CHSS News – English

�鶹��ý��’s English Prof. Lee Behlman Co-Hosts Podcast on Teaching with Alum Nick Hernandez

miethk — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 19:16:23 +0000

In of The Watchung Booksellers Podcast, �鶹��ý�� Professor Lee Behlman and high school English teacher Nick Hernandez talk about their love of literature and teaching it to their students.

Lee Behlman is a professor of English at �鶹��ý��, where he’s taught since 2006. He’s a scholar of Victorian literature and his most recent publication is a 2023 book from Palgrave-Macmillan called , which he co-edited with Olivia Loksing Moy from Lehman College-CUNY. He teaches classes on nineteenth-century poetry and fiction, the Bible as Literature, The Golden Age of Children’s Literature, and most recently, on Detective and Crime Fiction. He grew up locally in Queens and has been a dedicated customer of Watchung Booksellers since the moment he moved to New Jersey.

Nick Hernandez teaches English at and loves spending his time rock climbing, playing in a band, and reading. His head is usually in the clouds but he still manages to balance a comically small tea cup on his person throughout the day. His favorite class to teach is dedicated to reading by Angela Davis, kindly provided by a generous .

English Department Spring Kickoff

miethk — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:26:56 +0000

On January 18, English majors and professors met for the department’s first-ever Spring Kickoff. The event began with a discussion of what students like about the major and what they’d like to see us try. Students and faculty then took a food break, digging into pizza, a six-foot sub, and other goodies, and many of our majors used the opportunity to make new friends or mingle with their professors. After everyone had time to eat, Professor and Professor led another discussion about the major where students offered even more reasons why they love studying literature and what they appreciate about the major.

Professor Jonathan Greenberg Publishes Essay on E.M. Forster

miethk — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:53:01 +0000

English professor has published an essay on the novelist E.M. Forster in , a new book from McGill-Queens University Press. The essay, called “Friendship, Liberalism, and the Novel: A Passage to India,” looks at Forster’s representation of friendship in his 1924 novel, examining what happens when political differences threaten friendships that have been forged across differences of race, nation, and religion. In the process, it juxtaposes Forster’s political liberalism with the aggressively anti-liberal views of his contemporary, the influential German political theorist Carl Schmitt.

Prof. Johnny Lorenz Receives Sundial Literary Translation Award

miethk — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 17:12:39 +0000

Prof. Johnny Lorenz of the English Department has been named a recipient of the 2024 Sundial Literary Translation Award for his translation of the Brazilian novel THE FRONT by Edimilson de Almeida Pereira. The novel focuses on a man who lives between a trash heap and the sea, a man “who, every minute of the day, holds himself back from setting the world on fire.” THE FRONT will be published by .

Naomi Liebler Honored as Commencement Speaker

miethk — Mon, 22 May 2023 15:06:58 +0000

Naomi Liebler, Professor of English, delivered the College of Arts and Sciences (Departments of English and Theater Arts) Commencement Address at Stony Brook University, her MA and PhD alma mater (May 19).

CHSS English’s Professor Patricia Matthew has a new article on Slate about Netflix’s “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”

miethk — Tue, 09 May 2023 15:36:41 +0000

The English Department’s Patricia Matthew has a about a prequel series to the popular Netflix series “Bridgerton.” In it, she discusses how “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story” intersects with and departs from history.

The season’s brilliance lies not just in what happens over the course of the six episodes, but in the questions it prompts about race, regency, and representation in popular culture as a whole.

MSU English’s Prof. Patricia Matthew co-organizing the Columbia University symposium Abolitionism and the Arts in the Long Eighteenth Century

figuereoj1 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:12:35 +0000

MSU English’s Prof. Patricia Matthew co-organizing the Columbia University symposium Abolitionism and the Arts in the Long Eighteenth Century
May 6, 2023
Columbia University

CHSS English department Professor Patricia Matthew is the co-organizer of the upcoming “Abolitionism and the Arts in the Long Eighteenth Century.”. This one-day interdisciplinary symposium, to be held at Columbia University on May 6, 2023, brings together musicologists, literary and theater scholars, art historians, and historians to think through the connections between the arts and the history of abolitionism in the Atlantic world. Prof. Matthew will appear at the symposium in a plenary dialogue with Adrienne L. Childs.

Please visit for more information on this event.

Former MSU Students are Featured Readers at Literary Event in Cold Spring, New York

figuereoj1 — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 17:54:20 +0000

On Saturday, January 28, 2023 the held its second Community Reading and Open-Mic for local high school students. Professor Curto who teaches Creative Nonfiction here at MSU is a member of the Advisory Board of this group and helped to organize this event. When looking to invite writers who could share their work, process and insight she decided to turn to her former students, Crystal Castro and Evan Dekens since they are both working writers and terrific storytellers. It was a great evening of connection, literature and community work.

English BA/MA students present papers in Spain

miethk — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 19:34:51 +0000

Alfredo Alvarez and Victoria Bustamante, both students in the English BA/MA program, presented papers on Shakespeare to the (the Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies) at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain. They were two of only three American students and the only undergraduates selected. Alfredo’s paper, “’My face I’ll grime with filth’: Revealing Whiteness in King Lear,” reads Shakespeare through the lens of Critical Race Theory; Victoria’s “‘Villain am I none’: The Self and the Other in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet” offers a mainly Levinasian reading of tragedy, identity, and difference in that play. Both papers began as projects in Professor Naomi Liebler’s graduate course on Theoretical Approaches to Literature. Their attendance at the conference was supported by travel grants from CHSS Dean Peter Kingstone and English Department chair Jonathan Greenberg.

Library Journal awards starred review to English professors Laura and James Nicosia

miethk — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 17:52:12 +0000

English Professor Laura Nicosia and adjunct professor James Nicosia completed work on three collections released by Salem Press/Grey House in 2022, and their , was awarded a starred review in for November. The Nicosias’ volume provides a comprehensive collection of essays written by technological, educational, and legal experts that help students, educators, and researchers understand the key terms associated with the ever-evolving term, “digital literacy.” Building a digital literacy skill set encompasses a diverse set of strategies, and their volume explores a wide range of topics for those wishing to augment their technological skills and comprehension.

calls the collection, organized, curated, and edited by the Nicosias, “Essential for professional-development and library-school collections.” In operation for over 140 years, Library Journal is the preeminent journal for library sciences, and starred reviews are reserved for those books highly recommended for use in libraries across North America.