The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Our upcoming spring colloquium will feature Dagmawi Woubshet from the University of Pennsylvania.  His talk is entitled “ Outside the Temple: James Baldwin’s Changing View of Love and Sexuality ." From the poster: Dagmawi Woubshet is Ahuja Family Presidential Associate Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, where he works at the intersections of African American, LGBTQ, and African studies. He is the author of The Calendar of Loss: Race, Sexuality, and Mourning in the Early Era of AIDS (Johns Hopkins UP, 2015) and the co-editor of Ethiopia: Literature, Art, and Culture , a special issue of the journal Callaloo (2010). His writing has appeared in many publications, including Transition, NKA: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Aperture, The Atlantic , and African Lives: An Anthology . He is currently completing a second book, Here Be Saints: James Baldwin’s Late Style . See you there!

Dr. Tsering Wangmo gave a talk at Temple University on March 27 entitled “Tibet: Unity in Exile and the Establishment of the ‘Right’ Vision.” In the talk, she presented on two political manifestoes (produced by Tibetan refugees in India in the mid-1960s) that shaped the discourse on unity and democracy within Tibetan exilic life. She outlined how unity was an exclusionary discourse that became the dominant framework for thinking about the boundaries of belonging, refugee-citizenship in exile, and the values of the Tibetan people. The talk was sponsored by the departments of Religion, Global Studies, and Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies.

Alex with her fellow panelists! Alex Einspahr recently presented her paper, “Enforcing a Steady Hand: Illness, Incarceration, and Reparative Space in Harriet Martineau and Austin Reed” at the 2019 Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies (INCS) conference on "Monuments and Memory." Alex's panel was on the topic of  “Medical Discourses and Memory.” The INCS conference took place in Dallas from March 21-24, and our very own Dr. Mary Mullen also presented a paper: “Anachronistic Literacy: Maggie Tulliver’s Untimely Reading.”

Avni has been awarded a Graduate Student Summer Research Fellowship for summer 2019, which will take her to London.  Here’s Avni’s description of her research project: "This project, 'Indentured Imaginaries,' studies postcolonial literary narratives and memoirs alongside colonial records of labour and migration archived at the British Library in London. By engaging this archive, I will look closely at the ways in which dispossessed subjects of empire—in particular, indentured workers shunted from British colonies in Asia to sugar plantations in Africa and the Caribbean—are figured in both historical documents as well as the postcolonial writing of Amitav Ghosh and Gaiutra Bahadur. In doing so, I seek to understand how literary texts from the Global South narrate the advent of colonial modernity and cosmopolitanism from below in ways that subtend, exceed, and even subvert the historical record as well as national literary paradigms." Congratulations, Avni!

Don James McLaughlin, an '09 MA grad and professor at the University of Tulsa , is participating in a Whitman symposium later this month. The symposium, entitled Whitman at 200: Looking Back, Looking Forward , explores Whitman's work and life, and is being put on by The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Libraries. This symposium is part of Whitman at 200: Art and Democracy , a region-wide initiative to explore the impact and importance of Walt Whitman in 2019, his bicentennial year. Symposium participants include Nancy Bentley (UPenn), Max Cavitch (UPenn), Matt Cohen (UNebraska, Lincoln), Jay Grossman (Northwestern), Tyler Hoffman (Rutgers), Virginia Jackson (UCalifornia, Irvine), Heather Love (UPenn), Meredith McGill (Rutgers), Don James McLaughlin (UTulsa), Peter Stallybrass (UPenn), Michael Warner (Yale), Edward Whitley (Lehigh), and Michael Winship (UTexas, Austin). Congratulations, Don James!

Last Thursday, our very own second-year grad student, Alex Einspahr, hosted a workshop with Villanova's Learning Support Services. The topic (something each and every one of us can relate to!) was "Writing Under Stress." Alex's workshop provided insight into updating the writing process to reflect both the assignment structure and sometimes stressful nature of academic writing. Alex reviewed writing templates, brainstorming and organization strategies, time management tips, and managing anxiety around completing writing assignments. Y ou can find a recording of the workshop here ! Nice work, Alex!

The Rosenbach library in downtown Philly is running an essay contest for critical essays about Ulysses or another Joyce text. Submissions are due on Monday, April 15 , and our very own Dr. Megan Quigley is one of the judges! The winners will (appropriately) be announced at the Rosenbach's Bloomsday celebration on June 16. Check out full requirements and submission instructions here !

Carrying signs saying, "There is No Planet B" and "I Stand For What I Stand On," Villanova English graduate students, undergrad majors, and faculty joined the international climate change walk-out on Friday, March 15. After chants and speeches, a group of about 150 students, faculty, and local residents marched from the Oreo to Tolentine Hall to deliver their two demands to Father Peter Donohue: that Villanova pledge to move the date for making the campus carbon neutral up to 2030, and that the university enter into a power purchase for renewable energy contract by 2020. Faculty member Tsering Wangmo joins in on sign-making Daniella's sign The Main Line Times reported on the event, and quoted our very own Daniella Snyder: "Daniella Snyder, 23, a graduate student in the English department who had researched climate change for an earlier town hall meeting, said events like the protest were rare at Villanova. She held a sign that read, 'The...

What's Hot?  Introduction to Theory Across the Discipline of English ENG 8000: Literary Theory Dr. Heather Hicks CRN 28851 Thursday 5:20-7:20 pm This course will be run as a seminar in which each week, a different graduate faculty member will introduce you to a body of theory that is particularly important within current discussions in their field of specialization.  What are some of the major theoretical approaches in medieval studies today? Early modern studies? What about 19th-century American literature and British literature?  Modernism?  Postcolonial Studies? Irish Studies? Contemporary literature?  This new, experimental class is an attempt to bring you immediately into dialogue with a wide variety of theories that are shaping literary study today.  The course is intended to be a lively opportunity to meet most of the English faculty members who teach at the graduate level and to engage in dialogue about and analysis of the contemporary state o...

Congratulations to Angela Christaldi , who was just selected as a recipient of the Graduate Studies Service Award for academic year 2018-2019! This award recognizes individuals whose contributions to graduate studies have enhanced the scholarly activities undertaken in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.  Angela is receiving this award in recognition of her valuable contributions as one of the student editors of the 2019 issue of CONCEPT. Way to go, Angela!

  Congratulations to Dr. Jean Lutes, whose article, " Lovelorn Columns: A Genre Scorned ," was just published in American Literature , one of the top journals in literary studies.  From the article abstract:  "Using Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) to explore a wily, underestimated genre, Dr. Lutes's essay juxtaposes his brutal, brilliant riff on the advice column with readings of the real thing. She reviews the lovelorn column’s distinctive features, situates West’s satiric novella in that context, and then examines the racial dynamics of both the novella and the genre, touching briefly on two careers: that of the well-known Dorothy Dix, who was white, and that of Princess Mysteria, a little-known columnist who was African American. In the process, Dr. Lutes shows that West tells us both more and less about this mass print genre than scholars have allowed. Although he portrays advice columns as a morally bankrupt product of consumer capita...

Congratulations to Dr. Megan Quigley, whose short essay, " Reading 'The Waste Land' with the #MeToo Generation ," was just published in the journal Modernism/Modernity 's digital Print Plus platform. Dr. Quigley's essay reflects on the challenges of teaching modernist literature in a new era of feminist activism.

The Wolf Humanities Center and the Price Lab for Digital Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania are hiring a self starter to work closely with the administrators and faculty directors of both centers. The Program Coordinator is responsible for the following: Help plan and execute printed and digital publicity; to include designing posters, flyers, and e-blasts; editing websites; generating social media posts; and writing promotional copy.  Coordinate programs and events; to include managing all logistical arrangements for public events, seminars, meetings, travel, catering, venue bookings, and set-up.  Staff all events; to include ensuring proper setup and cleanup, registration, and guest management.  Process and maintain accurate records of all financial transactions and contracts; to include managing research funds, expense reports, honoraria, reimbursements, entertainment, supplies, and equipment.  Schedule internal space bookings; manage multipl...