The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Megan Quigley presented a paper at the annual Modern Language Association Convention in January in Chicago. Her paper, entitled, "Woolf, Wittgenstein, and Nonsense: The Voyage Out as Therapy," was chosen for the International Virginia Woolf Society sponsored panel. Dr. Quigley also published a book review on Carrie J. Preston's Modernism's Mythic Pose: Gender, Genre, and Solo Performance in Modern Drama.

The Villanova Women's Professional Network and Graduate Women in Business are holding an annual "Marketplace Cafe" networking event and would love to extend the invitation to current female graduate students and alumnae in Arts & Sciences. The event is designed to connect graduate students and alumnae, and will feature "A Candid Conversation about Confidence," facilitated by Kimberly Strickland, SPHR, Market Inclusion Leader, PwC. What: "Marketplace Cafe," a Sunday brunch networking event When: March 30th, from 11am to 2pm Where: West Lounge of Dougherty Hall on Villanova's campus. PLEASE REGISTER: http://www1.villanova.edu//villanova/business/about/wpn/events/marketplacecafe14.html

Sam Vitale, first year English graduate student, was recently awarded a Graduate Summer Research Fellowship. During the summer 2014 term, She will undertake a research project to examine the relationship between J.R.R. Tolkien and Charles Darwin. Specifically, she plans to investigate the character of Gollum; for instance, Darwin's claim about "changing conditions of life" suggests that Gollum's ocular evolution--his "throw-back eyes"--are the result of his subterranean environment. She hopes to present my work at the Mythopoeic Society's annual August conference and perhaps publish in their accompanying journal, Mythlore.

Villanova's Gender and Women's Studies Program is offering a new interdisciplinary graduate course during the Fall 2014 semester. Course Code: GWS 8000-001 Course Title:   Critical Perspectives on Gender Professor:       Dr. Jean Lutes Schedule:       Wednesday 5:20-7:20 PM An interdisciplinary study of gender, women, and sexuality, this course surveys contemporary developments in feminist, gender, and queer theory. It also applies those theories to a variety of topics, such as the representation of gender, the history of sexuality, the science of sexual difference, gender in the workplace, and gender in the digital age. Throughout the semester, we will consider how ideas about gender are bound inextricably to ideas about race and class. Likely theorists include Sandra Bartky, Karen Barad, Simone de Beauvoir, Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Patricia Hill Collins, Michel Foucault, Elizabeth Freeman, Judith Halberstam, Alison Jaggar, Chandra Mohanty, and Eve Sedgwick. E