, he revisits Cheryl Harris, Said...

09/15/2021

Online abuse of Kosovo women is taking a toll on their readiness to engage in political and public life.

09/13/2021

Public health expert James Colgrove, a graduate of the SFSU Department of English, says compulsory vaccine laws are essential to safety. Read our Q&A with him: https://lca.sfsu.edu/lcanews/2021/09/13/821016-alum-public-health-expert-james-colgrove-compulsory-vaccine-laws-essential

09/04/2021

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts’ fourth annual faculty and staff excellence awards! 👏🏽

📷: Top row: Joan Wong, SFSU Department of English; Brad Hogarth, SF State School of Music; and Emily Beitiks, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University. Bottom row: Andrew Speight, SF State School of Music; Christina Abadilla Fogarty, Global Museum; and Felicia Angeja Viator, History Department.

08/22/2021

Happy Sunday! It’s Brianna here for the last book before the summer ends and we’re gonna end off with an iconic Bay Area author. Most probably know Amy Tan for her novel “The Joy Luck Club”, but the next novel choice today is another one of her novels titled, “The Kitchen God’s Wife”.

Immerse yourself into a detailed world that Tan creates that highlights the relationships between women as well as secrets among mothers and their children. This novel not only dives into complex relationships but self determination and the process of dealing with grief. Good luck next semester Gators!

08/21/2021

The name Ruth Asawa might be familiar to some of us here at SF State, and in the book “Everything She Touched: The Life of Ruth Asawa” by Marilyn Chase it goes in depth on the amazing life that Asawa lived.
From surviving Japanese-American internment camps during World War II to developing her signature style with twisted wire, Asawa forged her own path in everything she did. Her art can be admired at museums such as the de Young, MoMA, Getty, and many more. Asawa even designed the Garden of Remembrance here at SF State in honor of the 19 former Japanese American SF State students who were forced to withdraw from classes and taken to internment camps during World War II.

08/20/2021

Hey everyone! It’s Brianna here again to share some amazing books written by local Bay Area authors before the semester begins 📖. Our first book is “Solito, Solita: Crossing Borders with Youth Refugees from Central America” by Steven Mayers and Jonathan Freedman!

Read fifteen narratives about why the narrators fled their homes, the dangers of doing so, and more. Open your eyes to stories of real life bravery that will leave you with lessons on resilience when all seems hopeless. Listen to the voices of migrant youths as they tell their stories and their experience risking it all.

08/13/2021

Happy Friday! I saved one of my favorite biographies for the last non-fiction post: “Cleopatra” by Stacy Schiff aligns all the myths and tales you have heard about one of Egypt’s most famous rulers. Why was Cleopatra such an effective leader & who were the contemporaries active during her reign? And what were the causal agents that defeated her formidable foundation? Witness Cleopatra reawaken during this brief, but captivating read! 🐍
Shiff’s enchanting narrative was such a pleasure to read that I went out and purchased all of her other books! 📚
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08/10/2021

Spotlight on our new iteration of ENG 526: Age of American Renaissance.

This course aims to re-examine the literary contributions of the American Renaissance by reading canonical authors alongside contemporaneous activist writing of women and people of color who were explicitly critical of the U.S. democratic project. In this, we will recover social justice discourses from a critical moment in U.S. literature and history. Finally, we will use our readings to connect the particularities of the American Renaissance to social justice issues that shape our world today.