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Sad News
WILLIAM R. STEINHOFF
1914-2009
William
R. Steinhoff, Professor Emeritus of English, died September 2, 2009. Born in Chicago in 1914, he worked in the
Civilian Conservation Corps before taking B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees, all at
the University of California at Berkeley.
In 1940 he married Rosannah Cannon, who predeceased him. Military service in World War II took him to
Europe, Africa, and India. In 1948 he
joined the English Department at Michigan, where he advanced through the ranks
to full professor in 1963. He had a Ford
Foundation Fellowship, a visiting professorship at the University of
Aix-Marseilles and a Fulbright lectureship at both Gadjal Made University in
Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and at Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1993 he married Marilyn Mason, who
survives him.
Professor
Steinhoff's scholarly interests were focused on George Eliot, Matthew Arnold,
Anthony Trollope, and George Orwell. His
book on Orwell, George Orwell and the
Origins of 1984, won the University of Michigan Press Award in 1976. Other interests included the training of
teachers of composition; for several years he directed what was then called the
Freshman English program. In the decade
after his retirement he returned several times to teach the Freshman Seminars
being offered by the College.
Steinhoff--always
"Bill"--"is remembered with praise," in the words of a
former colleague. He was a friendly and
generous man who knew when to bristle at foolishness. Colleagues and students alike valued his respect
and were proud to have received it.
--Hubert
English
http://obits.mlive.com/obituaries/annarbor/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=132268267
More accolades for Uwem Akpan
MFA graduate Uwem Akpan is the recipient of a 2009 PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Say You're One of Them (Little, Brown and Company, 2008).
http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1494
Another English LSA Staff Spotlight Winner!
A reflection on the hard work, skill and dedication of our administrative staff is the number of LSA Spotlight Award winners we have in our ranks. A well deserving Roberta Saling, Executive Secretary to the Chair, is the most recent recipient of this award. For the full story, please visit the LSA Staff Spotlight website.
https://www.lsa.umich.edu/facstaff/hr/spotlight/winners
Sad News
We regret to note that Emeritus Professor Thomas Garbaty passed away on Wednesday, July 29th, at his home in Ann Arbor. Professor Garbaty taught in the English Department from 1960 to 1992. He was a scholar of medieval literature and a beloved teacher & colleague.
Professor Tobin Siebers had this to say about Professor Garbaty, "He was a wonderful man. He was shy but had great sensitivity to others, and feelings of great responsibility for them, as well as a warm and gentle sense of humor. He was someone whom you looked forward to meeting in the halls of the department, someone whom you wanted to see more of whenever your meeting ended."
Professor Ralph Williams had equally fond memories of Professor Garbaty, adding, "Tom was one of the great teachers in the history of the Department: his courses in Chaucer and medieval literature more generally were the stuff of legend. His scholarship was exacting.
He was hired by Mr. Rice, the long-term Chair of the English Department. In all the years I knew Tom, he was never other than a model of largeness of spirit. Yet he had a sly wit, which could prick pretension. Having deflated a balloon, he would smile and give a self-deprecating laugh, as though he might have made a mistake somehow. With no regard for piffle, he had a remarkable kindness to pifflers.
His own history ties to the history of the last century in ways he seldom spoke of: his family, of very large business concerns, was expropriated by Hitler, the firm being given, as I recall, to Gobbels. He fled, through Switzerland, as I think, and came to this country. He chose and loved the life of literature, admired his colleagues, loved his students, and kept a lively interest in the Department.
I know of no one who did not love Tom, who was a sort of better self for all in any moments of crisis."
A private memorial service was held for close friends & family.
You can read his obituary at the following link: MLive.
Kudos Gazette
Cathy Sanok, Director of the English Honors Program, informs us that Emily Wilson will receive the Virginia Voss prize for her thesis, advised by Ralph Williams, and Amanda Swain will receive the Raoul Wallenberg Humanitarian Award, one of the Goldstein Honors prizes, for her thesis -- advised by Jennifer Wenzel -- and her volunteer work. Kudos to our students and to Ralph and Jennifer for their dedicated guidance.
The 2009 BEN Prize winners are Alex Ralph and Ray McDaniel. The BEN Prize, funded by an endowment in honor of alum and English Advisory Board member Larry Kirschbaum, goes to a lecturer who has achieved a high level of excellence in the classroom.
Michael Awkward has received funding from LSA to support his project entitled "Layers of Reminiscences: Contemporary American Autobiographies".
David Brown from the Joint Program in English and Education is one of this year's recipients of the Dimond Dissertation Award in the School of Education. The Dimond family created an endowment to recognize excellent scholarship conducted by School of Education students in the form of their dissertations. Dr. Brown's dissertation is entitled "Curricular Approaches to Linguistic Diversity: Code-Switching, Register-Shifting, and Academic Language." The chair of Dr. Brown's committee was Anne Curzan.
James Beitler, Sridevi Nair and Staci Schultz were awarded a Faculty Mentoring Award or an Outstanding GSI Award for 2009. Rackham bestows this honor to those GSIs who have exemplified outstanding mentoring and/or teaching in the classroom.
Enoch Brater, who is serving as Director of he University of Michigan Program in Florence through June 2010, has recently presented guest lectures on Beckett at the Universita degli Studi di Bologna, the Associazione Culturale Italo-Britannica, and the Universita degli Studi di Cagliari in Sardinia. In February he was in New York to moderate several panels for the new Bridge Project at BAM related to the cross-Atlantic productions of THE CHERRY ORCHARD and THE WINTER'S TALE. Methuen (U.K.) has just published the complete plays of Arthur Miller in six volumes; the playwright wrote the introductions to volumes 1-5, Enoch wrote the introduction to volume 6 containing Miller's four last plays.
Anne Curzan has been selected to receive a 2009 Faculty Recognition Award. This award carries a stipend of $1,000, and will be publicly announced and conferred at a ceremony on October 7, 2009.
Peter Ho Davies will spend next year on an Institute for the Humanities fellowship.
Nicholas Delbanco's co-edited volume (with Alan Cheuse), entitled Literature: Craft and Voice, Volume 1 Fiction, has come out with McGraw Hill.
Petra Kuppers received support from LSA to fund a research stipend for a graduate assistant for a project on "Deleuze and Disability."
Petra also received $3290 from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender for a project called Women's Disability Culture Poetry.
Anita Norich's co-edited volume, entitled Jewish Literatures and Cultures: Context and Intertext, has come out from Brown Judaic Studies.
Adela Pinch has been selected to receive a 2009 University Undergraduate Teaching Award. The award carries a stipend of $1,000, and will be publicly announced and conferred at a ceremony on October 7, 2009.
Eric Rabkin has been chosen for the 2009 Teaching with Technology Institute. This position comes with a $2500 grant to support his project.
Keith Taylor's book of poems, If the World Becomes so Bright, has just come out from Wayne State University Press.
Congratulations to all!
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