English is said to overlap with many other disciplines: American studies, theater, linguistics, and more. But how about psychology? Maybe this would not be your first connection, and even Marshall Alcorn is not the first to claim that the two subjects go together. Our Director of the English Undergraduate Studies, Director of Human Sciences, and popular critical methods professor is also a psychoanalyst. He notes that reconciling the two fields is “challenging.”

Psychoanalysis has always been an interest for Alcorn. As an undergraduate, he volleyed from major to major, eventually graduating with a B.A. in psychology because it allowed him to graduate early. Graduating early was imperative because Alcorn was drafted, but he applied for the Peace Corps before his number was drafted and instead of being sent off to be in the military he was sent to India. His experience in the Peace Corps has been a defining experience in his life. “We had a severe drought in my last year and it was a traumatic situation for me to be in,” he said.

When Alcorn returned to the United States, he found himself at a loss for what to do. For a year he worked at a nursery in Oregon and applied to graduate schools. The first program he found combined psychology and world literature, but eventually he transferred to Vanderbilt to get his M.A. in English. From there on out he focused mostly on English, finally getting his PhD at University of Texas at Austin. Psychology was still very prominent in Alcorn’s work, however. Although he admits that as an undergraduate he thought Freud was “insane,” Alcorn later found significance in his work Mourning and Melancholy, leading him to his dissertation. He said, “My dissertation was on narcissism. Narcissism is related to loss and denial.”

Because of Alcorn’s work in psychology, he was introduced to clinicians when he first moved to DC. Thus Alcorn’s dual life in psychoanalysis and English really started. In 1994 he co-founded, with Mark Bracher, The Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, which continues to publish the journal Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society. In 2002 he began psychoanalytic training with the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and graduated in 2006. He describes the journal as one that “explores these issues [psychoanalysis and culture/society]. It represents a community of scholars that publishes a synthesis of these issues.”

Alcorn’s involvement in the field does not stop here. Together with two psychiatrists, Arthur Blank Jr. and Anton Trinidad, as well as Catherine Erskine, a board member and Treasurer of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis, he is organizing the Washington Trauma Conference. The conference runs from March 4-6 in the Marvin Center. With various speakers including Bruce Perry, Howard Steele, and other famous analysts, the conference intends to explore the effect of trauma on people. Trauma is, “these catastrophic events that have tragic effects on people. It does not matter what your politics are, everyone responds to trauma,” said Alcorn. The conference hopes to look at trauma from a different perspective, focusing on psychological narratives.

Clearly Alcorn is looking forward to the conference. He and a few of his English colleagues will be involved in the actual panels. Jane Shore will talk about trauma and creative writers in a plenary panel and Evelyn Schreiber will talk about her research on trauma in Toni Morrison. For his own panel, Alcorn will “be representing the thinking in humanities departments on trauma.” The conference will potentially produce a book. “We hope to collect some of the essays,” he said. Even if we do not get a chance to read the essays, we look forward to the conference!

Gayle Wald wants you to know that her office door is always open. As the new department chair after January 1, 2010, Wald hopes to bridge the imaginary gap between faculty and students. “I want to engage the undergraduate majors. To give them a feeling of belonging to something through events and enhanced advising,” she said. “It’s also important that we do what we can to foster a graduate student community.”

Wald only sees herself as building off of an already strong department. “I’m not coming in with an agenda. We’re in a good place right now. The faculty is really strong and the student satisfaction is high,” she said. Yet changing leadership is vital to a department, she said, “It’s good to have new ideas and new leadership.” As the deputy chair for the past three years Wald has been acting almost as a “vice president” as she puts it, mostly working with promotions of faculty.

Now as the new department chair, she sees it as her time to help the people who have helped her all along. “I have been here since 1995,” she said. “This department has been really supportive and I have respect for my colleagues. It’s nice to have the opportunity to give back and be in the position to give opportunities to faculty members.” Wald is aware the job will have its challenges, but she is eager to work with everyone.

One if Wald’s duties will be keeping the faculty happy. “We have an incredibly ambitious research active faculty. So I will try to provide resources for the faculty to pursue that research,” she said. This new administrative position does not mean that Wald will be absent from the classroom. Department chairs typically teach undergraduates every year through the English 40W courses such as Jeffrey Cohen’s Myths of Britain and Wald’s eventual Literature of the Americas course.

Though Wald hopes to see students outside of the classroom, as mentioned above, she intends to increase the interaction between students and the department. Wald believes many students do not realize there is a very welcoming intellectual niche within the department. She said, “One thing that disappoints me is when I see potential English majors who want to transfer. It is often because they do not have the intellectual cohort they need.”

Although she will do her best to curb the intellectual isolation, Wald also emphasizes that students need to be proactive as well. “Students under use professors as resources. They seem to be intimidated and shy, but they do not need a reason to come to office hours,” she said. However professors are not the only resource in a departmental niche. “Students often are the best advisers to other students,” she said. “I advise students to talk to friends they trust.”

Wald herself found an intellectual cohort like the one she describes during graduate school at Princeton. “There was a lot of intellectual energy towards black culture so there was a cohort of graduate students interested in the same things,” she said. This lead Wald to her current research on Black culture studies, a topic she says bridges English and American Studies. Currently she is on sabbatical to research her new book on a significant black television program, “Soul!,” on PBS from 1968-73. “It was a groundbreaking black variety show. It was broadcast at a time when there was few opportunities for black thinkers to appear on TV,” she said. The project naturally developed after she finished her book on Rosetta Tharpe and has been captivating her interests ever since.

Though Wald may not be in the office right now, we look forward to seeing her next semester. And we hope to see you at one of her many department events!