The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

       Last week, I sat down for a chat with Alexis Atwood ‘26 to discuss how one class from her first semester of courses in the Graduate English program inspired her to pursue a fascinating research topic. Alexis arrived at Villanova last fall and, as a first-year student, took the required ENG8000: Literary Theory with Dr. Heather Hicks, a survey course designed to introduce first-years to a wide variety of theoretical fields and frameworks. She told me how two particular classes in ENG8000—on Vulnerability Studies and Border Studies—helped her build upon her pre-existing scholarly interests and develop them further in a new context.       “I’ve always been interested in discourse in particular and the ways that discourse exposes systems of dominance, so I think that's kind of what brought me to Vulnerability Studies," said Alex.  "And then I found that poetry was a potent source to pull from when it came to understanding discourse and the...

On Friday, December 5th, Dr. Tsering Wangmo presented virtually on "Chigdrel and the Politics of Sorrow" as part of  The Khyentse Foundation Buddhist Studies Lecture Series , sponsored by Northwestern University. According to the summary provided by Northwestern, Dr. Wangmo examined "a lesser-known chapter in Tibetan exile history through the story of the Group of Thirteen, a collective of Khampa chieftains and religious leaders who established settlements in India in the mid-1960s with a hope to protect their diverse regional and religious traditions. This decision set them apart from the majority Tibetan refugees who joined the settlements established by the Tibetan government. They were cast as being opponents to Tibetan unity." This presentation relates to subjects covered more extensively in Dr. Wangmo's recently published book,  The Politics of Sorrow . Focusing on the early years of Tibetan exile life in India and Nepal, this book marks a significant chan...

  Jenna Kosnick '26, pictured alongside Dr. Mary Mullen and Julia Reagan '26           I recently sat down with Jenna Kosnick, who’s in their second year of pursuing a master’s degree in English, to hear about their experience attending 2025’s North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA 25) conference last month. Hosted by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., from November 13th to 16th, NAVSA 25 invited Victorian Studies academics from across the country to discuss how their work identifies and examines the ripple effects of and linkages between the Victorian period and today’s modern world. NAVSA 25 offered panels with focus ranging across disciplines, including “Urban Aftermaths: The Literary City,” “Art and Intimate Spaces in the Victorian Home,” “Cognition, Belief, and The Real,” and “Empire, Slavery, and The Gothic,” which was moderated by the department’s own Dr. Mary Mullen and featured Jenna’s talk, “The Gothic Reigns in Demerara ...

Jenna Kosnick '26 and Julia Reagan '26 presented last weekend at the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) conference. Julia’s paper was titled “Political Economy’s Failures in Thomas Malthus and Mary Barton ,” and Jenna’s was titled “The Gothic Reigns in Demerara .” Congrats, Jenna and Julia! And thanks to Dr. Mary Mullen (pictured below with Jenna and Julia) for providing the photos!

Last Friday, November 14, MA students Ashley Lee '26 and Alexis Atwood '26 took part in the Graduate Research Symposium in the Connelly Center. Ashley presented a poster and Alexis gave a three-minute thesis oral presentation. Dr. Radcliffe dropped by to support! Jenna Kosnick '26 and Julia Reagan '26 also participated, but are not pictured, as they were traveling at the time.

Last week, our graduate students met with Dr. Yumi Lee for the final graduate writing workshop of the semester, “Writing the Graduate Seminar Paper.” As a conclusion of these workshops, Dr. Lee presented students with a slideshow that detailed what a seminar paper is, different approaches to writing the paper, and how to handle the various steps that go into creating a seminar paper. After presenting the slideshow, students met in pairs to discuss where they were currently at in their paper-writing process, as well as particular challenges students were facing. Upon reconvening, students reviewed their takeaways with the group and provided personal advice to each other.  “Our workshop on seminar papers last week was part of an ongoing effort to support grad students in the writing process,” Dr. Lee explained. “Academic writing and research can be a lonely endeavor, and we’re hoping to create spaces for students to get together and talk, share their experiences and questions, and bu...

Villanova English major Ben Marcoulier '27, English MA student Julia Reagan '26, and Dr. Crystal J. Lucky presented together Friday, November 7th at the Society for the Study of American Women Writers 2025 Conference in Old City, Philadelphia. The roundtable highlighted the public humanities project Taught by Literature ( https://www.taughtbyliterature.org/ ), which works to honor the legacy of Black author and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Taught by Literature was founded by Dr. Jean Lutes, Denise Burgher, and Dr. Brigitte Fielder to make Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s work digitally available and to support educators in teaching early Black women intellectuals in their classrooms, from kindergarten to college. Bringing together undergraduate and graduate students and professors, Taught by Literature invites Black women educators to present their work for a broader audience, engages students in the archives and the process of textual recovery, and works with public school teachers to d...

This past summer, many of our faculty traveled and gave talks all around the world. We’ll be featuring a few of them in the coming weeks—this time, we’ll be focusing on Dr. Kamran Javadizadeh, who traveled to the UK and spoke about poetry in Oxford and Cambridge. Professor Javadizadeh was invited to give a lecture on June 5th at the American Literature Research Seminar in Oxford, and he presented on ‘The National Poetry Crisis.’ Dr. Javadizadeh drew from the conclusion to his forthcoming book for his talk, which centered on a poetry festival which had been organized at the Library of Congress in the fall of 1962, and which happened to coincide with the Cuban Missile Crisis. “After the first day of the conference,” explained Dr. Javadizadeh, “President Kennedy came on television and announced that there were these missiles in Cuba. The Poetry Festival was happening in the Library of Congress, which is right next to the capitol building itself.” The festival’s setting, and its status...

Novelist and editor Jason Rekulak captivated his audience with stories about his journey from English graduate to editor and writer in Philadelphia. In conversation with Dr. Joe Drury and Dr. Adrienne Perry, Rekulak discussed the success of  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies  and its film adaptation, the creative process behind writing books, literary fandom, and the realities of life as a writer and editor. 

Our very own subject librarian Sarah Wingo will be facilitating a workshop on literary text analysis using NLTK and Python on November 5, 2025, from 12-1 p.m. We encourage you to attend and add to your digital humanities skills! No coding experience is necessary.