The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Beyond the Margins A Graduate Journal of Literary Scholarship University of New Orleans Beyond the Margins is a new annual, open access, blind peer-reviewed journal, housed at the University of New Orleans, dedicated to furthering diversity in academia through the publication of graduate student scholarship in the field of English, with a focus on literary and textual studies. The journal's aim is twofold: to broaden opportunities for graduate student scholars to contribute to academic conversations and to provide a platform for alternative forms of scholarship. Beyond the Margins welcomes submissions from currently enrolled graduate students at the Master's and Ph.D. level in the form of critical essays, reviews of contemporary scholarly books (published by university or trade presses), pedagogical articles, archival discoveries (including introduction and explanatory notes), and hybrid genres (such as autobiographical criticism). Students from public, urban universiti

Comhfhios Boston College: An Irish Studies Conference February 23rd, 2019 Boston College, Connolly House, Chestnut Hill, MA The Irish Studies Graduate Students of Boston College, in conjunction with the Center for Irish Programs, are pleased to be hosting the second annual Comhfhios Boston College conference. Comhfhios , meaning “knowledge together,” or “open to all knowledge,” invites emerging scholars in all Irish Studies fields to gather again in Boston. This year, we will discuss the state of Irish Studies as it relates to the challenges and opportunities available to emerging scholars. The conference will feature a keynote address by Patrick Griffin (Notre Dame) and will include a panel presentation as well as a pair of roundtables. We invite proposals for presentations from any Irish Studies discipline pertaining to this year’s theme, “ Anois (now): Navigating the Field in 2019.” We especially encourage submissions from junior scholars, recent graduates, and current graduat

Georgetown Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference: "ANGUISH" Conference Date: March 30, 2019 Are you feeling it now? The downward pressure of the graduate academic environment; your labors under-rewarded and underappreciated; the prospect of a low return on your investment in higher education; the MLA Jobs Information List this year; the prohibitively high cost of living; prohibitively expensive mental healthcare; healthcare inaccessibility everywhere; the national crisis in student debt; wage stagnation; political disengagement; personal estrangement—sad, lonely, burned out. How are you feeling? And how do you pick yourself up after all of this, how do you just do meaningful work in response? We don’t know, either. But since misery does love company, the English Graduate Student Association of Georgetown University invites graduate scholars of all stripes, disciplines, and approaches to an interdisciplinary conference on the topic of anguish. We especially welcome paper

The American Studies Program at Stockton University has issued a CFP for their upcoming graduate conference on the topic of “The United States and its Global Impact.” The conference which takes place Tuesday, April 9, 2019 .  The deadline is February 8, 2019 . As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for funding.  See the Graduate Studies Office’s webpage on Conference Travel Funding .  Remember also that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference, and that you don’t have to wait for your paper or abstract to be accepted before you apply.  (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

The 30th Annual Gender & Women’s Studies Student Research Conference is on Friday, April 5, 2019. It is an exciting opportunity to showcase your work, discuss your interests with students and faculty from Villanova and other area universities, and see the broad range of intellectual disciplines encompassed by Gender and Women’s Studies. Essays and creative work must engage gender, sexuality, or feminist theories. All papers must have been written during Spring or Fall 2018 or written specifically for the conference. The conference is accepting submissions for both undergraduate and graduate students. Full Paper Eligibility and Submission Guidelines can be found here . Submission Deadline: Friday, February 8, 2019 Conference presented by Villanova's Gender & Women's Studies Program and The Greater Philadelphia Women's Studies Consortium.  Questions? Email gws@villanova.edu

Middle Tennessee State University has issued a CFP for their conference, “Gendered Migration, Bodies, Borders,” which takes place March 28-30, 2019.  The deadline has been extended to January 15, 2019 . As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for funding.  See the Graduate Studies Office’s webpage on Conference Travel Funding .  Remember also that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference, and that you don’t have to wait for your paper or abstract to be accepted before you apply.  (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Dr. Lauren Shohet 's article entitled "Reading Milton in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein " was just published in the most recent issue of Milton Studies, which is put out by Penn State University Press .  You can read the article's abstract (and access it in full with login credentials) on Project Muse here . Congratulations, Dr. Shohet!

Members of Dr. Lisa Sewell ’s Ecopoetry and Environmental Criticism class, who recently attended the on-campus screening of the documentary Living in the Future’s Past,  were treated to a special event last week.  Two of the documentary's "luminaries," Susan Kucera (director) and Jeff Bridges (producer and narrator) met with Dr. Sewell’s class via video chat to discuss various aspects of the film.  You heard that right: the group got to virtually “meet” The Dude himself! Dr. Sewell's Ecopoetry & Environmental Criticism class Living in the Future’s Past , which is described on its website as a “beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking on who we are and the environmental challenges we face,” explores the pressing environmental issues facing our world today.  The film, which includes expert commentary from an impressive group of psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers (including Timothy Morton!), and more, is driven by its core quest

Don James McLaughlin, '09, who we recently announced  was awarded the Diane Hunter Prize for best dissertation in English from the University of Pennsylvania, also just published an essay in  Public Books  entitled "The Gay Conversion Therapy Memoir." You can read the essay  here . Congratulations again, Don James!

Thanks to everyone who came to hang snowflakes, decorate the tree, listen to music, and enjoy getting into the holiday spirit!

12th Annual Graduate English Organization Conference: “Witness” Department of English University of Maryland, College Park March 9, 2019 Witnesses and witnessing are a paradoxical feature of our culture, our politics, and our literature. As scholars have recognized, the witness has played an important rhetorical role in the development of psychological, scientific, religious, legal, and philosophical structures and procedures. Donna Haraway, for example, has explored the function of the “modest witness” in validating matters of fact in the experimental theaters of early modernity. The third-party witness was crucial to the development of Enlightenment knowledge making and persists in today’s figuration of the legal witness. Witness law has been a site of oppression and an index of social inequality: American law once forbade the testimony of enslaved witnesses, and many legal systems have accorded women’s testimony less credibility than men’s. Material witnesses are called to tri

Position Purpose Substitute Teachers are responsible for delivering instruction and implementation of daily lesson plans, providing a caring and safe classroom experience for students, and ensuring student learning. Substitutes could be asked to teach full or half days. Essential Functions ● Follows regular teacher's lesson plans in a way that ensures consistency and optimal learning. ● Assigns classwork and homework, as necessary, according to lesson plans. ● Differentiates instruction to fit the learning styles of various students. ● Maintains a well-managed classroom and positive learning environment. ● Supervises students out of class such as in the hallways, lunch room, and recess. ● Maintains established routine of the school and classroom procedures in which assigned. ● Remains at school the entire school day, unless otherwise instructed to leave by divisional leadership. ● Takes all necessary and reasonable precautions to protect students, equipment, mater

CONCEPT, Villanova's interdisciplinary journal of graduate studies, is now seeking submissions. The deadline for submission is Friday, February 1, 2019. We are also looking for volunteers to serve as peer reviewers for the 2019 issue. PAPERS : We are looking for well-written, well-researched, and not-too-technical papers of up to 25 pages. Students from all of the Graduate Studies Programs for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are encouraged to submit. We seek papers that are exemplary in their respective disciplines and that address topics with an interdisciplinary appeal for our broad readership. Submissions should be material that has been researched as part of graduate work at Villanova. Selection for publication is highly competitive. We will recognize the best paper of the 2019 issue with the Graduate Research Prize. The winning author will be formally recognized at a publication celebration on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 from noon to 1:30 PM in Falvey Room 205.

This Thursday, November 29th, from 12:30 to about 3:00, we will be decorating the department for the holiday season and would like to invite you all to join us! We’ll have a light lunch, holiday treats, good company, and lots of snowflakes to hang!

The Wednesday after Thanksgiving, GWS is hosting an event titled "Public Disclosures of Private Realities": LGBTQ History and the Archive of Everyday Life by Dr. Stephen Vider of Bryn Mawr College. This is a great chance to meet and mingle with an expert as well as attend an important lecture within the field of Gender and Sexuality Studies. When : Wednesday, November 28 at 6PM Where : Bartley 1010

“Communities,” the Annual Symposium for English Graduate Students, is taking place at SUNY Brockport Feb 23, 2019.  The deadline is coming up in a few days, but may be extended. As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for funding.  See the Graduate Studies Office’s webpage on Conference Travel Funding .  Remember also that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference, and that you don’t have to wait for your paper or abstract to be accepted before you apply.  (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Don James McLaughlin, ‘09, was awarded the Diane Hunter Prize for best dissertation in English from the University of Pennsylvania. The award, which Don James received in September 2018, goes to the best dissertation in English submitted during the previous academic year. His dissertation is entitled Infectious Affect: The Phobic Imagination in American Literature.  Don James was awarded his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in July 2017. He held a Visiting Assistant Professorship in English at Swarthmore College in 2017-2018. Following this appointment, he has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in 19th-Century American Literature at the University of Tulsa, beginning in the fall of 2018. Don James has also been awarded the Hench Post-Dissertation Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, 2018-2019, for the purpose of conducting research in their collection of early American newspapers, rare books, and manuscripts, as he turns his dissertation into a boo

Below are the Gender & Women’s Studies courses being offered this spring. Students pursuing the certificate may be particularly interested in these offerings. Remember you can take up to two courses in another department with permission from Dr. Radcliffe. GWS 8000: Critical Perspectives on Gender Dr. Elizabeth Kolsky R 7:30-9:30 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. Sample student comments on the Spring 2018 course: "Amazing course taken as an elective outside my department. Everything I learned can be integrated into the way I conduct scienc

Upcoming GWS Event! Mothers at Work: Who Opts Out? Presented by Dr. Liana Christin Landivar, Sociologist and Faculty Affiliate, Maryland Population Research Center, University of Maryland, College Park When: Tuesday, November 13th, 6pm GWS recruitment and information session at 5:30 Pizza will be served! Where: Tolentine 215 Liana Christin Landivar is the author of Mothers at Work: Who Opts Out? This book examines mothers’ employment rates and work hours in 55 occupations and shows that women in managerial and professional occupations were the least likely to opt out of the labor force but most likely to scale back on work by a few hours per week when they had children.

“Forms of Justice: Reflections on Writing, Creativity, and Social Change,” the English Graduate Conference at St. John’s University, has issued a call for papers. The conference will take place on April 6, 2019, in Queens. As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for funding.  See the Graduate Studies Office’s webpage on Conference Travel Funding .  Remember also that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference, and that you don’t have to wait for your paper or abstract to be accepted before you apply.  (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Thanks to everyone who came to this year's Teaching Roundtable!

When: Thursday, November 1st Where: 7:30pm in SAC 300 The Teaching Roundtable will feature some of your fellow classmates who are currently doing a teaching internship with a graduate faculty member in the department. This will be a casual discussion about the internship—and more specifically about their experiences and findings while teaching in the undergraduate classroom. We encourage you all to attend, but especially anyone interested in the internship or in teaching, and any current teachers in the program, to attend and join the discussion! RSVP’s aren’t mandatory- but if you know you might be attending, please let Brooke know.

"Where Do We Go Now?" A film by Nadine Labaki (2011) November 7, 3pm, Connelly Center Cinema Introduction: Dr. Kerry San Chirico, Theology & Religious Studies When violence threatens to break out between the Muslim and Christian population of a remote Lebanese village, it is up to the women of the village to come together to prevent more deaths. With creativity and humor, they do all they can to bring their community together again. Dealing with difficult topics like religious tensions, death and violence, the film beautifully manages to maintain a fine balance between comedy and tragedy

The list of spring courses is now available on the Villanova Graduate English program website. Visit here to read the full course descriptions! Please let Brooke ( brooke.erdman@villanova.edu ) know what you want to take , and if you know your student ID please include that as well. If you aren’t quite sure what you want to take, just be sure to let Brooke know ASAP, but certainly before the end of the semester! A few important reminders: Your advisor serves as a resource if you have questions about (1) how to design your course of study so that it best meets your needs, and/or (2) whether to pursue your graduate studies further at the Ph.D. level.  Meeting with your advisor is strictly optional.  Unless you wish to do so, you do not need to consult with your advisor to register for classes.  Regardless of whether you speak to your advisor about the classes you wish to register for, please remember that you must always contact me in order to register for classes. There are two

The Stories We Tell : A writing workshop for survivors of sexual violence, domestic violence and trafficking Every survivor story has power and purpose. During “The Stories We Tell,” a two-day writing workshop, survivors will read and discuss testimonial writing, reflect on how to share their own stories, and engage in a series of innovative writing exercises. With a focus on memoir, fiction, non-fiction and poetry, “The Stories We Tell” was created to support those who seek to use writing as a vehicle for personal or political change. October 27-28 2018 10am-5pm (Saturday) • 11am-5pm (Sunday) Brought to you by The Voices and Faces Project (co-founders, Anne K. Ream and R. Clifton Spargo) in partnership with Villanova University. Applications are required: Email janet@voicesandfaces.org. Applications will be excepted until FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12TH !

October 8, 3pm, Connelly Center Cinema "Pariah," A Film by Dee Rees (2011) Introduction: Dr. Katie Grimes, Theology & Religious Studies Alike is an African-American high-school student who loves poetry. Dreaming of having a girlfriend, she must negotiate her family’s visions of her future with her own ideas about who she is. When she meets Bina, she finds a new friend, and new possibilities open. The film accompanies Alike through a formative piece of her adolescence, sensitively dealing with issues of gender, race, sexuality and religion. This screening is sponsored by the Faith & Culture Forum/Office for Mission & Ministry, the Department of Theology & Religious Studies and the Gender and Women’s Studies Program.

Our annual PhD forum will be next Monday, October 8 , at 7:30 pm , in SAC 300.  Evan Radcliffe be joined by Prof. Adrienne Perry (PhD, University of Houston) and Teddi Sakellarides (MA graduate and current PhD student at Temple), to talk about various aspects of whether to pursue a PhD, how and where to apply, what PhD study is like, and the state of the academic job market. There will also be pizza! RSVP to Brooke at  brooke.erdman@villanova.edu by Oct. 8th at 3pm!

Don James McLaughlin, ‘09, was awarded the Diane Hunter Prize for best dissertation in English from the University of Pennsylvania. The award, which Don James received in September 2018, goes to the best dissertation in English submitted during the previous academic year. His dissertation is entitled  Infectious Affect: The Phobic Imagination in American Literature . Don James was awarded his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in July 2017. He held a Visiting Assistant Professorship in English at Swarthmore College in 2017-2018. Following this appointment, he has accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professorship in 19th-Century American Literature at the University of Tulsa, beginning in the fall of 2018. Don James has also been awarded the Hench Post-Dissertation Fellowship at the American Antiquarian Society, 2018-2019, for the purpose of conducting research in their collection of early American newspapers, rare books, and manuscripts, as he turns his dissertation into a b

Dr. John Kurtz, the faculty Managing Editor for CONCEPT, the interdisciplinary journal for graduate students in the college, is looking for students to serve as either editors or peer reviewers. From Dr. Kurtz: "We are looking for graduate students who are interested in sharing their scholarship and/or serving as Peer Reviewers for the 2019 issue. The graduate students will be receiving direct emails about CONCEPT later in the semester, but interested students can contact me anytime. Please let me know if you have any questions about submitting papers, positions on our editorial board, or anything else about CONCEPT. I thank you in advance for your support of this tradition of graduate student scholarship." Email Dr. Kurtz at john.kurtz@villanova.edu with any questions!

The GWS semester events are officially in swing so mark your calendars for this coming Monday, October 1st as we welcome Dr. Jim Ferris of the University of Toledo for poetry and performance.  Was Your Mama White? Excavating Hidden History Poetry / Performance by Dr. Jim Ferris, Professor, Ability Center Endowed Chair of Disability Studies, University of Toledo MONDAY, OCTOBER 1ST, 5:00 PM COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT STUDIO GAREY HALL Sponsored by: The Dept. of Communication, The Center for Peace and Justice Education, Gender and Women’s Studies, The Office of Disability Services, and Africana Studies Jim Ferris is a poet and performance artist. He is author of Slouching Towards Guantanamo, Facts of Life, and The Hospital Poems , which won the Main Street Rag Book Award in 2004. Ferris, who holds a doctorate in performance studies, has performed at the Kennedy Center and across the United States, Canada and Great Britain; recent performance work includes the solo pe

Students interested in participating in Villanova’s Irish Summer Studio program are encouraged to attend an informational meeting on Tuesday, October 2nd, at 3:30 pm in the Theatre Department's Green Room in the ground floor of Vasey Hall. Dr. Valerie Joyce (Theatre) and Dr. Joseph Lennon (English), as well as students who have participated in the program, will be present at the meeting to explain the program and how students can go about getting involved. The Irish Summer Studio From the studio to the stage, students in the program will study the workings and history of Ireland's world-class national theatre while developing their own theatre skills, knowledge, and practice. Students from Villanova will work alongside students from Irish and other universities and be taught by practitioners and professors from Ireland and the US. Student work will culminate in a showing of final work at the Lir, Ireland's National Academy of Dramatic Art and guided by Abbey Theatre p

UVA has issued a CFP for their upcoming conference, "Attachment and Affect," taking place March 22-23, 2019. Abstracts are due January 2, 2019 . Lisa Ruddick (UChicago) will deliver the keynote and Rita Felski (UVA/SDU) will run a master class on attachment for conference participants. Rita's planning to workshop the first chapter of her current book project, Hooked: Art and Attachment . Visit our post on the Conference Opportunities page for all the information! As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for funding. See the Graduate Studies Office’s webpage on Conference Travel Funding . Remember also that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference, and that you don’t have to wait for your paper or abstract to be accepted before you apply. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Prof. Megan Quigley was a Visiting Scholar at Merton College, Oxford, this summer, working in the Merton College Library and Oxford’s Bodleian Library.  Researching the relationship between the poet T. S. Eliot and the genre of the novel, Professor Quigley spent her time looking at the Frank Brenchley T. S. Eliot Collection, focusing on the private correspondence of Eliot (he was a student at Merton), as well as at drafts and editions (also fascinating was the diary of Vivienne Eliot,  Eliot’s first wife who collaborated on sections of The Waste Land and who died in an institution).  This work is for Dr. Quigley’s new book project on Eliot.  She has organized a round table at the Eliot society conference this September at Emory University, stemming from her work at Oxford, entitled, “Reading The Waste Land with the #MeToo Generation."

Thank you to the English graduate students who volunteered their time and painting skills this past weekend to the Academy at Palumbo! Service day volunteers, including English grad students Christie, Nick, Daniella, Alex B, and Brian

Thanks to all who came to our Welcome Back reception last Friday!

From Dr. Lucky: "That’s me in front of August Wilson’s childhood home in Pittsburgh. I saw ‘King Hedley II’ on Friday, May 11, 2018. The play was staged and performed in the back yard. It was my final to see performed in the ten-play cycle."

The annual Thesis and Field Exam Workshop is coming up! When: Thursday, September 27th, 7:30 PM Where: SAC 300 All graduate students are welcome to attend, regardless of whether they are finishing up their degree this year or later. Although it is most important for any student who will be finishing this spring, everyone should consider attending. We will go over important information regarding the thesis and field exam process including the timeline, requirements, deadlines/graduation, and examples from recent graduates. We’ll also have pizza! RSVP to Evan at evan.radcliffe@villanova.edu by 5pm on Tuesday, September 25th!

Adecco is hiring full- and part-time Test Item Writers for work with the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ in the following disciplines: Mathematics, Art History, Music Theory, World Languages, History, Social Sciences, English, and Science. Test Item Writers will conduct research and write test questions for standardized tests, critically review test questions written by other team members, and adhere to ethical standards and comply with the laws and regulations applicable to this position. Required experience & skills include teaching experience in a school or educational center (desirable), strong writing skills, knowledge of MS Word, Excel, and Outlook, ability to quickly learn new technological systems, and ability to work in a highly collaborative environment, meet strict deadlines, and receive and implement constructive feedback. A Master’s degree in one of the disciplines above or in Education is preferred. Salary is $28.00 per hour. Please visit https

The Community College of Philadelphia is hiring part-time faculty in English. A current faculty member writes, "there are a few perks of teaching part-time at CCP: 1) CCP students are amazing, and many colleagues (faculty & staff) are phenomenally invested, introspective, and caring. 2) CCP hires full-timers from the adjunct pool. In fact, the college is contractually required by the union to hire some percentage of current adjuncts when they interview for full-time positions. So, unlike many universities, teaching part-time can potentially lead to getting hired full time. 3) CCP's union has been relatively strong over the years, and this means better benefits than most colleges offer to adjuncts: decent starting pay per credit for the region, more seniority pools, partial contributions to health care, and eventual partial retirement contributions. 4) CCP offers lots of great faculty-led professional development. In particular, there's currently a lot of energy

Looking for a volunteer opportunity this coming weekend? The St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service is coming up this Saturday, September 15 ! Join fellow English graduate student and graduate assistant Nick Manai, who is organizing a service group at the Academy at Palumbo in South Philly. Last year, our group helped paint, clean, and reorganize some classrooms and administrative offices. Jobs this year will likely continue cleaning, painting, and rearranging! The high school is located at 12th and Catherine Streets (just below South Street) and will take place from approximately 9:30AM-2PM (if you need to arrive early or leave late, that is no problem at all). If you plan to bring significant others or family members, that's fine too, just please let Nick know ahead of time. The official deadline for registration for the event via the Villanova website has already passed, but that does NOT mean it's too late to sign up! See Nick's email address below, and contact h

Stephen Reaugh, who graduated with his MA in English this past May (2018), has been accepted and is currently enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis' English and American Literature PhD program. Stephen has also just been  cast  in two shows at Washington University in St. Louis! He’ll be playing Dr. Scott in the  Rocky Horror Picture Show  and Roy M. Cohn in  Angels in America . He has also had several poems, including “Pectus excavatum,” “The Wreck,” “Days of 1998,” and more published in  Hawai’i Review  (you can check them out  here ). Lastly, his piece “All in Good Fun” was recently published in  The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review , an online and print literary and arts journal. Congratulations and great work, Stephen!

There is a graduate student retreat being held this coming Saturday, September 8 from 9:30am – 5:00pm at the St. Raphaela Center in Haverford, PA . The deadline to register is today , September 6! The theme of this year’s retreat is “ Finding Home, Forming Community .” This will be a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the journey that led you to Villanova and connect with other graduate students. For more information about the retreat (and to register), visit here . Any questions should be directed to Michelle Sherman at  michelle.sherman@villanova.edu .

The department is proud to announce that Prof. Lauren Shohet 's 2004 essay, "The Banquet of Scotland (PA)," initially published in Shakespeare Survey 57, has been chosen for The Peter Holland Collection, the editor's selection of the best essay published in this journal of record for each of the past 20 years. The collection is available for free here .

Five of our beloved graduate students, and one recently-graduated undergraduate, participated in the Irish Theatre Summer Studio, which took place over the summer from mid-July through early August. Angela, Alex E., Ashley, Michelle, Lia, and Caitlyn spent three and a half weeks in Dublin and Galway, and were joined by seven theater students, three from Villanova and four from University College Dublin. The program was led by Drs. Joseph Lennon and Valerie Joyce. Working in collaboration with the Lir Theatre, students participated in a variety of theater workshops (movement, voice, directing, devising, etc.) and were able to spend some time in small groups devoted to playwrighting. At the end of their time in Dublin, all Summer Studio students put on a performance of the “scenes” they had written during their time at the Lir. Along the way, students attended a variety of plays put on by the Abbey Theatre, he Gate Theatre, the Peacock, and the New Theatre. Our grad students also