Alumni Report

April Herndon (BA 1994, MA 1997) finished her PhD in American Studies at Michigan State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota. She has a joint appointment in English and Women's and Gender Studies. She also has a book under contract with Kansas University Press that's due out in 2008.

Joyce M. Barry just accepted a position as director of The Access Project at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY. The Access Project is an educational program that assists TANF eligible students in their pursuit of higher education degrees. Barry received an MA in English from Radford in 1995, and completed her PhD in American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH in 2004.

Steve McConnell was hired as a Staff Writer for Gulf Coast Newspapers in Baldwin County, Alabama. 

Jim Ruland, who’s now living in California, has published a book of short stories. He was a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts in 2004. Jolanta Wawzycka reunited with him and his family in Dublin, Ireland.  He also attended the International James Joyce Symposium to celebrate the 100 Bloomsday.  Here is the picture taken by Jim’s girlfriend at the Bloomsday Banquet, aka “Paddy Dignam’s Wake.”  In 1992, Jola sponsored Jim’s first International James Joyce Symposium paper on Finnegans Wake.  The Symposium was held in Dublin. In 1994 she met Jim again at the International James Joyce Symposium in Seville.  “Now, over a decade later I can say, hey, I launched a Joycean! (Poor Jim, ha, ha).”

If you're an RU English Major alum and you'd like to tell us your news for the next issue, please do so.  Please tell us your name, your email address, and the year you graduated.