News
Letter from the New Director
Note: The following "News" entry was contributed by Professor John Marsh, Department Head of English (as of July 2025). Professor Marsh penned this piece when he took over as the Director of CALS in Fall 2024, though it turned out that he was only CALS Director for one year.
Taking over the Center for American Literary Studies from Sean Goudie, who led CALS for over a decade, feels like buying a house that has been meticulously built and lovingly maintained. The new owner would do well just to see to its upkeep.
As the incoming director of CALS, I have, for the most part, resolved to adopt that approach. CALS will continue to offer all of the initiatives Sean created in his tenure. These include the “Unprecedented” Webinar Series, the CALS Spring Symposium, the Centre County Reads program, and the incredibly successful First Book Institute.
Like most new homeowners, however, I cannot resist trying to make the place a little bit my own. But I imagine these efforts will look more like redecorating than gut renovations. I would like to make CALS—or more to the point, the CALS website—a regular stop for everyone in the field of American Literature.
The first project, Articles and Essays Monthly, will each month highlight and link to an article, essay, and review from the most influential journals in the field of American literature. The second undertaking, Beyond the Book, will feature interviews with scholars who have published exciting new books and monographs. The interviews will discuss not just their new work but how scholars came to the field and what they see as the future of American Studies.
My hope for both projects is that by featuring some of the best work in American literary criticism, CALS can bring together a discipline that has begun to feel intellectually and critically scattered. If it can do that, then CALS can be my new home—and a new home to other scholars, as well.
- John Marsh
Note: The following "News" entry was contributed by Professor John Marsh, Department Head of English (as of July 2025). Professor Marsh penned this piece when he took over as the Director of CALS in Fall 2024, though it turned out that he was only CALS Director for one year.
Taking over the Center for American Literary Studies from Sean Goudie, who led CALS for over a decade, feels like buying a house that has been meticulously built and lovingly maintained. The new owner would do well just to see to its upkeep.
As the incoming director of CALS, I have, for the most part, resolved to adopt that approach. CALS will continue to offer all of the initiatives Sean created in his tenure. These include the “Unprecedented” Webinar Series, the CALS Spring Symposium, the Centre County Reads program, and the incredibly successful First Book Institute.
Like most new homeowners, however, I cannot resist trying to make the place a little bit my own. But I imagine these efforts will look more like redecorating than gut renovations. I would like to make CALS—or more to the point, the CALS website—a regular stop for everyone in the field of American Literature.
The first project, Articles and Essays Monthly, will each month highlight and link to an article, essay, and review from the most influential journals in the field of American literature. The second undertaking, Beyond the Book, will feature interviews with scholars who have published exciting new books and monographs. The interviews will discuss not just their new work but how scholars came to the field and what they see as the future of American Studies.
My hope for both projects is that by featuring some of the best work in American literary criticism, CALS can bring together a discipline that has begun to feel intellectually and critically scattered. If it can do that, then CALS can be my new home—and a new home to other scholars, as well.
- John Marsh