Welcome to the blog for the Villanova English department! Visit often for updates on department events, guest speakers, faculty and student accomplishments, and reviews and musings from professors and undergraduates alike.

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Publishing Internship Opportunity

Roots Wounds Words (RWW) is offering unpaid internships to students interested in book publishing and/or arts administration careers. 

Their internship program, which runs from September – December and February – May, allows students to work 20 hours per week and offers an opportunity to learn about the literary arts and publishing industries. As a RWW Publishing Intern, you would have the opportunity to work closely with seasoned professionals and gain hands-on experience as you own day-to-day tasks, help with special projects, assist with the publication of anthologies, and attend organizational meetings.

Since 2018, Roots Wounds Words has offered free, donation-based, and low-cost literary arts programs such as writing workshops, multi-month writing intensives, master craft talks, book clubs, monthly storyteller showcases, and publication opportunities. Their storytellers are located across the country, as well as in Canada, China, the UK, Côte d'Ivoire, and elsewhere. RWW's former Faculty include literary artists such as Saeed Jones, Deesha Philyaw, Joel L. Daniels, Linda Villarosa, and more. According to RWW, "In 2022, RWW will offer workshops in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, speculative fiction, and young adult fiction. The RWW 2022 Spring Publishing Fellow will have the opportunity to support the tribe we serve--talented, yet often overlooked and cast aside, up-and-coming Storytellers of Color."

The following is from their internship posting:

Who you are:
• A rising junior, senior, or graduate student interested in exploring a career in book publishing and/or arts administration
• Self-starter with strong interpersonal, verbal, and written communication skills
• Enthusiastic and excited about discussing recent BIPOC books you’ve read and celebrating BIPOC storytelling traditions
• Possess a great attitude and a desire to learn as well as excellent organizational skills
• Resourceful with the ability to balance multiple responsibilities and work independently
• Must be results driven, and take appropriate steps to achieve goals while taking ownership of situations as needed
• Proficient in MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint

What you will learn:
• Book production and publishing
• Interviewing BIPOC authors
• Writing book reviews
• Creating and reviewing submission materials
• Managing and updating databases
• Managing and organizing literary arts events

How to apply:
In order to be considered, all candidates must submit both a resume AND cover letter to: Nicole Shawan Junior, Executive Director Roots. Wounds. Words. NSJunior@rootswoundswords.org

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT: As a leading arts organization that champions BIPOC storytellers, we believe that including and representing diverse voices in all aspects of our business is fundamental to what we do. Roots. Wounds. Words. provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, social-economic status, justice involvement, body type or size, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Thursday, December 9, 2021

PAID STUDENT RESEARCH FELLOW POSITION for SPRING 2022

PAID STUDENT RESEARCH FELLOW POSITION for SPRING 2022 


DESCRIPTION

Undergraduate student sought to join a collaborative, public-facing humanities initiative focused on an understudied Black woman writer, racial justice education, and literary recovery.

 

EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT

8-10 hours a week


COMPENSATION TBA, pending grant approval, expected in early January 2022

 

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful applicant will be intellectually curious, detail-oriented, self-motivated, committed to racial justice, interested in women’s literature and history, and an excellent writer, reader, and communicator. Because this is a long-term project with the possibility of extending the work beyond the Spring 2022 term, preference will be given to first-years and sophomores, although juniors and seniors will also be considered.


HOW TO APPLY

Submit a letter of interest and a resume to Dr. Jean Lutes at jean.lutes@villanova.edu by Jan. 5, 2022.


DETAILS

Dr. Jean Lutes (English department) is looking for a second student to join a team of scholars working on “The ’Steenth Street Project: Recovering Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s Stories of Black Childhood.” This project aims to recover a lost short story collection written in the 1890s by Black author and activist Alice Dunbar-Nelson


In deference to Dunbar-Nelson’s long career as an educator and advocate for racial justice, the project goal is to produce an open-access digital edition of the story collection, along with curriculum resources and to make our work scalable, relevant, and adaptable to multiple K-12 school systems. 

 

Dr. Lutes and her two collaborators – Dr. Brigitte Fielder (University of Wisconsin) and Ms. Denise Burgher (University of Delaware) – have prioritized collaborating with the Black-majority school district of Philadelphia to collectively produce a text and its accompanying resources, which will bring Dunbar Nelson’s work directly to the people who inspired and shaped the Annals of Steenth street, American children. 


The ’Steenth Street stories feature children in a poor urban neighborhood and the middle-class reformers who show up to help -- and who often misunderstand and misstep. The collection is based on Dunbar-Nelson’s work teaching Black kindergarteners at the White Rose Mission in the 1890s in New York City. 

 

The Student Research Fellow hired in Spring 2022 will help to document the publication history of the 12 stories in the collection (several were published both independently, both during Dunbar-Nelson’s lifetime and after), to compare story versions to establish a definitive text, to conduct original archival work for the introduction to the edition, and to identify historical documents to be published as appendices to draw the reader into the world of the author and the text.

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Winning T-shirt Design!

 Congratulations to Carlos Antonio Alvarez for submitting the winning design for the new English department t-shirt contest! New swag, coming soon!


new English department t-shirt design


Monday, November 15, 2021

Alumni Profile: A Career in Consulting

Deb Pfisterer (‘00): A Career in Consulting

Interview Conducted By Jacqueline Ridberg Larabee, VU MA '23 student

Deb began, like most college students, not quite sure what path she would pursue after graduation. She started her time at Villanova by majoring in Accounting. While she felt that business was always in her future (she says half-jokingly “I know I was meant to be in business because even as a kid a three-ring binder from my Dad excited me”), she also says she was unexplainably miserable as an Accounting major. Deb then decided to follow her bliss and become an English major where she “became who [she] was.”

After graduating in 2000, her first job was for Boeing in military aircraft as a procedure writer. At Boeing, she was originally tasked with the mission to “get everyone into the 21st century”. By updating their systems from paper to digital files and asking the questions that others were afraid to ask, Deb created a consulting position for herself. She begins by saying that she didn’t know what consulting was at first, but she learned by doing.

Deb Pfisterer '00
Deb discovered the skills she developed as an English major were vital to her success in the world of business. As an interpreter, Deb spends a lot of time translating the quantitative (facts and data) into the qualitative (words), weighing the needs of the customer with the technically correct jargon. She recounts her first interview with Boeing, where she was concerned about her qualifications: “And that’s why the Boeing guy, when he interviewed me, I said, ‘Well why hire an English major?’ And he said, ‘You can read, write, and communicate, which is more than most people can do.’” Deb has found that to be enormously true. Much of her time is spent as a writerwriting emails, contracts, negotiations. But to write accurately and with the correct style, she finds that it all comes down to ruthlessly asking questions. 

Consulting, to Deb, “means asking questions, that others may not ask or are afraid to ask. I believe in the Socratic method, right, because that’s the way it was in the English Department.” At Boeing, her initial inability to understand the technical jargon served as an advantage because it allowed her to ask questions others didn’t. “When you don’t know anything, you don’t have anything to lose.”  This fearlessness in the corporate environment allowed her to demonstrate her expertise as a consultant, which she believes is in “reading, writing, and describing.”

But ultimately, Deb found that you need passion to consult, which she feels is one thing English majors bring to the table. “It’s not so much a passion to be a consultant; it’s a passion to want to help, to want to create, to want to write... that’s what it really means.”

Presently, she works for the firm Booz Allen and in her free time, when she isn’t spending time with her two cats Coco & Chanel, she mentors current Villanova students. Deb says that students have reached out to her primarily via LinkedIn and that she allows the students to take the lead. She emphasizes that she’s “always open to networking... I never say no.” The advice she gives to anyone graduating today (as someone who has no regrets herself) is: “Be okay with making as many mistakes as possible.” Deb believes they will make you the person you are supposed to be.



 

Monday, November 8, 2021

Bailey Quinn publishes "Sea Salt" in APIARY Magazine

Congrats to English major, Bailey Quinn, for publishing "Sea Salt" in APIARY Magazine. Bailey wrote this piece in Cathy Staples's Introduction to Creative Writing Course. Well done, Bailey!

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Halloween Horror Writing

Drs. Quigley and Mullen headed to Good Counsel Hall with candy and other goodies in tow to host a productive, somewhat scary creative writing hangout. Here are some of the highlights--look forward to more creative writing hangouts ahead!

Students from the creativity on the page 
ACS course share their work with one another!
Hard at work writing with candy for fuel


More writing!

Lexi won some English department swag in the raffle!






Monday, November 1, 2021

Spring 2022 English courses on Race and Social Justice

 As you think about registration, consider taking a course in the English department on race and social justice this spring!



Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Halloween Horror: A Creative Writing Hangout with the English Department

 On Monday, November 1 at 7:00 pm join the English Department in Good Counsel Lounge for a creative writing hangout. We’ll provide writing prompts, Halloween candy, and good cheer. ACS approved.



Monday, October 25, 2021

Getting to Know Dr. Kimberly Takahata

 An interview conducted by Alexander Matkowsky, 1st Year MA/Graduate Assistant in English

This week I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Kimberly Takahata, the English Department’s new Assistant Professor of “Literature of the Americas to 1900”, who is currently teaching the undergraduate courses “American Literature Traditions 1” and “Race & Ethnicity in American Literature” in the Fall 2021 semester. Dr. Takahata pursued her undergraduate degree at Brown University and completed her graduate work and PhD at Columbia, working as a postdoctoral instructor at the West Point United States Military Academy. Her field of study, “Early American Literature”, is quite broadly defined; she works primarily with Long Eighteenth Century texts from Massachusetts down through the Caribbean.

I asked her how her interest in this specific field came about. During her undergraduate experience, she found herself to be one of only a few students “jazzed by” Early American poetry and Puritan texts, and she couldn’t help but feel that there was more to learn from these literatures. Taking her particular focus to graduate school, she realized that the kinds of questions she had been asking when evaluating these works were applicably helpful in other geographies and developed an additional attachment to Indigenous Studies. Therefore, thinking at the intersection of both fields became a logical (and interesting!) academic pursuit. A desire to teach others coincided with her studies. She explained how she “had felt strongly that literature matters and wanted to be able to tell people why”; she was excited by the idea of “exploring works alongside many others who are in agreement regarding the importance of literary studies.”

The focus of the interview then turned towards a discussion of Dr. Takahata’s ongoing projects. She is delighted to be one of several scholars involved with the online edition of The Sugar Cane, a project focused on the 1764 georgic poem set in the West Indies. This collaborative venture incorporates several Early American educators with the primary goal of “figuring out how to center Black and Indigenous life” in the massive text so that the colonial progression of the British Empire (so typically associated with the literary canon) isn’t prioritized as per the norm. Dr. Takahata is looking forward to expanding on her dissertation research – to identify how to read for structural foundations of Indigenous life in American literature instead of merely including the narrative as supplementary information coinciding with the traditionally canonical.

I then posited the ultimate question – “what has you most excited about working at Villanova?” Dr. Takahata is so grateful for the feeling of community that she gets from the students of the English department. The commitment that we have to anti-racist thinking, inclusion, and equity have been so important to her in imagining herself being here, and now more so with her actually being here. She is absolutely excited by “the way it feels that we are all trying to figure out how to make [literature] worth what it deserves to be worth”; bringing her ideas into the classroom and hearing students come up with some incredible responses “has been really amazing.” She hopes for the prospect of field trips to arise within her courses (when COVID restrictions are lifted); current and prospective students will have the opportunity to truly immerse themselves, what with the locality of her selected Early American texts to the greater Philadelphia area.

Dr. Takahata closed our interview with a piece of information that she wished to convey: she is “really excited to be here and to learn with/alongside students and to hear all their thoughts – to dive into the literature together!”

Thank you to Dr. Kimberly Takahata for taking the time to share her academic journey with Villanova students and faculty! I can with no doubt reiterate that Villanova welcomes you to its English department. We are certainly looking forward to your interesting pedagogy among such a diverse assembly of outstanding professors!

Today, 5:30 pm Idea Accelerator Lab: “Twice Militant: Women’s Intersectional Anger from the 1381 Uprising to #SayHerName”

Tonight Dr. Carissa Harris will give a lecture in the Esmonde Colloquium Series that draws connections between the women's anger that allegedly sparked the 1381 Uprising, according to medieval and early modern chronicle accounts and collective anger at police violence against Black women more recently.




Sunday, October 24, 2021

Two Poetry/Nature/Art Events on Thursday, Nov. 4

 The English Dept and Program in Creative Writing present Two Poetry/Nature/Art Events on Thursday, Nov. 4:

Both events are ACS approved and masks are required.

 

ONE:

“A Bird, came down the Walk”: A poetry workshop focusing on birds.

with Nathalie Anderson

Thursday, Nov. 4, 4-5 pm

SAC 300

 

Please register using this Google Form:  A Bird Came Down the Walk

 

Description of the workshop:

“A Bird, came down the Walk”:

A Workshop Celebrating Birds as Familiar and Unfamiliar Entities Through Poetry

  

Description: In this workshop, we’ll look at videos and photographs of birds to consider what we see that’s familiar, and what’s unexpected. We’ll try to find words for both sorts of observations, in poems that

both affirm and surprise. 

 

Writing materials will be provided



TWO:

Birds of North America

Thursday Nov. 4, 6-7 pm

Falvey Library, Room 205

 

An artists talk and poetry reading to celebrate the publication of Birds of North America, an artists book

including miniature drawings/paintings of numerous North American birds, plus a series of poems

by Nathalie Anderson and Lisa Sewell that respond to the art and to each other.

Pre-Registration Reception Recap & Spring 2022 Course Booklet

Friday's pre-registration was a success! There was poetry busking! Swag! Good conversation! Good food! A book raffle featuring books by Spring 2022 Literary Festival authors Camille Dungy, Jericho Brown, and Emma Dabiri: stay tuned for the literary festival schedule soon. Take a look at the photos below and check out the spring 2022 course booklet, available in paper form in the English department office on the fourth floor of SAC.


Elena Rouse shares what she learned at her internship with Dana Farber

Advisory council members celebrate the swag!

There were poets and poetry!

Our fearless leader, Dr. Heather Hicks, talks to students

Adrienne Perry! Kimberly Takahata! Alice Dailey!

So many smiles--the English department throws the best parties, for real.




Thursday, October 21, 2021

Open Mic Night: Kelly Writer's House 11/3

Join Jackie Carroll, English major extraordinaire, and attend the November Open Mic Night at Kelly Writer's House at Penn on Wednesday, November 3 at 7:30 pm. Jackie will be taking public transportation to the event and welcomes company. If you are interested in attending, contact her directly at jcarro29(at)villanova.edu or 215-207-1092. 

As the Kelly Writer's House puts it:

"Our student-run open mic night welcomes all kinds of readings, performances, spectacles, and happenings. Bring your poetry, your guitar, your dance troupe, your award-winning essay, or your stand-up comedy to share"

Build a writerly community in the Philadelphia area!




Monday, October 18, 2021

Pre-Registration Reception: Friday, October 22, 12:30-2:00

 Interested in learning more about spring classes? Want a chance to talk to English majors about their experience? Excited about delicious sandwiches and book raffles? Come to the Pre-Registration Reception on Friday, October 22nd in SAC Courtyard East (just go through the iron gate to the right of the front door of SAC--we'll be in Mendel tent if there's bad weather) RSVP to cindy.farrell@villanova.edu by Wednesday, October 20th by noon.



Tuesday, October 5, 2021

All About the Bagels Coffee Hour: This Thursday!

 The English department continues to be all about the bagels! Join us for free coffee and bagels and camaraderie this Thursday, October 7 from 11:30-1:00 in SAC East Courtyard. Rumor has it that there may be ridiculous board games.



Monday, October 4, 2021

"Ever-Pending: U.S. Literature of the Long Korean War" a talk by Dr. Yumi Lee

 On Thursday, October 7, at 12:00 pm Dr. Yumi Lee will share her research on the newfound visibility of the Korean War in American literature from the late 1990s with the James Joo-Jin  Kim Program in Korean Studies Korean Studies Colloquium at Pennsylvania University. 



Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Nature Writing Workshop Bird Banding Trip

 Check out these photos from the Nature Writing Workshop bird banding trip to Rushton Farm on Wednesday, September 22. It's just one of many exciting things happening in Cathy Staples's Nature Writing Workshop course!












Monday, September 27, 2021

Professor Quigley elected to the Board of Directors of the International T. S. Eliot Society

Professor Megan Quigley was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the International T. S. Eliot Society. This weekend she taught a seminar to scholars from India, the Philippines, and all over the US—one of the benefits of zoom!  But on Tuesday she’ll be back in her Falvey classroom looking forward to the 100th birthday of The Waste Land with her graduate class here.



Tuesday, September 21, 2021

Sneak Peek: Spring 2022 Upper-Level English classes

A sneak peek of the English courses offered this spring--so many great classes to choose from! All of them count toward your English major. While there may be some changes before registration, this sneak peak gives you a chance to see your options. If you have questions, get in touch with your advisor or the English department chair, Dr. Heather Hicks.

Alice is into sneak peeks


Friday, September 17, 2021

English Department T-shirt Design Contest!

English department swag is legendary and now you can design it. Submit a design for an English department t-shirt to Dr. Mary Mullen (mary.l.mullen@villanova.edu) by Monday, October 18 for the 2021 contest. 

The design should include the words “Villanova English” but the rest is up to you. Be creative! 

The Advisory Council will judge the contest and announce the winning design at the pre-registration reception on Friday, October 22. The department will print shirts with the winning design.


Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Meet the New Members of the Advisory Council

 

Members of the Advisory Council gather at the English department!

Villanova's English department cares about community--whether that means engaging discussions about literature in class, chatting about moldy mattresses and other horrors during Bagel Hour, or conversations about internships and upcoming classes at the pre-registration reception. Serving many important roles-- peer mentors, representatives of the English department, social media influencers, consultants, members of the English department's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee--students on the Advisory Council do important work shaping our community. Look for them in classes and at English department events and don't be afraid to ask them about the major or share your ideas for Villanova English with them!

Autumn Anderson, senior
email: aander at villanova.edu

Hi everyone! I am a senior English major with a minor in business. On campus, I am a member of Villanova’s Pastoral Musicians, an editor for Polis Literary Magazine, and I work in the Writing Center and Donahue Dining Hall. Last year I had an internship with Federal Student Aid where I learned a lot about updating and maintaining web content. I hope to continue exploring careers in writing and editing, publishing, human resources, and business communications. Other interests of mine include reading, running, writing, and painting/drawing. I particularly love reading fantasy and gothic fiction and would love to chat about books in general with anyone who wants a book buddy.


Jackie Carroll, Junior
Email: jcarro at villanova.edu

My name is Jackie Carroll, and I am a junior English major with minors in creative writing and peace and justice. After completing my undergrad, I hope to work in media production. On campus, I host a radio show that airs every Thursday night. The goal of my show is to amplify the voices of female music makers.


Cynthia Choo, Junior
Email: cchoo at villanova.edu

I am a junior English and Humanities double major in the Honors Program with an Education minor and a Writing & Rhetoric concentration. I am an ambassador for both the Intergroup Relations (IGR) Program and the Office of Intercultural Affairs as well as the vice president of the Korean Students Association on campus! Upon graduating, I intend to continue my studies in literature while also obtaining a teaching certification. One of my favorite books right now is Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, but I also really enjoy reading anything from memoirs to dystopian/science fiction novels to Romantic poetry!

Tariq Maxwell Karibian (or TK), Senior
Email: mkaribia at villanova.edu

I'm a senior English Major and Political Science/Japanese Double Minor.

Keenlyn Kilgore, Junior
email: kkilgore at villanova.edu

Hi my name is Keenlyn Kilgore, and I am a junior English major with minors in Peace and Justice and Mathematics. I am very interested in the different perspectives that comes with reading pieces of literature and creative writing. I was in RUIBAL my freshman and sophomore year and plan to join COV (Community Outreach of Villanova) this semester. I am also a member of Alpha Gamma Delta, a sorority that has philanthropy surrounding fighting hunger, and we team up with Meals on Wheels and Feeding America. In my sorority, I am on the Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee. I plan on connecting my English major to Peace and Justice by focusing on narratives from untold or silenced perspectives. I plan on studying abroad in the Spring in Ireland. I am very glad that I joined the English Major and its community with amazing faculty and students.


Ava Lundell, Junior
email: alundell at villanova.edu

am a junior English major with minors in History and Public Administration. I grew up in Washington, D.C., but most of my family lives in the Midwest (either around Michigan or in Chicago). Growing up in D.C. definitely shaped my career goals, instilling in me the importance of policy and politics in changing American lives for the better. Therefore, I plan to enter the field of public policy (more specifically, education policy). After graduating, I would like to work with Teach for America for two years and then pursue my Master’s in education policy. I hope to further promote equal access to quality education for all Americans. My extracurricular activities include Blue Key Society and InterVarsity. I am also a research assistant for two professors investigating disability discussions in K-12 education. I love to read, especially historical fiction novels! One of my current favorites is All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.




Erin Neilsen, Junior
email: eneilsen at villanova.edu

My name is Erin Neilsen, and I am a junior English major with minors in Business and Communication. Outside of the classroom, I am involved on Villanova's campus by serving on NOVAdance Committee, being the Chi Omega Philanthropy Chair, and participating in Blue Key Society. Additionally, I have also had the opportunity to work as the Marketing and Communications Intern for the Villanova School of Business Mentor Program and start my own swim lesson business FINS during my time at Villanova. Through my incredible experience as an English major, I have learned to problem solve, think critically, and express myself with confidence when speaking and writing, which I hope to utilize upon graduation by teaching English abroad for a year in Spain and then working in management consulting. Immersing myself into the academic and social life at Villanova has taught me the importance of community, so I hope to give back through the English Student Advisory Council to other Villanova students involved and interested in the English Department! 


Juliana Perri, Junior Email: jperri2 at villanova.edu

I am a junior English and Communication double major with a minor in Spanish from New York. In high school, I was the Editor in Chief of my yearbook, which exposed me to the world of editing and publishing. I hope to go into the publishing industry after I graduate, working with different authors to create the novels that I binge now. I love learning languages, and this semester, I am the Teacher’s Assistant for Professor Foran, the American Sign Language (ASL) teacher. I hope to continue to improve my signing and learn more about the Deaf community throughout my time at Villanova and in the future. I spend a lot of time volunteering, and I love meeting new people and trying new things. I’m taking some amazing English classes this semester, and I’m looking forward to the next two years!


Katie Reed, Junior
email: kreed11 at villanova.edu

Hi!  My name is Katie Reed, and I am a junior from Bellingham, MA majoring in both English and Communication. At Villanova, I am a writer for The Villanovan, an Honors peer mentor, and a Lorenzini Leadership Ambassador for the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women's Leadership. I love reading, writing, and thinking creatively, and though I can’t pick just one favorite book, I love reading fantasy novels and seeing different worlds come to life. I think that the English Department is an incredible community to be a part of, so as a member of the Student Advisory Council, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to build meaningful connections, foster inclusivity, and help maintain the engaging environment that is characteristic of the department. 


Sarina Sandwell, Junior
Email: ssandwel at villanova.edu

Hey! I’m Sarina! I’m a junior English major and Chinese minor. At Villanova, I’m a member of Villanova Skate Society, as well as the host of the radio show “Altronica” on Villanova WXVU where I play indie/alternative/rock music. My favorite books are Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison and There There by Tommy Orange. I have an interest in writing about modern and historical fashion and am also a huge fan of the science fiction and horror genres. After graduation, I plan to continue studying literature in the hopes of pursuing a career in teaching.



Cecile Schuller, Junior
email: Cschulle at villanova.edu

Hi everyone! My name is Cece, and I am a junior English major interested in minoring in Creative Writing. I plan to eventually teach, and I have been gathering experience by coaching middle and high school students in lacrosse, field hockey, and sailing. Here on campus, I am involved in editing and formatting Ellipsis, one of the literary publications, and I sing with the Pastoral Musicians. 

Lily Switka, Senior
Email: lswitka at villanova.edu

Hi! I’m Lily Switka, a senior double major in English and Peace & Justice, with a minor in Humanities. I was an Academic Programming & Event Coordinating Intern at the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Ohio this past summer, and I aspire to work in the non-profit sector as a grant writer (and eventually start my own organization). Creative writing and art have always been passions of mine as well, and I started my own art business in 2020. On campus, I am involved in Campus Ministry as a Peer Minister, Service Trip Leader, and Retreat Leader, and I am also a member of the Villanova Astronomical Society.If you have any questions about the English major, don’t hesitate to email me. Let’s be friends!

Catherine Wood, Junior
Email: cwood12 at villanova.edu

Hi! I am a junior English major with minors in Business and Communication. I am involved in the Morale Committee for NOVAdance, Women in Business, and Alpha Gamma Delta. This summer, I interned at International Gaming Technology in their Total Rewards department, which was a great learning experience for me and allowed me to use my Business minor. However, after college I am hoping to go into a more English-related field; I am super excited to use my English skills I have acquired from Villanova.