Western Carolina University

Topics and Speakers

Carrie Gates
"Granny Tales"

Carmaletta Gates, a staff development specialist for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, studied storytelling techniques with master storyteller David Holt. For years, she has been entertaining audiences of school children and others with her stories.

Mark Haskett
"Getting to Know Your Camera"

Learn to tell your story with a camera. Mark Haskett, who parlayed a hobby into a full-time career, is WCU's resident photographer. His work routinely appears in university publications, regional newspapers, and national magazines.

Karl Nicholas
"A Brief History of English"
"A History of English Spelling"
"What's Grammar All About?"
"Appalachian English"

English professor Dr. Karl Nicholas brings a fresh outlook to an old subject -- the English language. He is co-author of Smoky Mountain Voices: A Lexicon of Appalachian Speech. Recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award, he spent 1995-96 teaching English and linguistics at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic. A member of the WCU faculty for more than twenty years, he received his doctorate from the University of Southern California.

Brian Railsback
"How to Get Your Work Published"
"John Steinbeck"
"Native American Literature: Poetry and Fiction"

How do you get your screen play, short story, or nonfiction article published? Dr. Brian Railsback, associate professor of English and author, discusses techniques of getting a manuscript to market. And an expert on the life and works of American novelist John Steinbeck, Railsback has recently published Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin and the Art of John Steinbeck. A graduate of Ohio University, he has spoken about American and Native American literature to groups in the United States, Mexico, and Japan.

John Slater
"The Mass Media and the Olympic Games"

Steve Yurkovich
"Grantsmanship: How to Prepare a Fundable Proposal"

Dr. Steven Yurkovich takes you step-by-step through the grantwriting maze. Professor of Geology and former Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, he is in charge of WCU's external funding program A member of WCU's faculty since 1971, he received his doctorate from Brown University.