The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Villanova English MA alum (class of 2022) Christopher Sassaris was out and about today bringing things from the old library building to the new library. You can read more about Christopher's journey from our MA to a career in distinctive collections on the YAWP . The new Falvey Library at Vic Maggitti Hall will open officially on Friday, October 23.

 Today is the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses in its entirety. Happy birthday to Leopold, Stephen, Molly, and the gang. If you're interested in reading a bit more about the book, especially in a Villanova context, why not check out a piece by Ethan Shea, a first-year graduate student here in the program, which is available on the Falvey Library blog . 

A new graduate student lounge has opened on the third floor of Old Falvey. The lounge has been fully renovated, is well-heated, has afternoon sunlight, and is blissfully silent except for the turning of pages and the clicking of typing keys. Additionally, it is open 24 hours a day. Graduate students must scan ID cards to enter. We expect to see English graduate students accumulating here as paper writing ramps up. Katie will not move from this spot until the semester is over.

This summer, the National Science foundation decided to award Villanova a grant of $1.67 million to build a CAVE system in Old Falvey. The CAVE is a room-like enclosure which has walls, floor and in some cases a ceiling made of rear-projection screens, allowing viewers inside the room to experience and interact with 3D immersive environments. The CAVE will be able to hold 10-15 students for research and classroom experiences and will be integrated with a mobile robot platform which will be developed at Villanova for telepresence experiences. Dr. Klassner has been spearheading this interdisciplinary project. The overall vision for the use of the CAVE includes technologically enhanced teaching and will allow Villanova to foray into the Digital Humanities. See the figure for a cutaway schematic view of the proposed CAVE facility. Villanova has invited professors from all disciplines to attend two luncheons to learn about the CAVE's capabilities and to deve...

Falvey Library’s recent rediscovery of a collection of dime novels, reprint libraries and other late-19th century popular materials has sparked new interest at the library, and they want to share this exciting moment with everyone. To do so, Falvey is hosting a popular culture conference on June 10 called Paper for the People. The first in a series of popular cultural conferences entitled VuPop, this year’s conference is broadly construed so presentations about the history of story papers, newspapers, or early popular mass literature are all welcome. Michael Foight, one of Falvey's Special Collections Librarians, especially invites English Graduate students to attend the event and even consider presenting. Click here  to visit the VuPop website.

On May 14th Joe Lucia, the head of Falvey Library, is hosting a day of conversation about future directions for the library as a key component of the academic environment. The theme of the day is "Library Transformation and Academic Life in the Digital World" and will include various speakers addressing the topic. While everyone is invited to attend this event as audience members, Lucia is also looking for speakers to give "lightning talks" on what they believe a library should be (and/or what Falvey Library should become), and he would love for a graduate student or two to volunteer. Dr. Hicks will be one of the faculty speakers, and she would be happy to hear your thoughts about Falvey, which might help to shape her comments. As a kickoff in the morning, the university will formally receive the 2013 Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Award for Excellence . Fr. Peter will be on hand to accept the award from ACRL President Steven Bell. At the...