San Francisco State University

From Esther Chan:

This spring, students from 5 different sections of  English 201/202 enjoyed visiting with Michelle Kuo, author of Reading with Patrick. Michelle  captivated our audience of young freshmen with her honesty and words of wisdom.  Meeting the author is an experience that our students will remember for a long time.

Our audience consisted of students representing 22 different countries, and most of them were first generation college students, many of whom are still unsure about what they're going to be doing in the next four years, but Michelle encouraged them to follow their hearts and find the path that defines them.  Michelle made our students think, and she challenged them to be brave and honest with themselves. It was a truly amazing experience!

Check out this padlet to see the students’ words of gratitude to Michelle Kuo.

The title of our project was “From Prop 227 to Prop 58: Unveiling Transformations in Public Sentiment on Bilingualism”. For our ENG 620 course project, we investigated how sentiment towards bilingualism in the media affected the passage of legislation affecting bilingual education, specifically with Prop 227 in 1998 and Prop 58 in 2016. We used computational linguistics to conduct a sentiment analysis of fifty NYT articles on bilingualism, spanning ten years of data. Our results showed that in the media there was a significantly more negative sentiment towards bilingualism in the years leading up to Prop 227 compared to the years leading up to its repeal with Prop 58. This research underscored the influence of mass media on public sentiment and, with that, the legislative process. 

“On Friday, May 3rd, MA English students from all three concentrations, Linguistics, TESOL, and Composition, and students form the MA Literatures program joined faculty, friends, family, and colleagues to present their final Capstone research projects. Highlights included thought-provoking topics, a lunchtime alumni career panel, and a lovely reception with cake and champagne to cap off the day. A big thank you to department staff for helping with set up and logistics and another big thank you to the TESOL and GLA student associations for their help in organizing the breakfast, lunch, and afternoon receptions. At our final 895 class meeting on Monday, after the conference, our graduating cohort expressed their excitement and relief to have completed this milestone with tremendous support from all the primary project readers. Shout out to them for all their hard work this semester: Virginia Schwarz, Robert Kohls, Priya Abeywickrama, David Olsher, Tara Lockhart, Jennifer Trainor, and Anastasia Smirnova.” 

Many thanks to Jenny for all her efforts this semester! And congratulations to our MA students! 

Dr. Shawna Shapiro from Middlebury College presented on Promoting Linguistic Inclusion and Equity through a Critical Language Awareness Pedagogy.  

Together, we learned about the rationale, history, and goals for Critical Language Awareness (CLA) Pedagogy followed by a dive into the  topics, materials, and assignments that are particularly conducive to a CLA-oriented curriculum.  Dr. Shapiro wrapped up the workshop by helping us to consider how CLA can shape our instructional practice, including our scaffolding of student engagement and our approaches to feedback/assessment.

Emily Remirez (PhD candidate, Berkeley Linguistics) makes shareable, accessible art about linguistics. Join us for a workshop to learn how she combines printmaking, collage, and digital illustration to convey ideas in zines & postcards, like this one explaining the relationship between speech perception and social interaction! 

“Tuesday, April 16, we held a workshop about Making shareable art about linguistics (& any other academic topic) in Humanities 485! We had a wonderful turnout of students who had the chance to create their own Zines! A special thank you to Emily Remirez of the University of Berkeley Linguistics Department for leading the workshop, Teresa Pratt for organizing the event, and English Department Student Assistant Anastasia Cadenas for taking photos!”

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View more photos here!

This month’s topic is Teachers of Multiple Languages: Identities, Beliefs and Emotions with Eric Ku, an MA TESOL Alumnus who recently published a book! 

We participated in Explore SF State, an annual event that allows us to meet the incoming Freshman who have been admired to SFSU for Fall 2024. About __ students stopped by our table. This year, we used a Scavenger Hunt Game and a Spin-the-Wheel Game to pique students’ interests and hopefully inspire them to get excited about a future as an English major. 
 
Many thanks to:

• Chris Conroy and Maricel Santos for managing table logistics 

• Jermelyn Genove-Mangibin, student assistant and PWR major, who chatted it up with many prospective majors

• Summer Star (and foster dog Phia) and Bridget Gelms who brought a great welcoming faculty vibe to our table

Thank you to everyone who attended our Spring 2024 Graduation Ceremony on May 22, 2024! Over 600 students, faculty, and guests gathered in McKenna Hall to celebrate our students as they graduate from our Department and prepare to take the next step of their lives. You can flip through our graduation program here.  A special thank you to our Department Chair, Faculty, Staff, Student Assistants and ISAs who contributed to making our ceremony such a success!

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You can find the rest of the graduation photos here!

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We welcomed special guest Lucas Hilderbrand of UC Irvine for “The Bars Are Ours”, where he spoke on the history and culture of the SF queer community post the 1980s.

Our department sponsored this event along with History, Sociology and Sexuality Studies, Women and Gender Studies, and the Pasker Chair in US History.

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Watch the recording here. 

The English Department and the Liberal & Creative Arts College collaboratively hosted the 16th Annual Humanities Education and Research Association [HERA] Conference in the English Department suite and HUM 587 on 6-9 March 2024. Attendees from all over the United States participated in the conference. The English Department hosted the open to the public HERA Movie & Reception of the newly discovered and restored film noir, Woman on the Run (1950), directed by Norman Foster, and filmed on location in San Francisco. Special guest Brian Hollins, AKA “City Sleuth,” screened his documentary short, “San Francisco Locations Then & Now.” SF State presenters included recent M.A. Literature graduates Jack Darrow, Sara Nuila-Chae, Ilya Osovskiy, and Christian Tuell. Current M.A. Literature presenters included Aidan Alberts, Tyrone Ellingberg, Adam Farrell, Shivangi Ghissing, Vero Jardeleza, Corina Moran, Hannah Selby, Saramanda Swigart, and Maci Tolleson––along with literature faculty member Geoffrey Green. Attendees are encouraged to submit their presentations for consideration for publication in the HERA peer review journal, Interdisciplinary Humanities. The conference was organized by Dr. Marcia Green with critical aid from English Department Chair Maricel Santos. 

“Do you need to present your research at a conference, at the CURE undergraduate Research Showcase, or in one of your classes? Learn how to lay out a clear and informative poster of your research that is professional and engaging.”