CLAS Announces Senior Fellow Recipients 

Congratulations to Dr. Linda Dove and Mike Sonksen, who have been awarded the 2022-23 CLAS Senior Fellowship for their proposal for the Woodbury Open Resource Department (W.O.R.D.) Cultural Center.

The goal of this project is the creation of a cultural gathering space on campus in keeping with the mission of the liberal arts and to amplify and sustain its attendant projects and events. Broadly defined, this space will be a home for and of words with a two-pronged objective: to make both spoken-word and written-word projects and programming more visible on campus.

Similar to past Senior Fellow projects, the W.O.R.D. project will also take an interdisciplinary approach. Prof. Sonksen explains that he and Dr. Dove have already been organizing literary events on campus together for five years, but they wanted to formalize their approach to take this next series of readings and talks to the next level. “It will be interdisciplinary in every sense of the word,” he explains. “We intend to create a space for a variety of uses connected to literary readings and student engagement. There will not only be readings but panel discussions and other eclectic events across a variety of subjects.”

According to Dr. Dove, the W.O.R.D. Center will be an institutional asset. “Our hope is that it becomes a campus hub, so that the entire community has access to and engagement with this programming,” she explains.

Currently, Dr. Dove and Prof. Sonksen are working with Woodbury’s library to update our poetry section with more diverse and contemporary writers. There is also a plan to connect Woodbury’s library and the Burbank Public Library for student-centered events later this fall and in 2023.

Last Updated on October 7, 2022.