The Words: April 2024
Center for Advanced Study’s Professor Akbari Visits Mac
By Zoë Roos Scheuerman ’24
On Wednesday, March 27th, Dr. Suzanne Conklin Akbari of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, visited Macalester to share her work in two campus-wide events: a lunch talk in the Harmon Roon about her recent work and a conversation at Literary Salon about the literary podcast which she co-hosts, the Spouter Inn, and the joys of reading out loud. Learn more about these events here!
Eurydice Produced by the Macalester Theater Department
By Patrick Coy-Bjork ’24
The Macalester Theater Department’s Spring Production is now performing! The play, Eurydice, is written by Sarah Ruhl. The play is a retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus & Eurydice, but as Ruhl herself puts it, the show “reimagines the classic myth not through Orpheus’s infamous pilgrimage to retrieve his bride, but through the eyes of its heroine.” Read more about this production here!
Apps & Alums Coming April 5th!
By Birdie Keller ’25
“What can you even do with an English major?” “What kind of job prospects will you have?” “What do you picture yourself doing after graduation?” We’ve all heard the questions, usually preceded by revealing your area of study to friends or family. And no matter how much you believe in yourself and love filling your days with writing, reading, and theorizing, there often comes a time when the average English major begins to doubt. We wonder: What can I do after graduation? Do I have employable skills? To find the answer to these questions, click here.
Finding Disability Community During Cow Tipping Press Internship
By Beja Puškášová ’26
Last semester, I was fortunate enough to get a chance to intern at Cow Tipping Press, which is a disability justice focused publishing organization based in St Paul. My internship consisted of five online creative writing classes, helping with the process of publishing students’ written works as well as three teacher training sessions. Read more here!
Video Games Literary Salon
By Chloë Moore ’24
On Wednesday, March 20th, Old Main 4 filled with the chatter of our regular crowd of English-y friends as well as some fresh faces from the Computer Science department, as we gathered to hear from Professor Jim Dawes about the wonderful world of video games. Read about the literary salon here.
Embodying 19th-Century Seamstresses in “Ladies and Monsters”
By Ahlaam Abdulwali ’25
This semester, in Professor Tange’s 19th-century British Literature course, I tapped into my inner Victorian girl and sewed two mourning dresses with everyone in my course. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell, the book we read during this sewing project, had a number of seamstresses as main characters and a number of deaths, and so this project lined up perfectly with our readings. Read about the sewing project here!
Craft Corner: Cow Tipping Press
By Birdie Keller ’25
This month’s craft corner features writing by some of the fabulous authors in Cow Tipping Press classes. Cow Tipping Press is an an organization whose mission statement is to “teach and publish writing by people with intellectual/developmental disabilities, giving audiences a new way to think about this rich form of human diversity in practice and in print.” College students are employed as teachers for the 5 week long program, at the end of which each class publishes an anthology of the best student writings. Read some pieces from Cow Tipping Press students here!
Student/Faculty Accolades
By Chloë Moore ’24
Read the monthly roundup of student and faculty achievements here…