Lucy Biederman‘s The Walmart Book of the Dead is a finalist for the Foreward Book of the Year (in the Fantasy category).

Barbara Burgess-Van Aken‘s article, “Contexts of Fear: Edward Ravenscroft’s Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus” was recently published in the March Bulletin de Société Française Shakespeare.

Cara Byrne is the 2018 recipient of the Children’s Literature Association’s Judith Plotz Emerging Scholar Award for her article “Every Tongue Silenced So One Voice Resounds: Redefining Zora Neale Hurston’s Legacy in Adapted Picture Books,” published in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.

Michael Clune‘s essay, “Judgment and Equality,” is forthcoming from Critical Inquiry.

Sarah Gridley has a poem forthcoming in the climate change issue of the UK journal Magma.

John Higgins has won the WRC Excellence in Consulting Award which recognizes outstanding writing instruction for students of the University and exemplary service to the Writing Resource Center during the academic year.

Denna Iammarino discussed her work preserving and transcribing John Derricke’s “The Image of Irelande, with a Discoverie of Woodkarne,” a 16th-century manuscript, at a Freedman Fellow Showcase in March.

Megan Jewell presented a paper entitled “Categorical Engagements: Innovative Women’s Poetics and Writing About Writing” at the National University of Ireland in Galway’s “Academic Writing and Innovation” Conference.

Kurt Koenigsberger gave a conference paper, “Allegorical Vehicles: Format and Passages in Forster,” at the 2018 International Conference on Narrative, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Dave Lucas will be speaking on August 3 as part of the City Club of Cleveland’s “Friday Forum.”

William Marling accepted the Nancy Dasher Prize on April 14, at Ohio University, awarded to the best scholarly book published between 2014-2017 by faculty at an Ohio English Department.

Luke Reader‘s article about the crisis over antisemitism in the British Labour Party was published by the UK think tank Progress.

Martha Schaffer co-led a Special Interest Group for Directed Self-Placement at the March 2018 College Composition and Communications Conference (CCCC) in Kansas City, Missouri.

On April 17, James Sheeler provided the formal introduction for author and New Yorker staff writer David Grann, at the Maltz Center, as part of the Cuyahoga County Public Libraries Writers Center Stage Series.

Robert Spadoni is one of this year’s winners of the Carl F. Wittke Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. The Wittke is presented each year to two Case Western Reserve University faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in undergraduate teaching.

Thrity Umrigar has been named a Distinguished University Professor. Of the 37 faculty members who have been honored since this designation was established, Thrity is only the third from the Humanities and the first from English.

Maggie Vinter was a guest on The Sound of Ideas discussing the art of dying.

Faculty of the Past: Robert LeFevre Shurter

Robert LeFevre Shurter
b. 22 October 1907, Ellenville, NY
d. November 1974, Sarasota, FL

Robert Shurter received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Amherst College in 1928 and his Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1929. After a brief period at Chase National Bank in New York City, Shurter began pursuing his PhD at Western Reserve University and worked as an Instructor in English at Case Institute of Technology starting in 1930. He completed his PhD at WRU in 1936, with a dissertation on “The Utopian Novel in America 1865-1900.”

In 1937, he was promoted at Case Tech to Assistant Professor of English, and in 1940, to Associate Professor of English. In 1938, Shurter left Case for a semester to work as an Exchange Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 1942 to 1945, he was first the Assistant Director and then the Director of the Case Engineering, Science, Management War Training Program, which trained over 13,000 men and women for positions in industry. In 1946, Shurter became Professor and Head of the Department of Language and Literature at Case Tech, and in 1949, he was named Director of the new Division of Humanities and Social Studies, which represented the combined sum of the Department of Language and Literature and the Department of Social Studies. From 1957 to 1959, Shurter was again Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1959, he received the Meritorious Award of the Case Alumni Association. He was Secretary of Faculty at Case from 1959 to 1963.

After Shurter resigned from his post as Head of the Department he took a year’s sabbatical leave for travel and study. His travel plans came to an abrupt halt, however, after he and his wife were in a hotel fire in Stalheim, Norway. Mrs. Shurter was badly injured and hospitalized. After several weeks, they were able to return to Cleveland, and Shurter resumed his teaching. After his retirement in 1971, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of English at the new Case Western Reserve.

Shurter’s field of academic specialization was American literature, but he also taught courses in English Composition, Types of Literature, Contemporary Literature, Professional Writing, and others. He devoted much of his time at Case to planning and developing a program of general studies in an engineering institution, with the aim of including more instruction in the humanities and social studies in the engineering program. He served as the faculty advisor to the Case Tech student newspaper for 18 years. In 1958, he became the first faculty member ever chosen to give the Commencement Address at Case. In 1965, the Robert L. Shurter Prize was established by the Class of 1915, to be awarded each year to a senior for outstanding achievement and leadership in extra curricular activities. The Shurter Prize continues to be offered through the School of Engineering at CWRU.

In addition to his work at Case, Shurter served as a consultant on business communications for various companies in the Cleveland area, including the American Steel and Wire Company, Standard Oil Company of Ohio, and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, to name a few.

Robert Shurter married Mae Frances Porter in 1928. They had two children, Peter and Marilyn. Shurter and his wife, who lived to be 106 years old, are both buried in Fantinekill Cemetery in Ellenville, New York, the town in which Shurter was born.

Shurter’s publications focused mainly on American literature, effective business writing, and the humanities in engineering education. His most notable publications include The Utopian Novel in America (1936, dissertation), Argument (1939), Effective Letters in Business (1949), Written Communication in Business (1959), and A Concise Grammar Reference, A Guide to Good English (1959). He also edited Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward for the Modern Library (1951), and published many scholarly articles and encyclopedia entries.

Entry by Annika Weder, from records in University Archives, CWRU, and from public documents.
Photo courtesy University Archives, CWRU.