English Feature

Nov 30, 2015

Retiring NC State Poet Helped Save Endangered Script from Extinction

After trending toward extinction for decades, the fate of Vietnam’s ancient script, Chữ Nôm, now has a healthier outlook. NC State English professor John Balaban has helped lead many of the developments that kick-started Nôm’s rebound from an endangered calligraphic way of writing to a preserved tradition.

Nov 16, 2015

Distinguished Alumna Vivian Howard Finds Recipe for Success

Along with being a very fine chef, Vivian Howard (English, '00) is a restaurateur, TV star, writer and ambassador of Southern culture and cuisine. Meet the college's 2015 Distinguished Alumna.

Nov 14, 2015

PBS Selects Cherokee Language Film for National Distribution

This award-winning documentary about the Cherokee language, created by NC State linguistics professor Walt Wolfram and his colleagues in the North Carolina Language and Life Project, was recently selected for national distribution by PBS.

Oct 15, 2015

English Professor’s Film Brings Oxford Archaeological Project to Life

“Great Houses Make Not Men Holy,” a film co-created by professor of medieval and early modern literature Jim Knowles, virtually reconstructs a medieval friary at Oxford, England. Oxford Archaeology has been excavating the site where a shopping mall now stands, and the group is using Knowles’ film to add context to the artifacts they're finding.

Oct 12, 2015

Online Tool Aims to Help Researchers Sift Through 15 Centuries of Data

Digital humanities scholars from NC State University and Texas A&M University are launching a powerful new system to help researchers more quickly and accurately sift through hundreds of thousands of archives and articles related to materials dating from 450 A.D. to the 20th century. The new tool, called BigDIVA, will be formally unveiled later this month.

Aug 31, 2015

Documenting ‘A Hell of a Life’: NC State video producer’s documentary delivers raw look at moonshiner Popcorn Sutton

In his latest film about moonshiner Popcorn Sutton, NC State video producer and alumnus Neal Hutcheson delivers a broader picture of the folk legend's life. “Popcorn Sutton — A Hell of a Life” explores Sutton’s moonshine enterprise, rise to notoriety and fall into the legal and health troubles that led to his defiant suicide.

Jul 29, 2015

So Long, Drawl

For more than half a century, the familiar Southern accent has been fading in Raleigh. Its disappearance has been so slow and so subtle that locals may not have noticed. Robin Dodsworth, an associate professor in sociolinguistics at NC State, the decline tells the story of rapid social change across the urban South.

Jul 20, 2015

Digital Humanities Team Not ‘Donne’ Yet

NC State's groundbreaking work in digital humanities earned a visit from the chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who surprised the university with a record-breaking gift. Congressman David Price was among the enthusiastic group in attendance.

May 14, 2015

Poet’s First Book of Verse Wins Prize

NC State MFA alumna Noel Crook has achieved what felt like an unattainable dream: She is a poet, and a prize-winning one at that. Crook won the Crab Orchard Review First Book Award, a national prize providing up-and-coming poets with the opportunity to publish their first book. Crook, who earned her MFA in creative writing from NC State in 2008, gave her $2,500 prize money to NC State to support the MFA program, telling the university’s development office there wouldn’t be a book without John Balaban, the university’s emeritus poet-in-residence.

Dec 22, 2014

English alum’s many hats: chef, TV star, commencement speaker

Chef, restaurateur, TV star and NC State English alum Vivian Howard served up a great speech during NC State's winter graduation ceremonies.