The YAWP: Villanova's Graduate English Program Blog

The 54th annual Northeast Modern Language Association convention will be held in Niagara Falls, NY, from March 23-26, 2023, at the University at Buffalo.  The 2023 NeMLA conference theme is RESILIENCE, an anchor term for critical and creative work that explores how we bear up under trauma, counter ableism, redress social and racial marginalization, environmental destruction, and how we celebrate bodily, cognitive, and neurological difference, access silenced voices, recover from the pandemic, and struggle to save the humanities, and humanity itself from the maw of neoliberalism. Session proposals are due April 29, 2022, and abstract proposals are due September 30, 2022.

Some of our students were recently reported on by the college of liberal arts and sciences; here is that report on Hannah Kahn and Caitlin Salomon: VILLANOVA, Pa. – First-year Villanova University English MA graduate students Hannah Kahn and Caitlin Salomon recently presented at The Conference on Christianity and Literature’s (CCL) 2022 Western Regional conference, “Literary Geographies – Space, Place, and Environments,” held at Biola University in La Mirada, California, April 7 to 9, 2022. Kahn discussed her work, “Embodied and Empowered: A Critical Analysis of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale .” "Presenting at the CCL conference was an enriching experience. Not only was I given the opportunity to share my scholarship on a topic that I'm passionate about but also was afforded the chance to partake in thought-provoking dialogue during the question-and-answer section," Kahn said. "It was a pleasure to meet other scholars from across the country and learn from eac...

 VU Grad English student Ethan Shea blogs for Villanova's Falvey Memorial Library in connection with its 'Cat in the Stax' feature, and he has recently written a piece on Villanova's theater offerings through the years, in conjunction with the debut of a new production directed by Villanova's president, Father Peter Donohue, OSA PhD. You can check out the article here .  An excerpt from the article: "To begin, the 1999 production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood was another mysterious musical directed by President Donohue. The photo below shows Demetrios Bonaros, Polly Donovan, Mark Gornto, John O’Conner, Susan Bolt, and Sara Macerelli in a scene from a performance of this show which ran from April 14 to May 2."

Professor Megan Quigley will present at talk titled, "Was Hugh Kenner an Eliot Fan?" at The Pound Era at 50: Hugh Kenner's Modernism. The event will take place on April 7 from 4:30-8:00 pm at Princeton University in Chancellor Green 103.

Learn more about Professor Kamran Javadizadeh's residence at the James Merrill House in this article . Lots of interesting tidbits here, including facts about Merrill's occult inspirations, news on Javadizadeh's upcoming literary projects, and some recollections from Kamran about his grandfather, who smuggled poetry out of an Iranian prison in the lining of his clothes. From the article: "Oh, and 'yes, I've been working mostly in Merrill's secret study, the one you enter through a bookcase,' Javadizadeh says. 'How great is that? It's amazing. I've heard some of the (Merrill) fellows are more interested in the possibilities of a quiet space to work and maybe aren't particularly fans of Merrill or even poetry. For others like me, though, this is a magical opportunity because of how deeply we revere the man who lived and wrote here. You can certainly feel his presence.'"  

Professors Joe Drury, Evan Radcliffe, and Kimberly Takahata will present their research at the 2022 ASECS Conference , taking place in Baltimore from March 31-April 2. Professor Joe Drury is presenting on the roundtable  "Do We Still Need the Human?" and the panel "The Unproductive--Sexualities." Professor Evan Radcliffe is presenting on the roundtable "Bad   Feelings in the Eighteenth Century." And Professor Kimberly Takahata will chair the   roundtable " Eighteenth - Century Studies in Dialogue with the Work of Dionne Brand, Saidiya   Hartman, and Christina Sharpe" (as co-chair of the Race and Empire Caucus) and present in the roundtable " Publish or Perish? Perspectives on Publishing in Grad School." Professor Chelsea Phillips, from Villanova's Theatre department, is  presenting on the panel "Reproduction and Futurity I" and chairing  the panel "Reproduction and Futurity II."

Join us for the 2nd Annual Villanova  English Department Alumni Career Panel on Wednesday the 23 rd   at 6:30 p.m.!   Four former Villanova English majors will discuss the work they do, the paths they took to their current jobs, and how their English studies contributed to their careers. The speakers will be... Joanna Bowen, ’07, Director, Augustinian Volunteers Patrick Mullaney, '09, Marketing Manager at Verity Pharmaceuticals Meghan Muniz, '05, Director of Diversity and Inclusion Partnerships, Pfizer  Greg Watry, ’13, Editorial Content Writer at Road Runner Sports There will be chances to ask questions and exchange information as well. For the Zoom link to this event, please reach out to michael.malloy@villanova.edu.

From our friends in Gender and Women's Studies: Back from our reluctant two-year hiatus, we cordially invite you to  Villanova's 32 nd  Annual Gender & Women's Studies Conference,  which will take place on  Friday, March 25th, 2022  f rom  8:45am-4:00pm  in  the  Connelly Center!  We have an exciting full day of panels and performances by Villanova undergraduates and graduate students from across the university. Additionally, complimentary breakfast, lunch and snacks will be available throughout the day. We very much hope you will join us!  We are so pleased to announce that this year's  Keynote Luncheon  will feature a lecture by  Dr. Erin Murphy  of Boston University, entitled  "Amazons and Zombies: Margaret Cavendish’s Soldiers, Gender, and the Paradoxes of War."  To quote from a description of Dr. Murphy's lecture: "As demonstrated by ongoing debates about who can be a 'comba...

Professor Kimberly Takahata will give the keynote  at the Northwestern Undergraduate Conference on Literature (NUCL) on March 19th. Her talk is titled, "Indigeneity and Indigenous Life in Colonial Virginia."   The  conference website is here.

Professor Tsering Wangmo Dhompa will be giving a poetry reading as part of an online event series hosted by The Nation tonight. Besides her work teaching here at Villanova, Professor Wangmo Dhompa is the author of many books of poetry, most recently Revolute . She has also written a non-fiction book, Coming Home to Tibet , which was published by Penguin India. More information about the free online reading can be found here . You can also hear Professor Wangmo Dhompa reading excerpts of her poetry in an episode of our departmental podcast from last year, here .