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Undergraduate News

Everitt and Woodyard
Ellen Everitt and Lukas Woodyard

This past year, Nyia Bolin (BA 2019) has received her TEFL certification. After graduation, she will attend the Cannes Film Festival study abroad program. After studying abroad, she will backpack in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia until she begins teaching English in South Korea in the fall. 

Savannah Caldwell (BA-MA 2019) graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's and master's degree in English, which she completed through the combined BA/MA program. She minored in French and received certificates in Medieval Studies and British & Irish Studies, and she studied abroad at the University of Edinburgh. During the past year, she worked for The Georgia Review literary magazine, and participated in multiple student organizations, including the English Honors Society, the campus radio station, and the Christus Victor Lutheran Student Center. She plans to take a gap year to work and then to continue with doctoral studies in English.

Dylan Clark (BA 2019) graduated with a degree in English and English Education, and he plans to work in publishing while writing novels and poetry on the side. He has just recently received his first publication, and is excited to follow his passion of writing after graduation.

Rachael Dier (Outgoing UEA President, BA 2019) will be entering Boston University’s Emerging Media Studies Master's program this fall. As part of her fellowship, she'll be working with the Director of the Division of Emerging Media Studies at BU, Dr. Katz, in his research on how advancing technologies are impacting us individually as people and as a society. Y'all, this Georgia girl is moving North!

Maggie Dryden (BA 2019) focused largely on Modernist literature, American literature, and the Digital Humanities while pursuing her undergraduate degree. She was selected as a researcher for the 2018 cohort of Digital Humanities Summer Scholars, and she spent spring semester continuing to research Modernist poetry using digital tools through a CURO sponsorship, which she presented at the April DIGI Colloquium. Her undergraduate studies have focused on Modernist poetry, but she is excited to branch out and explore through the MA program at UGA which she will start in the fall. 

Ellen Everitt (BA 2019) and Lukas Woodyard (BA 2019) were recipients of the Presidential Award of Excellence this year. Ellen and Lukas were among twelve students from the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences recognized by Alan T. Dorsey, Dean of the Franklin College, and UGA’s President, Jere Morehead.

Jacob Kisic (UEA Vice President, BA exp. 2021) attended SELARC, the Southeastern Liberal Arts Research Conference, at Auburn University

Julia Koslowsky (BA 2019) graduated from UGA Magna Cum Laude with Honors. She earned a degree in English with an emphasis in Medieval Literature, a minor in Theatre, and the British & Irish Studies Certificate. In 2018, Julia was awarded the Digital Humanities Award and the Grady Hutcherson Memorial Scholarship by the English Department. She studied abroad with the UGA at Oxford Program in Fall 2018. During her last semester at UGA, Julia worked closely with Dr. Sujata Iyengar on editing and designing an online Shakespeare resource examining Henry V. She recently closed the musical Beauty & the Beast, in which she had the opportunity to play Belle. Julia begin her post-graduate career as the Service Programming intern at Gwinnett Church, a campus of North Point Ministries, Inc. in Gwinnett, GA. In the future, she hopes to pursue further authorship and theatre. 

After much floundering about what they were going to study in college, MK Manoylov (BA 2019) chose the degree that expanded their critical thinking and perception of the world: English. MK wrote plays, short stories, a few very drafty novels, and used heir writing skills to start their own podcast. They even wrote their own TED Talk about why more people should eat bugs. Seriously. It’s going to be big. MK was the 2017 summer Writer in Residence at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory and went abroad to study at Oxford University in 2018. After graduation, MK will pursue a Masters in Journalism at New York University. MK is thankful for the friends and professors they met at UGA. It’s been an amazing experience, and MK wouldn’t be the person they are today without the lovely people at Park Hall.

Lyndsey McElhannon (BA 2019) decided to get her Bachelors in English in hopes of becoming a published author. Her drive for writing stems from her ability to turn her emotions into words; just as many of her favorite authors before her, she hopes to impact others with her future writings. Throughout her time here at the University of Georgia, she has been a lead ambassador for the Franklin College’s Office of Transfer and Academic Services, a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Vice-President of the Heart Health Association at UGA, and a participant in the Oxford Study Abroad program.

Emily Morrow (BA 2019) graduated with a major in English, a minor in Japanese, and an area of emphasis in Creative Writing. She was a spring 2019 First Honor Graduate and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Over the last year, she served as founder and president of the student organization Girls for Games as well as the community manager for Esports at UGA. Her written work has been published in the literary magazine The Orator as well as in the online publications CapsuleCrit, GameSkinny, and The Omnic Post. She plans to find a job in writing and designing video games and interactive media. 

Brianna Phillips (BA 2019) will pursue her MA in English at Georgia College and State University, where she will be working in the Special Collections department.  

Sally Smith (BA exp. 2020) will be participating in the Library of Congress Junior Fellows Summer Intern program as an intern in the Recorded Sound Processing Unit. Her work will highlight the recent history of Native American recording culture of traditional and contemporary popular music. The program enables undergraduate and graduate students to experience the integrated analog and digital collections and services of the Library.

Alex Williams (BA 2019) took his English skills to Oxford for a UGA study abroad, learning about Shakespeare and Virginia Woolf from the motherland. Back in Athens, he served on the executive board for the Undergraduate English Association and combined his rhetorical skills with mass media arts in New Media, where he developed web projects and helped curate a presenter’s talk for TEDxUGA. His most significant takeaways from English is the value of reading characters in the world around us, the value of communication in the corporate world, and the ability to capture a professional audience with a message and storytelling. After graduation, Alex is working in Atlanta as a marketing analyst for Kimley-Horn, an engineering consulting firm. 

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a major in English (including an area of emphasis in eighteenth-century literature) and a minor in Religion, Luke Vines (BA 2019) will be moving to Nashville, Tennessee where he will begin work on his Ph.D. in English at Vanderbilt University. 

Lukas T. Woodyard (BA 2019) graduated with a double major in English and theatre. They will be attending New York University’s Tisch School of Arts master’s program in performance studies. Lucas was one of two English students who received the Presidential Award of Excellence.

The Undergraduate English Association (UEA)

UEA Bookclub
Not Your Mother's Book Club reads Boy, Erased

This year, Park Hall saw the reinstatement of the Undergraduate English Association, an extracurricular community dedicated to the English majors, minors, and enthusiasts who study in Park Hall. We work to provide career counseling, as well as foster a welcoming community in which English majors create lasting connections with like-minded individuals. More than anything, we strive to celebrate the creativity of our English students through events focused on creative writing, poetry, literary appreciation, and more.

From starting a quarterly book club series to hosting the annual Life After Park Hall Professional Panel, the organization accomplished quite a bit this semester. Both these initiatives reflect the vision of the organization, which is to provide students a place to connect with their peers outside of the classroom and provide them with professional development that will help them find a career after they walk through the arch at graduation.

We are so proud of what our organization, our executive board members, and our general body members have accomplished this year! We are honored to share the executive board member for this upcoming year:

President: Eliza Sarazua

Vice President: Haley Jacobsen

Secretary: LeBria Casher

Treasurer: Isabella McDevitt

Public Relations Chair: Nele Langhof

Community Outreach Coordinators: Emma Welborn, Lauren Willis, and MacKenzie Wells

Recruitment Chairs: Kira Grieco and Ana Gonzalez

The UEA hosted several events this year, most notably they inaugurated Not Your Mother's Book Club, which met to discuss Boy, Erased and The Girl on the Train. In April, they organized Life After Park Hall Professional Panel, bringing to campus former English majors to discuss the advantages of an English BA in the working world. Several UGA alumni took part, including Carrie Bishop, Tyler Goodson, Taylor Holland, Mitra Kumareswaran, and Julianna Peterson, and JoyEllen Williams.

Sigma Tau Delta

Sigma Tau Delta is UGA's only English Undergraduate Honor Society. After being inactive for numerous years, Sigma Tau Delta returned to campus in 2017. The society inducts members twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. Throughout the year, it hosts events, which are open to both members and non-members. Events hosted this year have ranged from a Harry Potter Discussion Night to an academic conference, where students from across the state were invited to present papers on topics in English and in Literature. Participants were welcomed to the Miller Learning Center by Savannah Caldwell and graduate student Stephanie Gibson led a Q & A session. UGA undergraduates Michelle Manganiello, Sara McCracken, Sully McNeill, Ginny Morris, Mackenzie Wells, and Lukas Woodyard all presented their research over the course of the two-day conference.

The CURO Symposium

Georgia Earley
Georgia Earley with her poster presentation

Several undergraduate English majors presented original research at this year’s UGA CURO Symposium. The CURO Symposium offers undergraduates the unique opportunity to highlight their research through poster or oral presentations.

Georgia Earley’s research project, "Prayerbooks of René d'Anjou: Royal Devotion in Late Medieval France,"  examined a prayer book owned by a fifteenth-century duke. Georgia argued that his book could be used as a historical document based on the evocative images and marginalia that d’Anjou added to it, particularly those associated with the nobility, heraldry, and religion. Georgia's faculty mentor was Dr. Cynthia Camp.

Johanna Hoover’s CURO research analyzed the relationship of the creation narratives in Frankenstein and Paradise Lost, specifically reading Frankenstein as Satan's creation of Sin and Death in Paradise Lost. Dr. Richard Menke served as Johanna's research mentor.

 Aysha Jerald spent the past school year working for two research organizations at the University of Georgia: TRIO and the McNair and Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities. Under the guidance of the English Department’s Dr. Elizabeth Kraft and former UGA faculty member Dr. Chris Pisarik, Ayesha conducted two different research studies: one on Dystopian Literature and the other on the typology of Generation Z activists in relation to dystopian literature. Ayesha presented her research at both UGA’s CURO Symposium and at the Popular Culture Association Conference in Washington, D.C.

Other Presentations

Anthony Gagliardi, "A Language of Your Own: Developing Personal Iconography in Poetry"

Research Mentor:  Dr. Ed Pavlic

Kristen Nicole Gragg, "'To Kill a Wife with Kindness': Contextualizing Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew"

Research Mentor: Dr. Fran Teague

Katherine Haire, "Let's Talk about Literacy: A Study of Margaret Mautby Paston and Medieval Laywoman's Literacy"

Research Mentor: Dr. Cynthia Camp

Alexandra Ibarra, "Woman of the Revolution: A Feminist Analysis of Third Cinema via the Work of Tomás G. Alea"

Research Mentor:  Dr. Eric Morales-Franceschini

and "The Woman as Resistance: Female Characters in the U.S. Black Film Community"

Research Mentor: Dr. Ed Pavlic

Katie Lech"Private Performance: Passion Devotion and Accessory Prayers in Medieval Book of Hours"

Research Mentor: Dr. Cynthia Camp

Talia Locarnini, "Rhetoric in the Political Sphere: Georgia’s 2018 Gubernatorial Election"

Research Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Davis  

Sara McCracken, "Vashti and Rejected Narrative in Charlotte Bronte's Villette"

Research Mentor: Dr. Richard Menke

Lauren Tolbert, "Hybrid Texts of Literature and Photography: the Modern Civil Rights Movement"

Research Mentor: Dr. Barbara McCaskill

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