UCA School of Language and Literature

Faculty Fanfare Friday!
It's a beautiful day in the UCA neighborhood for Dr. Christine Case, who won a Facutly Research Grant earlier this year from the Children's Literature Association to conduct resarch in the Fred Rogers archives!

Dr. Case also presented at the Chidlren's Literature Association conference in May on “Constructing and De-Constructing The Wicked Witch of the West on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood and Sesame Street.”

Wondering what SLL graduate students get up to over the summer? Last month, English MA students Regan Lucero and Brea Molaison travelled with Dr. Margo Kolenda-Mason to the Newberry Library in Chicago to conduct research on rare 16th- and 17th- Century texts!

Future UCA student Avery joined the English Senior Seminar end-of-semester party to teach us all some "food math." Here he is patiently explaining to recent graduate Rachel Lane that "egg plus egg equals watermelon." Sounds like a future English major to us!

Congratulations to SLL graduates Angel Tyra and Madeline Koger for completing the Career Services Merit Fellow program!

Congratulations to English MA student Makayla Harper, who has been accepted to the American Antiquarian Society's Historic Children's Voices K-12 Teacher Institute!

This August, Makayla will travel to Worcester Massechusetts to spend a week in the AAS archives with fellow teachers and scholars!

In the Irby 317 suite, there is a couch. Our vision, as a school, was to create a comfortable space where students could sit between classes, wait for office hours, or just lounge. No student has utlized this as much as recent graduate Hannah Dykstra, who could regularly be found on the couch, doing homework, crafting, and chatting with faculty and students alike. We're so thrilled to display this artwork that Hanah generously made for SLL beside the couch, to remember the contributions she made to the Irby 317 community. Thank you, Hannah, and congratulations on finishing your degree!

Faculty Fanfare Friday!

Dr. Margo Kolenda-Mason's article, "The Shepherd’s Account Book: Profit, Production, and Poetry in the October Eclogue" was published in the latest issue of the Spenser Review!

You can read the article here: https://www.spenserreview.org/article/id/216/

Earlier this semester, our linguistics students presented their thesis projects!

The 40th Anniversary edition of SLANT is now live! This edition includes poems by 50 authors and a reminiscence on the history of SLANT by Professor Emeritus James Fowler.

You can read the Spring 2026 issue at https://slantpoetryjournal.wordpress.com/volume-40-1-spring-2026/

Congratulations to Linguistics and Spanish graduate Kyle Urban for securing a Fullbright ETA award to teach in Spain next year!

You can read more about Kyle's acheivement here: https://uca.edu/news/uca-student-earns-fulbright-award/