English Graduate Program Newsletter
INSIDE:
V O L U M E
A Letter from 1 your DGS Prize and Fellowship Winners
2
Bok Teaching Award Winners
2
Degree Recipients
3
Placements
3
Remarks from 4 the GAC Incoming Class Roster
5
GAC Follies Recap
6
Calendar & Notes from the Graduate Office
7
V I
J U N E
2 0 1 2
A Letter from Your DGS The academic year 2011-2012 saw many of the initiatives and events that make up the rhythm of the academic year, including the much-needed teaching colloquium, led by Elisa New, the flurry of activity surrounding the job market, presided over by Andrew Warren and Amanda Claybaugh, and the visit of the new admits, as well as all the wonderful lectures and workshops organized by the graduate student colloquia throughout the year. There were a few unusual events as well. The admissions process was conducted electronically for the first time and without any glitches, thanks to Shayna Cummings’s excellent skills in the online world (welcome, Shayna, to the department!). The semester concluded with our first dissertation defense, successfully undertaken by Adena Spingarn, who inaugurated what will become standard operating procedure for all students who entered in or after 2007-08. Behind the scenes, the General Exam Committee took it upon itself to revise the reading list. Fortunately, no canon wars erupted and although there was a certain amount of jostling and lobbying, the
result was a more balanced list, which the incoming class will be the first to use. Gwen Urdang-Brown, as always, guided us through all of these and many other treacherous waters with a steady hand. Finally, we had two professionalization and publication workshops. The first, on turning dissertations into books, was conducted by Bill Germano, from whose engaging presentation we will all remember the snow globe conceit. The dissertation is like a snow globe, he declared, a small, protected environment. In order to become a publishable book, this miniature world must be exposed to the air. What to do? Smash the snow globe, Bill Germano counseled. Ouch. This lesson in shock therapy was followed by a workshop conducted, in a somewhat less dramatic register, by our own Luke Menand, who let us in on the secrets of good writing for a general audience and imparted much sought-after advice about book reviewing and other forms of publication. Fortunately, we didn’t have to smash anything and instead were sent fishing, equipped with hooks and other implements to help us catch something in the crosscurrents of the intellectual world. Among other things, this seems like excellent advice for the summer, which otherwise would be spent exclusively preparing for exams, writing prospectuses and dissertation chapters, and getting ready for the next term. - Martin Puchner
PAGE This is an annual publication of the Department of English, Harvard University Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
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