MSVU English Students Soar at AAUEC 2024

Two weeks ago, on 22-24 March, six MSVU students participated in the Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference (AAUEC), which took place at Université de Moncton in New Brunswick this year. Students from over a dozen universities, including the Mount, presented on various topics and on texts ranging from the medieval period to the present. The six MSVU English Department representatives, once again, did a fantastic job with their contributions, presenting well-argued and sophisticated academic essays and well-crafted and poignant creative works: 

Academic  

• Natalie Freeman: Bodies, Bodies, Bodies: Sexualized Mummies and British Futurity in Grant Allen’s “My New Year’s Eve Among the Mummies” 
• Michael Gillis: Masculinity, Militarization, and Machismo in a Porous Translation of “The Battle of Maldon” 
• Emma Henderson: Inventing Desire: Deleuzian Becomings in Nicole Brossard’s Mauve Desert 
• Jenna Ryall: Turning Back the Feet of Time: Time as a Threat to Empire in “The Mummy’s Foot” 

Creative 

• Elizabeth MacKay: Stroking Midnight 
• Georgia Wachter: Philips Mountain  

Our presenters also handled themselves exceptionally well in the question periods, providing answers with poise and asking thoughtful and perceptive questions of their colleagues.  

Congratulations to all six students, and thank you for helping to showcase the talent at the Mount! 

Queer Poetry Night!

queer-poetry-night-mar-2022Download

Students who want to read can RSVP to Christian Naugler (christian.naugler@msvu.ca) to secure a spot on the presenters list. An open mic will be available after all pre-registered presenters have finished for anyone else who wants to read.

NAB and alcoholic beverages will also be available.

Tenure-Track Job: Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions and/or Creative Writing

Inspired by a strong tradition of social responsibility and an enduring commitment to the advancement of women, Mount Saint Vincent University promotes academic excellence and the pursuit of knowledge through scholarship and teaching of the highest quality. Mount Saint Vincent University is committed to recruiting exceptional and diverse scholars and teachers. Recognized as a leader in flexible education, applied research, and a personalized approach to education, Mount Saint Vincent University is located on Canada’s East Coast in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Mi’kma’ki the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. Please visit http://www.msvu.ca.

Tenure-Track Faculty Position – Indigenous Scholar

The English Department at Mount Saint Vincent University invites applications for a tenure-track position in Indigenous Literatures and Oral Traditions and/or Creative Writing at the Assistant Professor level starting 1 July 2020. As a part of Mount Saint Vincent University’s Diversity Hiring Program, which aims to correct historic underrepresentation, this position is restricted to Indigenous peoples.

The Description

Applicants should have a PhD or PhD near completion in either Literary Studies, Writing Studies, Rhetoric and Composition, or Creative Writing, and/or demonstrated equivalent experience and recognition within the Indigenous community as a teacher, writer, and researcher.

The English Department has a dynamic undergraduate program and a strong record of excellence in teaching and research. The successful applicant will teach a range of literature and/or writing courses at all levels as part of a regular teaching load, and will be expected to maintain an active research/publication program and to participate in collegial service.

Workload includes teaching, research, and collegial service. Salary and benefits are in accordance with the Collective Agreement (please visit msvufa.ca). This position is subject to final budgetary approval and will remain open until filled.

Applications should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, teaching dossier (including a statement of teaching philosophy), statement of current and future research interests, and contact information for three referees. The department will begin considering applications on 14 February 2020.

Send applications by mail or email (in a single .PDF) to:

Dr. Graham Fraser
Chair, Department of English
Mount Saint Vincent University
166 Bedford Highway
Halifax, NS B3M 2J6

Graham.Fraser@MSVU.CA

Mount Saint Vincent University is strongly committed to fostering diversity and inclusion within our community and encourages applications from all qualified candidates including women, persons of any sexual orientations and gender identities and/or expressions, Indigenous persons, African Canadians, other racialized groups, persons with disabilities, and other groups that would contribute to the diversification of our campus. Candidates who identify as being from any of these groups are encouraged to voluntarily self-identify in their application materials. All qualified candidates are welcome to apply; however, priority will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents.

Start Date: 07/01/2020

Department will begin considering applications: Friday, February 14, 2020

All positions remain open until filled. Applications should include statement of teaching and research interests, curriculum vitae and the names and contact information for three references.

Please mail or email applications to:
Dr. Graham Fraser
Chair, Department of English
Mount Saint Vincent University
166 Bedford Highway
Halifax, NS B3M 2J6

Email:   Graham.Fraser@msvu.ca

Poster [pdf]: Tenure-track position, MSVU English

Fall 2017 Convocation

Congratulations to all who graduated on Sunday, November 5th. Fall convocation is always smaller than the spring event but no less important. This year, convocation also included the official installation of Dr. Mary Bluechardt as the new president of the Mount.

Kyle Cross, B.A. Honours

Kyle Cross graduated with a B.A. Honours in English. Kyle is now in the B.Ed. program at the Mount.

Barbara Cochrane, one of the morning Valedictorians, graduated with a B.A. in French and a Writing Minor. She gave a lively address, drawing on her life experiences to give some good advice to the graduates. You can read her profile here. A couple of the English Department’s Writing courses and participation in the Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference are some of the highlights of her Writing Minor experiences:

She remembers her courses in creative writing and editing most fondly. In 2012, she received an award from the Department of English for one of her written works, titled “Passed Down.” The piece focuses on obsessive compulsive disorder, combining parts of her grandfather’s diary from World War I, a poem written by her daughter, and her own obsession with counting as she works. She later presented it at an undergraduate English conference at St. Thomas University.  (From the Mount’s online profile)

Above: Barbara Cochrane delivering the valedictory address.  Image from the Mount’s Facebook page.

Tenure-Track Position in Writing Studies

Our department is pleased to announce that we are looking for someone with a PhD in Writing Studies, Rhetoric, or Creative Writing to take up a tenure-track position starting in July 2017. We’ll begin considering applications on January 16, so we encourage all qualified candidates to apply, including Indigenous persons, visible minorities, persons with disabilities, women, and persons of any sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. You’ll find details in the official university job ad [pdf] or on the Mount Saint Vincent University list of full-time academic positions. Our Collective Agreement can be viewed on the Faculty Association homepage .

We invite you to explore our English Department website and this blog, which we hope will give you some insight into the activities of both faculty and students in our collegial department.

an English Department seminar

Our prize-winning English students

We are proud of our students’ many accomplishments this year.

Writing Prizes 2016

Two of our English students have won University writing prizes:

Charlotte Kiddell (centre)

Charlotte Kiddell was awarded the Sister Francis de Sales Endowed Award, an essay contest sponsored by Mount Alumnae and the Library, “for her paper entitled:  ‘For the sake of one Japanese-Canadian Family: Mothertalk as Family auto/biography’ which considers the project of one man and his journey to record the life stories of his mother, a Japanese-Canadian immigrant raising a family in Canada during the period of Japanese internment during World War II.  Charlotte submitted her research paper for the directed study course ‘Contemporary Life-Writing by Women in Canada’ – ENGL 4411 – taught by Dr. Tina Northrup” (from the Library News page).

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Hailey Stapleton

Hailey Stapleton was awarded the poetry prize in the university’s Student Creative Writing Contest.  This competition is sponsored by the Mount’s Writing Initiatives Committee and the Library.  As Hailey explains, “my poem ‘The Coast Land’ is intended to be read in conversation with (or as a socioculturally situated re-imagining of) T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land,” a poem that Hailey studied in the English Department’s Modern Poetry course (ENGL 3319).

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Scholarly Awards and Prizes for English Students

 

Katelyn O’Brien has been awarded the Beryl Rowland Book Prize, given to the student with the highest average in English. She has also been awarded the Paul McIsaac Endowed Scholarship, given to an outstanding English student who has completed 10 units of study.

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Hailey Stapleton (pictured above) has been awarded the Sister Marie Agnes Prize, which is given by the Alumnae Association to the graduating English Major with the highest academic average.

 

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Congratulations to all!

The Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference

This year’s conference takes place Cape Breton University March 13th -15th, and two of our intrepid faculty and six of our magnificent students will be there. The Mount’s participants include four academic papers and two works of creative writing:

• Charlotte Kiddell, “Tradition and the Individual Tyrant: The Historical Sense in Titus Andronicus and Richard III.”
• Rebecca Power,  “Breaking Down the Civilized/Uncivilized Binary: The Representation of Oucanasta in Wacousta.”
• Colton Sherman,  “Breaching Boundaries and Taking Back the Pen: An Analysis of Parkour.”
• Hailey Stapleton, “Stripping the Scripts: An Analysis of Script Decay in Medieval Writing.”

Creative writers:

• Monica Albert and Alexandrina Hanam, “Let’s make Our Lives Amazing.”
• Alexandrina Hanam, “Into the Deep.

Issues and Practicalities in Publishing

Cynthia Good offers an introduction to the business and creativity of publishing as part of the Mount’s Writing Program this summer, June 8 – 18th.

Registration for this limited-enrolment, intensive two-week course is now open.

Morning sessions offer more traditional classes and afternoon sessions allow for workshops and presentations.

Topics will range from the theoretical (policy, ethics) to the most practical (marketing, production), with an emphasis on the Canadian experience. Students completing this course will understand the basics of publishing, will know if they wish to pursue a career in this area, and, if they are creative writers themselves, will understand the business context and decisions of publication.

Registration is by permission of the instructor. Contact Reina Green, Chair, Department of English. Permission will usually be given to senior students who have successfully completed 1.0 units of writing, with 0.5 at the 2000-level. Special cases will be considered.

For more information explore the following links:

Cynthia Good
Flyer
Humber College Creative Book Publishing Program

 

Calling Creative Writers

Two chances to find an audience and win applause and prizes:

Submit something for the second annual Speakeasy — a reading of original student work work. Deadline March 8th.

The fifth annual Creative Writing Contest, sponsored by the Writing Initiatives Committee of the University, with prizes donated by the University Librarian. Deadline March 20th.

Doing the Write Thing

by Stacey de Molitor  
Fourth-year BA Student/
Recruitment and Promotions Assistant
Mount Saint Vincent University

 “What are you doing in university?”

For most university students this is a common question, a seemingly easy question, and in truth, a ridiculous question.

“What are you planning on doing with your life?”

That is what people are really asking you.

Sometimes I think it might be harder for Bachelor of Arts students to satisfy the query of what we do in university because our program does not have an obvious and definitive goal. Unlike some programs, a Bachelor of Arts degree is open to endless variety— forget a fork in the road, we are often caught in an open field with the option of stepping in any possible direction. This is precisely the thing that bothers people. Telling someone my studies are focused on English and Sociology tells them nothing— they are still looking at the same vast openness that they were before.

Perhaps you will think me naïve or flowery, but I think that openness is beautiful, and that the only way to describe what you are doing in university is to tell people you are pursuing your passions. What am I doing in university? I am writing.

I write stories and poems, research papers and proposals. I write data analyses and essays, and I write emails and grocery lists. Some of my writing is good, and some of it is messy and muddled. I write for my classes and my job, myself and for others. Sometimes what I write is presented in my own voice, and other times it is carried forward by others’. If you ask me where I see myself in five years, I will tell you writing. I can’t predict my specific career path, but I hope that for those interested in knowing, this response will be enough.

For now, I have been working for nearly a year within the Mount’s Recruitment office. I am so pleased to say that what started out as a broader assistant position has now narrowed into a writing-focused role. I have the opportunity to write communication pieces, promotional materials, and even speeches for Mount administrators on a regular basis. Being a student and having such recognition, responsibility, and trust imparted to my writing has not only been a compliment to my work, but also a further learning experience— enabling me to grow and explore my capabilities as a writer, as a creator, and as a professional.

For my fellow English students, I hope that you are doing something valuable, something important, and something that will benefit you in every way in your future. Regardless of whether I know you personally, or have yet the pleasure of meeting you, I have two hopes: the first is that you are living your passions—or that if you haven’t found them yet, you have at least devised a witty retort for anyone who asks you what you plan on doing with your life. The second is that if by some stroke of luck and genius something I write ever finds its way into a library, I hope you’ll do a girl a favour and sign it out… that way when I shamelessly check my own titles I can feel good about knowing the list of time-stamps in the back aren’t entirely my own.