{"id":1300,"date":"2018-10-31T22:53:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T22:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=1300"},"modified":"2024-08-01T21:52:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T21:52:22","slug":"visiting-professors-bring-their-expertise-to-mac-this-fall","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/the-words-november-2018\/visiting-professors-bring-their-expertise-to-mac-this-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Professors Bring their Expertise to Mac this Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jen Katz \u201919 <\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The English Department is welcoming three new Visiting Assistant Professors this fall: Emma T\u00f6rzs, Beth Weixel, and Sally Franson. Students have the opportunity to learn from the trio\u2019s rich set of experiences and knowledge<\/span>, and those of us here at The Words <\/i>want to introduce them to the community!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Professor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor T\u00f6rzs, an alumna of the class of 2009, is excited to return to campus to see lots of new and old faces. Meeting old professors and observing the ways in which the Macalester student body has changed while still remaining essentially the same has been \u201cdelightful on all accounts.\u201d (According to T\u00f6rzs, our attention spans are shorter now that we all have smartphones, but we still share the same concerns and campus traditions, like midnight trips to the Leonard Center swing set.) <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00f6rzs brings to the department an interest in gender studies and \u201ctransformative works,\u201d which she defines as the study of adaptation and \u201cliterary forms of fanfiction\u201d\u2014think the works of Shakespeare and <\/span>Moby Dick <\/span><\/i>cropping up in dozens of modern-day novels and adaptations. This influence shapes her approach to teaching Intro to Creative Writing this fall, in which she teaches students about the evolution of the sonnet from the days of Shakespeare to Shane McCrae. Agha Shahid Ali\u2019s ghazals, a type of ode of Arabic origin, have also been very popular with students. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00f6rzs is excited to have the opportunity to teach Intro to Creative Writing, especially to a group of predominantly first years. \u201cI like teaching Intro, because I know it\u2019s the first time a lot of them will encounter creative writing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting for me\u2014it\u2019s kind of an honor.\u201d  <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Professor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Weixel likes to use the early modern English metaphor of a \u201cworld in miniature\u201d to describe her approach to leading class. The idea that, \u201c<\/span>everything in creation was summed up and contained in each individual person or one life\u201d was central to the poetry of John Donne and other poets, and provides a framework for students to consider the classroom its own world in miniature.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, talking about \u2018nasty women\u2019 and the Me Too movement goes hand-in-hand with Shakespeare’s <\/span>Taming of the Shrew<\/span><\/i>, just as the antipathy toward immigrants in [Sinclair] Lewis’s <\/span>Main Street<\/span><\/i> needs to be connect[ed] to our current political climate,\u201d Weixel wrote in an email to <\/span>The Words<\/span><\/i>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While she is not on campus this fall, Weixel will be teaching ENGL 125: Studies in Literature with a focus on Early Adulthood in the spring. The class focuses not on young adult fiction but on works \u201c<\/span>written primarily for adult audiences that explore the early experience of adulthood in all its struggles and discoveries,\u201d as Weixel describes them. Students should keep this course in mind when putting together their spring schedules not just for its fascinating and layered subject matter, but also because Weixel is a baker who often brings gifts of homemade cookies to class. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Franson specializes in women\u2019s fiction, humor writing, and journalism. She published her debut novel, <\/span>A Lady\u2019s Guide to Selling Out<\/span><\/i>, to critical acclaim earlier this year and she is already hard at work on her follow-up novel. This fall, Professor Franson is teaching a section of Intro to Creative Writing.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We at <\/span>The Words <\/span><\/i>want to offer the warmest of welcomes to our new Visiting Assistant Professors as they join the English Department family, and we hope that you will do the same!<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jen Katz \u201919 The English Department is welcoming three new Visiting Assistant Professors this fall: Emma T\u00f6rzs, Beth Weixel, and Sally Franson. Students have the opportunity to learn from the trio\u2019s rich set of experiences and knowledge, and those of us here at The Words want to introduce them to the community! Professor T\u00f6rzs, an […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":1296,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1300","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7351,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1300\/revisions\/7351"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}