The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Calling all theater lovers... Current Villanova students AND alumni/ae can attend The Spanish Tragedy symposium for free! In academic year 2023-24, Villanova University faculty Dr. Chelsea Phillips (Theater) and Dr. Alice Dailey (English) launched a year-long interdisciplinary exploration of Thomas Kyd’s seminal Renaissance revenge play, The Spanish Tragedy  (1582). This extended pedagogical, scholarly, and creative endeavor began with a combined undergraduate-graduate course taught in fall 2023 titled “Legacies of Revenge.” It culminates in a  production of The Spanish Tragedy co-directed by Dailey and Phillips and staged in Villanova’s new John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts in April 2024 , along with a coinciding scholarly symposium on April 19-20, 2024. Through both academic study and performance, The Spanish Tragedy  Project seeks to foster engagement with the play as at once an historical and contemporary artifact ...

This event will feature a short discussion of Adania Shibli’s  Minor Detail  (2017)—an award-winning Palestinian novel that narrates two historical moments to show the haunting and all-too-ordinary nature of colonial violence—followed by a speculative creative writing exercise, inspired by Shibli, where we practice writing for social change. There will be pizza!  Wednesday, April 10 from 7:30 to 8:30 pm in Falvey 205.

By Katie Lewis What does it mean to be Asian American? This is the central question asked by Professor AJ Yumi Lee in a new undergraduate English course as of Spring 2024, ENG 4649: Introduction to Asian American Literature. The course explores how literature has represented and shaped Asian American identity since the 20 th  century.   The course is the first course to be offered by the English Department that focuses entirely on Asian American literature.   “It has been really fun teaching this class, and the students have been really excited,” said Professor Lee. “I have to give a shout-out to the class of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean's office. When I was developing the course, I was able to get a grant, since this is something that contributes to diversity efforts within the college. I definitely want to teach this class again and build off the conversations this semester.”   The beginning of the semester covered Asian American history, an area f...

By Melody Gleason, MA '25 What better way to wrap up Women’s History Month than honoring Villanova English’s first full-time woman professor: Margaret Powell Esmonde? Margaret Powell Esmonde taught at Villanova from 1974 until her death in 1983. She was a specialist in Renaissance literature who also taught various courses in science fiction and children’s literature. Beyond her contributions to Villanova, Margaret Powell Esmonde was an active member of the Children’s Literature Association, working on the board and eventually serving as president from 1978-79. She was awarded various fellowships through this association, one in 1982 for a study of the role of girls and women in children's science fiction. Margaret Powell Esmonde’s impact remains for girls and women in the literary scene. The Villanova English Department continues to honor her legacy through the Margaret Powell Esmonde Memorial Award which is given annually to the most distinguished graduate essay written in a ...

 By Melody Gleason MA '25 Over the past two semesters, Dr. Dailey, Dr. Chelsea Phillips from the Theater department, and a group of students from various programs and departments have been working together to examine the theme of revenge and justice as a tragic element. The first half of this project started as class in the fall 2023 semester called, Legacies of Revenge – Across Time, Space, Genre, & Media. The course engaged both graduate and undergraduate students from multiple disciplines including English majors, minors, and theatre majors. Students in the course studied narratives of revenge across a plethora of entertainment mediums: from classical drama, to contemporary fiction, to modern film. The class especially focused on the play,  The Spanish Tragedy  written in the 1580s.   Dr. Dailey describes  The Spanish Tragedy  as  “the precursor to  Hamlet  and to a whole extensive revenge tragedy genre that enters the Elizabethan Thea...