The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

On Monday, Oct. 3rd, Dr. Benjamin T. Smith will present a lecture in Falvey Library on "The Drug War: The Five Biggest Myths." According to Dr. Smith, "For over a century, politicians and civil society leaders, journalists and policemen have been waging a war on drugs. Wars need their narratives. And the drug war is no different. It is based on over a century of bad sociology, poor science, and even poorer criminology. In this talk, I pick out the five biggest myths which underpin both mass incarceration in the US and the violence of counter-narcotics campaigns abroad." Dr. Smith has been writing about the history of Mexico for twenty years. He now specializes on twentieth-century politics, the narcotics trade and crime. But he has also researched and written about indigenous politics, Catholicism, conservatism, newspapers, journalism and censorship. His most recent book, The Dope: The History of the Mexican Drug Trade (WW. Norton/Penguin, 2021) was described by th...

Professor Lauren Shohet recently contributed a chapter to the newly released Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface .  According to Routledge, "The Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Interface provides a ground-breaking investigation into media-specific spaces where Shakespeare is experienced. While such operations may be largely invisible to the average reader or viewer, the interface properties of books, screens, and stages profoundly mediate our cognitive engagement with Shakespeare." Professor Shohet's chapter is called "The Heuristics of Interface: Shakespeare's Cymbeline ." Here is the abstract to Professor Shohet's chapter: "This chapter considers interfaces as liminal spaces where significantly different entities are mediated in ways that allow users to undertake some work across the gap between them, and investigates the heuristic as an essentially narrative tool for navigating that gap. The chapter explores what digitally ...

Professor Joe Drury has just been published on Samuel Johnson (well, just been published in the UK; the book will be out on this side of the pond in another few months). Professor Drury contributed a chapter for The Oxford Handbook of Samuel Johnson . Here is the excerpt for Professor Drury's chapter: "Even though Samuel Johnson paid close attention to the natural sciences, conducted chemical experiments at home, and included a large number of scientific terms in his Dictionary , he is typically thought to have made no significant contribution to Enlightenment science. This chapter challenges this view by reading Johnson’s periodical essays as important examples of 'experimental moral philosophy,' an eighteenth-century field of inquiry that sought to extend the Newtonian method from the sensible world to the study of human subjectivity. Drawing on the methods and conceptual repertoire of vitalist natural philosophy, especially chemistry, Johnson’s essays offe...

The first meeting of the BIPOC Writing Group for fall 2022 will take place tomorrow in Garey Hall. Writing prompts, pizza, and high fives will be provided. Reach out to Program Coordinator Mike Malloy or Professor Tsering Wangmo for more information or to RSVP.

A new exhibit of military and illustrated maps has debuted at Falvey Memorial Library, which was co-curated by Villanova graduate English alumnus, Christoforos Sassaris '22. Per the Falvey Library blog, "Our latest exhibit, Art of War: Illustrated and Military Maps of the Twentieth Century , is now on display on the 1st floor of Falvey Library and in select cases at the Prince Family Veterans Resource Center. Both locations feature a selection of two types of imagery: maps that are illustrated, highly pictorial, and created for public distribution; and topographic maps that have been created by government war offices for use in military conflict. The juxtaposition forces a close analysis of the very nature of maps. Often assumed as truthful and accurate, maps lead and guide the way, provide direction, and help us make decisions. Yet as with anything that is human-made there are things to consider – the knowledge or bias of the creator, the intended audience, the purpose of the...

Thanks to everyone who was able to attend the graduate/faculty reception on Friday! Mexican food firmly defeated Mediterranean in our poll this year, and a good time was had by all. A special thanks to Professor Yumi Lee for taking the pictures! Bailee Formon, Ethan Shea, Matt Villaneuva, Sarah Herr, Theo Campbell, Adam Riekstins Professors Kimberly Takahata & Megan Quigley Matt Villaneuva, Sarah Herr, Theo Campbell, Ethan Shea Ethan Shea and Professor Joe Drury

 VU Grad English students hanging out at the Graduate Kick-Off Picnic, August 26, 2022. Adam Riekstins, Sarah Herr, Matt Villaneuva, Megan Hayes