The Department of English in Ross-Blakley Hall on ASU's campus in Tempe welcomed the public to explore English themed activities during our ASU Open Door event. We offered:

Giant Crossword and Word Search Puzzles - Frankenstein-themed interactive word games for all ages designed by Regents’ Professor and Arizona Poet Laureate Alberto Ríos and gave prizes for correct answers!

Victor Frankenstein’s Workshop - 2018 marks the bicentennial of the publication of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel. Guests joined us for a kid-friendly celebration of 200 years of monstrosity! This interactive “Frankenstein” experience featured sights, sounds, and silliness and they could read about the “Year Without a Summer” that inspired the work, play the fear recombinator, color-your-own monster mask, and visit the Ingolstadt Laboratory photo booth, where could don your choice of creator or creature costumes and grimace for a selfie! Our resident Mary Shelley expert, Clinical Associate Professor Cajsa Baldini, was be on-hand to answer all your Frankenstein questions.

History of English - Guests could stop by our Lindisfarne Gospels exhibit, where you could view a facsimile (exact copy) of this famous illuminated Latin Bible, which has glosses (explanations) in Old English. Visitors could look up modern English words in a micrographic edition of the complete Oxford English Dictionary, “the definitive record of the English language, featuring 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, and over 1,000 years of English.” An adjacent digital presentation also discussed the history of the Lindisfarne Gospels and of the English language in general. Curated by Regents’ Professor Elly van Gelderen.

Hogwarts Sorting Hat & Spell Casting - Welcome to Hogwarts! Inspired by the Harry Potter books, young visiting wizards were sorted into “houses” and received a corresponding wand which they use to magically correct misspelled words. Teeny tiny wizards just enjoyed learning silly spells. Beware: Dementors did appear! Facilitated by professors Jim Blasingame and Peter Goggin and English Education students.

Web of Knowledge: The 6 Degrees of Wikipedia - English doctoral candidate and media maven Abigail Oakley lead this two-part activity consisting of a short talk and fun, interactive game using Wikipedia. First, Oakley discussed the open source nature of information on the internet, along with all its possibilities and cautions. Next, participants played “The 6 Degrees of Wikipedia,” where participants are given two wildly different topics and asked to find the shortest route between them using only Wikipedia! Winners of each game will received prizes.

Scooby-Doo Trivia - Do you know Shaggy's real name? What year did "Scooby-Doo, Where are You!" premier? We tested your knowledge of the affable Great Dane in this quiz facilitated by ASU associate professor Kevin Sandler, a film and television specialist.

Writing Takes Place: Your Life in Haiku - We asked visitors to write their autobiography in Haiku, a short Japanese verse form. Poets could take their finished poem with with them or leave it for others to read! Coached by teachers in ASU Writing Programs who are expert syllable-counters.