The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Alumna Kerry Hasler-Brooks ('10) is presenting at the Study of American Women Writers Triennial Conference in Philadelphia this weekend. Her presentation "Anita Scott Coleman, The Crisis, and a New Negro in the Borderlands” will be a part of the panel titled "Blurred Space, Hybrid Life in the Early 20th Century." Hasler-Brooks is now a faculty member of Messiah College. Don James McLaughlin ('09) is also participating in the conference. He is giving a paper titled “Is Transneglect a Transphobia?” as part of a roundtable discussion titled "Inbetween: What Gender Variance Means to the Study of American Women Writers" which was organized by our own Dr. Jean Lutes.

On December 5, 2014, Chiji Akoma gave the keynote speech, "The Space Between: Re-Imagining Africa in Latin America," at the Conference on Latin American Studies and Open House, sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia Latin American Studies Consortium at Villanova University. Dr. Akoma also presented a paper, “Rewriting the Confessional: African Diaspora Narrative Aesthetic and the Problem of ‘Global Citizenship’” at the Canadian Association of African Studies conference held at University of Ottawa, June 3-5, 2015.

Lauren Shohet, Luckow Family Professor of English, presents: “The Fragrance of the Fall: the Semiotics of Smell in Paradise Lost” Haverford Room, Connelly Center Wednesday, November 11 at 12:00PM Lunch will be provided. Please RSVP by November 6 to sharon.rose-davis@villanova.edu

The English Department is pleased to announce the line-up for the 2016 Villanova University Literary Festival.  All readings will be at 7pm. The locations will be announced soon. January 28:  Gregory Pardlo Gregory Pardlo's ​collection​ Digest (Four Way Books) won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Digest​ was also shortlisted for the​ 2015 NAACP Image Award and is a current finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His other honors​ include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts; his first collection Totem was selected by Brenda Hillman for the APR/Honickman Prize in 2007. Pardlo's poems appear in​ The Nation, Ploughshares, ​Tin House, T​he Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry,Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. Pardlo lives with his family in Brooklyn. February 11:   Dan Torday Daniel Torday is the author of the novel The Last Flight of Poxl West. His novella, The Sensualist, won the ...

Photo by Auraleah Grega During the week preceding Fall Break, the English department ran their fourth annual freshmen program in Good Counsel Hall. A group of grads and undergrads volunteered to assist Dr. Kamran Javadizadeh in leading a discussion of a chapter from J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye . The point of the program was to introduce Villanova freshmen to the level of thoughtful analysis they can encounter through the English Department here. The event began with Dr. Javadizadeh presenting some context for the chapter, as well as an introduction to the great benefits of pursuing study in the field of English. Then student volunteers, each designated a role, read through the 13th chapter of  Catcher . The freshmen were then broken into small groups to discuss their ideas about the text they had just heard. Photos by Auraleah Grega With a grand total of 89 first year students signing in to the event (though numbers were likely higher than...

Below is a write-up by first-year graduate student Rob McClung about a trip he and the rest of Dr. Lisa Sewell's Ecopoetics course took earlier this month: Photo by Rob McClung         Philadelphia is often called a “city of firsts”: within its limits were established the nation’s first public schools, its first hospital, its first lending library, its first public parks, and on the banks of the Schuykill River, its first botanical garden, established by John Bartram on the 108 acres he purchased from Swedish settlers in 1728. Bartram (1699-1777) is remembered as the country’s earliest, and for many years its most prominent, botanist. A third generation Quaker, he remained a farmer throughout his life, but established himself as an authority on North American plants through a combination of autodidactic perseverance and extensive travel throughout the continent, taking him as far north as Canada and as far south as Florida to collect and catalog seeds and...

We are happy to report that class of 2016 Alumnus Jonathan Kadjeski is an Adjunct Instructor at Eastern University. Congratulations, Jonathan!

On May 18, 2015 Dr. Lucky presented a paper at the American Literature Association Conference in Boston, Massachusetts titled "'Ashes for a Heart': Problematizing Black and White Women's Solidarity in Valerie Martin's  Property , Sherley Anne Williams'  Dessa Rose  and Toni Morrison's  Beloved ."

Dr. Shohet, Lucklow Family Professor of English, recently published: "Othello's ipad" in  Shakespearean Echoes , ed. Adam Hansen and Kevin Wetmore. Palgrave, 2015. 108-119;  "Filles perdues, formes retrouvées dans le  Pericles  de Shakespeare et  l'Urania  de Mary Wroth" [Lost daughters, found forms, in Shakespeare's  Pericles  and Mary Wroth's  Urania ] in  Enfants perdus, enfants trouv é s: Dire l'abandon en Europe, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles dans l'europe de l'ancien régime.  Ed. Florence Magnot-Ogilvy et Janice Valls-Russell. Paris: Garnier, 2015, 125-139; and "Forming History, Inhabiting Form in Marvell's 'Upon Appleton House,'" in  Poetic's Today  34:5 (Fall 2014), 655-684. Dr. Shohet has also recently presented the following presentations: "Queering Place in  The Faerie Queene ," International Spenser Society Conference. Dublin, June 18-20 2015; " Pericles  and the Romance of R...

Dr. Javadizadeh was awarded and recently completed a two-month Harry Ransom Center Research Fellowship in the Humanities a the University of Texas in Austin. He was at the Harry Ransom Center for May 2015 and the fall of 2014, spending most of his time researching their Ezra Pound, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell manuscript collections. He is now finishing a draft of the resulting manuscript, which has the working title  Institutionalized Poets: Madness & Lyric at Midcentury . Below is a video recorded by the Harry Ransom Center where Dr. Javadizadeh discusses his research in their archives.

On April 1-4, 2015 at the Shakespeare Association of America Conference in Vancouver, Dr. Dailey presented her paper "I See Dead People: 2 Henry IV and the Corpse of History." Dr. Dailey was also awarded the Villanova Summer Research Fellowship to work on her new book project,  Shakespeare's Effigies: Staging Histories of the Living and the Dead .

Dr. Mullen and Dr. Hicks will present their perspectives on the current state of PhD. application, admission, and academic job market. There will also be conversation with Villanova alumnus Don James McLaughlin, who is currently writing his dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania. Each speaker will offer their thoughts on whether or not to pursue a doctoral degree, where to apply, how to produce an effective application, and what the experience of a PhD. program is like. The event will end in a Q&A session moderated by Dr. Hicks. Come for the pizza, stay for the insightful perspectives on taking the PhD. path! Monday October 5 at 7:30PM in SAC 300.

There will be two workshop dates offered to Villanova graduate student women and alumnae to help enhance their earnings for the rest of their working lives. Participants should attend only one workshop. The dates are: Tuesday, October 6 at 6 p.m. OR Sunday, November 15 at 1 p.m. Registration Fee: $15 (includes dinner) STAY TUNED FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION Health Services Building, Room 200 This workshop is co-sponsored by VSB Graduate Business Programs, CLAS Human Resource Development Program, CLAS Masters in Public Administration, VU Alumni Relations & Villanova Women's Professional Network

The Villanova Undergraduate English Blog posted some great pics from the First Fall Coffee Break! Please check them out, and be sure to attend the next Coffee Break to meet and chat with current grads, undergrads and faculty in the English department. Plus snacks! Villanova English: First Fall Coffee Break : Pictures, taken by English major Karen Loor, from the first fall Coffee Break--Cupcake Edition.

Last Monday was the annual Thesis and Field Exam Workshop. The event was hosted by Dr. Heather Hicks and there was a great turnout of first and second year grad students. The Workshop was incredibly helpful and gave great time parameter suggestions for students to think about re: finding a faculty director and second reader, as well as tips for deciding how long to take on a thesis. It was also a great reminder that Field Exam and Thesis proposal examples are available  right here  on The Yawp! Some important dates to keep in mind for students planning to finish their degree Spring 2016: December 8 is the last day for students to submit a thesis or field exam proposal to Susan Burns January 31 is the last day to apply for May graduation Deadline for submission of theses for May graduation is April 29 Seventh Annual Thesis and Field Exam Symposium is April 30 at SAC 300 from 10:00am-12:00pm, followed by lunch If you have any further questions about the The...

This Monday is the annual Thesis and Field Exam Workshop. All graduate students are welcome to attend, regardless of whether they are finishing up their degree this year or later.  Dr. Heather Hicks is leading the workshop and will discuss suggestions for identifying a thesis or field exam topic, approaching a director and second reader, and how to undertake the work itself. It's a great opportunity to think about the thesis and field exam, as well as an opportunity to begin setting up groups among yourselves.  Additionally, there will be pizza! Monday September 21 at 7:30 in SAC 300

10/1 Erin Giles “Keep It Real with Erin Giles, Founder of End Sex Trafficking Day” Co-sponsored with Villanova SVA, POWER, and Peace & Justice. Connelly Cinema 10/27 Joanna Barsh, Author of How Remarkable Women Lead and Centered Leadership Co-sponsored with Villanova Women’s Professional Network and College of Engineering Villanova Room, Connelly Center 11/2 Brenda Elsey (History, Hofstra University),  “The Unbearable Whiteness of the Women’s World Cup, 2015”  Co-sponsored by History, Global Interdisciplinary Studies, and Romance Languages & Literatures Driscoll Auditorium (Driscoll 132) 11/4 Stefanie Knauss (Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova) “Less sex, more fun: A feminist-theological analysis of celibacy as a lifestyle” Lunch faculty research workshop Devon Room, Connelly Center 11/10 “Perspectives and Experiences of Women in Engineering: A Panel of Recent Graduates” Moderated by Amy Fleischer (Mechanical Engineering, Villanova), co-spons...

On May 16, the Graduate English Department watched as this year's graduates walked across the stage at the Recognition Ceremony for the Graduate Arts and Sciences. Afterward, a small reception was held for the graduates, their parents, and English Department faculty. What a challenging two years and what a great group of graduates! By the end of two years, they were saying goodbye to professors who had become friends. We wish them all the best!

Ted Howell, a recent alumnus of the program and a PhD student at Temple University, is getting attention for breaking ground with an innovative new course at Temple. “Cli-fi: Science Fiction, Climate Change, and Apocalypse" focuses on the new genre of "Climate Fiction," which shows the possible apolcalyptic outcomes that are inevitable if climate change continues as predicted. This course is getting media attention for the way it brings together literature and cutting-edge scientific findings. The course focuses on this new movement in literature (exemplified in such works as  The Wind-Up Girl ), which harnesses the concerns of a culture that feels the threat of apocalyptic climate change. In addition to getting students thinking about the intersection between climate science and fiction, he also encourages his students to participate in the wider climate change conversation by posting all their work to a blog. He was recently featured in a  Reuters  article , a  New...

Quoted from The Word Works' April 21, 2015 Newsletter: Lisa Sewell's Impossible Object is real - and wonderful ! Winner of the First Annual Tenth Gate Prize Impossible Object , Sewell's third full-length collection, shows what it means to be in constant, alert connection to the world and its voices. Each poem is deeply rooted in a specific work of literature as well as an event in the poet's life, earning this praise from Linda Gregerson: "Lisa Sewell has invented a new poetic genre. I'd call the mode ekphrastic, but ekphrasis doesn't quite capture it. She eats, sleeps, and breathes books. Books are her lime flower tea - she recovers the past in books. Books are her avenue to political witness - they afford a foundational grammar for feeling and moral awareness. Books are her oxygen and elementary language." Arthur Sze adds, "In these sharp, arresting poems, Lisa Sewell writes out of a place and time 'when there is neve...

Don James McLaughlin is the recipient of the Marguerite Bartlett Hamer Dissertation Fellowship, awarded by the University of Pennsylvania's McNeil Center for Early American Studies. The award is a yearlong fellowship for the 2015/16 academic year.

Dr. Hunter's article "Boethian Humor and the Pseudo-Beothian De disciplina scolarium" just came out in Viator 46.1 (2015): 161-79. She also has another article forthcoming in Carmina Philosophiae. Dr. Hunter just awarded the Katherine F. Pantzer Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography at Harvard's Houghton Library, where I'll be resident for four weeks looking at early printed editions of De disciplina scolarium. She also received a research grant from Villanova to go look at another collection of early print editions of De disciplina at the Library of Congress.

Here's some interesting  graphs and stats  that show the correlation between where someone gets a PhD and where they get a job. Though the conclusions aren't groundbreaking, it's unusual to see such concrete numbers in these discussions.

Our very own Dr. Lisa Sewell will be giving a scholarship@Villanova talk in Falvey Library on Tuesday, April 14, at 4:30 pm. Dr. Sewell will be discussing and reading from her new volume of poetry, Impossible Object , which is the winner of the Gate Prize for poetry.

Samantha Sorensen presented her paper, "'I came to love myself in defiance': Embodied Political Resistance in Kincaid's  Autobiography of My Mother " at the Literature and Social Justice conference at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA in March 2015.

A quick word from Dr. Heather Hicks: If you are interested in gender studies, you should plan to attend the ECS conference at Villanova next Thursday. A highlight will be Lauren Berlant's talk at 4:30 in the Connelly Cinema. Lauren Berlant is one of the most famous literary critics in the US, and she does very challenging and cutting-edge theoretical work. Her talk is entitled, "Arts of Survival: On Dissociation and the Attachment to Life." 

Rebecca Hepp, a 2013 graduate of the Graduate English Program, is now a senior associate/web editor for Jobson Healthcare Information's  Review of Optometry  magazine, a national, monthly magazine based out of Newtown Square. "So far I am really happy with the move!" Rebecca says. "It's mostly print now, but they brought me on board to help revamp the website and give it some much needed TLC."

Villanova Grad English alum Laura Heinrich ('10) just got a new job. According to a recent update, she is now working at a charter school in Phoenix, Arizona, with the "Great Hearts" charter school system. The rest of her update is below: I am finally doing work I love, in Phoenix (where it is gorgeous right now and will be HOT in a matter of weeks). I'm teaching poetry, history and literature for middle and high school at a charter [school called "Great Hearts."] It is a very Liberal Arts heavy education, and I think a lot of people who are struggling to find a niche in the academic world might end up as happy as I am in this one. Check out our " Jobs " page for more information about working at a Great Hearts school.

Megan Quigley is scheduled to give a talk in Falvey Library’s Scholarship @ Villanova series next week: Wednesday, February 18, at 2:30 in Falvey 205. She will be talking about her book,  Modernist Fiction and Vagueness: Philosophy, Form, and Language (Cambridge University Press).

Please mark your calendars for March 23-24, when we'll be holding a series of fascinating workshops and performances of an 18th-century puppet-show adaptation of Hamlet by the critically acclaimed Austin, TX-based theater group Hidden Room. No tickets will be necessary. The workshops will be geared toward Villanova and Penn grad students in English, Theatre, and Creative Writing.  The Hidden Room Theatre’s der Bestrafte Brudermord On March 23-24, Villanova will host award-winning Texas-based theater group The Hidden Room to stage their original-practices puppet-show production of der Bestrafte Brudermord, the mysterious slapstick Hamlet found in a German manuscript in the 18th century. The Hidden Room's visit to Villanova will include two evening shows, each followed by an artist talk-back, and two workshops on theatre scholarship, dramatic practice, and arts entrepreneurship. This event is co-sponsored by Villanova and the University of Pennsylvania. All members of the...

An Announcement from the  American Women Writers Study Group: Dr. Travis Foster and Dr. Jean Lutes have arranged a discussion of Hannah Crafts’ The Bondwoman's Narrative at Villanova on Saturday April 11, 2015. Discussion will be facilitated by Faith Barrett and Brigitte Fielder, and meeting space, lunch, and coffee will be provided courtesy of Villanova's English department and the programs of Africana Studies and Gender and Women's Studies. Attendees should meet in the East Lounge of Dougherty Hall for lunch at noon. Discussion will run from approximately 12:30 – 4:30 with a coffee break at about 3 pm. Additionally, for the benefit of those coming in from out of town, as well as for any interested students, the coordinators of the event have made 7:00 p.m. dinner reservations at Han Dynasty in Old City ( http://handynasty.net/oldcity/ ). If you would like to attend, please take a minute to look over the menu, then let Travis know (1) that you would like to at...

The Villanova English department is pleased to announce that Penn State's Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies, Eric Hayot, will be this year's Luckow lecturer. His presentation will be on April 1st at 5:30 p.m., location TBA. He will be talking about his new book, The Elements of Academic Style (Columbia UP, 2014). This is a fantastic book written for graduate students and professors in the humanities, which describes how to write seminar papers, conference papers, journal articles, and academic books effectively. I highly recommend reading Dr. Hayot's book, which covers a wide range of issues from time management, to how to write effective introductions and conclusions, to citation and footnote techniques, to issues like using figurative language in academic writing. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Academic-Style-Humanities/dp/0231168012/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389702688&sr=8-2&keywords=elements+of...

All first year graduate English students are welcome to apply for a graduate-level summer research program at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. The workshop is administered by Villanova’s Philosophy Department, but it cuts across numerous disciplines and is open to students and faculty in the humanities and social sciences. You can see their website for more information at http://criticaltheoryworkshop.com or email Dr. Gabriel Rockhill at gabriel.rockhill@villanova.edu.Summer research programs are a fantastic way to enhance your CV and travel to a new place with a trusted guide. 

The New Yorker offered this helpful diagram of plots one hopefully will not meet in the study of great literature.

The deadline for submitting a paper to Villanova’s graduate student journal for research, CONCEPT,  is Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. The author of the best article in the 2015 issue will receive the Graduate Student Research Prize. Submissions should be material that has been researched and written as part of graduate work at Villanova and may be up to 25 pages. Scholars from all of the Graduate Studies Programs for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are invited to submit. We seek papers that are exemplary in their respective disciplines as well as papers that have an interdisciplinary appeal. Selection for publication is highly competitive. We will recognize the top essay as the Graduate Research Prize Essay. The winning author will be formally recognized at the publication celebration on April 23rd @ 2:30 in Falvey Library. Authors should register with the website, http://concept.journals.villanova.edu and follow the instructions there for posting their submission. (An ...