News

TWU alumni Rikki Willingham and Sharmeen Jariullah launch 'Gray Matters' blog

4/19/21

"Gray Matters the Blog" was created on the impetus to bridge academia and activism by two TWU students and alumni, Rikki Willingham, who received her MA in Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies in 2019 and is currently working on her PhD in the program, and Sharmeen Jariullah, who received her MA in Multicultural Women's and Gender Studies in 2020. Gray Matters the Blog utilizes a website-based blog and podcast platforms to contribute to the digital humanities. The goal of Gray Matters the Blog is to make complex theory accessible, prompt conversations about uncomfortable topics, and provide tangible resources while centering disenfranchised voices and experiences. Gray Matters is an inclusive space for all backgrounds and abilities, examples of which are the episode transcripts available on the website and alternate text available on the website and social media pages. The website specifically features pages explaining different epistemologies and showcases the works of various literary and creative perspectives. Utilizing both a podcast and blog format, the audience has options in the ways they wish to connect with complex theories while social media provides broad-reaching access.

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National Endowment for the Humanities awards grant to TWU faculty

4/14/21

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that it awarded a Humanities Connections Grant of $99,426 to Texas Woman’s University. The grant will support the very first interdisciplinary and experiential learning initiative to integrate the history of Quakertown into courses at TWU. It will also enable the future development of a digital humanities archive of Quakertown-related research and reflection, which the project co-directors aim to connect to a public platform that will promote community engagement with Quakertown’s history for decades to come.

Ashley Bender, PhD, featured in National Humanities Alliance report

3/22/21

We're proud to announce that TWU ESFL Assistant Professor Ashley Bender, PhD, is featured in the new National Humanities Alliance report, "Strategies for Recruiting Students to the Humanities: A Comprehensive Resource." Check out her unique approach on page 48.

TWU ESFL remembers former chair Dr. Lavon Fulwiler

3/15/21

Professor Emeritus Dr. Lavon Fulwiler, a former chair of ESFL at TWU, passed away at the age of 92 on Feb. 23. Fulwiler was a Chaucer and medieval English literature scholar, and she implemented the department's PhD program in rhetoric. She began teaching at TWU in 1961, and served as chair from 1971 until her retirement in 1992.

Her family has asked that "in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Lavon B. Fulwiler Endowed Scholarship for TWU students whose majors are within the Department of English, Speech and Foreign Languages; the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research; Planned Parenthood Federation of America; or the Center for Biological Diversity."

TWU ESFL student Amber Gaudet awarded Mayborn Graduate Scholarship

3/4/21

In addition to her recent acceptance into the UNT's Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism, undergraduate ESFL student Amber Gaudet has received the highly competitive Mayborn Graduate Scholarship to support her first year of full-time study. The institute awards "$10,000 scholarships to exceptionally qualified graduate students each year."