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11 June 2015
EGO NEWS
News | Announcements | Faculty Fodder
SAVE THE DATE:
EGO Summer Party
On Wednesday 17 June, we'll
be hosting the annual end-ofterm EGO Party at Somerville
Bar (8-11pm).
Come toast the end of Trinity
Term/your dissertation hand-in
with your fellow English grads!
Entry is free and there'll be
some money behind the bar.
If you have any questions,
please
email: alison.moulds@stannes.ox.ac.uk.
Delegates at this year’s Oxford English Graduate Conference on
‘Value’.
Using Your Research
Network
The EGO research network
(http://english.ohgn.org/) is a
great platform to promote
yourself and your work.
Complete your profile and flag
up any recent publications
(email
noreen.masud@ell.ox.ac.uk)!
Not only will you help grow your
networks, but you’ll give
meaning to the life of your
Communications Officer.
President’s Note
Dear Graduates,
I hope the summer term is treating you excellently and
that those of you tackling transfer of status, dissertation
deadlines, and other academic challenges are taking it
in your stride. If things are difficult, EGO is always here
to lend a listening ear as well as more substantial
assistance, so do get in touch.
This is my swan song as your President (as far as my
newsletter missives are concerned, anyway!) and so I
would like to say a big thank you to all of you for making
our community as special as it is: with all the pub nights,
EGO lunches, talks, and seminars there has never been
a dull moment. I would also like to thank this year's EGO
committee for their hard work and enthusiasm, and for
having a refreshing sense of humour even at the
trickiest of times: Alexis, Andrew, Noreen, AyJay,
Lauren, Luke, Erin, Alison, Lotta, Millie, Charlie, and
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11 June 2015
Andy. I hope you are imagining violins playing emotive
music in the background, because I am.
Contact Us
For research network queries
please feel free to email
englishgraduatesoxford@gmail.c
om.
Or you can reach any of the
committee members at their
oxford email addresses as usual.
Browse the website and start
contributing at: english.ohgn.org
Lunch of the Term
This year's summer party looks set to be the party of the
year, and I look forward to us all ending the academic
year in style. I'll be in touch with you over the summer
vacation to keep you posted on any exciting goings-on,
before we (reluctantly) hand power over to a new
committee in Michaelmas.
Because a swan song should feature some words of
wisdom, I give you some Said. Here's to being
edgy academics who ask embarrassing questions!
All my best,
Natalya
This term’s featured lunch: the
very fine sandwiches provided at
the ‘Value’ conference. Mmm.
Dissertation Distress
The central fact for me is, I think, that the intellectual is
endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying,
articulating a message, a view, an attitude, a philosophy
or opinion... And this role has an edge to it, and cannot
be played without a sense of being someone whose
place it is to raise embarrassing questions, to confront
orthodoxy and dogma (rather than to produce them), to
be someone who cannot easily be co-opted by
government or corporations and whose raison d’être is to
represent all those people and issues who are routinely
forgotten or swept under the rug. - Edward Said, Reith
Lectures, June 1993
Feeling menaced by your
dissertation? Get in touch with
your EGO committee and we’ll do
our best to help. Image from
Public Domain Review
(http://publicdomainreview.org/)
Suitably ‘embarrassing questions’ being asked during a Q&A at the
‘Value’ conference.
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11 June 2015
Making Ends Meet
With Trinity Term almost at an end,
few of us will be thinking as far as next
Michaelmas! But if you will be in
Oxford for the next academic year
(even if you’re no longer studying)
here are the Welfare Officer’s Top
Three Tips (tried and tested) for
earning an odd bob while genuinely
helping others with their study or
research:
1 The Oxford University Disability
Advisory Service (DAS) employs a
body of non-medical helpers, who
provide note-taking, library assistance
and exam scribing. This is a great way
to help others get the most out of their
study, while learning a thing or two
yourself. Look out for an email at the
end of summer, or email me,
anneli.strutt@ell.ox.ac.uk (at the end
of summer) for details. You don’t
have to be a current Oxford
student to work for DAS.
2 The Department of Experimental
Psychology conducts a range of
experiments throughout the year, for
which they need participants. Signing
up is simple, and you can choose the
number and type of experiments you
take part in. If you fancy the idea of
sitting in a dark booth wearing a
shower cap full of wires, staring at a
computer screen until your eyes begin
to blister, send an email
to opradmin@maillist.ox.ac.uk and ask
for a username and password to the
SONA system. Again, you don’t have
to be a current student.
Oxford English Graduate Conference,
‘Value’
We were pleased to welcome graduate students from Germany,
Italy, Hong Kong, the U.S., and across the UK for Oxford’s 2015
English graduate conference on the theme of ‘value’, held on
June 5 at the English Faculty.
Students spoke on a wide array of topics: the problem of
theodicy, disability’s vexed relation to realism, King Arthur, and
biographical criticism of David Foster Wallace—this haphazard
selection provides only a partial glimpse of the conference’s
breadth. The day’s intellectual offerings had roots in many
corners of literary studies, including bibliography, material
culture, postcolonial studies, Marxist theory, ethical criticism,
disability studies, and gender studies. And panelists,
collectively, covered an impressive historical and generic range,
from medieval romance to the twenty-first century novel.
Professor Thomas Docherty of the University of Warwick joined
Oxford’s Patrick Hayes and Helen Small for a panel discussion
on the present state of the humanities and the university more
broadly.
Professor Mark McGurl of Stanford gave a thought-provoking
keynote on giants in literature, in which he examined the
problems that giants pose for realist fiction. Some in the
audience remarked that while he spoke, he began to look a bit
taller. Although EGO takes no formal position on whether
Professor McGurl is in fact secretly a giant, we commend him
as a scholar of impressive stature.
Thanks to everyone who participated. We ‘value’ your
contributions immensely!
charles.tyson@ell.ox.ac.uk
3 People Per Hour: (Tip contributed by
Noreen Masud!) Through the
peopleperhour.com website you can
promote your own special skills and
expertise in any field, and start
working as a freelancer from your own
home (or The Missing Bean). Who
knows, you may end up moonlighting,
ghostwriting, or freedomfighting for the
Next Big Cause. Happy Days.
anneli.strutt@ell.ox.ac.uk
Delegates enjoying a post-conference dinner at Las Iguanas
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