President: Wafa Azeem
After waiting for 13 years, Wafa is pretty sure she is not going to receive an owl from Hogwarts. So in the meantime, she moonlights as a second year English graduate student. Not wanting to be outdone by Professor McGonagoll, she will be teaching English Composition class for a second year. With an emphasis in Literature, she enjoys spending time in different worlds and looking at her world with different perceptions.
Vice President: Vana Derohanessian
Vana Derohanessian has her bachelor's degree in English literature in 2007 and is currently an English graduate student at CSUN. Vana is interested in the history of children's literature as a reflection of social and cultural values regarding children. Her incessant fascination with Lewis Carroll's classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" may be referred to by some as obsession.
Treasurer: Angeline Olliff
A second-year Teaching Associate at CSUN, Angeline is working to finish her Master's in English this academic year with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition. She hopes to continue teaching and learning as she expands and complicates her own research in First-Year Composition pedagogy and cognitive development. Don't tell anyone, but the "bean counter" (treasurer) in her is actually the Batman to her Bruce Wayne. Or maybe the Penguin. Penguins are cuddly.
Recording Secretary: Jackie Hymes
Jackie really likes hockey. I mean, she REALLY likes hockey. If you talk to her about hockey, you will probably become her best friend. She is also the mother to two extremely spoiled cats. To not make this sound like the beginning of a personal ad: Jackie is in her fourth and most likely final year of her presidential term-length stay in the Master's program at CSUN. Yet, she has never been president of, well, anything here. Having served as secretary on the Sigma board last year, she hopes to take her obsessive note taking skills and put them to good use once again. She is currently a T.A. and working on the last poetry thesis that will be completed at CSUN. Born directly between the Ides of March and St. Patrick's Day, it makes sense that her thesis involves Greek Mythology, what is left behind, the afterlife, and history. When she is not busy writing poems or reading poetry, she enjoys reading graphic novels, weird fiction, and collecting Timothy McSweeny's Quarterly Concerns.
Press Secretary: Stephanie Lim
Stephanie is a CSUN lifer, going on 10 years strong as a Matador! While she finishes up her very last year (holy cow!) of the English Master's program, she also works as a Teaching Associate for the department. Although she loves her share of literature, her true passion is musical theatre and popular culture. When she's not reading, working, or sleeping, you can probably find her watching a show or at a concert. Or drooling over Luke Bryan. Achluophobic, arachnophobic, acrophobic, and trypanophobic.
Historian: Liz Hernandez
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Liz Hernandez has spent most of her slow-yet-constantly-ebbing youth in search of a man who has a rich and comprehensive library (and earns 10,000 pounds a year). However, as he is nowhere in sight, and perhaps never will be, she has resorted to buying her own books and making her own library, which smells heavenly! She is currently entering her second and final year of the CSUN graduate program and is on the boards of the 18th Century Club, Critical Theory Club, and 4Humanities. The Long 18th century is her absolute favorite with a particular fondness for the Regency Period. If you need to find her she is probably tucked away in a comfy corner of the library sniffing some of her favorite books so they don't feel neglected.
The 2013-2014 Board would like to take a moment to thank our advisor, Dr. Kent Baxter, our members, our supporters, and our awesome grad students for making our tenure as AGSE board members a fantastic experience! From Holly, Susana, and Steve - the best of luck to the new board and to all our English MA students!
