The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

Professor Kamran Javadizadeh recently participated in the Stonington Literary Festival, a three-day event that took place from October 2-4 and celebrated the poet James Merrill and his work. Since Merrill's death in 1996, his former home in Stonington, Connecticut has played host to a writers-in-residence program, in which Professor Javadizeh participated in 2022. For this year's festival, which marked the centennial of Merrill's birth in 1926, Professor Javadizadeh and other former writers-in-residence were invited back to participate in panels, readings, and other events such as musical performances and tours. Professor Javadizadeh served as the moderator for the "Poetic Afterlives" panel featuring poets Ange Mlinko and Rosanna Warren in which the group discussed Merrill's legacy. In a follow-up email, Professor Javadizadeh told me about the scope of the conversation. " A hot topic for us was how Merrill’s reputation as an urbane, technically virtuosic,...

 By  Alexis Stakem, MA ‘28 Julia Reagan MA '26 Julia Reagan ‘26 MA has always loved being a student; she is, in her own words, “hungry for information.” Her intellectual journey has brought her to Villanova in multiple ways: first as an MA student, and now as an instructor of undergraduates in the ACS program. Prior to starting at Villanova in the fall of 2024, she had already earned an MA in German, focusing on German literature, from UC Berkeley. Reagan spent a year living in Germany after receiving a Fulbright scholarship, taking literature courses at various universities and studying political fairy tales from the 1930s – which were a response to the political frustration and electoral gridlock Germany was encountering during the Weimar era. Coming to Villanova felt to Reagan like an opportunity to tie up a “loose end” or scratch “an unscratched itch” because of its emphasis on studying English literature.  These threads soon multiplied, as a new interest of Reagan’s ...

Dr. Lauren Shohet gave the plenary address at the Conference on John Milton, a biennial gathering of Miltonists from all over the word which was held this year in Provo, Utah. Her talk, entitled "What is my archive?" suggested we think about "archive" as a term that encompasses not only collections of rare books or documents, but also digital archives and also--more abstractly--whatever texts researchers deem relevant for studying a particular problem.  From Britannica During this talk, Dr. Shohet proposed that re-considering a problem's "archive" can create fresh questions (especially useful, she said, for junior researchers), then explored the multi-temporal, mutual constitution of archived item, finding aid, and researcher that constellate in the process of archival research.   

I recently had the chance to speak with Professor Adrienne Perry about her forthcoming co-edited poetry anthology, Other Legacies: Great Unsung American Poets . The book, co-edited by Kevin Prufer and Martin Rock, features contributions from 35 contemporary poets, each introducing a poet of their choice whom they feel has been neglected in literary conversations. The book arose out of Professor Perry and her co-editors' work on the Unsung Masters Series, an annual publication highlighting the work of an under-appreciated poet. The publication has an associated reading series, for which Professor Perry served as co-host, in which several scholars and writers are invited to come together to read the work of one such neglected poet. Recognizing the value these readings brought to discussions of American poetry, Professor Perry and her co-editors sought to build upon this unique experience in the form of a poetry anthology–one that would notably differ from traditional poetry anthologi...

Dr. Michelle Filling-Brown was named MVP (Most Valuable Professor) during the Women's Soccer Faculty Appreciation Day game. Dr. Filling-Brown was nominated by Avrie Nelson (#6), who is in her English 1975 course along with her teammate, Tea Gambardella (#2). Both players were excited to recognize their English professor as one of the day's MVPs. This moment was extra special for Dr. Filling-Brown, who values following her student athletes' games. Nelson and Gambardella are currently undefeated as the Women's Soccer team heads into conference play this weekend. Dr. Filling-Brown notes that they are amazing student athletes.  With excitement building for the upcoming weekend, this year's Faculty Appreciation Day was extra special for both the student athletes and the faculty members cheering them on.  Dr. Filling-Brown is pictured below during the MVP recognition at halftime and with Allison Venella, Senior Associate Athletic Director of Student Athlete Development: T...

Cathy Velez, a beloved English adjunct faculty member, was honored at a recent Villanova Women's Soccer game for Faculty Appreciation Day. This recognition happened during halftime where she was titled one of the game's inaugural MVPs... Most Valuable Professors. Professor Velez, who has taught English 1975 for many years, was touched by the kind gesture and celebration. Attached below is a photo of Professor Velez at the game. Go Nova, Go Cats!  - Juliana Catania MA '28

On Wednesday September 9th, Professor Mary Mullen visited the Keough-Naughton Institute at the University of Notre Dame for a panel discussion of her recently published co-edited volume Race, Violence and Form: Reframing Nineteenth-Century Ireland.  Working alongside co-editor Renée Fox and contributor Amy Mulligan, Professor Mullen's book aims to deepen understanding of the often-overlooked literature of nineteenth-century Ireland by " employing new methodological frameworks that expand how we understand the global, racial, formal, periodized, and political scope" of works from the era. The book is indebted to the work of retired University of Notre Dame Professor Sara Maurer, who Professor Mullen says "helped dreamed up the collection."   The book at the heart of the discussion. Professor Mullen with fellow panelists Renée Fox and contributor Amy Mulligan. Professor Mullen with retired University of Notre Dame Professor Sara Maurer. by Nikola Stojcic MA 28...

Dr. Alice Dailey developed a photography-writing project, titled “Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations,” in collaboration with her son, Adam Dailey. This past August, Tupelo Quarterly published this project in a folio on collaboration.  Page 8 of "Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations" Led by a fascination with creating analog spiritualistic photographs, Dr. Dailey found herself experimenting with several mediums outside of the process of photography itself. What started as a project to recreate Victorian spiritualist photographs transformed into her recently published photography-writing project, “Love Poem with Ectoplasmic Materializations.” Dr. Dailey describes this project as originating from a desire to understand the creation of analog spiritualist photographs alongside the theory of embodied practice as a form of historical knowledge.  “The project thus began with no writing or narration planned. I simply wanted to make pictures,” explains Dr. Dailey when...

image retrieved from events.stanford.edu Dr. Kamran Javadizadeh traveled to California this past spring to give talks on the poets Jack Spicer and Solmaz Sharif. We sat down with Dr. Javadizadeh recently to hear more about these talks, which covered subjects as diverse as poets as radios, the notion of AI poetry, assimilation and language, and Iranian immigrant experience in the US. We first discussed Dr. Javadizadeh’s lecture at the Stanford Center for Poetics, which describes itself as “a home for research in poetics across periods, languages, and methods.” His talk, which took place on April 23 rd , was titled "Making Contact: Jack Spicer and Phatic Poetics." Dr. Javadizadeh borrows the concept of “phatic language” from the Russian linguist Roman Jakobson, a concept which Dr. Javadizadeh describes as a variety of language in which “you’re not communicating, so much as you’re calling attention to the channel along which you are about to be communicating.” Some examples mi...

Emily Skillings Our newest faculty member, Emily Skillings, who will begin teaching with us this fall, was just awarded a Howard Foundation Fellowship by the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation. The Foundation awarded 14 fellowships totaling $560,000 to support early mid-career individuals. Each recipient received an unrestricted $40,000 fellowship. The funds provide time to advance independent creative and scholarly work on a major project. Per the George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation, "Since 1954, over 500 Howard Fellows have used the fellowship to transition from promising early-career status to recognized leaders in their fields. Howard Fellows have authored bestsellers, directed Oscar nominated feature-length films, and earned some of the world’s most prestigious honors including Pulitzer Prizes, the Rome Prize, and the Whiting Award. They have gone on to MacArthur, Guggenheim, and Carnegie Fellowships. "The Howard Foundation carefully selects its Fell...

Although people often think humanities research is conducted by individuals, it is always collaborative. For Professor Mary Mullen, there is no greater pleasure than thinking with other people and refining research and writing with them. Professor Mullen's recently published co-edited volume, with Professor Renee Fox, titled   Race, Violence, and Form: Reframing Nineteenth-Century Ireland , is the product of several collaborative conversations at the University of Notre Dame, Villanova University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. The volume is dedicated to Sara Maurer, Mary's undergraduate professor, mentor, and friend, who dreamed up ideas behind the book.  For more about this important volume, see  this recent blog  post from Liverpool University Press.

Dr. Lauren Shohet has been crisscrossing the country lately presenting on Shakespeare, Milton, AI, and more, so we thought it would be a good time to catch up with her and discuss her teaching and scholarship. To begin with, Dr. Shohet gave a lecture at the Huntington Library on January 31 st on “(In)Visibility and Mediation: Milton’s Eve,” in which she also discussed vanitas paintings (more on this later). Then, in February, she attended the Renaissance Society of America conference in San Francisco, where she gave a talk as part of the book history discussion group. In addition, while in San Francisco, Dr. Shohet also presided over Milton Society events. Finally, in early April, she attended the Shakespeare Association Conference in Denver and presented on Shakespeare and AI. Regarding mediation and Milton’s Eve, Dr. Shohet explained that she is in the middle of a long project that examines mediation in Paradise Lost-- as she put it, “What it is for angels and for the Son of God, t...

  Dr. Tsering Wangmo braved the weather this past weekend in order to facilitate a packed poetry workshop at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. Professor Wangmo's workshop was part of a series, titled "I See You Face to Face," named in honor of Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," referencing that Whitman once worked at the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library, which ultimately became the Brooklyn Museum. The  series of workshops  takes place in art galleries within the museum, allowing poets to draw from the art they see around them in crafting their verse.  Dr. Wangmo's workshop took place in the Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room. According to the Brooklyn Museum's  website , "The Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room presents more than 100 artworks and ritual objects as they would be displayed in an elaborate Tibetan Buddhist household shrine—a space used for devotional prayer, offerings, and rituals. Scroll paintings (thangk...

While everyone else was being festive, English professors were busy at the Modern Languages Association Conference in Toronto in January. Professor Kamran Javadizadeh, the chair of the executive committee for the MLA’s Poetry and Poetics Forum, chaired two panels on poetry. Professor Megan Quigley delivered a paper entitled “Modernist Impersonality in the Age of AI,” and was an official mentor for other faculty at the conference! Per Dr. Quigley, "It was cold but wonderful."

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...

This past summer, many of our faculty traveled and gave talks all around the world. We’ll be featuring a few of them in the coming weeks—this time, we’ll be focusing on Dr. Kamran Javadizadeh, who traveled to the UK and spoke about poetry in Oxford and Cambridge. Professor Javadizadeh was invited to give a lecture on June 5th at the American Literature Research Seminar in Oxford, and he presented on ‘The National Poetry Crisis.’ Dr. Javadizadeh drew from the conclusion to his forthcoming book for his talk, which centered on a poetry festival which had been organized at the Library of Congress in the fall of 1962, and which happened to coincide with the Cuban Missile Crisis. “After the first day of the conference,” explained Dr. Javadizadeh, “President Kennedy came on television and announced that there were these missiles in Cuba. The Poetry Festival was happening in the Library of Congress, which is right next to the capitol building itself.” The festival’s setting, and its status...

 The English Department is proud to share the release of Dr. Lauren Shohet's new edited collection,  Queering Early Modern Death in England: Figuration, Representation, Matter.  This new collection, edited by Dr. Shohet and Dr. Christine Varnado of the University of Buffalo, analyzes a variety of celebrated texts, including  The Duchess of Malfi ,  The Alchemist ,  The Spanish Tragedy ,  The Winter's Tale ,  Richard III , and  A Midsummer Night's Dream , using queer theoretical methodologies to offer fascinating insights regarding early modern conceptualizations of humanity, embodiment, and temporality, among others. Dr. Shohet and Dr. Varnado utilize queer logics to suggest poignant understandings of early modern death as non-dualist, non-linear, a-teleological, and fruitfully muddled, showcasing the fascinating expansiveness of death through a queer lens. A worthy addition to the collection of anyone interested in questions of queernes...

Our very own Lisa Sewell will be reading, along with Ethel Rackin, at Main Point Books, on Thursday, April 10th, in celebration of National Poetry Month. We hope you will be able to make it!

The Shakespeare Association of America just announced that Professor Alice Dailey and Professor Chelsea Phillips's production of Thomas Kyd's  The Spanish Tragedy won honorable mention for the Shakespeare Publics Award. Per the Association's website , "This award recognizes pioneering and/or culturally significant efforts to foster, engage, support and sustain broad and diverse Shakespeare publics through teaching, scholarship, performance and/or activism." All the Association's prizes will be awarded at their annual conference, next month in Boston. Congratulations, Dr. Dailey and Dr. Phillips! You can read more about The Spanish Tragedy on the project's website . courtesy of spanishtragedy.villanova.edu

On Tuesday, October 29th, in SAC 300, Professors Megan Quigley, Kamran Javadizadeh, and Patrick Query discussed T.S. Eliot and his legacy with an audience of graduate students. The event marked the publication of Eliot Now (Bloomsbury, 2024), an important new collection of scholarly approaches to the life and writing of T. S. Eliot, co-edited by Professor Megan Quigley. During the colloquium, moderated by Professor Javadizadeh, Megan was in conversation about the book—and about new directions in Eliot studies—with Patrick Query, Professor of English at West Point. We look forward to seeing our graduate students at our next graduate event, Thursday evening's Teaching Roundtable!