Fall Reception

The English department reception for majors and prospective majors will be held on Friday, October 26, 1:00-2:30, in the Falvey first-floor lounge. Please join us for information about spring 2013 courses, the chance to spend some time with your professors and fellow majors, and of course a free lunch.

Join us at the reception for English department candy bars!

Africana Studies Lecture

The Beats on Film

English professor Cecilia Ready writes:
I teach The Beats in English 1050. In recent years, there have been a good number of movies about the Beats themselves or based on their writings. The long-awaited film version of On the Road comes out in December, and films of Kerouac's Big Sur and Kerouac and Burrough's And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (with Daniel Radcliffe playing Allen Ginsberg) are in production.

Moby-Dick Big Read Project

Click here to experience an online audio version of Melville's epic novel.  Each of its 135 chapters will be read aloud, by a mixture of the celebrated and the unknown, and broadcast online in a sequence of 135 downloads, publicly and freely accessible, and juxtaposed with the image of a contemporary artist.

Clara Drummond, "Cape-Horner in a great Hurricane"

Harry Potter at Villanova

In celebration of the 15th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book’s publication, Falvey Memorial Library will hold a marathon reading of every Potter book, read out loud, from cover-to-cover from 12 noon to 12 midnight Wednesdays in the first floor library lounge.

Raffle tickets for prizes! A costume contest with prizes! Refreshments and more prizes!

This semester-long event is a unique and fun opportunity to introduce new readers to the series and reunite our students with the characters that sparked their interest in reading. It is also a perfect opportunity for faculty members to introduce their students to both Falvey Memorial Library and the surprisingly deep philosophical and social themes of Rowling’s influential series.

This event is open to all members of the Villanova University community and their families.

Special events details:
-Raffle tickets will be given to every person who reads and every person who comes in full costume (robes, etc.) to each reading night.  The raffle drawing for a Kindle pre-loaded with all seven Harry Potter books will be held on December 5.
- A costume contest with prizes will be held on Halloween. The grand prize for the costume contest will be an iPod Shuffle.
- Refreshments and small prizes will be awarded each reading night.

Mark your calendars:
September: 12, 19, 26
October: 3, 24, 31
November: 7, 14, 28
December: 5

For more information please contact Rob LeBlanc, First Year Experience & Humanities Librarian, Falvey Memorial Library at robert.leblanc@villanova.edu

Bridge Events

Majors Fair

Art Blog by Bob

You might be interested in checking out former Villanova English major Bob Duggan's "Art Blog by Bob."  It's had over a million visits since 2007.  Click here for the link.

English Department Advisory Committee 2012-13

Students on the committee serve as consultants for the English department and as advisors for younger majors and prospective majors. This year committee members will begin visiting the new Sophomore Writing Seminars to encourage undeclared students to think about majoring or minoring in English. We have found the committee to be an invaluable departmental resource and would welcome your contribution to it. Please contact Prof. Michael Berthold if you are interested in joining.

l to r: Jen Bradley, Haley Potter, Katie Tucciarello, Kathryn DiNardo, Allison Cordaro, Tina Krajewski, Mary Grace Mangano

Advisory Committee bios (click on the names for email addresses)

Jennifer Bradley (Senior)

I am a senior English major with Spanish, Psychology, and Writing and Rhetoric minors. I am a T.A. for "Music and Literature," and my primary interest is in modern American Literature. I am also co-editor-in-chief of The Villanova Times and interned with my local newspaper, The Princeton Packet, this summer. I hope to attend graduate school and aspire to be an English professor. 

Allison Cordaro (Senior)

I am a senior English major, and my literary interests revolve around American literature (my favorite book is The Great Gatsby), I also have a major in Spanish, as well as a concentration in Writing and Rhetoric. I studied abroad in Seville, Spain, in the spring of 2011. I am the treasurer for Villanova's Spanish Club. I have also done a service break trip to Mastatal, Costa Rica, and have an upcoming trip to New Mexico over fall break.

Kathryn Dinardo (Senior)

I am a senior English major with minors in Business and Communication. In the future I would love to be working at a publishing company or in an environment that allows me both to write and work with others. Over the summer I interned at American Eagle Outfitters in Internal Communications. The company loved that I have an English background, and I enjoyed putting the skills I have learned as an English major to the test in the real world. Being an English major has opened many doors for me and has proved to be an amazing choice!

Tina Krajewski (Senior)

I am a senior English major and Communication minor. My areas of interest are in theater, drama, and novels of the absurd. Being an English major, I have learned that you can do anything you want. I am working towards my goal of a career in Human Resources. Every class I have taken at 'Nova has changed my perspective and piqued my interest. Becoming an English major is the best decision I could have made.

Mary Grace Mangano (Junior)

I am a junior English and Honors major with an Italian minor and Writing and Rhetoric concentration. I am an Honors Ambassador, CRS Ambassador, and have been a writer and editor for The Villanovan since my freshman year. I am also actively involved with Campus Ministry and service at Villanova. I also write poetry for POLIS and am an avid bookworm. I will be abroad in Italy in spring 2013.

Olivia Murawski (Senior)

I am a senior English major with Business and Spanish minors. As far as literary interests go, I enjoy a wide range from Victorian literature, like George Elliot and the Bronte sisters, to twentieth-century writers, like Hemingway. With my English major, I hope to work in the editorial industry as ultimately a fashion or features editor at a major magazine. In the past I interned at Make It Better (a Chicago-based magazine), and I'm currently interning at Philadelphia Magazine. I spent my junior year studying English literature abroad at Oxford University, and can say confidently that--socially, culturally and academically--it was one of the best years of my life.

Lauren Peachey (Senior)

I am a senior English major and Writing Center tutor. I am also on the women's Water Polo team and the Athletics Leadership Committee. My favorite book is Frey's A Million Little Pieces. My short-term goal is to work in Business Writing or Communications, but I would also like to write a book during my life.

Haley Potter (Senior)

I am a senior English and Honors major with a Writing and Rhetoric concentration and minors in Spanich, Sociology, and Gender and Women's Studies. I chose the English major because reading and writing have always been my passions, and English has been the perfect fit. With my major I have studies abroad in Chile, where I interned at the oldest Spanish newspaper in Latin America, El Mercurio de Valparaiso. I have also worked as a collegiate correspondent for USA Today and interned at my local newspaper in Maryland. My favorite authors include Toni Morrison, Jane Austen, and J.K. Rowling. After Villanova I hope to go into journalism.

Katie Tucciarello (Junior)

I am a junior English major and Business minor. This year I am beginning to prepare for law school: taking LSAT prep courses, finding internships, researching schools. I am also very active in my sorority, Delta Delta Delta, and a avid supporter of St. Jude Children's Hospital. I am a member of Kids with Purpose, a volunteer organization that works with inner-city Philadelphia schools.

Exploring the Lives of Anna Douglas

“Exploring the Lives of Anna Douglass through History and Poetry” Wed., 9/26, 5:00 pm St. David's Room / Connelly Center GWS Presents Nzadi Keita, Department of English, Ursinus College, and Leigh Fought, Department of History, LeMoyne College. This event is co-sponsored by the History Department and the English Department. Dr. M. Nzadi Keita is Associate Professor at Ursinus College. Dr. Keita’s poems appear in The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South and A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry, as well as MELUS Journal and Nocturnes Literary Review. Her most recent major project, “Brief Evidence of Heaven,” is a manuscript-in-progress of personal poems examining the life of Anna Murray Douglass. She teaches courses in African American literature, Caribbean literature, and creative writing. . Dr. Leigh Fought is Assistant Professor at Le Moyne College. She is the author of Southern Womanhood Slavery: A Biography of Louisa S. McCord (University of Missouri 2003) and served as associate editor on the first volume of Frederick Douglass’s correspondence, published by Yale University Press in 2009. She teaches courses in United States history and world civilization. Currently, she is at work on Frederick Douglass’s Women, to be published by Oxford University Press in late 2013.

Pulitzer Prize Week

Oct. 2 Kephart Lecture

Dr. Greg Grandin, Professor of History, New York University, will deliver the 4th annual Lore Kephart Lecture on Tuesday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m., in the Villanova Room of Connelly. His lecture will be "Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish: Freedom and Slavery in Herman Melville's America".

Click here to register.