English Department / 406 Holmes Hall / (617) 373‐4540 / www.english.neu.edu 

Greetings, Alumni/ae! In the Fall 2008 Newsletter, Interim Chair Marina Leslie promised the debut of a new department chair in Spring 2009. I’m now happy to introduce myself as the new Chair of the Department of English and to have the opportunity to thank Professor Leslie for her exemplary service to the department in stepping in this past Fall. For those of you who don’t know me, I have been at Northeastern since 2001; my area of specialization is Victorian studies; and I have previously served in the department as Graduate Coordinator and Head Advisor (www.english.neu.edu/people/faculty/laura_green/). I’m looking forward to learning even more about the department, its challenges, and its opportunities. I am saddened, however, to report that the begin-ning of this semester saw the unexpected loss of a valued member of the department, Professor Kathy Howlett, who died suddenly of complications from mitral valve prolapse. A scholar of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century literature and a specialist in Shakespeare on Film, Professor Howlett had been teaching in the department for over twenty years and was also Co-Director of the Cinema Studies program. A memorial was held at the Sacred Space on Northeastern’s Campus on February 20th, 2009, and I would like to thank all those who came to celebrate the life of their colleague, friend, and mentor. You can read Professor Howlett’s obituary

in the Boston Globe and share memories on the Kathy Howlett DePree Memorial page at: http://kathyhowlettdepree.blogspot.com/. The Department of English welcomes contributions in Kathy’s memory to the Library Dean’s Innovation Fund, which will support the Interdisciplinary Center for Creative Projects, recognizing Kathy’s devotion to interdisciplinary and creative endeavors. Checks should be made payable to the Northeastern Uni-versity Libraries and sent to the Department of Eng-lish. On a happier note, the department is proud to be graduating almost eighty majors this Spring! Many members of the graduating class are recipients of honors and awards, including Michael Baulier, one of Northeastern University’s 100 Most Influential Seniors in 2008-2009, Peter Franklin, recipient of the NU’s Leadership Scholarship, and Laura O’Regan, winner of the 2009 Peter Burton Hanson Prize for Scholarly Writing (see page 3 for more Peter Burton Hanson Writing Prize news). In the graduate program, we will shortly have six new Master’s alums and one PhD! The Depart-ment congratulates our PhD graduate, Ben Leubner, recipient this Spring of a Provost’s Office Dissertation Writing Fellowship. Ben's dissertation, advised by Professor Guy Rotella, is entitled “The Limits of My Language: Wittgenstein and Contem-porary American Poetry.” After commencement, Ben will be teaching American Literature at Montana State University. I hope you will enjoy learning more in the following pages about the activities and accomplishments of our current students, faculty, and, most important, you, our alums! Wherever your path has taken you, we’ve tried to make it easy to keep in touch via [www.english.neu.edu/undergraduate_studies/alumni/drop_us_a_line/], and I will also always be happy to see you in person if you find yourself passing by. LG

A Letter From the Chair

In This Issue: Page 1 

• Letter from the Chair   

Page 2 

• Alumni/ae  Spotlights : Michelle Bablo and Lolly Ockerstrom            

 

Page 3 

• 2009 Hanson Writing Prizes              

 

• Cooperative  Education News                                 

 

Page 4 

• 3rd Annual English Graduate Student Conference  Interrogates Genre     

 

• 2009 Maritime Con‐ference in the  Humanities    

 

Page 5 

• Alumni/ae Updates        

• Acknowledgements        

English Department Alumni e-Newsletter

Spring 2009

Professor Laura Green, Chair

Drop Us A Line!  [www.english.neu.edu/

undergraduate_studies/alumni/drop_us_a_line/]

English Department Alumni e-Newsletter Page 2 of 6

Michelle Bablo, English and Cin-ema Studies ’07, recently re-turned to campus from her home in Brooklyn, New York to talk to Professor Inez Hedges’ Junior/Senior Seminar in Cinema Stud-ies about her work as a creative freelancer. Michelle loves to craft materials as well as words and has been an art director, stylist, marketing consultant, and pro-duction assistant, all while pursu-ing the Wardrobe Technician/Costume Design Certificate Program at the Fashion Institute

of Technology in Manhattan. A recently completed sewing as-signment—a how-to for constructing a canopy/mosquito net out of fabric, upholstery, rope and a hula-hoop!—will appear on the cover of Country Living Magazine this summer. According to Michelle, “Becoming a freelancer has been one of the most rewarding professional choices I've ever made. I'm lov-ing the ability to dabble in different positions and learn new skills as I go.” She credits her Northeastern classes for teaching her to “write concisely, with authority and clarity” and to meet deadlines. She admits, though, that she doesn’t really miss “writing long, involved research papers in all-night writing sessions!” But she does miss the opportunity to discuss films and books, and peo-ple’s reactions to them, on a regular basis.

In addition to her freelance work, Michelle is developing a line of vintage-inspired hair accessories called Hey, Red! (http://michellebablo.com/index.php?/projects/hey-red-/), co-owns a web-based vintage clothing store called Hatchetface Vintage, and of course maintains a website and blog (www.michellebablo.com)! Michelle envisions moving even fur-ther into filmmaking, art direction, and her craft business. But she also hears the call of graduate school and teaching in film pro-duction or design, because, she says, “ultimately, I really like interacting with people and sharing skills and information.” Michelle encourages Northeastern English majors and alums who want to pursue their creative passion to “join a professional or-ganization or meetup that specializes in whatever it is you want to do, go to events and seminars, and start talking to people. Find someone in your ideal profession, take them to lunch or buy them coffee, and ask them how they got to where they are. Volunteer and intern as much as you can, to build up your skills and net-work.” Reflecting on her own sometimes “tumultuous” life after graduation, Michelle muses, “It’s painful and scary sometimes, but it’s actually a lot of fun. And when you’ve had a few jobs and have started to find your place, it all seems so funny. The most surprising part has been how ‘not knowing’ turns so quickly into ‘knowing completely.’”

We’d love to hear from other recent alums how you’ve turned your “not knowing” into “knowing completely” (or even knowing a little bit!), so please drop us a line at: [www.english.neu.edu/undergraduate_studies/alumni/drop_us_a_line/]. LG

Michelle Bablo

In every issue of the newsletter, we highlight the activities of some of our graduate alumni/ae. Whether you are occupied in academia or out, working for money or for love, we would love to feature you in an upcoming issue, so please drop us a line at:

[www.english.neu.edu/graduate_studies/alumni/drop_us_a_line/]. We were delighted to hear recently from Professor Lolly Ocker-strom (PhD, ’97). After receiving her degree, she spent one year teaching at Virginia Commonwealth University and six working for the American Friends Service Committee in Washington, DC. She remembers one Washington dinner with the Minister of

Defense of South Africa that included “fascinating conversation about peace, poverty, and the role of education, especially for women in war-torn African nations” and a White House Christmas reception where she and her husband had their photos taken with former President and Mrs. Clinton. But by 2004, Lolly found her-self “longing to return to academia” and secured a tenure-track position at Park University in Missouri (www.park.edu/), where she serves as Program Coordinator for the Freshman Writing courses and teaches the Introduction to Poetry and Foundations of Literature. Lolly writes, “Since our department is small (only six of us), we are all generalists, so we all pitch in wherever we are most needed in terms of teaching. It is a terrific department, and I am grateful to be working with such a collegial team.” Continued on Page 4.

Undergraduate Alumni/ae Spotlight: Michelle Bablo

Graduate Alumni/ae Spotlight: Lolly Ockerstrom

Cooperative Education News This semester, we launched the English Co-op website (www.northeastern.edu/englishcoop/), which links from both the Undergraduate and Alumni pages of the English Department website. This page will be up-dated every semester in order to showcase students' experiences and out-standing employers. I hope alumni will take the opportunity to check out the new site, and to let us know about any new co-op opportunities or potential job leads. You can submit job descriptions, as well as personal updates from the Alumni page of the website. I'm always glad to hear from former students!

Co-op Coordinator Pam Goodale can be reached at (617) 373-3423 or by email at p.goodale@neu.edu.

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2009 Peter Burton Hanson Writing Prize Winners Announced The sixth annual Peter Burton Hanson Writing Prizes were awarded on Thursday, March 19, 2009, at a reception attended by winners and their families, other students, and faculty. Two $250 prizes are awarded: one in the category of Scholarly Writ-ing, the other in the category of Creative Writing. The 2009 winners were: In the Category of Scholarly Writing First Prize: Laura O’Regan, “Doctor, Voyeur, Poet: The Triple Role of William Carlos Williams in ‘The Young Housewife.’” Written for Prof. Guy Rotella in Modern Poetry (Spring 2008). Honorable Mention: Margot Crary, “Toni Morrison’s A Mercy: Tracing the Roots of Racism in America.” Written for Prof. Marina Leslie in Experiential Education: Opening the Archive (Fall 2008). In the Category of Creative Writing First Prize: Katrina Langer, “Summer Skin.” Written for Barbara Shapiro in Topics in Writing: The Memoir (Fall 2008). Honorable Mention: William Clark, Three Poems. Written for Ellen Noonan in Poetry Workshop (Spring 2009).

These writing prizes are named in honor and memory of Peter Burton Hanson, who earned his undergraduate degree in Eng-lish from Northeastern University in 1991 and died along with his wife, Sue Kim, and young daughter, Christine Lee, aboard United Airlines Flight 175, on September 11, 2001. Peter's life and values, in complete opposition to the terrorist violence that took so many lives, are remembered through this prize. The English Department is deeply grateful to Peter’s parents, Lee and Eunice Hanson, for their generosity in endowing the Peter Burton Hanson Writing Prizes. The Hanson family sup-ports as well the Peter Burton Hanson Memorial Lectures in the English Department. Associate Professor Beth Britt is the Head Advisor for under-graduate majors. She can be reached at e.britt@neu.edu.

2009 Hanson Prize and honorable mention recipients. Left to Right: Laura O’Regan, Margot Crary, Katrina Langer, and William Clark.

3rd Annual English Graduate Student Conference Interrogates Genre By Jen Sopchockchai Graduate students from not only Northeastern but Boston College, Tufts, and Brandeis, showcased their work at the English Graduate Student Association’s (EGSA) 2009 confer-ence, “Figuring Genre.” While this was the third conference the EGSA has organized, it was the first time the planning committee re-quested submissions from other universities in the Boston area. Thirty-three papers considered everything from eighteenth century con artists to surreal-ism in film noir. Alumni presenters included Jess Krenek (MA ’08), Tom Witty (MA ’08), Mari-Ce Salmons (MA ’07), Janelle Greco (MA ’07), and Melissa Wolter-Gustafson (MA ’07). The schedule of presentations is available online at: [www.english.neu.edu/graduate_studies/resources/egsa/]. In addition to student papers, the conference featured a keynote lecture by Professor Mi-chael Lackey of the University of Minnesota titled “Sophie’s Choice and Remains of the Day: Contesting the Theological Origins of Totalitarianism.” The conference concluded with a round table discussion, “On Methodol-ogy” with Professors Elizabeth Dillon, Patricia Sullivan, Kimberly Brown, and Nicole Aljoe, contemplating how scholars engage with the-ory and develop a critical approach. This year’s conference organizers included Alicia Peaker, Anne Kingsley, Danielle Skee-han, Jessica Nelson, Rebecca Thorndike-Breeze, Jen Sopchockchai, Max White, and Jess Krenek (MA ’07). Discussions of the agenda for next year have already begun, and alumni are invited to continue to play a signifi-cant role in an event that brings the graduate student community, past and present, to-gether. Jen Sopchockchai is currently working to-wards her doctoral degree in English at Northeastern University.

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2009 Maritime Conference in the Humanities

This October, Massachusetts Maritime Academy is hosting a maritime conference in the humanities at its campus on the Cape Cod Canal in Buzzards Bay, MA. The conference will be convened by our very own graduate alumna, Kathryn Mudgett (PhD, ’01). The keynote speaker for the conference will be Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award-winning author of In the Heart of the Sea, Sea of Glory, Mayflower, and other works.

If you have any general questions, please contact Dr. Mudgett by mail at Depart-ment of Humanities, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 101 Academy Drive, Buz-zards Bay, MA 02532 or by e-mail at nautilus@maritime.edu.

Graduate Alumni/ae Spotlight: Lolly Ockerstrom Continued from Page 2.

At Park, Lolly has been immersed in activities both pedagogical and scholarly. In July 2008, she led a Study Abroad course on William and Dorothy Words-worth in the English Lake District, as part of a new faculty-initiated Study Abroad Program. Lolly and her students hiked, visited Wordsworth-related sites, includ-ing Dove Cottage, heard a lecture by Pamela Wood, the Director of the Wordsworth Archives, and even had the opportunity to handle a first edition of the Lyrical Ballads!

A bonus trip to Haworth, Yorkshire intro-duced the group to Brontë country. Lolly reflects on the “great pleasure” involved in leading a trip “for undergradu-ate English majors who had never been out of the United States before. To say that this study abroad experience was for these students ‘life-changing’ sounds

like a cliché—but they said it them-selves, and I could see how much their perspectives on the literature deepened as a result of walking in the wake of Wordsworth through the Lakes.” Lolly plans to lead the course again this summer. In February 2009, Lolly was back in Bos-ton, chairing a panel on “Wordsworth, Social Responsibility, and Pedagogy” that she convened for the 40th annual meeting of the Northeast Modern Lan-guages Association (NeMLA). She also delivered a paper, on another panel, on “Palimpsest, Pastiche, and Pastel: Writ-ing War in Stein, Picasso, H.D., and Dove.” She has also presented several papers at the annual meetings of the International Virginia Woolf Society. Other current scholarly projects include co-authoring a student guide entitled Companion to Milton for Facts on File. Reflecting on her Northeastern experi-ence, Lolly writes, “I think the rigor of teaching and taking courses [at the same time] was invaluable. The reality of most academic jobs is that you will have a heavy teaching load and be expected to engage in research on top of that. I also feel that I studied with some terrific professors. I cannot thank my professors enough for being not only good scholars, but good teachers.” Obviously, Lolly is pursuing that combination in her own career! LG

Atop Easdale Tarn; Lolly in red slicker.

Graduate Program Updates

Kevin Cassell (MA, ’89) taught at the University of New Mexico from 2002-2006. He then moved to Costa Rica, got TEFL certified and taught English at Inlingua International Language Center. Cur-rently, Kevin is a Graduate Teaching Instructor at Michigan Techno-logical University where he's working on his doctorate in Rhetoric and Technical Communication.

Donna Halper (BA, ’69; MA, ’73) is currently an assistant professor of Communications at Lesley University. Her fourth book, Icons of Talk: The Media Mouths That Made America, will be published by Greenwood Press in January 2009. Donna was featured in The Boston Globe article, "She blazed a trail locally, and now her career comes full circle," October 2008.

Lisa Perdigao (PhD, ’04) was recently promoted to Associate Professor at Florida Institute of Technology.

Starting in August 2009, Daisy Pignetti (MA, ’99, PhD, ’08 from Univer-sity of South Florida) will be an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Daniel Springer (MA, ’90) is a painter who lives and works on Cape Cod. He will have two of his paintings in the upcoming show, “Teaching Art / Creating Art” at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis, MA from Jan 10 - Feb 22, 2009. Daniel has shown two solo exhibits of his work at the Brew-ster Ladies Library, in 2006 and 2007 and is currently represented by the Left Bank Gallery in Orleans, MA. In addition to his MA in English from NEU, Daniel received a BFA from Parsons School of Design in NYC and studied performance and theater design at Syracuse University. He currently chairs the Fine & Performing Arts Department at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, sits on the Advisory Board of the Cape Cod & Islands Art Educators Association and teaches at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. Daniel has also presented work-shops at three National Art Education Association national conferences in Boston, Chicago and NYC.

John P. Travis (MA, ’80) is an adjunct professor at Our Lady of Holy Cross College, New Orleans, LA. He recently published his novel, Pitch-ing in the Dark, available at Amazon.com. James has served on the board of NAMI-New Orleans and is a member of the Sports Literature Association.

Undergraduate Program Updates

Jack DeWitt (BA, ’66) authored a new book of poems, Almost Grown, published by Paper Kite Press. Nine of the book’s poems are featured in the Nov.-Dec. 2008 issue of the American Poetry Review.

Jack Driscoll (BA, ’57) authored Couch Potatoes Sprout: The Rise of Online Community Journalism, a how-to book regarding community group journalism, the field he has been working in the past 15 years, after 39 years at The Boston Globe.

Jacey Fortin (BA, ’08) taught Developmental English at a community college in South Carolina during Fall 2008.

Erika Keith (BA, ’08) works as an AmeriCorps Ambassador of Mentoring and at Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, a gender-specific mentor-ing agency. She is helping to launch their first Alumnae Association as well as a Diversity Council, which will help recruit and retain women of color and build long-lasting partnerships with the communities of Boston.

Raquel Matos (BA, ’04) graduated from Emerson College with a Master of Arts degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has been with Candlewick Press for 5 years and has also started Out of the Past ~ A Classic Film Blog which has been up and running for a year and a half.

James Putnam (BA, ’08) has accepted a position at Iwate Prefecture in Japan to teach English as a second language to high schoolers.

In 2008, Roger Strong (BA, ’69) retired from his co-op job at the New York Times which he started the day after Christmas, 1965. Roger started out a copy boy and ended up a photo editor and the “technology magician” on the picture desk.

Alumni/ae Updates We were delighted to receive from a number of alumni/ae updates in response to the Fall 2008 Alumni e-Newsletter. More updates can be found at www.english.neu.edu/alumni/. Keep them coming!

Acknowledgments Heartfelt thanks go out to Michelle Bablo, Beth Britt, Pam Goodale, Laura Green, Kathyrn Mudgett, Lolly Ockerstrom, Jennifer Sop-chockchai, and Daniel Springer for contributing articles, interviews, and images to the Spring 2009 Alumni e-Newsletter. If you would like to contribute to a future edition of the e-Newsletter, please Drop Us A Line at www.english.neu.edu/alumni/ or contact Melissa Daigle at m.daigle@neu.edu.

English Department Alumni e-Newsletter Page 6 of 6

“Fort Hill” by Daniel Springer (MA, ‘90)