The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

There will be two workshop dates offered to Villanova graduate student women and alumnae to help enhance their earnings for the rest of their working lives. Participants should attend only one workshop. The dates are: Tuesday, October 6 at 6 p.m. OR Sunday, November 15 at 1 p.m. Registration Fee: $15 (includes dinner) STAY TUNED FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION Health Services Building, Room 200 This workshop is co-sponsored by VSB Graduate Business Programs, CLAS Human Resource Development Program, CLAS Masters in Public Administration, VU Alumni Relations & Villanova Women's Professional Network

The Villanova Undergraduate English Blog posted some great pics from the First Fall Coffee Break! Please check them out, and be sure to attend the next Coffee Break to meet and chat with current grads, undergrads and faculty in the English department. Plus snacks! Villanova English: First Fall Coffee Break : Pictures, taken by English major Karen Loor, from the first fall Coffee Break--Cupcake Edition.

Last Monday was the annual Thesis and Field Exam Workshop. The event was hosted by Dr. Heather Hicks and there was a great turnout of first and second year grad students. The Workshop was incredibly helpful and gave great time parameter suggestions for students to think about re: finding a faculty director and second reader, as well as tips for deciding how long to take on a thesis. It was also a great reminder that Field Exam and Thesis proposal examples are available  right here  on The Yawp! Some important dates to keep in mind for students planning to finish their degree Spring 2016: December 8 is the last day for students to submit a thesis or field exam proposal to Susan Burns January 31 is the last day to apply for May graduation Deadline for submission of theses for May graduation is April 29 Seventh Annual Thesis and Field Exam Symposium is April 30 at SAC 300 from 10:00am-12:00pm, followed by lunch If you have any further questions about the The...

This Monday is the annual Thesis and Field Exam Workshop. All graduate students are welcome to attend, regardless of whether they are finishing up their degree this year or later.  Dr. Heather Hicks is leading the workshop and will discuss suggestions for identifying a thesis or field exam topic, approaching a director and second reader, and how to undertake the work itself. It's a great opportunity to think about the thesis and field exam, as well as an opportunity to begin setting up groups among yourselves.  Additionally, there will be pizza! Monday September 21 at 7:30 in SAC 300

10/1 Erin Giles “Keep It Real with Erin Giles, Founder of End Sex Trafficking Day” Co-sponsored with Villanova SVA, POWER, and Peace & Justice. Connelly Cinema 10/27 Joanna Barsh, Author of How Remarkable Women Lead and Centered Leadership Co-sponsored with Villanova Women’s Professional Network and College of Engineering Villanova Room, Connelly Center 11/2 Brenda Elsey (History, Hofstra University),  “The Unbearable Whiteness of the Women’s World Cup, 2015”  Co-sponsored by History, Global Interdisciplinary Studies, and Romance Languages & Literatures Driscoll Auditorium (Driscoll 132) 11/4 Stefanie Knauss (Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova) “Less sex, more fun: A feminist-theological analysis of celibacy as a lifestyle” Lunch faculty research workshop Devon Room, Connelly Center 11/10 “Perspectives and Experiences of Women in Engineering: A Panel of Recent Graduates” Moderated by Amy Fleischer (Mechanical Engineering, Villanova), co-spons...

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!

Ted Howell, a recent alumnus of the program and a PhD student at Temple University, is getting attention for breaking ground with an innovative new course at Temple. “Cli-fi: Science Fiction, Climate Change, and Apocalypse" focuses on the new genre of "Climate Fiction," which shows the possible apolcalyptic outcomes that are inevitable if climate change continues as predicted. This course is getting media attention for the way it brings together literature and cutting-edge scientific findings. The course focuses on this new movement in literature (exemplified in such works as  The Wind-Up Girl ), which harnesses the concerns of a culture that feels the threat of apocalyptic climate change. In addition to getting students thinking about the intersection between climate science and fiction, he also encourages his students to participate in the wider climate change conversation by posting all their work to a blog. He was recently featured in a  Reuters  article , a  New...

Quoted from The Word Works' April 21, 2015 Newsletter: Lisa Sewell's Impossible Object is real - and wonderful ! Winner of the First Annual Tenth Gate Prize Impossible Object , Sewell's third full-length collection, shows what it means to be in constant, alert connection to the world and its voices. Each poem is deeply rooted in a specific work of literature as well as an event in the poet's life, earning this praise from Linda Gregerson: "Lisa Sewell has invented a new poetic genre. I'd call the mode ekphrastic, but ekphrasis doesn't quite capture it. She eats, sleeps, and breathes books. Books are her lime flower tea - she recovers the past in books. Books are her avenue to political witness - they afford a foundational grammar for feeling and moral awareness. Books are her oxygen and elementary language." Arthur Sze adds, "In these sharp, arresting poems, Lisa Sewell writes out of a place and time 'when there is neve...

Don James McLaughlin is the recipient of the Marguerite Bartlett Hamer Dissertation Fellowship, awarded by the University of Pennsylvania's McNeil Center for Early American Studies. The award is a yearlong fellowship for the 2015/16 academic year.

Dr. Hunter's article "Boethian Humor and the Pseudo-Beothian De disciplina scolarium" just came out in Viator 46.1 (2015): 161-79. She also has another article forthcoming in Carmina Philosophiae. Dr. Hunter just awarded the Katherine F. Pantzer Fellowship in Descriptive Bibliography at Harvard's Houghton Library, where I'll be resident for four weeks looking at early printed editions of De disciplina scolarium. She also received a research grant from Villanova to go look at another collection of early print editions of De disciplina at the Library of Congress.