The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

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.