Shed some light on conspiracies!

Bob Blaskiewicz’s article “Engineering Truth” was published in the magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, in September 2011. An expanded version, “You Can’t Handle the Truthiness: A Night Out with the 9/11 Truth Community” appears on their website. Also read Bob’s new regular column — “The Conspiracy Guy” — for Skeptical Inquirer‘s website. Continue reading

The creativity on display is not just student work!

Congratulations to our colleagues who designed and taught the classes in which students developed the artifacts selected for the Student View exhibition, now in the Ferst Center for the Arts (until January 31) and then moving to the Woodruff Art Center (1280 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA 30309) for one… Continue reading

Celebrating Students: Student View Reception and Film Screening at the Ferst Center for the Arts

The Student View exhibition currently on display at the Ferst Center for the Arts is entering its final week. Last Wednesday, January 18th, students whose work was selected for the exhibition were honored in a private reception followed by a public screening of student films. We had an impressive turnout: More than 50 people attended the reception, and more than 100 came to the screening!
As a collaboration between the Writing and Communication Program and the Ferst Center for the Arts, Student View is, to our knowledge, the first exhibition of its kind in the country, displaying student works produced in composition and English studies classrooms in a professional art gallery that’s open to the public. The exhibition features a wide variety of artifacts displayed in five categories: Collage, Mosaic, Digital Media, Poster Art, and Film. Continue reading

Student View Exhibition to Open at the Ferst Center Galleries

Where can you see a film protesting lint, a new vision of Monet’s beloved Giverny, a self-portrait made up of thousands of tiny images and words, a concrete poem that turns Zadie Smith’s White Teeth into an enormous pair of lips, and the ferocious grace of local skydivers? MOMA? The Tate Modern? The Musée D’Orsay? Look no further than the Ferst Center for the Arts, just around the corner from Skiles. And the artists? No, they aren’t here in residence from other institutions; they are our students and they rock.
How many times have we been blown away by our students’ creativity and talent when we ask them to do work that pushes the boundaries of traditional first-year composition assignments? Each year, more than 4,000 Georgia Tech students enroll in our English 1101 and 1102 courses.  Many of them create artistic pieces that not only satisfy the written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal components of communication, but far surpass our expectations of a given assignment. Continue reading

World Englishes Tertulia: Wednesday Nov. 30 4-5pm

A World Englishes Tertulia will be held on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 between 4 and 5 pm in Clough Commons Suite 447.  The workshop will address various methods of providing effective feedback to students in our contemporary multilingual and multicultural classrooms.  In particular, we will focus on the multiple perspectives reflected in student… Continue reading

Tondre presents paper at NAVSA conference

Michael Tondre presented a paper entitled “‘A Nat’ral Born Friend’: Friendship, Filiation, and Group Selection in Dombey and Son” at the North American Victorian Studies Association conference in Nashville, TN. The paper traces the complex interconnections between Charles Darwin’s theories about non-reproductive sexuality and representations of the bachelor and spinster… Continue reading

Stommel and Champion Produce Georgia Tech It Gets Better Video

The Georgia Tech Pride Alliance and the Writing and Communication Program have joined the community, corporate, and collegiate movement across the country by co-producing a Georgia Tech It Gets Better video. It Gets Better is a national movement to reduce bullying and suicides among LGBTQ youth. The video was produced and directed by Jesse Stommel, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow and Julie Champion, Student and President of Georgia Tech Pride Alliance, with a musical score by Matt Morris.
Stommel and Champion were inspired to work on this project after seeing the wonderful video produced recently at NC State. Like the NC State video, the Georgia Tech It Gets Better video features personal interviews in recognizable campus locations with nearly 50 students, faculty, staff, administration, and alumni of varying sexualities and backgrounds. Continue reading

Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow Makes Bestseller List

Second-year Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Andy Frazee’s first book of poetry, The Body, The Rooms, ranked #17 on Small Press Distribution’s (SPD) poetry bestseller list for October. Founded in 1969, SPD is currently the only distributor in the country dedicated exclusively to independently published literature, serving over 400 small and… Continue reading

Harkey Composes ‘Verbal Score’ for Artist’s Film at MOCA GA

John Harkey, a first-year Brittain Fellow in Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program, recently collaborated with artist and filmmaker Micah Stansell, whose work “The Water and the Blood” is currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Georgia (MOCA GA). Drawing equally from his own and from others’ writings,… Continue reading

Brittain Fellows–Bremm, Curtright, Schiff–to Present at SAMLA

Brittain Fellows Doris Bremm (second-year), Lauren Curtright (second-year), and Sarah Eden Schiff (first-year) will present at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference in Atlanta this weekend, November 4-6. The theme for this year’s conference is “The Power of Poetry in the Modern World.” Former Brittain Fellow and Associate Director… Continue reading

October 27: Research and Pedagogy Colloquium

The Writing and Communication Program’s Research Colloquium, originally scheduled for Thursday at 11 AM, has been resecheduled for this Thursday, Oct 27 from 11-12 in Skiles 002. Michelle Gibbons will present on “The Speech Examplar in the Multimodal Classroom”, which discusses using “I have a Dream” and other MLK speeches… Continue reading

Interview With Andy Frazee Published Online

An interview with poet and second-year Brittain Fellow Andy Frazee has been published online at the literary site HTMLGIANT (http://htmlgiant.com/author-spotlight/an-interview-with-andy-frazee/). In the interview conducted by poet Stephen Lewis, Frazee discusses his recent book of poetry, The Body, The Rooms (Subito Press, 2011), poetry and poetics, and small-press publishing. Continue reading

New CommLab is Creative Space for Practicing Communication

From teleconferencing to YouTube videos, project posters to green-screen presentations, slide design to report writing, the new Communication Center is designed to help Georgia Tech students develop professional competence in 21st century communication. The center has been designed as a leading-edge model for communication education. It uses conventional technology in unconventional ways.

“This is a creative space,” explains Karen Head, who is Director of the Communication Center. “Yes, we are coaching students in processes and strategies and techniques, but we are also providing the space and equipment needed to practice.” Continue reading