The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

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!