The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Coming soon! Villanova undergrad English major Jenine Hazlewood will be presenting to the school district of Philadelphia on the topic of "What were they made for? A Timeline of the 'Black Barbie' Doll."  This free virtual professional development workshop will take place on March 16 from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. To learn more and to register, please visit the virtual form .

Villanova’s Ellipsis Literary Magazine is seeking submissions! Everyone is encouraged to submit: undergraduates and graduates as well as professors and staff within the Villanova community. They accept a wide host of traditional and non-traditional media from writing, poetry, and art to embroidery, text messages, memes, and anything else with aesthetic value, humor, personal meaning, or, perhaps, a touch of the bizarre.  Simply submit your work to ellipsis@villlanova.edu, and they'll consider it for this year’s edition. Their deadline for submissions is March 20th. 

  Fall 2024 Courses ENG 8 000  What’s Hot? Introduction to Literary Theory Dr. Heather Hicks ENG 8106  The Fabulous Middle Ages Dr. Brooke Hunter ENG 8560  Victorian Publics & Populations Dr. Mary Mullen ENG 8640 Modernism & FanFic Dr. Megan Quigley ENG 9520  Reading the Ethnic Canon Dr. Yumi Lee Summer 2024 Course Description ENG 9640 The Modern American Novel Dr. Jean Lutes Summer 2024 Course Description ENG 9640: The Modern American Novel Dr. Jean Lutes CRN 11087 MTWR from 11:00 am to 01:20 pm Summer Session II: 7/1/24 - 7/29/24 This course studies significant works of American fiction written in the first half of the twentieth century and considers how writers responded to the sweeping changes that characterized modernity in America. As we chart modernism’s emergence, we will look both backward and forward, discussing how writers extended and challenged nineteenth-century literary traditions, as well as how they anticipat...

On February 21st, VU English Professor Kimberly Takahata moderated a discussion on approaches to including and teaching Lenape materials in the classroom, featuring Adam DePaul, the Chief of Education and tribal storykeeper of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. This discussion followed a panel on the impact of Land Acknowledgements at academic institutions and why they are merely a starting point to supporting indigenous communities. The panelists included Adam DePaul, Chief of Education and Tribal Storykeeper; Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania; as well as Modonna Kongal, Meg Martin, and Autumn Coard from N.I.S.A, the Native Indigenous Students Association. Elisha Chi, a white settler descendant of the Iñupiat of the Bering Straits region, moderated the panel.  Kimberly Takahata and Adam DePaul

The Taught by Literature project has a new website full of interesting content that Villanova students, both undergraduate and graduate, have helped produce. Founded in 2021 and funded by the Idol Family Fellows Program of the McNulty Center for Women’s Leadership at Villanova, the Taught by Literature Project honors the legacy of Black author, educator, and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935). In partnership with the University of Delaware’s Department of Special Collections, the project is producing a freely accessible digital edition of “The Annals of ‘Steenth Street,” a short-story collection Dunbar-Nelson wrote based on her work teaching Black children at the White Rose Mission in New York City in the 1890s. The project also conducts professional development training on early Black women writers for teachers in the School District of Philadelphia, and is collaborating with award-winning producer and director Hezekiah Lewis, a Communication professor at Villanova, to produce ...

Professor Jean Lutes has co-authored an article that investigates a fascinating unpublished manuscript by turn-of-the-century African-American author Alice Dunbar-Nelson. The article appears in  American Literary History , Volume 36, Issue 1, Summer 2024, and is titled"An Unpublished Tale about African American Poetry: Alice Dunbar-Nelson's 'The Grievances of the Books' (1897)." The article acknowledges three Villanova students who helped to transcribe the unpublished manuscript that Professor Lutes and her co-writer, Professor Sandra A. Zagarell, wrote about: Current English major Jenine Hazlewood, '26; current master's student Matthew Villanueva, MA '24; and recent English major graduate Adrianna Ogando, '23.  Here's an excerpt from the article that provides a flavor of Dunbar-Nelson's original piece: In April 1897, an ambitious young author drafted a hallucinatory narrative that was never published. Its unnamed narrator falls asleep and ...

On February 22, 2024 at 5:00 p.m., Professor Kimberly Takahata will give   a talk  titled   “ Not Witnessing John Gabriel Stedman's   A Narrative of a Five Years Expedition. ”  It will take place in the  grad lounge (Fisher Bennett Hall 330)  at the University of Pennsylvania's English department.

BIPOC Writing Hangouts are Back!   The monthly BIPOC writing hangouts are for Villanova community members—students, staff, faculty, and alumni—who identify as people of color. You do not need to have any creative writing experience! Pizza, prompts, and company will be provided at our hangouts hosted by BIPOC faculty in the English Department. This semester, we will meet on February 21, March 20, and April 17. Come join us! If you would like more information, you can email Kimberly Takahata at   kimberly.takahata@villanova.edu . The first meeting of the semester will take place on Wednesday, February 21 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. in SAC 402, the English department conference room.

Attention Villanova MA students! If you have a piece of written work from one of your MA courses that you're especially proud of, please consider submitting it for consideration  for The Margaret Powell Esmonde Memorial Award. This award comes with a prize of $250 and is given to the most distinguished scholarly or critical essay written by a graduate student in a Villanova English course within the last 12 months. The Margaret Powell Esmonde Memorial Award is given annually to the most distinguished graduate essay written in a Villanova English course. The Esmonde Award honors Margaret Powell Esmonde, who taught at Villanova from 1974 until her death in 1983. She was a specialist in Renaissance literature who also taught courses in science fiction and children’s literature. You can learn more about her here . You can learn a bit more about last year's winner, Theo Campbell, MA '23, here . Format for Submissions • In addition to their essay, students should include a cove...

Sam Covais, MA '22, recently published  "'A Guy Needs Somebody': A Study of   Philia   in   Of Mice and Men."  You can read the article here . Congrats, Sam!