Kate M. Donley | Independent Scholar (original) (raw)

Papers by Kate M. Donley

Unpublished, 2022

Public librarians –even librarians who only know English – can assist multilingual patrons who ar... more Public librarians –even librarians who only know English – can assist multilingual patrons who are using the internet in other languages including New Americans such as immigrants and refugees. Multilingual Information Literacy (MLIL) is a subset of information literacy. As Nzomo et al. explain, a person with MLIL is “someone who is able to find, read, evaluate, and use information regardless of what language it is written in” (2021, p. 914). In addition to supporting multilingual internet access with MLIL techniques, librarians can also facilitate comprehension of English language digital content. Through free multilingual options in the Vermont Online Library and the internet, public libraries in Vermont can increase digital access for patrons with language backgrounds including Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Nepali, Pashto, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, and many others.

Critical Education, 2020

The Cadet's Creed was written by a Norwich University professor in 1927 and is a key text for the... more The Cadet's Creed was written by a Norwich University professor in 1927 and is a key text for the university's present-day Corps of Cadets. This essay reflects on a unit in a Public Speaking class that explored the current and historical dimensions of the Creed, particularly the author's little-known connection to the Vermont Eugenics Survey. This text has a multimedia presence and can be found on the campus website, in published documents, on plaques, and also in spoken performance when cadets recite it to affirm their loyalty to Norwich and the Corps. Today, Norwich University has two student populations: military cadets who study alongside "civilian" students. Both groups were challenged yet ultimately affirmed by this difficult project. Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) approaches were used at three points: first, in guiding my analysis of this complex archival document; second, in classroom instruction; and finally, in reflecting on student reactions. The largely positive responses to this unit indicate that pedagogy informed by CDS can support students' participation in the challenging national conversation about historic institutional artifacts and their contemporary resonance.

TESOL HEIS News, 2019

To promote multilingualism at their university, several educators initiated a video and campus ev... more To promote multilingualism at their university, several educators initiated a video and campus event that highlighted translations of two college slogans. The project increased the visibility of international and multilingual students online and on campus, established new institutional partnerships, and provided some validation for reframing English language education at Norwich University.

English Teaching Forum, 38(2)., 2000

To promote fluency development and classroom discussion, ESOL teachers can create simple workshee... more To promote fluency development and classroom discussion, ESOL teachers can create simple worksheets that can be completed as pre-, while, and post-viewing activities.

M. A. Snow and L. Kamhi-Stein (Eds.). Developing a New Course for Adult Learners. TESOL Language Curriculum Development Series. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)., 2006

TESOL Journal, 10(2-3), 7-12., 2001

SUS TAINED-CONTENT LANGUAG E teaching (SCLT), an approach to language instruction that focuses a... more SUS TAINED-CONTENT LANGUAG E teaching (SCLT), an approach to language instruction that focuses a language course on a particular content area (eg, anthropology, geology, psychology), is gaining popularity in university-level intensive English programs. ...

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, 2015

Three recent television and film adaptations testify to the continuing popularity of Arthur Conan... more Three recent television and film adaptations testify to the continuing popularity of Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective Sherlock Holmes. The fast-paced novella that introduces detective duo Holmes and Watson, A Study in Scarlet involves some astonishing elements, and not just in the plot. With just a little probing, collegiate readers may wonder whether Conan Doyle plagiarized his most famous character, invented forensic science, despised Mormons, and accidentally wrote a Western.

The novel was adapted as A Study in Pink, the first episode of the BBC’s series Sherlock created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Their vision of Holmes set in present-day London will thrill students and also leave them wondering what happened to the second half of the novel. Beyond the predictable (yet exciting) classroom discussion topic of adaptation, A Study in Scarlet presents a rich context for research and discussion by challenging students’ modern-day notions of genre, historical truth, political correctness, and academic credibility. Although this novel is well-suited for high-level secondary or freshman composition classes, advanced students of English literature will find much to explore. This book analysis contains a summary of A Study in Scarlet with explication of its literary features and associated pedagogical issues for the freshman composition class. Topics for more advanced students are also identified. Instructors can make a free virtual casebook of ancillary readings with the Internet links provided.

Keywords: college composition, first-year writing, freshman composition, Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, detective fiction, adaptation, pseudo-scholarship, fanfiction

Transformative Works and Cultures, 2017

Sherlockian scholarship is a display of intellect, wit, and canonical expertise that requires a c... more Sherlockian scholarship is a display of intellect, wit, and canonical expertise that requires a cunning manipulation of a story world and of nonfiction. This playful style of writing defies easy classification in the terminology of fan and literary studies. Emerging in the early 20th century, Sherlockian scholarship had a tremendous surge in popularity in the late 1920s and early '30s in articles by renowned British and American authors, including Dorothy L. Sayers, Christopher Morley, Sir Desmond MacCarthy, Sir Sydney Castle Roberts, and Ronald A. Knox. The sustained popularity of Sherlockian scholarship owes much to these initial players, whose sparkling prose conjures a bygone era of repartee. In this study, I present a chronological survey of two early periods in Sherlockian scholarship to understand its poetics, popularity, generic identity, and contemporary relevance.

The Saturday Review of Literature, 2017, 5, 8-12.

In 1929, the BBC Radio broadcast "Miniature Biographies," a quirky series of six installments tha... more In 1929, the BBC Radio broadcast "Miniature Biographies," a quirky series of six installments that was rooted in the experimental hybrids of fact and fiction associated with the New Biography. Not only did this series include contributions by modern biographers Virginia Woolf and Harold Nicolson, it also featured another member of the Bloomsbury Group, literary critic Desmond MacCarthy, who focused his essay on Dr. John Watson. MacCarthy was a key figure in developing a writing style that Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts later adopted as "The Game" or "Scholarship." These expository investigations treat Holmes and Watson as actual people rather than fictional characters. As a tribute to MacCarthy, I have adopted this style in my paper. MacCarthy's radio essay "Dr. Watson" demonstrates that modern biography was a vibrant topic within the popular culture of the late 1920s. This paper also explores connections between Sherlockian authors and modernist publications, revealing an intriguing intersection between modernist writing and the Sherlockian Game.

The Saturday Review of Literature, 2016, 4, 24-26.

This article offers a preliminary exploration of the ironical paratexts accompanying published ar... more This article offers a preliminary exploration of the ironical paratexts accompanying published articles and books of Sherlockian Scholarship. This beloved genre, a specialty of Sherlockian enthusiasts, features playful expository texts that investigate the "real" world of Sherlock Holmes through the nonfictional prose of Doctor Watson. From Dorothy L. Sayers to William S. Baring-Gould, Sherlockian authors slyly winked at readers through their ludic paratexts including introductions, footnotes, and graphics.

Baker Street Journal, 2015, 65(3). This publication is available through ProQuest Literature Online.

The Baker Street Journal, 67, 43-51, 2017

A case study of one meeting of the Philomathian Club of Barre, Vermont, at the turn of the centur... more A case study of one meeting of the Philomathian Club of Barre, Vermont, at the turn of the century. In 1899, the members of this women's club met to discuss the literary works of Arthur Conan Doyle. This single club meeting connects to trends on a larger scale: adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, literary appreciation of Conan Doyle, turn-of-the-century gender issues, and an event in the history of the Baker Street Irregulars.

Baker Street Journal, 2014, 64(4), 30-41. This publication is available through ProQuest Literature Online.

Pedagogy and Press by Kate M. Donley

With the goal of promoting civil discourse in public speaking, a class project is proposed that i... more With the goal of promoting civil discourse in public speaking, a class project is proposed that involves primary source research about "The Cadet's Creed," a high-interest text with historical and contemporary relevance at Norwich University. This proposal won the inaugural Costas L. Caraganis Prize for Teaching with Archives.