Mellon Endowment Established for Graduate Students
The Graduate School is proud to announce the Andrew W. Mellon Endowment for Graduate Students in the Humanities and History, a permanently endowed fund of $4.5 million, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  This endowment will serve to increase and help support new Mellon Interdisciplinary Cluster Fellowships in our recently launched Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative.  The Mellon Endowment will also facilitate several Mellon Research Grants, available to graduate students in the humanities and history, for research related travel, materials that are not available locally, artistic supplies beyond what is normal or customary in the field, or construction, rental, or purchase of special equipment not available on campus. Read more about the Mellon endowment at the Northwestern University NewsCenter.

One Book One Northwestern Public Lectures Continue
This year's One Book One Northwestern selection is The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution by David Quammen. One Book One Northwestern is a series of lectures presented by scholars with national and international reputations in the study of Charles Darwin, the science of evolution, and the history and philosophy of science. The goal of the lecture series is to educate the public and the university community about the science of evolution and the continued impact of Charles Darwin's research on modern society. The lectures are co-sponsored by the Office of the President and the Interdisciplinary Committee on Evolutionary Processes, and are open to the public as well as Northwestern faculty, students, and staff. Please see the One Book One Northwestern Web site for more details.

Legal Services for Graduate Students Available
The Graduate School is committed to giving graduate students continued access to legal services, providing an attorney with offices at The Graduate School on the Evanston campus. Due the the upcoming holidays, during the months of November and December the attorney will be available November 4, November 20, December 2, and December 18, from 10:00am -4:00pm. Students in need of legal services are encouraged to contact tgsattorney@northwestern.edu to schedule an appointment.

Department of English
Joanne Diaz

Joanne Diaz is working on a dissertation titled "Grief as Medicine for Grief: Complaint Poetry in Early Modern England, 1557-1609." Diaz, under the mentorship of her advisor Professor Wendy Wall, argues that complaint poetry was a site of experimentation for poets who wanted to explore the ambivalence surrounding auricular confession, writing practices, and the changing status of the body as a reliable source of knowledge and truth. She argues that complaint—in sonnet sequences, ballads and broadsides, poetic miscellanies, and dramatic texts—was compelling to readers because it engaged with and critiqued auricular confession in the years after Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church, when auricular confession was no longer a required sacrament. For additional information, please visit the Department of English.