Author: Matthew

philosopher, iconoclast, technoboy, musician, conjuration battle-mage, dean

Avez-vous faim?

Avez-vous faim?

Le 21 novembre le French Club va avoir une vente de pâtisseries et autres choses françaises délicieuses. Nous espérons que vous viendrez les goûter.

Les prix: de $2 à $5

L’ endroit: À midi à HLC campus (en bas des escaliers). Cherchez la Tour Eiffel et le drapeau bleu, blanc, rouge.

On November 21st le French Club invites you try a taste of France! We will offer sweet and savory treats priced from $2-$5.

Check out our table at the bottom of the main staircase at the HLC campus. High noon, by the Tour Eiffel! Look for the French flag.

Big Read Lead!

This year’s Big Read features Claudia Rankine’s Citizen. Here’s a brief introduction by Charlotte Gullick, department chair of creative writing.

Citizen: An American Lyric is an-award winning, cross-genre book and is selected for Austin Community College’s Big Read programming for Spring 2018. The New Yorker describes the work: “The poet Claudia Rankine’s new volume, her fifth, is “Citizen: An American Lyric” (Graywolf), a book-length poem about race and the imagination. Rankine has called it an attempt to “pull the lyric back into its realities.” Those realities include the acts of everyday racism—remarks, glances, implied judgments—that flourish in an environment where more explicit acts of discrimination have been outlawed. ‘Citizen,’ which has been short-listed for the National Book Award, suggests that a contemporary “American lyric” is a weave of artfully juxtaposed intensities, a quarrel within form about form.”

Are you interested in a more in-depth discussion with colleagues about Citizen? Would you enjoy sharing your time and expertise with our community?

I’m looking for five professors to participate in a mini-seminar on Rankine’s Citizen and share their thoughts and reflections with community groups as readers engage with this text. You will receive a modest stipend ($200) to thank you for your time, and you’ll commit to read Citizen,  participate in a two-hour faculty seminar early next spring semester, and lead at least two group discussions in April (most likely off campus, e.g., at local coffee shops, Foundation Communities, etc.).

You can help make the Big Read even bigger! Contact me if you’d like to apply.

 

Deutscher Klub!

Wir freuen uns Sie im Deutschen Klub an ACC zu begrüssen.  Unsere erste Versammlung findet am 9. November 2017 statt.  Wir haben vor, sich regelmäßig jede Woche an HLC zu treffen.

Die Mitglieder sind die Studenten, die sich für die deutsche Sprache und Kultur interessieren.  Das Programm des Klubs umfasst: deutsche Filme, Weihnachtsfeier, Diskussionen zu einem aktuellen oder kulturellen Thema oder einfach geselliges Beisammensein.  Wir wollen auch unser Deutsch üben.  Wir hoffen Sie bald zu sehen.  Sie sind herzlich willkommen!

HB2223 challenges and opportunities

For those who may not be familiar with HB 2223, let me start with a brief introduction.

There are many details in the bill, but we will be dealing with two key components. First, there’s a phased requirement to increase the percentage of developmental education courses that are co-requisite with college credit  courses. There’s a good bit of evidence that students achieve proficiency in Continue reading “HB2223 challenges and opportunities”

Convocation Redux

For those of you who weren’t able to join me for the Fall 2017 LAHC convocation, here’s a brief overview.

I am honored to have been appointed dean of our newly realigned division, Liberal Arts: Humanities and Communications, a position I assumed officially on August 1. Unofficially, I was occupied (until well into September) with my two-year process of moving fine and performing arts out of Rio Grande and into newly renovated space in Highland East. My thanks to Lyman Grant for Continue reading “Convocation Redux”