The WWU English Community Celebrates a Year of Outstanding Accomplishments

by Jenny Forsythe
June 6, 2024

WWU English Faculty gather in June of 2024 to celebrate a year of accomplishments

The WWU English Community enjoyed many noteworthy accomplishments during the 2023-2024 academic year. This alumni newsletter includes riveting roundups of alumni news from across six decades of Western alums and of faculty news from this academic year. You can also find profiles of new faculty members and touching tributes to faculty members who retired this year. Jane Wong penned a fond farewell to Brenda Miller, and Donna Qualley enjoys two tributes, one from colleague Dawn Dietrich and another from colleague Nancy Johnson.

You can also read highlights from Department programming here. They include news of Professor Alassane Abdoulaye Dia’s time as Visiting Professor in the English Department, of the long-anticipated launch of a new major in Film and Media Studies, and of two new creative writing scholarships generously endowed by Professor Brenda Miller. 

Please enjoy this newsletter, and please don’t hesitate to reach out to Prof. Jenny Forsythe at jenny.forsythe@wwu.edu with any corrections or new contributions. 

Gratitude for Graduates

Every year English graduates enter many fields: they become teachers, lawyers, doctors, community organizers, curators, editors, publishers, agents, art program directors, screenwriters, film directors, game designers, reviewers, essayists, novelists, scholars, poets, environmentalists, publicists, historians, musicians, and mountain climbers. They generously offer us their hard-won knowledge.

Whatever endeavor has engaged you, all of you are contributing to our global social, political, and cultural conversation. Thank you!