Student Activities

English Graduate Student Association: EGSA supports student involvement in the department, a group which can be accessed at its Facebook group and Sakai site. Several salons are hosted each semester at which dissertating students present a chapter of their work before free pizza. Other functions of EGSA include offering several Brown Bags every semester that answer student questions about their education, performance in coursework, comprehensive exams, and the dissertation process, and how to find a job after graduation. After elected by peers, a student can fill one of several two-year positions on the EGSA board, namely, President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary, or apply to the board to serve as the Graduate Student Representative, a one-year position. EGSA maintains printing supplies in the Fishbowl, the graduate lounge in LSC's Department of English, and, following the spring semester, equally dispenses conference reimbursement funding from the leftover budget to eligible students. 

Department Events: The Department of English frequently holds events and lectures in conjunction with other departments, the Writing Program, and the Center for Textual Studies, which are advertised via the department's blog or email listserv. 

The Writing Center: Many MA and PhD students volunteer or are required to tutor in the Writing Center, a free service that assists undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and alumni with any kind of writing. Gaining tutoring experience allows students to have an impact on their wider LUC community and to hone their own collaborative editing skills. 

The Loyola University Chicago Victorian Society: Students of nineteenth century studies or those with any kind of interest in the period's impact on subsequent history and literature should consider joining LUCVS, a group formed by graduate students in the Department of English to support studies of the nineteenth century period. Not only do LUCVS members peer-edit each other's work, assist with research, and provide companionship through classwork and the dissertation process, but they also hold an annual conference with two keynote lectures at the end of October. Working together to organize this conference allows LUCVS members to learn how to set up an event, apply for funding from various university sponsors, and hear the latest research on the period.

Glottal Attack: Despite being the Department of English's madrigals group, membership in this choir is open to students and faculty in every LUC department. Bi-annually, faculty and student choir members delight attendees at either the department Christmas party or at an event near the end of spring semester, with a carefully-chosen program of ballads, arrangements, and folk songs. Contact department chair David E. Chinitz for information on how to join and get to know your peers and department faculty in a less formal setting!

University Involvement: A variety of personal and career opportunities are available to graduate students in the Department of English. The Loyola University Chicago Libraries often hire MA or PhD students to work in various positions in the LSC library during the summer or school year. Students may apply to represent the Department of English on the Graduate Student Advisory Council for the university; they will be expected to assist in the university's annual GSAC Symposium. Graduate students from the Department of English can submit abstracts to this symposium and gain valuable presentation experience on a GSAC panel in the theoretical or qualitative categories. Besides discipline-specific or department groups, dozens of LUC student groups focus on community outreach and service, diversity, professionalism, literary and academic publishing, and other topics. Groups can be both found and originated on the Student Activities and Greek Affairs (SAGA) website.

Chicago Theater: With dozens of theaters in the Chicago area, many students in the Department of English find internships and other ways of pursuing involvement in the world of drama and dramatic criticism. Frequently, several students from Dr. Foster's drama seminars on various topics apply to present papers at the Comparative Drama conference and submit essays to the conference journal Text & Presentation. In 2016, multiple graduate students and faculty reviewed plays for Chicago's Shakespeare 400 celebration on the City Desk 400 blog, which were collected and published in a volume from the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. Every spring semester, faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students attend the McElroy Shakespeare Festival in Mundelein's Newhart Family Theatre to watch actors from LUC's Department of Performing and Fine Arts enact several Shakespeare scenes during a keynote lecture by a visiting scholar.

Art: The city of Chicago is renowned for its art collections and archives, benefitting students of any aspect of art studies, or just those who enjoy looking at the pictures. LUC students receive free admission with a Loyola ID to LUMA, The Art Institute, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, and The Oriental Institute. Many other art museums and galleries in the Chicago area such as the Art Institute of Chicago provide free or reduced tickets to Chicago residents on certain days of the year. Several year-long or summer internships are available at these institutions, which can be found on their individual websites.