Beer and Scrabble - Hosted by DESA - Thursday, Nov. 13th

DESA BEER & SCRABBLE!



On Thursday, November 13, from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM, DESA will host the first Beer & Scrabble of the year in conjunction with AUS Pub Night. Come down to the AUS Lounge (Leacock Basement), have a few beers and play a few games. There will be free pizza for English Students.

See you there!

Department of English Annual Symposium - "Performing Authorities" - THURSDAY, Oct 30th

The Department of English is hosting its symposium on "Performing Authorities" on this Thursday (October 30th) from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm in Leacock 232.

Come out and hear your professors speak outside of the classroom!

4:00pm
“Eliza Haywood and the Literary Marketplace:
Crafting and Managing a Public Persona”
HOLLY LUHNING

4:30pm
“Victorian Photography and Arctic Explorations”
MARIANNE STENBAEK

5:00pm
“Authority and Amnesia: Byron and Wellington in Hyde Park”
TOM MOLE

5:30pm
“From Russia with Love:
Senator McCarthy, Sir Palomydes, and Premodern Islamophobia”
SEBASTIAN SOBECKI

6:00pm
COFFEE BREAK

6:30pm
“Ghosting in the Memory Matrix: Siddons Terry Lady Macbeth”
DENIS SALTER

7:00pm
“Performing Marxism-Leninism: South Africans in the USSR”
MONICA POPESCU

7:30pm
“The ‘Cauldron’ and the ‘Sewer’:
Mapping New York in Late-Nineteenth-Century Slumming Literature”
THOMAS HEISE

8:00pm
RECEPTION

First film screening on Oct. 28th

Come join us this Tuesday for our first film screening of the semester, John Boorman's Point Blank. The screening will be hosted by Professor Thain and will be shown in Arts West 215 from 7-9. An informal discussion will also follow.

Synopsis: Walker (Lee Marvin) strides through Los Angeles with the steel-eyed stare of a stone-cold killer, or perhaps a ghost. Betrayed by his wife and best friend, who gun him down point-blank and leave him for dead after a successful heist, Walker blasts his way up the criminal food chain in a quest for revenge. Did he survive the shooting or return from the grave, or is it all a dying dream? The question is left in the air in John Boorman's modern film noir, a brutal revenge thriller based on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (remade by Brian Helgeland as Payback), set in the impersonal concrete and steel canyons of Los Angeles and eerily empty cells of Alcatraz. Walker kills without remorse, guided by shadowy "informant" Keenan Wynn, whose own agenda is carefully concealed, and assisted by Angie Dickinson, as he desperately searches for someone, anyone, who can just give him his money. But if Walker is an extreme incarnation of the revenge-driven noir antihero, the modern syndicate has been transformed into a world of paper jungles and corporate businessmen, an alienating concept to the two-fisted, gun-wielding gangster. Boorman creates a hard, austere look for the film and fragments the story with flashes of painful memory, grafting the New Wave onto old genres with confidence and style. Haunting and brutal, Point Blank remains one of the most distinctive crime thrillers ever made.

DESA's first event of the semester!

Come join fellow English students and professors this Friday at 5:30 in Arts 160 for DESA's first wine and cheese of the school year. Representatives from creative writing groups, theater groups, and various on campus journals will also be present to answer any questions for those looking to get involved.

Hope to see you there!

DISCOUNTS ON THEATRE TIX

...courtesy of TNC, which has taken a step further from last year to make the discounts (-$2 from the regular $6 price tag = $4) available by telephone. Just call TNC at 514-398-6600 and ask for the DESA discount. If phoning isn't your thing, drop by the DESA office and we'll request the discount for you. TNC has asked us to emphasize that THE DESA DISCOUNT WILL NOT BE GIVEN OUT AT THE DOOR. INTERESTED PARTIES HAVE TO PHONE IN THEMSELVES OR HAVE DESA PEOPLE PHONE IN FOR THEM. ALSO, THE DISCOUNT IS ONLY VALID FOR WEDNESDAY SHOWS

And that's that.

Need a Break from Writing Midterms/Papers? Check out the Werner Herzog Film Festival...

The Department of German Studies at McGill is hosting a Werner Herzog film festival this week. All screenings are at the McGill Cultural Studies Screening Room, 3475 Peel St. FREE ADMISSION. We can't promise it will be relaxing, but it will be provocative...and there's no writing/reading involved!!



GRIZZLY MAN - Monday, October 20th at 7 PM

AGUIRRE - Thursday, October 23rd at 7 PM

COBRA VERDE - Friday, October 24th at 7 PM

For more information, check out the facebook event, "Werner Herzog Film Festival."

Information session on graduate studies

Professor David Hensley will be hosting an information session on the application process for those thinking of, or curious about pursuing studies in English at the M.A. or Phd level.

Professor Hensley has developed extensive experience with the admissions process for graduate programs, particularly in the US and UK, having obtained degrees from institutions, and having guided numerous students to admissions success in both countries.

The information session will be held on October 16th at 6:00 PM in Arts 230.

Call for Submissions from The Veg

The Veg Literary Magazine is now seeking submissions of CREATIVE WRITING (in English or French) for its first issue of the year. Poetry and prose of all styles and genres are welcome! Please keep submissions of prose to a maximum of 1500 words and submissions of poetry to no more than 4 pages.

Submit all creative works (or questions) via email to:
veg.magazine@gmail.com
SUBMISSION DEADLINE is October 13th

The Veg is also looking for two artists to help illustrate the magazine. Those interested should send samples of their work to veg.magazine@gmail.com by OCTOBER 17th.

We look forward to giving students every opportunity to express themselves creatively!

Thanks a lot,

Zachary Alapi
Editor-in-chief, The Veg.

Ox Family Proudly Presents: A Call for Submissions

Ox Family says:

In the grand tradition of continuity, we are attempting to spin out
another issue of Ox Family.


_(u)< What is the theme? "if we were quieter...".

What do you submit? Fiction, short stories, stream-of-consciousness,
song lyrics, poetry of all sorts
What else? Art, photography, drawings, sketches, charcoal,
watercolor and woodcuts (&c)
What is important is that you want to submit; technical questions on
word counts or pantone color schemes or our simultaneous submission
policies are all easy to answer. If you would rather send a handful of
examples or a personal site, we would be happy to browse.


The last issue was swaddled in silver-painted Victorian wallpaper.
This issue will be bound in handmade paper with flower seeds embedded,
some iron-on pages for tshirts, and some pages that you can make into
a not-cheap-at-all looking lampshade. So you can rip this badboy
apart, we don't mind.



While you pine for ideas, look through our first issue, freely
available and fun for all pages, at www.stationaery.com/ox


_(u)< OPEN CALL : September 3 through October 23
< LAUNCH : 2009, TBA
< INFO : www.stationaery.com/ox/call2.htm

Call for Editors from your Departmental Journal

Hello English Students,

This is a...


CALL FOR EDITORS

The Department of English’s undergraduate journal, The Channel, is looking to fill the following positions for its 2008-2009 editorial board:

N.B. No experience is required for these positions—The Channel welcomes applications from all English students, provided they demonstrate the skills required by each position.

INFORMATION SESSION – October 6th, English lounge, 5:45 pm (Arts B-20).

Senior Editor (2 positions)
Senior Editors are responsible for the conceptual direction of the journal, selecting student essays for publication, administrative issues (fundraising, delegating) and editing. No editorial experience is necessary, as long as candidates demonstrate excellent communication skills.

Assistant Editors (5 positions)
Assistant Editors are responsible for copy editing and selecting student essays for publication. No experience is required; qualified candidates for this position will show motivation, commitment to the journal and a willingness to serve on the board next year. U1 and U2 students are strongly recommended to apply.

Design Editor
The Design Editor will be responsible for the layout and overall design of the journal. Qualified candidates will have design experience (preferably designing a student publication or the equivalent), proficiency with design software and creative flair. Design Editors MUST submit samples of design work.

Online Editor
The Channel is going online this year (!) as part of the Public Knowledge Project (http://pkp.sfu.ca/about). Qualified candidates for the position of Online Editor should be computer literate, but knowledge of html or java is NOT required. The program is fairly basic and anyone who uses a PC or Mac on a regular basis could learn it. Candidates should, however, be willing to commit the time and effort to both learn the program and to host and monitor the journal online.
The platform can be found at the following site: http://pkp.sfu.ca/ojs_download

Events and Fundraising Coordinator
The Events and Fundraising Coordinator is responsible for securing and managing funding for the journal, planning the journal launch and various other administrative tasks. This position is a good way to get editing experience; if the Coordinator wishes, he or she could also be cross appointed as an Assistant Editor.

For each position, please include a personal statement (no more than 250 words), outlining your qualifications and interest in the journal, AND a sample of your academic or journalistic work. Design Editors MUST submit samples of design work and a list of design software programs that they can use.

The application for deadlines is October 17th. There will be a general meeting on October 6th for anyone with questions at 5:45 pm in the English lounge (Arts B-20).

PLEASE SEND APPLICATIONS TO:
desajournal@gmail.com

From CAPS: Diversity Week

Hello,

My name is Cindy Mancuso and I'm the Diversity Advisor at McGill's Career Centre. I'm emailing you to tell you about a great event taking place October 27th-31st - Power in Diversity Career Week. The purpose of this week is to discuss and promote the value of diversity in the workplace. We will have amazing keynote speakers, exciting panel discussions and targeted workshops.

My hope is that you would be willing to pass this information on to your students. For more information on this week go to caps.mcgill.ca. Please feel free to attend any of our events or pop by for a bite and a drink.

I have attached four posters about our main events. If you would like the e-card format to send to your students please let me know. I can also send you the actual posters if you would like to put them up.


Thank you for your help!
Cindy

Praxis: Call for Submissions

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------PRAXIS JOURNAL-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------an undergraduate journal of radical theory and politics-------------------------------------------------------------
===================================================================================================
---------------------------------------------------------------------------CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Praxis is an undergraduate journal of politics and critical theory, and we are now seeking submissions for our next issue! We're accepting writings from various disciplines as long as they're actively engaged in radical political thought and criticism in some form. We're also looking for more people to get involved in the editorial and organizing process. If you are interested in submitting and have questions or need ideas, or if you want to help out in any other way, come to our meeting on Monday, October 6th, at 4pm at the 2110 Centre (2110 Mackay, a wheelchair accessible space). Non-students are welcome too!

///Criteria///
2500 words or less in French or English. Please include consistent citations.

------------------------------------------------------------The deadline for submissions is November 10th--------------------------------------------------------------------

You can e-mail your inquiries, proposals or submissions to praxis.journal@gmail.com.

Looking for something to do this weekend?

September 28th is the last chance to see the Yves Saint Laurent exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The museum's Andy Warhol just opened, too.

link to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

"The Best Mind of his Generation"

Cool-looking retrospect on David Foster Wallace in the Nytimes today.

THE WORLD NEEDS MORE CANADA

How to write

The Guardian has this fun/insightful series going on wherein a few hot shot writers give their two cents on how to write well in various genres.

Should be good for all you aspiring members of the $23,000-a-year, aberrant elite out there (see prior post to get the reference).

Hat tip: Bookninja.com

"Ordinary folks don't care about arts: Harper"

From the Toronto Star:

"Under fire for his government's $45 million in cuts to arts and culture funding, the Conservative leader yesterday said average Canadians have no sympathy for "rich" artists who gather at galas to whine about their grants.
"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people at, you know, a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough, when they know those subsidies have actually gone up – I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said in Saskatoon, where he was campaigning for the Oct. 14 election.

[...]

Rejecting Harper's suggestion artists are privileged, Dion said their average wage is $23,000 a year.
"Most of them need to rent their suit and beautiful dresses at these galas," he said. "We have a great arts and culture industry. We need to protect its freedom. This man wants to censor our movies."

Read the whole thing here.

As serious as this issue is, some of the things Dion is quoted here as saying gave us a good guffaw. Our favourite line: "Dion said that proves Conservatives are the party of censorship while Liberals are the party of fun." (Emphases ours).

Honours Proposal Info Sessions

HONOURS ESSAY PROPOSALS
Department of English

* TWO INFORMATION SESSIONS:
“HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFULHONOURS ESSAY PROPOSAL”
OCTOBER 3, 12:30 PM, in ARTS 385
OCTOBER 3, 2:30 PM, in ARTS 385

* REMINDER: DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF HONOURS ESSAY PROPOSALS:
OCTOBER 24, 5:00 PM, ENGLISH DEPT. OFFICE (ARTS 155).

NB: PROPOSALS MUST BE SIGNED AND APPROVED BY ESSAY SUPERVISOR.

* “GUIDELINES” and SAMPLE PROPOSALS:
Students can find a sheet of “Guidelines for Honours Essay Proposals,” along with a file of previously-approved “model” essay proposals, in the English Department Office (Arts 155).

Welcome to September!

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE

Let's be honest: our March post was really a false labour pain in the admittedly drawn-out gestation period for the DESA blog. Gestation over, it's my pleasure to officially start this thing off with a short description of what we intend to do with it.

This is where we hope you'll go to check (regularly!) on what English-y events are taking place on and off campus. Items featured on the listserve will likely also be featured here, but with some exceptions and greater promptness than is possible on said listserve. Consider this, then, a quasi-live feed of McGill's/Montreal's English-y news--DESA's cybernetic bundle of joy.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to comment wherever.*

*Unless, that is, you are this guy.

First Post!

So welcome all to the DESA blog. We hope you find it to your liking.
We decided to create this blog as an alternative to the website, which will allow you (the students) to be more involved in what we do. Basically, we feel that the website will now be more appropriate as a resource for tourists + other passers-by, while the blog will act as a resource for actual English students. Here you'll be able to check out what's going on with the Department during any given week. We also hope to make this a kind of medium of expression for the English Dept community.

On that note, here are some things taking place this week:

Thursday March 6th:

Tea and Poetry
Featuring readings by Professors Selkirk and Kilgour, as well as free tea and cookies!
5:30-7:00 in Arts 160

Beer and Scrabble
Play scrabble against Concordia English students (please win!!)
5:00 - 8:00 in Gerts Pub in SSMU

Nuit Blanche at McGill!
Come to the SSMU building at 10:00 pm for a night of dance, music, performances, and DESA's write-your-own-poetry station!

Also, DESA is holding a semester long raffle for a $150 gift certificate at the restaurant O' Noir (you know, the funky one where you eat in the dark...), so come out to any/all of our events to buy tickets!! 1 for $2, 3 for $5.