EFL Professor Finds Veteran Identity Through Poetry

As the memories of child beggars and care packages seep into Liam Corley’s poetry, the sounds of marching soldiers and a distant explosion echo across the page. Through his writing, Corley unpacks his military experience for himself, the American public and fellow veterans.

During the 2008-09 academic year, Corley deployed as a Navy reservist to Afghanistan, serving as a lieutenant. From September to July, he traded his life as an associate professor of English for 14-hour days writing and analyzing military information, sending it up and down the chain of command. Unlike the American poetry and literature that Corley discusses in the classroom, there is no room for individuality or nuance in writing military intelligence. “The writing was no longer mine. The thinking in the writing was no longer mine,” he wrote in his essay “‘Brave Words’: Rehabilitating the Veteran-Writer.” MORE

Alan Nadel Speaks on American Homeland Security

What happens when America’s security operations are in the hands of Dunder Mifflin’s Michael Scott?

EFL hosted guest speaker Alan Nadel for a lecture on Homeland Security March 13, 2013. A Fulbright Scholar and professor at the University of Kentucky, Nadel gave a talk titled “When Homeland Terror Passes for Bureaucratic Security: The Wire meets The Office.”

From politics to popular culture to the “Peter Principle”—employees are promoted until they acquire positions beyond their capabilities—Nadel's lecture ranged through issues of surveillance, incompetence, and the network of agencies trying to keep Americans safe.