The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

At 6pm on Tuesday, November 30th, the Villanova University Irish Studies Program will be sponsoring readings from three of Ireland's most notable novelists. Establishing their international reputations, Kevin Barry, Claire Kilroy, and Paul Murray (longlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize) will read from recent works, There Are Little Kingdoms , All Names Have Been Changed , and Skippy Dies. This event will take place at the Villanova University Falvey Library Lounge, located on the first floor. We hope to see you there!

On Monday, November 15th, Dr. Jean Lutes will host a thesis and field exam seminar. Dr. Lutes will detail the necessary requirements, deadlines, and format for each option, as well as answer frequently asked questions. The department is also pleased to welcome back two returning alumni, Mr. Ted Howell and Ms. Tiffany DeRewal, who will speak about their own thesis writing experiences and offer their unique insights into the process. We welcome both first and second year graduate students! The seminar will take place at 7pm in SAC 300 and food will be provided. Please RSVP to Ashley Bentivoglio (ashley.bentivoglio@villanova.edu) by November 11th. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there!

The Irish Studies Program's screening of "Three Irish Short Films" will take place this Friday, October 29 at 6:00 PM in the Connelly Center Cinema. Three Oscar-nominated short films from Irish writers and directors will be shown: - "Everything in This Country Must" (Directed by Gary McKendry, written by Colum McCann) - "The Secret of Kells" (Directed by Tomm Moore; produced by Cartoon Saloon) - "Six Shooter" (Martin MacDonagh) There will be brief introductions by three English Department Professors, Dr. John Buckley, Dr. Joseph Lennon, and Dr. Hugh Ormsby-Lennon. We hope to see you there!

For those students who are interested in attending our November 1st seminar, please RSVP to Ashley Bentivoglio (ashley.bentivoglio@villanova.edu) by October 25th. Pizza will be provided, so we need an accurate head count. Thank you and we look forward to seeing you there!

At 7pm on Monday, November 1st, the Graduate English Program will be hosting a Ph.D. seminar in SAC 300. There will be a question and answer period mediated by Dr. Lutes, Dr. Lennon, Dr. Quigley, and returning alumnus Don James McLaughlin, aimed towards helping graduate students decide whether or not to pursue a Ph.D. All are welcome to attend, please RSVP to either Dr. Jean Lutes (jean.lutes@villanova.edu) or Ashley Bentivoglio (ashley.bentivoglio@villanova.edu) by October 25th. We hope to see you there!

On Saturday, October 16th, Cynthia Estremera will be performing her original poetry, a letter entitled "And you say Beauty is skin deep..." as a part of the 2010 Hispanic Heritage Celebration. The event, called "Latinas Out Loud: Epistles," will include poet Sandra Maria Estevez as a special featured guest. Cindy is one of 20 participants who will be reading their own short, funny, dramatic, evocative, and often poetic letters to their addressee of choice. This is a family friendly event. The Newark Public Library, as well as hundreds of libraries across the country, have suffered major budget cuts recently, which means many of these wonderful cultural programs are in danger of being discontinued. Please consider supporting your classmate--and the essential work of public libraries--by attending the performance! This event will take place at the Newark Public Library, Main Library, Centennial Hall, Second Floor, we hope to see you there!

Rebecca Buckham recently sent us this update: After completing the requirements for my M.A. in English at Villanova, I began a doctoral program at The Johns Hopkins University, where I am now a second-year student. I know that my application was competitive due in large part to the rigorous coursework and dedicated faculty support at Villanova. The program provided a solid stepping-stone to the work I'm doing at Hopkins, much of which is heavily theoretical. My classes at Villanova integrated a lot of theory into the close-reading of primary literature, which helped me begin to make the transition to literary study that straddles (and hopefully bridges) the worlds of literature and theory. Other opportunities at Villanova pointed me toward further graduate study. I was fortunate to be awarded a Graduate Student Summer Fellowship, which allowed me to travel to London to present a paper at the Ninth International Milton Symposium in 2008. This looked great on my applications, and...

At 5:00 on September 10th there will be a reception in the English Department to mark the beginning of the new academic year and to welcome the incoming graduate students. The reception will feature a lot of great food and provide you with the opportunity to speak with the new students and catch up with the graduate faculty members. Prior to the reception there will be a library orientation at 3:30. While many of you probably attended the orientation last year, you are free to go again if you want to refresh your memory or learn about new databases that have been added to Falvey's holdings.

Congratulations to the five students who will be attending Ph.D. programs next year. All have received funding, and we wish them the best of luck as they embark on their doctoral studies. Don James McLaughlin will be attending the University of Pennsylvania, Kerry Hassler-Brooks will be attending the University of Delaware, Andrew Owens will be attending Northwestern University, and Tiffany DeRewal and Ted Howell will be attending Temple.

Cynthia Estremera, a first-year student in Villanova's Master's Program in English, presented a paper titled "'My President Is Black': Social Optimism in Obama-era Rap Music" on the Hip Hop and Race panel, at the first "In Media Res" Academic Symposium (Conversations on Race, Gender, Media and Popular Culture) at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, PA. Conference dates were November 13-14, 2009. Cindy explains, "In this paper I discussed various positive allusions to political Black leadership in the United States within contemporary Hip Hop songs. I specifically examined Hip Hop artists who presently appeal directly to mainstream audiences and have a social/cultural impact on listeners through major media outlets. Thus in order to underscore the impact of socially optimistic messaging in Hip Hop, I excluded underground artists and their material and solely focused on artists Nas, Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, Common and Young Jeezy, some of whom have ...

Dr. Megan Quigley passes along this article by Louis Menand on "The Ph.D. Problem." http://harvardmagazine.com/2009/11/professionalization-in-academy?page=0,4

On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, poet Angie Mlinko will be at Villanova University as a participant in the 12th annual Villanova Literary Festival. Her two books, Matinees and Starred Wire , have been met with much acclaim, the latter receiving the 2004 National Poetry Series award. Her reading will be at 7pm in the Connelly Center and be followed by a reception and book signing.

The first annual Villanova Graduate English Thesis and Field Exam Symposium was a great success thanks to those who took the time to present and attend. Special thanks go out to Ashley Bentivoglio, who helped to organize the event, as well as the six presenters: Becca Burnett, John Keir, Laura Heinrich, Tiffany DeRewal, Ted Howell, and Andy Owens. Thank you to all in attendance for helping to make the event an enjoyable one!

Sarah Kelly recently sent us this post from New York: After finishing my MA in 2005, I thought I would try my hand as a Proofreader/Editor at Avenue A | Razorfish, an interactive advertising agency in Philadelphia. To my surprise, I gravitated more toward the business aspect of online advertising, and in 2007 took a job at Google New York as an Account Strategist. At Google, I make high-level strategic recommendations for Technology advertisers, with a focus on display and search engine marketing. I still don't consider myself a New Yorker, but I am enjoying all the city has to offer.

The first annual Thesis/Field Exam Symposium has now been rescheduled and will be held on Saturday, March 27th, at 10:00 a.m., in the Honors Seminar Room. There are six presenters scheduled, and we welcome additional presenters to participate, as well. If you would like to present or attend, please RSVP by Monday, March 15th. Thank you!

Students wanting to get a raw and uncensored take on Ph.D. admissions can visit gradcafe.com. If you are currently applying, be warned: it is not for the faint of heart. The site includes discussion boards in which students who have applied to Ph.D. programs reveal if they have been accepted or rejected in real time. One additional disclaimer: the content is not vetted or policed, so you cannot trust its accuracy. Thanks to Andrew Owens for passing along this information.

See what the team behind the bestselling graphic novel Logicomix makes of the legacy of structuralism by checking out their latest comic strip at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/5284373a-1f94-11df-8975-00144feab49a.html. Thanks to Dr. Ormsby-Lennon for passing this along.

Nicole Monaghan, Villanova English MA '99, has recently published a poem in the online literary magazine  Foundling Review  (Feb. 2010, issue 3). Nicole is a stay-at-home mother to three children, ages 10, 8, and 4. She has written poetry, fiction, and nonfiction throughout her life and has recently begun pursuing publication of her work. Nicole won two prizes at the Philadelphia Writers' Conference in June, 2009, in the categories of Literary Short Story and Poetry. Her fiction is forthcoming in  Long Story Short .

Jana Llewellyn's blog, "An Attitude Adjustment: Making the Best of Stay-at-Home Motherhood," explores a range of issues through a feminist lens, and was recently given a "Beautiful Blogger" award. You can read her blog at http://www.anattitudeadjustment.com/ Since receiving her degree in 2006, Jana has taught at Country Day School of the Sacred Heart, Delco, and Cheltenham High School. In reflecting on her education in Villanova's Graduate English Program she says, "I'm most happy with my degree because I did it while I was working full-time and I loved doing it. It nourished me."

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Drury will be joining Villanova's English Department in the Fall of 2011. Dr. Drury received his B.A. from Oxford University, his M.A. from the University of London, and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University. Dr. Drury specializes in eighteenth-century fiction, and his recent articles include "Haywood’s Thinking Machines," published in Eighteenth-Century Fiction , and "The Novel and the Machine in the Eighteenth Century," published in Novel: A Forum on Fiction .

Congratulations to Kelly Gesch, Villanova English MA '09, for the recent publication of her second book,  The Bedside, Bathtub, and Armchair Companion to Jane Austen,  Continuum Books (218 p) ISBN 978-0826429339, which she co-authored with Carol Adams and Douglas Buchanan. This is Kelly's second book; she also published a companion to Frankenstein in 2007 with these co-authors.

The deadline to apply to take two graduate courses in Galway this summer is the end of February. If you are interested in pursuing this opportunity, you should notify Heather, and then fill out the application form on the International Studies homepage ( http://www.villanova.edu/vpaa/intlstudies/ ) and return it to Dr. James Murphy. You should also make an appointment with Dr. Murphy so you can discuss the program, housing etc. His email address is James.murphy@villanova.edu. Please remember that students receiving fellowships can use this funding to cover the costs of the Galway program.

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Joseph Lennon will be joining the English Department in the fall as the new Director of Villanova's Irish Studies Program. Dr. Lennon received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Connecticut in 2000 and has been teaching at Manhattan College since 2001. He is the author of Irish Orientalism: A Literary and Intellectual History , which was published by Syracuse University Press in 2004 and was awarded the Donald J. Murphy Distinguished First Book Award by the American Conference for Irish Studies (2005). He has published many essays and articles on topics ranging from the cultural interface been Ireland and India to gender in contemporary Irish poetry, and his current research concerns depictions of hunger strikes in modern Irish literature. Dr. Lennon is also an accomplished poet who has published numerous poems in journals and poetry collections.

Due to the inclement weather, the first annual Villanova Thesis Symposium has been postponed. Dr. Hicks will send out an e-mail alerting students to the new date as soon as possible. Stay in and stay warm!

The Villanova Graduate English Program's first annual Thesis and Field Exam Symposium will be held this Saturday, February 6th at 10:00a.m in SAC 300. There are six students slated to present their work; if you would like to attend this event please RSVP as soon as possible as a concrete head count is needed for lunch. Each presentation will be approximately 10 minutes long, followed by a question and answer period; the plan is to have three students present before lunch, and three after. This is a great opportunity for second year students to get valuable feedback on all of their hard work and for first year students to get an idea of what is in store; we hope to see you there!

As part of the 12th annual Villanova Literary Festival, novelist Arthur Phillips will be reading from his recent novel, The Song Is You , on Thursday, February 11th at 7:00 pm in SAC 300. His other critically acclaimed novels include Prague , The Egyptologist , and Angelica .

We have now scheduled our first annual Thesis and Field Exam Symposium for February 6th at 10:00a.m in the SAC.  Dr. Hicks will send out a formal call for submission in January.  The plan is to have two consecutive one hour sessions, in which students offer brief presentations of their research.  We intend to structure the event so that there will be plenty of time for comments and questions by audience members and other presenters.  After the second session, there will be a catered lunch provided by the Office of Graduate Studies.  This is a great opportunity to get valuable feedback on all of your hard work and we hope to see you there!

There are research fellowships available for the Summer of 2010 for current graduate students! The deadline for your application is Friday, January 15, 2010.  If you are interested in this outstanding opportunity, please discuss your proposal with a faculty member in your area of study who will be willing to sponsor your efforts!