The English and History Departments offer a 12-week study-abroad experience in
England,
in alternate years. Students
live with host families, take courses from Hiram faculty, and go on many
field trips around the country.
Departmental Awards
English Society
England Program
Future Study-Abroad Programs
Recent Study-Abroad Programs
Guy Fawkes Dinner
Literary Arts Magazine
Regional Writers Convocation
The English and History Departments offer a 12-week study-abroad experience in
England,
in alternate years. Students
live with host families, take courses from Hiram faculty, and go on many
field trips around the country.
Bloody England!: Ghosts, Gore, and Grief in Britain and Its Colonies, 1750-1900
In Fall 2005, students will spend 7 weeks in England with Professors Kirsten
Parkinson (English) and Rodney Hessinger (History). Courses will include Gothic fiction,
the American Revolution from the British perspective, and the study of death and
mourning rituals in Anglo-American culture. Five of those weeks will be spent in
London, one week in Wales, and one week in Yorkshire. Field trips in London will include
Parliament, Tower of London, Highgate Cemetery, the British Museum, and Westminster
Abbey. Day trips will take students to Bath, Tintern Abbey, Cambridge, Brighton, as
well as a host of castles and churches that inspired the creepy stories of Gothic
fiction.
Previous trips
In Fall 2003, Professor Ellen Summers (English)
took students to England to study "The Changing Face of Britain," focusing on
Roman Britain and
shifting ideas of British culture in the 20th century.
Students studied Shakespeare's Roman Plays and visions of Britain in literature
and film. Professor Robert Sawyer (History) taught students about Roman history
online from the
Hiram campus. Field trips
included visits to Chichester; Caer Llan, Wales; and Stratford-upon-Avon,
birthplace of Shakespeare.
A trip led in Fall 2001 by Professors David Fratus (English) and Janet Pope (History) focused on architectural, historical and literary developments in medieval England. Field trips included visits to Wales, Stonehenge, Tintern Abbey, Chepstow Castle, and other sites in southeastern England.
For more information on the England Program, contact the Center for International Studies at (330) 569-5159.
Carl R. Brown Memorial Scholarship: Established by the late Alice Brown (Class of 1913) and friends, in memory of her husband, Carl R. Brown (Class of 1909), a loyal and devoted member of the Board of Trustees. Awarded on the basis of good character, scholastic ability, and literary achievement, with preference given to a student majoring in English who gives evidence of a distinguished career in this field.
Hiram College Writing Center Award: This award goes to the senior who has made the greatest contribution to the Writing Center and the writing program at Hiram College. Both exceptional service to the institution and an extraordinary personal commitment to the study of writing are required.
Howard Seymour Bissell Scholarship Fund: Established and endowed by family and friends in honor of Howard Seymour Bissell, member of the Board of Trustees. A scholarship to be awarded each year to an outstanding Hiram student of English in recognition of excellence, based on merit, talent, achievement and promise.
John S. Kenyon Memorial Award in English: Awarded to honor the graduating senior student in English who best exemplifies the creative and scholarly spirit associated with John Samuel Kenyon, Class of 1898, Professor of English, 1916-1944, and Emeritus Professor of English, 1944-1959.
Lee and Irma Cannon Memorial Award: Established and endowed by Mrs. Charity Cannon Willard, friends and faculties of the English and Foreign Language Departments, in memory of Lee and Irma Cannon, longtime and devoted members of the faculty. Awarded to an outstanding junior, alternating each year between a student from the English Department and the Foreign Language Department, nominated by faculty members of these respective departments.
Richard C. Underwood Endowed Memorial Fund: Awarded each year to the student who, in the judgment of the English Department, is a promising candidate for a career in journalism.
Grace J. Chamberlain Prize in Creative Writing: Established in 2007 by Joyce, Robert, and Dylan Chamberlain, the parents and brother of Grace J. Chamberlain, who died tragically in an automobile accident in 2006, this prize is awarded annually by the English Department to a sophomore who shows great promise in creative writing. In the event there is no eligible sophomore, the prize may be awarded to a student of any class who shows promise in creative writing. This prize is funded annually by a Cleveland Foundation Donor Advised Fund.
English Department Book Award
Awarded to a student who contributes to the intellectual life of the
English Department in creative and often unrecognized ways.
English Society gathers regularly to read and discuss literature. Organized and led by students, the meetings frequently involve a particular theme for which students bring poems, short stories, or selections of larger work, either of their own composition or written by others. For more information, contact the faculty advisor, Ellen Summers, at summersel@hiram.edu.
Future Study-Abroad Programs
Irish Music and Celtic Myth in Ireland:
In Spring 2006, Professors Ellen Summers (English) and Tina Dreisbach (Music) will
take students to Ireland explore its ancient, proud, and distinctive culture through its music
and literature. Through centuries of oppression, the Irish people have been sustained
by their rich heritage of verbal art, folklore, and music. In studying these
traditions, the group will visit Ennis, County Clare; Galway; Carrick-on-shannon,
County Sligo; and Dublin.
The Culture and Natural History of the Caribbean: Trinidad and Tobago
In Fall 2005, Professors David Fratus (English) and Matt Hils (Biology) will offer
students the opportunity to explore the Caribbean island-nation of Trinidad-Tobago,
a melting pot of many peoples and cultures. The group will study the interrelatedness
of language, literature, art, music, and natural history of the English-speaking
Caribbean, with an emphasis on creative writers from Trinidad-Tobago, including
V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott. Field trips in Trinidad-Tobago include excursions
in Port-of-Spain, Pitch Lake National Landmark, Cocos Bay Scenic Landscape, Scarborough,
and rain forests.
For more information on study-abroad programs, contact the Center for International Studies at (330) 569-5159.
Recent Study-Abroad Programs
The Images and Literature of War:
In Spring 2004, Professor Kirsten Parkinson led a 3-week trip to
England and France with Professor Linda Bourassa (Art). This course
examined cultural representations of war, drawing on fictional, non-fictional,
cinematic, and photographic depictions of war to explore the role of
art in times of crisis; to consider how writers, photographers, and filmmakers
work to portray a reality so terrible as to be almost unrepresentable;
and to analyze how those in power use various media as propaganda to
influence public perceptions of their battles.
English and France provided a way to experience the wars of the twentieth century through visits to and research at key memorial sites, including the Imperial War Museum in London, the D-Day Museum and Overlord Embroidery in Portsmouth, the Musee Memorial d'Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery at St. Laurent in Normandy, and the Hotel des Invalides in Paris.
For more information on study-abroad programs, contact the Center for International Studies at (330) 569-5159.
In 1605, Guy Fawkes and his cohorts plotted to blow up the British Parliament.
They hired a house adjacent to the Parliament building and dug a
tunnel from its cellar to a vault, hired by Thomas Percy, under the
chamber of the House of Lords. In this room they hid gunpowder,
disguising it under piles of coal and logs. On the night of
November 4, before the plan could be put into execution, members of
King James’s government got wind of the scheme, searched the vault,
and arrested Guy Fawkes, who was on the premises. Today Guy Fawkes Day is a popular holiday in Great Britain. Revelers
hold bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn Guy Fawkes in effigy.
The English and History Departments jointly host a Guy Fawkes Dinner each year during the first week of November to commemorate Guy Fawkes and celebrate the British holiday. Traditionally, faculty members give rousing speeches, one in defense of Fawkes and his co-conspirators and one supporting the burning in effigy. At the end of the evening, we follow the British tradition and burn an effigy.
The Hiram College Literary Arts Magazine is a student-directed literary publication designed to display the best Hiram College students have to offer in original creative writing and art. We accept all forms of creative writing, from the poetry and prose to memoir and hip-hop song lyrics. Although in the past we have typically reprinted only photographs, this year we look forward to displaying a wider variety of artwork, including collage, pen and ink drawing, paintings, and artistic comics. Published once a year, the Hiram College Literary Arts Magazine acts as a forum for students from all disciplines to express themselves creatively in a public forum.
For fourteen years Hiram College, with support from the Special Events Committee and the Hiram Community Trust, has sponsored the Festival of Regional Writers. The Festival brings writers to the Hiram community who have a strong and special connection to their regions—most especially the Western Reserve. In the spirit of Writing Across the Curriculum at the college, not only poets and novelists are invited to participate in this program, but also journalists, biographers, business writers, science fiction writers, mystery writers, religious writers, and others. Former guests have included Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs, Dana Gioia, Sarah Willis, Marilou Awiakta, Mark Winegardner, Mary Doria Russell, Mary E. Weems, Maggie Anderson, Ronald Osborn, James Neff, Scott Russell Sanders, Rita Dove, Ian Frazier, Robert Finn, James Neff, Mary Grimm, Lee K. Abbott, Abby Frucht, Jeffrey Hammond, and Mary Swander.