Department of
Languages and Literature

Amy Shows, Donny Rhea, and John Silver, students in Dr. Rachal’s Business Communications class (English 310) have been invited by David Deggs, Program Director of Louisiana Campus Compact, at the Board of Regents to present their final course project at the upcoming International Research Conference on Student Learning that is scheduled for New Orleans in October of this year. Shows, Rhea, and Silver assessed faculty and student perceptions about service learning and made recommendations for improving service learning at Nicholls. Deggs learned of their work at the Nicholls Faculty Institute, where he presented the keynote and the students presented at a breakout session.

The following students from Dr. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick’s Women and Literature and Feminist Theory course are presenting their work on the politics of gender and ethnic representations in the work of modern and contemporary American women writers in a poster session from 10:45-12:15 at the Le Pavillon Hotel in New Orleans on Saturday, February 23, 2008:

Paige Pijor, “Zora Neale Hurston: Cultural Influence and the Rejection of Feminine Stereotypes”;

Michael Gremillion, “Sylvia Plathology: Examining the Importance of the Plath Mythos”;

Michelle Blanchard, “Finding the Woman in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior”; and

Ashley Carlos, “Traumatic Silence: Cultural Differences and Marginalization.”

The South Louisiana Economic Council (SLEC) awarded the department $2500 for Dr. Windy Rachal’s participation in service learning projects over the past three years. Most recently, Dr. Rachal’s students helped write community profiles to attract businesses to the Bayou Region. The profiles will be incorporated into an economic development website. In the past, students researched availability of skilled labor, outmigration trends, and post-Katrina wage practices in the region for SLEC grant proposals.

Betty Elfert was honored at this year’s Faculty Institute as Associate Professor Emeritus. Elfert has been teaching at Nicholls for over thirty years in several colleges. She has been most influential as an advisor in University College and an English instructor in Languages and Literature.

Nicholls students in English 101 and 102 will participate in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) again this Spring 2008 semester. The assessment measures students’ writing and critical thinking skills before starting college-level instruction and after. It is a written response to several complex scenarios; scores are assessed by real people trained to assess writing and critical thinking. Students and institutions receive feedback that shows growth in these skills and compares student performance with national data. For more information, see the brochure from the Council for Aid to Education

Dr. Gina Macdonald will deliver a keynote address at the Jane Austen Society of Australia Conference this Fall. The title of the conference is “Jane Austen at the Movies.” Dr. Gina Macdonald and Dr. Andrew Macdonald were invited to deliver the keynote address shortly after the debut of her book entitled Jane Austen on Screen (CUP).