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English and Comparative Literature 225 Anniversary Timeline

1930 - Orpah Cummings (1908-1994) Joins the Department as Secretary

Department Chair George Raleigh Coffman appointed 22-year-old Orpah Cummings as departmental secretary. The niece of Inez Koonce Stacy, advisor to UNC’s women students, Cummings was likely the only staff member for the entire department at that time. Much admired for calmly and efficiently handling departmental business, she retired in 1970 after 40 years of service. MacMillan states that Cummings was “[o]ne of the best things that ever happened to the Department” (36), “doing the work of three people, never complaining, never ruffled, always there” (37).

Though Orpah Cummings was not the first departmental secretary, her predecessors are unknown. Even so, no history of the department is complete without acknowledging the essential and daily support provided by staff members. For a list of departmental staff members who succeeded Orpah Cummings and assisted students and faculty members in their work, please click on this link.

SOURCES

Horne, Linda, and Jennifer Washington. List of Departmental Staff Members since 1970. July 27, 2021. TS.

MacMillan, Dougald. English at Chapel Hill: 1795-1969. Department of English, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1970. 36-37. HathiTrust Digital Library, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001260393&view=1up&seq=7.

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Contents of this tag:
1. 1795, January 15 - University Opens On January 15, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill opens its doors. However, no students would arrive until mid-February. David Ker (1758-1805), a Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland, was the only professor teaching at the University and held the title of presiding professor, an equivalent to the president of the University. In April the faculty doubled with the addition of Charles Wilson Harris (1771-1804), a tutor of mathematics.
2. 1875, September 15 - The University Reopens with a College of Literature
3. 1796, July - David Ker (1758-1805) Resigns
4. 1818 - William Mercer Green (1798-1887) Graduates
5. 1844 - The University Magazine of 1844
6. 1996 - Mae Gwendolyn Henderson joins the Faculty
7. 1829 - George Moses Horton (born c. 1797) Publishes Poetry Collection
8. 1805 - Curriculum Changes Become Effective
10. 1826 - Caroline and Nicholas Hentz
12. 1795, December - Davie's Plan of Study Proposed
13. 1999 - María DeGuzmán joins the faculty In July 1999, María DeGuzmán (1964-) joins the faculty. Together with Tyler Curtain and Erin Carlston, the three bring the study and teaching of queer theory to the department. Additionally in that same year, DeGuzmán taught the first Department of English courses in Latina/o literature, photography, and film. Fall 1999 she establishes The UNC Latina/o Cultures Speakers Series and later, in 2004, The UNC Latina/o Studies Program, the first of its kind in the Southeast.
14. 1965 - Karen Lynn Parker (1943- ) Graduates
15. 1935 - Josefina Niggli
16. 1796 - The Preparatory School Established
17. 2020, February 12 - Greenlaw Gameroom Launches
18. 1864 - Edwin Wiley Fuller (1847-1876) Enrolls
19. 1795, February 2 - First Student Arrives On February 2 1795, the first student, James Hinton from Wilmington, North Carolina, arrives at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Two weeks later, Hinton is joined by Maurice Moore, Alfred Moore, Richard Eagles, John Taylor, William M. Sneed, Hutchins G. Burton, Francis Burton, and Robert H. Burton, Junior. By the end of the first year, the student body consisted of 41 young white men.
20. 1849 - Albert Micajah Shipp (1819-1887) Becomes Professor of English Literature
21. 2020, Spring - 2021, Fall - COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts UNC
22. 1927 - Construction of Wilson Library Begins
23. 1852, February - The North Carolina University Magazine Published A successor to The University Magazine of 1844, the student-led North Carolina University Magazine is published from February 1852 until May 1861. After the Civil War, it reappears as University Magazine but fails after seven issues. Revived in February 1882, it enjoyed uninterrupted success until June 1895. Revived again in November 1897, it continued publication under various titles and sponsorships until 1948, when it became the Carolina Quarterly.
24. 1920 - Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938) Graduates
25. 1856, December - Hildreth Hosea Smith (1820-1908) Becomes Professor of Modern Languages
26. 1918 - Frederick Koch (1877-1944) Founds the Carolina Playmakers
27. 1887 - Stephen B. Weeks (1865-1918) Receives First Earned Graduate Degrees in English
29. 1838, August - John DeBerniere Hooper (1811-1886) Becomes Professor of Latin and French Languages In August the professorship of modern languages, held by John DeBerniere Hooper since 1836, is retitled the professorship of French. The professorship of ancient languages is abolished and separate professorships are created for Greek and Latin. Hooper continues to teach both Latin and French for several years, although his teaching of French is occasionally assigned to other instructors whose tenure was usually short-lived.
32. 1951 - Harvey Beech (1924-2005), James L. Lassiter (1909-2003), J. Kenneth Lee (1923-2018), Floyd McKissick (1922-1991), and James Robert Walker (1924-1997 )
34. 1865, April 16 - May 2 - Chapel Hill Occupied Approximately 450 Union cavalry troops commanded by Gen. Smith Dykins Atkins (1835-1913) occupy Chapel Hill from April 16 to May 2. Classes are suspended and some of the officers are quartered in University dormitories. Atkins posts guards from the Ninth Michigan Regiment at all houses requesting protection, and Union Gen. Francis Blair (1821-1875), a UNC alumnus, sets a Federal guard over the University campus.
36. 1885 - Thomas Hume (1836-1912) Becomes Professor of English Language and Literature
38. 1927 - Howard Mumford Jones (1892-1980) Establishes The Bull’s Head Bookstore
39. 1945 - Two Japanese American students come to UNC after internment camps
40. 1795 - The Debating Society Founded
41. 1818 - Addition of Professorship of Rhetoric and Logic
42. 2018 - English and Comparative Literature Major Redesigned To reflect the variety of offerings within the department and provide students with an opportunity to customize their major, the curriculum was redesigned with six new concentrations: British and American literature; comparative and world literatures; creative writing; film studies; science, medicine, and literature; social justice and literature; writing, editing, and digital publishing. The new major also promotes the benefits of double majoring.
43. 2021 - 225th Celebration
44. 1921 - Paul Green (1894-1941) Graduates
45. 2015 - M.A. in Literature, Medicine, and Culture In 2015, the Department of English & Comparative Literature launches a new Masters program in English & Comparative Literature with a concentration in Literature, Medicine, and Culture alongside the HHIVE Lab, a health humanities research lab founded by Professors Jane Thrailkill and Jordynn Jack. Together, the LMC MA program and HHIVE Lab work closely with the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Social Medicine to offer an interdisciplinary curriculum in health humanities and support student and faculty research that combines humanities and health.
46. 1913 - Edward Kidder Graham (1876-1918) Becomes UNC President
47. 1947 - Jesse Rehder (1908-1967) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
48. 1914 - Edwin Greenlaw (1874-1931) Becomes Chair of the Department of English
49. 1979 - Thadious Davis (1944- ) Joins the Department of English Professors Thadious Davis together with Professor Trudier Harris, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. She is currently the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published extensively in African American literature and Southern literature focusing on race, region and gender.
51. 1962 - 1973 U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War Prompts Student Protests U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1954, when American advisors and military aid were sent to South Vietnam to support the government in its war against communist North Vietnam. President Kennedy increased the American military presence in 1962, and President Johnson escalated the war in the mid-1960s, sending hundreds of thousands of combat troops to support the South Vietnamese army. A growing anti-war movement and rising death tolls eventually led to a peace agreement between the U.S. and North Vietnam in January 1973. However, hostilities between North and South Vietnam continued until April 30, 1975. More than three million people, including 58,000 Americans, died over the course of the war, more than half of them Vietnamese civilians (Britannica).
52. 1931 - Charles Phillips Russell (1884-1974) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
53. 1905 - Louis Round Wilson (1876-1979) Receives English Department's Second Ph.D.
54. 1931 - Contempo Published; the Intimate Bookshop Opens
56. 2013 - Jane Austen Summer Program Inaugurated
57. 1924 - Department of Journalism Established Professor Louis Graves (1883-1965), who taught journalism courses in the Department of English, resigned in 1921 to found the Chapel Hill Weekly. He was succeeded by Professor Gerald Johnson (1890-1980), who became the first head of the Department of Journalism in 1924. The department would become the School of Journalism in 1950 and is currently known as the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.
58. 1969 - Blyden Jackson (1910-2000) Joins the Faculty Blyden Jackson, begins teaching in the English department. Professor Jackson was the first tenured Black faculty member at UNC, and developed and taught the first courses in African American literature at UNC. Additionally, he chaired the advisory committee overseeing the curricula that eventually became the Department of Afro and African American Studies. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School from 1973 to 1981, helping to recruit and retain Black graduate students and faculty members.
59. 1975, April - Women’s Studies Program Approved
60. 2003 - Randall Garrett Kenan (1963-2020) Joins the Faculty
62. 1897 - The Concept of a Major Introduced
63. 2004, September 20 - Latina/o Studies Program Founded The Latina/o Studies Program, the first program of its kind in the Southeast, is inaugurated on September 20. Professor María DeGuzmán (1964- ), who joined the faculty in July 1999, is the founding director of the program. The program, housed in the Department of English & Comparative Literature, offers undergraduate and graduate level classes across multiple departments and hosts an undergraduate minor, several speaker series, undergraduate and graduate symposia, instructional support for graduate students, working groups, a film database, and literary and cultural studies events.
65. 1893 - Shinzaburo Mogi
66. 1965 - The Writing Center Begins with English UNC institutes a temporary grade CC (composition condition), which prevents students from graduating until they complete English C, a tutorial, noncredit “review of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and composition” (Catalogue 1965-1966, 191). Seen as punitive, English C was discontinued in the 1980s, and the one-person Writing Laboratory became the Writing Center to help students with all elements of academic writing.
68. 1979 - Trudier Harris (1948- ) Joins the Department of English Professor Trudier Harris together with Professor Thadious Davis, who was hired in the same year, become the first Black women on the English faculty. Professor Harris remained with the department, with the exception of a brief stint at Emory University from 1993-1996, until her retirement from UNC in 2009. She held the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professorship of English from 1988-1993 and 1996-2009. The author and editor of 24 books and numerous articles, Harris has published widely on African American literature and folklore.
69. 1966 - Doris Betts (1932-2012) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
71. 1936 - A Handbook to Literature Published by Doubleday
72. 1946 - Katherine Kennedy Carmichael (1912-1982) Becomes Dean of Women
73. 1997 - SITES Launches
74. 2006 - The William Blake Archive Arrives at UNC
76. 1901 - Yackety Yack First Published
77. 1948 - The Carolina Quarterly Launches
78. 1955 - LeRoy Frasier (1937-2017), Ralph Frasier (1939?- ), and John Lewis Brandon (1938?-2018)
79. 1929 - Henry Owl (1897-1980) Graduates with an M.A.
80. 1980 - Erika Lindemann (1946- ) Becomes Director of Composition
81. 1998 - Rashmi Varma Joins the Faculty
82. 2008 - The Department of American Studies Formed The Curriculum in Folklore and the Curriculum in American Studies are merged to form the Department of American Studies. Professor Joy Kasson (1944- ) becomes the department’s first chair. The Department offers undergraduate majors and minors in five areas of study—American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Folklore Studies, Southern Studies, and Global American Studies—together with graduate degrees.
83. 1871, February 1 - The University Closes for Four Years
84. 1890 - The Hellenian First Published
85. 1949 - C. Hugh Holman (1914-1981) Joins the Department of English
86. 1957 - O.B. Hardison, Jr. (1927-1990) Joins the Department of English
87. 1996 - UNC Libraries Launches Documenting the American South
88. 1967 - Louis D. Rubin (1923-2013) Begins Teaching English
90. 1999 - Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture Established
91. 2008 - Beverly Taylor (1947- ) Becomes Chair of Department of English
93. 1967 - The First Film Course Offered The Department of English offers the first film course in the 1967-1968 academic year. English 42, “Movie Criticism,” cross-listed with RTVMP 42 in the Department of Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures, is taught by Professor Kimball King (1934-2019) and Martha Nell Hardy (1925-2005). Professor Howard Harper (1930-2019) begins teaching the course the following year as part of his regular assignment until his retirement.
94. 1973 - Cellar Door Established In 1973, Cellar Door, an undergraduate literary journal at Carolina, begins publication. Published each fall and spring in print and online, the magazine seeks to showcase undergraduate students’ outstanding poetry, prose, and art. Students can apply to join the reading staff, and creative writing faculty members such as Max Steele (1922-2005) and Randall Kenan (1963-2020) have served as judges for work submitted by UNC students. English Professor Michael McFee (1954- ) is currently the student advisor for the journal.
95. 1983 - Louis Rubin (1923-2013) Founds Algonquin Books
96. 1799 - Faculty Members Resign
97. 2011 - The Digital Innovation Lab Launches Established in 2011, the Digital Innovation Lab (DIL) aims to “integrate project-based, digital methodologies into humanities scholarship and to promote public humanities through digital innovation” (“Our History”). The DIL is a function of the Carolina Digital Humanities, a set of partnerships and programs promoting “innovation in digital teaching, research and outreach in the arts and humanities” (“About CDH/DIL”)
98. 1877 - The Summer Normal School Opens
99. 1963, June 26 - Speaker Ban Law Passes; Protests Ensue The Act to Regulate Visiting Speakers is adopted on June 26, 1963, and bars speakers on any UNC system campus who are members of the Communist Party, among other alleged activities. Students protested the so-called Speaker Ban Law and challenged it by inviting Frank Wilkinson and Herbert Aptheker to speak on campus in March 1966. Students listened as the speakers stood on the public sidewalk bordering McCorkle Place. A lawsuit, Dickson v. Sitterson, overturned the law in 1968.
100. 1968 - Daphne Athas (1923-2020) Begins Teaching Creative Writing
102. 1943 - Post-War Committee
103. 1986 - The Southern Folklife Collection Established The Southern Folklife Collection is created in 1986 by merging the UNC Folklore Archives, established by faculty members in the Curriculum in Folklore in 1968, and the John Edwards Memorial Collection, purchased in 1983. A component of the Manuscripts Department of the UNC-Chapel Hill University Library, the Southern Folklife Collection houses a remarkable collection of archival resources for the study of American folk music and popular culture.
104. 1877 - Modern Graduate Degrees Established
105. 1917-1918 - World War I
107. 1990 - Pamela Cooper Joins the Faculty
110. 1969 - Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Established In response to increased activism on the part of students, the Faculty Council voted to establish a curriculum in African studies in 1969 and a curriculum in African American studies in 1972. The curricula were merged in 1979 and became the Department of Afro and African-American Studies in 1997, renamed the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies in 2013. English Professor Trudier Harris (1948- ) chaired the curriculum from 1990-1992.
111. 1936 - Department of Dramatic Art
112. 1979 - English 131 Established
114. 1993 - Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program Established The Morgan Writer-in-Residence Program is established with Shelby Foote becoming its first writer-in-residence. In 2013 it became the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Program, and in 2016, the Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence program. The program brings “significant contemporary writers to campus to meet with students and faculty, to visit classes, and to give readings, talks, and symposia” (“Frank B. Hanes Writer-in-Residence”).
116. 2006 - The Department of English and Comparative Literature
118. 1886, October - The Shakespeare Club Founded
119. 1948 - David Henry Malone (1919-2003) Defends First Comparative Literature Dissertation
121. 1954 - The Honors Program Established
122. 1971 - Graduate Students Form the English Club
124. 1922 - Enrollments Increase to Over 2000 Students
125. 1966 - Curriculum in American Studies Established
126. 1971 - Leroy Martin (1943-1988) Earns Ph.D. in English
127. 1861, May 20 - North Carolina Secedes
130. 1930 - Orpah Cummings (1908-1994) Joins the Department as Secretary
131. 1972 - First Class on Women in Literature
132. 1972 - Patsy Brewington Perry (1933- ) Earns Ph.D. in English
135. 1915 - UNC Enrollment Tops 1000 Students for the First Time
136. 1923 - Majors and Minors Established
139. 1893, January 20 - The Philological Club Organized
142. 1924 - Irene Dillard Elliott (1892-1978) Earns a Ph.D. in English