The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Students in Megan Quigley’s graduate Ulysses course presented their final research papers while decking the halls for their final class of the semester! Note the three creative James Joyce themed tree ornaments! Parallax and Henry Flower (the nom de plume of Bloom when he writes love letters to Martha Clifford)... ...and, of course, a “corpse of milk” man!

Gender and Women's Studies Student Research Conference CALL FOR PAPERS The 29th Annual Gender & Women’s Studies Student Research Conference is on  Friday, April 6, 2018 . 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 2017 or written specifically for the conference. Paper Eligibility and Submission Guidelines : http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/gws/ecs_conference/papers.html Submission Deadline: Friday, February 16, 2018 Conference presented by Villanova's Gender & Women's Studies Program and The Greater Philadelphia Women's Studies Consortium.  Questions? Email gws@villanova.edu

The Department of English at St. John's University invites papers that think about narrative across literary and writing studies. The Department of English at St. John's University invites papers that think about narrative across literary and writing studies. Our topic for this year's graduate conference, "Telling Stories: Rethinking Narrative in Literary and Writing Studies," asks us to consider what is entailed in generating narrative(s). We seek work that explores the cultural place of stories and their various modes of telling-through drama, poetry, prose forms, performance, digital media, translation--as well as the role of narrative in pedagogy and writing studies, in any historical, national, or diasporic tradition. Conceiving of "telling stories" broadly, we welcome work that critically engages or reconceptualizes storytelling, including analyses of individual, collective, or representative texts or performances; considerations of the making ...

Seasonal festivities, bountiful grub, and a spirit of nearly-done-with-term-paper-relaxation abounded at our annual Holiday Decorating Party! Thanks to all who attended!

Georgetown University has issued a call for papers for their upcoming conference, "New Biopolitics: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference." The conference will take place on   Saturday, February 24, 2018. Visit our post on the Conferences page for comprehensive 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 . And remember that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

The society of students in the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (MAHG) Program at Stockton University would like to invite graduate students in English at Villanova University to submit presentation proposals for an emerging scholars conference,  "In the Name of Conscience": An Emerging Scholars Conference on Genocide, Mass Atrocity, and Human Rights . The conference will take place on  Tuesday, March 27, 2018. Visit the full post on our Conferences 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 . And remember that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Our annual proposal writing workshop, which is specifically geared to the Graduate Summer Research Fellowships , will take place on Thursday, Dec. 7, at 7:30 pm, in SAC 310 [note: not SAC 300].  We’ll go over the various elements of putting together an application, from the “rationale/background for the proposed work” through the “description of the research plan and proposed methodology” to the “statement of the impact of the award on the student’s progress toward graduation.” See you there.

We know you're all ready for Thanksgiving, but put this on your radar: there's an upcoming information session for the 2018 Irish Theatre Summer Studio ! When: Wednesday, Nov. 29th at 4:30 p.m.  Where: SAC 300 The Summer Studio, a Villanova University summer course, invites graduate students and advanced undergraduates to Dublin to immerse themselves in Irish theatre. This unique three-credit study-abroad course examines the major works and history of the Abbey Theatre and trains students in the production of Irish Theatre. From the studio to the stage, students will develop work for a final showing at the Lir Theatre, the National Academy of Dramatic Arts Here's some more information about the program from Dr. Lennon: Irish Theatre Summer Studio From the studio to the stage, students will study the workings and history of Ireland's world-class national theatre while developing their own theatre skills, knowledge, and practice. Students from Villano...

Thank you to Drs. Evan Radcliffe, Brooke Hunter, and Yumi Lee for hosting our PhD forum last evening!

The Graduate English Organization at the University of Maryland, College Park invites MA, Ph.D., and MFA students to submit an abstract for UMD's 11th Annual English Graduate Conference. This year's conference is titled "Formations: Intersections of Form Across the Literary, Social, and Political" and will take place on Saturday, March 10, 2018. Visit our full posting on the Conferences 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 . And remember that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Shadow Man, Drew's second novel, follows Detective Ben Wade who has returned to his hometown of Rancho Santa Elena in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and excellent public schools, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety. As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer—and deal with painful episodes in the past—Ben’s own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to protect their friendship and themselves to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret. With fine, chilling prose, acclaimed author Alan Drew weaves richly imagined characters into the first of several thrilling novels of suspense featuring the California world of Ben Wade and Natasha Betencourt. Shadow Ma...

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, welcomes proposals for presentations at Nexus 2018, our 8th biennial interdisciplinary conference, related to the theme of Agency and Artificiality: Assembling Humanity in the 21st Century . The conference dates will be March 1 - March 3 , and submissions are open to faculty and graduate students.  Visit the full posting on our Conferences page for all the info! 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 . And remember that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Call for Papers:“Reformatting the World: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Technology and the Humanities” at York University. Conference info: YorkU Humanities Graduate Conference, February 23-24, 2018. Visit the full posting on our Conferences page for all the details. 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. And remember that you have to apply for the funding before you attend the conference. (In recent years, the funding has tended to run out early in the spring semester.)

Dr. Jim Murphy, emeritus Professor of English, received an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland, Galway, on Oct. 18, “for his dedication in bringing an inter-disciplinary focus to the study of the history and culture of both Ireland and Irish-America.”   Visit the link below to watch the video! “The award recognises Professor Murphy's lifetime dedication to celebrating Irish culture, developing transatlantic links, and promoting the transformative effect of studying abroad.” Visit the university's Twitter post to see some of Dr. Murphy's advice for students starting college.

Attention grad students! Our annual PhD forum will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 7:30 pm, in SAC 300 . Drs. Evan Radcliffe, Yumi Lee, and Brooke Hunter will 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. We'll also hear some insights from Ted Howell, a 2010 graduate of our program who finished his PhD at Temple in May and is now a full time Lecturer at Rowan University. See you then!

Beware! Students from Professor Megan Quigley’s 1975 class and the English Expedition Club hit the Rosenbach Museum and Library on Saturday Oct. 22nd to take in the Frankenstein & Dracula exhibit and for a hands-on tour of Dracula materials with curator Ed Pettit. Did you know that Bram Stoker originally intended to call Dracula just Count Vampyre ?  And that plenty believed, at the time, that vampires roamed the earth? Let’s hope they were wrong…

The competition for Graduate Summer Research Fellowships is now open. The deadline for applications is January 20, 2018 (regardless of which day of the week it falls on). For details regarding eligibility requirements, criteria, how to apply, deadline for proposals and review process, faculty evaluation of the project, and award recipients, please visit the “Graduate Summer Research Fellowship” webpage found here .  Important note: please read the webpage in its entirety since the application process has changed. Villanova University students cannot receive support to conduct research in countries under a Travel Warning from the U.S. Department of State.  In the event that a country is placed on a travel warning after funding has been awarded, students must communicate with the Office of Graduate Studies to cancel travel arrangements and return any funds that have been awarded. If you have a scholarly project for which you would like summer support, please discuss this w...

Last Thursday, October 19th, poet Dean Rader visited us to read from his recently-published collection, Self-Portrait as a Wikipedia Entry (Copper Canyon, 2017). Dean Rader’s debut collection of poems, Works & Days , won the 2010 T. S. Eliot Poetry Prize, and Landscape Portrait Figure Form (2014) was named by The Barnes & Noble Review as a Best Poetry Book of the year. He has won numerous awards for his writing, including the 2016 Common Good Books Prize, judged by Garrison Keillor, and the 2015 George Bogin Award from the Poetry Society of America, judged by Stephen Burt. His most recent scholarly book is Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from Alcatraz to the NMAI (2011). Rader teaches English at the University of San Francisco, where he has also served as Department Chair. He writes and reviews regularly for The San Francisco Chronicle, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and The Huffington Post . Two new collections of poetry appeared ...

The Tragic Sense of Life: Survey of Greek Tragedy LST 7100 (Foundation/Ancient) Dr. Brian Satterfield R 5:20-7:20 Greek Tragedy originated as a genre in a religious festival for Dionysus some 2500 years, but has transcended its particular circumstances and become synonymous with a view of life. In “The Tragic Sense of Life: Survey of Greek Tragedy” we will read major works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, as well as authors who have attempted to work out a theory of tragedy, including Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, and Nietzsche, with a view to better understanding the characteristics of Greek tragedy and the tragic sense of life it engendered.  Paris, City of Order and Anarchy LST 7203 Dr Alex Varias T 5:20-7:20 This course focuses on the history and cultural transformation of Paris since the French Revolution. The perspective will be on Paris as a city hovering between the fixation on order and the forces creating volatility and chaos. Creativity and art emerged from bo...

Check out our upcoming courses  (descriptions on the grad English program website), ranging from topics in science fiction, civil war literature, epistolary writing, and much more.

On Tuesday, the Villanova English community was treated to a fantastic lecture on Joyce's correspondences from guest speaker Dr. Kevin Dettmar. Dettmar discussed the profuse use of correspondences throughout Joyce's fiction, the mode of the correspondences Joyce himself wrote during his lifetime, and, in particular, the illuminating importance of the letters exchanged between Joyce and Grant Richards, his publisher.  Dettmar also discussed his in-progress project: the gathering, transcription, and publication of a massive collection of Joyce's previously unpublished letters. Thank you to Drs. Megan Quigley and Kamran Javadizadeh for organizing! English Colloquium faculty and guest speaker Dr. Kevin Dettmar / Prof. Megan Quigley / Prof. Kevin Dettmar (Pomona) / Prof. Mary Mullen / Alex Brodin / Prof. Kamran Javadizadeh / Prof. Paul Saint-Amour (Penn) / Christie Leonard (behind camera)

By Angela Christaldi Stephen Reaugh, a second-year graduate student studying English literature, didn’t plan on pursuing the theatre, especially in grad school. However, a few months in Ireland changed his mind. While studying English as an undergraduate at Allegheny College, Reaugh spent “almost all [his] time” in the theatre department, performing in shows like Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” He hadn’t walked through the doors of Vasey Theatre, though, until he was persuaded by his fellow Abbey Theatre Summer Studio students. “I hadn’t done a lot of theatre [since undergrad] until this past summer,” Reaugh said. “I did the Abbey Summer Studio. There were some theatre students, who were also part of the class, and as part of the Summer Studio, at the end of your time in Dublin you put on a devised show at the Abbey Theatre at the Peacock Stage…After two weeks, I kept thinking, ‘I forgot how much I love this.’” The show that Reaugh and h...

Graduate students are invited to take part in the College at Brockport’s 4thAnnual SEGUE—The Symposium for English Graduate Students, which will take place on Saturday, February 24, 2018 . Visit the post on our Conferences Opportunities page for more information! As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for  Conference Travel Funding .

The Early Modern Colloquium at the University of Michigan invites abstracts for papers for their interdisciplinary graduate student conference, "Exploring Resistance through Medieval and Early Modern Culture,” at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, March 16-17, 2018. Visit the post on our Conferences Opportunities page for more information! As always, remember that if you decide to submit proposals to any conferences, be sure to consider applying for  Conference Travel Funding .

Grads and undergrads alike recently spent some time talking to other students about English and reading some T.S. Eliot. Junior English major Alex Forgion reports: "The event had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun! After we read the poem aloud, professors Javadizadeh and Quigley shared some fascinating background information about the poem and T. S. Eliot. Then, we broke up into groups and discussed specifics about the poem. All of our conversations were very productive and insightful; hopefully we inspired some people to declare English as a major!" Thanks to all who participated!

Members of  Dr. Quigley 's Joyce classes (grads and undergrads) ventured into Philly this past Saturday for a special viewing of Joyce's  Ulysses  manuscripts, letters, and several notebooks. The presentation was packed with facts about Joyce's extensive revision process for the book--some pages went through as many as twelve rounds of revisions! First edition! Alex was a fan. 

This past Saturday, faculty and grad students from the department traveled to The Academy @ Palumbo in South Philly for the St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service. We spent the day doing various improvement projects across the school, including painting columns in the cafeteria and guidance counselor offices. BIG shoutout to our group coordinator, Nick Manai, who did a phenomenal job getting us organized, answering questions, tracking down more paintbrushes, successfully finding band aids, etc. Dr. Yumi "Paint Tape Pro" Lee in action Angeline and Lia! Our group was part of the 5,000 other Villanovans who volunteered their time to various service projects at more than 100 sites across Greater Philadelphia. Thanks to everyone who came!

Attention grad students: The Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) has issued a call for abstracts!   Visit their site to submit.  And don't forget, you can request conference travel funding . The Northeast Modern Language Association's 2018 keynote speaker will be Professor Rob Nixon, the Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in the Humanities and the Environment at Princeton University. He is the author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor, which won numerous awards, including the International Studies Association for the best book in environmental studies.

Ted Howell, class of 2010, was recently published in the  Modern Language Quarterly ! Abstract: Planted throughout E. M. Forster’s  Howards End  are the seeds of many dramatic forms of climate change that subsequently dominated the twentieth century.  Howards End  gathers together major strands of its contemporaneous ecological thought, where distressful events (rural decay, deforestation) are perceived; nostalgia for a pastoral past is honestly felt but recognized as impractical; devastation on a national, imperial, and even global scale is foretold; and hope for the earth’s future comes in a form largely symbolic or mythical—as vision more than prediction. Forster’s awareness of the potentially global significance of local environmental change emerged in concert with the environmental philosophy of his era, specifically the “back to the land” movement and theories of climatic determinism, and was developed in a 1909 short story, “The Machine Stops,” that he...

Ted Howell, class of 2010, was recently published in the  Modern Language Quarterly ! Abstract: Planted throughout E. M. Forster’s  Howards End  are the seeds of many dramatic forms of climate change that subsequently dominated the twentieth century.  Howards End  gathers together major strands of its contemporaneous ecological thought, where distressful events (rural decay, deforestation) are perceived; nostalgia for a pastoral past is honestly felt but recognized as impractical; devastation on a national, imperial, and even global scale is foretold; and hope for the earth’s future comes in a form largely symbolic or mythical—as vision more than prediction. Forster’s awareness of the potentially global significance of local environmental change emerged in concert with the environmental philosophy of his era, specifically the “back to the land” movement and theories of climatic determinism, and was developed in a 1909 short story, “The Machine Stops,” that he...

Thanks, all, for coming to our recent panel discussion, " Winter is Coming: A Conversation About Game of Thrones ,” led by Drs. Joe Drury , Brooke Hunter , and Travis Foster . It was packed!

AMC Networks is hiring a Social Marketing Content Producer, see link below for more info! Overview: You love the Internet. You love keeping up with the ever-changing social media landscape. You know the difference between a fan and a Liker. You inherently understand the difference between the audiences on Instagram, Snapchat Discover, and YouTube. You understand why designing for social is different from designing for banner ads. You would gladly nerd out over the differences between designing for print, motion, and for the Internet, AKA maximum shareability. You create memes in your sleep. You want to tell stories through the art on our pages, and understand how that story across channels ladders up to a bigger narrative. You think that testing and engagement data can lead to more compelling creative executions for our fans. The Social Content Producer works hand-in-hand on the Social Marketing team with the Social Marketing Manager who writes all social copy, man...

It was great to see you all at yesterday's coffee break! What a wonderful time to meet all kinds of English students at both the undergrad and graduate level. Were YOU one of the lucky ones who was able to snag a department t-shirt? See you next time!