2019 Awards Ceremony

On Thursday, May 9th, the Department of English, Philosophy, and Languages hosted the annual Awards Ceremony in which we recognized those graduating and academic excellence from our undergraduate and graduate students. This ceremony celebrated all students graduating September 2018, January 2019, and May 2019.

Below, you'll find a list of all students recognized at the ceremony.

GRADUATING ENGLISH MAJORS / GRADUATE STUDENTS

            Undergraduate

Naima Akther (January ’19) *^

Michael Czerepka (January ’19)

Ralph Dorsinville (January ’19) *

Fatima Lundy (May ’19) *^

Zakee Marcinkiewicz (May ’19)

Destinee Rodriguez (January ’19)

Leslie Jo Wrightington (May ’19) *^

            Graduate

Nikki Alimonda (January ’19)

Joseph Anderson (September ’18) *

Lida Colón (May ’19) *^

Alexander Dermody (May ’19)

Christina Kellagher (January ’19) *

* Excellence in English

^ Sigma Tau Delta member

ENGLISH MINORS

Jade Muyambo (May ’19)

Gillian Vallaster (May ’19)

Olga Volosyanko (May ’19)

GENDER STUDIES MINORS

Abdulaziz Aljadany

Heather Rose Collick

Siobhan Macpherson

Samudra Kine Randazzo

Seneca Marisa Richards

Daria Sowa 

SIGMA TAU DELTA INDUCTEES

Dewnya Ahmad

Ashvini Coomarasingham

Skyluar James

Amanda Peren  

Amber Wright

POPPER-EDELMAN AWARD WINNERS

Developmental Writing: Al Qubli Nasser

Freshman Writing: Camilla Obidova

Senior Thesis: Naima Akther & Stacey Watson

THE JANET HAYNES SCHOLARSHIP  

Daria Sowa

THE LOUIS & ANN PARASCANDOLA GRADUATE ENGLISH AWARD

Christina Kellagher

THE LIANG & BERNARD SCHWEIZER GRADUATE THESIS AWARD

Joseph Anderson & Lida Colón

ESTHER HYNEMAN GRADUATE AWARD IN POETRY

Melanie Neilson

MARILYN BOUTWELL GRADUATE AWARD IN FICTION

Kevin Xiong

Jacob Matkov reading on Saturday, June 15

The Robert Giard Foundation is hosting a reading event on Saturday, June 15. New and emerging queer writers will read from their work, introduced by Christopher Bram, Joan Larkin, Jaime Manrique, and Pamela Sneed. 

The event description follows: "These four established authors, whose portraits form part of Robert Giard’s exhibition of LGBTQ+ authors at Daniel Cooney | Fine Art, will invite us to hear published texts or works-in-progress by noteworthy younger writers on the contemporary scene. In the year of Stonewall 50, this will be an event to honor the queer literary past and look forward to the queer literary future."

Jaime Manrique (photo by Robert Giard)

Jaime Manrique has invited Jacob Matkov (MA '13, MFA '15, current department Academic Advisor and Assistant Adjunct Professor) to read at the event. Jaime Manrique (visiting writer in 2010) mentored Jacob during his Queer Art Mentor fellowship in 2015-16.

Jacob Matkov (photo by Eric McNatt)

The event details are below:

Saturday June 15

4:30 p.m. 

Daniel Cooney | Fine Art

508 W 26th St, #9C

New York, NY 10001

You can find more details at this link.

Professor Haynes Named Distinguished Scholar of the Year

Long Island University Professor of English and Film Studies Dr. Jonathan Haynes is the Lagos Studies Association’s 2019 Distinguished Scholar of the Year. 

Paul Ugor, Associate Professor at Illinois State University, nominated Dr. Haynes, writing: “Prof. Haynes’ research work in African literature and cinema marks him out as a scholar of towering international reputation whose persistence of scholarly inquiry into African modes of self-expression has secured legitimation for a field of study now known globally as Nollywood studies. … What Prof Haynes has achieved in African studies is truly remarkable and unprecedented, for very few people who invented a discipline still live amongst us in flesh and blood.”

You can read the full citation here.

Congratulations, Professor Haynes! This fall, he will teach ENG 580, a graduate level seminar on the contemporary African novel.