Graduate Student Awards and Plans
May 21, 2019
Congratulations to our graduate students for their recent achievements and plans as they move on to the next stages in their careers.
PhD Student
Sarah Bonnie Humud has accepted a position as Associate Director of Honors Humanities at the University of Maryland. In fall 2018, she defended her dissertation, “The Invented Indian: Race, Empire and National Identity in 20th Century U.S. Literature,” which was directed by Zita Nunes and Sangeeta Ray.
Former PhD students who have taken new positions:
Oliver Brearey (English PhD 2017) has recently accepted a full-time position as Senior Analytical Writer/Editor with Northern Virginia Community College's Office of Institutional Research.
Kara Fontenot (English PhD 2017) is currently a full-time Lecturer at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Emily Perez (English PhD 2018) has been awarded a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland—Baltimore County.
Nataliya Pratsovyta (CMLT PhD 2017) has accepted a full-time position in the Philology department at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, where she helped to create the first Writing Center on campus.
Nathaniel Underland (English PhD 2016) is currently the Director of Operations for the Brain and Behavior Initiative here at the University of Maryland.
MA Students
Joanna Falk (MA August 2018) started a PhD program in English at George Washington University in Fall 2018.
Rakia Khalid will begin the NYC Teaching Fellows program in June, an alternative teaching preparation program that places fellows in highest-need high schools in the greater NY area.
D'Arcee Neal will begin a PhD program in Rhetoric and Composition with a concentration in Disability Studies at The Ohio State University in Fall 2019.
Lt. Mary Senoyuit (MA August 2018) is an instructor at the United States Naval Academy.
Sarah Spech has accepted a position at LAK Public Relations in New York City.
2018-2019 Graduate Student Fellowships, Awards, Prizes
2018 Dissertation Prizes
Carl Bode Prize (for the Best Dissertation on an American Subject):
John Macintosh, "The Favor of Another: Labor and Precarity in Contemporary Fiction"
Director: Sangeeta Ray
Alice L. Geyer Prize (best dissertation on British literature):
Christine Maffuccio, "Making English Low: A History of Laureate Poetics, 1399-1616 " Director: Theresa Coletti
2018 Essay Prizes
Kinnaird Essay Prize for PhD Essay:
April Fuller, “World to Table: Refining Eighteenth-Century Gout in England”
Kinnaird Essay Prize for MA Essay:
Talia Fishbine, "In Pursuit of Persepolis: Graphic Novels in the High School Classroom"
External Dissertation Fellowship for 2019-2020
2019 Mellon Foundation/ American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation Completion Fellow: Gerard Holmes
University of Maryland Dissertation Fellowships for 2019-2020
-Wylie Dissertation Fellowships: Nabila Hijazi, Gerald Holmes (declined), Setsuko Yokoyama
-Harman Ward Dissertation Fellowship: Liam Daley
-Snouffer Dissertation Fellowship: [TBA end of May]
Summer Research Fellowships
-Graduate School Summer Fellowship: Katie Bramlett, Jenny Schollaert, April Fuller
-Kwiatek Summer Fellowship: Megan Holmes
-Departmental Summer Fellowships: Justin Thompson, Garth Libhart, Elizabeth Catchmark, Kayla Harr Doucette, Setsuko Yokoyama
Other Awards and Fellowships
-James. F. Harris Arts and Humanities Visionary Scholarship: Gerard Holmes
-Endowed Summer Fellowship for Archival Work in English Studies: Gerard Holmes
-Phi Delta Gamma Graduate Fellowship for 2019 (a student who "best exemplifies interdisciplinary scholarship achievement"): Aqdas Aftab
-QCB Award: Justin Thompson (Fall 2018)
Kayla Harr (Spring 2019)
-Outstanding GA Awards: Justin Thompson, Mal Haselberger