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Message from the DGS
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Congrats English PhDs
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A Warm Welcome
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A Message from the Chair
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Placement Congratulations
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Derek Bok Teaching Awards
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Prize Recipients
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Fellowship Recipients
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Report from Lead Coordinator
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Note from COGS
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Note from Gwen Urdang-Brown
A MESSAGE FROM GLENDA CARPIO DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES
It has been a singular honor to serve as the DGS this year. Since it was the first time that I assumed the role, there was much to learn. But I had the pleasure of collaborating with and learning from a wise cadre of seasoned veterans: Gwen Urdang-Brown, Lauren Bauschard, Nicholas Watson, and Anna McDonald. Together with COGS, we have worked hard to define what we need to do to reshape the graduate program to better serve our community. I very much look forward to our continued work together, especially as we implement improvements in recruitment, course offerings, graduate student teaching, program requirements, and training for the job market. This year, graduate students provided invaluable feedback on how to improve recruitment. Many of them shared their experience in the different stages of dissertation writing (from course-work to prospectus, to first chapters) with prospective students in a wonderfully informal symposium in Child Library. In a similar vein, the Graduate Student Symposium centered on the work of our own graduate students, rather than feature invited speakers, so that graduate students could do one of the things they do best: to learn from each other. The symposium featured feedback from professors and was organized with great success by Nicholas Rinehart, our outgoing Lead Coordinator of the Graduate Colloquia. The department also benefited immensely from graduate student feedback on a recent departmental hire in African American literature. I look forward to further engaging our students in this manner. Last but certainly not least, I look forward to welcoming our incoming graduate students and to continuing to guide graduate students of all levels. Please do not hesitate to visit me in my office! But note: my office has changed. I am now at 240 Barker in the Department of African and African American Studies.
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CONGRATULATIONS ENGLISH PHDS NOVEMBER 2017
Rebecca Kastleman, “Profaning Theater: The Drama of Religion on the Modernist Stage”
MAY 2018
Amanda Auerbach, “Getting Lost: Forms of Animation in the 18th- and 19th-Century British Novel” Adrienne Raphel, “The Crossword Mentality in Modern Literature and Culture” Jacob Stulberg, “Staging the Air: BBC Radio and Modern British Drama” Erica Weaver, “Formal Orders: Reading and Writing Poetry and Prose in Late Anglo-Saxon England”
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A WARM WELCOME TO THE INCOMING CLASS OF 2018-19 Vanessa Braganza
University of Virginia (BA, 2016) Cambridge University (MPhil, 2017) Interests: Renaissance; Criticism & Theory; Poetry; History of the Book; Cognitive Psychology; Literary Criticism; Digital Humanities; Comparative Literature
Jeffrey Careyva
University of Pennsylvania (BA, 2018) Interests: Poetry; 20th Century American; Criticism & Theory; Comparative Literature
Shalisa James
Yale University (BA, 2018) Interests: 19th Century British/Romantics/ Victorian; 19th Century American; 20th Century British; Criticism & Theory; African American Literature; History of the Book; Cognitive Psychology; Literary Criticism
Andrew Koenig
Yale University (BA, 2016) Interests: 20th C British; Renaissance/ Early Modern; Transnational Anglophone/ Postcolonial
Karina Mathew
University of California Los Angeles (BA, 2017) Interests: Renaissance; 19th Century British/ Romantics; Poetry; Cognitive Psychology; Literary Criticism; Digital Humanities; Literature and Visual Art; Comparative Literature
Jocelyn Sears
Stanford University (BA, 2011) University of Virginia (MFA, 2014) Interests: 20th Century American; 20th Century British; 21st Century/ Contemporary; Criticism & Theory; Transnational Anglophone/Postcolonial; History of the Book; Gender Studies
Adam Walker
University of Florida (BA, 2016) Bucknell University (MA, 2018) Interests: 19th Century British/Romantics/ Victorian; Medieval; Renaissance/Early Modern; 18th Century/Enlightenment; 19th Century American; Poetry; Ecocriticism; Comparative Literature
John Marchinkoski
University of Vermont (BA, 2016) Interests: 20th Century American; 21st Century/Contemporary; Criticism & Theory
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A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR NICHOLAS WATSON
This has been a significant year for FAS’s graduate students and programs, with Emma Dench taking on the role of dean (no longer merely interim dean) of the Graduate School, one of many changes at the top; the ratification of the much delayed vote on graduate unionization; and, more recently, Amanda Claybaugh’s appointment as dean of Undergraduate Education, one of whose responsibilities is to oversee the allocation of teaching fellows. This has been a significant year within the department too, with Glenda taking on the role of Director of Graduate Studies with great energy and optimism. It is a pleasure and privilege to work with her, as it is with members of COGS, with whom Glenda, Gwen, Lauren and I have now established regular meetings so that the graduate office and I can hear of concerns and share information. We look forward to continued collaboration, as we think about what we can do to improve the graduate program, and graduate training, over the next two years. It goes without saying that suggestions from any student in the program are always welcome. One obvious but intractable area that has always needed improvement is, of course, teaching fellowships. This spring I had the passive-aggressive pleasure of showing then president-elect Larry Bacow a “teaching fellow assignment” letter I had just received from the General Education office. “You have x teaching fellows; if enrolment is insufficient, these fellows may be reassigned; if enrolment is high, you may apply to add fellows, but not until after shopping week,” it read, approximately. I stressed that the General Education office itself does not make these arrangements, which are standard across the college, and received a firm “this isn’t right” from the president elect. With the prospect that undergraduates may at last be required to preregister for courses, perhaps the stars are at last aligning for something positive to happen in this area, to the benefit of faculty, teaching fellows, and our students alike. Next spring, the department is going to be “visited,” by a committee of scholars acting on behalf of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, who keep an eye on the health of departments and programs. The chair of the committee is Jahan Ramazani, Virginia. The committee will want to meet with as many people as possible and learn about the department from as many perspectives as possible. We hope for active graduate student engagement in this process, both because the committee needs to hear your views and because your interest and engagement in the graduate program is good for all of us. The graduate office, and the faculty, will also be using the committee to bounce ideas off and to help us think towards the future. Finally, to end this somewhat bureaucratic message on a more personal note, I have much enjoyed meeting and remeeting many of you this year at receptions, in the hallways, and occasionally at meetings -- usually talking in something of a hurry, ending on the parting note “we must get together and have a proper conversation sometime,” “oh yes, I’d like that” (either from either speaker). “Proper conversation” can be hard to squeeze into our busy lives. But I do hope to speak “properly” with more of you in the next year, will be looking for chances to do so. The department is not much if it is not also a college, literally a community of people who read together, and talk about their reading. I am especially eager for conversations of this kind.
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PLACEMENT CONGRATULATIONS Alexis Becker, Assistant Professor, Ithaca College Helen Cushman, Assistant Professor, UNC Chapel Hill Laura Forsberg, Assistant Professor, Rockhurst University Rebecca Kastleman, Visiting Assistant Professor, Holy Cross Adrienne Raphel, Writing Seminar Faculty, Princeton University Kathryn Roberts, Assistant Professor, Univerity of Groningen Misha Teramura, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto Erica Weaver, Assistant Professor, UCLA
DEREK BOK CENTER FOR CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE AND DISTINCTION IN TEACHING SPRING 2017
Christian Schlegel (English 98r)
Michael Allen (English 53)
Christopher Spaide (English 98r)
Alex Creighton (English 141, WGS
Stephen Tardif PhD ’16 (AIU 56)
1237)
Porter White (AIU 36)
Andrew Donnelly (USW 34)
Annie Wyman (AIU 56, English 98r)
Eliza Holmes (English 178x) Anna Kelner (AIU 56) Matthew Ocheltree (Human 10B)
FALL 2017 Michael Allen (English 98r)
Elizabeth Phillips (English 192)
Thomas Dolinger (English 183ed)
Nicholas Rinehart (English 68)
Anna Kelner (English 102g)
Kathryn Roberts (Human 10B)
Tess McNulty (English 60ad)
Hannah Rosefield (English 178x)
Hannah Rosefield (Hum 10a) Julia Tejblum (Hum 10a)
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GRADUATE PRIZE RECIPIENTS 2017-18 Boston Ruskin Prize
Emma Adler, “‘Unquiet Meals’: On Eating Beauty”
Helen Choate Bell Prize (Essay)
Thomas Dolinger, “‘Words are here as pulse’: Claudia Rankine and the Fate of the Lyric Body”
Helen Choate Bell Dissertation Prize
Adrienne Raphel, “TheCrossword Mentality in Modern Literature and Culture”
Howard Mumford Jones Dissertation Prize
Rebecca Kastleman, “Profaning Theater: The Drama of Religion on the Modernist Stage”
Winthrop Sargent Prize
Bailey Sincox, “The Winter’s Tale as Revenge Comedy”
Francis James Child Prize for Excellence in Teaching
Michael Allen, for his Junior Tutorial “‘Go Little Book’ – First Books of Major Poets” Miles Osgood, for his Junior Tutorial “Global Modernism, Short Form (1899-1944)
Derek C Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates Christopher Spaide
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FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS 2018-19 Term-Time Fellowship Recipients
Michael Allen, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Anna Kelner, Merit Term-Time Fellowship Nicholas Rinehart, Merit Term-Time Fellowship Hannah Rosefield, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Christopher Schlegel, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Emily Silk, Merit Term-Time Fellowship Michelle Taylor, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship
Dexter Summer Travel/Research Fellowship Samuel Diener Anna Kelner
Dissertation Completion Fellowships Aparna Chaudhuri Andrew Donnelly Isabel Duarte-Gray Eliza Holmes Miles Osgood Christopher Spaide Emmy Waldman Elizabeth Weckhurst
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REPORT FROM THE LEAD COORDINATOR OF THE GRADUATE COLLOQUIA, NICHOLAS RINEHART This year saw another packed schedule for the Department’s seven graduate colloquia, with colloquium coordinators expanding efforts to introduce new event formats, address questions of professional development, collaborate across sub-fields, and broaden the general scope of colloquium activity. The Long Eighteenth Century and Romanticism Colloquium hosted a reading and discussion group on Erasmus Darwin’s “The Love of Plants” (1791) and Amy King’s Bloom: The Botanical Vernacular in the English Novel (2003). They also convened a mini-graduate conference on “Literary Objects and Things,” featuring papers by Olivia Carpenter, Samuel Diener, Josephine Reece, and Carly Yingst with a response and keynote talk by Vanessa Smith (University of Sydney). The Theater and Performance Colloquium hosted a workshop with graduate students in American Studies at Yale University, in addition to cosponsoring a lecture by Sarah Balkin (University of Melbourne) with the program in Theater, Dance & Media. The Medieval Colloquium once again sponsored two panels at the Annual Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, “History and Poetics” and “Literary Personae, Translating Identity,” promoting dialogue among junior and senior scholars in the field. They also celebrated the publication of colloquium sponsor Daniel Donoghue’s new book How the Anglo-Saxons Read Their Poems (UPenn 2018). The Race and Ethnicity Colloquium filled out its second year of programming with talks co-sponsored by the American, Theater and Performance, and Medieval Colloquia. And s everal colloquia turned their attention to issues of professionalization and job market preparation. The British and Anglophone Literature Colloquium hosted a workshop on public writing and article-pitching with Sharon Marcus (Columbia; Radcliffe Institute), E ditor in Chief ofPublic Books. The American Literature Colloquium organized several workshops for graduate students drafting dissertation chapters, conference talks, and article s . T he conclusion of this academic year also s awa slight reform in colloquium structure: The former British and Anglophone Colloquium and American Literature Colloquium will become the Long Nineteenth Century and Modernism Colloquium and Twentieth Century and Contemporary Colloquium, respectively. This reorganization better reflects the periodized structure of the job market and the interests of current graduate students in the department, especially those who work on transatlantic or transnational projects not legible as merely “British” or “American.” Among the highlights of colloquium activity were the annual Graduate Symposium and Graduate Prospectus Conference and Teaching Workshop. Organized around the theme “Research Practicum: Tips, Tricks, Techniques,” the Symposium featured three graduate student panels addressing the i mportant—though all-too-often unexamined—logistical questions, concerns, and conundrums that arise from the process of conducting original research. The panels, which gave six students at various stages of the program an opportunity to present their works-in-progress, were preceded by a catered lunch and followed by a casual reception at the Barker Center Kresge Room. In the spring, the Prospectus Conference allowed current G3s to discuss the prospectus-writing process and strategies for productive summer work on the first stages of the dissertation. The Teaching Workshop provided an opportunity to discuss pedagogy across the cohorts in an informal, town hall setting, and covered various topics from teaching writing skills in section todesigning tutorial syllabi. We look forward to expanding colloquium programming in the coming year!
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COGS REPORT Michael Allen & Charlie Tyson It’s been a delightful year for the English graduate community. We’ve learned from each other constantly—in our thought-provoking fall research practicum on “Tips, Tricks, and Techniques”; in our student-led departmental colloquia that have drawn top scholars in our various subfields while also giving us chances to share our original work; in our spring semester roundtable on pedagogy; and, not least, in the seminars, workshops, reading groups, and lectures that make up the exhilarating (if at times exhausting) life of our department. It hasn’t all been work, luckily. We’ve chuckled over drinks (and listened to fugues!) at our regular happy hours in Child, rooted for Timothee at our Oscars viewing party, and celebrated the arrival of a new set of prospective students. We also congratulated our recent graduates, many of whom have secured exciting positions inside and outside of the academy. Over the course of the year, we’ve enjoyed having the opportunity to discuss with many students their experiences of and hopes for the graduate program. At town hall meetings, lunches, and happy hours, we have heard from many students about their triumphs and challenges. As COGS reps, we have sought to foster a sense of friendship and community among graduate students, to open channels of communication between graduate students and faculty, and to make faculty better aware of graduate student sentiments and priorities. We are grateful to DGS Glenda Carpio and department chair Nicholas Watson for a number of receptive and stimulating conversations about how we can improve the graduate program and better serve student needs. We look forward to working collaboratively toward these shared goals in the coming year. As graduate-student unionization kicks into gear, COGS plans to work closely with Ege Yumusak, the humanities representative on the union bargaining committee, to ensure that English students’ interests are reflected in the bargaining process. As contract negotiations move forward, COGS will continue to liaise with the union representatives to lobby for the needs of students in the department. We are grateful to Emma Adler and Charlie Tyson for serving as our “fun czars” this year, after a splendid reign by Michelle Taylor. We also thank Gwen Urdang-Brown, Lauren Bauschard, and Sol Kim-Bentley for advice and logistical help throughout the year. Most importantly, we thank all of you for being part of this community, and we look forward to seeing you soon! Michael Allen & Charlie Tyson
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A NOTE FROM GWEN URDANG-BROWN GRADUATE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR
The graduate program is extremely grateful to Glenda Carpio for taking on the role of DGS this past year, and for signing on for another year as well! Glenda’s dedication and compassion have been apparent from the start, and it is hard to imagine a better person at the helm as we begin a comprehensive review of the graduate program. Thanks also to our Chair, Nicholas Watson, for his unwavering support of the graduate program and the perspective he brings after his years as DGS. Many thanks as well to Deidre Lynch and Beth Blum (Placement Directors), the members of COGS (chaired by Michael Allen and Charlie Tyson), the Colloquium Coordinators, Nick Rinehart (Lead Colloquium Coordinator), Matt Ocheltree (Departmental Teaching Fellow and Writing Fellow), all of the graduate students who helped tirelessly with admissions recruitment and so many other endeavors throughout the year, and to the entire staff of the English Department, who go above and beyond for the graduate students in so many ways. And, finally, deepest gratitude, as always, to Lauren Bauschard for continuing to work wonders every day, with great skill, intelligence, patience, and humor. Happy summer to all!