Introduction
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Educational Background
Schedule

Carl Selkin
Dean

Office: Music 229
Phone: (323) 343-4301
FAX: (323) 343-6440
Email: cselkin@calstatela.edu

INTRODUCTION

I joined the English Department faculty at Cal State L.A. in 1970. After a stint in France as a visiting professor, I served as associate chair of my department and then as chair. In 1994 I was named acting dean, and July 1, 1996 I was appointed dean of the School of Arts and Letters. I have wide-ranging interests in the arts and in the humanities. I have always enjoyed introducing the campus to new experiences, Northwest Coast dancers and carvers, Tarahumara Indians from Mexico, artists from Laos, and poets/authors from everywhere. I remember families coming to campus to pose for photos with Octavio Paz, and students presenting their poems to Gwendolyn Brooks. Some great, often heated, discussions at lectures distinguish our university from many other institutions. At one of the Kubal Memorial lectures the conversation with Marjorie Perloff got quite passionate. Cal State L.A. has always been a great center of ever-expanding horizons--for faculty and students alike.

TEACHING INTERESTS

My teaching goals have always been the same--to inspire my students, and my self, to ask more interesting questions. I stole that from e.e. cummings, without apologies. My field is British literature of the Renaissance and seventeenth century but I like to play in other fields as well--music, visual and performing arts, film. I also have an interest in Canadian studies that shows up in various courses I teach, including Canadian literature and film.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I am trying to put together a coherent manuscript based around revisions of essays having to do with relationships between words and things in literature. The scope is actually a bit larger than "things" suggests, since I am basing the unifying theme on the Latin dictum, Res non verba, where "res" can mean "things" or "deeds." Tune in later for further details.

Representative Professional Activities

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

Ph.D. English 1971
SUNY