Posted by: Carolyn Bobo
At the start of the fall 2008 semester, the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication will emerge from the Department of English. The new department will place UNT in a better position to compete with the nation’s top programs in these fields, according to Brenda Sims, professor of English and director of technical communication for the Department of English since 1986. Sims will become chair of the new department, which will be located in the Auditorium Building.
The Department of English’s master’s degree programs in technical writing, English as a Second Language and linguistics will be moved to the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication. The new department will also administer the undergraduate certificate in technical writing, the undergraduate minor in technical writing and the graduate certificate program in teaching English to speakers of other languages.
The Department of English will continue to administer bachelor’s degrees in English with concentrations in linguistics and technical writing in cooperation with the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication. It will also continue to offer master’s and doctoral degrees in English and a master’s degree in creative writing, and the bachelor’s degree in English with concentrations in composition, creative writing, language arts and literature.
Sims and David Holdeman, chair of the Department of English, jointly worked on the proposal to create the new department, which they say will bring more visibility for the linguistics and technical writing programs while allowing the English department to better cultivate the strengths of its literature, creative writing and composition programs.
According to the proposal, the linguistics and technical writing programs serve an average of 1,600 undergraduate students each semester. During the fall 2006 semester, a total of 45 students were enrolled in the master’s degree programs in linguistics, English as a Second Language and technical writing, while more than 50 were in the graduate ESL certificate program.
Sims points out that the technical writing program is the second-most prominent program in Texas behind Texas Tech’s, which has a doctoral program in the subject.
“Our students are very much in demand by employers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. In one week, I received queries from eight companies who wanted interns,” she says.
Sims says placing technical communication and linguistics programs in the same academic department will result in students graduating with highly marketable skills that will address the needs of global businesses. While technical writers know the content and purpose of technical communication and what makes it effective, linguists who study the teaching of English to speakers of other languages or the structure of human languages pinpoint areas where communication could misfire, she says.
“Many companies are now writing software and hardware documentation for users across the globe - not just in the United States,” Sims says. “To best meet the different needs of each of these groups of users, writers should have training in linguistics — not just in technical communication. We see very exciting opportunities for students to study both how people acquire language and how we understand language in a business setting.”
She adds that the methods for research in technical writing and linguistics are similar, with faculty members in both areas seeing funding from the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities and other organizations as integral to creating nationally prominent academic programs.
Holdeman adds that in universities of UNT’s size, “it’s typical for linguistics to be its own department or to be a program jointly administered by several departments.”
“It’s not typical to have a large linguistics program within a Department of English,” he says.
Warren Burggren, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, calls the creation of the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication “one of the more exciting organizational developments” of the college in the last decade, “along with a reinvigorated and more focused English department.”
“It is an organizational change that speaks to the strengths of both departments, and allows each to showcase the talents of their students and faculty,” he says. “The excitement of the faculty in the new Department of Linguistics and Technical Communications is palpable, and rightly so, for it represents a futuristic departmental organization that will promote wonderful interdisciplinary opportunities for both student learning and faculty research.”
UNT’s Department of English has been the largest department in the College of Arts and Sciences in terms of the number of faculty, with 58 at the rank of lecturer or above. Moving the technical writing and linguistics programs into their own department, Holdeman says, will allow the English department to become more efficient and focused to cultivate strengths in its literature, creative writing and composition programs. He notes that all UNT freshmen must take composition courses in the department as part of core curriculum requirements.
“A smaller, more focused department is in a better position to deal with additional growth of the university,” he says.
Thirteen current faculty members will be moved from the Department of English into the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication, and two faculty members will be hired for the new department this summer. The departments are planning a joint event for the fall semester that will celebrate the creation of the new department.
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Add Comment (0)Posted by: Carolyn Bobo
• West Oak Street will be closed from Fulton to Bonnie Brae Street May 12 to about Aug. 31, says the city of Denton. Parking will not be allowed from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Work crews will reconstruction the street in three phases: Fulton to Jagoe Street, Jagoe to North Texas Boulevard and North Texas Boulevard to Bonnie Brae. Vehicles remaining in the street will be towed to a nearby location. Homeowners and local businesses will have limited access to their driveways. Contact Bill Murdock, city operations manager, 940-349-7160.
• The city of Denton will replace a water main on Maple Street, from Avenue D in front of the Coliseum to Welch Street. The work will be during the day, but the street should be passable each evening. This project will last about a month, and the closure will occur block by block.
• The city will also will replace a sewer line on Chestnut Street - UNT's Parking Lots 2 and 3 - from Avenue C to street’s end in front of Hurley Administration Building. The work will be on the north side of the street (westbound traffic). More details and dates will be available the week of May 12.
Posted by: Carolyn Bobo
The UNT System Board of Regents is meeting today (May 8) and May 9 on the UNT campus.
While conducting its quarterly meeting, the board is expected to consider the Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Recommendation for UNT, as well as for the UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth and the UNT System. The budgets are based on the spending plans submitted and approved during the February 2008 quarterly meeting. The board also will consider an update of the UNT five-year strategic plan 2008-2013, which will include refined measurements.
Board members also are expected to consider approving tenure for 33 faculty members and will consider awarding tenure to four new faculty appointees, who will join UNT with tenure from other institutions.
The holiday schedule, which includes 15 holidays, is part of the board’s consent agenda. The FY2009 holidays will include Labor Day, which is possible this year because July 4 falls on a Saturday and will not require use of a holiday by UNT. When July 4 returns to a weekday, UNT will need to use one of its 15 holidays to observe that day. The holiday schedule also continues to feature a floating holiday for employees to use at their discretion, as well as the Monday of spring break week.
See Extended Entry for a complete list of the proposed FY 2009 holidays and more Regents' business.
Show extended entry >>
Posted by: Carolyn Bobo
The certificate requires a four-course sequence and may be taken as part of a bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering or information technology. The courses include two classes in game programming, a class on game math and physics, and a game development class that will allow students to pursue specific projects on specific topics.
Ian Parberry, professor of computer science, says over the last 15 years roughly four dozen alumni have gone to work for a variety of computer game companies, including Terminal Reality, Paradigm Entertainment, Mumbo Jumbo and Barking Lizards. Parberry says, "Many universities have since developed game programming certificates, but at UNT we were among the first in the country to offer the programming classes."
The Laboratory for Recreational Computing, or LARC, was established at UNT in 1993 as a crucible for research and education in game programming in an environment that encourages group activity and cooperative learning.
Parberry says, "LARC is dedicated to providing educational and research opportunities in game programming to graduate and undergraduate computer science and engineering students. After studying in an interdisciplinary environment with students in the College of Visual Arts and Design, LARC alumni are well prepared to enter the game industry."
Contact Parberry at 940-565-2845.
"With Dr. Parberry's expertise, this game programming certificate program will permit UNT to cement its leadership in educating and training expert game developers," said Krishna Kavi, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Posted by: Carolyn Bobo
The web registration process, required for all university web sites and web applications, takes only a few minutes, says Kenn Moffitt, director of online communications and creative services. Registration:
• collects basic information:
• identifies the site’s URL
• provides contact information for responsible parties
• identifies audience(s) served
• identifies web forms and the types of information the forms are designed to collect
Please ensure that all web sites and web applications within your school, college or division are registered no later than May 31, says Moffitt, 940-369-3476 or Moffitt@unt.edu.
Frequently asked questions
Since the announcement of the registration requirement, these questions regularly have been asked, says Moffitt:
Q. I’ve never had to register a web site before, why now?
A. The university has an ongoing initiative to improve the quality of the entire web presence. The first step is to discover the full scope of what exists. UNT audiences’ dependence the web has changed in recent years, the university’s processes have not always kept up. So now is the time to improve the quality of the web experience and to use available resources and technologies to help UNT faculty and staff with their web sites. Through this first step in a formal discovery process, we hope to be able to determine if and what problems exist and what resources are necessary to improve the experience for all our web users.
Q. After registering a web site, what can I expect?
A. All web sites in the registration system will be evaluated. With hundreds of web sites already registered, it might take a bit of time before you hear from anyone. We will use the information provided to look at quality and compliance issues and contact you if there are any issues that need to be addressed. The web sites with issues or that have the most visitors will be contacted first.
Q. Which web sites need to be registered?
A. Any web site that is part of the unt.edu domain (contains unt.edu in the web address). Plus, any web site that is not hosted on UNT resources but still serves UNT’s audiences as a part of daily business at UNT. While some departments have chosen to have an outside provider host their web site, the site will still need to be registered if it serves a UNT audience and is linked from the UNT web site.
Q. Who has to actually register the web site?
A. In most cases, the person who maintains the web site on a daily or weekly basis. If you created the web site, hired someone to create the web site or are responsible for updating content on the web site, this is probably you. A web site can be registered by anyone that has accountability for the web site, from a dean or vice president or the manager who directs the web developers. We ask for three levels of contact when a site is registered. In the case of some of the larger colleges and schools, there are multiple people who maintain multiple web sites for the academic area. The person best able to log in and make corrections on a daily basis would be the person that we want to register the site and provide contact information.
Q. Do faculty have to register their own web sites?
A. If a faculty member is responsible for the creation of an academic or departmental site, including a center or institute web site, the site needs to be registered by that faculty member. If a web site is maintained for a faculty member by dedicated staff in a larger college or school, the departmental staff should register the site.
For more information about web site registration, and about the university's graphic branding; web accessibility, quality of content and search engine visibility issues, contact Moffitt at 940-369-3476 or Moffitt@unt.edu.
Posted by: Mellina Stucky
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A graduate-level course examining the superheroes of the movies Iron Man,left, and The Dark Knight will be offered at UNT. At what other universities can you earn a degree studying comic book heroes? A. Texas A&M University - College Station, Texas
B. University of Edinburgh - Edinburgh, Scotland
C. Bowling Green State University - Bowling Green, Ohio
D. University of Zurich - Zurich, Switzerland
The answers are C and D. Bowling Green State University is the only institution in the nation to have a Department of Popular Culture. Both a bachelor of arts and a master of arts degrees are offered.The University of Zurich offers a bachelor of arts in social sciences with a popular culture studies major. Both programs train students to think analytically with respect to culture, literature and the media.
Shaun Treat, right, assistant professor of communication studies, will offer a graduate-level course, Mythic Rhetoric of the American Superhero, in Fall 2008. The state of modern superheroes and how they are portrayed is very different from the superhero of the 1950s. Treat says that 70 to 80 percent of movies have some elements of comic books. Therefore, in the course students will explore the flawed antiheroes of this summer’s Iron Man and The Dark Knight movies as well as watch V for Vendetta, the X-Men movies and Road to Perdition.
To win a free UNT T-shirt gift pack send an e-mail to inhouse@unt.edu with “comic book” in the subject line by 5 p.m. May 9. The winner will be selected at random from all e-mail responses.
Treat said that since comic books often reflect American politics, culture and attitudes, his students will read various comic books and graphic novels, including Superman: Red Son, an alternative universe DC Comics story that has Superman growing up in the communist Soviet Union and eventually becoming powerful enough to unseat Joseph Stalin.
“It’s a fun way to introduce students to rhetoric and philosophy," he says. He added that his students will study the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche alongside common superhero themes of power, leadership, redemptive violence and vigilante justice - which are reflected in both Iron Man and The Dark Knight movies.
Iron Man, aka wealthy inventor Tony Stark, creates weapons for the U.S. government through his company, Stark Industries, but is forced by America's enemies to create weapons for them. Instead, he creates armor laden with technological devices, escapes and returns home, and launches a secret identity as the crime fighter Iron Man.
"While Superman's only weakness was kryptonite, Iron Man says that he feels responsible for creating the weapons, and he fights to fix what he's done. His weaknesses are internal. He also becomes an alcoholic," Treat says.
Treat's class will use The Myth of the American Superhero, a scholarly nonfiction book, as its textbook. Treat's class this fall is open to only 15 students, but he plans to make it a larger, undergraduate class beginning in 2009.
To talk to Treat about the superheroes in this summer's movies, call 940-565-2588 or shauntreat@unt.edu.
Previously...
- Associated Press report sends UNT researcher's work around the country
- NCAA releases APR report data
- Fourth UNT student wins American Humanics scholarship
- 18 receive awards at Spring Faculty Meeting
- Music Library digitizing vast collection of music, from Lully to Ellington
- Employees recognized for service to UNT
- Toulouse honored for service to UNT, 90th birthday