English Graduate Student Association

The George Washington University

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EGSA Member Information

Sara Davis

I am a Phd candidate, and will graduate in May of 2006. My dissertation focuses on the post office, letters, and correspondent relationships as reflected in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British novels. Prior to attending GW, I earned my Masters in Literature at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, and my Bachelors in Language Arts Secondary Education at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota. My husband and I hope to return to our native state, and so after I graduate, I will focus my attention on one of those coveted tenure-track position in Minnesota.

I've presented several papers at conferences such as NASSR (North American Society for the Study of Romanticism) and BAVS (British Association for Victorian Studies) in a bid to try out my dissertation ideas. This July I will present a paper at the British Association for Romantic Studies.

I live in Bethesda with husband, 2 and a half year old twins, and 13 year old and seventeen year old step-sons, 2 cats and a dog (some would describe our residence as a house, others a menagerie).

I am currently teaching Victorian literature at GW. My long term goal is to continue as a teacher, preferably at the university level (I can totally join in with academic gossip), or at a school, AP level preferably, with classes full of terrible overachievers who will do everything I say.

Thomas O. "Todd" Evans IV or just Todd Evans (preferable)

I received my B.A. and M.A. in English from James Madison University, where I went on to teach for five years in the Writing Program, which was interdisciplinary. I also taught a few classes at a community college in VA. My primary literary focus in British Literature is romanticism, especially Shelley, Byron, and Blake, but I am also deeply engaged in the study of poetry generally, from Homer and Shakespeare to Bob Dylan and Sylvia Plath. I am a guitarist in the blues/jazz/folk/rock traditions, and I am trying to merge my interests in music with my study of poetry. I am also involved in leftist libertarian-socialist politics, the study of mythology, and cultural and literary studies generally. I am currently in my second semester of classes at GW and love the city! I commute from my home in Harrisonburg, about two hours away, but may move to D.C. in the future.

Joe Fisher

I arrived at GW in the fall of 2003 with a BA and MA in literature, two state teaching licences, and two years of high school teaching experience. Currently, I'm completing the last semester of my coursework for my PhD in American lit. My research interests include 20th Century American literature and psychoanalytic and disability theory, all of which will be represented in my dissertation on narratives of addiction. I also have a developing side interest in cultural studies, particularly regarding the economic and sexual politics of 1990's British independent rock music.

Joe Fruscione

I began here in January 1998 and will be finishing up in the spring, with a May dissertation defense and summer graduation. My dissertation is entitled "Modernist Dialectic: Faulkner, Hemingway, and the Complexities of Literary Rivalry, 1920-1962" and treats my two favorite authors, each of whom both rivaled, respected, and sometimes hated the other, as their fiction, nonfiction, letters, and Nobel Prize Addresses illustrate. I've also been teaching Comp. and the Lit. Survey since Fall 1999; my best Comp. sections have examined books and their corresponding film adaptations--among them, -Romeo and Juliet-, -To Kill a Mockingbird-, -The Perfect Storm-, -Seabiscuit-, -Glengarry Glen Ross-, and –The Shawshank Redemption-.

Lisbeth S. Fuisz

I am writing a dissertation that explores literary interventions in early twentieth-century American debates about education. I hope to be finished soon.

Matt Fullerty

I am a fourth year PhD candidate making baby steps with the dissertation, writing on twentieth century university fiction, the academic novel. My focus is British and American post-WWII fiction about the tragicomic adventures of professors and students on various university campuses. The title is The Tragicomic Campus: the British and American Academic Novel, 1945-2005. I am also attempting to write a novel about New Orleans tragic genius chess champion Paul Morphy which I talk up on my website www.mattfullerty.com or www.paulmorphychess.com. Watch out for The Pride and the Sorrow in the next five years! For my English brethren lost in the American funhouse, I chip away at the homesick Dear England blog http://dearengland.blogspot.com. Meanwhile I dream of raking in the chess millions (pennies) at my ingenious chess site www.chessgladiator.com: Play Chess for Real Money: those who are about to die, salute you. I grew up near Manchester, England, and graduated with a BA in English from Oxford University (1998) and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia (2001). I've taught University Writing courses at GW on banned books, film censorship and the comic buffoonery of all professorial/academic fiction. Currently I'm attempting the heavy stuff in a survey Introduction to British Literature, piling on the Spenser and Milton. Ah, the Golden Age of long poems! As Kierkegaard would have it, life is lived forward but understood backwards.

Laura Greenfield

Hi! My name is Laura Greenfield and I am now finishing up my third year (last semester of courses!) in the English PhD program. I'm in the midst of finalizing my field reading list for the exam I plan to take in August. The field I'm putting together is an exploration of autobiographical narratives and composition theories that consider the role of English language acquisition as a path to American citizenship. I'm interested in a number of questions: What role does English language acquisition play in the formation of American identity(ies)? What role does the clash between spoken English(es) and standard/compulsory English(es) play in the formation of American identity(ies)? How is the relationship between learning English (or standard versions of English) and constructing an American identity described, revealed, and/or enacted in the literature of American minorities? What are the implications for the university composition classroom and the Writing Center, which stand as sites of negotiation between the keepers of a dominant form of English (academic discourse) and the multicultural/lingual students that may walk through their doors? In addition to my coursework, I also work as an Assistant Director of the Writing Center, teach one of the three remaining Engl 10 courses at the University, and serve as the new president of the EGSA.

Michelle Beissel Heath

I am a fourth year Ph.D. student with interests in British literature, children’s literature, and postcolonialism. I have embarked on the terrifyingly exciting dissertation process, with aims of focusing on children’s work and adult play in a variety of lovely nineteenth century British texts. In approaching that process, I have presented at several conferences, including the British Women Writers Association annual conference and Wiscon, a conference on feminist science fiction, and I have taught a number of courses, including ENGL 10, ENGL11, Summer Scholars courses, and currently UW20 (I hope to teach a lit. survey in the fall). I have the delight of serving as the rapporteur for an interdisciplinary seminar series on 19th century British cultural studies at GW, am assisting (with a very small part) of the upcoming Research Society for Victorian Periodicals conference hosted at GW in the fall of 2005, and have a wonderfully supportive, patient, and tolerant husband who (mostly) doesn’t mind that in my “free” time my face is always buried in a book. I also have an M.A. (2001) from the University of Maine and a B.A. (1999) in English, History, and Spanish from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Valentin Katz (1983-?)

First year MA student in English literature at George Washington University. I received my BA from UMCP in English Literature with concentrations on British and American Literature and Film Studies. Primarily interested with Early Modern and Contemporary British drama/poetry, specifically issues of the body, pathology, and conceptions of salubrious and destructive behavior. After my degree, I plan to bum around the world, teaching advanced English for a few years to revitalize my spiritual, pedagogic, and financial strength, and then come on board for the big doctorate. My daily goal is to subvert all deductive markers forcing individuals to interact with me if they desire even the remotest idea of who I might be.

Born in Kiev, Ukraine, emigrated to the United States in 1988 under 'political-refugee' status. I officially have no political affiliation, proudly.

Ying-hsiu Liu

I am a first-year Ph.D student. I got my BA and MA back in Taiwan as an English major. I wrote my MA thesis on Adrienne Rich, with a focus on how she rewrote mythology to envision a feminist poetics. My primary academic interests are 20th century American literature and gender studies, intertwined with them the issue of body politics. I am also a big fan of classic music: my favorite pianists are Glenn Gould and Mikhail Pletnev, and my favorite conductors Guenter Wand and Carlos Kleiber.