The Weekly: Undergraduate News
...Coming to your inbox Mondays
Issue #29 for the week of 3/29/2021
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From the Director of Studies |
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Hello all, two weeks until theses and JP’s are due!—which makes this a good moment to wish you good speed and courage, once again, and also to say, it is an especially important moment to take good care of yourselves and of your classmates. This has been a demanding year, and I know many of you are feeling it as due dates approach. Please know that we on the faculty are cheering you on, and also that we are ready to help if you find yourself struggling, intellectually or emotionally or any other way. From my vantage as DUS I can tell you that if you are having a hard time of it, you are in very good company. (Why, who could be so shallow of soul as not to be at least a little run down by our circumstances?) So let that company be a comfort and support. And reach out, reach out—to your advisor, to me or to Rebecca Rainof or Kelly Lake, to your deans or your directors of studies—if you need to talk to someone. Reach out to your friends, too. You never know when it may make a difference for someone to check in.
OK? OK! And of course theses and JP’s are not the only thing happening this week. If you seek diversion, there is Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, subject of a Common Works event Thursday at 4:30. (Nothing like an adaptation of King Lear to make you feel like you haven’t got it that bad, after all.) If you want to look ahead to the future, there is a Taste of Success Lunchtime Alumni Career Conversation on Friday, with Claire Greene '13, at UCSF Medical School, and Bhaamati Borkheteria '20, a software engineer at Amazon. Next Monday, there will be a screening of the award-winning film Minari, and a conversation between director Lee Isaac Chung and our own Professor Anne A. Cheng—that will be a treat.
Have I given you an afterword by Frank O’Hara? I can’t remember. But he’s where I turn when I need cheering up and cheering on. Just read everything in-between first.
Director of Undergraduate Studies
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Undergraduate Administrator
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ACADEMIC DATES & DEADLINES |
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2021
March 2021
March 25 - April 13
A.B. Concentration Declaration Period Begins
April 2021
April 1
Akira Kurosawa's Ran. View. Meet Discuss. A Common Works Event
via Zoom 4:30 p.m. EDT
April 2
A Taste of Success: Lunchtime Alumni Conversations. Claire Greene '10
English & Medicine
via Zoom 12:00 p.m. EDT
April 6
*Deadline to Drop Spring Term Courses
*Deadline to Select P/D/F Option
April 7
UG Conversation Regarding Department & University Hiring Practices
and the Role of CDS
via Zoom 12:00 p.m. EDT
April 9
A. Scott Berg Fellowship Application due S.A.F.E.
April 13
*Declaration Day
*Junior Fall Term 2021 Course Selection
*Junior Independent Work Due
*Senior Thesis Due
April 14
Sophomore Fall Term 2021 Course Selection
April 15
First-Year Fall Term 2021 Course Selection
April 21
2021 Major's Colloquium:
Your Faves Are Problematic: Reading and Teaching Fraught Texts
4:30 p.m. EDT via Zoom (Register for Link)
April 27
Spring 2021 Term Courses End
April 28
Reading Period Begins
April 30
UG Add/Drop Ends
May 2021
May 5
*Reading Period Ends
*Dean's Date
May 6 & 7
Senior Departmental/Comprehensive Exams
May 8 - 14
Spring 2021 Final Exams
May 14
Department Class Day Celebration
4:00 p.m. EDT via Zoom (Registration Required)
May 16
Commencement
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Additional Dates for Juniors: |
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Additional Dates for Seniors:
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2021
April 9, 2021
A. Scott Berg Fellowship Application DUE S.A.F.E.
April 13, 2021
Deadline for Submitting Junior Independent Work
Please see the below information regarding O.U.R.'s funding cycles and the Departmental resources for research funding support.
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2021
April 13, 2021
Senior Thesis DUE
May 6-7, 2021
Senior Departmental/
Comprehensive Exams
Please see the below information regarding O.U.R.'s funding cycles and the Departmental resources for research funding support.
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LINK TO DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH UG WEBSITE
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The COVID-19 Dashboard now includes data from the undergraduates living on campus and those living locally with access to campus for the spring semester. Please keep in mind that the Dashboard is updated weekly on Mondays with results from the previous week, not in real time.
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Summer Funding Opportunity: |
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Class of 2022 & 2023
Funding Opportunity Summer 2021:
A. Scott Berg Fellowship
Deadline to apply in SAFE:
Wednesday, April 9, 2021
at 5:00 p.m. EDT
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Learn more information about this funding opportunity here.
Or search in S.A.F.E.
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DEPARTMENT'S CLASS DAY CELEBRATION
CHANGE OF DATE:
FRIDAY, MAY 14 at 4:00 PM EST
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DATE CHANGE!
The Department of English
2021 Class Day Celebration
Friday, May 14 at 4:00 PM EDT
via Zoom
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Seniors,
Please check your emails! If you have not already, please fill out the following to let us know your most recent information: https://bit.ly/2PTkUo5
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Find links to recent public-facing writing by English Department alumni, faculty and current students (undergraduate and graduate) that addresses urgent contemporary topics, including the pandemic, the national reckoning with racism, the environment, and the role of arts in times of crisis. |
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The Daily Princetonian:
Why we should start listening to those ‘minor minorities’
The major significance of ‘minor’ acts of everyday racism
by Cameron Lee '21
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Let me begin with my body.
My skin-picking began innocuously, as a way to remove hangnails and other patches of dead skin from my cuticles. . . .
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Avidly:
The Poetry of the Past
By Virginia Jackson & Meredith Martin
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On Sunday, February 7th, a month after the insurrection at the capitol and two days before the beginning of the impeachment trial, some of America watched the Superbowl. . . .
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The New York Times Opinion:
What This Wave of Anti-Asian Violence Reveals About America
By Anne Anlin Cheng
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Too often, attention to nonwhite groups is only as pressing as the injuries that they have suffered. . .
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English Concentrators:
Thesis Writers and Junior Papers
English Writing Room
Sundays Spring 2021
1:30 - 4:30 p.m. EDT
Sunday Writing Room Zoom:
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Here and There:
Issue 4:
Gratitude & Family
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Here and There Podcast Episode 3:
Reimagining the Archive,
A Conversation with Rene Boatman and Autumn Womack
Senior concentrator Isabel Griffith-Gorgati interviews Rene Boatman & Autumn Womack about Toni Morrison's legacy and archive at Princeton.
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Class of 2023, want to declare English? |
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The Department of English
Sophomore Sign-Ins
March 25 through April 13, 2021
Advisor Appointments Available in WASE
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Class of 2023, want to declare English as your major?
Make sure to schedule your English Advisor meeting in WASE: "English Sign In 2021."
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Akira Kurosawa's film
Ran
View. Meet. Discuss.
A Common Works Event
Thursday, April 1, 2021
4:30 - 6:00 p.m. EDT via Zoom
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Join graduate moderators, Lisa Kraege and Moeko Fujii to discuss this Shakespearean classic and Common Works text.
Open to current university concentrators and prospective concentrators. Class of 2022 concentrators are strongly encouraged to attend as this is connected to a Common Work (King Lear) .
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The Department of English
A Taste of Success: Lunchtime Alumni Career Conversations English & Tech with Bhaamati Bhorketeria '20
English & Medicine with Claire Greene ' 13
Friday, April 2, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT via Zoom
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Join English alums Bhaamati Borkheteria '20, and Claire Greene '13, a University of California San Francisco Medical Student, and Professor Rebecca Rainof, Outreach Coordinator, as they discuss Claire's experience concentrating in English and how a degree in English facilitated her path to medicine.
Bring your lunch and your questions!
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The Department of English with Program in American Studies & the Office of Dean of the College
A film Screening & Conversation with
Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung & Prof. Anne A. Cheng
MINARI
April 5, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. EDT via Zoom
Registration Required
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Location: virtual - registration required
Speakers:
Filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung in conversation with Prof. Anne A. Cheng
Please join us for a screening of MINARI, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and a Golden Globe. A delicately wrought drama about what roots us, MINARI follows a Korean-American family that moves to an Arkansas farm in search of their own American Dream. Tracing the material and emotional challenges of this new life in the rugged Ozarks for this young family, MINARI shows the resilience of family and what it means to forge a home when you are seen as strangers from a different land.
The first 100 registered will be invited to a free, virtual screening of the film which will be available for viewing anytime between 12:30pm to 4:30pm on April 5th, 2021. A conversation between filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung and Professor Anne Anlin Cheng via zoom will follow the film screening at 4:30pm. All are welcome to attend the conversation, even those who could not attend the screening.
Sponsored by: The Department of English, Program in American Studies, Office of the Dean of the College
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Undergraduate Concentrator Townhall Session:
Anti-Racist Pedagogy Advisory Committee, Hiring, Curriculum & the Common Works, and Outreach in the Department of English
Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
via Zoom Register Below
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Events over the past year have magnified the violence, racism, and everyday discrimination faced by Black, Asian, Latinx, and Indigenous communities in the United States. Though some public figures have called such acts “un-American,” the record suggests that they are in fact interwoven with the fabric of our collective history. As instances of racial animus continue to appear on our news feeds, it’s important to recognize that the only unprecedented thing about them is the mass public attention they have drawn.
The Anti-Racist Pedagogy Advisory Committee of the Department of English was convened by Chair Simon Gikandi to name and hone our responsibility to this history. English is a community of students and teachers, and it’s more important than ever to explicitly connect our intellectual endeavors to current events. Student representatives on the committee advocated transparency around features of the department that affect undergraduate education, and they recommended that students be given the floor to pose questions and air opinions in a town hall setting.
To that end, I invite all of you to a meeting centered on student questions and concerns to be held on Wednesday, April 7, 2021, at 12:00pm EDT. The floor is yours, with three faculty members addressing your interests in hiring and field representation (Professor Gikandi), curriculum and Common Works exam (Professor Jeff Dolven), and outreach (Professor Rebecca Rainof). No other faculty will be present, and all issues that matter to you are on the table. Kelly Lake will be providing technical and logistical support.
If you have any questions about the work of the Anti-Racist Pedagogy Advisory Committee this year, feel free to reach out to me. I’m happy to have a chat during office hours or some other appointed time.
I hope you’ll join your peers for the conversation on April 7.
Professor Kinohi Nishikawa
Chair, Anti-Racist Pedagogy Advisory Committee
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Intersections Working Group presents:
The Cry of the Senses and The Fact of Resonance
by Ren Ellis Neyra by Julie Beth Napolin
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
Registration is Required
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Find further event information here:
https://english.princeton.edu/events/intersections-working-group-presents-ren-ellis-neyra-julie-beth-napolin
Register for the Event Here:
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Presented by Intersections Working Group and sponsored by the Department of English, the Department of African American Studies, the Program in American Studies, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Center for Human Values
BECOMING HUMAN: A Graduate Lunch Hour with Zakiyyah Iman Jackson
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
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2021 Majors' Colloquium
Your Faves Are Problematic:
Reading and Teaching Fraught Texts
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. EDT
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Calling all current majors and newly minted majors:
You picked the speakers. Peers set the topic. Join the conversation.
2021 Majors' Colloquium
Your Faves Are Problematic:
Reading and Teaching Fraught Texts
Join us to hear department speakers:
- Anne A. Cheng
- Kinohi Nishikowa
- Jeff Nunokawa
- Autumn Womack
On Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 4:30 p.m. EDT via zoom.
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Presented by Intersections Working Group and sponsored by the Department of English, the Department of African American Studies, the Program in American Studies, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Center for Human Values
BECOMING HUMAN: A Graduate Lunch Hour with Zakiyyah Iman Jackson
Wednesday, April 21, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
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RESEARCH FUNDING INFORMATION |
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The Maren Grant for Senior Thesis Research
The Maren Grant for Senior Thesis Research supports work toward the thesis for seniors in the English Department. Students should apply through SAFE, and choose the Maren Grant among their funding sources.
Please apply to all funding sources for which you are eligible.
Applications to the Maren Grant for Senior Thesis Research may be made in any of the three OUR funding cycles:
- for thesis research in the summer before senior year;
- in the fall of senior year;
- or in the winter before the thesis is due.
Awards are typically between $200 and $1200.
Deadlines are early: be sure you consult OUR and plan ahead.
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The Maren-Annan Grant for Departmental Research
The Maren-Annan Grant for Departmental Research supports student research for the Junior Paper and, under special circumstances, for other work for juniors or seniors within the context of a course in the English Department (excluding the senior thesis).
Applications should be made through SAFE, by choosing “Undergraduate Independent Projects” under “ACTIVITY.”
Please apply to all funds for which you are eligible along with the Maren Grant.
Allowable expenses correspond to those listed for senior thesis research on the OUR website.
Applications may be made at any time, but we recommend submission at least four weeks before any planned travel.
Awards are typically between $200 and $1200.
Consultation with your JP advisor or the instructor for your class is essential.
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Summer O.U.R. Funding Cycle:
O.U.R.'s Application Opens: Friday, March 19, 2021
O.U.R.'s Application Closes: Sunday, April 4, 2021
O.U.R.'s Award posted: Friday, April 30, 2021
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Your application for all funding must be made through S.A.F.E.
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Students applying to the OUR senior thesis research funding program are required to apply for all departmental and programmatic funds for which they are eligible in one single application.
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You will be able to save your application in SAFE and go back to it, but you must complete and submit the application by the earliest deadline of all the funding sources to which you are applying; no changes will be accepted once applications are submitted and locked, except for the selection of additional funding opportunities when eligible.
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Student Activity Funding Engine (S.A.F.E.)
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OTHER EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES |
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TIME WITHIN TIME
Center for Human Values
Film Forum Spring 2021
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The Film Forum started in the fall of 2005. It is dedicated to the discussion of films that not only delight us in the spectacular ways cinema most naturally does but also leave us puzzled, challenged, unsettled, or even irritated. The films we show cry out for discussion and have afforded us on many Monday nights with the pleasure of intelligent and passionate conversation.
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Spring 2021 Academic Fellowship Information Sessions
March 24 through April 17, 2021
via Zoom
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Check out the OIP Events Calendar and weekly OIP Newsletter, and like the OIP Facebook page for updates. All spring 2021 events (and advising appointments) will occur over Zoom using the links specified below.
From March 24 to April 17, we will be hosting an informal fellowships café series (on Zoom) on Wednesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. ET, featuring recent alumni and seniors speaking about their fellowships clustered around a particular focus, such as STEM, sustainability and the arts. We will post those on the OIP calendar. Students and alumni should request access to resources and recordings of taped presentations by emailing fellow@princeton.edu and request the Dropbox Fellowships Link for Spring/Summer 2021. Following each presentation, we will add updated slides and other information there.
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Summer 2021:
Princeton's Department of Classics Intensive: Ancient African Language of Gəˁəz (classical Ethiopic)
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This summer, Princeton’s Department of Classics will be offering an intensive class for Princeton undergraduates and graduate students in the ancient African language of Gəˁəz (classical Ethiopic). If you are at all interested, please fill out the Google Form at https://forms.gle/mcRbjWQoYz6ve2gc6 to be updated on exactly where and when this class will happen.
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Summer Post Graduate Opportunity |
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is seeking new college graduates to join its team of Corporate Legal Assistants for immediate and June full-time hire. Corporate Legal Assistants work across an array of practice areas to provide clerical support to a team of world-class lawyers. To apply, applicants should furnish the Corporate Legal Assistants Manager with a cover letter, resume, short writing sample, and transcript. For more information, please reach out to one of DPW’s recent alumni of Princeton or David Ehmcke (david.ehmcke@davispolk.com) in Client Services.
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Remote Internship Opportunities
Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents
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Massie & McQuilkin seeks intelligent and versatile interns interested in a career in book publishing. The ideal candidate will be able to commit 10-15 hours a week, 2 days a week, though we are flexible in regard to scheduling. Internships last about 3 months, with academic credit available. This internship is unpaid. Due to COVID, all internships for the spring semester will be remote.
The intern’s main duties will revolve around managing and responding to unsolicited queries and manuscripts, and will involve evaluating this material with an eye to its quality, relevance to the agent queried, and its viability in the marketplace. A critical eye is necessary for this position. Additional projects may be assigned that will address other aspects of agenting, including foreign rights and contracts. As with any internship, a part of the position will be general administrative work, but we will do our best to work with individual interests.
To apply, please email Max Moorhead (max@mmqlit.com) and Maddie Woda (maddie@mmqlit.com) with a cover letter in the body and your resume as an attachment. For more information, see our website.
Please submit your application during the following periods:
Spring: November 1-December 20
Summer: March 15-April 15
Fall: August 1-September 1
Maddie Woda (she/her)
Massie & McQuilkin Literary Agents
27 West 20th Street, Suite 305
New York, New York 10011
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University Center for Human Values offers events of interest:
To access the events that the University Center of Human Values presents please use this:
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Humanities Council Faculty Bookshelf:
Visit the Humanities Council's Faculty Bookshelf! Browse by author or discipline to explore the University's cutting-edge humanities scholarship.
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Center for Career Development:
While our physical office may be closed, the Center for Career Development is still here to support you.
Wherever you're studying, you can access virtual advising, programs, resources, recruiting and more. The Center for Career Development serves Princeton undergraduate and graduate students of all years and interests.
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Writing Program
For Juniors and Seniors:
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80-minute, Discipline-Specific Appointments: From formulating a plan for semester- and year-long projects to conducting research and drafting and revising, our trained Graduate Fellows are available as students tackle the challenges of independent work! Make an appointment now: https://writingcenter.princeton.edu/s/80MIN
The Virtual Writing Lab (Sunday-Thursday 8 p.m. – 11 p.m. ET): Having a hard time getting motivated working on your JP or Thesis? Looking for a sense of community? Don’t go it alone! Join our Zoom-based virtual lab to write with peers, consult Fellows as needed, and tackle your short and long-term writing goals! Join here any time we’re open.
Writing Partnerships: Pair up with an experienced Graduate Fellow for a standing weekly appointment to structure the JP or thesis writing process and avoid a pile-up of writing at the end of the semester. If you’re interested in setting up a partnership, write to Dr. Creedon (greedon@princeton.edu).
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CLASS OF 2021:
CLASS DAY IS 46 DAYS AWAY!
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CLASS DAY 2021
NEW DAY & TIME:
May 14, 2021 at 4:00 p.m.
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Class Day 2021 is just around the corner - 46 days away!
We in the Department of English Undergraduate are already working to put together a wonderful experience to celebrate you, your family and loved ones, and your graduation.
If you haven't submitted materials to us, you will have received a message from the UA, Kelly Lake today. While we can include your information without an image of you, you as a child, or a video, it will make the event so much richer to include you. Parents, friends, faculty, and staff all want to celebrate this amazing accomplishment.
Stumped for ideas? Here is last year's Class Day 2020 to see what's been done before... and if you're on the fence, please reach out to me directly to discuss how we might represent you in this year's Class Day.
Best,
Kelly Lake (kalake@)
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Having a Coke with You
Frank O'Hara
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is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne
or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian
partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt
partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches
partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary
it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still
as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it
in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth
between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles
and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint
you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse
it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it
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"Lovers at the canal" by Gael Varoquaux is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ |
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Suggestions, events, additions, or questions?
Department of English
22 McCosh Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
(609) 258-4061
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