Category Archives: Useful Program Info & Tips

Useful Program Info & Tips

Preparing for the Fall 2025 Semester

Greetings, graduate students in the Mercy University MA in English Lit program. After a hot and humid summer here at the Dobbs Ferry campus, the weather today has turned gray, rainy, and blustery. On some of the leaves you can just make out the slightest bit of color turning. Nature hints that autumn is just around the corner, and so too is the fall semester in our graduate program.

Our fall semester begins on Wednesday, September 3. Your Blackboard sections are already visible, though. Keep in mind, if and as you look at Blackboard prior to 9/3, that you’re seeing various stages of a work in progress. Consider whatever you’re seeing there, including syllabus drafts, as tentative and subject to change, unless the professor has indicated otherwise. On 9/3 everything will begin, officially.

Mercy’s bookstore is Barnes & Noble and you can access the site here. In the section for course materials set the term to Fall 2025, then the Department to ENGL. On the next menu select the course number for your course (number will be 500 or higher) and then the section which will almost always be DLA. Click the “retrieve materials” button. You’ll see there everything your professor listed, with designations for required or recommended. Note that Barnes and Nobel shows the ISBN for each book which allows you to shop around and look for cheaper copies elsewhere, if you like.

Look for a welcome note here on the blog after the semester has begun. For now, I encourage everyone to start gearing up for the fall semester, securing materials, and getting prepared for another semester of exploration, literary adventuring, and honing one’s craft. Our journeys together begin again on 9/3.

Annual Director's Welcome, Useful Program Info & Tips

Student IDs and Student/Alumni Book Club

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:

  • Submit a color photo of just your face taken in last 6 months
  • Have someone else take your photo – no selfies
  • Submit a high-resolution photo that is not blurry, grainy, or pixilated
  • Use a clear and unedited image of your face; do not use filters such as those commonly used on social media
  • Face the camera directly with full face in view
  • Have a neutral facial expression or a natural smile, with both eyes open
  • Use a white or off-white background

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.

Useful Program Info & Tips

Open Invite for the faculty and student gathering on Thursday 9/7, 6pm eastern

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.

Useful Program Info & Tips

Blackboard Sections Now Visible But Are Still Works-in-Progress

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.

Useful Program Info & Tips

Graduate Student Orientation: Thursday 9/7 at 6pm Eastern, on Zoom

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.

Student News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Grad Student Book Club (open to students and alumni)

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.)

Course Information, Useful Program Info & Tips

Book Order Info for Spring 2023

Below you will find some info for books/materials required for your spring MA courses. This will be updated as professors finalize their courses and readings.

ENGL 505 Transformations of the Epic (Dr. Sax)

  • Boroff, Marie, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. ISBN: 0393930254.
  • Alighieri, Dante. Inferno. Trans. Mark Musa. New York: Penguin, 2002. 0142437220.
  • Fagles, Robert, trans. The Iliad. New York: Penguin Classics, 1998. ISBN:  0140275363.
  • Harrison, Robert, trans. The Song of Roland. New York: Dover, 2002. ISBN: 0486422402.
  • Hatto, A. T., trans. The Nibelungenlied. New York: Penguin, 1965. ISBN: 0140441379.
  • Raffel, Burton, trans. Beowulf. New York: Signet, 2008. ISBN: 0451530969.
  • Sandars, N. K., trans. The Epic of Gilgamesh: An English Version with an Introduction. New York: Penguin Classics, 1960), ISBN: 014044100X.

ENGL 521 Themes & Genres of Medieval Lit (Dr. Fritz)

  • Black, Joseph, et al, eds. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume A – Third Edition: The Medieval Period – The Renaissance and the Early Seventeenth Century – The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century. ISBN: 9781554813124

ENGL 525 Victorian Age in Literature (Dr. Dugan)

  • Braddon, Mary Elizabeth. Lady Audley’s Secret. Broadview Literary Texts, 2003.  978-1-55111-357-9.
  • Eliot, George. The Mill on the Floss. Dover Thrift Editions, 20003.  978-0-486-42680-8.
  • Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. Dover Thrift Editions, 2001.  978-0-486-41920-6
  • Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 2019, 978-0-486-26688-6.

ENGL 540 Philosophy of Literature (Dr. Fisher)

  • Noël Carroll and John Gibson (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Literature, Routledge (2006). ISBN 9780367360399
  • Eileen John and Dominic McIver Lopes (eds.), Philosophy of Literature: Contemporary and Classic Readings, Wiley-Blackwell (2004). ISBN 9781405112086
  • Numerous other short readings will be provided as PDFs or links in Blackboard.

ENGL 544 Cyberpunk & Technoculture (Dr. Loots)

Required

  • Eggers, Dave. The Circle. ISBN 9780345807298.
  • Gibson, William. Neuromancer. ISBN 9780441007462.
  • Scott, Melissa. Trouble and Her Friends. ISBN 9780765328489. (But this is out of print [OOP] so a PDF will be provided in class. You can find used copies for cheap on Alibris.com, if you don’t like reading from PDFs. I use the hardcover 1994 edition but any edition will do.
  • Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. ISBN 9780553380958.
  • Numerous other shorter works will be provided as PDFs or links in Blackboard. Also note that students will be required to view a selection of relevant films and shows, and so should budget perhaps $25 for the cost of a few streaming rentals and a month of Netflix.

Recommended, not required:

  • Cadigan, Pat, ed. The Ultimate Cyberpunk. ISBN 9780743452397. (OOP, relevant selections from this will be provided in class as PDFs)
  • Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? ISBN: 9780345404473.
  • Mill, Anna, and Luke Jones. Square Eyes. ISBN 9780224097222.
  • Sterling, Bruce, ed. Mirrorshades. ISBN: 9780877958680 (OOP and expensive, but you can sometimes find fairly priced copies on Alibris)
  • For anyone who games, I recommend you play through CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 which despite what you may have heard is a brilliant game; and the many issues/bugs present during its infamous 2020 release-debacle have been fixed through patches.

ENGL 560 Black Theatre, Art, and Power in the Digital Age (Dr. Morales)

  • London, Todd, and Ben Pesner. Outrageous Fortune. ISBN-13:‎ 978-0984310906
  • Nayeri, Farah. Takedown: Art and Power in the Digital Age. ISBN-10: ‎1662600550
  • Wilson, August. King Hedley II. ISBN-13:978-1559362603

Other materials will be provided as PDFs or links online.

Faculty News, Student News, Useful Program Info & Tips

Zoom Holiday Social Hour Wrap-up

Just want take a moment here to say thank you to the students, alumni, and faculty (and the dog) who were able to attend the holiday social hour hosted by Dr. Kilpatrick this afternoon on zoom. It was a nice time, full of conversation, stories, and humor. We will have future zoom social hours in 2023, in addition to our annual symposium. Information about those events will be posted here on the blog, as they come into view.

Cheers and Happy Holidays to everyone in the graduate English community!

Course Information, Useful Program Info & Tips

Spring Registration is Now Open. Be sure to access the English schedule in Connect, NOT the English Grad Ed schedule

Attention all MA English Lit students: spring 2023 registration is now active as of 11/2. When you go to register for courses, be careful to search for the English schedule, and not the English Grad Ed schedule. If you start typing “English” in Connect you’ll be prompted for one or the other, and you might naturally click on the one with “Grad” in the title, but this is not the schedule for us. That schedule is for students in the Master of Science in English Education which is a different program from ours, involving totally different faculty and actually run out of a different school at the college (it’s not in the School of Liberal Arts, as we are). You’ll know you’ve reached the proper schedule if you can see the level 500+ courses listed in the previous blog post.

Also, as some of you may have noticed, there’s a new tool available to students this fall, something called a “registration planner,” which unfortunately will not reveal the accurate titles for all of our courses. For example ENGL 540 up in Connect is titled Philosophy of Literature on the schedule, but in the registration planner it shows a title of Special Topics in British Lit. This will happen for courses numbered 514, 515, 540, and 560, because these are what are known (behind the scenes) as topics course numbers, meaning they are numbers that we can use to run all sorts of new or different courses. These four course numbers each have a generic title, in the system, that we use as placeholders until we actually plug something into the schedule using those numbers. So for another example, ENGL 560 has a generic title of Special Topics in American Literature, but in the spring scheduled its title is Black Theatre, Art, and Power in the Digital Age. What’s happening here is that students weren’t actually meant to see those generic titles, and you won’t see them in Connect; you will instead see the custom titles. Apparently the new planner tool is set up in a way where it’s drawing the generic titles out of the registrar’s system, without recognizing that they’ve been assigned custom titles in Connect. This is all a bit convoluted I know but, if you’re looking in the registration planner and are confused by what you’re seeing, this is why. Fortunately this should make no difference in terms of actually registering for courses in Connect.

If anyone has any questions about any of this, please contact me at cloots@mercy.edu. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to grab seats in preferred spring courses right away, before they fill up!