The Mercy University literary/arts journal Red Hyacinth is now accepting submissions of creative writing, photography, and images of other original studio arts for it’s 2024 edition. For submission guidelines and instructions, please click here. This is a great opportunity for MA students and alumni to get your creative work considered for publication, and potentially to see it in print in a perfect-bound hard-copy journal.
General registration for spring 2024 is scheduled to open on Wednesday November 1. Priority registration, which in the graduate program tends to apply only to veterans, is scheduled to open a week earlier on Wednesday 10/25. These dates could change if the Registrar needs more time, but as of now, those are the dates. Registration usually opens at 9am eastern. The following five courses will be on the spring schedule. Each will begin with 14 seats, and once a course is full, students will need to pick from whatever other courses still have seats. So, if you see particular courses you hope or need to take, set an alarm!
This course will study select dramatic works with an eye to the cultural and historical contexts from which those works emerged. It will use a chronological approach, exploring for example the development of drama in medieval English mystery cycles and morality plays; moving on to the emergence of secular drama in the 16th and early 17th century; proceeding to precursors and contemporaries of Shakespeare; moving onward into Restoration drama, and the development of sentimentalism; then exploring the adaptation of drama to an increasingly middle class audience in the 18th Century; and finally tracing the further development of drama through the 19th and 20th centuries. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective.
The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” refer to people living in the United States who have roots in Spain, Mexico, Latin America, South America, and/or Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries. In this course we will experience the literature of various Hispanic and Latino/a authors, and through such study will explore some of the many themes, styles, and social concerns of such authors. Among other things, we will consider what these works have to say about gender, race, class, diaspora, bilingualism, violence, and community. Our readings will focus on short stories and poetry, but could also include novels. All such works will emerge from various Hispanic and Latino/a groups, including Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Dominican Americans. Fulfills an elective by default but can work as a Literature Group 1 requirement if needed, upon request.
Note that students who are taking ENGL 515 Latin American Literature this fall can take this ENGL 515 course in the spring because although the titles look similar, they are in fact two different courses; read the notes at the bottom of this blog post for more on this.
This course studies a range of literature emerging first during the Enlightenment, and then during the subsequent Romantic era, with attention to Neoclassicism, among other things. Students will explore and consider some of the tensions between and informing these different eras and literary movements, will consider ways that these eras and movements relate to one another, including how the Romantic era and its emphasis on imagination emerged to some degree as a response to the Enlightenment and its emphasis on reason. As such, particular attention will be paid to the historical contexts from which the literature of these eras emerged, and to the role of reason and imagination in literature, history, and life. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or works as an elective.
This course will study the search for identity, individually and collectively, as it manifests in American (United States) literature from Colonial times through the turn of the twentieth century. Attention will be paid to the rapidly changing historical/cultural contexts from which such literature emerged, as well as to different literary movements emerging in America over the eras studied (e.g. Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Realist, Modern). Part of the goal of the course is to provide students with a foundation of American literature, and with an understanding of the foundations of literature in America. Another goal is to recognize just how vast and diverse the literature of America is, as well as how vast and diverse are the definitions of what it has meant, and means, to be “American.” Readings will likely include works by Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Olaudah Equiano, Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Phillis Wheatley, Philip Freneau, Poe, Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charles Chestnutt, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and Zora Neale Hurston. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or works as an elective.
This course will examine writings about and by working women from the post-Civil War era to the present. We will review key changes in the American work force, as well as some of the relevant social, economic, and racial factors since 1865, with attention to movements leading up to and informing the cultural and social changes happening between 1865 and today. We will use literature to help us deconstruct the definitions of “women,” “working,” and even “The United States.” We will inquire into the shifting definitions of the term “gender” and explore the differentials of power and opportunity within the word and concept. One of the course’s goals is to explore some of the contradictions and tensions involved in such an inquiry, as well as to explore the history and benchmarks of major events in the lives of women in the USA since 1865. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or works as an elective.
ENGL 515 is what we call a shell number, meaning we run a variety of coursework under that same number. Students can take multiple instances of ENGL 515 as long as they’re not taking the same course with the same title twice. So for example a student could take ENGL 515 Hispanic & Latino Lit, and ENGL 515 Latin American Lit, and ENGL 515 Animals in Lit, because those are three different courses, indicated by their three different titles.
ENGL 599 Master’s Thesis is not listed on the semester schedule and students do not enroll in it in the normal way. All students need to take 599 during their final semester in the program. If spring will be your final semester, click here to read up on how you enroll in a 599 section.
Something of an addendum here to the “welcome” post from last week.
STUDENT ID
Grad students, whether on campus or online, can and should secure student ID cards. A student ID can get you discounts at various stores, and can usually get you access to any college or university library in your area. Students at the Dobbs Ferry campus can stop in and get your ID card in Person at the Admissions office in Main Hall. Students at a distance can secure an ID card through the mail by following these instructions:
Using your @mercy.edu email account, send a photo of your face along with your full first name, last name, and ID number (your eight-digit CWID number) to pact@mercy.edu.
Full photo guidelines are:
Explain in your email that you are a distance-learning graduate student in the MA English Lit program at Mercy U, and that you would like a student ID card.
STUDENT & ALUMNI BOOK CLUB (MEETS ONLINE)
Any grad students or alumni interested in joining the student-run book club, please do! The club meets online, so you can join no matter where you might be located in the world. Please contact the club’s faculty advisor, Dr. Dugan, at sdugan@mercy.edu, for information on how to join.
On behalf of all of the Mercy University* MA in English Literature faculty: welcome, everyone in our graduate English community, to the 2023-24 academic year. I always find the start of the fall semester and the new academic year to be an exciting, fun, wonder-filled time. Each September we get to begin again our journeys together, get to begin again our explorations across the frontiers, get to once again travel through time and place through the power and artistry of writing, words, language, text, and thereby experience together something of the thrill and mystery and sublimity of all things; all while also developing particular areas of knowledge related to your specific courses of study. It is a special thing to be a part of a graduate community such as ours, to be able to begin again like this each September, together. I hope that each of you feels something of the excitement, the fun, the wonder of it all, here at the start of the fall semester and the new academic year. And I hope that each of you brings something of that feeling into your studies and your classroom discussions.
Below in this welcome post you’ll find some program info and news, along with information about support and resources available to all of our graduate students. Please read through all of this to get caught up on what’s happening and to get in view what resources are available to you.
*A footnote! Yes Mercy College is now Mercy University, as of August 22. To be a university a college needs only to have a certain amount of graduate programs, which Mercy has, so Mercy went through the process of legally switching its designation from college to university this past year.
ZOOM ORIENTATION, Q&A, AND OVERALL WELCOME TO THE SEMESTER: THURSDAY 9/7, 6PM EASTERN
Grad English students, new and continuing, interested in gathering on Zoom this Thursday 9/7 at 6pm eastern, please contact cloots@mercy.edu for the login info. All of the professors teaching your fall MA courses are scheduled to be there to introduce themselves and answer any questions, and others will be there as well to offer guidance for navigating the graduate program: e.g. Dr. Kristen Keckler, the Chair of the Department of Literature & Language; Dr. Laura Proszak who runs the English TA program; Lydia Yearwood, the current PACT mentor responsible for all grad English students; and the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Dr. Peter West, might be there for a few minutes to say hello. We already have about fifteen new and continuing grad students planning to attend. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend so don’t hesitate to ask for the login info if you’re curious.
GRAD STUDENT RESOURCES & SUPPORT
Each active graduate student has what’s called a PACT advisor, which is basically your staff advisor and the point-person for assisting you with issues that arise or general questions you might have. As mentioned above, the PACT advisor for every graduate English student is currently Lydia Yearwood (lyearwood@mercy.edu). Also know that as the Program Director I am the faculty advisor to every graduate English student, so you can always contact me at cloots@mercy.edu. I am here to help, always.
Student Support Services is the general office/portal where you can find info about many of the things that students normally need info about. Note that practically all of Mercy University’s support services have some online variation, and so are available for our distance learning students.
The College’s Office of Accessibility is the place to contact if you need to discuss or register any accommodations.
We also have an office of Counseling Services for those in need.
The Center for Academic Excellence and Innovation (CAEI) provides tutoring (including online tutoring) and other such assistance for those who want some help with their writing and researching. Occasionally a professor might recommend that you seek additional help with your writing, and the CAEI is the place you can get it, whether on campus or online.
Mercy has extensive online library resources. JSTOR Language & Literature, MLA International Bibliography, and Academic Search Premier are the main databases in the field of literary research, though there are many other databases available online through the library. Additionally, Mercy College has digitized versions of many scholarly books. To search the ebook selection use the advanced search option for the library catalog and under “format” select “EBook.” Then search away and check-out/download any useful books you find. For general research help and an overview of basic research methods, you might find useful this online guide that librarian Miranda Montez created specifically for the MA English program. And don’t hesitate to make use of interlibrary loan to secure any materials (such as academic journal articles, etc.) that you need but which Mercy might not have on hand. Librarians can secure materials using interlibrary loan and send scanned PDFs to students at a distance, within fair use and copyright allowance.
On this post here you’ll find important information about the incomplete “I” grade which some of you might occasionally receive. It’s critically important that students recognize that there is a time-limit past which incompletes cannot be fixed, after which all credit and tuition for the incomplete course is lost.
For those approaching their last semester, you must pay attention to your required comprehensive exam, to the instructions for how to enroll in the final 599 course, and to the application form you must complete in order to actually graduate. Also note that the format for the 599 thesis paper involves some in-house style requirements, which are explained here.
PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ENGL 599 MASTER’S THESIS ASSESSMENT RUBRIC
The program’s “student learning outcomes” are the big-picture things we hope you are developing throughout your time the program, and all of your courses in one way or another are geared around developing one, some, or all of those outcomes. We have a rubric keyed to those outcomes that we use when reviewing your final 599 thesis papers. You can see that rubric by clicking here. Even though we don’t apply the rubric systematically to papers written for courses prior to the 599 tutorial, it’s a good idea to look at it since more or less the things listed on the rubric are the things we’re considering when reviewing all of your papers for just about any course in the program. The rubric and the outcomes, and our 599 assessment practices, as well as the sharing of this information with students, are all requirements of our university’s accreditation.
THE SCHOOL OF LIBERAL ARTS ANNUAL “THEME”
Each year faculty from across the entire School of Liberal Arts (SLA) vote on a “theme” for the year. The theme becomes the focus for various SLA events and activities. The SLA theme for 2023-24 is “perception.” The SLA Dean’s Office has provided the following description:
Perception is the process by which humans apprehend their surroundings and make sense of the world that they inhabit. It is a physical phenomenon that engages all five senses. But it is so much more than the sum total of sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. As a form of consciousness, perception also carries intellectual and spiritual connotations. Nor is perception a neutral process. It can (and does) vary considerably between different people, across cultures, and over the course of an individual’s life.
You might informally keep the SLA theme of “perception” in mind when designing things like research-topics for your course papers. You might even create something based on the theme to present at the annual Graduate English Student Symposium in spring 2024. It’s not too early to start thinking about attending and presenting at the spring symposium.
ONWARD WE GO
Okay, that’s it for the welcome post! Thank you, everyone, for all of your work and effort. As always, if anyone has any questions about anything, please let me know at cloots@mercy.edu. Once again, welcome, everyone, to the 2023-24 academic year here in the Mercy College MA in English Lit program. Onward we go, together.
Earlier on the blog I announced that there will be an online Q&A and orientation for recently-admitted students on Thursday, 9/7, on Zoom, at 6pm eastern. We’re extending the invitation for this event to any and all students in the graduate program, no matter how far you are along in your studies, and no matter if you feel that you need info or answers about anything in particular. It will likely prove useful and interesting to meet your fall professors in person; to hear any Q&A about the upcoming courses; to hear some general advice and guidance about program-level support and resources; to meet some of the other students in the program; etc. So, anyone who is interested, please contact cloots@mercy.edu to receive the meeting info and links. We hope to see a big turnout! Thank you, all.
Blackboard sections for your graduate courses were revealed today 8/23. Please note, though, that these sections are still works-in-progress and most of your professors will be tinkering with them prior to the first day of class on Wednesday 9/6. Although the overall Blackboard sections have been revealed, much of the particulars in each section might still be hidden from student view. This is purposeful. Again, these are all works-in-progress as professors prepare for the fall semester. All necessary parts will be visible and ready come the first day of the semester, 9/6.
We’re planning to hold a faculty-led orientation for recently-admitted graduate English students (and other continuing students who feel that they could benefit from such an orientation) on Zoom on Thursday 9/7 at 6pm eastern. Attendance by our incoming students is strongly recommended, though we understand that not everyone will be able to make that day or time. Some of the faculty teaching this fall, including the Program Director of MA in English Lit, as well as the Chair of the Department of Literature & Language, will be present. So you’ll get to meet some of your fall-semester professors in person (virtually speaking), will be able to ask questions about the program or specific fall courses, and will hear advice and info from faculty and others. We’ll be reaching out to incoming students soon via email with information for how to attend. Continuing students who are interested in attending should contact cloots@mercy.edu.
Below is some info regarding book orders for fall 2023 courses. This will be updated throughout August as professors finalize their courses. Note that in many cases professors will supplement these materials with links, PDFs, and other materials provided in Blackboard during the semester. So what you’re seeing here might not spell all of what you’ll be studying in any particular class. The college’s online bookstore is here. Books do not need to be purchased from the college store. The MA program recommends supporting your local bookseller, if one still exists; or using Powells.com for new books, or Alibris.com for used books. Books from the library are perfectly fine as well, though part of your graduate studies should involve marking up your books with notes and thoughts and building a personal library.
ENGL 500 – Theory & Practice of Lit Criticism (Dr. David Kilpatrick)
ENGL 507 – Narrative Strategies in the Novel (Dr. David Fritz)
ENGL 515 – Latin American Literature (Dr. Celia Reissig-Vasile)
Only one book purchase will be required, the Campobello book listed below. Other works will be assigned, such as Pablo Neruda’s Canto General and the film Strawberry and Chocolate by Tomas Guiterrez Alea, but links or copies of those readings and media will be provided by the professor of the course during the semester.
ENGL 540 – Literature by Women (Dr. Miriam Gogol)
More readings may be listed or shared in Blackboard, but as of now the following books are required:
ENGL 545 – Literature of the Left Bank, Paris (Dr. Christopher Loots)
Much will be provided in Blackboard in the form of PDFs (e.g. stories by Edith Wharton, selections from Joyce’s Ulysses, poetry by H.D., fiction by Zelda Fitzgerald, essays and poems by Richard Wright, etc.). But students should secure a copy of the follow required readings (any edition will do, it does not have to be the specific edition assigned here):
Recommended additional materials for those who want to go even deeper into the lit and culture of this era, or who want to own copies of works from which I’ll be providing PDF exerpts:
ENGL 560 – African & Caribbean Literature (Dr. Donald Morales)
Partial book info is below; the professor is still building the reading list but so far this is for certain:
We’ve reached the end of another academic year, which means it’s symposium season, awards season, and commencement season!
For our annual Graduate Student Symposium this past April, a good number of students, faculty, friends, family, and others in the graduate English community gathered on zoom to hear scholarly presentations from Abigail Collopy, Rayne Dolton, and Adrianne Gunter. Interpretations and insights were expressed; ideas were discussed; and much camaraderie and collegiality was had. Presenters earned a valuable line-item to list in the scholarship section of their curriculum vitae. The graduate faculty encourage all of our students to share some of your writing and ideas at next year’s symposium, which will likely be in late April 2024. Ask any of your professors or the Program Director about doing so, if you have any questions or need some guidance.
Three students were recognized recently for program year-end honors. The first of these honors is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie who established and long chaired Mercy College’s English Program. The award, determined by the collective graduate faculty, recognizes one graduating student for their consistent academic excellence and classroom performance throughout their time in the graduate program, their other contributions to the program’s scholarly learning community, and their relevant accomplishments beyond the program’s coursework.
Next is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, a long-time and highly-esteemed professor of English at Mercy College who (among many other things) taught Shakespeare and Science Fiction, and advocated that the latter could be as meaningful an area of study, could be as “literary” and as significant, as the former. This award recognizes a thesis that does one or some of the following: approaches literary analysis in a unique, unexpected, or unusual way; reconsiders and otherwise treats with dignity genre fiction; or involves interdisciplinary studies.
Finally, we have the Thesis of the Year Award. Selecting one study for this award, as much as for any of the other awards, is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program regularly create excellent studies that are each worthy in their own right. The paper receiving this distinction stood out in all respects.
It is always a strange thing to announce such distinctions as when doing so one can’t help but think of the marvelous students and studies that are not the ones named. Again, it is extraordinarily difficult for faculty judges to locate any single person to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each year from our program and the college overall. So as we recognize these honorees let us please also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2022-23 for their hard work and dedication that has gotten them to this moment of completing their MA degree in English Literature.
One last program-relevant thing to mention here is that for Mercy College’s School of Liberal Arts commencement ceremony, held last week on the western athletic field of the Dobbs Ferry campus (the 100-yard event tent is pictured below), the college selected one of our own to deliver the graduate-student commencement address: Tim Brosnan. Tim gave a wonderful speech in which he expressed many of things that he cherished most about his time in the graduate program, as well as his appreciation for many of the individual faculty with whom he studied during his time in the program. It was a heartening and laudable finish to the year.
Cheers to everyone in the MA English Literature program, to our alumni, and to all of your family and friends. Congratulations to our graduating class of 2022-23. Onward we go!
There’s been some talk about students in the MA program forming up a book club, so to have a more casual, extra-curricular, and student-run venue at which to discuss books and socialize with other graduate students outside of the classroom and the program structure. This is a great idea, one worth pursuing and registering as a student club with the College. In order for this to get off of the ground, we need two things:
First we need to create a list of everyone interested in joining the book club (note that expressing interest doesn’t bespeak an obligation to attend, it’s just necessary for the college to verify how many students might join and attend the club if it launched).
Second we need at least one person to step forward here at the start and indicate that they would be willing to be the club president, or a co-president, from go. In the context of this book club, the club president would mostly be responsible for organizing the online discussion sessions (e.g. polling the club members on when would be the best time to meet, creating and disseminating the zoom links, hosting the zoom session, and in-between meetings taking point on correspondences from other grad students interested in joining the club.).
If multiple people are interested in being book-club president, that’s great: in that case different people can take turns organizing the discussion sessions and such. I sponsor an undergrad student club at Dobbs Ferry that has three co-presidents, and they enjoy taking turns at it. Note that the book-club president(s) wouldn’t be deciding the book that the club reads: that would need to be agreed upon by the club, as a group (or by using whatever method of deciding that the club decides is best).
So, if you’re interested in joining the grad-student book club, please send an email to cloots@mercy.edu with your name and CWID number. And if you’re willing to be listed as a club (co)president here at the start, please indicate that as well. Again we need at least one person to step forward for that, otherwise the club won’t launch, since college student clubs need to be student-run and student-managed. Thank you.
(Edit in: Also, let me add, that alumni are welcome to be a part of the book club too, so if any alumni reading this are interested, let me know.)
Program Director's Blog for the Mercy University MA in English Literature Program 