Letter from the Faculty Director, 2020

 Welcome to Apollon, Volume 10!  

Apollon’s editorial staff has worked tirelessly this past academic year to maintain Apollon’s legacy of excellence in undergraduate humanities scholarship despite the disruption caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and our own university’s campus shutdown in early March.  I am proud of what we have accomplished in the face of significant, ongoing challenges to teaching and learning in higher education. I believe that now more than ever we need to publish, read, and circulate distinguished undergraduate research in the humanities.  I offer my profound gratitude to Dan Messier, Megan Falvey, Kristen Bonelli, Nicole Maher, Christina Bogacz, Molly Ryan, and Kate Sandvik for their dedication and teamwork in AY ’19-‘20.  Together we produced a provocative and timely issue under the steady guidance of student editors, who selected, reviewed, and edited all five manuscripts.  This volume’s essays address the Abolitionist movement, the feminist Mexican narco-novel, the role of queer theology in Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood, the portrayal of women in contemporary sports media, and the medical history of eating disorders from the perspectives of critical race studies, gender and sexuality, and queer theory. Each of these essays offers close-reading and cutting-edge scholarly research of the highest caliber.  We are currently accepting submissions for Volume 11, and have detailed instructions under the “Submit” and “About” links.

I look forward to hearing your reactions to Volume 10, and hope that you will offer suggestions and feedback for our future editions. We look forward to hearing from you!

All best,

Shannon Kelley

Faculty Director of Apollon

Associate Professor of English, Fairfield University