UAA’s Department of English showcased students and annual anthology, Understory

The UAA Department of English presented their Celebrating English Studies event on April 20 at the Consortium Library. In Zoom attendance were various students and faculty from UAA, Mat-Su College, and Prince William Sound. There were four professors in attendance, David Bowie, who MC’d the event, Patricia Jenkins, Jennifer Stone and Toby Widdicombe, and attending via zoom were Ron Spatz of UAA, Dennis Humphrey from Prince William Sound and Iver Arnegard, Sheri Denison and Annette Hornung from Mat-Su College.
As local attendees mingled, they were treated to a charcuterie buffet and were presented with an icebreaker where they were encouraged to  write their words to live by, career goals, and favorite book on the white board. The present UAA professors determined winners, and the prizes were books.
Leslie Olberding was introduced, and she encouraged the English majors — as she encourages all students — to come to her just to talk at least twice a year. 

She is one of three advisors to English majors. I followed up with her in an email and she wrote that advising “is kind of like a car tune up - do you need to go? Eh... your car will run fine for a while regardless of if you get it serviced, just like you can probably pick out classes and register just fine on your own. But the repairman (and advisors) often see problems before you do. It's good to get those problems fixed before they become major.”
In an email, Bowie wrote that when he came on, advisors were not seen as “being key to student success” but that they are now, and he has seen a difference.  
Iver Arnegard of Mat-Su College read a nonfiction piece called “Place of the Red Willows.” He teaches Introduction to Creative Writing, Writing and the Sciences, and Writing Across Contexts.

Speaking to the audience and transitioning to the panel discussion, Bowie reminded everyone what English majors know so well, that it isn’t only the literature that English majors read that matters, it is how they apply it. He put forth the department points, that English majors are creative thinkers, they are problem solvers and effective communicators. He also said that they tend to do well in “graduate, law and medical school applications.”
Questions were asked of the panel that all the professors were invited to join in answering. The questions ranged from what attracted them to English studies to what they think is the future of English studies. 

At first the discussion was fun but a bit standard, with professors talking about family influences and being determined to not become an English teacher and not having degrees that had “English” in their titles, but the discussion picked up speed when a professor brought up Chat GPT and students using AI to write papers. One of the professors said that AI doesn’t do citations, and another added that AI can only do what it is programmed to do.
During his part of the conversation, Toby Widdicombe brought up his interest in English and one of the questions that liberal arts majors try to answer: What does it mean to be human? I followed up with him on this and in an email he wrote that he thinks “there is no more important question than our own self-definition as a species. Only with that definition can we move on to other questions: the nature of god; our role as part of a broader nature; the value of learning. Science helpfully tells us a tale of objective reality. The humanities tells us a subjective tale of what the experience of the human condition is like in all its glory and frustration. At least the humanities knows it is a tale. Sometimes scientists pretend or believe that objective reality exists. Kant, among others, would say no. Fichte helpfully says we can never get to the "ding an sich" ("the thing in itself").”
Someone from the audience asked what advice professors had for students. Dennis Humphrys said, “Don’t let people tell you what you can or cannot do with an English degree.”
Stone told the audience to “apply for a job even if you don’t have 100% of the qualifications.”
Widdicombe said that English majors “tend to be nerdy and somewhat shy” but that they need to learn to market themselves.
As the panel wrapped up, the floor was given to the presentation of Understory, UAA’s annual anthology that showcases student talent in “writing, language and linguistics, literary studies and rhetoric and composition.” 

Three pieces were read. June Huntington read their piece, “Whale in the Woods”, a piece written about a whale that had gone too far up an inlet and was trapped and where the narrator sympathized, having their feelings of entrapments in life, and selected by Taylor Heckart and Taylor Morrison, the editors of Understory. 

Ruth Hall read her piece, which was selected by Toby Widdicombe, “Conditions in a Post Modern World: Alienation in Thomas Pychon’s The Crying Lot 49,” and Nicole Pendleton read her piece, which was selected by Jennifer Stone, “Rhetorical Analysis of Vladmir Putin’s National Address.”

The occasion was a feel-good time for the professors and majors, and Bowie estimated that the total number of people at the event including Zoom attendees was around 50 people.

The quality of work of the students and the discussion ensured that the program is producing good students. In ending comments, Bowie said that the department hopes this will become an annual event.