The English Department Celebrates Student and Faculty Accomplishments at the Spring Soiree
Students and faculty at the May 4th Spring Soiree.
By Elissa Johnston
On May 4th, Fordham English graduates, prizewinners, and faculty gathered to celebrate the English community’s many accomplishments during the 2022-2023 academic year.
The tone of the evening was decidedly celebratory: faculty publications and teaching awards were displayed near the entrance, and the short program showcased student and faculty accomplishments.
Faculty publications and Teacher Awards for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Dr. Mary Bly, Chair of English, started the evening with a general welcome and congratulations to graduates, sharing how proud the English department is of all their accomplishments at Fordham.
Dr. Glenn Hendler also took the podium to offer a celebratory toast. He particularly noted the unique challenges of pandemic-era learning that this cohort overcame during their time at Fordham. He also encouraged the graduates to celebrate the many, many pages of reading and writing they had completed in their time here.
Dr. Glenn Hendler raises a glass.
A number of English students received recognition for various writing prizes and scholarship awards:
Sera N. Allen received the Women in Media Scholarship
Amanda Caputo and Andrea Fernandez received the Margaret G. Amassian Prize
Wing Tan Lai received the Charles J. Donahue Prize
Pilar Valdes received the English Alumni Prize
Gianne Welty received the White & White Prize for Excellence in the Study of English Literature
Kristine Saliasi received the White & White Creative Writing Prize
Grace Thomas received the Margaret Lamb/Writing to the Right-Hand Margin Prize
Chaise Jones received the Reid Family Prize
Prettystar Lopez received the Academy of American Poets Prize
Additionally, five recipients of the Kavanagh Scholarship were honored: Christina Ljuljic, Ma. Agusta Bell Pendon, Margaret M. Boswell, Sophia R. Grausso, and Cailin R. Duffy.
Caridad Kinsella, Gabrila Frassetti, Victor Done Jr., Caroline Doyle, and Andrea Fernandez were honored for the completion of Honors Theses.
From left to right: Margaret M. Boswell, Amanda Caputo, Christina Ljuljic, Kristine Saliasi, and Sophia R. Grausso.
English faculty were also honored with Teacher Awards from Alpha Chi Omicron. Sasha Panaram and Rebecca Sanchez won the Alpha Chi Omicron Prize for Outstanding Teaching in Upper Division Electives; Kyle Campbell, Heather Dubrow, Anne Fernald, and Stuart Sherman received Honorable Mention.
Lynne Beckenstein and Farid Nassif won the Alpha Chi Omicron Prize for Outstanding Teaching in Texts and Contexts.
Jessica Denzer and Swan Kim won the Alpha Chi Omicron Prize for Outstanding Teaching in Composition. Zoe Goldstein received Honorable Mention.
Faculty publications from this academic year were also honored:
John Bugg, British Romanticism and Peace (Oxford University Press)
Tyler Dennis, Disabilities of the Color line: Redressing Antiblackness from Slavery to the Present (NYU Press)
Meghan Maguire Dahn, Domain (Burnside Review Press)
Dionne Ford, Go Back and Get It (Bold Type Books)
Stephen Sohn, Minor Salvage: The Korean War and Korean American Life Writings (University of Michigan Press)
Lawrence Kramer, Music and the Forms of Life (University of California Press)
Stacey D’Erasmo, The Complicities, (Algonquin Books)
Christopher Gogwilt, Co-editor, Westernness: Critical Reflections on the Spatio-Temporal Construction of the West (De Gruyter Oldenbourg)
Dr. Bly ended the program by once again congratulating prizewinners, also noting encouragingly that not winning awards as an undergraduate doesn’t preclude success in life. “I didn’t win this kind of award as an undergrad!” she said, telling graduates to go after their goals courageously (after all, she’s now an English professor and best-selling author).
Congratulations, graduates and prizewinners: the English community is so proud of your accomplishments, and we’re excited to see what happens next for you!
A celebratory toast in honor of Fordham English’s ‘23 graduates.
