The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

This past fall, Ann Marie Jakubowski, who completed her MA at Villanova in 2017 and is now a graduate student in the English department at Washington University in St. Louis, won the 2020 T. S. Eliot Studies Annual Prize for “‘Never anything anywhere’: Whiteness in Eliot’s Literary Imaginary.” The prize is awarded annually to the best seminar paper presented by an early-career scholar at the Annual Meeting of the International T. S. Eliot Society. Ann Marie's paper was presented as part of a peer seminar on ‘Eliot and Racial Others.’  Congratulations, Ann Marie!

Shirley Wong , PhD, from Westfield State University, will deliver a talk titled, " Contemporary Irish Poetry and the Creative Economy,"   from her forthcoming book on globalization, place, and contemporary Irish poetry   Monday, February 15th at 7:00 P.M. EST. The talk is open to all!   In this lecture, Wong will discuss occasional poetry, which memorializes a specific event such as a funeral or military victory. Wong argues that contemporary Irish poets exploit the poem’s historic ties to patronage in order to critique the creative economy schemes (e.g. UNESCO City of Literature; Per Cent for Art Scheme; World Cities Culture Forum). Focusing on the work of Paula Meehan, she argues that occasional poetry dramatizes the capitalist crisis of contemporary Irish literature, which has been transformed by Ireland’s rapid financialization from the 1980s to the present. Wong makes the case that contemporary Irish poetry proves an exemplary site to explore how the forces an

Here is an opportunity for diverse applicants interested in further study... "The University of Michigan invites outstanding individuals to apply for the Michigan Humanities Emerging Research Scholars Program ( MICHHERS ). This program is designed to encourage rising seniors, recent B.A. s and terminal master’s students from diverse cultural, economic, geographic, and ethnic backgrounds to consider pursuing a doctoral degree in the humanities at the University of Michigan. Our goal is to attract diverse scholars with unique experiences who foster innovation and push the humanities to meet today’s challenges. For 2021, students interested in the fields of Asian Languages and Cultures, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, English, History, Linguistics, Sociology (qualitative), and Women’s and Gender Studies (any humanities field) are eligible."  Visit their website for more information!