The Ferrum College English program is hosting a reading by Cameron MacKenzie titled “Mythic Revolution: Pancho Villa and Historical Fiction” on September 25, 2018 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on the main floor of the Stanley Library in the LeAP Studio. The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the reading, provided by Ferrum College’s Dining Services.
“I am not the revolution…I am the instrument of another hand.” So does Francisco “Pancho” Villa begin the tale of his journey from thief to warlord to the revolutionary leader of northern Mexico. By turns a confession and an act of seduction, The Beginning of His Excellent and Eventful Career chronicles a country remaking itself through blood and violence, giving shape to the boy who would dare to step from anonymity into power through the inexorable force of his will.
Cameron MacKenzie’s work has appeared in Able Muse, The Rumpus, SubStance and The Michigan Quarterly Review, among other journals. His collection of essays, Badiou and American Modernist Poetics, was published in August 2018 by Palgrave Macmillan. He teaches English at Ferrum College and reviews books for Roanoke Review. His novel, The Beginning of His Excellent and Eventful Career, chronicling the rise to power of Pancho Villa, was published in March 2018 by MadHat Press.
MacKenzie’s description of his creative writing and research process will include primary resources, presentation slides, and excerpted readings from the novel.
Dr. Tina Hanlon (far right) with the Appalachian Cluster 2016 field trip to Saltville, St. Paul, Dante, Pound, and Wise, VA as well as Lynch, KY.
Tina Hanlon, Ferrum College professor of English, has been selected as the post-secondary educator for the 2018 Stephen L. Fisher Excellence in Teaching Award. She will be recognized during the 41st annual Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) conference in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 6, 2018.
According to the ASA website, the Stephen L. Fisher Award for Excellence in Teaching* honors individuals dedicated to intellectual rigor and pedagogical integrity in constructing and delivering inclusive knowledge about Appalachia and its people. Selection of the award winners was made by the ASA Education Committee, who reviewed the pool of nominated candidates.
Hanlon has been teaching British and American literature at Ferrum College since 1992 and focuses on world folktales and writings for children and adolescents. Her courses also include professional writing, composition, and linguistics. She received her B. A. in English from Gettysburg College and both her M. A. and Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University.
Hanlon created Ferrum’s Appalachian Literature course and is one of three Ferrum College professors who teach the Appalachian Cluster, a unique learning community that examines modernization in Appalachia through a group of courses in English, sociology, and environmental science. Her faculty profile is at www.ferrum.edu/artsandhumanities/faculty/tina-hanlon/.
*The award was established in 2013 by the ASA Education Committee chaired by Carol Baugh. In 2015, the award was named in honor of Stephen L. Fisher, professor of political science from 1971 to 2006 at Emory & Henry College, where he helped create an Appalachian studies minor, the Appalachian Center for Community Service, and an inter-disciplinary service-learning major in Public Policy & Community Service. Fisher was the 1999 Carnegie Foundation Outstanding Baccalaureate College U.S. Professor of the Year and won numerous additional teaching awards.
