Hi all! Each year the MercyU School of Liberal Arts (SLA) launches a theme and then encourages faculty and students to create events based on the theme. The SLA theme this year is “bodies.” Faculty in the grad program are hoping to gather students together for a themed-event called “Psyche and Soma in the Age of Cyberculture.” Just what would the event actually involve? And when would it happen? We don’t yet know! But it would somehow have something to do with the question and mystery of the mind, the self, one’s psychical quidditas (psyche) in relation to one’s physical body (soma) in this age of cyberculture, meaning the age of the internet, phones, computers, AI, virtual reality, augmented reality, MMORPGS and other co-op shared gaming and virtual environments, social media, etc.

We’re first just looking to see who from our grad program would be interested in joining together to do something on the theme. Then, from there we’d confer and determine just what that something might be. The most standard thing would be some sort of a panel event, where a series of presenters would share something (perhaps a scholarly paper, perhaps a creative-writing piece, perhaps something of the studio-arts or digital arts, perhaps something musical, perhaps something cinematic, perhaps something like dance, etc.) each somehow related to the question, issue, mystery of “Psyche and Soma in the Age of Cyberculture.” But perhaps there’s some other sort of event that we might imagine.

If any student in the grad program is curious about or interested in this, please write to cloots@mercy.edu by October 25. Reaching out does not bespeak a commitment, so if you’re at all intrigued, just reach out. Let’s just get in view who all might be interested in banding together for this event. Once we have that in view, we’ll take it from there and figure out what we each might do, and when, and in what modality.

The 2024-25 academic year is now complete. Here as May comes to a close and spring starts to hint of summer, we in the program applaud every one of our graduate students for your efforts and achievements over the past academic year. In addition, the program bestows three particular distinctions at this time, each year. The first such honor is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie, who established and for many years chaired the Mercy English Program. The award is determined by the collective graduate faculty and recognizes one graduating student for consistent academic excellence, classroom performance, and collegiality throughout their entire time in the grad program, as well as for other contributions to Mercy and the university community, such as submissions to or editorial work on Red Hyacinth, work as a teaching assistant/learning assistant, and/or other related work and scholarship performed beyond Mercy’s perimeter.

• The winner of the 2025 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Nelson Orellana

Next up is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, an esteemed Shakespeare scholar at Mercy who was also a lifelong advocate of the value and power of speculative fiction, science fiction, and other genre fiction often looked down-upon by the academic establishment. 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.

• The winner of the 2025 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is J’nai Spires for her thesis “Creative Writing’s Rise and Its Positive Impact on Mental Health.”

Next is the overall Thesis of the Year award. Selecting one study to honor for this award is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program, over the past twelve months, have produced numerous high-level and even publishable works, each of which is worthy and respectable in its own right. The one paper receiving this distinction excelled in all areas and was a standout study.

• The winner of the 2025 Thesis of the Year Award is Micah Hankins for his thesis “Harnessing Fiction Genre to De-Stereotype Marginalized Characters.“

It is always difficult to locate any single person or work to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each school year from our program, and the many exceptional theses submitted for the degree. So although the program recognizes these honorees and works, know that we also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2024-25 for your efforts and work across your time in the program. Congratulations, everyone. Here’s to the summer ahead!

Anyone in the area of the Dobbs Ferry campus this coming Wednesday, 4/16, should come over and enjoy a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Red Bull Theater and Apocalyptic Artists. The show starts at 4pm in the Main Hall Lecture Hall, and should run until 5:30pm. The cast will hold Q&A afterward until 6pm. Admissions is free and it’s open to both students and the community, so anyone is welcome to attend. This is for the English program’s annual “Christie Day” Shakespeare event held in honor of the late Joannes Christie, founding faculty of the Mercy English program.

We’ve reached the end of another academic year, which means it’s symposium season, awards season, and commencement season!

This past April some of our grad students and faculty gathered on Zoom for the annual graduate student symposium. Raymond Fortunato read aloud a selection of his creative short fiction, while Nelson Orellana and Chad Teasley presented scholarship. As usual it was a collegial event at which ideas were expressed, discussions unfolded, and camaraderie was had. Presenters earned a valuable line-item to list on their curriculum vitae. The graduate faculty encourage all of our students to consider presenting creative or scholarly work at next year’s symposium, which will be held in April 2025.

Four of our grad students were recognized recently for year-end honors. The first such honor is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie, who established and for many years chaired the Mercy English Program. The award is determined by the collective graduate faculty and recognizes one graduating student for consistent academic excellence and classroom performance throughout their entire time in the grad program, as well as for other contributions to Mercy and the university community, such as submissions to or editorial work on Red Hyacinth, work as a teaching assistant/learning assistant, and/or other related work and scholarship performed beyond Mercy’s perimeter.

• The winner of the 2024 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Adrianne Gunter.

Next is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, an esteemed Shakespeare scholar at Mercy who was also a lifelong advocate of the value and power of speculative fiction, science fiction, and other genre fiction more often looked down-upon by the academic establishment. 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.

• The winner of the 2024 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is Nyasia Almestica for her thesis “Exploring the Intersections of Technology and Intimacy in Personal Relationships.”

Next is the overall Thesis of the Year award. Selecting one study to honor for this award is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program, over the past twelve months, have produced numerous high-level and even publishable works, each of which is worthy and respectable in its own right. The one paper receiving this distinction excelled in all areas and was a standout study.

• The winner of the 2024 Thesis of the Year Award is K. Chad Teasley for his thesis “‘Better…a Sober Cannibal Than a Drunken Christian’: Herman Melville’s Literary Advocacy for Socioeconomic and Cultural Equality.”

In most years those three awards would mark the whole of the year-end honors, however this year we have an additional honor to note. Each year Mercy University hosts what’s called the “The Mavie Awards” (Mercy’s mascot is a maverick, that’s where the term “mavie” comes from) which is an event involving forty-some different awards recognizing achievement of various sorts from across the past academic year. One of the Mavie awards is for “Outstanding Graduate Student” and recognizes one student, out of the thousands of Mercy grad students, for both their academic excellence as well as participation in and efforts for the Mercy community. This year one of our own was recognized for a Mavie:

• The winner of the 2024 Mavie Award for Outstanding Graduate Student is Nelson Orellana.

It is always a strange thing to announce such distinctions as when doing so one can’t help but think of the many marvelous students and studies that are not the ones here named. It is extraordinarily difficult for faculty panels to locate any single person to honor for any of the program awards out of the many exceptional students and theses under consideration. So as we recognize these honorees let us please also recognize all members of the MA English Lit program, especially the graduating class of 2023-24, for your work and dedication.

One last program-relevant thing to mention here is that for the Mercy University School of Liberal Arts commencement ceremony, held on May 22nd, the university’s administrators selected one of our program’s own to deliver the graduate-student commencement address: Esteban Figueroa. Esteban gave a lively speech, and provided through his thoughtful and reflective words the perfect finish to the academic year. This is the second year in a row that the university has turned to the MA English Lit program for the grad-student commencement speaker. It seems the powers-that-be have figured out that MA program students have a way with words, and a skill for dramatic performance!

Here’s to each and every one one of you who completed the degree this past year. Here’s to everyone in the program still working toward your degree. Here’s to our alumni. Here’s to the faculty, and the people behind the scenes who make the university function. Here’s to your family, friends, and loved ones. Here’s to summer, and cheers to all!