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2020 First Book Institute

The 2020 First Book Institute--the first hosted virtually--was co-directed by CALS Director Sean X. Goudie and Priscilla Wald, R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English and Women's Studies at Duke University. Institute faculty included Penn State faculty Christopher Castiglia, Tina Chen, Christian Haines, Aldon Nielsen, Sarah Townsend, and Cynthia Young, and FBI alumni Adrienne Brown, Joe Darda, Doug Guerra, Carrie Hyde and Sonya Posmentier.
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2020's Participants: Top Row (L-R): Renee Hudson, CALS R.A. Justin Smith, Justin Mann; Upper Middle Row (L-R): co-director Sean Goudie, David Hollingshead, Faith Barter; Lower Middle Row (L-R): Danica Savonik, Ana Schwartz, Paul Nadal; Bottom Row (L-R): co-director Priscilla Wald, Andrew Belton.

Congratulations to the eight successful applicants to this year's First Book Institute!  They are:

  •  Faith Barter, Assistant Professor of English, University of Oregon

Project Title:  Fugitives, Rebels, and Cryptographers: Un-Fiction, Law, and African American Literature, 1830-1860

  • Andrew Belton, Assistant Professor of English, Oklahoma State University

Project Title: Hip Hop Illiterate: Black Hermeneutics and the Future of Literary Theory

Project Title: Protoplasmic Naturalism: Race, Reductionism, and the Biomaterial Imagination

  • Renee Hudson, Assistant Professor of English, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Project Title: Genres of the Americas: Revolution, Form, Futurity

  • Justin Mann, Assistant Professor of English, Northwestern University

Project Title: Breaking the World: Blackness and Insecurity in the New World Order

  • Paul Nadal, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies, Princeton University

Project Title: Remittance Fiction

Project Title: Insurgent Knowledge: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Open Admissions

  • Ana Schwartz, Assistant Professor of English, University of Texas at Austin

Project Title: Subjective Knowledge: Disciplines of Affection in the Early Modern Colony
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Top Row (L-R): CALS R.A. Justin Smith, co-director Sean Goudie, Faith Barter, Renee Hudson, Andrew Belton, and Justin Mann listen as First Book Institute alumna Carrie Hyde gives feedback on the introduction of Faith Barter's book project.
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PSU Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Sarah Townsend (bottom row) joins the First Book Institute to discuss the introduction of Renee Hudson's book project.
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Ana Schwartz shares thoughts during the group's Thursday morning discussion of citational practices.
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The group found the chat function quite useful throughout the week. Here on Friday morning they discuss articles that were influential to David Hollingshead (upper middle row left) and Faith Barter (bottom row left).
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At the end of the week, the group gathered one last time to reflect and share stories.