Greetings! 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 happy holiday ahead!
—Kate McCahill, Department Chair, English and Communications
Departmental Updates, Projects, and Initiatives
This fall, Austin Eichelberger, English faculty, and Val Nye, library director, again presented The Writing Generation, a series of literary events spotlighting diverse, powerful voices in writing today. The fall program showcased three writers from around the nation: Chip Livingston, Rowena Alegría, and James Thomas Stevens.
Dr. Joseph Klemens, English faculty, has completed his pilot of our department’s bilingual Composition 1 offering. Joseph designed this pioneering class to support language development alongside critical thinking, information literacy, and effective communication. The course will be offered again this spring; Joseph will be teaching an online asynchronous iteration, ENGL 1110-SP1, beginning January 20.
Sarah Hood, Reference and Instruction Librarian, has completed the fall pilot of Library Studies 1111: Intro to Information Literacy in an Electronic Environment. This new course focuses on digital, media, and news literacies as well as how to use and navigate Artificial Intelligence (AI). Sarah will be teaching the course again this spring: LIBR 1111-D1 begins February 2 as an online-asynchronous class.
This fall, English and Communications launched our new Technical and Professional Writing certificate. This practical credential combines English and Communications coursework with electives in business, legal studies, marketing, psychology, and more. The certificate delivers the nuanced communication skills many applicants lack in an increasingly AI-saturated world.
Our department chair, Kate McCahill, presented a report to the SFCC Governing Board on October 8 describing the English department’s success rates in recent semesters. Since removing prerequisites and archiving remedial courses in 2022, enrollment in both Composition 1 and 2 has grown by 35%, and completions have risen 24% and 36%, respectively. We’ve also seen increased participation among students under 25 and strong gains in completion rates for both male and female students.
Faculty Accomplishments and Achievements
Genevieve Betts, English faculty, published two poems, “What Is Seen from the Inside” and “Whatever Remains,” in the newest issue of Black Lily. Genevieve’s personal essay, “My Deaf Month,” is forthcoming in Kaleidoscope.
Bethany Carson, English faculty, is in her fourth and final year of law school and will be graduating in May. She recently competed her thesis, entitled “Engendering Domestic Equity: A Proposal to Monetize Invisible Labor Through Child Support Calculations,” and is currently submitting it to law reviews and policy journals for publication.
English faculty member David Joplin’s poem, “On First Reading Wordsworth,” appeared in the Spring 2025 edition of the Front Range Review. Joplin’s poems, “To a Mouse” and “Whales,” will appear in the Spring 2026 edition of the literary journal County Lines.
Joseph Klemens debuted his first solo exhibition, Hour of Departure, at NMHU’s Ray Drew Gallery. Joseph will deliver his talk, “Paula Rego’s Visual Retelling of Literature,” at the New Directions in the Humanities conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
Kate McCahill, English faculty, has advanced in rank and is now full professor of English.
Best wishes for 2026 from English and Communications!
