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GSAS English Department Reunion
On April 8 and 9 of 2005, the Department of English held its first reunion of GSAS alumni. The event was a resounding success, with over 100 alums attending from as far away as San Diego. In addition to catching up with old friends, meeting new ones, and reuniting with former professors, alumni enjoyed a varied program starting with a reception and panel of speakers Friday evening, featuring Acting Chair David S. Kastan and Director of Graduate Studies David Damrosch, who discussed the current department and its students.
Saturday kicked off with a series of panels organized around different fields of study. Each panel featured a professor from the “old days” paired with a current junior faculty member. Formats and topics varied, ranging from assessments about how the field of literary studies has changed over the years, to close readings of poetry that took many of us back to our days in seminar rooms with our favorite professors. Participants included Professors James Mirollo, Ann Douglas, George Stade, and John Rosenberg. The Saturday afternoon panel featured alumni who have gone on to careers outside academia, discussing their career paths and how their graduate school experience has served them in life. Among the panelists were Sheree Bykofsky, a noted literary agent, and Richard Vetere, who has pursued a successful career as writer for stage, television, and film.
In addition to a turnout of alumni from various eras, faculty attendees at the event included S. F. Johnson, Robert Hanning, Jean Howard, Edward W. Tayler, Karl Kroeber, John Middendorf, and Martin Meisel, among others. The closing reception attracted a number of current graduate students, making for an interesting and stimulating mix of old and new.
Special kudos to Joy Hayton, indefatigable Departmental Administrator for English, whom many of us remember as the glue of the department and problem-solver extraordinaire. She and her staff deserve tremendous credit for the exceptional success of this, the first in the series of GSAS departmental reunions planned for upcoming years.
For more information about the English Department Reunion or about upcoming reunions, please contact Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Laura Brown (Ph.D. English, 1996) at lmb2@columbia.edu.
