“Introducing EGO"
By Robert Sherron and Jonathan Wanner (current Ph.D. students)
Inaugurated in the Spring of 2015, the English Graduate Organization has long alloyed collegiality with comradery by providing ENGRAD fellows occasions of mutual accord. Through the “Rough Magic” of student-spun convivialities — happy hours, coffee and donut gatherings, birch-and- bramble backpack daytrips, and the levity of holiday revels — EGO ushers forth its mission of feast and fellowship. As a patron of campus-wide literary enterprises, EGO allies with other university organizations to cultivate lectures, readings, and workshops of import to our graduate fellows and the CUA community at large.
This past year, EGO has brought to CUA’s halls an index of highly acclaimed poets, including Dana Gioia, James Matthew Wilson, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Maryann Corbett, and Emily Wilson. This semester, EGO is launching a new colloquium series, which will offer Graduates the opportunity to receive feedback on their scholarship as they prepare for conferences or publication. Finally, the English Graduate Organization serves as a liaison between graduate fellows and English faculty and advocates for ENGRAD interests within the Graduate Student Association. Under the direction of the circumspect Monica Schroeder, we look forward to continuing our chemistry of community: not with metals, but with minds; not with solvents, but with souls.