Delaware Watercolor Society announces state-wide winners

Professor Bobby publishes book about contemporary fairy tales


A Wesley College faculty member has recently published a book about modern-day fairy tales. Susan Bobby, assistant professor of English is the author and editor of “Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings,” (McFarland and Company, Inc., 2009). The book takes a fresh look at reimagined fairy tales of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and it explores the social, political, and cultural truths of our age with insight, intelligence, and complexity. Bobby includes 16 essays from both best-selling and lesser-known writers who apply a variety of theoretical perspectives, including postmodernism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, and gender studies.

Before Bobby could begin work on the book, she put a call out to literary scholars who specialize in writing contemporary fairy tales. “I didn’t want to deal with fairy tales from earlier periods and certainly didn’t want anything Disney related, it had to be literary in nature,” Bobby said. According to Bobby, most of the essays in the book range from the 1980’s to the present.

Once everyone was on board and Bobby completed a proposal for the project, a publishing company from North Carolina was so interested in her topic that within 48 hours a deal had been struck to write the book.

Bobby says the audience for her book is primarily those who are studying in the literary field. “These are going to be professors and scholars of fairy tale studies who need the material, but a majority will be college students who want to learn more about best-selling and lesser-known contemporary fairy tale writers,” she added. When asked which one out of the 16 essays in the book is her favorite, Bobby says, “Helen Pilinovsky. It’s the essay that strikes me as the most beautifully written and she tends to be more of a creative writer than an analytical one.”

Noted writer and critic Kate Bernheimer calls Bobby’s book a collection that can be seen to contribute not only to the very important living history and interpretation of contemporary fairy tales – so nascent and now—but to a conversation about what constitutes a ‘fairy tale,’ that monumental type of art we so know and love. Bobby was also excited to learn about a recent five-star review from Amazon.com. “I was so thrilled with the critique of the book. The on-line review says that this is precisely the book that students need,” Bobby said.

At Wesley College, Bobby teaches classic and contemporary fairy tales and adolescent literature. She received her bachelor of arts degree and master’s degree in English from Millersville University in Millersville, Pennsylvania. Bobby currently resides in Felton, Delaware with her husband.

Football team helps school kids read

Members of the Wesley College football program in Dover, Delaware visited Fairview Elementary School as part of the Jumpstart Read for the Record reading program. The players read the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar to students in kindergarten thru fourth grade.

Seniors Greg Luke (Germantown, Md./Seneca Valley) and Tom Fox (Middletown, Del./Middletown), junior Joe Lightcap (Middletown, Del./Middletown), sophomores Barry Garrard (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway), James Speake (Columbia, Md./Oakland Mills), Joe Cifelli (Princeton, N.J./Princeton) and Robert Ridgway (Drexel Hill, Pa./Upper Darby) and freshmen Jeremiah Milner (Camden, Del./Caesar Rodney), Coleman Peteet (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) and Matt Barile (Bel Air, Md./Fallston).

The student-athletes were accompanied by assistant coaches Steve Azzanesi and P.J. DiGati (Middletown). Wesley's involvement in the program came about through its coaching staff. “It's great to have the guys go out and get involved with the local schools,” said Wesley Head Coach Mike Drass.

The idea of reading to the kids came from Jen Plews, a school teacher at Fairview Elementary. Plews mentioned something to her husband and it seemed like a great thing to get involved in. Her husband Shawn Plews, is the Wolverines' running backs coach and special teams coordinator.

Jumpstart's Read for the Record is a campaign designed to bring attention to the importance of early education. By encouraging hundreds of thousands of children and adults to read the same book on the same day, Jumpstart aims to break a world record and to make early education a national priority.
Back Row (L-R): Joe Lightcap, Tom Fox, Greg Luke, James Speake, Robert Ridgway and Joe Cifelli. Front Row (L-R): Steve Azzanesi, Jeremiah Milner, Matt Barile, Barry Garrard, Coleman Peteet and P.J. DiGati

2009 Alumni Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees

U.S. News & World Report ranks Wesley among 'Best Baccalaureate Colleges'
School officials announced that Wesley College once again has earned a spot among the “Best Baccalaureate Colleges” in the North Region for the 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News Media Group. The annual rankings, which include more than 1,400 schools nationwide, were made available in the September issue of U.S. News & World Report and online. Over the past ten years, Wesley has been consistently ranked among the top for baccalaureate colleges.

The U.S. News & World Report survey’s “baccalaureate colleges” category includes 319 schools within four geographic regions (North, South, Midwest and West). It encompasses institutions focusing on undergraduate education and offering a range of degree programs in the liberal arts and in professional fields such as business, nursing and education.

The U.S. News college rankings group schools based on categories created by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The 2010 America's Best Colleges includes rankings for the Best National Universities, Best Liberal Arts Colleges, Best Historically Black Colleges, Best Colleges for Financial Aid, A+ Schools for B Students and Up-and-Coming Schools. This year, the ranking categories were expanded to include Best Colleges for Undergraduate Teaching.

The 2010 America’s Best Colleges package provides a thorough examination of how more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools compare on a set of 15 widely accepted indicators of excellence. Key measures of quality are: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving.