UM scholars explore literary connections with George Washington University
The University of Macau’s (UM) Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) has signed an agreement on teaching mobility with George Washington University (GWU) in the United States. One of the outcomes of this agreement is the teaching staff exchanges in Portuguese and English, with incoming staff initially specialising in English literature. In September 2016, the Department of English welcomed Prof David McAleavey to teach Creative Writing and American Poetry for the semester; he will be followed from January 2017 to May 2017 by Prof Patty Chu, one of the key figures in Asian-American literary scholarship. To mark the beginning of this series of exchanges, the Department of English hosted a round-table symposium on ‘Synergies in English Literature Teaching and Research’. Prof McAleavey and Prof Chu were joined by two more junior members of the GWU faculty, Assistant Professor Jennifer Chang, a rising Asian-American poet; and Daniel DeWispelare, a specialist in the interaction between literary texts and varieties of national and world English. The purpose of this symposium was to add value to the teaching exchanges by exploring shared teaching and research interests. During the symposium, UM and GWU faculty discussed their educational and research interests, and identified potential areas of collaboration, such as Asian-American literary research, Creative Writing pedagogy, Language and Poetics, and World English. The aim was to begin a series of conversations which will develop over time and which may result in the sharing of best practices in teaching and, potentially, joint research projects. The GWU faculty also took the opportunity to meet with postgraduate students in the Department of English. Jennifer Chang was interviewed by MA students for an online video database project run by Prof Glenn Timmermans, which aims to develop a resource that will be launched later this year. The visiting scholars also took the opportunity to look around the sights of Macao and to sample a wide range of cuisine found in the city. The symposium and the advent of the teaching mobility exchange together mark a key moment in the development of literary teaching and scholarship in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Scholars from UM and GWU look forward to deepening their relationships in the future.