The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

       Last week, I sat down for a chat with Alexis Atwood ‘26 to discuss how one class from her first semester of courses in the Graduate English program inspired her to pursue a fascinating research topic. Alexis arrived at Villanova last fall and, as a first-year student, took the required ENG8000: Literary Theory with Dr. Heather Hicks, a survey course designed to introduce first-years to a wide variety of theoretical fields and frameworks. She told me how two particular classes in ENG8000—on Vulnerability Studies and Border Studies—helped her build upon her pre-existing scholarly interests and develop them further in a new context.       “I’ve always been interested in discourse in particular and the ways that discourse exposes systems of dominance, so I think that's kind of what brought me to Vulnerability Studies," said Alex.  "And then I found that poetry was a potent source to pull from when it came to understanding discourse and the...

On Friday, December 5th, Dr. Tsering Wangmo presented virtually on "Chigdrel and the Politics of Sorrow" as part of  The Khyentse Foundation Buddhist Studies Lecture Series , sponsored by Northwestern University. According to the summary provided by Northwestern, Dr. Wangmo examined "a lesser-known chapter in Tibetan exile history through the story of the Group of Thirteen, a collective of Khampa chieftains and religious leaders who established settlements in India in the mid-1960s with a hope to protect their diverse regional and religious traditions. This decision set them apart from the majority Tibetan refugees who joined the settlements established by the Tibetan government. They were cast as being opponents to Tibetan unity." This presentation relates to subjects covered more extensively in Dr. Wangmo's recently published book,  The Politics of Sorrow . Focusing on the early years of Tibetan exile life in India and Nepal, this book marks a significant chan...

  Jenna Kosnick '26, pictured alongside Dr. Mary Mullen and Julia Reagan '26           I recently sat down with Jenna Kosnick, who’s in their second year of pursuing a master’s degree in English, to hear about their experience attending 2025’s North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA 25) conference last month. Hosted by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., from November 13th to 16th, NAVSA 25 invited Victorian Studies academics from across the country to discuss how their work identifies and examines the ripple effects of and linkages between the Victorian period and today’s modern world. NAVSA 25 offered panels with focus ranging across disciplines, including “Urban Aftermaths: The Literary City,” “Art and Intimate Spaces in the Victorian Home,” “Cognition, Belief, and The Real,” and “Empire, Slavery, and The Gothic,” which was moderated by the department’s own Dr. Mary Mullen and featured Jenna’s talk, “The Gothic Reigns in Demerara ...