Scholarship Committee Report

News

— Fall 2015 Graduate Scholarship Winners

As many of us know, Seattle Branch ESU offers $1500 recruitment scholarships to entering graduate students in the UW's English Department. For Fall 2015, ESU is granting two scholarships to entering students. What would normally be a third scholarship is being set aside for funding a UW professor or student for research and/or conference travel in conjunction with 2016 being celebrated as "The Year of Shakespeare", the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

Matthew J. Poland is interested in the intersection of the following areas: the history of books and reading, knowledge organization, and how material texts transmit literature and structure its interpretation. What did it mean for nineteenth-century readers to read and use books printed in the early modern period? Matthew's research encompasses consideration of material texts, reading and editorial practices, and the history of collecting and knowledge organization.

Darwin's hypothesis that all life forms are materially interconnected shook the Victorian notions of human identity. Elizabeth Boyle is interested in how the paradigm shift inaugurated by Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory found its way into nineteenth and early twentieth century literature. Elizabeth plans to pursue her interests in nineteenth-century literature and this type of critical analysis.

Our two scholars represent "the best and the brightest" of the entering graduate students at the UW. ESU is pleased to help launch their careers as future teachers and researchers. The scholars will be invited to the Annual General Meeting in May, and also to a reception beforehand so that members may meet them.

--Loveday Conquest

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