Category: Opportunities

Please spread the word that the English department is offering literature courses in the Summer and Fall 2020 semesters. These range from literature survey courses to really interesting special topics courses on storytelling or dystopias. I’m listing the Summer classes below, and more information about the Fall classes is available here.

ENG 2001 (Intro to Lit I-Fiction)
ENG 2002 (Intro to Lit II-Drama)
ENG 2003 (Intro to Lit III-Poetry)
ENG 2170ID (Intro to Studies in Maleness and Manhood)
ENG 2400 (Films from Literature)
ENG 3402 (Topics in Literature). This course will be taught by Prof. Goodison with the topic “Storytelling in Film, Art, & Design.” Students will study a selection of contemporary short fiction, short film, and art to discuss techniques of storytelling. They will then apply some of these techniques to create their own photography, sound, video, sketch, or multimedia project.

The OpenLab runs a student-focused blog called The Buzz. You’re invited to share your own stories related to COVID-19. If you’re interested in sharing your experiences with other students via The Buzz, I’m happy to give extra credit (adding points to a project or replacing a missed weekly writing assignment) for your participation.

To earn the extra credit, you’ll need to write a piece that’s at least 250-words long (longer is certainly okay) that responds to the prompt included below. Then, email your writing to me so that I can give you feedback. Finally, revise your essay and then follow the directions on this post to publish your work on The Buzz. The prompt is below:

You are invited to share your story on The Buzz, offering others a glimpse into your experience. You might share a story about yourself or your loved ones who are grappling with distress or describe how your everyday life and routines have changed due to health concerns and requirements for physical distancing. You might also write about ways that you have managed to find a sense of contentment or learned new strengths or skills you didn’t know you had.

The OpenLab created a new project site called “Comforting Content for COVID-19 Coping.” It’s essentially cute videos and photos of animals. I’ve added some things of my cats Mose and Miao Miao. Others have added links and other content with more posts to be published soon. If you’d like to check it out, you can find it here. And, if you’d like to contribute, there are directions about how to on this page.

I think it’s safe to say that everything about what we’re now going through and dealing with is difficult, hard, and stressful.

City Tech has a Counseling Center staffed with helpful and caring folks who want to help students face these challenging times. While they currently can’t meet face-to-face, they have other ways of talking with students online or over the phone. Up-to-date information about contacting them is available on the City Tech Counseling website here.

Also, NYC Well offers counseling for all New Yorkers via text, talk, and chat through their website. They also maintain a curated list of wellness apps that offer support for a variety of things.

Philip Burkhard emailed me a link to this article in The New Yorker magazine that references the story that we read in the unit on Proto-SF, E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops.” Read it here.

If you find things related to the class–articles, videos, etc.–please send them my way and I’ll share them back out with the class!

I gave a lecture on “Physics and Science Fiction” to the Spring 2020 Modern Physics class led by Prof. Darya Krym. I discuss some things that we won’t have a chance to cover in our class. If you have the time, I would encourage you to watch the video. It might give you some ideas for your research paper. More about the guest lecture including my presentation slide deck can be found here.

When you need help with your writing in our class or another, I would recommend in addition to seeing me during office hours, you should visit City Tech’s new Writing Center. When you visit, come prepared with the assignment that you are working on and some of your writing for the assignment. Bring something to write with and on. The Writing Center helps you improve your writing ability through one-on-one help. They aren’t an editing/copy editing service. Writing Centers follow the principle behind this proverb: “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

Location: LG-27

Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 10am-6:30pm and Fri. 10am-3pm

If you’d like a fun way to get some writing practice while connecting with people the world over, check out the postcard exchange website called Postcrossing.com.

One thing that I like to recommend to all students is to enter writing competitions. Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, entering and potentially winning a prize in a writing competition gives you important accolades that you can include on a resume, talk about during an interview, and prove to potential employers that you are an effective communicator (which is one of the MOST sought after qualifications in any field). Don’t sell yourself short–enter these contests with your work from class or writing that you’ve done on your own. Sometimes you will win and a lot of times you will lose. However, if you never enter, you obviously stand zero chance of winning anything, so please consider entering your work in writing competitions.

City Tech has a long-running competition built into the annual Literary Arts Festival. The deadline is March 1 for submissions. Details are available here.