As I walked into my classes yesterday (first classes of the new semester), the room was very quiet. Nobody was talking to anyone else. Most students were checking their phones. At the end of the …
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Ready for the new semester
Just in time for the start of the semester next week: My dog Willy and I passed our team evaluation for Dogs On Call, a local animal therapy organization, with flying colors this weekend. Willy …
5 Words, 5 Lessons, 0 Phonics
I had the pleasure to meet the winners of the 2024 Madison All-City Spelling Bee and to share some thoughts on English spelling at a recent event with the Madison Rotary Club. We cannot …
Books of the year
Every December, someone from the Cap Times asks UW faculty members about their books of the year. This year, I recommended two books. Only one made it into the article, so here is what I …
Greater Madison Writing Project
As department chair during the pandemic, I had less opportunity than I thought I would have to overhaul programs and build more efficient and more equitable structures in the department. There were just too many …
Learning from Volunteering with Dogs on Call
Since I was on leave this past year, I had more time to do daytime visits on campus (and other places) for Dogs on Call, an all-volunteer local therapy animal organization. Many of these visits …
Remembering Susan Stanford Friedman (1943-2023)
The English Department mourns the loss of Susan Stanford Friedman, trailblazing scholar and program builder, former department chair, and generous mentor to many who are now leaders in the global study of literature. As a …
Remembering Rebecca M. Blank (1955-2023)
I was deeply saddened to hear of Chancellor Emerita Rebecca ‘Becky’ Blank’s passing this weekend. She had shared the crushing news of her cancer diagnosis just as she was ready to become the first female …
Book trailer!
The book trailer for Discourse Syntax is out! Thanks to Difei (Lynn) Zhang’s design skills, it looks really good.
Book recommendation: True Biz by Sara Nović
The Capital Times asked UW-Madison professors about their favorite books of the year. I recommended True Biz by Sara Nović. The book is, at its heart, a coming-of-age story of a deaf girl, Charlie, who grew …
Annotations Winter ’22
Read the full version of our newsletter Annotations here!
Annotations Fall ’21
Our Fall 2021 edition of Annotations is out.
Department Chair
Over the past five years, I have sought out several shared governance and professional development opportunities. After serving as chair of the University Committee (the executive committee of the faculty) I became a fellow in …
Greetings from London
This summer, I had the opportunity to present at ISLE5, the 5th conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, organized by the Survey of English Usage at University College London (right next …
A very special commencement
My view of Camp Randall and speaker David Muire at Commencement! (For more pictures, not mine, follow the link.) I had the honor to be part of the platform party one more time (representing the …
In and out of the classroom
It’s always great to have a speaker visit one’s class or to take one’s class to experience a different learning environment. I took my “English Grammar in Use” class to the Special Collections section of …
Eccles Professorship
I am grateful to announce that I have been named the new Mark and Elisabeth Eccles Professor in English. The Eccles family has long supported the mission of the department. Mark Eccles was a Shakespeare scholar …
Congrats, Class of 2017!
It was a glorious day for having one’s picture taken in front of Bascom Hall. Congratulations to our fabulous Applied English Linguistics Class of 2017, pictured with incomparable graduate coordinator Robyn Shanahan: Vilcky Wu, Tiffany …
Introducing “Grammar Badgers”
I am so proud to introduce Grammar Badgers, a website created by graduate students in English Language and Linguistics who took my “Bad Grammar” class this semester. As part of the class, students were tasked with …
Published: “Transivitity Patterns Exhibited by Persons with Dementia in Conversation”
My joint work with Trini Stickle (Western Kentucky University) on the grammar of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease has just been published in Applied Linguistics. Trini Stickle graduated from our Ph.D. program in 2015 with a …