Colleen Curran \'11

I am officially the most unnatural shade of orange that I have been in my entire life. But, the good news is that this month of dance competitions has finally concluded. I spent last weekend at Blackpool (it’s beginning to be my home away from home) for the 50th IVDC (essentially, the national university championships). It was such a fascinating experience – the organizers brought in the Empress Orchestra to play the music for our final team match rounds. Dancing to a live orchestra is always an honor, but dancing in the Winter Gardens to the Empress Orchestra? That’s a rare treat that only the world champions really get to enjoy.

Dean and I did well. We managed to dance the best that we’ve ever done in ballroom. We were a bit disappointed with the Latin results, but these things happen. We came 13th in both events – so now we’re asking the awful nagging questions like “If I had held my poise a bit more, would the judge have marked me? Would I have been through the next round if I smiled a bit more?” Overall, we can’t really complain about our performances. Oxford unfortunately lost the Overall title to Cambridge. We have our Varsity match against the Tabs in May where we will hopefully reclaim our rightful title.

Now that the dancing high has worn off, I’ve chained myself to my desk. I have a massive Paleography exam on Thursday and two essays due in two weeks. It’s going to be a busy two weeks… For the Paleography exam, I have to transcribe a given set of plates and correctly date them (within fifty years) and identify the script used. You never knew it, but the crossbar above a “t” tells you a whole lot about a manuscript’s date.

In very exciting news, I’ve been accepted to speak at my first conference. I will give my paper at COLSONOEL, which is a conference geared specifically toward topics relating to Old Norse, Old English, and Latin studies. The conference is going to be held at Cambridge in May. I’m rather excited about this next step in my academic career.

And now, I’m off to study more manuscripts!

Tea, cake, and paleography. I could get used to this.

Is it really already February 19th? Where on earth has Hilary Term gone? Today begins the 6th week of term, which is a bit stressful. At the end of this week, I have to submit essay titles for my B and C courses, in addition to a 200 word abstract of my dissertation. For my B Course (Paleography), I’m planning to look at the rewriting of Old English in the 12th Century, specifically at one particular manuscript in Oxford (MS Wadham 11) and see hwo this manuscript preserves and alters the Old English tradition through Middle English glosses. For my C Course…well, I don’t have a clear idea yet. My C Course is on Middle English Literary Language, so I’ve been studying Chaucer through a linguistic lens (fascinating stuff, really). There are so many topics that I’d love to explore – the use of dialect as a character, the play of enigmatic language when discussing authority in texts, the alliterative poetry revival, etc. I’m leaning more towards exploring the alliterative poetry revival, specifically Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Watch this space, though. I’m so excited to begin writing my dissertation, though. The idea is really coming together now – I’m exploring the tension between word and image in the Junius manuscript, specifically in demon illustrations. I don’t want to give away my argument right now, but I’m very, very, very excited to start. Basically, this dissertation will be a cross between art history and literature, and both disciplines will feature as respective chapters in the dissertation before I bring them together in the final one. It should be interesting. I’m scheduled to consult various manuscripts at Cambridge, the British Library, and a few other places. I’m also preparing for my Paleography exam that is scheduled to take place in two weeks. Ack.

In addition to academics, life continues to go well, despite the busy schedule. Dean and I competed with OUDC at the Sheffield Social on February 4th.

Frankly, it wasn’t the best that we’ve ever competed. We were out quite quickly out of the Latin rounds. We came back with a strong performance in the Team Match (basically a dance relay – four couples will dance one of four dances), but overall, it wasn’t a good day for Oxford. We lost for the first time in 25 years to Cambridge and Imperial. Ouch. Despite our low spirits, we managed to play in the snow on the six hour long coach ride back.

We also competed at SUDC, which is the South University Dancesport Championship. The competition was yesterday, and I think I still have gel in my hair. Oxford rallied back with a strong performance on all accounts. Personally, it was the best that Dean and I have ever danced in ballroom. We made it to the semis with a brand new waltz routine, and we were delighted with those results. Our Latin was also much stronger than it was two weeks ago, which is encouraging on all accounts for the nationals in two weeks. Oxford also had a very strong day. Despite some weird placing in the Intermediate Latin event (seriously, it was a tad odd), Oxford managed to place second to Cambridge…BY ONE POINT. We weren’t too dismayed since it was just by a point, but still. Also, Neil Jones and Ekaterina (who are the current World and International Amateur Latin Champions) were the demo couple, so it really was a fantastic day.

In addition to school and dance, I’ve also been hanging out with my friends from St. Hilda’s and the Catholic Chaplaincy. 

Looking ahead, this week is quite busy. In addition to all of the school work, I have another dance competition this weekend. I also have a dinner with PD James, who is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda’s. And, as a bonus, one of my very good friends from Holy Cross, Tom McGlynn, is visiting me on Wednesday. Tom is currently a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, and he’s visiting his cousin in London for his winter break. I’m excited to see him and show him around my new home.

Until next time!

After a relaxing three weeks in America, I’m back in England. I arrived about a week and a half ago, and there was luckily no snow (please compare this advantageous effect to my last arrival in England in January 2010. Not a pretty sight). Classes and lectures began on Monday, but prior to that, I had a Crusader visitor:

One of my best friends from Holy Cross, Bill, arrived last Friday. Bill is currently living in Turkey as a Fullbright English Teaching Assistant at Canakkale University. This was the first time that Bill and I had seen each other since Graduation in May, nearly eight months ago.

I showed Bill around London – Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus, the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, etc.

Of course, his five day visit included visiting some of Oxford’s finest pubs for dinner. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I don’t think I want to eat bangers and mash ever again in my life. His five day visit flew by, unfortunately.

Since I no longer have a visitor, I’m back to my studying, dancing, and tea-consuming intensive life-style. This term is going to be the most busy – my workload has literally quadrupled, and I have a dance competition every weekend starting February 4th through March 5th. One entire month of fake tan = a very unnaturally orange Colleen. Although there’s a lot of work ahead, I’m really excited about what I’m studying this term. My Paleography class continues to be my favorite, and I’m working with a new manuscript every single week (as in, actually touching said manuscript). In 8th week, I have a Paleography exam, in which I have to identify a manuscript’s hand (script) and date based upon either linguistic features or just the handwriting. I also have to write a Paleography essay – right now, I just cannot decide on a topic. I’m currently leaning toward the re-writing of Old English in the early Middle English period, but we’ll see how long it takes me to change my mind…five times. For my elective course, I’m taking Middle English Literary Language, which is fascinating. I’m personally interested in the transitional period between Old and Middle English, particularly as displayed in post-Conquest Old English manuscripts. This course has been an immersion into dialects, vocabulary, lexicon, etc., but it’s also been intriguing. And, of course, the dissertation is always on the back burner. I’m working on the interrelationship between word and image in the Junius manuscript, particularly if there’s any Carolingian influence. That’s not due until June 11th, but my advisor told me that I should be finished with my first draft by the start of Trinity term. Erm. Hello, libraries.

In other really exciting news, I’m spending Easter in Vercelli, Italy, as a funded researcher at the Archivo Capitalore. I’m really excited since I’ll be able to work with their collection of Old English manuscripts. One of my primary interests is the transmission and reception of Old English manuscripts (secular or religious) on the Continent, so this is really the starting point of my dissertation research for next year (yes, I have to write two dissertations). So, in addition to brushing up on my Old English and Norse, it looks like I’ll have to learn a bit of Italian.

Since attending graduate school, I’m beginning to realize just how unique my undergraduate experience was. Most of my friends here attended fairly large universities for their undergraduate degrees. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just very different from my four years at Holy Cross. For instance, most of my friends didn’t know their college’s president. As the photo above might indicate, I did know mine. Throughout my four years at Holy Cross, Fr. McFarland was an exemplary leader – both as a college administrator and a man of faith. Fr. McFarland was a constant presence on campus – the door to his office was always open, and he was always walking around campus – I usually saw him in Hogan when I was clutching a huge mug of black coffee and frantically writing a paper. Most importantly, he always stopped to ask how every students’ day was going. Whenever I served Mass with him, he was always smiling and asked me about my courses. Right before I left for Blackpool last year, he wished me good luck and hoped I would bring home a trophy (kind of glad I did; I couldn’t imagine letting him down!). His “Last Lecture” speech was one of the most well attended events on our campus, and his speech was so personal, heartfelt, and raw. Such a personal connection with a college president is, as I’m discovering, quite rare. He was so intricately involved with all of our lives and cared so much about every Crusader – past, present, and future.

Thank you for everything, Fr. McFarland. Holy Cross will miss you!

I remember finals week at Holy Cross so well. You’d wake up at 7 to get to Kimball for 7:30, race off to Dinand for when they opened, grab your carol, and claim it as your own until whenever necessary. And you’d just type. I personally loved this one carol that was in the PR section on the bottom floor of Dinand. Anyway, we’d all cram everything into our days – whether we had fifteen essays to write or a massive exam the next day. Then, we’d all unwind by going to Midnight Breakfast (because waffles at midnight are always a good idea) or watching movies. Yes, it was a stressful period, but I think some of my best memories happened during Finals Week. The first snow usually fell around this time in the fall semester. It’s difficult to believe that I took this photo nearly four years ago:

This was three years ago:

This was two years ago:

(Okay, so this doesn’t count)

And this was last year:

Long story short – invest in a camera for college, because then you can do cool stuff like this and have nostalgic moments nearly every day.

It’s incredible how quickly it all flew by. At the moment, I feel like I’m in Finals Week mode…with a bit more stress added on top. My essay is due in about a week, and I’m basically spending every day working on it from 9-5. My first term as a graduate student will be over, and I just cannot believe where the time has gone.

Long time, no post. My lack of entries on this blog has been due to the immense amount of work that I’ve had to do in the past eight weeks…and the sad news is that I’m not finished yet. All undergraduates finished today, but my final term paper is due in two weeks. But, before I start on that topic, let’s do a brief update, shall we?

By the first week of November, I was already in intensive training mode – for both academics and ballroom. Every week, I was responsible for preparing for my three classes, which included about five books per class meeting. For my paleography classes, I’ve been expected to consult at least one manuscript a day to make sure that I’m learning how to engage with manuscripts properly. Yes, it is such a cool feeling to just waltz into the library and say, “Yes, I’m here to collect x manuscript.” The first time that I did it, I giggled incessantly because it was just such a cool feeling. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues, I cannot post any photos of the manuscripts that I’ve consulted. Let’s just say that they’re very, very old.

This entire first term has been an introduction/easing into graduate study. Some of us just graduated from college in May; others have been working for the past few years, so our course conveners have been trying to cover all of the bases. My first class was a general course on Medieval English literature that alternated between Old and Middle English every week; this course will continue next term as well. My second class was my Paleography class, and we met four times every week. Yes, it’s been a bit intense, but I can now identify when a manuscript was written based upon the handwriting. My last course was a comparative analysis between Old English and Old Norse conversion narratives, and I’m currently finishing up my final essay for this class. I’m using some of the skills that I learned in my Literary Theory class at Holy Cross by reading an Old Norse saga through a spatial theory lens. The paper is much cooler than it sounds, I promise!

So what’s the major difference between undergraduate and graduate? Well, firstly (and most importantly), I get to access manuscripts. Secondly, graduate school has been more about individual work. The reading lists are more of a guideline, and we’re expected to read more (…what…) than what’s on the syllabus. Although more is expected at this level, I’m having the time of my (academic) life. I adore all of my classes, and I am reminded on a daily basis of how lucky I am to be back at Oxford and studying what I love.

So now onto the more exciting part of my life – dancing. In the past eight weeks, I’ve had four competitions. It’s be absolutely crazy, and my skin is finally returning to the normal pasty white color rather than the bright orange that fake tan makes it. Those four competitions have been rather successful. My first competition was with Neil’s school, Rubies, and…well…it didn’t go as well as I hoped. I didn’t even make it back to a final for my solo. I came second with my new partner, Dean, which was exciting.

Yes, he is very tall.

The next weekend, I headed off to Blackpool to compete at Nationals. There’s an unqualified section, so I danced both my ballroom and Latin. Surprisingly, I made it into both the ballroom and Latin finals.

Yes, I came second in Latin…again. One of these years, I will win!

But, most excitedly, Dean and I won our Latin event.

We were so pleased with that result, and it’s been the start of a successful partnership. We’re slowly working our way up on the university circuit scene, too.

Our fantastic coach, Neil, has really been working us since our first university competition. We spent three hours on the first fifteen seconds of our cha cha routine. No, I’m not kidding. The dancing has been intense, but we’re starting to see some wonderful results. At the last competition (Warwick), Dean and I made it to the quarterfinals of ballroom (which Dean hates) and through the quarterfinals of Latin. Those results are really exciting since we’re up against some really talented couples.

More importantly, the Oxford team looks very strong this year. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep our winning streak against Cambridge going this year.

Well, I’m off to get some sleep before spending all day in the Bodleian tomorrow. Since it’s the Christmas season, my friends and I are planning to do some traditional English Christmas events, which will definitely be a nice break from writing about Old Norse Literature.

Until next time!

Well, I’m back in England and classes have commenced at Oxford. And, most excitingly, I matriculated into the University on Saturday (this is a ceremony reserved only for full-time Oxford students, and visiting students are not allowed to participate). I am an official student of Oxford University!

In my academic gown and sub fusc in front of the Hertford Bridge

Since I’ve been back, life has been so crazy with new graduate initiation and orientation events, classes, studying, meeting new friends (and old!), dancing, and just settling into a new country in general. In the past three weeks, I’ve met so many wonderful new people through St. Hilda’s, which is my new college, and my graduate program. There’s a group  of almost twenty of us from St. Hilda’s that does everything together. I’m quite lucky since my two housemates are also in the group, and our house tends to be the place where we have group dinners.

Our house has a great backyard, so we held a bar-be-que last weekend. When the weather gets nice again in Trinity term, we’re planning on throwing a few more outside dinners.

Being here as a graduate student is definitely different from my year abroad. Firstly, I don’t have any tutorials – I have lectures and massive dissertation style essays due at the end of every term. No, it’s not nerve wracking at all… I’m taking a general course on Medieval Literature (we alternate between Old and Middle English texts every week), a Paleography and Codicology course (EEP EEP EEP EEP), and a course on conversion narratives in Old Norse and English Literature. Needless to say, I’ve been spending most of my time in the many libraries around town. I now have access to the Rare Books and Special Collections Room at the Bodleian, which means I can access a wide range of manuscripts on any day. It’s mind-boggling, really. Every day that I’m here I just realize how fortunate I am to be in the best city/university on earth for Medieval Studies. I’ve also met so many intelligent people from other disciplines, and conversation at the dinner table is always so interesting. We have a formal dinner for graduate students on Wednesday, and I cannot wait to see what conversation will be like at that event.

Well, I’m off to sleep and then another day packed with manuscripts and rhinestones awaits!

I’ve been back in the UK for nearly a week now, and Oxford hasn’t changed a bit. Well, I admit that there are a few new stores here and there. Anyway, Mom and I flew over last Wednesday night, and she helped me move in. Having her here made things a lot easier than my junior year. Dad joined us on Saturday, and the moving in process is basically complete at this moment.

My new college, St. Hilda’s, is beautiful. It’s right along the river, and several willow trees overlook the meadow. You can actually walk on the grass, too!

All of my official events begin next week, and then classes begin the following week. Then it’s on for ten straight weeks of papers, classes, tutorials, and dissertation proposals. Well, here we go!

I officially have one week until I leave for England. Naturally, I just spent about five days in Boston and Worcester with my Holy Cross friends. Packing up everything so I can move to a foreign country for two years? Nah. It doesn’t seem nearly as important as going back to my alma mater.

It was fantastic to see everyone. I had long conversations with Professors Perry, Mulrooney, Kee, DiCenso, Smith, Geracht, and Fr. Brooks about my new courses at Oxford and how I felt where graduate school was going to lead me. I talked with friends about their lives on the Hill as current seniors, juniors, and sophomores, and we reminisced about our adventures when I was still a student. I walked around campus to see the new additions and to place myself in my favorite spots on campus. I spent most of Tuesday afternoon in Campion talking with Paul Melley and the other chaplains. I went to Culpepper’s every morning to get my iced coffee and blueberry scones. In other words, I felt like I was back at Holy Cross.

Fr. Brooks – we chatted about the Christology seminar this semester and the theologians that his students had picked earlier that day. I am proud to report that another girl is studying Rahner!

Professor Kee – this poor man thought that when I graduated, I’d be out of his hair. Such is not the case!

Although, I will admit this – although I adored every moment that I spent on campus, I just had this feeling that it’s time to move on from Holy Cross. Holy Cross has given me the most wonderful undergraduate experience, but I am excited for everything that my graduate career has to offer.

Don’t worry – I will always consider Holy Cross my home. But I’m just very excited about the opportunities that graduate school holds for me. And, oh, yes. I am leaving for England in less than a week, and I haven’t started packing. This could be an issue.

Unfortunately, my visit back to Holy Cross wasn’t all smiles and catching up. One of my favorite professors, Professor Rick Murphy of the Religious Studies department, passed away on Tuesday morning.

I was blessed to have had Professor Murphy for two classes – Jesus and His Contemporaries in my sophomore year and Apocalypticism Through the Ages in my senior year. When Fr. Brooks told me about Professor Murphy’s passing on Tuesday morning, I had a difficult time accepting it. Professor Murphy was one of the kindest and most involved professors in my life at Holy Cross (then again, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a professor at Holy Cross who didn’t care about his or her students). Even in the semester when I wasn’t taking one of his classes, I always stopped by his office and we talked about everything – and I mean everything. His classes helped me develop a more mature understanding of my Catholic faith, and his example as a scholar and a man of faith definitely helped me along my own faith journey. The photo above is from my Christology defense in Senior year, when he was a guest grader. After my presentation and defense of Karl Rahner, Professor Murphy sat down next to me and whispered, “Great job.” His presence on campus and, more specifically, in my life will certainly be missed, but I am blessed to have known him in my undergraduate career.