https://www.muhlenberg.edu/academics/english/

Muhlenberg College English, Allentown, PA (2026)

05/28/2026

“Door Decor: Beyond the Office Thresholds” #4, Dr. Kucik

Dr. Emanuela Kucik’s office door is intentionally welcoming. With signs, quotations, affirmations, and reminders of justice and inclusion, the display reflects both her teaching philosophy and the values at the center of her work in human rights and genocide studies.

“I want students to know that they are not only welcome in my office,” Kucik explains, “but that I’m there to support them and to listen to them”. That message appears directly on the door itself: “EVERYONE is welcome here” (image #4), “When you enter this office you are the most important part of my day” (image #5), and a sign supporting first-generation students (image #6). Together, the pieces form what Kucik describes as “a quick summary” of both her work and her broader philosophy as a person and educator.

Some pieces connect directly to the courses she teaches. Most prominent is a poster featuring Ida B. Wells, alongside the quotation, “One had better die fighting injustice, than die like a dog or a rat in a trap” (image #7). Kucik calls Wells “one of my heroes”, describing her as “a pioneer of anti-lynching work” and “an incredible role model” whose work embodied the belief that “everyone was welcome” even in a time when many spaces excluded Black Americans. “It’s better to fight injustice than to sit there and let it happen”, she reflects. “That’s what the work I do is about.”

Other elements are more personal, but no less intentional. Kucik recalls paying close attention to professors’ doors during her own college years, finding comfort in signs, photos, and glimpses of personality outside their offices. “I remember immediately feeling at ease”, she says. “Like this professor is going to be a kind person.” That memory stayed with her, and now informs how she presents her own space to students.

The display has evolved over time, with different signs and quotes rotating in and out, though the central message remains consistent. “Everyone is equally welcome,” Kucik says. “People with disabilities, people of all backgrounds, identities, races, genders, and nationalities … that’s really important to me.”

The door is meant to humanize both the office and the person behind it. “Sometimes it can be overwhelming for students to meet with professors one-on-one.” Kucik notes. Sharing pieces of herself through the door— family references, meaningful quotations, welcoming signs, and reminders of justice —she hopes students feel more comfortable before they even step inside.

“I think office doors can be spaces through which we make people feel comfortable and welcome and safe,” she says.

This series has come to an end! I hope you all have enjoyed it; I sure have!

05/13/2026

“Door Decor: Beyond the Office Thresholds” #3, Dr. Scott

Dr. Grant Scott’s office door is less a single display than an accrual: comic strips, postcards, quotations, sketches, photocopies, newspaper clippings, literary jokes, political cartoons, and odd little fragments gathered over years and layered together piece by piece. “It is an accumulation of comic strips, and bumper stickers, and cutouts from newspapers, and postcards, and photocopies, and things that I was sent in the mail,” Dr. Scott explains, “all that speak to me, and speak about me; or, I would say, about my philosophy of education”.

Many of the pieces reflect Scott’s interest in language, literature, and humor. Some revolve around literary devices and wordplay; others are simply things that “caught [his] fancy.” A recurring thread across the door is education itself. One of Scott’s favorite pieces contains two contradictory quotations: “Education is wasted on the young” -Plato, and “Only the young are educable” –Coleridge (image #5). He returns to it because it captures what he describes as “my dilemma, or my psychology in a classroom”; the tension between feeling unable to reach certain students, and feeling, at other moments, that real learning is taking place.

Elsewhere, humor and absurdity dominate. There is a correction notice from The New York Times clarifying that a Brooklyn festival is called “The Great GoogaMooga,” not “The Great Googa Mooga” (image #6). Scott laughs at the sheer seriousness devoted to correcting such a ridiculous phrase. Nearby is a photograph of a dumpster in a junkyard sent by his brother from Tijuana reading “Dead Dogs Only” (image #7), which Scott describes as “quite awful, but very funny.”

Other pieces connect more directly to Scott’s academic and personal interests. A quotation from H.G. Wells: “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe” (image #8) reflects the educational theme running throughout the display. A postcard-sized image of Shakespeare and Co. bookstore in Paris includes a younger Scott standing outside the famous literary landmark (image #9) once frequented by figures such as James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Ezra Pound. There are also references to architecture and art history: a gargoyle from Notre Dame that Scott says “looks like he’s having a really bad day” (image #10), an abstract Kandinsky sketch composed of circles and geometric forms (image #11), and an image of Tom Tower at Oxford University (image #12), the structure that inspired part of Muhlenberg’s own architecture.

Though the door has evolved gradually over time, Scott admits it has not changed much in recent years. “I liked the door so much, and I liked the cartoons so much, that I didn’t want to replace them with newer ones,” he says. Unlike some office door decorations that continually expands to the surrounding walls, Scott’s has settled into something closer to a finished collage. Altogether, the door reads almost like a scrapbook of intellectual curiosity; equal parts literary, humorous, political, and personal. One of the accompanying photos even shows Dr. Scott turned away from the camera, playfully mirroring one of the figures taped to the door.

More features in the series to come. Stay tuned!

05/06/2026

“Guess the Quote” #5

“Of course it is happening inside your head, [name redacted from quote], but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

What is it from? | The answer will be revealed in the comments soon.
———

Lastly: Have a quote you’d like to see featured?
Submit it here: https://forms.gle/m8XdRZPs8cSLGFp59

04/29/2026

“Door Decor: Beyond the Office Thresholds” #2, Dr. Marsh

Dr. Alec Marsh’s office door reads as a portrait of sorts: a constellation of interests— “it’s baseball, it’s poetry, and my children”, as he puts it —built up gradually over decades.

The arrangement is not the result of a single plan. “I’ve been here ... 30 years,” Marsh explains. “They get torn, they fall off ... I replace them from time to time, or add something new.” The result is a living surface, shaped by time, memory, and ongoing interest.

At a glance, the door brings together an eclectic mix: poets he has studied and written about— Ezra Pound (image #4), Wallace Stevens, Seamus Heaney, Jay Wright (image #5) —alongside artists, musicians like Jimi Hendrix (image #6), and images tied to baseball, a long-standing passion. Many of the figures are not immediately recognizable, and that is partly the point. “It’s my opportunity to show people what the poets look like,” he notes.

Some pieces carry deeper personal resonance. A trompe l’oeil painting of a dollar bill (image #7) by Victor Dubreuil connects to Marsh’s early scholarly work on money and modern art. A Chinese inscription, Ezra Pound’s modernist motto, “新日日新” (transl. “Make it new, day by day, make it new”) (image #8), links his academic interests to a broader historical and philosophical tradition. And scattered among these are photographs from his own life: a picture of himself as a college freshman (image #9), an image of the Brunnenburg castle in the Italian Alps from the Italy MILA (image #10), and snapshots of literary figures who have visited campus through the Living Writers series.

Equally present are the handmade drawings and art at the bottom of the door (image #11), created by his children. These pieces are rotated and replaced over time: “they’re ... cute, ... they get worn out, and then I replace them”, reinforcing the sense of the door as something active and evolving, rather than fixed.

If there is a unifying idea behind the display, it is not a singular message but an invitation. “I want people to look at my door, and be interested enough to ask me questions”, Marsh says. In that sense, the door functions as a starting point— a way to spark conversation and curiosity —and less as a singular “statement”.

Asked what single piece he would keep if everything else had to go, Marsh offers a characteristically self-aware answer: the blue-footed b***y (image #12), a small image of a seabird sent by a friend when he first began teaching. “That’s the essence of me,” he jokes, “a dumb bird.”

Still, taken as a whole, the door does offer a clear impression. “It does give a sense of who I am, I suppose”, Marsh reflects. And in its mix of literature, art, sport, and family, that sense emerges from the accumulation of images — an evolving reflection of a life spent thinking, teaching, and remaining, above all, interested.

More features in the series to come. Stay tuned!

04/21/2026

“Honors Thesis Presentations” Event

Recently, Muhlenberg’s Department of English Literatures and Creative Writing hosted its Honors Thesis Presentations, featuring four senior students presenting the culmination of their research and creative work.

Creative Writing presenters, Cheyanne Beaumont and Julia Lennon, shared work from their works-in-progress. Beaumont’s poetry investigated memory, family, and identity through vivid, grounded imagery, moving between personal history and broader social realities, with parts of some poems read aloud in distinct regional accents. Lennon presented a chapter from “The Illness”, a dystopian novel-in-progress that uses a regimented society as a metaphor for OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder).

On the Literature side, Mina Choi and Amy Swartz offered critical analyses with close reading and interdisciplinary thinking. Choi examined the relationship between poetry and visual art in William Carlos Williams’s “Jersey Lyric”, showing how artistic choices shape perception and meaning. Swartz’s project explored questions of community, accessibility, and identity in Appalachian le***an memoirs, considering how physical and social boundaries influence belonging and visibility.

Across all four presentations, a shared theme emerged: the tension between structure and freedom; whether in poetic form, social systems, artistic influence, or lived experience. Each project, in its own way, asked how individuals navigate, resist, or reinterpret the frameworks around them.

The event offered insight into how their ideas developed and how their research evolved. Together, the presentations showed the depth, ambition, and originality of student scholarship and storytelling within the department.

04/14/2026

“Exaptation: Or, What Star Trek, Supernatural, Dinosaurs, Birds, Contemporary Poets, Evolutionary Biologists, Wordsworth, Virgil and the Iliad Have in Common” Event

Recently, Muhlenberg’s English Department hosted this year’s John D. M. Brown Lecture, featuring poet and critic Stephanie Burt. The talk explored the concept of “exaptation”; the idea that something originally developed for one purpose can be reused, adapted, or transformed for another.

Throughout the lecture, Burt drew connections across a wide range of fields, from evolutionary biology to literature to pop culture. Moving between classical works and contemporary examples, she showed how ideas, forms, and structures get reshaped and repurposed in new contexts.

The talk highlighted how creativity often works through transformation, rather than invention. Just as biological traits can evolve to serve new functions, stories and artistic forms can be taken up in new ways, gaining new meanings while still carrying traces of their origins.

Overall, the lecture offered a compelling way to think across disciplines, encouraging us to notice unexpected connections and reconsider how change happens over time. Burt’s talk brought them together through the shared idea of adaptation, between literature, science, and culture; reminding us that some of the most interesting innovations come from reimagining what already exists.

04/06/2026

“Trans/formative Works: The Poetics of Fandom” Event

Recently, Muhlenberg’s Center for Ethics hosted “Trans/formative Works: The Poetics of Fandom”, featuring a poetry reading by Dr. Stephanie Burt, followed by a panel with Dr. Burt, along with Dr. Francesca Coppa and Dr. Rebecca Tushnet, two of the founders of Archive of Our Own (AO3). The event investigated how fandom, poetry, and storytelling intersect through the idea of “Transformation”.

Dr. Burt’s reading set the vibe for the evening, with humor and pop-culture. Drawing on references from Frozen to the X-Men, her poems revealed how identity and meaning are constantly reshaped, mirroring the event’s central idea on transformation.

The panel discussion expanded on this idea of transformation, focusing on fandom as a space for participation, rather than passive consumption. Dr. Tushnet pointed to the legal concept of “transformative works”, drawn from a 1992 Supreme Court case, describing works that introduce “a new meaning or message”, while Dr. Coppa framed storytelling itself as an ongoing process of retelling: “I want it again, and I want it differently”. Together, they stressed how platforms like Archive of Our Own were created to protect and support that kind of creativity, and how AO3 is supported through an extensive legal structure.

Rather than treating art as something to consume, the event heightened the importance of making; of entering the conversation yourself. “I don’t want to be a spectator in my own life”, Dr. Coppa remarked. AO3, and fandom more broadly, offers exactly that: a space where anyone can create, share, and take part in shaping culture. Overall, the event offered a compelling reminder of the value of participating in, rather than simply consuming, creative work, and how creativity can be shared, reshaped, and made accessible to all.

04/01/2026

“Guess the Quote” #4

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

What is it from? | The answer will be revealed in the comments soon.
———

Lastly: Have a quote you’d like to see featured?
Submit it here: https://forms.gle/m8XdRZPs8cSLGFp59

03/17/2026

What do Star Trek, Supernatural, dinosaurs, birds, contemporary poets, evolutionary biologists, Wordsworth, Virgil, and the Iliad have in common?? “Exaptation”!

Join us on March 18th, at 7pm, in Moyer Miller Forum, for Stephanie Burt’s John D. M. Brown Lecture, “Exaptation”.

03/13/2026

What can poetry tell us about fandom? Join us on March 17th at 7pm in the Moyer Miller Forum for a poetry reading by influential trans poet and critic Stephanie Burt, followed by a panel discussion with Archive of Our Own (AO3) founders Francesca Coppa and Rebecca Tushnet!

Muhlenberg College English

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