As the temperature drops and frost coats the library windows, EGSO would like to reflect on the past year and recognize the many events within our community thus far. At Fall Collation, we had the chance to reunite with fellow students and faculty as well as meet new members of the PhD, MA, and the Litowitz MFA+MA cohorts and catch up on summer excursions (language learning trips, camping on coasts, gratuitous amounts of iced coffee to get us through dense theory). The department congregated in Harris Hall to celebrate the start of the quarter, with presentations by Susie Phillips, Elizabeth Winter, Mitchell Johnson, and Daisy Hernández. Isabel Griffith-Gorgati (3rd year PhD) organized our peer mentor program—hosting a delightful morning peer mentor meet-up in the Hagstrum room with coffee, bagels, and conversation. Around Halloween, Sof Sears and Emely Taveras (2nd year MFA+MA students) hosted the first (spooky-themed) creative writing salon, where the 1st year MFA students shared new works, as did some PhD students. It was an enjoyable evening of lovely food prepared by Emely and fantastic readings from our students.
Looking back to last Winter Quarter, Sam English (PhD candidate) organized an advice session for second-year PhDs to hear from those in their third year about constructing their reading lists, along with other advice on preparing for their qualifying exams. Sam English, Ryan Nhu, and Eliza Feero also organized mock exams for the third-year cohort, with resounding success. Ryan Nhu hosted a cozy potluck for grad students and friends at his apartment in January. It was a haven of delightful warmth on a snowy winter’s night! In January, graduate students enjoyed attending job talks for visiting faculty candidates, but even more so enjoyed breakfasting with all four candidates, including our own wonderful Sarah Dimick. On the MFA side, writer Raven Leilani visited campus and gave a wonderful reading for our students.
In March, Michaela Corning-Myers and Agam Balooni (both PhD candidates) worked with Nathan Mead to organize our recruitment weekend. The weekend consisted of tacos in the graduate office lounge, mingling in the Hagstrum room over coffee, dinners around-and-about Evanston, and was capped off with a tour of campus on the perfect spring day—with, of course, faculty meetings, lectures, and classes taking place amidst our socializing. Ryan Nhu and Dawn Angelicca Barcelona organized a marathon reading of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, followed by a collaborative collage that can be viewed in the graduate student office. The event brought together undergrads, graduate students, and faculty who all participated in reading the poem aloud.
Last spring, Sam English organized both a prospectus roundtable and a fellowship advice session with the Office of Fellowships. Tyler Talbott gave a mock job talk in April which was not only fascinating and well-attended, but was the talk he presented during recruitment for his current position at Creighton University. Adam Syvertsen and Philip Ellefson hosted an AI and Pedagogy workshop with Jeff Masten that had attendees thinking through the uses (and difficulties) of AI in the classroom setting. Graduate students Irene Kim, Avey Rips, and Rio Bergh presented papers at American Cultures Colloquium throughout the schoolyear. The ACC also hosted professors M. Murphy, Hsuan Hsu, and Adrienne Brown for captivating talks paired with informative graduate student events, such as a workshop on publication and a creative discussion on research methodology.
Many of the English department’s members have been (and continue to be) impassioned about and essential to the ratification, and fair, thorough implementation of, the Graduate Student Workers Union’s recent contract, which was initially agreed upon during the last academic year. We’re confident that our community will continue to show solidarity with and support each other in this way.
It is shaping up to be a wonderful school year and we are proud of the community we’ve been able to foster. Additionally, we are immensely grateful for the help and organizational genius of English Department staff members Kathy Daniels, David Kuzel, Nathan Mead, Colin Pope, and Ashley Woods. Thank you all!
Sof Sears & Emely Taveras (MFA+MA) and Michaela Corning-Myers (PhD), Co-Chairs
Kayla Boyden, Students-in-Candidacy Representative
Isabel Griffith-Gorgati, Students-in-Coursework Representative
Sam Aftel, Archivist
Rio Bergh and Sarah Nisenson, Representatives to the Graduate Policy and Placement Committee