����vlog���� English Professors Dr. Chris Hall (left) and Dr. David Strain have each been granted an academic leave of absence for the 2023-24 academic year.

Hall, assistant professor of English, will take a leave during the Fall 2023 Semester under the University’s paid leave for tenure-track faculty policy that allows for a pre-tenure faculty members to be granted a leave at the conclusion of two years of employment. Strain, professor of English and classics, will take a semester sabbatical during the Spring 2024 Semester.

Hall, who joined Ozarks in 2021, is the first Ozarks faculty member to receive the pre-tenure academic leave since it was added to the Employee Handbook in 2018.

“This leave is an opportunity to profoundly further my own professional development and research, to improve the visibility and prestige of the University, to enhance the pedagogical benefits to our students, and to leave the English program itself in a stronger long-term situation,” Hall said. “Making it possible for faculty to take research leave early in their careers is essential so that they are able to sustain a research trajectory that will carry them through promotion and future sabbaticals as tenured professors. It is my hope that by granting this leave application, the first of its kind, a precedent will be set for future early-career faculty at Ozarks to pursue similar opportunities. Meaningful, well-funded, accessible research time is of paramount importance for supporting a healthy professoriate.”

Hall said he will use his leave to finalize his first book manuscript titled, “Biopolitics of Modernism: Race, Gender, and the Making and Remaking of the Modern World,” as well as begin work on a second book and continue “a series of other interconnected scholarly pursuits.”

���� Biopolitics of Modernism, I argue that the contemporary world is unavoidably biopolitical,” Hall said. “As familiar discourses on institutional racism, animal rights, and gendered economic disparities remind us, our political capacities are shaped by the populations we make up, the kinds of life we are. Yet the role of literature in the development of this biopolitical condition remains undertheorized. I contend, therefore, that in order to respond to the continued intersection between life and politics, we must unearth the emergence of this intersection in the moment of literary modernism and trace its development through colonialism and globalization. Biopolitics of Modernism breaks new ground in the analysis of Caribbean, African American, African, and transatlantic literature by making it possible to re-see the ways that racism and sexism have shaped twentieth-century literature and politics, and to build from these insights a political ethics that makes the world a hospitable place for life of all kinds.”

Strain, in his 30th year of teaching at Ozarks, said he will use his sabbatical to pursue “a theoretical study of the prosody of free verse and to apply what he learns to the work of a range of poets writing in free verse after 1950.”

Strain said the sabbatical project stands to benefit the college in three overlapping aspects, curricular and co-curricular, critical and creative. He referred to the University’s popular student competition, Project Poet, as an example of a creative and co-curricular endeavor that would benefit.

“Although we regard this as a co-curricular event, any connection between program and programming is accidental,” Strain said. “Granted, nobody wants to take a course in order to enter Project Poet.  However, it’s entirely possible to create a series of instructional videos that would prepare students who genuinely want some preparation.  I’ve done this for the metrical tradition—free verse, not so much.“

The sabbatical project could also lead to additional stand-alone courses in lyric writing as well as verse and poetry within the English program, Strain said.

“If it does nothing else, Project Poet testifies to the interest students have in creative writing,” Strain said. “Since the demise of our creative writing and philosophy minor, we have had nothing to offer them … We can satisfy our students’ demonstrable interest in lyric writing only if one of us teaches the course.  I’ve done so once, in fall 2002.  The experience taught me that I needed to learn a lot more about free verse if I ever teach it again. With this project, that is exactly what I propose to do.”

Upon their return, both Hall and Strain will offer a presentation regarding their work to the campus community.  

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����vlog���� alumna and author Ginny Myers Sain ’95 will present an on-campus book signing and a virtual speaking event about her debut novel, Dark and Shallow Lies, on Thursday, Dec. 2.

Presented by the Office of Alumni Engagement, the book signing will be held in the Ozarks Exchange bookstore in the Robson Library from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The virtual speaking event will be held at 6 p.m. via Zoom. The speaking event can be accessed here:

Sain’s debut young adult mystery novel was released in September of 2021 from Razorbill Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The book received a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly and was an Independent Bookstore Bestseller for the month of September.

Dark and Shallow Lies is a supernatural thriller about a teenage girl who disappears from her small town deep in the bayou, where magic festers beneath the surface of the swamp like water rot.

New York Times bestselling author Jessica Goodman said of Sain’s book, “Haunting and arresting, this is one stunning debut. Ginny Myers Sain has written a totally engrossing small-town mystery about what happens when you finally dig up long-buried secrets.”

Author Diana Urban, said, “Enchanting and chilling at once, you’ll instantly get sucked into this atmospheric tale of kindred spirits brimming with secrets that could tear them apart. Ginny Myers Sain’s haunting, lush, lyrical prose will keep you captivated till the end.”

Sain is also working on a second book that will be out next fall.

Although she comes from a long line of writers, Sain’s first love has always been the theatre. She has a degree in theatre from U of O, and has spent most of her career teaching, acting and directing plays and musicals.

Sain spent 17 years working on the U of O campus as the director of the Stages Youth Theatre program and the head of the Walton Arts and Ideas Series. She currently lives in Tulsa, Okla., with her teenage son, Paul, and a very cowardly Doberman named Shipley. When she is not working in the theatre or writing, you are likely to find her listening to true crime podcasts, taking pictures of alligators, eating tacos, or planning a trip to Walt Disney World.

Sain’s book will be available for purchase in the Ozarks Exchange Bookstore for $12 on the day of the event.

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����vlog���� officials have announced that Dr. David Daily (right) and Joel Rossmaier have been named academic deans in their respective divisions, effective July 1.

Daily, professor of religion, will serve as the dean of the Humanities & Fine Arts Division, while Rossmaier, associate professor of practice of business and accounting, will be the dean of the University’s Division of Social Sciences.

The appointments coincide with the July 1 reorganization of the academic divisions.

Daily has taught at Ozarks since 2000 and received the University’s Bagwell Outstanding Faculty Award in both 2004 and 2009.  He will replace Dr. Steve Oatis, professor of history, who has served as dean since 2015.

“It will be an honor to serve as dean of the Division of Humanities & Fine Arts,” Daily said. “Through his years in that role, Steve Oatis has put the division on a strong footing, and I look forward to building on his work.”

Rossmaier, joined Ozarks in 2002 as an adjunct instructor and became a full-time professor in 2003. He served as interim dean of the Division of Business at Ozarks for the 2018-19 academic year.

“I am honored to be named as the dean of the Division of Social Sciences,” Rossmaier said. “The University is going through some exciting changes right now, and I look forward to being able to contribute to the growth of the programs within the division.”

University Provost Dr. Alyson Gill commended the two new deans, who have a combined 36 years of Ozarks teaching experience.

“Dr. Daily is a deeply respected member of the Ozarks community, and I am thrilled that he has agreed to take on this new role,” said Gill. “Since I have known him, I have found his to be a voice of gentle reason, and he brings with him not only a love for the Ozarks community, but a commitment to leading in a time of unprecedented growth with pedagogical richness. As the new dean of Humanities & Fine Arts, I believe that he will play a critical role in providing strong, consistent and communicative leadership for the division.”

“Last year, I asked Professor Rossmaier to serve as interim Dean of Business. I have seen him step more fully into that role, and have grown to rely on his sound advice and ability to view things from multiple perspectives. He is a skilled navigator of complex spreadsheets, and comes into this role as a respected and thoughtful leader.”

Oatis will return to full-time teaching and will continue to chair the provost advisory group and serve as the division representative on the HLC strategic assessment team.

“As a new provost, I appreciate Dr. Oatis’ tireless efforts in leading the division over the years,” Gill said. “This cannot be overstated, and I am deeply grateful for his service to the University—a place that he loves and is deeply invested in.”

In a related note, beginning July 1 the four current academic divisions will be aligned to reflect the LENS curriculum and will be known as Humanities & Fine Arts, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences & Mathematics divisions. With this re-organization, the communication and sociology disciplines will move to Social Sciences.

The reorganized divisions:

Humanities & Fine Arts (Dr. David Daily, Dean)

MAJORS: Art, English, History, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Spanish, Theatre

MINORS:  American Studies, Art, Creative Writing & Thought, English, History, Interfaith Studies, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Spanish, Theatre

Social Sciences (Joel Rossmaier, Dean)

MAJORS: Accounting, Business Administration, Communication Studies, Elementary Education, Environmental Studies, Physical Education K-12, Political Science, Sociology

MINORS: Accounting, Athletic Coaching, Business Administration, Communication Studies, Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Film Studies, Management, Marketing, Media Production, Military Science, Physical Education, Political Science, Sociology, Strategic Communication

Natural Sciences & Mathematics (Dr. Sean Coleman, Dean)

MAJORS:  Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Health Science, Mathematics, Psychology

MINORS: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Health Science, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology, Sustainable Agriculture

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����vlog���� Professor of Spanish Dr. William Clary has published a review of renowned Salvadoran novelist Horacio Castellanos Moya’s latest book for Latin American Literature Today (LALT).

The review of the 2018 novel, “�Ѵǰ��DzԲ���,” appears on the LALT website, , as well as in the February edition of its magazine.

Clary said he first became aware of the writer’s work in the early 1980s when he purchased Moya’s first collection of short stories in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

“As his production as a novelist began to proliferate after 2000, I began to follow him, always finding his work fascinating,” Clary said. “Last year, when he published ‘M�ǰ��DzԲ���,’ I decided to take it on as a project. The book review for LALT is just a part of the project. I have presented a paper on the novel at a conference and am currently finishing a much longer critical article on the novel for publication.”

Clary, who has taught at Ozarks since 2006, was instrumental in bringing Moya to the University in 2014 to speak as part of the Walton Arts & Ideas Series.

“I believe Horacio Castellanos Moya is one of the most creative narrative voices in Central America today,” Clary said. “His work tends to focus on the latent and persistent traumas from the period of the 1980s, which still haunts many Central Americans today, either as residents of their home countries or members of the large Central American diaspora in the U.S. today.”

“Moya’s is a powerful and piercing voice of memory that references the horrors of war that consumed the isthmus and how they remain in the minds of so many who were first-hand witnesses to this tragic decade in Central American history. Yet his work also deals with the demoralization and disenchantment that have also subjected Central America to the equally devastating problems of gangs and the drug trade, major problems of the postwar period which persist, alongside widespread poverty, in the conflicted region.”

A former editor of news agencies, magazines and newspapers in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, Moya has published 12 novels, five short story collections and two essay collections. In 2014 he received Chile’s Manuel Rojas Ibero-American Narrative Award. Currently he teaches creative writing and media in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa.

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Lauren Dotson, a senior English major from Harrison, Ark., took home top honors in Season 13 of the ����vlog����’ Project Poet competition.

A total of 28 students entered the annual multi-week, fall semester competition that started in mid-September. In the following weeks, several poets went out of print until five remained, competing against each other in a lively finals episode on Oct. 26.

Dotson won the top prize of $1,000 and the title of Poet Laureate of the Spadra Valley for 2018. Rebekah Moore, last year’s co-champion, finished runner-up and took home the $500 second prize. Chava Roberts, Jarret Bain, and Marcelina Pop received $250, $150, and $100, respectively

“Over the course of the season all Project Poet poets wrote thought-provoking poems about various subjects, poems infused with love and grief and grace,” said Chris Carrier, adjunct English professor and coordinator of this year’s competition. “They made Ozarks a richer, more beautiful place.”

Project Poet began in 2006 as the brainchild of Ozarks’ Professor of English, Dr. David Strain, and his former colleague, Dr. Kendrick Prewitt. The competition challenges students to draw on their creative writing skills and their wit, and is open to students from any program on campus.

Based on Bravo TV’s program “Project Runway,” the poetry competition presents contestants with a new challenge each week. Contestants read their entries before the panel of three faculty/staff judges, and the audience, who acts as the fourth judge. When all votes are tallied, one contestant wins immunity for the next week’s challenge, while two or three others go “out of print.” The contestants who make it through to each successive round are given more difficult challenges as the competition progresses.

Since 2006, more than 300 students have competed in Project Poet.

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Several members of Wordsmiths, the creative writing club that was organized in 2016, travelled to New Orleans to attend the second annual New Orleans Poetry Festival. They attended various panel discussions and poetry readings by well-known scholars and poets and also had the opportunity to meet and talk with many of them.

The trip left a lasting impression on the five students who accompanied Ozarks professors Chris Carrier and his wife, Dawn Holder to the festival. Carrier is the advisor of the organization, which was named the University’s Up-and-Coming Organization of the Year for 2016-17 during this week’s Leadership Awards ceremony.

Members of the ����vlog����’ student organization Wordsmiths who attended the New Orleans Poetry Festival were (from left) Jake Sawyer, Lauren Dotson, Samuel Binns, Taylor Snellback, Ariana Lujan and Professor Chris Carrier.

“Although our time in New Orleans was short, I feel like we all walked away with new-found inspiration,” said Ariana Lujan. “Sitting in each of the readings and panels made me realize the importance of listening to a variety of voices, and how we all have something to learn from those around us. Something that stuck out for me was the community that was present at the conference; readers or presenters from one panel would go to another, and that idea of ‘community’ is something that can be translated to education.”

The group had the opportunity to enjoy a walking tour of some of the cultural and literary sites in the French Quarter, including the Mississippi River, Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo, Preservation Hall Jazz Club, William Faulkner House of Books, and Tennessee Williams’ residence. They also were able to see a jazz show and eat beignets at famous Caf? du Monde in the French Quarter.

“The trip to the New Orleans Poetry Festival is going down as one of the coolest things I have done since coming to Ozarks, and that is saying a lot,” said freshman Jake Sawyer. “The festival itself was amazing, being able to rub elbows with nationally known poets, talk about their work and listen to their readings. Then just the time we got to spend wandering around the French Quarter in New Orleans. We ate local Cajun and creole food for every meal, visited a bookstore in a house where William Faulkner lived and wrote, and listened to a New Orleans Jazz band in a cafe. As an English major with an interest in writing, being in a city with such a rich literary history and distinct feel was invaluable. I wrote more in those three days than I have in the last month. I’ve come away from New Orleans with a lot of new ideas, a couple new books, and a wealth of experiences that won’t fade easily from my mind.”

Samuel Binns, president of Wordsmiths, said the trip was the perfect way for the club to celebrate National Poetry Month.

“I greatly benefited from the intimacy of the New Orleans Poetry Festival as we were able to meet many writers, listen to them read, and contribute to discussions in the panels,” Binns said. “We were also able to be a part of a broader creative writing community, which gave us a great example for our own facilitation and development of a creative writing community on campus. We explored the writing spirit that is unique to the city, and it was the perfect location to celebrate National Poetry Month and receive new material and encouragement for our endeavors.”

Wordsmiths, which has about 12 members this semester, seeks to promote the creation and appreciation of creative writing and the literary arts at U of O and for the members of its community through a variety of programs, including student-led workshops, group writing projects, community readings, and field trips.

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