The DePaul English Department has a new faculty member this fall, Prof. Marcy J. Dinius. Prof. Dinius specializes in antebellum American literature, with interests in American literature from seventeenth century to the present; African American literature and culture; visual, print, and material cultures; Atlantic and hemispheric studies; critical and cultural theory; history of the book and publishing; material culture; history of photography; film and film theory.

Dinius received her PhD in English from Northwestern University in 2003.  She has held post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania and the Library of Congress and will be on research leave for a National Endowment for the Humanities post-doctoral fellowship at the Library Company of Philadelphia from January-May 2012.

Dinius’s first book, The Camera and the Press:  American Visual and Print Culture in the Age of the Daguerreotype, is forthcoming in Spring 2012 from the University of Pennsylvania Press. She will be researching her next book on radical African American print culture at the Library Company.  An article from this project was published earlier this year in PMLA (“‘Look!!  look!!! at this!!!!’:  The Radical Typography of David Walker’s Appeal.” PMLA 126:1 (January 2011): 55-72).

This fall, Dinius will be teaching one graduate class, “Writing Black Radicalism” (ENG 469). Look for more of her classes in 2012-13 after she returns from research leave, when she hopes to offer some grad courses on American Renaissance and nineteenth-century African American literature.

We are all very excited to have Prof. Dinius as a part of our department. Please join me in welcoming her to DePaul.

One more announcement about an upcoming literary event:

The Guild Literary Complex’s 2nd Annual Benefit, “Changes,” is TOMORROW, Tuesday Sept. 13, and they are extending the R.S.V.P. deadline as well as offering special $20 student tickets at the door with a student ID. The Guild Literary Complex is a community-based literary organization which presents diverse, divergent, and emerging voices through innovative programs including performances and readings. Since 1989, they have hosted eclectic, often provocative programs like the Palabra Pura bilingual poetry series and the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. The Guild has established itself, in the words of the Illinois Arts Council, as Chicago’s premiere literary center, and has also been selected twice as a model literary center by the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Guild Literary Complex’s 2nd Annual Benefit will take place from 6:30-9:00 pm at Lincoln Hall. The event features appetizers, cocktails, mingling and a discussion on artistic practice by guests Michael Warr and Richard Hunt. This is a great way to mix and mingle with members of the greater Chicago Literary Community and witness a wonderful presentation by the special guests. Visit http://www.guildcomplex.org as well as http://www.facebook.com/groups/61451574441/ for more information.