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Faculty News

Recent Faculty Activity (Publications, Presentations, Etc.)

For those curious, here are some of the things that some of your MA faculty have been up to/will be up to soon, professionally speaking:

Dr. Miriam Gogol, Professor of Literature, will be participating in the MS Screen Arts and Culture Forum at the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) 2018 Annual Convention in New York City. This session will examine Lois Weber’s newly restored silent film Shoes (1916) in relation to American naturalism, early-twentieth-century consumer culture, the working girl, and sexual mores. Dr. Gogol, editor of and contributor to Working Women: New Essays in American Realisms (forthcoming 2017) will compare the film to depictions of prostitutes and kept women in the American naturalistic fiction of that day (Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets [1893]; Theodore Dreiser’s Jennie Gerhardt [1911]; David Graham Phillips’s Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise [1917]; and Rachel Crothers’s Ourselves [1913], the only prostitute play by a woman performed in that era).

Anyone looking for a reason to see New York City and to gain some experience at professional conferences (see the post just below this one for more on why you might want to do that) should look into visiting the MLA conference here during the first week of January 2018 and attending Dr. Gogol’s presentation.

Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile, Chair of the Dept. of Literature and Language in which the MA program is housed, received sabbatical leave last year to conduct research on historical memory and cultural production in the post-dictatorial period in Argentina and is now in the process of preparing her manuscript for publication. Her book will focus on Argentine film and literature as cultural manifestations of historical memory.

Her most recent publication is a chapter in the book Home: An Imagined Landscape (Solis Press 2016) edited by renowned writer and scholar Dr. Marjorie Agosin. Dr. Reissig-Vasile has also been invited to read her creative work at various events and venues in the past year: e.g. Po’Jazz at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY (May 2016); Art Speak at Blue Door Art Gallery in Yonkers, NY (June 2016); Writing to the Wall at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, NY (July 2016); Mercy College Writers Corner at Mercy College (March 2017); and as part of Grupo Quetzal at the Stamford CT Library’s International Women’s Day (March 2017).

Cover art for Home (2016) and The Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies (2017).

Dr. Boria Sax, who teaches a range of courses in the MA program including his self-designed Animals in Literature and Magic in Literature courses, has had a typically busy and prolific year. Recent articles include “Animals in Folklore” which appears in the prestigious Oxford Handbook of Animal Studies (Oxford University Press, 2017). Also: “Animal Models and Utopias: ‘A Bird of Paris’ by J.J. Grandville, George Sand, and P.J. Stahl” which appears in Anglistik – International Journal of English Studies (27.2, 2017). And: “Zootropia, Kinship, and Alterity in the Work of Roberto Marchesini” which appears in Angelaki (21.1, 2016).

Furthermore, his 2012 book City of Ravens was recently published in Chinese translation (鸦之城:伦敦,伦敦塔与乌鸦的故事 , trans. Weng Jiaruo, Beijing: CITIC Press Corporation, 2016). The Chinese Mythological Society at Normal University in Beijing is just finishing up a translation of his 2013 book The Mythical Zoo. That edition is slated for publication in late 2017 and will be Dr. Sax’s third book translated into Chinese. And his 2003 book Crow has just been reissued by Reaktion Books of London. His next book is Lizard forthcoming from Reaktion Books in October 2017.

Cover Art for the Chinese translation of City of Ravens (2017) and for Cultural Hybrids of (Post)Modernism (2017).

Dr. Christopher Loots’ article “Nada and Sunyata in ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place'” was published as a chapter in Cultural Hybrids of (Post)Modernism: Japanese and Western Literature, Art and Philosophy (2017), as part of the Critical Perspectives on English and American Literature, Communication and Culture series. The book is edited by Beatriz Penas-Ibáñez and Akiko Manabe.

Dr. Sean Dugan, who has long had an interest in so-called “mid-brow” literature and media and popular culture, recently presented his research on Edna Ferber, Calder Willingham, and the Earle Stanley Gardener character Perry Mason as represented in the TV series at the South Atlantic MLA (SAMLA) conference as well as the College English Association conference. He is currently working on a paper for SAMLA 2017 on TV Noir and The Twilight Zone episode “Perchance to Dream” by Charles Beaumont. He continues to do research into his other field of interest, linguistics, and in particular accent perception, English grammar, and syntax (some of which he will apply in the 2017-18 year as a Faculty Fellow working with Dr. Miriam Ford of the Mercy College Nursing Dept. on reading comprehension and fluency in first year college students). Dr. Dugan regularly teaches MA courses on Irish Literature, Henry James and D.H. Lawrence, Composition, and Narrative Strategy.

Student News

Recent MA Student Achievements and Activity

I’d like to take a moment here as July turns into August, as our summer semester comes to an end and we begin looking to the fall semester and the new school year, to congratulate some of our program’s alumni and current students on various achievements and related scholarly activities.

First we’ve had a number of MA students and alumni gain acceptance into doctoral and MFA programs over the past year:

  • Amy Lou Ahava (MA 2015) was accepted into the PhD program at Marquette University.
  • Angie Still (MA 2014) was accepted into multiple PhD programs and of them plans to attend the PhD program at Texas Woman’s University.
  • Krystal Johnson (MA 2015) was accepted into the doctoral program at St. John’s Fisher College.
  • Gloria Buckley (active student, MA 2018) was accepted into the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) MFA creative writing program and also into the Faulkner University doctoral program.

Again, congratulations! I’m always hoping to hear from all of our alumni and active students about any such news or accomplishments, and hope that anyone with anything to share will contact me at cloots@mercy.edu. We want our grad students and alumni to stay in touch and keep us updated on your doings, and hope that you all always will.

Of course moving on from the MA to a subsequent degree isn’t everyone’s goal. Many of our grad students are here for the MA as the end-goal in and of itself. I talk about some of the reasons the MA is a good degree in and of itself, and of the doors that the MA alone might open for you in last year’s annual welcome letter. Many of you, particularly our active secondary-school teachers, know that the MA degree on its own can be critically important for aspects of your job.

But for those who do see the MA degree as one step in a path toward a future doctoral or MFA program, I hope that you will find inspiring this news of the success of some of our students.

Now then! For grad students who aspire to doctoral study and particularly for those who hope to eventually secure some sort of college professorship, you may want to start thinking now about the scholarship section of your CV and start engaging, as much as you like and want, in the professional flow of the academic field. You don’t have to at this point: PhD programs are where you really would start getting serious about this stuff, not MA programs. But again, you may want to start at l east thinking about this while you’re here in the MA program. The “stuff” I’m talking about is attending and ultimately reading papers at conventions, conferences or symposiums. If that sounds like fun, well read on. If it sounds like something you’d rather not bother with or think about at this point in your studies, no worries.

One easy and very low-stakes way to get involved in such professional practice is to participate in our MA program symposium at the end of each school year (in May). But academic events are taking place all year round, some almost certainly within reasonable travel distance of wherever you’re living and reading this right now. The main place where English students and faculty find out about such upcoming events, and try to get involved in ones that look interesting, is UPenn’s “Call for Papers” (CFP) bulletin board linked here.

In recent exchanges with current MA student Lynn Whitehead I learned about a flurry of such activity that she’s been involved with this summer: from attending F. Scott Fitzgerald scholar Anne Margaret Daniel’s book reading in Woodstock NY, to listening to various presentations at the American Lit. Association (ALA) annual conference in Boston, to attending the annual F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Conference in Minnesota. Lynn took the time at each event to seek out and discuss ideas with various presenters, and as a result has made a number of helpful contacts. Several scholars she spoke with encouraged her to take the next step up from attending conferences and to present at conferences, and she’s already putting together proposals to do just that.

I share with you Lynn’s activities this spring and summer as an example of how any student in the program can (and if you aspire toward a doctoral program and/or professorship should) get involved in the professional current of our English field. You can do this no matter where you live in the world: start by seeking out conferences within a reasonable drive and just go and attend them. Make a day or weekend trip out of it. See how it goes, listen to panels, get a sense of what it’s like to be at a conference. Don’t be afraid to chat with people around you. Then check out the Upenn CFP page linked above and, look for CFPs that are in the area of your interests, and send out some paper proposals. Eventually something will work out and you’ll find yourself a part of a presentation panel at a conference.

So once again congrats Amy, Angie, Krystal, Gloria, Lynn, and everyone else in the program who’s been up to something similar but just hasn’t told me about it (in which case TELL me about it so I can share it in a future blog post!).

 

 

Course Information

Reading Lists for (some) Fall 2017 MA Courses

Below are some of the books/materials which professors have settled on for their fall 2017 MA courses. I will update this as frequently as possible, as I hear from the respective profs. You can always see the official book orders which professors have entered by going to the Mercy College online bookstore. At the store you would click to shop for books; then from the pull down menus select Fall Sem 2017, then ENGL, then whatever is the course number. Just to be clear, you do not have to purchase your books through our online bookstore and typically you can find any of your required readings for cheaper through Alibris.

ENGL 500, Theory & Practice of Literary Criticism (Dr. Reissig-Vasile)

  • Bressler, Charles. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice (5th Edition). Pearson, 2011. ISBN 10: 020521214X

Also, students in 500 will read and discuss some of the following texts, for which links will be provided during the semester in the class (so you don’t need to go buy the texts listed below, and you won’t necessarily end up reading all of these–students will choose to focus on some of these in a process the professor will describe at the start of the semester):

Classical Theory and Criticism: Plato, Republic (books II, III, VII, or X); Aristotle, Poetics; Plotinus, Enneads (the Fifth Ennead, Eighth Tractate)

Medieval Theory and Criticism: Dante Alighieri, Letter to Can Grande della Scala

Renaissance Theory and Criticism: Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry

Enlightenment Theory and Criticism: John Dryden, An Essay of Dramatic Poesy; Joseph Addison, Spectator essays; Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism

Romantic Theory and Criticism: William Wordsworth, preface to Lyrical Ballads

Victorian Theory and Criticism: Matthew Arnold, The Function of Criticism at the Present Time; Henry James, The Art of Fiction

Russian Formalism and New Criticism: Cleanth Brooks, The Formalist Critics and Well-Wrought Urn

Reader-Oriented Criticism: Louise Rosenblatt, Writing and Reading: The Transactional Theory

Modernity/Postmodernism, Structuralism/Poststructuralism/Deconstruction: Jonathan Cullen, What is Literature and Does it Matter?; Roland Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image and The Death of the Author; Jacques Derrida, Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences

Psychoanalytic Literary Criticism: Julia Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Language

Feminist Literary Criticism: Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic; Toril Moi, Feminist, Female, Feminine

Marxist Literary Criticism: Terry Eagleton, Marxism and Literary Criticism

Cultural Poetics or New Historicism: Stephen Greenblatt, The Power of Form in the English Renaissance

Postcolonial Literary Criticism: Charles Larson, Heroic Ethnocentrism; Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture

African-American Literary Criticism: Henry Louis Gates, Writing Race

 ENGL 508, History of Drama (Dr. Fritz)

  • Jacobus, Lee A., ed. The Bedford Introduction to Drama. (7th edition). NY: Bedford, 2012. ISBN: 9781457606328

ENGL 526, Modernism (Dr. Sax)

  • Descartes, René. Discourse on Method and the Meditations. Trans. Sutcliffe, F. E. New York: Penguin, 1968. 0140442065
  • Eliot, T. S. The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1998. ISBN: 0486400611.
  • Richard Humphreys, ed. Futurist Manifestos. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 2001. ISBN: 9780878466276.
  • Joyce, James. Dubliners. New York: Bantam, 1990. ISBN: 1553213806.
  • Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Trans. Porter, Catherine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. ISBN: 0674948394.
  • Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: U. of Minnesota Press, 1984. ISBN: 0-8166-1173-4.
  • In addition to the readings, Students should watch at least segments four through six of the series “This is Modern Art” by Matthew Collins, which is available free on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUxwuNw4oIE

ENGL 544 Frontiers of American Lit. – Cyberpunk/Tech-Noir (Dr. Loots)

  • Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Broadway Books, 2012. ISBN-13: 9780307887443
  • The Circle by Dave Eggers. Vintage, 2014. ISBN-13: 9780345807298
  • Neuromancer, by William Gibson. Ace Science Fiction, 2000. ISBN-13: 9780441007462.
  • Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott. Orb, 2011. ISBN-13: 9780765328489 (possibly out of print but still widely available used through online places like Alibris)
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Del Rey, 2000. ISBN-13: 9780553380958
  • Additional short stories, essays, and media will be linked or provided during the semester as PDFs. Some units will focus on visual media that could include movies or shows which students will be responsible for securing and watching (whether from a Netflix or Amazon video subscription, or by getting copies of the media from local libraries, etc.).

Recommended further reading for those interested in pursuing the course topic beyond the virtual walls of the classroom (again, not required for the semester):

  • Akira (Vol. I), by Katsuhiro Otomo. Kodansha Comics, 2009. ISBN-13: 9781935429005
  • Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick. Del Rey, 1996. ISBN: 0345404475.
  • Ghost in the Shell (Vol. I),  by Shiro Masamune. Kodansha Comics, 2009.
  • Synners, by Pat Cadigan. SF Masterworks Series, Gollancz, 2012.

Readings for the other classes will be listed once the professors finalize their lists.

Course Information, Course Schedules

Summer Session Starts on Wednesday May 31

Just a reminder here to anyone opting to take coursework over the summer: the summer session begins Wednesday May 31. Make sure to check into your Blackboard sections on the 31st to see what’s in store for the summer and to get going on the first week of studies.

Summer session is an optional semester (as opposed to the fall and spring semesters, during which MA students are required to maintain matriculation unless taking leave from the program).

 

Annual Grad Student Symposium, Student News

Wrap-Up: W.I.T (Writing Image Text) 2017 MA English Symposium

This past Tuesday 5/16 we held our 2017 W.I.T. graduate English program symposium here in Maher Hall on our Dobbs Ferry campus. It was a lot of fun, and the audience got to hear a number of scholarly and creative works by graduate students and faculty.

Maher Hall: home of the undergraduate and graduate English programs, English faculty offices, and the office of the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts; location of the graduate English symposium.

For our first panel three graduate students presented scholarly work. Gloria Buckley read her piece titled “Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Landscape Love Story Transcending All Borders,” in which she discussed the love and relationship of Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West as bespoken by Orlando. Lynn Leibowitz-Whitehead presented “Hemingway, ‘The Greatest Writer of His Time’; With a Little Help from His Friends: An Examination of Fitzgerald’s Influence on Hemingway’s Writing Career.” Lynn’s study traced out some of the ways that Hemingway’s success was resultant from invaluable support of others, support which Hemingway tried to obscure and erase after gaining fame. Matthew Christoff then presented his study “Symbolism in the Sierra Morena Mountains” in which he unpacked the deep relevance of events taking place in those mountains to understanding the meanings within Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

The first panel, left to right: Dr. Christopher Loots (moderator); Gloria Buckley, Lynn Leibowitz-Whitehead, Matthew Christoff.

For our second panel MA program alumna and current Mercy adjunct professor Carol Mitchell was joined by the Chair of the Dept. of Literature & Language, Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile, and the Head of Undergrad English, Dr. Kristen Keckler, for a panel of creative non-fiction presentations. Carol read her work “On the Car Radio” in which she reflected movingly on her youth, family, father, and the passing of these things through the nodal points of songs heard on the car radio when young. Dr. Keckler then read her piece “Mixology, Metaphor, and Memory: What Bartending Taught Me about Writing,” in which she sounded out the (often hilarious) resonance between life behind the bar and life behind the the pen. Dr. Reissig-Vasile then concluded the panel by reading from her work “Where Oblivion Shall not Dwell,” as published in the collection Home: An Imagined Landscape. Dr. Reissig-Vasile’s piece involved stories of her experiences with movement, emigration, and all around change; with some of the many different referents for “home” that she’s known through her life.

The second panel, left to right: Carol Mitchell, Dr. Kristen Keckler, Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile.

The Dean of the School of Liberal Arts Dr. Tamara Jhashi attended, as did the Associate Dean Dr. Richard Medoff and several other faculty members both from within the program (Dr. Sean Dugan, Dr. Boria Sax) and from other programs (Dr. Saul Fisher). Graduate students Tara Farber and Lynne Fortunado attended as well, and some friends/family of the presenters were present too. Overall the event evidenced high-quality scholarship and writing, and the presentations engendered much thought and good collegial conversation. On the practical side our presenters earned a line-item to include on the scholarship section of their CV which is an essential pursuit for anyone seeking a PhD or other professional path in higher education beyond the MA program.

Thank you to everyone who attended. I look forward to seeing some/all of you again next year for the 2018 symposium, and encourage anyone who wasn’t there this year to consider attending in 2018 whether to present, or simply to gather with others from your scholarly community.

Student News

2017 Thesis of the Year Award

The winner of the 2017 Thesis of the Year award is Kate Oscarson for her paper “What’s so Super about Superman? Heroes and the Quest for Perfection.” All theses completed for ENGL 599 Master’s Thesis Tutorial courses during the summer and fall of 2016 and spring of 2017 were eligible for the Thesis of the Year title this year. The final paper is selected by program faculty who have no thesis students’ papers in the running, and who read over drafts of papers from which the authors’ names as well as mentor’s names have been removed. The award allows the student to list this honor on her or his curriculum vitae (CV). A thesis of the year award is something common to MA English programs and does hold weight on a CV, particularly if a person applies to PhD programs or to jobs within the field. So congratulations, Kate! We will begin a new cycle of consideration starting this summer.

Annual Grad Student Symposium

2017 W.I.T. English Symposium Update

Hi all, just a reminder that in less than a month the MA Program will be hosting the 2017 Writing Image Text (W.I.T) English symposium here in Maher Hall on the Dobbs Ferry campus. Last year’s symposium was a good time all around. This year like last year we’ve got four grad students committed to presenting (Gloria Buckley, Matthew Christoff, Lynn Leibowitz-Whitehead, and Jenelle Luckey). We have a few more grad students who may or may not attend and present depending on other factors. Dr. Keckler plans to be there and to share some of her creative writing. Other professors might read or share something too. I’ll be moderating the event. I imagine a number of other faculty members and even perhaps the Dean might attend just for fun. Without further ado, here is the new very orange poster for the event:

The Incomplete "I"

A Reminder About Incomplete Grades (the “I”)

As we near the end of the spring 2017 semester please keep in mind the way that incomplete “I” grades work. Some of you may have received an incomplete for a course in the past (meaning you got an “I” for your grade instead of a real letter grade). I posted about this several years ago here, but let me post on it again just to remind everyone what’s up, and of the things you need to be thinking about if you have any incompletes on your transcript.

First off the incomplete might be granted to students who meet attendance requirements and complete most of the required work for a course. The incomplete is intended for students who experience an unexpected crisis (such as illness) at a specific point during the term which interrupts their ability to complete all required work for a course. Each professor has the right to not grant an incomplete and instead grant some other grade, including an F, based on whatever work the student completed during the regular term. Students who find themselves in a situation which might warrant an incomplete must request it of the professor. Even if a professor agrees to give you an incomplete you should avoid them at all cost. Many students take an incomplete figuring that they will make it up in good time, and then don’t–because life goes on, new responsibilities and work come along, and it just becomes very difficult to find time to go back and do work on past requirements.

If a student is granted an incomplete, the student should work to complete the missed work and so remedy the incomplete as soon as possible–and prior to the start of the next semester. At the maximum, students have one year in which to remedy the incomplete: after that year the potential credits for the course and tuition for the course are lost, and the incomplete cannot be changed into any real grade.

So for example students who have an incomplete from spring 2016 have a little more than two weeks from the day I’m posting this (April 25) to remedy the incomplete (because the last day of the semester is May 9). Once this spring semester ends, all spring 2016 incompletes are locked in and cannot be fixed. And note: sending your professors paperwork at 11pm on the 365th day of the year’s window is not acceptable. Professors might have upwards of a hundred final papers they’re reading for all their regular classes, and your incomplete paper will usually go to the bottom of that stack and be read in proper time–not rushed to the front of the line as some might hope. So, anyone seeking to correct spring 2016 incompletes should be communicating with and working with their professor now to establish the necessary schedule required to remedy the incomplete.

 

Course Schedules

Fall ENGL 500 Update

We already have such waitlist demand for the fall ENGL 500 course that we’re going to open a second section now, within the next week. You aren’t automatically shifted from the waitlist to the registration list, so if you are on the waitlist please make sure to either manually go and register for the new 500 section when it opens, or speak to a Student Services advisor to have them shift you from the waitlist to the course list. We will eventually balance out the student numbers between the two sections so that roughly equal students are in each. Any questions drop me a note at cloots@mercy.edu.

Useful Program Info & Tips

All About the required 500 Course – When to take it, Waitlists, etc.

Let’s talk about ENGL 500, and when you should/must take it, since this is something that a lot of people have questions about.

Everyone must take 500 because it is designated in our NY State Board of Ed license as our program’s core course.

The course runs each fall semester, and only in the fall. It’s impossible for a student to complete their coursework during just a spring and summer semester so every student will be with us for at least one fall semester (and if you’re only with us for one fall semester, then of course you need to take 500 during that fall semester). If a student is with us for two or more fall semesters, though, that student can take 500 during any of those fall semesters. We recommend taking it later rather than sooner in your progress toward the degree, as 500 can be a weird and difficult course, something that might be overly confusing at the start of graduate studies. But you can take it whichever fall semester you want.

Every student who needs to take 500 during any particular fall running of the course will get into that running of the course. Students who need 500 during, say, fall 2017 are students who plan to graduate at the end of fall 2017, spring 2018, or summer 2018. Students who don’t plan to graduate until the fall 2018 semester or later do not need to take it during this fall 2017 (but may take it this fall).

Students who need 500 during any particular fall but don’t get into the course during open registration will still get in. This happens by getting on the waitlist. After the course fills we watch the waitlist for the next several months. If only several students get on the waitlist, we open the existing section of the course and give seats to those students. If, though, a lot of students get on the waitlist, then we consider opening a second section of the course. If that happens we split all of the students, both those registered and those on the waitlist, evenly across the two sections.

This is why you must get on the waitlist if 500 is full but you need to get into it. If you need to get 500 during a particular fall semester in order to graduate on time, you will get in. The one drawback to not getting a seat in 500 when seats were available during open registration is that you must be patient, as again we need several months to determine whether to open more seats in the existing section or to open a second section.

As always, contact me with any questions at cloots@mercy.edu