The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Professor Kamran Javadizadeh will soon be releasing a new podcast, "Close Readings." He spoke with the YAWP about the podcast's origins, his process, and what we can expect when we listen. What inspired you to make a podcast? Are there literary or poetry podcasts that you enjoy listening to?   I think that for me (as, apparently, for so many!) this is partly a pandemic story. During the early days of the pandemic I found myself listening to podcasts more than had previously been my custom (I wrote a bit about that experience  here ), usually while walking my dog, and I found that I enjoyed the company that they provided, the peculiar feeling of having a friendly voice or two in your ear while you went about your daily chores. And then also during that time I was able to convince a few of my friends, both scholars and poets, to visit my classes at Villanova. That experience taught me that I quite enjoyed talking to experts for the benefit of curious audiences; I felt like ...

Back in 2020, we wrote a brief entry about MA English alumni career outcomes on the YAWP. That entry was based on data from the years 2008-2018. To say the least, it seems time for a refresh, particularly given how much the employment landscape has shifted in the past few years--so here is new data about the kinds of jobs our alumni obtain, based on our graduates during the period from 2019 through the spring of 2022. In comparison with our previous post, you'll note that there are no full-time faculty positions represented in our graph here--which makes sense, since our time window for this post wouldn't allow our alumni enough time to complete a PhD.  Interestingly, K-12 education is the biggest piece of the pie (go teachers!). Just like last time, 10% of our graduates are in higher ed administration. Other strong options for our grads are PhD programs, medical humanities roles, and marketing positions.  Our graduates have job titles like instructor, editor, coordinator, wr...

Corey Waite Arnold MA '14  Alumni Interview by Deidra Cali MA '23 1. You currently work in writing video games and even have your own games online! How did you get into this after you graduated with your English MA?     It wasn't something I planned. After getting my MA I started teaching composition and critical reading courses as an adjunct at Community College of Philadelphia and Eastern University. But I was also making games as a hobby, mostly with a local dev community called  Philly Game Mechanics (PGM) . This is something I've always done, make and play games, usually dumb board games and stuff with my brothers. But with PGM I started collaborating with local video game makers, mostly as a writer.   Eventually someone in the Game Design and Production department at Drexel needed someone to write grants for their lab. They were looking for someone who knew a lot about games but also had research and writing skills. The indie dev community in Philly is small, so...

Professors Quigley and Javadizadeh gathered with students to celebrate 100 years of   The Wasteland . Take a look at photos from the event below. Books! Readings! Tarot readings!! Professor Javadizadeh and Professor Quigley More tarot readings! cake!

Our own Dr. Megan Quigley will be featured in an upcoming BBC radio documentary, "Hold on Tight: The Women of the Waste Land," which will debut on Nov. 3rd. You can listen to the documentary, which will examine the influence of various women on T.S. Eliot's life and work, here . You can read more about the women in Eliot's life, particularly in light of the recent unveiling of his letters to Emily Hale, in The Guardian, here . Dr. Quigley is quoted at length in that article. Here is a small example: “What does it mean when ‘pills’ means almost nothing? Editing shows our values – what we think is important for scholars to know and for students to learn... When I was a student, we were told that a proper study of The Waste Land was about exploring references to mythology, religion and literature – but of course relating these subjects to Eliot’s life, and our reception of it in the present day, is also really revealing.” Professor Quigley

Spring 2023 Graduate English Course Offerings Read on for info on our upcoming spring courses. Registration opens on Oct. 27th! ENG 8106 Love & War in Medieval Romance Dr. Brooke Hunter CRN 33293 Thursday 5:20-7:20 pm Medieval romances—the mode of literature that tells stories of chivalry, ladies, love, and martial prowess—shaped ideas about everything from racial and cultural identity to best practices for flirting. Focusing on the romances of King Arthur and other English heroes, this course will consider three main questions: how romances structure the experience of love, sexuality, and gender; how romances shape the practice of religion and notions of religious otherness; and how romances construct ideas about peoples ( nationes ) and political power. We will trace the romance and its conventions from the early origins of the form in historical epics through the addition of courtly love narratives as we also examine works that challenge and critique these conventions. By n...