The Word Newsletter, Volume 12, Issue 3

Congratulations to the Class of 2012!

Volume 12, Issue 3

At the commencement ceremony on May 24, sixty-five English concentrators will receive their diplomas and say an official goodbye to our department. We’d like to offer a special congratulations to our seniors and wish them luck in their future plans. Each of these students has enriched our department in their own special way, whether it be in class discussions, a special thesis project, or involvement in departmental events. We will miss you all!

Wonder what they’ll be up to?

Charlotte Alter Araba AppiagyeiDankah Matthew Aucoin Allison Averill Danielle Aykroyd Shauna Bennett Jacob Benson Sofia Brooks Asa Bush Juan Camero Susana Cervantes Samuel Chalsen Emily Chertoff Mark Chiusano Olivia Clements Scott Cole

the word

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM NEWSLETTER

27 April 2012

Cecelia Cortes Molly Dektar Eva DeLappe Thomas Dolinger Danielle Drees Carl Engle-Laird Carla Ferreira James Fitzpatrick Erik Fredner Samuel French Naomi Funabashi Theodore Gioia Rachael Goldberg Catherine Goode Samantha Gridley Gabrielle Guarracino Christine Gummerson

Jennah Hiari Katherine Huang Nasir Husain Isabel Kaplan Katherine Kaufman Ashley Kaupert Anouk Kemp Chava Kenny Alicia Lee Jane Lee Abigail Lind Jeanne Mack Mac McAnulty Kelly McCarthy Katherine McNicol Brian Mejia Allen Padua

Dante Pearson Alexander Raymond Daniel Rogers Matthew Sack Shannon Schaubroeck Dhruv Singhal Clio Smurro Valentin Staller Renee Stern Charles Sull Jane Tankard Ian Thompson Pooja Venkatraman Garrison Cross Woodfield Justin Wymer

Katherine Huang will be working at Deutsche Bank in New York, joining their sales and trading program and ultimately hoping to do equity research. Shauna Bennett will be moving to New York City and will be working for NBC Universal as a part of their Page Program. Sam Gridley will be doing clinical research at Seattle Children's Hospital for one year and applying to medical school. Pooja Venkatraman will be in McLean, VA (right outside DC), working as a strategy analyst for Capital One. Naomi Funabashi will spend the summer touring Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Serbia with the Radcliffe Choral Society before interning at CAA in Los Angeles.

Starting in October, she will be at Oxford, pursuing the MSt in English and American Studies.

Anouk Kemp will be going to New York to pursue a MFA in Theater Directing at Columbia University. Erik Fredner is teaching creative writing at a camp this summer and is looking for jobs in and around Cambridge for the coming year. Araba Appiagyei-Dankah will be working at Bain & Company in Chicago for a few years and eventually hopes to get a joint MBA/MPH and work for an NGO concerned with health policy. Rachael Goldberg will be doing an MFA in Fiction at the University of Florida. Matt Aucoin will be working as an assistant conductor/coach/pianist at the Metropolitan Opera, studying composition at Juilliard, music-directing the new orchestra/opera company at the Peabody Essex Museum, and trying to publish poems and essays.

Shannon Schaubroeck received a Trustman Traveling Fellowship to go to Tanzania next year to learn and write about popular local music. Jane Tankard will be teaching elementary school in Baltimore as a 2012 corps member for Teach for America. Olivia Clements will be working in New York City at the District Attorney's Office, Rackets Bureau. Sam French will be working as a Business Analyst at McKinsey & Company in NYC. Renee Stern will begin her JD studies at Fordham Law School in New York City this coming fall. Justin Wymer recently received the Iowa Arts Fellowship to attend the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Over the next 2 years, he’ll be pursuing an MFA in Poetry, and hopes to continue writing and teaching poetry.

Inside this issue:

SENIORS!

New Faces of the English Dept.

2

The Boylston Prize for Elocution

2

“At Home in the English Department”

Faculty Spotlight

3

Events

3

What’s New with the SAC

3

Opportunities

4

is on May 22, from 2-4 PM in the English Lounge.

Bring your families by to meet the Chair and enjoy light refreshments.

Don’t forget that

Some New Faces in the Department We hope you noticed some new additions to the English Department... on the walls, that is! In the spirit of Jorie Graham’s “300 Years of Harvard Poetry” project, department Chair James Simpson decided to update our wall art in a very pointed way. The literary figures that now grace our halls and reception area are all associated with Harvard or our immediate geographic area.

Our new additions: Margaret Atwood M.A., Radcliffe, 1962

James Agee

B.A., Harvard, 1932

Wallace Stevens

Attended Harvard, 1897-1900

e.e. cummings

B.A., Harvard, 1915; M.A., 1916 Taught at Harvard, 1952-53

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Adrienne Rich

B.A., Harvard, 1821

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

B.A., Harvard, 1829 Taught at Harvard, 1847-53; 1871-82

B.A., Radcliffe, 1951

John Ashbery

B.A., Harvard, 1949

John Dos Passos

Sylvia Plath

T.S. Eliot

Anne Sexton

B.A., Harvard, 1916

Born in Boston, MA

B.A., Harvard, 1909; M.A., 1911 Taught at Harvard, 1932-33

Radcliffe Institute Fellow, 1961-63

Phillis Wheatley

Gertrude Stein

Lived in Boston, MA

Elizabeth Bishop

Attended Radcliffe, 1893-97

Robert Lowell

Taught at Harvard, 1970-77

Attended Harvard, 1935-37 Taught at Harvard, 1950s; 1963-70

Robert Frost

B.A., Harvard, 1936

Louisa May Alcott

William Burroughs

Attended Harvard, 1897-99 Taught at Harvard, 1936

John Updike

Lived in Concord, MA

B.A., Harvard, 1954

The Boylston Prize for Elocution

The Department thanks a former undergraduate and graduate for the gift of her collection of travel writing, which is now available for use in the Child Library.

The Boylston Prize for Elocution finals took place earlier this month, and we couldn’t be more excited that two of our English concentrators took first and second place! Congratulations to Hana Bajramovic ‘13, whose recitation of Robert Frost’s “Birches” earned the top prize, and to Michael Taylor ‘14 who performed W.H. Auden’s, “As I Walked Out One Evening.” Highlights from the competition can be viewed here.

Our judges, Professor Bob Scanlan, Owen Chen, and Rev. Donald Larsen, along with those who attended the event, were also treated to moving renditions of the following poems, speeches, and prose: Wallace Stevens “The Auroras of Autumn, cantos VII and VIII” by Matthew Aucoin Michelle Obama, 2008 DNC Speech (excerpted) by Chisom Okpala Robert W. Service, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Matthew Warshauer Clarence Darrow, “A Plea for Mercy” (excerpt) by Jonathan Padilla Wright, “At the Executed Murderer’s Grave” by Nasir Husain William Faulkner’s Nobel Acceptance Speech by Isabel Carey Excerpt from “The Wanderer” lines 58 (late west saxon) by Samantha Berstler Page 2

THE WORD

Faculty Spotlight: Ju Yon Kim Where are you from?

I was born in Seoul, South Korea, but my family moved to Los Angeles when I was quite young. We lived in Koreatown briefly, and then moved around Los Angeles county. More recently, I lived for several years in San Francisco and consider it my second home. The ice cream in San Francisco is pretty spectacular.

What are your favorite sports teams?

I was a completely devoted fan of the Angels growing up. We lived very close to what was then called Anaheim Stadium. My father and I even went to the American League championship game where the Angels won their first pennant. I haven't been able to follow baseball as much in recent years, but I'm hoping to attend a Red Sox game this summer.

What is your favorite restaurant or business in Harvard Square?

I like the food and coffee at Café Crema. In fact, I just had one of their lattes.

What is the most interesting place you've traveled?

My guilty pleasure is visiting places where Alfred Hitchcock shot his films. I don't plan trips just for that reason, and many of the locations were close to where I already lived (Mission Dolores and Bodega Bay, for example), but it makes the place a little more exciting.

Exciting Events In the English Department…

Woodberry Poetry Room…

Around Harvard… Around Town…

29 April. “Over the Centuries: Poetry at Harvard (A Love Story),” presented by Jorie Graham & Matt Aucoin ’12. 3:00 PM, Agassiz Theater. Free tickets available at the Harvard Box Office.

10 May. Woodberry West: Poetry Reading by Jorie Graham & Sophie Cabot Black. 7:00 PM, Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst, MA

2 May. Rebecca Lindenberg & Stephen Burt, Love, an Index and Art of the Sonnet. 7:00 PM, Porter Square Books

17 May. Oral History Initiative: On Bill and Beverley Corbett. Forty-Four 30 April. The Annual Stratis Haviaras Years of Boston Literary Life.

Reading featuring Timothy Donnelly.

7:00 PM, Thompson Room 6:00 PM, Thompson Room 22 May. “At Home in the English Department,” for graduating seniors and their families. 2:00—4:00 PM, English Department Lounge

3, 4, 5 May. La Troupe at Harvard presents: La Cantatrice Chauve Directed by English concentrator, Anouk Kemp '12. 8:00 PM, Café Gato Rojo. Reserve your tickets at latroupetix@gmail.com.

9 May. Jorie Graham reads from Place: New Poems. 7:00 PM, Harvard Book Store

The Student Advisory Committee The majority of our Student Advisory Committee is graduating this term! We wish to thank Isabel Kaplan, Mac McAnulty, Sam Gridley, Clio Smurro, Asa Bush, Carla Ferreira, Naomi Funabashi, Jennah Hiari, Chris GumV O L U M E 1 2, I S S U E 3

merson, and Alicia Lee, all members of the class of 2012, for their dedication to the English Department and their countless hours of outreach.

This means we have several openings on the SAC (Cabot, Currier Dunster, Eliot,

Kirkland, Lev, Lowell, Mather, and Quincy).

If you are interested in acting as a peer advisor, participating in outreach events, and discussing the concentration with department administrators, please email Lauren for an application.

Page 3

Opportunities NOMA-REISCHAUER PRIZES IN JAPANESE STUDIES 2012 The prizes are awarded annually for the best essays on Japan-related topics written by Harvard University students during the current academic year. There is one $1,500 graduate student award and one $1,000 undergraduate award. Papers on Japan-related topics, written this academic year are eligible, including course and seminar papers, B.A. or M.A. theses or essays written specifically for the competition. One entry per student, per year. For specific questions, please email Dr. TheoConcentration Advising dore Gilman or Catherine Glover. The deadline is June 18, 2012 by 5pm.

We’re on Facebook! “Like” us! http://www.facebook.com/ Harvard.English.Undergraduate.Program

Student Publications The Harvard Advocate / The Harvard Book Review / The Harvard Crimson The Journal of Medieval Studies / The Harvard Lampoon / Perspective Magazine!

The Tuesday Magazine / Swift Magazine / The Harvard Salient

DUS. Prof. Steve Burt, Barker 270 burt@fas.harvard.edu Creative Writing.

Bret Johnston, Barker 067 bajohnst@fas.harvard.edu Undergraduate Administrator.

Jeff Berg, Barker 159 jmberg@fas.harvard.edu Undergraduate Assistant.

Lauren Bimmler, Barker 158 lbimmler@fas.harvard.edu

Harvard University Department of English Undergraduate Program. Barker Center. 12 Quincy Street. Cambridge, MA 02138. P: 617-495-8443 F: 617-496-8737

In Memoriam

Wendy Chang, our admired and well-loved fellow student 1990—2012