Professor Christine Mok teaches Contemporary Literature, Performing Race, The Young Adult Novel, and many other courses in the English department of the University of Rhode Island — but did you know that she is also a highly successful dramaturg?  In this video you can hear her speak about the latest play she has worked on:  […]

PhD student, Shanee Stepakoff’s forthcoming collection of poetry, Testimony: Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone will be published by Bucknell University Press and out in June 2021. She writes about it in a guest blog post for the press that can be found here. Stepakoff also recently published “Hiding in Plain Sight: […]

Afua Ansong’ Poetry Chapbook Manuscript, Try Kissing God, has been published as part of the prestigious African Poetry Book Fund Series edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. The manuscript considers themes of identity and the relationship between the sovereign and man in African diaspora culture. The completion of this manuscript was supported by funds […]

Congratulations go to Mohamed Anis Ferchichi for his recent publication, “The Politics of the Spectacular and the Poetics of the Specular in Richard II” in the multidisciplinary Inquiries Journal.

PhD student Jerriod Avant has been selected as one of the guest editors for The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series this summer. Jerriod is one of six guest editors who will be curating selections from black poets for the digital series. Jerriod’s curation will appear from August 17th to the 28th.  

PhD candidate James Ferry has published “Why I Go to Prison: A Teacher’s Plea for (Societal) Clemency” in Academe Magazine. The article is a follow-up to his well-received piece, “How the Academy Saved My Soul–and Maybe My Life,” published previously in the same venue. James teaches college courses to incarcerated students; he hopes to make […]

In an article recently published by the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, PhD student Damiano Consilvio discusses the etymology of the slang word “jawn” and some of its deeper, global roots. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/jawn/