English

For a former English professor who never intended to practice law, Windsor’s Edward Ducharme sure has made a mark in the justice system.

Ducharme, 68, holds three UWindsor degrees (BA English 1967, MA 1969, LLB 1985), and entered law only in his mid-40s, yet he was just appointed a judge on the highest court in the province: the Ontario Court of Appeal. He will be officially sworn in May 29 at a ceremony at Toronto’s Osgoode Hall.

The English Undergraduate Student Association presents a public reading from the poetry of Irving Layton as part of nationwide celebrations of the Canadian icon’s centenary, Monday, March 12.

One of Canada’s best-known and prolific poets, Layton won a Governor General’s Award for his 1959 book, A Red Carpet for the Sun. In 1981, Italy and Korea nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in 2006 at the age of 92.

Monday’s event will begin at 7 p.m. in the Oak Room, Vanier Hall.

In 1575, the Spanish physician Juan Huarte recorded an encounter with a “rude countrie fellow who made very eloquent discourse” after becoming frantic. According to Huarte, this oratory sprang directly from the man’s fevered state.

In a free public lecture Wednesday, English professor Stephen Pender takes seriously Huarte’s assertion — eloquence is a matter of heat rather than cognition, imagination or memory — and explores an ensemble of neglected ideas in early modern medicine and rhetoric.

A film by a UWindsor English grad will enjoy its premiere Thursday, February 2, at 7:30 p.m. in room 121, Biology Building.

Matt St. Amand (BA 1995, MA 2000) wrote Call In, which he describes as a short “found footage” film that traces the disappearance of Steve Shell, the host of a conspiracy call-in radio show who walked out during a 2011 broadcast and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

“The film is somewhat experimental,” says St. Amand. “It's a radio play set to images shot around the city of Windsor.”