The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

On May 16, the Graduate English Department watched as this year's graduates walked across the stage at the Recognition Ceremony for the Graduate Arts and Sciences. Afterward, a small reception was held for the graduates, their parents, and English Department faculty. What a challenging two years and what a great group of graduates! By the end of two years, they were saying goodbye to professors who had become friends. We wish them all the best!

Our very own Dr. Lisa Sewell will be giving a scholarship@Villanova talk in Falvey Library on Tuesday, April 14, at 4:30 pm. Dr. Sewell will be discussing and reading from her new volume of poetry, Impossible Object , which is the winner of the Gate Prize for poetry.

A quick word from Dr. Heather Hicks: If you are interested in gender studies, you should plan to attend the ECS conference at Villanova next Thursday. A highlight will be Lauren Berlant's talk at 4:30 in the Connelly Cinema. Lauren Berlant is one of the most famous literary critics in the US, and she does very challenging and cutting-edge theoretical work. Her talk is entitled, "Arts of Survival: On Dissociation and the Attachment to Life." 

Megan Quigley is scheduled to give a talk in Falvey Library’s Scholarship @ Villanova series next week: Wednesday, February 18, at 2:30 in Falvey 205. She will be talking about her book,  Modernist Fiction and Vagueness: Philosophy, Form, and Language (Cambridge University Press).

Please mark your calendars for March 23-24, when we'll be holding a series of fascinating workshops and performances of an 18th-century puppet-show adaptation of Hamlet by the critically acclaimed Austin, TX-based theater group Hidden Room. No tickets will be necessary. The workshops will be geared toward Villanova and Penn grad students in English, Theatre, and Creative Writing.  The Hidden Room Theatre’s der Bestrafte Brudermord On March 23-24, Villanova will host award-winning Texas-based theater group The Hidden Room to stage their original-practices puppet-show production of der Bestrafte Brudermord, the mysterious slapstick Hamlet found in a German manuscript in the 18th century. The Hidden Room's visit to Villanova will include two evening shows, each followed by an artist talk-back, and two workshops on theatre scholarship, dramatic practice, and arts entrepreneurship. This event is co-sponsored by Villanova and the University of Pennsylvania. All members of the...

An Announcement from the  American Women Writers Study Group: Dr. Travis Foster and Dr. Jean Lutes have arranged a discussion of Hannah Crafts’ The Bondwoman's Narrative at Villanova on Saturday April 11, 2015. Discussion will be facilitated by Faith Barrett and Brigitte Fielder, and meeting space, lunch, and coffee will be provided courtesy of Villanova's English department and the programs of Africana Studies and Gender and Women's Studies. Attendees should meet in the East Lounge of Dougherty Hall for lunch at noon. Discussion will run from approximately 12:30 – 4:30 with a coffee break at about 3 pm. Additionally, for the benefit of those coming in from out of town, as well as for any interested students, the coordinators of the event have made 7:00 p.m. dinner reservations at Han Dynasty in Old City ( http://handynasty.net/oldcity/ ). If you would like to attend, please take a minute to look over the menu, then let Travis know (1) that you would like to at...

The Villanova English department is pleased to announce that Penn State's Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies, Eric Hayot, will be this year's Luckow lecturer. His presentation will be on April 1st at 5:30 p.m., location TBA. He will be talking about his new book, The Elements of Academic Style (Columbia UP, 2014). This is a fantastic book written for graduate students and professors in the humanities, which describes how to write seminar papers, conference papers, journal articles, and academic books effectively. I highly recommend reading Dr. Hayot's book, which covers a wide range of issues from time management, to how to write effective introductions and conclusions, to citation and footnote techniques, to issues like using figurative language in academic writing. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Academic-Style-Humanities/dp/0231168012/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1389702688&sr=8-2&keywords=elements+of...

The Villanova English department is hosting the annual Literary Festival this upcoming semester. Write these on your calendar now, as you will not want to miss them! James McBride , author of Good Lord Bird : February 3 Bruce Smith , author of  Devotions : February 19 Claire Kilroy, author of The Devil I Know , March 17 Patricia Smith , author of Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah : March 31 Jay Cantor , author of Forgiving the Angel: Four Stories of Franz Kafka : April 16

Graduate English students are welcome to enroll in this Liberal Studies graduate-level study abroad course as an elective to supplement their MA in English. Graduate Liberal Studies presents Currents in GreekHistory: a semester long odyssey into the Greek past and present. Course Code LST 7201-001 In addition to selected readings for in-class discussion of Greek history and culture, students will travel to Greece for two weeks to visit ancient, Byzantine, and modern sites and to use facilities of the Harvard Hellenic Center in the beautiful city of Nafplion, first capital of Modern Greece. In addition to tuition, the approximate cost per student is $2750. The course will be offered in the spring semester, 2015. Those interested should contact Dr. Alexander Varias at Alexander.Varias@Villanova.edu to arrange meetings and interviews in the early fall, or the Director of Graduate Liberal Studies, Dr. Marylu Hill at Marylu.hill@villanova.edu about enrollment detai...