The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Blogging for Scholars: Feeding Curiosities Through Research and Writing By. Alexis M. Atwood MA '26 Losing touch with the things that inspire us most is an almost imperceptible process. In youth, we are often pulled in vastly different directions; devouring books one day, exploring art or building scale models the next. These interests can fade into obscurity if not looked after carefully. As we grow to take on more responsibilities, we can begin to lose track of the small joys that lift our spirits and fill our days with simple wonder. As a scholar, I write firstly to remind myself of the things that I have lost touch with; to reconnect with a sense of imaginative play and exploration. I write also for others, to hopefully spark a sense of lighthearted curiosity for anyone who may come across my work.    I was fortunate at a young age to have friends who aspired to write novels and some who had journals and journals filled with poetry, friends who made me wish I had som...

By Griffyn Leeds MA '26 The English Department has generously funded my MA thesis research through the Graduate Mini-Grant funds. I am studying how the disease tuberculosis is staged in performance, and the most popular performance right now is  Moulin Rouge!  on Broadway. The funds granted afforded me the opportunity to see  Moulin Rouge!  and experience the extravagant spectacle in person. The experience was so incredible and so informative for my research. My thesis is now stronger for having seen the show live, and I could not have pursued this opportunity without the English Department’s generosity. I am grateful and overjoyed, and am so excited to complete my thesis on tubercular drama. Thank you Villanova University!

  Dr. Joe Drury recently presented at the American Society for 18th Century Studies conference in Philadelphia, which took place April 9-11. At the event, Dr. Drury presented his paper, “‘A Singular Man’: James Boswell’s Oddness,” which posits Boswell’s “oddness” as whimsy, a trait characterized by his almost compulsive tendency to overshare.  I was given the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Drury to discuss his paper in further detail. He cites Sianne Ngai’s book Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, and Interesting, as sparking his interest in whimsy. Ngai’s book, Dr. Drury explains, is a “cultural analysis of our everyday aesthetic vocabulary,” especially that vocabulary which extends beyond the popular yet constraining conception of aesthetics as beauty. While Ngai’s novel explores the “zany, cute, and interesting,” Dr. Drury is more interested in whimsy. Dr. Drury explains that whimsy “has its origins in the period that I study, the Enlightenment, the long 18th century…I ...

The Graduate English program celebrated its 16th annual Thesis and Field Exam Symposium last night, with nine students presenting on their theses and field exams to an audience of over 25 students, faculty, and staff in SAC 300.  After everyone had a chance to enjoy dinner, Graduate Director Mary Mullen opened the evening with a toast to the graduating class. We then began the academic presentation portion of the evening with students presenting in groups of three followed by time for questions and discussion.  The first student to present was Alexis Atwood, who presented her field exam on Civil War, Poetics, and Vulnerability: Investigating Corporal Vulnerability in Salvadoran Poetry of Witness. Her field exam was based upon a comprehensive reading of selected poems of witness, memoirs, and testimonial narratives that surround the civil war in El Salvador in the late 1970s. Her aim was to explore how poetic forms represent corporeal vulnerability and to understand how poems b...

We are excited to announce that Professor Kamran Javadizadeh recently published a new article, "Robert Frost at Midlife," in The Yale Review.  In his article, Dr. Javadizadeh presents Robert Frost as a midlife poet grappling with his career amidst evolving poetic trends. His astute readings of "Nothing Gold Can Stay," "To Earthward," and "I Will Sing You One-O" offer insight into Frost's preoccupation with mortality, loneliness, and the inevitable passage of time. Click here to read the full article in Dr. Javadizadeh's elegant prose.  If podcasts are more your thing, be sure to check out Professor Javadizadeh's "Close Readings," available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts . 

Although people often think humanities research is conducted by individuals, it is always collaborative. For Professor Mary Mullen, there is no greater pleasure than thinking with other people and refining research and writing with them. Professor Mullen's recently published co-edited volume, with Professor Renee Fox, titled   Race, Violence, and Form: Reframing Nineteenth-Century Ireland , is the product of several collaborative conversations at the University of Notre Dame, Villanova University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The volume is dedicated to Sara Maurer, Mary's undergraduate professor, mentor, and friend, who dreamed up ideas behind the book.  For more about this important volume, see  this recent blog  post from Liverpool University Press.

We hope you can be present on Friday, April 24, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Driscoll Atrium to celebrate the launch of the 2026 edition of   CONCEPT , Villanova's interdisciplinary journal of graduate studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We are pleased to report that English is again well-represented this year, with Guadalupe Martinez, Carly Johnson, and Griffyn Leeds contributing articles. You can find more information about their papers below:   CONCEPT 2026   Guadalupe Martinez,  “Education, Relationships, and Movement in   Female American  and   Woman of Colour”     Carly Johnson,  “Publicity, Power, and Perception: Research in Entertainment PR” Griffyn Leeds,  “Tuberculosis and Incest in  The Fall of the House of Usher" We hope you can join us to congratulate the authors, as well as thank the student editors and peer reviewers. We look forward to celebrating with you around great food, drink and convers...

Dr. Lauren Shohet has been crisscrossing the country lately presenting on Shakespeare, Milton, AI, and more, so we thought it would be a good time to catch up with her and discuss her teaching and scholarship. To begin with, Dr. Shohet gave a lecture at the Huntington Library on January 31 st on “(In)Visibility and Mediation: Milton’s Eve,” in which she also discussed vanitas paintings (more on this later). Then, in February, she attended the Renaissance Society of America conference in San Francisco, where she gave a talk as part of the book history discussion group. In addition, while in San Francisco, Dr. Shohet also presided over Milton Society events. Finally, in early April, she attended the Shakespeare Association Conference in Denver and presented on Shakespeare and AI. Regarding mediation and Milton’s Eve, Dr. Shohet explained that she is in the middle of a long project that examines mediation in Paradise Lost-- as she put it, “What it is for angels and for the Son of God, t...

By Aria Gray MA '26 Late in the afternoon on March 11th, a handful of professors, administrators, and students gathered in the St. Augustine Center for the Villanova English Teaching Roundtable. The event was a casual yet informative conversation for all present, giving potential future teachers a chance to glean some helpful advice while giving current educators the opportunity to share their thoughts on the contemporary educational landscape. A panel of four faculty members, Administrator Mike Malloy, Program Director Mary Mullen, Prof. Yumi Lee, and Prof. Evan Radcliffe, fielded questions from first- and second-year graduate students over dinner, addressing the personal and professional sides of the profession. Discussion topics ranged from the specific, such as “How should my approach change from a high school to a graduate level?” and “What expectations should I set for myself in my first year?”, to the existential, with concerns being raised over the future of AI and how to b...

    Join the Reading and Community Class for a Book Club and Bookstore Expedition! Reading and Community may be over, but our community reading isn’t! Join us to read Taylor Jenkins Reid’s  Atmosphere ( https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646858/atmosphere-a-gma-book-club-pick-by-taylor-jenkins-reid/ ) on Tuesday nights from 5:30-6:30 in Garey Hall B03. We will read roughly the first 100 pages (if you are reading on a e-reader and want to know where to stop reading, email Dr. Mullen at  mary.l.mullen@villanova.edu ). Everyone is welcome. We will also go to  Main Point Books  on Sunday, April 19 at 10:30. We will browse books, maybe buy a few, and then grab coffee and talk about good reads! If you are interested in attending, RSVP here:  https://forms.gle/TdHfB8SZWG78GfFA7