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MA RECRUITMENT MEETING

Are you interested in an advanced degree in English literature? CCNY’s MA in Literature offers a versatile education with excellent job prospects. 

Please join us for an informational about the MA in Literature on Zoom on May 3, at 5pm (Eastern), 2024. This is a chance to find out about the program. 

Zoom link: bit.ly/3JySxnZ
Passcode: 888777

GRADUATE CONFERENCE: 

Call for Papers:

FOREIGN BODIES
The 2024 Annual CCNY English Graduate Conference
Conference Date: May 17, 2024
Submission Deadline: May 1, 2024

In Orientalism, Edward Said states, “Knowledge means rising above immediacy, beyond self, into the foreign and distant.” For Said, this ecstatic process then is not just about foreignness but about definitions concerning otherness, too. That is, he implicitly conjures ideas surrounding the making of otherness and its implications in worldly discourse. In Exit West, when Mohsin Hamid writes, “In this group, everyone was foreign, and so, in a sense, no one was,” otherness, via difference, functions more as a hybridity that spreads and coalesces into a sameness. Being foreign, then, is an intrinsic aspect of belonging. Thus, the criteria for foreignness, and foreign bodies in general, is somewhat elusive; in some instances it’s predicated upon difference and in others, by collapsing in upon itself, it seems to unfold in an undulating plurality.

A foreign body, in medical terms, is something that originated elsewhere; an external object has found its way in. A foreign body not only splinters and disrupts, but it also induces new encounters and interactions. Of course, the phrase finds broader resonances. Marginalized individuals have historically been inscribed as “foreign” within dominant narratives; our own bodies can seem strange to us and become sites of estrangement; we might face the uncanny through contact with non-human beings. When the notion of the foreign depends on the demarcation of the us against the them, the I against the you, what can be said about alterity, power, and self-identification? The 2024 English Graduate Conference at the City College of New York invites you to take this theme and treat it as you wish.

Surely, this isn’t a new topic. Gertrude Stein famously said, “I write for myself and strangers,” which seems to suggest the very motivation of creation exists in otherness. And even if she was only half-serious, her assertion also points to the positive difference between herself and others — the one is because of the other. This Call for Papers welcomes you to explore and interrogate the topic of Foreign Bodies in a similar vein.

How are bodies (human and otherwise) made foreign? In your own work (academically or creatively), are you in dialogue with alterity and, if so, how does it enter your work? Is foreignness better encapsulated in language, and if so, in what capacity? How might processes and interactions revolving around the concept of hybridity reject the idea of the foreign? Do you write with or against your own body? Where do you end, and where does (an)other begin? Some themes you might consider include (but are not limited to):

  • embodiments & identities
  • literature of the diaspora
  • postcolonial literature
  • gender & sexuality
  • disability studies
  • psychoanalysis & the uncanny
  • ghosts & creatures
  • linguistics/language studies
  • medical humanities
  • myself and strangers
  • the parasite

Please submit proposals (250 words max.) to ccnygradconference@gmail.com by Wednesday, May 1, 2024. Proposals should indicate the title, content, and format of your project. While we encourage critical presentations, we are also open to a variety of forms. Possibilities include the reading of an academic paper, a scholarly reflection, a creative work, a poetry reading, a video essay, a book review, or more. Submissions may also be co-authored, which might propose a joint presentation, performance, or panel discussion. All City College MA and MFA students are welcome to submit, as well as master’s students from other schools.

FORMER STUDENT PROFILES:

Punrada Saengsomboon
MA English Literature, Class of 2020

After graduating in December 2020, I began working as a Cultural Affairs Officer at a government agency in Bangkok dedicated to promoting contemporary arts in Thailand. One of the key projects I was involved in focused on facilitating collaborations between local Batik entrepreneurs and established fashion designers. The project aims to increase the capacity of local entrepreneurs to engage with external brands and to become alternative suppliers for the brands. My roles included project planning, proposal writing, drafting official correspondence documents, project implementation, and supervising publicity materials. Sometimes, I also assisted in some cultural projects with international collaborations that focused more on reviewing and analyzing communication and legal materials in English. After a few years, I transitioned to a new role as a Knowledge Management Officer at a public organization that founded a public library in Bangkok. The organization manages the library’s daily operations and provides consultancy services to partner public libraries in other provinces. My current role primarily focuses on strategizing collaborations between our organization and foreign partners to facilitate knowledge and resource exchanges.

The MA in English program equipped me with valuable skills for working in cultural promotion and education. The ability to understand complex English texts and to write well is highly valued and advantageous, especially on projects that focus on Thai and foreign collaborations.

Shana Creaney

Shana completed her undergraduate degree in English & Philosophy at Fordham University. She completed her master’s degree in Literature at City College of New York, where she stayed on as an adjunct professor of composition and ethics at the main campus and the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. She has presented academic works at MLA, PMLA, GSLA, and PCA with a focus on global modernism and post-colonial language. She continues to teach storytelling with The Moth.

In addition to her academic pursuits Shana has worked as a book reviewer for independent publishing houses through Foreword Reviews. She is a published poet and writer. In 2023, she wrote and directed an off-Broadway play, dealing with the ethics of government access to personal privacy through dating apps, which won the David Dortort Award for Playwriting.

Shana chose not to pursue a PhD and instead used her Master’s to expand her career opportunities. She worked at Fordham University as a grant writer and project manager. Currently, she works at Cornell Tech as a research specialist supporting faculty and the larger humanities-tech driven research initiatives.


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