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More Than Just Words on Paper: Reflections on an English Degree
In my first year at UBC, I was a Science student on weekdays and a barista on weekends. I stuck out my coffee-making career into my second year, which was when I decided to pursue English Literature and Psychology. The “So You Wanna Be A Barista” jokes didn’t start until after I’d transferred into Arts, and, ironically, after I’d decided to quit my job. This post isn’t meant to set fire to any major or lord one degree over another. It’s a reflection of what I’ve gained from studying English and the value of an English Lit experience to me. In the end, your degree is more than just the…
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Adventures in Narnia, or Through the Wardrobe and Back Again
The first time Lucy Pevensie opened Professor Kirke’s wardrobe and entered Narnia, she was eight years old. The first time I went with her, I was nine. There is something especially magical about reading things as a child. You have fewer prejudices, little knowledge of things beyond face value and the all-absorbing wonder of innocence. I certainly experienced Narnia that way, drinking it in fully and unaware of hidden symbols and meanings. Edmund was a jerk, the White Witch was a terribly mean lady, and Narnian talking beavers put Canada to shame. I skipped happily through the series, oblivious to anything beneath the veneer of adventures in a magical land.…
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✱ TGS Issue 7.1 Launch Party! ✱
We’re back!!!! The English Students’ Association and The Garden Statuary, UBC’s undergraduate literary journal, are excited to welcome all of you to the launch of Issue 7.1! Please join us on Thursday, November 30 from 5-7 pm for: 🍂 Free food!! 🍂 Readings from published undergraduates!! 🍂 Mingling with editors, authors, and artists! 🍂 A chance to purchase or win past print editions! This event is open to everyone from the UBC community and beyond. Please feel free to invite your friends, family, or even complete strangers! 🍂 TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 🍂 The Garden Statuary recognizes that this event is taking place on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the…
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ESA ELECTIONS 2017-2018: Call for Executives
If you’re looking for a fun opportunity to get involved that looks great on a resume, then have we ever got an offer for you! We are officially seeking executives for next year’s ESA. This is a great way to develop new skills, meet new people, and have an influence on campus. The executive team collaborates to plan everything from ice cream cake socials to The Colloquium, supports initiatives like The Garden Statuary, and connects with students, other clubs, and the department. New ideas are more than welcome, and this is a platform that can help you realize them. What positions are available? We currently elect the following: President, Vice-President, Secretary,…
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My Journey into the Perilous Realm: a Non-English Student Studies Fantasy Literature
As a non-English major, my English courses are often few and far between. This term, I am taking ENGL 227, with the vague course title of “Prose Fiction.” The course itself is centred around the theme of fantasy fiction, a genre I have had little interaction with other than Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, along with other “mainstream” fantasy literature. All other English courses I have taken have been pretty cut and dry: read some Shakespeare, a few poems, and finish off with a contemporary novel. This course, however, has turned my expectations for UBC English courses on its head. The professor, Dr. Daniel Justice, strives to allow…
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Should I Major in English? The Pros and the Cons
This post is for all you baby undeclared Thunderbirds and baby English majors. 2017 marks my final year at UBC and boy, it’s been a ride. A whirlwind of cramming readings, looking up MLA formats, and hitting word counts, to be exact. The first few English courses you’ll take in undergrad are amazing and so very different from high school, with brilliant academics as professors and a high degree of challenge. Upper-year courses are also great—you’re treated with more respect, and the wall between instructor and student crumbles away. At the end of second year, I applied for the Creative Writing program, the English Honours program, and the English Major—Emphasis Literature program.…
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The Third Annual Colloquium
WHEN: 12-4PM, January 21st, 2017 WHERE: Dodson Room, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, UBC The English Students’ Association is excited to present the third annual Colloquium! This conference features presentations from English undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members. The Colloquium offers the opportunity to share your work and discuss ideas with other students and faculty members in the English Department. The Colloquium will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2017. This event is free and will included a catered lunch! Read on for presenter abstracts and RSVP to the Facebook event to receive all updates and reserve your spot through Eventbrite! We can’t wait to see you there! The…
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The Bend in the Road: Jobs and Adulting after your BA in English
In case you didn’t know, the Department of English hosted the Brownbag Lunchtime Career Series. You might have been at the popularly-attended first session, where the speaker was Amanda Lewis, who edited for Knopf/Random House. I’m sure most everyone reading this knows that being an editor at a major publishing house sounds like The Dream to an English student, so I’m sure you aren’t surprised that the room was full for Amanda Lewis’ talk. This November, the English department brought in Professor Lindsey Richardson, who works in the Department of Sociology at UBC. If you knew about the event but chose not to attend, it’s probably because you shared my thoughts…
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Notes on Werewolf Survival
I always balk a little at the suggestion of playing Werewolf. This isn’t because I think it’s a bad game. It’s not. It’s a great group game that goes on for a set amount of time (I’m looking at you, Cards Against Humanity), it forces people to be a little creative, and it’s one of those games that encourages players to lynch their closest friends. It’s wonderful to see. If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s an overview (of the version we played). Every player is a townsperson. Lurking among the players are two werewolves—no one knows who they are, except the werewolves themselves. Every night, while the rest…
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Call for Submissions! The Third Annual Colloquium
The English Students’ Association is officially calling for submissions to our third annual conference, The Colloquium! This conference features presentations from English undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members. The Colloquium offers the opportunity to share your work and discuss ideas with other students and faculty members in the English Department. The Colloquium will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2017, and the submissions deadline has been extended to Monday January 2, 2017, at 11:59 pm. Please see below for more detailed info! Submission Information How long should my presentation be? Presentations will be ten to fifteen minutes long. What should I submit? A 300-word abstract and the paper on…
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你会 speak 日本語 吗 ?
If I had to put a label on the way the English language and I felt about each other, and if I was the type of person to advertise my relationships on Facebook, I would say: It’s Complicated. Is it ever. A little background on my background: In 1995, I was born in Tokyo, Japan, to Chinese parents. Ma and Ba had immigrated there in the early 1990s for work, and when they found themselves pregnant with a second child… Well, I like to imagine that they high-fived and did a celebratory dance, but they probably were too busy trying to figure out how to swing the expenses. But despite…
