A Year in Review 2015-16

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YEAR

IN REVIEW 2015-16 VOLUME V

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 2

Message from the Interim DGS

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Congrats English PhDs!

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Placement

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Derek Bok Teaching Awards

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A Message from the Chair

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A Warm Welcome

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Fellowship Recipients

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Prize Recipients

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A Note from COGS

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Report from Lead Coordinator

10 A Note of Thanks

10 Important Dates

A MESSAGE FROM DANIEL DONOGHUE, INTERIM DGS

The past year showed our graduate program at its finest.

Deidre Lynch and I alternated terms as interim DGS (fall and spring), but the program didn’t miss a beat as it moved forward with new initiatives and stellar accomplishments.

Gwen Urdang-Brown kept everyone on an even keel with her good sense and invaluable experience, and she was ably assisted by the tireless efforts of Lauren Bauschard. For yet another year the graduate students proved exceptional as teaching fellows, as the high evaluation scores and the many awards from the Bok center attest. The first- and second-year cohorts distinguished themselves in the classroom and meeting program requirements. The various colloquia kept up a vigorous schedule, COGS re-energized its role as a liaison between students and faculty, and students organized and ran two highly successful conferences. Our admissions process yielded the most diverse class the English program has ever seen.

The year was capped off by a celebratory, sunny Commencement, where Misha Teramura, Taylor Cowdery, Alexis Becker, Craig Plunges, Michelle de Groot, Matthew Ocheltree, David Weimer, and Kathryn Roberts received their degrees in Sanders Theater. Other students who received their degrees in the academic year 2015-16 include Laura Forsberg, Rhema Hokama, John Radway, Carra Glatt, and Calista McRae. Finally, an impressive number of students defied the job-market odds (the job-market gods?) and secured tenure-track offers, fellowships, temporary posts, or other positions.

Daniel Donoghue Interim Director of Graduate Studies

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CONGRATS ENGLISH PHDS!

NOVEMBER 2015

Alexis Becker, “Practicing Georgics: Managing the Land in Medieval Britain” Laura Forsberg, “The Miniature and Victorian Literature” Rhema Hokama, “Poetry, Desire, and Devotional Performance from Shakespeare to Milton, 1609-1667” Matthew Ocheltree, “Cosmopolitan Romance: The Adventure of Archaeology, The Politics of Genre, and the Origins of the Future in Walter Scott’s Crusader Novels”

MARCH 2016

Craig Plunges, “Vanishing Points: Perspectival Metaphysics in the English Renaissance” John Radway, “The Fate of Epic in Twentieth-Century American Poetry”

MAY 2016

Taylor Cowdery, “The Premodern Literary: Matter and Form in English Poetry 1400-1547” Michelle De Groot, “The Entangled Cities: Earthly Communities and the Heavenly Jerusalem in Late Medieval England” Carra Glatt, “Narrative and Its Non-Events: Counterfactual Plotting in the Victorian Novel” Alexander Linhardt,”The Imaginary Encyclopedia: The Novel and the Reference Work in the Age of Reason” Calista McRae, “Lyric as Comedy” Kathryn Roberts, “Colony Writing:Creative Community in the Age of Revolt” Misha Teramura, “Shakespeare and Chaucer: Influence and Authority on the Renaissance Stage” David Weimer, “Protestant Institutionalism: Religion, Literature, and Society After the State Church”

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PLACEMENT CONGRATULATIONS! Alexis Becker, University of Chicago, Harper-Schmidt Postdoctoral Fellow Taylor Cowdery, UNC Chapel Hill Michelle De Groot, Hollins University Laura Forsberg, Huntington Library, NEH Postdoctoral Fellow Leslie Goodman, Albright College Rhema Hokama, Singapore University of Technology and Design Joey McMullen, Centenary College Calista McRae, New Jersey Institute of Technology Craig Plunges, Director of Education at the Warrior School Project Sabrina Sadique, Concord Academy Jacob Stulberg, Writing Tutor at US Naval Postgraduate School Misha Teramura, Reed College David Weimer, Pusey Havard Map Collection, Librarian for Cartographic Collections and Learning

DEREK BOK CENTER CERTIFICATES OF EXCELLENCE AND DISTINCTION IN TEACHING

Spring 2015

Taylor Cowdery (English 54) Matt Franks (English 144) Marissa Grunes (English 55) Ari Hoffman (English 60a) Rebecca Kastleman ( English 192) Elizabeth Phillips (AIU 55) John Radway (AIU 55 & 61) Stephen Squibb (AIU 55) Teresa Trout (English 154) David Weimer (English 69) Porter White (English 190n)

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Fall 2015

Alison Chapman (English 54) Taylor Cowdery (AIU 64) Helen Cushman (AIU 64) Michelle De Groot (English 182) Andrew Donnelly (AIU 42) Isabel Duarte-Gray (English 182) Eliza Holmes (English 145a) Emily Silk (English 60) Chris Spaide (English 50) Teresa Trout (AIU 37) David Weimer (English 98r) Porter White (English 98r)

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR, JAMES SIMPSON The 2016 Graduate Commencement ceremony was a moving and joyful affair: no fewer than 8 English Department graduates triumphantly marched to receive their doctoral certificates.

This truly glorious event was a fit way to end what has been an extraordinary year for the program. Of course everyone makes mistakes, and some departments failed to do the smart thing and hire our gifted graduate applicants; that said, our performance on the market was this year exceptionally strong: the whole department congratulates each of our 10 graduates who this year successfully secured either a tenuretrack job or a post-doc or a job in an adjacent sector.

All this culminating success was underwritten by accomplished and professional activity by the entire graduate program: one thinks of, for example, the brilliant Ecologies conference in November, or the bold Digital Britain conference in March (both entirely mounted by our graduates); or the active and astutely constructive work of COGs, promoting much needed initiatives and working with faculty across our busy hiring season.

In particular, I thank Matt Ocheltree, who as Graduate Colloquium Coordinator quietly promoted the interests of the entire program; Stephen Tardif, who did a magnificent job as Departmental Teaching Fellow; Lauren Bauschard, who rose instantly to the challenge of servicing the program across the year; the ever vigilant Gwen Urdang-Brown, forever keeping the structure and operation whirring; Steph Burt, who as Placement Officer guided our graduates from program to job; and, by no means least, Deidre Lynch and Daniel Donohue who, as Interim DGSs in Fall and Spring respectively, initiated, managed, and inspired.

-James Simpson, Chair

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A WARM WELCOME TO THE INCOMING CLASS OF 2016-17!

Donald Brown Mississippi State (BA, 2014) Oxford University (M.Phil., 2016) Interests: African American Literature, Multiethnic Literature of the U.S., 20th C. American, Transnational Anglophone/ Postcolonial Olivia Carpenter University of New Mexico (BA, 2016) Interests:18th C. British/Enlightenment, Transnational Anglophone/Postcolonial, History of the Book, Gender Studies Amanda Gunn University of Illinois-Urbana (BA. 2001) Johns Hopkins University (MFA, 2015) Interests: African American Literature, Poetry Geoffrey Kirsch Dartmouth College (BA, 2009) Harvard Law School (JD, 2012) Interests: Early American (to 1900), 19th C. American, 19th C, British/Romantics, 19th C. British/Victorian, 20th C. British, 20th C. American, Criticism & Theory, Ecocriticism, Law and Literature Thomas Leonard-Roy University of Toronto (BA, 2013) University of Toronto (MA, 2014) Interests: 18th C. British/ Enlightenment

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Kathryn Mogk Pepperdine University, Malibu (BA, 2013) Minnesota University (MA, 2016) Interests: Medieval Bailey Sincox Duke University (BA, 2015) Oxford University (M.St., 2016) Interests: Renaissance, Drama & Performance, History of the Book, Gender Studies, Comparative Literature Charles Tyson University of Virginia, Charlottesville (BA, 2014) Oxford University (M.St., 2015) Interests: 20th C. British, 19th C. British/ Victorian, 20th C. American, 21st C. Contemporary, Criticism & Theory, Cognitive Psychology & Literature, Literature & Visual Arts Nicholas Utzig United State Military Academy (BS, 2002) New York University (MA 2011) Interests: Renaissance, Drama & Performance, History of the Book Carly Yingst Indiana University Bloomington (BA 2015) Interests: 20th C. American, 20th C. British, 21st C./ Contemporary, Criticism & Theory, Poetry, History of the Book, Digital Humanities, Music & Literature, Literature & Visual Art, Media Studies

Fellowship Recipients Term-Time Fellowship Recipients

Amanda Auerbach, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Helen Cushman, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Dena Fehrenbacher, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Elizabeth Phillips, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Teresa Trout, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Porter White, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Stella Wang, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Janet Zong, Dexter Term-Time Fellowship Adrienne Raphel, Helen Choate Bell Fellowship Erica Weaver, GSAS Merit Term-Time Fellowship

GSAS Sumer Fellowship Recipients

Eliza Holmes, GSAS Pre-Dissertation Fellowship Miles Osgood, GSAS Pre-Dissertation Fellowship Nicholas Rinehart, Warren Center Travel Grant

Dexter Summer Research Travel Fellowships Helen Cushman Adrienne Raphel Chris Schlegel Emily Silk Julia Tejblum

Teresa Trout Erica Weaver Elizabeth Weckhurst Michael Weinstein Porter White

Dissertation Completion Fellowships Maria Devlin Matthew Franks Rebecca Kastleman David Nee

Rachel Stern Julia Tejblum Michael Weinstein

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2015-16 Prize Winners Boston Ruskin Prize

Tess McNulty “Joyce Adapting Shelly:The Social Function of Lyric Form”

Helen Choate Bell Prize

Second Prize, Thomas Dolinger “Out where the poem ends’: Jack Spicer’s Bibliographic Poetics”

Winthrop Sargent Prize

Stella Wang “Remembering Corpus Christi:The ‘rude mechanicals’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Defense of Dramatic Imagination”

William Harris Arnold and Gertrude Weld Arnold Prize

Matthew Franks “Ephemeral Repertoire:Virtual Databases and Edwardian Subscription Societies”

Francis James Child Prize for Excellence in Teaching Taylor Cowdery, for his fall tutorial “Medieval Feminisms”

David Nee, for his spring tutorial “Shakespeare and His Contemporaries: An Introduction to Renaissance Drama”

Howard Mumford Jones Prize (19th Century)

Carra Glatt for her dissertation “Narrative and its Non-Events: Counterfactual Plotting in the Victorian Novel”

Helen Choate Bell Prize (American Literature)

David Weimer for his dissertation “Protestant Institutionalism: Religion, Literature, and Society After the State Church”

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Report from the Lead Coordinator of Graduate Colloquia This year featured a stellar set of offerings from the department’s seven graduate colloquia ranging from eminent guest speakers and graduate student workshops to exciting collaborations across fields and professional development activities. The Medieval and Renaissance Colloquia continued their robust meeting schedules, including joint events with a variety of groups in the Mahindra Center and across the humanities, and ventured into the digital humanities with the remarkably successful “Digital Britain” conference; the Long-Eighteenth Century and Romanticism Colloquium delved more deeply into the Restoration and Enlightenment periods thanks to an influx of new students and faculty; the British and Anglophone Literature Colloquium reoriented its focus to devote more attention to global anglophone studies; the Drama Colloquium, now firmly established, significantly ramped up its interdisciplinary inquiries, which included a graduate working session on “Affect/Activism;” and the Race and Ethnicity Colloquium, fully operational in its first year, undertook an ambitious program that traversed periods and disciplines to raise vital questions about history, subjectivity, mediation, canonicity and methodology. The department added two graduate student reading groups on theory and philosophy, and, with the support of the Directors of Graduate Studies, started to build the infrastructure to promote and support the creation of more dynamic constellations through which graduate students can direct their own intellectual development.

The signature events of the consortium of colloquia were the fall Graduate Symposium on “Ecologies: Modes of Reading, Questions of Method, Horizons of Thought” and the spring Teaching Workshop. The Symposium, which benefited from the participation of a diverse array of faculty and students from all stages of the program, featured a plenary address by Margaret Cohen of Stanford University on “Underwater Adventures: The Inspiration of Toxic Atmosphere” and panels on “Geographies of Reading,” “Emerging Tends in Ecocriticism: A Renaissance Roundtable,” and “Genre as Environment.” The second annual Teaching Workshop was preceded by a Prospectus Workshop in which the third-year students were able to present and discuss their recently completed prospectuses in concert with the Departmental Teaching Fellow. The Teaching Workshop itself aimed to put excellent teachers with different levels of experience in dialogue with one another on questions of creative techniques, best practices, and problem-solving strategies.

It was a welcome opportunity, in the spirit of COGS, to have an informal and honest discussion within the graduate community about what it means to teach in the department—the challenges and opportunities we face—at the present moment. Topics addressed included: learning how to ask productive questions, improving your efficiency outside the classroom, moments of silence and learning to listen, teaching in the archive, user-friendly professionalism, working with freshmen and reflections on the first year of teaching, peer learning and revision workshops, and teaching writing and close reading. This session capped off an extraordinary, thriving year of self-organized activities within the graduate program.

- Matthew Ocheltree

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Misha Teramura & Gwen Urdang-Brown

Scrapbook 2015-16

Matt Ocheltree, Moira McCavana ‘16, &

Molly Roberts ‘16 & Marissa Grunes

Aemilia Phillips ‘16

Erica Weaver, Joey McMullen, & Patrick McCoy 10

Nick Rinehart & Prof. Donoghue

A Note of Thanks The graduate program was extremely fortunate to have been placed in the very capable hands of Deidre Lynch (Fall) and Daniel Donoghue (Spring) as the interim Directors of Graduate Studies.

They both deserve sincere thanks for bringing to the role their innovative ideas and enthusiastic support of the graduate program and its constituents. Many thanks also to Steph Burt (Placement Director), the members of COGS, the Colloquium Coordinators, Matt Ocheltree (Lead Colloquium Coordinator), Stephen Tardif (Departmental Teaching Fellow), and to all of the graduate students who helped tirelessly with the admissions recruitment process and countless other endeavors throughout the year. “It takes a village…”— even for a graduate program.

And, finally, it is hard to believe that almost a year has passed since Lauren Bauschard joined the graduate program team! Lauren took full advantage of her high school cross country team experience and hit the ground running during Generals in her very first week! So much has transpired since then, and she has done such a fantastic job in every respect. It is truly a joy to be able to work with her every day.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

—Gwen Urdang-Brown, Graduate Program Administrator

Important Dates for Graduate Students August-September 2016

Aug. 22

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GSAS Registration 29

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English Dept.

Orientation for G1s

Language Exams 10-12

First Day of Classes

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7

Labor Day

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General Exams 9-5 Sept. 1

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5p. Opening Reception 8

Study Card Day

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12p. Concentrator BBQ

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