Words Matter (Fall 2024)

Volume XIV, Issue I

Table of Contents

• The Devil You Know: Visiting Writer’s Series Presents John Vercher
• Note from the Chair
• In Her Words: A Poetry Reading with Joan Larkin and Alicia Ostriker
• A Tribute to Jean Valentine
• LatinX Poetry Reading and Writing Workshop
• Student Spotlight: Taylor’s Version
• 8th Annual Ink and Electricity
• News from the Monmouth Review
• Department Student Achievements
• Department Alumni Achievements
• Congratulations to the winners of the Fall ’23 Graduate Creative Writing Contest!
• M.A. Theses and Manuscripts Defended
• Faculty News
• Congratulation Graduates and Sigma Tau Delta Members

The Devil You Know: Visiting Writer’s Series Presents John Vercher

Taylor Memoli

The Visiting Writers Series held an event on Nov. 6, 2024, hosting Monmouth’s newest artist-in-resident, John Vercher, in The Great Hall. Vercher is the author of three novels and his most recent novel Devil is Fine was recently named one of “The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024” by Time Magazine. During the event, Vercher read a passage from Devil is Fine and answered questions from the audience and the event host, Alena Graedon, associate professor for the Department of English.

Vercher started by reading a quote by Toni Morrison and telling the audience, “I’m not going to read from the grief portions of this book… I’m going to read some funny s–t.” He continued to read a passage from his novel that caused eruptions of laughter from the sizable audience and the event host, Alena Graedon, associate professor for the Department of English.

The rest of the event held time for questions. Vercher answered about his writing influences, his reason and tips for writing speculative fiction, and even gave the audience a sneak peek at the influences and content of his upcoming novel. “I thought that the event was fantastic,” Graedon said. “It was very well attended, and the bookstore sold out of John’s book—the first time that’s happened in quite a while, staff said. John’s opening remarks and the quote that he read from Toni Morrison really resonated during a difficult week. And the reading itself was so funny, pointed, and cathartic. I’ve heard variations on, ‘I really needed that’ from many, many students and faculty members who attended. I felt the same way.”

This is Vercher’s first-semester teaching, and when asked about his experience at the University, he had only positive things to say about it. He explained, “I could not have been more excited [to get this job]. I met with the hiring committee via Zoom and knew very quickly that they represented everything I’d read about the department and more. I found myself eagerly anticipating the next interview and the next, because with each conversation with them, my excitement for potentially working with them all grew exponentially. Needless to say, I was incredibly happy to receive the call from the Dean offering me the position. My short time here has already been a terrific experience.”

Vercher continued, “Not only has the faculty been incredibly welcoming, but my students have been top-tier. They are engaging, creative, and driven. It’s a pleasure to come to work every day. Not everyone gets to say that and I’m grateful for the experience.”

The Visiting Writers Series has been connecting students with established authors since 2005. Graedon explained, “I think that the Visiting Writers Series plays a vital role in creating cultural access and expanding literary awareness for the Monmouth community and the public at large.” She continued, “We’re living in an era when storytelling is as ascendant as it has ever been—we’re all constantly immersed in narratives of different genres and mediums: novels, memoirs, poetry, and plays, films, TV series, and video games—but literary culture can seem more and more rarified and remote. For as long as I’ve been alive, there’s been hand-wringing over the death of print, and the decline of the written word as an important cultural medium. But if we want people to keep reading, we need to make literature feel like a normal and compelling part of everyday life, which is what the Visiting Writers Series aims to do.”

Graedon concluded, “It’s also intended to help writers in our community develop their craft and learn about the publishing industry. I happen to think that literature is absolutely essential, now more than ever. It’s clear that we’re living through an extremely politically polarized time; some people see their fellow citizens as enemies—as evil, even. And while I don’t think that literature can fix that on its own, I do think that by reading literature, we can begin to understand other perspectives and start necessary conversations.”

Reprinted with permission from Taylor Memoli, The Outlook, Vol. 97, No. 10, November 20, 2024

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Note from the Chair

John P. Hanly, Ph.D.

The Fall 2024 semester has been a busy and fruitful one for the Monmouth University English department. It has, as per usual, been a semester full of inspiring Visiting Writers Series readings and informative lectures, of fun Sig Tau happenings and grad student gatherings, and of meaningful daily interactions between colleagues and fellow students who love nothing more than the opportunity to discover and discuss a great book with a friend. But in addition to, or perhaps above, all of this, for the Department of English, it has been a semester of comings and goings. This being our department newsletter and for reasons that will soon become apparent, I should start with the goings.

It would be remiss to proceed any further without taking a moment to thank the individual who, more so than anyone, is responsible for this biannual newsletter being the engaging, colorful, substantive, and highly professional publication that it is: our department’s former administrative assistant, Bethany Dickerson. Dickerson joined the English department as our office coordinator in 2016 and stepped into the administrative assistant’s role in 2018. As the department’s administrative assistant, she was responsible for covering a wide range of important duties integral to maintaining the department’s budget and records, inputting the department’s course schedule, and helping the department obtain the data it needs to make informed decisions and serve our students. Dickerson excelled in all of these capacities, but she especially excelled in upgrading and updating our social media and web presence and in making our newsletter something really worth reading. Virtually everything that is outstanding about our newsletter is attributable to Dickerson’s initiative, talent, and dedication. Therefore, while we’re confident that Words Matter will continue to matter (and be outstanding) under the editorship of our new administrative assistant, Stacey Ayers, it’s an understatement to say that Dickerson will be missed. Former department chair, Susan Goulding, Ph.D., when asked about her experience working with Dickerson, said, “It has been my great honor and pleasure to have worked with Bethany over the last several years, first as our office coordinator and then our administrative assistant. During my term as department chair, I relied thoroughly on her exceptional work, always done with integrity, respect, and skill. I will miss her presence in our department, but am happy to see her move into a new opportunity in her career.” I could say exactly the same about my experiences working with Dickerson and wholeheartedly second Goulding’s sentiments. Thanks to Dickerson, on behalf of everyone in the English department, for her support, dedication, hard work, and friendship. We wish her the best in her new position in the SHSS Dean’s Office.

In addition to adjusting to Dickerson’s departure, this semester required adjusting to another notable “going,” as we figured out how to move forward after the retirement of our longstanding and much-valued colleague, Mary Kate Azcuy, D.Litt. For over twenty-five years, Azcuy was an integral member of and contributor to the Monmouth University Department of English. Consistently one of the department’s most in-demand and versatile instructors and advisors, she provided outstanding teaching for hundreds of literature and creative writing courses and served as a first or second reader for over thirty-five M.A., M.F.A., and Honors thesis projects. Azcuy also developed some of the department’s most popular and innovative themed general education literature courses (Bite Me: Vampire Literature & Here Be Dragons: The Hero’s Journey), courses in the undergraduate English major (Place and Space in American Literature & Postmodern Literature), and graduate-level courses (Modern American Literature & Contemporary American Literature). Azcuy’s contributions and accomplishments as a scholar and a creative writer were also notable and wide-ranging. Some highlights included a 2020 Fulbright Scholar Award to lecture on American Literature and Culture at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow, being selected as a featured poet for the 2018 French POEM project at the Sorbonne Nouvelle, publishing her creative non-fiction essay “The Red Snowsuit” in The Kenyon Review in 2017, and two AIRIE Fellowships to serve as an Artist/Poet-In-Residence at the Florida Everglades National Park in 2009 and 2010. During her time here, Azcuy left an indelible, inarguably positive mark on her colleagues and her students with her extraordinary teaching, her tireless mentoring, her intellectual contributions, and her genuine and positive personality. We are, therefore, highly pleased to share that the English department has unanimously department has unanimously recommended (and the Provost and Board of Trustees have approved) her remaining affiliated with the university and our department as an Emeritus Faculty member.

Fortunately, all of the “goings” that the English department has had to contend with have been counterbalanced by some exciting “comings.” Most notably, we have had the pleasure of welcoming John Vercher as a new full-time Artist-in-Residence for the 2024-2025 academic year. Vercher is the author of three novels, the most recent of which, “Devil is Fine”, was published by Celadon (a division of MacMillan) in June. His debut novel, “Three-Fifths” was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune, and a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian, while his second novel, “After the Lights Go Out” (Soho Press, 2022) was described as “simply brilliant” by Publishers Weekly and “Shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times. This being the case, and having recently had the opportunity hear John read an excerpt from “Devil is Fine” at his exceptionally well attended Visiting Writer’s Series reading in November, we were ecstatic, but not surprised, to learn midway through the Fall semester that “Devil is Fine” has been listed by TIME as one of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 and that the novel has been included on the longlist for the 2025 Aspen Words Literary Prize. No doubt even greater things are yet to come for our new colleague, and we’re ecstatic to have him here to work with our undergraduate and graduate-level creative writing students.

Before wrapping up, I would like to once again express our sincere appreciation for the substantial financial assistance that was provided to the creative writing program by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Without this much-needed assistance, the various readings, events, and student activities that you’ll read about in this semester’s newsletter couldn’t have happened.

Best wishes for an enjoyable and relaxing winter break and for an exceptional and productive Spring semester.

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In Her Words: A Poetry Reading with Joan Larkin and Alicia Ostriker

Eleanor Curatolo and Amanda Ljajka

On Oct. 29, poets Joan Larkin and Alicia Ostriker were invited to Monmouth University thanks to a gift to the Creative Writing program and in partnership with the Visiting Writers Series and the Program in Gender and Intersectionality Studies. Larkin is the winner of several awards such as the Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, along with several fellowships. In the 1970s, she co-founded the independent publishing company Out & Out Books. Ostriker serves as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations. According to Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., professor of English at Monmouth University, Larkin and Ostriker are “two indispensable voices in contemporary poetry.”

Larkin had studied at Swarthmore College, the University of Arizona, and Brooklyn College, earning a bachelor degree and two masters degrees in the arts and fine arts. She has taught at Drew University, Sarah Lawrence College, New England College, and Goddard College. Larkin has written seven poetry collections, and began the poetry reading with her most recent collection Old Stranger. In this assortment of poems, Larkin explores identity, death, loss, art, and love. Larkin writes in elegant and tender lines to express these ideas, establishing the importance of reflecting on the stranger within oneself. Larkin read through several of the most notable poems within this collection, including “My Father’s Tie Rack,” “Chain of Events,” and “Girl’s Department.” Larkin’s work has the power to reach the raw emotions of everyone who comes across it. For Larkin, the reader is the most important aspect of the poem, as she explains “You have to have a community to have poetry.”

Ostriker received her bachelor’s degree and M.A. from Brandeis University as well as her Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was previously a professor at Rutgers University’s English department. Ostriker has authored 19 published poetry collections that address topics such as feminism, illness, beauty, and motherhood. Moscaliuc described her poetry as having a “complexity with a sharp clarity.” Ostriker read poems from her newest work, “The Holy and Broken Bliss”, which portray what she claims are both “personal and collective experiences” during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Ostriker believes this was a “time of physical and societal sickness” for the United States. These ideas were present in some of the poems she read such as “All that Year” and “Nocturne.” Ostriker concluded the reading with “Coda,” hoping her work can “be shards of the holy and unbroken bliss that circles and shackles the earth.”

The event concluded with questions for both poets from the audience. One member of the audience asked, “How do you decide how to write a title?” Ostriker replied, “We struggle with the title like we struggle with everything else.” To which Larkin explained “The title is often the last thing that comes to mind. If you want a title, it has to be alive like the poem.” In praise of both poets, Moscaliuc warmly commented that they “contributed so much for female writers afraid to write about taboo subjects”. Larkin admitted, “I’m astonished to hear I did all these things”. The final question from the audience was “When did you feel the poetry took on a different form?” Ostriker answered, “It happened when I started thinking about myself as a poet…Once I said that I was a poet out loud, it started to be true.”

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A Tribute to Jean Valentine

Veronique Manfredini

On Oct. 29, 2024, Monmouth University’s English Department hosted a heartfelt panel to honor the life and work of the late poet Jean Valentine. Valentine, a luminary in American poetry, passed away during the pandemic due to Alzheimer’s complications. The event brought together an esteemed group of poets and friends of Jean Valentine—Carey Salerno, Joan Larkin, Anne Marie Macari, and Alicia Ostriker—to reflect on Valentine’s life, artistry, and enduring influence, peppered with beautiful readings by the late poet.

Jean Valentine, born in Chicago, won the 1965 Yale Younger Poets Award for her debut collection. Her life’s work, characterized by a profound sensitivity to the human condition, is gathered in the anthology Light Me Down, published by Alice James Books. This press, co-founded in 1973, was dedicated to amplifying women’s voices in poetry—a mission Valentine championed throughout her career.

Carey Salerno, Executive Director of Alice James Books, described Valentine’s vision as uniquely attuned to the “vastness within us.” Reflecting on a conversation, she shared, “The longer I stare at something, the more difficult it becomes to see it for what it is.” When a friend rebutted, “That’s not really something a poet would say,” Salerno thought of Valentine’s poetry, which invites readers into a state of unknowing and exploration, without being inaccessible. Highlighting Valentine’s remarkable ability to reveal layers of meaning within the mundane—a skill that was quintessentially hers.

Anne Marie Macari praised Valentine’s commitment to precision, stating, “Every word in her poetry mattered.” She also admired Valentine’s humility and boundless imagination, which allowed her to transcend boundaries and infuse her work with forgiveness and humanity. Alicia Ostriker added that Valentine’s language was “haunting in ways that can’t be explained,” while Joan Larkin emphasized her clarity, noting Valentine’s desire for her poems to resonate without obscurity, and how, though she gave up control in the writing process, “in the creative act, nonetheless, she has agency, she has intention. She is a maker, that is her life.”

This moving tribute, concluded with readings of Jean Valentine’s poetry by some students in the audience, celebrating a poet whose work continues to inspire.

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LatinX Poetry Reading and Writing Workshop

Dorothy Doyle, M.A. ’23

In honor of Latinx Heritage Month, the English Department, in conjunction with the Intercultural Center, hosted two September events with guest poets Laura Villareal and Alfredo Aguilar. In the morning a writing workshop open to all was held inside the Intercultural Center. In the afternoon a formal reading of the poets’ work was held in the Julian Abele Room in the Great Hall.

As Professor Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D, mentioned in her introduction, Villareal is a graduate of Rutgers University’s MFA program and has been honored with fellowships from the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts, the National Book Critics Circle’s Emerging Critics Program, and the Dobie Paisano Fellowship Program at the University of Texas-Austin. She is currently an associate with Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, where she co-edits and writes for the Letras Latinas Blog. Her debut poetry collection, “Girl’s Guide to Leaving” (U of Wisconsin P, 2022) received the Texas Institute of Letters’ John A. Robert Johnson Award for a First Book of Poetry as well as the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award for Poetry.

In introducing Villareal’s work, Moscaliuc noted that “Villareal’s poems explore cultural heritage, intergenerational trauma, cultural expectations, the work of memory, and the violence of self-reinvention. They are formally inventive and, in their inventiveness, draw attention to how, like poems looking for forms that best suit their intent, their speakers search for language that might best encapsulate who they are at various times and in relation to sometimes conflicting histories.”

Next, Moscaliuc introduced us to Aguilar, telling us he was born and raised in North County San Diego. Aguilar won the 92Y’s Discovery Poetry Contest and had been awarded fellowships from MacDowell, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, The Frost Place, and the Stadler Center for Poetry and Literary Arts. In his debut collection, “On This Side of the Desert”, which was selected by poet Natalie Diaz for the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and published by the Kent State UP in 2020, Aguilar reflects, as Moscaliuc pointed out, “on his Mexican heritage, on the complexities of borders and borderlands identities.” Diaz is quoted as saying, “The desert and the crossings become center instead of the edges or fringes, until we lose track of which side is the right side and the wrong side, which side we left and which we arrived in.”

In the writing workshop, students were treated to thought-provoking and amusing “prompts” that had been formulated by the poets to elicit creative and unconventional approaches to writing. The hour passed quickly with a lot of laughter and a palpable sense of communal spirit. Participants were encouraged to share their work and were treated to surprising, humorous, and emotionally evocative poems written by their fellow students. Everyone left feeling uplifted and inspired.

At the afternoon poetry reading in the Julian Abele Room, the Intercultural Center generously distributed copies of the poets’ collections to the first forty people who arrived. This afforded many attendees the enjoyment of reading along with the poets as they shared their work.

After the readings, Moscaliuc encouraged the overflowing crowd to take the opportunity to speak directly with Villareal and Aguilar. Students and faculty members asked thoughtful questions not only about the poets’ processes and influences, but about their experiences as Latino Americans growing up in late twentieth and early twenty first century America. These discussions further elevated the understanding of the poets’ unique perspectives and concluded an extraordinary day of writing, poetry, and culture.

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Student Spotlight: Taylor’s Version

Lauren Bevacqua

Taylor Memoli is a senior English and Creative Writing student and editor-in-chief of the student-run newspaper, The Outlook. We talked with her about her experience as an English major, and how it has helped her excel as an editor. Taylor said, “My experience as an English major at Monmouth has been an absolute pleasure. I am so happy I chose this major; I could not see myself fitting in any other department here. I have met with the most amazing, supportive professors and incredibly gifted classmates. Each English class I have taken here has been a dream, and I can truly say I have become a better writer and reader from each and everyone of them.”

At The Outlook, Taylor began as a contributing writer, and worked her way to entertainment editor and was offered the editor-in-chief position. She reflects on how much more confident of a writer she is because of the English major, “With my English major, I have become such a confident writer. Ever since I was young I loved to write, and to this day, I can’t stop. I’ve never cared what I wrote, just as long as I could get the ideas in my head onto paper; I always found that to be a beautiful thing. Within the major, I have been able to write essays, poetry, short stories, and screenplays. Monmouth has never pigeonholed me into a certain kind of writing, and I am so appreciative of all of their support. The skills I learned in the major help me so much every day at The Outlook.”

Being editor-in-chief is a more demanding role than many realize. Between staying late in the newsroom on Tuesday nights to double- and triple-checking the paper and writing her own articles, Memoli attributes much of her success to her English major. “Without my English major, I don’t think I would be where I am today at The Outlook. My English classes have not only helped me become a better writer but also a better leader. I’ve been able to use the skills I gained in my major to teach others at The Outlook essential writing techniques they may not have learned in other disciplines. I truly owe my position to my English professors. Without their guidance and support, I would never have had the confidence to join The Outlook as a contributing writer, let alone run it,” Memoli concluded.

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8th Annual Ink and Electricity

Melaina Carrera

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News from the Monmouth Review

Zafira Demiri

The Monmouth Review is the university’s student-run literary and arts magazine, unique in that it has both editorial and club responsibilities. One of our main goals this semester was to ensure we were prepared to pass the baton to the next E-board: we compiled a series of files, templates, and documents that describe the process of what we’ve done for the magazine.

We’ve also taken the time, as part of our contributions to co-sponsoring the annual Toni Morrison Day Creative Writing Contest, to create a reference guide on the author. The idea here was to compile resources that students entering the contest who may be unfamiliar with her work will have access to a handy set of videos, articles, excerpts, and photographs to inspire and inform them on Morrison and her work. This can be found on the Monmouth Review eCampus page under “Content.”

We kicked off this semester at the Involvement Fair, recruiting new members, submitters, and readers by handing out past editions of the magazine. We also decided to increase our meeting time to twice monthly (the first and third Wednesday of each month) in order to afford us with more time to host workshops. On Oct. 3, we met virtually with Jeremy Schraffenberger, editor of the North American Review, for a workshop on InDesign—one of the most popular platforms for designing magazines, inside and out. We hosted several workshops led by student leaders: our president Dan Martin led a workshop in the fundamentals of drawing; our vice-president Niki Manfredini and assistant editor Morgan Kelly led a poetry workshop together; and we were also joined by M.A./M.F.A. student Jac Collo for a workshop on sonnets. On Nov. 6, we hosted a one-on-one collaborative workshop to give graduate students the opportunity to have their work peer-reviewed before submitting to the M.A./M.F.A. Creative Writing Contest (but of course, all students were welcomed to join).

Our last gathering of the semester was the Early Bird Submission Party on Dec. 6, a time for all students to gather together, share their work, and win prizes. Our final call for submissions closes on Jan. 8, 2025, and all work, including for the Toni Morrison Day Contests, can be submitted under “Assignments” in eCampus.

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Department Student Achievements

• Undergraduate students Breanna Guinta, Meghan Reilly, and Ashley Zingillioglu presented at the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) annual conference in Atlantic City, NJ, in November. Each student presented their own work:
  • Guinta presented her departmental honors thesis, “Nathaniel Parker’s Willis’s travel essays from France during the 1832 cholera pandemic”.
  • Reilly presented a portion of her Honors School thesis on Judith Ortiz Cofer’s book “Silent Dancing”.
  • Zingillioglu presented her Honors School thesis titled “Talking with My Classmates: An Interactive Social Story for Students with Autism”.
    • Zingillioglu also released a song, “Don’t Hug My Mama” on Blue Hawk Records’ Open 24 Hours album under her stage name, Azure Kai. Azure Kai was featured in several online publications including, Leonard Mangazine, Desire Weekly, We Speak Media, and Medium.

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Department Alumni Achievements

• Congratulations to alumna and former adjunct faculty member, Corinne Cavallo, M.F.A.’23, on accepting a full-time tenure track position with Middlesex College.
• Congratulations to Carolyn Cid ’24M, who recently signed a deal with The Unbound Press to publish her upcoming novel, “A Mother’s Love”.
• Congratulations to Olivia Frew ‘24, who accepted a position as a 1-1 instructional aide at Gateway Regional High School, and is currently enrolled at Rutgers University in the Masters of Information program in the School Librarianship track.

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Congratulations to the winners of the Fall ’23 Graduate Creative Writing Contest!

The submissions for the Poetry and Prose Awards underwent a blind reading by judges Carey Salerno (Poetry) and Hanna Pylväinen (Prose).

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M.A. Theses and Manuscripts Defended

• Valerie Aristy-Reyes, “ChatGPT and the Writing Process.” Fall 2024.
• Liza Gordon, Out of Time. Fall 2024.
• Debora Graas, Odd Child. Fall 2024.
• Alicia Notorio, Fugazi. Fall 2024.
• Marci Rubin, The Next Shot. Fall 2024.
• Emma Varga, “Professing Her Vows to Learning: Unveiling an Ironic Historiography in Sor Juana’s Response.” Distinction, Fall 2024.

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Faculty News

• Interim Associate Dean Kris Bluemel’s book, “Enchanted Wood: Women Artists, Rural Britain, and the Twentieth-Century Wood Engraving Revival”, was accepted by the University of Minnesota Press, with publication anticipated in fall 2025.
• Congratulations to Mihaela Moscaliuc, Ph.D., who was awarded a 2024 Pushcart prize for her non-fiction essay, “Extractions” (Ploughshares 49:1); the essay was also selected as a notable essay in this year’s Best American Essays. Her international anthology of poems, “Fruits of the Earth”, co-edited with Michael Waters, has been accepted by Knopf for their Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets and is slated for publication next year. Moscaliuc also participated in the 16th edition of the International Poetry Festival Paralelo Cero in Ecuador where she read from her bilingual collection “Algunos Poemas Fugitivos” (Tr. by Frances Siman) and discussed poetry at The Centro Cultural Benjamín Carrión and at other venues in Quito.
• Associate Professor Alena Graedon published several short stories and essays: “Estrella Distante,” Pleiades, fall 2024; “Wonderful,” North American Review, fall 2024; and “Threesome,” Southern Indiana Review, fall 2023. Her short story, “No Changing” (Paris Review, fall 2023) was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart prize.
• Artist-in-Residence John Vercher’s third novel, “Devil is Fine”, was named to TIME magazine’s list of 100 must-read books of 2024 and included on the Longlist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize.
• Associate Professor Lisa Vetere’s article entitled, “The Black Magic of Hepzibah: Evoking the Ecogothic of Hawthorne’s Hags.” will be appearing in the Fall 2024 issue of the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review.
• Courtney Wright-Werner, Ph.D., presented her work, “Translating Situational Pedagogy: Tutors Who Teach.” at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association Conference in Palm Springs in November. Werner also published an article, “Review: A Working Model for Contingent Faculty” in Writing Center Journal, 42.3, 2024.
• English Faculty participated in a panel at this year’s International Interdisciplinary Conference on Race. The panel topic was: Reading for Racial Justice: Reflections on a Professional Development Workshop Program and was chaired by Frederick McKitrick, Ph.D., associate professor of history and chair of the department of art and design. Jeff Jackson, Ph.D., moderated the panel and faculty presented their individual work: Elizabeth Gilmartin-Keating, Ph.D., “Teaching Frederick Douglass in a General Education Irish Literature Course.” Lecturer Beth Sara Swanson, “Becoming Minor, Becoming Monster.” Lecturer Joe Torchia, “Studying Satirical Clusters Helps Highlight the Literary Prowess of African American Authors”

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Congratulation Graduates and Sigma Tau Delta Members

January 2025 Graduates

• Valerie Aristy-Reyes
• Kevin Flook
• Liza Gordon
• Alicia Notorio
• Michael Pezzano
• Julie Prokop
• Christina Rodriguez
• Marci Rubin
• Emma Varga
• John Vurro
• Robert Zadotti
• Andie Zaikov

Sigma Tau Delta Fall 2024 Inductees

• Andrew Vinca
• Madison Connelly
• Sabrina Chung
• Gwyneth Finn
• Peter Malave
• Veronique Manfredini
• Kaitlin McGuire