Yearly Archives: 2019

With Child: Otto Dix/Carmen Winant

“Everything is beautiful.” —Otto Dix “Contradictions give our lives shape.” –Carmen Winant In 2016, when the Worcester Art Museum acquired The Pregnant Woman (1931) by Otto Dix, the painting provoked strong reactions from visitors. While some praised the acquisition of a work that presented an image of an unidealized pregnant body, others found the composition…

The Immortal Blossom of Toni Morrison

Kourtney Senquiz, a Ph.D. candidate in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Clark University’s Department of English. She plans to offer a course on Toni Morrison in S ’20. On Monday, August 5th, Toni Morrison passed away in a Brooklyn hospital…

A New Earth Conversation: The World Is Changing; We Should Be, Too

A New Earth Conversation is a campus-wide initiative that, in exploring our relationship with the climate crisis, seeks to cultivate positive change through our response to climate change. Bringing together various Clark faculty from different departments including English, IDCE, Geography, the program is interdisciplinary, built on the premise that in order to make substantive change,…

The Black Arts Movement

By Kourtney Senquiz In AY 19-20, Kourtney Senquiz will be a Visiting Assistant Professor in English at Clark University. In S’19, she is teaching African American Literature II and Radicalism and the Black Arts Movement. Professor James Smethurst taught me everything I know about the Black Arts Movement. As soon as I knew I would…

Learning to Teach: An Interview with a MAT Student

Zachary Noel, a recent graduate from our English Department, is currently a student in Clark’s Master’s in Teaching Program (https://www.clarku.edu/academics/graduate/programs/masters/teaching/ ) This interview describes his experiences in the program as well as advice for any English majors or minors who are thinking about teaching and considering going into the program.  How do you find the…

Study Abroad Through Students’ Eyes

Gearing Up For those interested in studying abroad, the process of going to a different country may seem arduous. However, there are plenty of steps that you can take in order to make sure you are well informed, and well prepared before you see yourself off. Emily Schutz, the Undergraduate Student Assistant for the Study…

Asking Questions

By Jeremy Shulkin Jeremy Shulkin (’07) is an English teacher at University Park Campus School as well as a freelance writer.   My 9th graders know the routine. There to greet them at the beginning of each of my classes is a “starter” – an opinion-based question on the board that gets their brains ready…