The holidays are upon us, and the SFCC English and Communications departmental winter
newsletter is here. Please read on for December updates and our faculty’s recent
accomplishments. Wishing you and yours a safe and pleasant holiday ahead—Kate
McCahill, Department Chair, English and Communications.
Departmental Updates, Projects, and Initiatives
This fall, our department again presented The Writing Generation, a series of literary events
spotlighting diverse and powerful voices in writing today. Produced by Austin Eichelberger,
English faculty, and Val Nye, Library Director, the series showcased three writers this fall
from around the nation: Carla Crudijo, Kasia Merrill, and Jake Skeets.
We’re excited to welcome a new internship partner: Pasatiempo and the Santa Fe New
Mexican will be accepting PILAS student interns from SFCC’s Creative Writing program
starting this spring. Our existing partners include Southwest Contemporary, the Santa Fe
Reporter, and the Santa Fe Writers Project. Our internships give students course credit
towards their degree, a bit of income, and valuable hands-on experience in publishing,
journalism, editing, marketing, and communications.
We’ll be oVering a bilingual section of ENGL 1110: Composition 1 starting next fall!
Developed by Joseph Klemens, this pioneering English/Spanish oVering will focus on
empowering bilingual students with tailored curriculum designed to support language
development alongside critical thinking, information literacy, and eVective
communication.
We partnered with the library to introduce a new course to SFCC’s curriculum: Library
Studies 1111: Intro to Information Literacy in an Electronic Environment. The course, taught
by SFCC Librarian Sarah Hood, will become an elective for students pursuing Creative
Writing credentials, and will focus on digital, media, and news literacies as well as
navigating and harnessing AI technologies.
We have proposed a new Technical and Professional Writing certificate, which we’ll present
before Curriculum Committee early in the spring semester. This exciting oVering combines
English and Communications coursework with electives in business, legal studies,
marketing, psychology, and more. Our goal is to provide a robust, practical writing
credential for students entering a range of industries, from STEM to business to law and
beyond.
The data is in: Our department’s eVorts to streamline course oVerings in English—and
matriculate more students through college-level writing courses—are showing major signs
of success. The number of students of color enrolled in Composition 1 this fall has more than doubled since 2022, and the number of students overall who pass this important
class has doubled, too.
Our department chair, Kate McCahill, collaborated with Library Director Val Nye to present
a series of informative panels about AI during convocation week this past fall. The series,
which focused on ethical and academic quandaries surrounding AI use and adoption,
featured the perspectives and experiences of numerous SFCC leaders.
Faculty Accomplishments and Achievements
SFCC English faculty Genevieve Betts, Austin Eichelberger, Joseph Klemens, Jared Valdez,
and CNM Professor Tammy Wolf had their panel, “Using Open Educational Resources in
Literature and Creative Writing Courses,” accepted by the Association of Writers & Writing
Programs, an organization that hosts North America’s largest literary conference each year.
The group will be presenting their panel at the 2025 AWP Conference, which will be held in
Los Angeles this coming March.
Deborah Begel interviewed Syrian clarinet player and composer Kinan Azmeh and Mexican
singer and composer Magos Herrera for “Classical Explorations” on KSFR this fall. In early
December, she will interview violinist and producer Johnny Gandelsman, who was recently
named a MacArthur Fellow. All three are featured in Santa Fe Pro Musica concerts this fall.
Genevieve Betts had two ekphrastic poems, “Operating Theater” and “The Threads,”
accepted by Unleash Lit. They will be published in January of 2025.
Joseph Klemens had three paintings included in the Eleventh Annual New Mexico Painters
Exhibition at NMHU’s Kennedy Gallery.
