MA Graduation 2020 Zoom Celebration & Reading Recs

Villanova MA students and English professors gathered, digitally, on Saturday to celebrate our ten spring 2020 graduates: Avni Sejpal, Brendan Maher, Caitlin Phillips, Catherine Mooradd, Edward Dold, Jesse Schwartz, Kristen Sieranski, Matthew Ryan, Michelle Wrambel, and Thomas Higgins.

After a toast and brief remarks from Graduate Director Evan Radcliffe, our students shared some favorite authors, most underrated authors, and/or their ‘zoom bookshelves’: the books they would most like to be seen on their shelves in the background of their Zoom conversations.

Authors and titles mentioned by our students and faculty members included…



Students

Avni Sejpal
Milkman by Anna Burns, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

Caitlin Phillips
(could not be present, but sent her selections by email)
-Dracula, because it was a book I looked at closely for my undergraduate capstone paper. It carries many different interpretations that help people discuss gender, sexuality, ecocriticism, and imperialism. I looked at the ecocritical aspects of how nature is used to develop a dichotomy between English rule and “othered” groups.
-Pygmalion, because I had a great English professor teach it. It’s a fun read and reflects some interesting points about society and its class structures. I’d have this on my bookshelf mostly because of the way it was taught to me, with enjoyable conversations and the openness to sharing different points of view.
-The Days Are Just Packed: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection, because at this moment in time we all need to be reminded of fun. Even though these are a compilation of comic strips, Watterson’s use of a childhood perspective to address complex adult issues always resonates with me. It combines the nostalgia of childhood with the issues that make us group up little by little, and in a chaotic time in our world it’s important to remember what brings us joy and what has made us who we are today. Equally important—Watterson gives the reader some great ideas of how to handle quarantine, if one uses their imagination.

Daniella Snyder (to graduate this summer, was unable to attend)
The three books in my ideal Zoom bookshelf background would be The Great Gatsby, Normal People by Sally Rooney, and All About Love by bell hooks. My favorite underrated author is Meg Wollitzer, I think.

Edward Dold
Favorite Writer: Cormac McCarthy; Favorite Book: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole; Zoom Bookshelf: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Jesse Schwartz
Favorite Writer: James Baldwin

Matthew Ryan
Current Favorite Book: Milkman by Anna Burns; he mentioned “Ghost in the Cloud” by Meghan O'Gieblyn later in a discussion about essays

Michelle Wrambel
She has been teaching The Laramie Project. She recommends the movie Cracked Up: The Darrell Hammond Story. She mentioned many books she has been studying, enjoying, looking forward to reading, or planning to teach: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, The Yellow House by Sarah Broom, In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Negroland by Margo Jefferson.

Thomas Higgins
He has been reading and enjoying Dante’s The Divine Comedy. His pandemic recommendations include the video game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the Pier Pasolini film The Decameron.

Faculty

Adrienne Perry
Has been enjoying Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste.

Evan Radcliffe
His Zoom bookshelf featured the Harry Potter Series, Wordsworth’s The Prelude, and Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Heather Hicks
Has been reading The Names by Don DeLillo. She also mentioned White Noise by Don DeLillo and Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Joseph Lennon
Has been reading Maksim Gorky

Kamran Javadizadeh
Would choose Elizabeth Bishop’s Complete Poems for his Zoom bookshelf

Lisa Sewell
Has been reading Aftermath by Rachel Cusk

Mary Mullen

Would choose for her Zoom bookshelf: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, The Reorder of Things by Roderick A. Ferguson, and After the Last Sky by Edward Said