December 30, 2011 -
-I just launched a new forums community website for teachers of online courses (both K-12 and higher ed) to discuss methods, resources, experiences, lessons, and questions related to teaching in the online environment. : www.OnlineTeachingForums.com
If you are an educator, especially one who teaches online courses, or are studying to be a teacher, I invite you to join the forums community, spread the word about it, and post to the discussion boards! Looking forward to growing this website in 2012!
December 20, 2011 -
-Paper accepted for the 2012 Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900 in Louisville, Kentucky, tentatively titled, "The Beginnings of Isolated Person(alitie)s in the Works of J.M. Coetzee."
October 15, 2011 -
-Paper accepted for the 2012 Northeast Modern Language Association conference in Rochester, NY, tentatively titled "Inside Out: Commodity Culture Across Imperial Lines in Armah’s They Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born and DeLillo’s White Noise."
July 1, 2011 -
- Preparing for composition courses to teach this fall, specifically a new unit on Beckett's Waiting for Godot and a lesson on ideology and Captain America.
- Beginning research on an article about the aesthetics of isolated personalities in J. M. Coetzee's works, tentatively titled, "The Beginnings of Isolated Person(alitie)s in the Works of J. M. Coetzee."
May 22, 2011 -
- Graduated from John Carroll University with a M.A. in English and a 4.0 gpa.
- Working on an essay for a new Open Court Philosophy book coming out next year, What Philosophy Can Teach You About Your Lover.
- Also working on an M/MLA presentation that I will deliver at the 2011 conference in St. Louis, tentatively titled, "J.M. Coetzee's Summertime and the Narrative Play of Narration." The conference's theme is: Play, No Seriously.
April 12, 2011 -
- Passed all four M.A. comprehensive exams (high passed 2 of 4) and had M. A. Essay accepted.
March 16, 2011 -
- Published a one-act play, Wealth Management, Waste Management for The John Carroll Review as an experiment in Beckettian prose.
January 19, 2011 -
-"A Restitution of Pairs: Coetzee, Costello, and the Counting of Obscenity" is now under review at ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature.
-"Writing J. M. Coetzee: Summertime, Auto/Biography, and the Resistance to Being Written" is now under review at Auto/Biography Studies.
- Reading for MA Comprehensive Exams in Modernism, Contemporary Literature, Restoration/18th Century Literature, and Composition and Rhetoric.
November 21, 2010 -
- Inducted into Alpha Sigma Nu, the National Jesuit Honor Society.
November 18, 2010 -
- Working on his latest article on Coetzee's works, tentatively titled "'I can represent myself perfectly well': Navigating Uncertainty in J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace."
October 10, 2010 -
- Currently working on a collection of poems as well as beginning research on a new essay on J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace. Also putting the finishing touches on my Summertime essay as well.
June 1, 2010 -
Mike has a few more projects he is working on this summer:
- A commissioned essay for the upcoming Dexter and Philosophy book.
- Writing "A Restitution of Pairs: Coetzee, Costello, and the Counting of Obscenity."
May 15, 2010 -
Working on revising two papers to submit for publication:
- "Writing J. M. Coetzee: Summertime, Auto/Biography, and the Resistance to Being Written."
- "James Baldwin and Uncle Tom's Cabin: A Multiplicity of Critical Problems."
May 5, 2010 -
- Had a photograph, "Divine Solitude," published in the Spring 2010 edition of The John Carroll Review.
March 22, 2010 -
- Presented a paper, "Orwell's Animal Farm and Picasso's Guernica: The Union of Allegory and Modernism," at the John Carroll University's 2010 Celebration of Scholarship.
January 7, 2010 -
- Joined the Midwest Modern Language Association, the College English Association, and the Langston Hughes Society.
December 30, 2009 -
- Became a member of the African American Literature & Culture Society.
December 12, 2009 -
- Had two photographs published in the Fall 2009 edition of The John Carroll Review.
September 13, 2009 -
- Opinion piece "How to close the achievement gap" was published on September 13, 2009 in The Post Newspapers.
August 6, 2009 -
- Became a member of the Modern Language Association.
July 17, 2009 -
"The School Shooting" - 4,987 words - A new short story that deals with an unusual school shooting at a high school in Detroit's inner city. It is sad that a word like "unusual" can even be used in conjunction with a school shooting.
June 28, 2009 -
"The Unseen" - 4,644 words - A retelling of the story of Lazarus and the rich man that takes their journey into Hades to a new level, even blurring the lines between good and evil.
May 12, 2009 -
"Chasing His Tail" - 2202 words - A short story telling of a fight between a newlywed couple, it flashes from the fight to the origins of the disagreement in real time.
April 5, 2009 -
- Working on some new short stories, which include the following:
"Into the Light" - 1,785 words - A desperate man plots to experience a certain divinity in light, which has become an obsession in his life.
"Perpetual Testing" - 4,438 words - A former teacher takes the GRE entrance exam, but gets more than he bargains for in the process.
"And the Greatest of These is Love" - 4,775 words - A selective documentary club at Harvard University is treated to the disturbing tale of one of its member's experiences in a coercive, christian cult.
All three of these stories have been sent out to various literary magazines. If you are interested in receiving any of these manuscripts, please email the author at mike@mikepiero.com with the website of your journal.