State Takes Center Stage in Lit Class

Published May 9 at 9:36 a.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Students who enrolled in Assistant Professor of English Jennie Joiner’s Traditions of Literature course this spring expected to delve into a collection of works set in New York state.

What they didn’t expect was an Empire State history lesson.

The running joke in class is that maps are now a regular part of Joiner’s routine, as students traverse a literary route from east to west across the state, exploring different regions of New York in works that include Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers, the Erie Canal Reader, 1790-1950, and Walter Edmonds’ Rome Haul.

Joiner acknowledged that her dependence on maps has been to emphasize that New York was the only state with geography sufficient for construction of the Erie Canal, and with the canal, linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, bringing commerce and other boons of civilization further west.

“You think the biggest thing that happened to the state was New York City, or you’d think New York City was the heart of the state, but it’s not. The Erie Canal was. I’m not from here so it’s interesting to know,” said junior Annie Smith, a New Jersey native. “I never heard of the Erie Canal, so to see how much went on during the Erie Canal [era] and now in the 21st century … We wouldn’t have Auburn, Geneva, and all those places if it wasn’t for the canal. It played a major part in what’s 20 miles north of us and east or west.”

Sophomore Marie Cozzi calls Long Island home, and said she never realized how much history was prevalent in Upstate and Western New York.

“Reading through the stuff, it’s cool to see how the history is [represented] in the novels. I never thought there would be a history of Upstate New York in the books. One thing leads to the next. They all relate to the other.” (more…)

Beyond 9 – 5

Published Feb. 8 at 5:42 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

By day, Penn Yan resident Carol Sackett manages the circulation desk at Lightner Library, a post she has held for 32 years. But through March 7, visitors to Keuka College can glimpse a different side of her, as seen in three oil paintings gracing the walls of Lightner Gallery.

Sackett’s paintings are on display alongside numerous other works from members of Keuka’s faculty and staff, whose job titles may not necessarily disclose the individuals as creative “artists-in-residence.”

Beyond 9 to 5: The Hidden Talents of Keuka’s Faculty and Staff runs through March 7 in Lightner Gallery,located in Lightner Library. It features  a range of artistic mediums, including painting, photography, ceramics, glass work, digital art, and film.  More than 20 faculty and staff members submitted work for the show, including President Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera.

During a special artists’ reception – open to the public – Thursday, Feb. 21 from 4:30 – 6 p.m., the exhibit will also feature select culinary art from four members of the faculty and staff. The exhibit remains open daily during library hours, available online at: http://lightner.keuka.edu

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Lit Classes with a Different View

Published Jan. 11 at 12:16 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Dr. Jennie Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka College, is putting a new twist on some classic short stories, sonnets, plays and prose.

Joiner introduced a new course this fall, Literature in the Wider World, which serves as the new introduction to the major. It seeks to expand student horizons on books, reading, writing and all-things English and to grasp the role literature plays in everyday life.

Professor of English Doug Richards, chair of the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, visited Joiner’s class and shared a real-life example of how English can play a role in careers beyond writing and teaching. According to Richards, a graduate of Keuka’s organizational communication program was on a sales call “that was going nowhere” but  took a positive turn when the prospective client referenced the medieval poem, Beowulf. The Keuka graduate was able to build on the allusion in conversation, earn the client’s respect, and make the sale.

“You will know the stories of your culture and can engage in intelligent conversation and you’ll get further along,” advised Richards. “Keep working on building links and connections.”

And that is what the students did in Joiner’s class. They studied some classics, among them Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, and short stories, such as Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper. However, more than simple context and content were discussed. In addition to reading the traditional works, students also investigated digital and other media formats, and even theatrical and cinematic formats, in the case of Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles, and Fitzgerald’s classic, The Great Gatsby.

While digital technology has had a significant impact on the written word, students debate more than just print-versus-e-book preferences. One challenge Joiner gave students is to consider literature as hypertext, the embedded digital links to prior electronic postings. In the final assignment, for example, the autobiographical “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” a popular treatise against slavery, students reviewed the Biblical story of Daniel in the lions’ den. They then analyzed a portion of the work where Douglass describes his newfound freedom as escaping the hungry mouth of the lions.

While on its own, the reference makes literal sense, Joiner said, “it’s a hypertext without links and we have to be aware there’s a link, so how do we fill that in? We can read [literally] without understanding the allusion but what if we do? All of a sudden it takes on this whole new meaning and how does it help [Douglass] make [his] argument? His audience would have understood that [allusion] and we, today, may not.”

Douglass’s “Narrative” contains several other Biblical and secular allusions, which students further analyzed in their final class project, where they could choose their own creative medium to demonstrate the knowledge gleaned in their studies. While some students presented digital essays using literal hyperlinks and hypertext, others chose creative mediums – digital and traditional – to share what they learned.

For example, freshman Brianna Jackson of Syracuse used a multi-dimensionsal software known as Prezi, which some have compared to PowerPoint on steroids, to present a 3-D, visual display of quotes, images, colors and more. Two students, sophomore Jake Banas and junior Justin Hess wrote fictional stories, with Banas “writing a story about writing my paper,” while Hess reverted to the classic detective-reporter serial, turning the research into clues to decipher the mystery.

Meanwhile, sophomore Tyler Hixson of Shortsville created a Facebook persona for Douglass, posting photos available in the public domain, as well as links to facts and figures relative to Douglass, then “friending” the real Facebook accounts of fellow students in the class. He also created a Twitter account using the handle FreddyDouglass17.

Joiner asked students to compare and contrast pros and cons of each format or medium.

While sophomore Judy Ludwig of Rochester merged the traditional term paper with hypertext, she  “came to the conclusion that you needed both – neither the hypertext nor the traditional paper did everything you needed it to do,” explained Joiner.

Similarly, Jackson’s Prezi slideshow was visually appealing, “but in terms of something that can stand on its own, this won’t work – we need you to fill in the blanks,” Joiner described.

Experiential Learners of the Year Named

Published May 10, 2012 at 1:47 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

At Keuka College, experiential learning is a core focus and the 140-hour annual Field Period internship is one of the primary arenas where hands-on learning comes into play.

Each year, one freshman and one upperclassman earns Experiential Learner of the Year honors for demonstrating initiative, development of a broad and varied portfolio of work, and personal reflection on the skills learned during the Field Period experience.

The six nominees for 2012 were nominated by academic advisers, created a portfolio of work in essays, photographs and other media, and were honored at a luncheon April 27. During the May 5 Honors Convocation ceremony, the winners were named: freshman Lelia Torres of Stockton and sophomore Sarah Marquart of Auburn.

Torres’s first-time Field Period experience was quite a coup, as she was the first freshman from any college or university to land a Field Period internship with the Chautauqua County Office of Probation (CCOP). (more…)

English Professor Wins Professional Development Award

Published Aug. 30, 2011 at 11:04 a.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

Just because you’ve got a Ph.D. doesn’t mean you stop learning.

That’s the perspective of Jennie Joiner, assistant professor of English, and winner of the 2010-11 Excellence in Academic Achievement award, given by the College’s Office of Academic Affairs. The award recognizes Keuka faculty members who have demonstrated to their colleagues an exceptional commitment to advance the knowledge base of their academic or professional field.

Within the realm of literature, Joiner’s interest includes depictions of masculinity, with a focus on the writings of William Faulkner. Her doctorate, from the University of Kansas, focused on the subject of marriage and masculinity in Faulkner’s fiction.  Here at Keuka, Joiner created a senior seminar course last spring focusing on the fiction of Faulkner and Toni Morrison. The course followed the presentation of her paper, “William Faulkner’s Hearth and Toni Morrison’s Oven: The Slow Burn of Masculinity in Go Down, Moses and Paradise,” in October 2010 at a scholarly conference on Faulkner and Morrison held in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Not only was the class well-received by students, but a longer version of Joiner’s paper was solicited by an editor of the Faulkner Journal and published in August of this year. Another paper of hers, “Constructing Black Sons: Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning’ and O’Connor’s ‘The Artificial Nigger,” was solicited by the Flannery O’Connor Review last year and published in the 2010 volume. She is already at work on a new manuscript that examines Faulkner’s sexual geographies, or the relationship between place, cultural institutions and sexuality.

“I don’t think students always recognize we have our own research agendas as well. Part of being a faculty member is continuing to be a student and continuing my own education. It doesn’t stop with a Ph.D.,” she said. “What you learn with a Ph.D. is how to keep doing your own research.” (more…)

In Search of the Modern Man

Published May 5, 2011 at 12:57 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

In today’s world, men are struggling to find their role and identify the “script” they’re supposed to follow in regards to manhood, says Jennie Joiner. In short, there’s a crisis of confusion, and it’s time to talk about it.

“If we’ve redefined feminism, we need to redefine [masculinity],” says Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka College. “We’re in an interesting space culturally where no one wants to step up and do that – it makes everyone uncomfortable.”

In a recent talk Joiner presented on “Lifting the Fig Leaf to Reveal Hidden Masculinities,” she explored contemporary notions of masculinity in the figurative cowboy as depicted in the novel True Grit and its two film versions. The cowboy – a specifically American icon – has always embodied the conflicting issues seen in manhood, she said.

As a mythic figure sporting the “costume bling” of chaps, boots, spurs, hat and Winchester rifle, the cowboy exhibits freedom from societal rules, structure, and family connections, while risking a reputation as a hard-drinking, gambling hell-raiser who can “blow the lights out of town,” she said. His pledge of allegiance to a ranching outfit and his commitment only to bring the cows home gives him the romantic aura of a knight on a quest, and keeps him freely roaming in a “neutral” space where he can create an identity, Joiner said.
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Where Have All the Cowboys – er, men- Gone?

Published April 26, 2011 at 3:26 p.m. by Rachel E. Dewey.

If Newton’s third law of physics states that every action requires an opposite and equal reaction, then Jennie Joiner would like to see that applied to emerging trends in the state of manhood.

“If we’ve redefined feminism, we need to redefine [masculinity],” says Joiner, assistant professor of English at Keuka. “We’re in an interesting space culturally, where no one wants to step up and do that – it makes everyone uncomfortable.”

As such, a Thursday talk Joiner will present, “Lifting the Fig Leaf to Reveal Hidden Masculinities,” will explore contemporary notions of masculinity in the figurative cowboy as depicted in the novel True Grit and its two film versions. Joiner’s talk will also include a scene from the recent Keuka production of Rabbit by Nina Raine and a discussion of the themes of that play. Her presentation starts at 4:15 p.m. in Hegeman 109.

The cowboy – a specifically American icon – has always embodied the conflicting issues seen in manhood, she said. However, there’s a difference between the 1968 cowboy depicted by John Wayne and the 2010 cowboy depicted by Jeff Bridges in the Coen brothers recent Western remake, Joiner said, one that speaks to an apparent reluctance on the part of men these days to embrace a fully defined role.

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Walking for the Heart

Published April 12, 2010 at 12:41 p.m. by Gretchen Parsells.

Five members of the Keuka College community participated in the Heart Walk held in Rochester April 10, and raised $1,425 for the American Heart Association.

The team included (from left):  Alexis Haynes, chair, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts and professor of English, Anne Weed, vice president for academic affairs, Pat Pulver, professor of education, Jennie Joiner, visiting professor of English, and Stephanie Craig, associate professor of social work. They joined more than 5,000 others on the three-mile walk.

“Blue skies, sunshine, spring flowers, and great colleagues made it a perfect day for a walk,” said Weed. “I was proud to be part of the Keuka team and contribute to raising awareness of heart disease. I hope Keuka’s participation will grow in future years and I look forward to next year’s heart walk.”

Donations can still be made at the following Web site: http://heartwalk.kintera.org/rochesterny/keuka