Early‑semester achievements that set the tone for the year.
by Fabiola M. Martinez Del Valle
The early weeks of the spring term brought a steady stream of accomplishments across our English community, with February adding even more momentum. In a short span of time, our community achieved an impressive amount across teaching, research, publication, and public engagement. Here is what we accomplished:
Awards & Achievements
- Kevin Mullen (Affiliate Faculty Member and Director of Adult Education for Odyssey) won the 2026 Van Hise Outreach Teaching Award.
- Emily Auerbach (Continuing Studies Professor) is a multiple time distinguished teaching award winner, and we recognize her continued excellence.
- Russ Castronovo (Literary Studies Professor) received a residency from the Japanese American Studies Association, which includes lectures and seminars in Tokyo and Osaka in June 2026.
- Theresa Delgadillo’s (English and Chican@/Latin@ Studies Professor) book Geographies of Relation is a finalist for the Rosalyn Terborg Penn Award from the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.
- Joe Nosek (ESL Professor and Program Director) was selected as the 2026 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Leadership at the school, college, or campus level.
- Raquel Kennon (Literary Studies Professor) received a 2026 Chancellor’s Distinguished Award.
- Dantiel Moniz (Creative Writing Professor) received a Vilas Associates grant to support completion of her novel Beholder.
- Amadi Ozier (Literary Studies Professor) received a Vilas Associates grant to support completion of her monograph Uppity Humor: Irony and the Invention of the Black Middle Class, 1890 to 1930.
- Russ Castronovo’s (Literary Studies Professor) book American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability was shortlisted for the Early American Literature Book Prize.
Publications
- The African continent edition of Kirk Sides’ (Literary Studies Professor) book Environmental Entanglements: African Literature’s Ecological Imaginary was published by Wits University Press on January 15.
- David Zimmerman (Literary Studies Professor) published Complicity and the Antebellum Moral Imagination with Cambridge University Press on February 20.
- Joseph Bowling’s (Literary Studies Lecturer) essay “Reinventing Trojan Origins, Figuring Race and Nation in John Higgins’s First parte of the mirour for magistrates (1574)” appeared in the open source MHRA volume Engaging with Troy: Early Modern and Contemporary Scenes.
- Jenny Conrad’s (Writing Center Teaching Faculty) mini chapbook Haven is now available from Antiphony Press. It is part of her forthcoming poetry collection What Sanctuary, which will be published by Texas Review Press in spring 2027.
- Ramzi Fawaz (Literary Studies Professor) signed a contract with NYU Press for his third book How to Think Like a Multiverse: Psychedelic Pathways to Embracing a Diverse World.
Presentations
- Aparna Dharwadker (Literary Studies Professor) was featured as one of six diasporic professional women in Madison in a video produced in conjunction with Forward Theatre’s production of Ironbound at the Overture Center. The video played in The Playhouse lobby on performance evenings from January 29 to February 15.
Publicity
- Sujash Purna’s (Composition and Rhetoric PhD student) photography piece “হাওয়াই মিঠাই – an urban symmetry” was accepted for exhibition in the Wisconsin ArtsWest 47 juried show in Eau Claire. The piece will be on display and available for sale until May 18.
- Ramzi Fawaz’s (Literary Studies Professor) latest Film Quarterly column on the politics of the Star Wars series Andor was selected as the lead essay in the journal’s 2025 year in review.