News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
Senior English majors will be presenting their Capstone projects in two sessions open to all members of the campus community on Wednesday, April 24 and Wednesday, May 1, 4:10-6:10, in Franz Hall room 120. Refreshments will be served. Please join us to hear about topics ranging from feminist dystopias to ghosts in American literature! For a full schedule, use this link.
For more information, contact Molly Hiro, English, at hiro@up.edu.
The Teaching & Learning Collaborative invites all faculty to a brownbag conversation in the Murphy Room from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday February 13, exploring the topic “When Students Stop Showing Up.” Gina Loschiavo (Care Team coordinator) and Brenda Greiner (SARC director) will highlight campus resources that enable faculty to keep being faculty when a student stops attending a class; CAS associate dean Andrew Downs, Pamplin School of Business associate dean Lisa Reed, and English professor Molly Hiro will offer faculty members’ perspectives on this thorny issue. Convivial, frank conversation will round out the session. For more information, contact Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu).
The Integrated Writing Program and the Writing Center are gearing up to serve the UP community in spring 2019, according to Molly Hiro, English. The Writing Center (BC 163) is a completely free resource, staffed with trained writing assistants who can help students at all levels, from all disciplines, at all stages of the writing process. The center opens for the semester on Sunday, January 20 (open daily except Saturdays). Please visit the Writing Center website to learn more and make appointments.
One of the best means of getting students to bring their work-in-progress to the Writing Center is for faculty themselves to encourage them to do so (some professors require at least one visit; some give extra credit to students for using our services). When talking to your students about the UP Writing Center, you might keep in mind the following:
To foster student writing integrity at UP, consider using the Turnitin function through your class Moodle page. Instructions for using this paper-authentication software can be found here.
All of your students should possess The Pocket Cengage Handbook since it is required in their two writing-embedded courses. The handbook helps keep our campus on the same page when it comes to grammar, punctuation, citation styles, and basic expectations for essay writing across the University. If you need a desk copy of this reference, please contact the Writing Center director by the second week of the semester.
As the director of the Integrated Writing Program and the Writing Center, Hiro is happy to be a point of contact on all writing-related matters this semester. Need insight on crafting better writing prompts? Resources for integrating writing instruction into your class-time? Help with language to use when evaluating student writing? Please feel free to contact her at hiro@up.edu or x8031.
The Integrated Writing Program and the Writing Center are gearing up to serve the UP community in 2018-19. The program has a new director, Molly Hiro, English, whom you are welcome to contact with any writing-related questions or concerns at x8031 or hiro@up.edu. The Writing Center (part of the Learning Commons, housed in BC 163) opens Sunday, September 2.
The University’s Writing Center will be open from the second Sunday of the semester (Sept. 2) through finals week, daily except Saturdays. A link to the Writing Center has been added to all Moodle pages, in the top left corner, under “Learning Resources.”
To familiarize students with the Center and its value to them, email writing@up.edu to have an assistant visit your classroom to give a 5-10 minute presentation during the first few weeks of the semester. That email address is also the hotline students can use to make appointments outside the established slots, should all slots be filled. There are no longer walk-in hours at the Center, so students need to book appointments in advance (no later than midnight the day before the conference).To foster student writing integrity at UP, consider using the Turnitin function through your class Moodle page. Instructions for using this paper-authentication software can be found here.
Finally, all your students should possess a common writing handbook – The Pocket Cengage Handbook as it’s required in their two writing-embedded courses. It helps keep our campus on the same page when it comes to grammar, punctuation, citation styles, and basic expectations for essay writing across the university. If you need a desk copy of this reference, please contact Hiro at hiro@up.edu by the second week of the semester.
Molly Hiro and Lars Larson, English, will present “Experiencing India: A Film Introduction” on Tuesday, November 14, at 4:30 p.m., in Buckley Center room 102. The presentation begins with a brief overview of their experiences while teaching abroad as Fulbright scholars, along with a quick introduction to some facts about the nation of India. The 30-minute kaleidoscopic film gives viewers an impressionistic sense of sights, sounds, music, and experiences of living abroad in that country. The presentation is free and open to all.
The Teaching and Scholarship Committee invites all faculty and staff to a presentation by the University’s 2017 faculty teaching award winner, Molly Hiro, on Friday, November 3, at 4 p.m., in Clark Library room 211. Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Teaching and Scholarship Committee at tas@up.edu.
The University’s Faculty Awards were presented on Tuesday, May 9, at the Faculty Awards Dinner, with the following results:
For more information contact the provost’s office at 7105 or provost@up.edu.
University professors Lars Erik Larson and Molly Hiro have been selected to receive Fulbright U.S. Scholar Teaching Grants to India for the 2014-2015 academic year. Larson and Hiro are both English professors at the University, and a married couple as well. They joined the faculty in 2005. Larson and Hiro anticipate that they will serve for one semester at a university or set of universities in India, possibly New Delhi. The J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board will inform them of their destination at a later date.
Hiro was an award-winning teacher at UCLA before coming to UP, and currently serves as chair of the English department. Her academic areas of expertise include African-American writers, American women writers, multi-ethnic American literature, American literature and social change, nineteenth-century American literature, and American modernism.
Larson also taught at UCLA before coming to Portland, and his academic interests include twentieth-century American literature, nineteenth-century American literature, western American literature, literature and the visual arts, cultural geography, literature of the environment, and spatiality nonfiction. He received the University of Portland Faculty Outstanding Teaching Award in 2013.
Since 1996, there have been a total of 13 Faculty Fulbrights awarded to professors at the University of Portland, including business professor Arjun Chatrath in 2005; English professor John McDonald, education professor Blaine Ackley, and business professors Richard Gritta and Mark Meckler in 2007; and biology professor Katie O’Reilly in 2012.
The United States Fulbright program began in 1946 after World War II to “assist in the development of friendly, sympathetic and peaceful relations between the United States and other countries of the world” through the exchange of students, scholars and professionals. The program operates in more than 140 countries worldwide.
For more information contact Molly Hiro, English, at hiro@up.edu.
Please join the English department for “Life after the English Major,” a panel discussion featuring recent English major alumni, on Monday, February 10, at 4 p.m., in Franz Hall room 128. All humanities majors and the humanities-curious are welcome. The panel will feature:
For more information contact English department chair Molly Hiro at hiro@up.edu.