PhD Alum Charles Kell’s poem featured on Poetry Daily - Congratulations to our alum Charles Kell, whose poem “My Broken Tooth” is featured on the Poetry Daily site. It is from his collection “Ishmael Mask,” which was published in 2023.
Congratulations to PhD student Leanne Oden on her forthcoming scholarship! - The department would like to recognize Leanne Oden, who is the recipient of a graduate travel grant from the Center for Humanities for Fall ‘24 and is presenting her paper on a contemporary reading of Three Guineas at the International Virginia Woolf Society panel at the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture in late February. […]
Congratulations to PhD student Holly Allen on her recent scholarship! - The department would like to recognize PhD student Holly Allen for her recently published book review of Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing by Lee Edelman. The review appears in Interdisciplinary Literary Studies, Volume 26, Number 4, 2024, published by Penn State University Press.
Congratulations to PhD student Ali Ghaderi on his recent scholarship! - The department would like to recognize PhD student Ali Ghaderi for his recent scholarship, which includes: -Presenting the paper “Disintegration of Bodies in Music: Orpheus and Eurydice’s Prosodic Doom Becoming Salvation in Luthien’s Rescue of Beren” at Oxonmoot 2024 (the Tolkien Society’s annual conference) -Presenting the paper “Tolkien’s Heritage and Screen Adaptations: the Necessity of […]
Faculty, Students Appear in Recent Issues of Motif Magazine - Our faculty and graduate students have been busy, publishing multiple pieces in the February, January, and November issues of Motif Magazine. November (Indigenous People’s Issue): MA student Wanda Hopkins was the guest editor for this issue, and also has an article on foraging on page 7. January (The Environment & The Future): PhD […]- Congratulations Corner: Dissertations Defended Spring 2024 - AnnMarie DeMichiel Title: “House Of Horrors: Shirley Jackson And The Perils Of The Domestic In American Literature, 1945-1965” Major Professor: David Faflik Tatiana Duvanova Title: The Empire, A Dystopian Novel Major Professor: Derek Nikitas Diana Turken Title: “This Could Be Heaven Or This Could Be Hell: Figurations Of Urban Life In Contemporary California” Major Professor: […]
Professor Sarah Eron Publishes New Book - Along with her colleagues Nicole N. Aljoe and Suvir Kaul, Professor Sarah Eron has published a groundbreaking new collection in Eighteenth-Century Studies. The Routledge Companion to Eighteenth-Century Literatures in English brings together essays that respond to consequential cultural and socio-economic changes that followed the expansion of the British Empire from the British Isles across the […]
Undergraduate Student Katherine Robbins Presenting Paper at Queen’s University Conference - Katherine Robbins (BA candidate in English) will be presenting “What Still Haunts Us: Victorian Spiritualism in Contemporary Novels” at a virtual undergraduate and graduate conference titled Re-imagining and Re-engaging with the Victorians in April at Queen’s University, Canada.
Associate Professor Peter Covino Wins Wisconsin Prize for Poetry in Translation - Associate Professor Peter Covino has won a prestigious prize and publication contract for his translation from the Italian of What Sex Is Death: Selected Poems of Dario Bellezza.
Eve Potvin (ABM candidate in English) Presenting Paper at INCS Conference - Eve Potvin (ABM candidate in English, May 2025) will be presenting “The Dame, the Cross-dresser, and Rochester: Deception and Trans Perception in Jane Eyre” in March at the Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference in Cincinnati. Congratulations, Eve!- PhD Candidate Billy Bowden to Give Brown-Bag Talk - On Wednesday, March 6th, at noon in the Hoffmann Room of Swan Hall, please join the English Department and the Center for the Humanities for a lecture by Billy Bowden: “Planetary Drift: Flotsam as Empathic Medium in Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being” The talk will be in person and live-streamed.
- Alumnx Kim Evelyn (PhD 2015) wins NEH award - Kim Evelyn is the recipient of an NEH Award for Faculty at HBCUs. The funding will support her research on a book with the working title Travelers in Caribbean Texts: 1950s-2020s. The NEH press release is here: https://www.neh.gov/news/neh-announces-338-million-260-humanities-projects-nationwide
- Graduate Student Shanee Stepakoff publishes articles - Shanee Stepakoff’s essay, “The Jew in the Jamaican, the Amalgam in the Attic: A New View of Bertha Mason in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre,” was published in the latest issue of the Journal of Victorian Culture. Her article “The Influence of the Altaic Deity ‘Erlik’ on D. H. Lawrence’s Portrayal of ‘Loerke’ in Women in […]
Professor Christine Mok On Creative Team of Critically Acclaimed Play - 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: […]- Literatures of the World: A Marathon Reading, November 15, 2022 - Literatures of the World: A Marathon Reading will take place on Tuesday, November 15th, 4:00 – 7:00 pm at the 193 Coffeehouse located in the Memorial Union. Students and faculty read excerpts of memorable literary works from around the world in connection with International Education Week. Readings will be chosen by the participants and will […]
PhD student, Shanee Stepakoff to publish her collection of poetry “Testimony: Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone” - 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: […]
PhD Candidate Afua Ansong’ Poetry Chapbook “Trying Kissing God” has been published in African Poetry Book Fund Series - 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 […]
PhD candidate Mohamed Anis Ferchichi’s recent publication “The Politics of the Spectacular and the Poetics of the Specular in Richard II” - 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 is Guest Curator for the Summer 2020 Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day - 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. - 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 […]
