English Virtual Information Session

How are you?

Hate to Kira.

I'm hanging in there. What about you?

What else can I do? What else can I do?

I know, I know, when we consider what our options are.

I write it right, but I've been doing 2 jobs because the Police Department is is short stuff, so I've been helping out the Police Department to.

Oh Gosh.

No.

What have you done? I'm several of these webinars already.

Sorry.

Is there anything I need to be prepared for?

OK.

Gotcha.

No, usually I just kind of hang out an listening, uh, which is kind of nice. 'cause then I get more information on your guises, programs and what's going on, but I just kind of observe everything to make sure that you're not having any problems.

Sometimes, like the chat, doesn't work properly and so.

This OK?

We don't notice, but the kids will be typing and we just don't see it.

OK.

So I kind of hang out in there so that if there is a chat or like a question and it looks like you might not be seeing it, then I can just send me something on TV to say hey, somebody left me something and I'll send you like.

OK, let's see I typed a few things in just to see if I could. You know how to access to the chat? Um, now when you came in, I've now got.

Me and you at the top and my PowerPoint with small. Or do I just click on it to make it bigger? Or what do I do?

Oh OK, gotcha.

I just put this up so I can say Hi 'cause I know.

On site is going to be able to say hi, but it's really weird to me sometimes with these because you ask questions and then you have to wait and you're like.

Is angry typing you something? I just did it.

Yeah so.

OK, OK so I just AH.

So that you correct.

Yeah, so did you see that in the chat?

OK.

Oh good, OK.

So he should be. We should be pretty good, so hopefully there aren't any problems. But I am here if you need me. A man. I'm on teams, so if you pulled up when up a meeting she messages really quick, but I'm just gonna hang out in here and listening because I actually had a couple of English questions and I was like I don't. I don't know that I was a business major so I don't know.

Yeah, nothing right. So I'm just going to hang out and listen, but if you need anything let me know.

Will do thanks to Kira.

You like, have fun.

Cute.

To hear it, can you hear me? If so, will you type in the comments?

Look at the wonderful students popping in. This is awesome.

As you log in, I'm feel free to say where you're from and if you've got like a favorite book, that would be awesome. That'll give you a little sense of who you are.

See I see Arden, Anna Livia and joy and Grace and Colin, and there's Emily.

Loudon County in the house. That's awesome. Yeah, Colin.

Again, for people just getting in um, if you want let me know where you're from and then one of your favorite books.

Maryland, yay.

Fairfax

Graphic novels, that's awesome.

House of leaves. Culpeper, a local Stafford, a local.

OK, you're surprising me with a lot of things. I don't know Manassas.

OK, let's see I have that it's 401, so even as people continue to come in and kind of let me know where they're from and what their favorite book is, I'm going to go ahead and get started. I'm going to begin by letting you know that I am professor Gary Richards. I hope that you can see the slides and see my face. If that is the case, will someone quite yes in the comments?

Thanks Emily, you're awesome. Who everybody is awesome. OK so I am the chair of the Department of English linguistics and communication. We are the largest Department at the University of Mary Washington. At the present moment we have 28 full time faculty and we have about 300 majors in our Department we have.

Three majors, there's the major in English. There is the major in English with a concentration in creative writing, and then we have a major in communication and digital studies that is handled with a different web and are. So I'm going to be focusing today on those first 2 majors. We also have a series of minors in our Department. We have a minor in linguistics. We have a minor in English literature. We have a minor in journalism.

And then there is an interdisciplinary minor in digital studies that is also housed in our Department.

I have been at Mary Washington now for 12 years. I am a full professor at my area of expertise is American literature and southern literature in particular. So if you've looked at the SMS, you might notice that I do have an SM in the fall. I'll be teaching that and it's on sexuality and southern literature. Those are my two areas of focus.

Uhm, I am coming to you this afternoon from my dining room and downtown Fredericks, burg. Uhm, I apologize if you hear noise that's becausr across the street there. Tearing down a building. It's the old freelance Star newspaper building and it's been pretty loud, so if you can hear Maine just let me know, but it looks like let's see, the conversation is still going on picking a favorite as hard, I understand.

Uhm, OK, any immediate questions for me before we start out?

Anything about me as a person?

What is my favorite book?

Let's see who was that? Tabatha that was you? It depends on my mood right now to go to sleep at night. I am reading factories, Vanity Fair. So in British novel written 1848 that's long and complicated and funny and ******. And it takes my mind off of COVID-19 and all this crazy crap that were going through. So right now that's my favorite book. Let's see Barbara ask where did I go to school?

My I'm from Texas. I grew up about an hour South of Dallas and so my undergraduate degree is from Trinity University in San Antonio. A small liberal arts school that was one of the reasons that I wanted to come to Mary Washington because I believe in small, intimate campuses where faculty and students get to know one another. That was the experience I had, and then I went on and did my masters and my PhD at Vanderbilt in Nashville, in part because I was doing southern studies.

So, great questions Barbara. Let's see Rachel ask what made you interested in teaching English?

I liked it be cause it is a profession where I get to read constantly and talk about books to think about ideas to share. Whi I love this form of art to talk about how this form of art impacts us in our lives and to hear what other people think. It's kind of a cliche, but when you teach your taught by your students, I learned something from my students.

Every single semester. So this semester I'm teaching a southern lit class. We're doing a brand new novel, a Katrina novel that came out from maybe about five or six years ago. First time teaching it, students are helping me understand what's going on in that novel, so it's a collaboration. So that's one of the reasons I like had an interest in teaching English. How do you think English is significant in the modern world? That's probably what your parents and your employer is going to be asking you.

How is English relevant?