Our master’s alumni Christopher Cappelluti and his co-editor Alyssa Yankwitt are looking to consider your finest poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for inclusion in the Spring 2020 issue of their online literacy journal, BigCityLit. For submissions and guidelines, check out the following link. http://nycbigcitylit.com/submission-guidelines/
For more info on BigCityLit, check out https://www.facebook.com/BigCityLit/ and https://www.instagram.com/bigcitylit/
Congratulations to our master’s alumni, Nawsheen Golam Hossen, on her first children’s book publication! “The Curse of Engan” is set in Mauritius 8 million years ago, and tells the story and fate of a special dragon who was the best at everything, until he met one challenge that he could not overcome.
Written by Naswsheen and illustrated by her friend David Lagesse, “The Curse of Engan” is ready in EBOOK format and up for sale on Kindle, Amazon.
Nawsheen earned her master’s degree in French Studies in 2012 and is now working at a French school in Mauritius.
Though there’s no dearth of groundbreaking NYU alumni, it feels especially necessary to honor GSAS alumna Janet Mock for being recognized among the 2019 NYU Changemakers of the Year. NYU Changemakers are a selected group of NYU alumni whose accomplishments help build a better world.
Mock earned her MA in Journalism from NYU in 2006. After graduating from NYU, she immediately solidified herself as a journalistic powerhouse. In 2011, Mock came out publicly as a trans woman – and since, she has used her voice and platform to advocate for and defend trans rights and visibility in media and politics. What makes her accomplishments particularly poignant is an emphasis on intersectionality, inclusion, and justice.
Among Mock’s accomplishments are milestones of firsts for the trans community. In 2014, her novel, Redefining Realness, became a New York Times bestseller. It was the first memoir to chronicle the experience of a young person transitioning (Mock began transitioning as a freshman in high school). She is the first trans woman of color both to write and direct for a major television series, Pose (FX), which features a cast almost entirely made up of trans people of color. Most recently, she is the first openly trans woman to sign a major content deal with Netflix.
Mock’s journalism career includes such media giants as People, Marie Claire, and Elle. In addition to her induction as a New York University Changemaker, Mock has received countless awards for her accomplishments as a writer, advocate, and public figure.
Not only is Janet Mock a changemaker – she is a history maker, a testament to the bravery of living one’s unapologetic truth. That she continues to make strides in a world that continually seeks to invalidate trans lives, a world where simply existing as a trans woman of color is a radical act, should remind us all to be courageous, especially when the stakes are high. Her bravery, her brilliance, and her dedication to harnessing the power of truth have impacted the trans community and beyond.
You can learn more about Jacket Mock online through her full profile. And you can also meet all of the 2019 honorees on the website.
Save the date, Saturday, October 26, 2019, for the annual MCAA Alumni Day Gathering! The Graduate School of Arts and Science and the Master’s College Alumni Association (MCAA) will be hosting events throughout Alumni Weekend, so be sure to activate your free MCAA membership to receive updates and notifications about event details as the date nears. Don’t miss a special opportunity to come back to campus and reconnect with GSAS and The Master’s College!
The Master’s College congratulates Iynna Halilou (International Relations, ‘15) for recently being featured on a panel at the NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development. The panel, “Career Conversations: Entrepreneurship Careers,” focused on all things entrepreneurship, from skills all of the necessary skills to succeed to advice for those who want to forge their own career path from scratch. This event helped students explore the entrepreneurial world with guidance and perspective from alumni who have experienced it first-hand. Congratulations, Iynna!
{Ruzmyn at the 2013 GSAS Threesis Academic Challenge}
Congratulations to our 2013 Threesis alumnus, Ruzmyn Vilcassim from Environmental Health Sciences, on the publication of his recent research about how traveling to cities with high air pollution levels can be associated with lesser lung function.
“We show, for the first time, that exposure to increased levels of indoor particulate matter in cities abroad is associated with statistically significant acute changes in pulmonary function in healthy young adults,” he explains in the article.
Ruzmyn earned his master’s degree from Environmental Health Sciences in 2013, and also completed his doctoral degree from the same program in 2018. He is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at NYU Langone.
Read the full article and interview on MedPage. Take a look back at Ruzmyn’s winning presentation from the 2013 Threesis Academic Challenge. Congratulations, Ruzmyn!
Roy Schwartz presenting at the 2012 GSAS Threesis Academic Challenge.
In his final year at the Draper Interdisciplinary Program for Humanities and Social Thought (now known as the Center for Experimental Humanities), Roy Schwartz entered the 2012 Threesis Academic Challenge and won second place. “I’m a big fan of comics and superheroes,” he explained, “so I suspected my final thesis would involve them in some capacity going into it.” Roy’s most recent written work continues to explore similar characters and themes: last month, he published a children’s book, The Darkness in Lee’s Closet and the Others Waiting There, a dark fantasy written in the vein of Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton, which follows a girl whose father dies and who travels into the afterlife to bring him back home. The book debuted as a #1 Best Seller in two Amazon categories, and maintained its standing in the Top 10 for nearly two weeks. “Just goes to show, you never know how your work will be received until you put it out there,” Roy said.
In addition to this book, Roy has sold his second book, a manuscript based on his master’s thesis and the basis of his Threesis presentation. Building upon his undergraduate interest in the Bible–“a curiously neglected piece of literature…it’s an amazing work, as dramatic and intricate as any Shakespeare play”–Roy studied English literature (Victorian British to mid-century American in particular), as well as psychology, sociology, and political science during his time at GSAS. Together, these subjects intersected and culminated in the writing of his master’s thesis, “Is Superman Circumcised? The Jewish Heroic Figure from the Bible to American Comics,” which has now evolved into his next book. Tentatively titled, Is Superman Circumcised? How Jewish Culture Shaped the World’s Greatest Hero, the book is scheduled to come out next spring from McFarland Publishing.
“You take from an experience what you bring to it,” Roy explains. “I didn’t go into Draper expecting to be discovered by a luminary professor and put in touch with a powerhouse agent. I wanted to become a better writer and a better academic.” With the recession in full swing, it seemed like the right time to do so. “I spent my time at Draper sharpening my tools, which I use everyday.”
His best advice for aspiring writers pursuing master’s degrees at GSAS? “Writing students get enough advice on the art and craft by people far more qualified than I,” he begins, though we beg to differ! From a professional angle, he says, “if you want to make a living as a writer, then sitting down and writing is your job. If the muse greets you, great, but don’t wait for it… If you’re a professional, you produce work on a regular basis, by deadline… It doesn’t matter how talented you are, you’re only going to be as successful as your business side.”
Looking back on his time at GSAS, Roy muses, “it’s like any other industry…it’s all about relationships.” The connections he made as a master’s student have proven to be long-lasting and fruitful. “You form relationships with people of high caliber, and you never know who will end up where.”
Congratulations, Roy!
Find Roy on his book tour and other appearances, check out The Darkness in Lee’s Closet and the Others Waiting There currently at select bookstores and online retailers, and keep an eye out for Is Superman Circumcised?slated to be published next year!
Congratulations to our very own master’s alumna Emma Mishel (Applied Quantitative Research, ’14) on winning the 2018 Best Graduate Student Paper Award (Section on Sociology of Sexualities) from the American Sociological Association for her paper, “Discrimination against Queer Women in the U.S. Workforce: A Résumé Audit Study.” Congrats, Emma!
Congratulations to Jing Liu and Tsering Wangmol from the News and Documentary program in the GSAS Department of Journalism: their films, “Her Words” (Liu) and “Tibetan Nomas in Exile” (Wangmol) have been selected to show at the Margaret Mead Film Festival in the American Museum of Natural History. The event, taking place October 18-21, 2018, screens documentaries “that increase our understanding of the complexity and diversity of the peoples and cultures that populate our planet,” and for this year’s theme, aims to capture the spirit of Resilience.
We congratulate Jin Liue and Tesering Wangmol again on this achievement and look forward to their future work.
The Master’s College congratulates Joanna Epstein (Museum Studies, ’17) for receiving the 2018 GSAS Masters Award for Academic Achievements in the Humanities for her master’s thesis entitled, “Racialized Places: Historic Sites, National Self-Image and the African American Historical Record.”
Awards of $500 were given out for the most distinguished master’s thesis or final project in each academic division (humanities, social sciences, and sciences) to those who received their master’s degree in May 2017, September 2017, or January 2018. Recipients of this award were acknowledged at the GSAS Master’s Convocation ceremony on May 15, 2018.
Joanna worked as an Administrative Aide at the Center for Experimental Humanities for several years, and currently works at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Congratulations, Joanna!