The University of Victoria’s English Graduate Students’ Society (EGSS) is a student-run society that operates on behalf of all graduate students in the English department. Our purpose is to maintain and improve all aspects of academic, professional, and social life for English graduate students at UVic. We meet once a month to discuss and debate current issues in the department and to organize events for students.

More formally, and as outlined in the Department of English Graduate Handbook:

The English Graduate Students’ Society (EGSS) is an association dedicated to promoting the academic and professional interests of English graduate students. In addition to helping fellow students negotiate academic and career concerns, the EGSS provides opportunities for students to connect on a more informal basis—bringing Ph.D. and M.A. candidates together in relaxed social settings. The EGSS believes that an important aspect of any graduate community is its ability to share information and exchange ideas freely. In order to create a sense of community amongst English graduate students, the EGSS hosts a number of events each year that allow students to get to know one another outside of the classroom.

The Ph.D. Graduate Student Representative serves as President of the EGSS, and the M.A. Graduate Student Representative serves as Vice-President. The participation of both returning and new graduate students is essential to the success of the EGSS. All students are strongly encouraged to become involved.

This EGSS website holds all the up-to-date information about EGSS actions, issues, and events. Please check back regularly!

In conjunction with this website, and in coordination with the English department, the EGSS also maintains an active Facebook group for the department’s graduate program.
The group is also used as a means to communicate information relevant to the EGSS. It is a closed group, available only to current graduate students and faculty members in the department.

You can reach either the PhD representative and President or the MA representative and Vice President by email.
The PhD representative and President

The MA representative and Vice President

Co-founded and currently co-run by PhD candidates Amy Tang and Alana Sayers, the BIPOC English Graduate Student Support Group aims to build a long-term community for black, indigenous, and other English graduate students of colour at the University of Victoria. Affiliated with the EGSS (English Graduate Students’ Society), our group unapologetically centres relationships among BIPOC students, offering them various kinds of support and solidarity. Our mission includes:

• creating a safe space and community for BIPOC English graduate students to share concerns and challenges caused by racial discrimination;
• offering solidarity and support to BIPOC English graduate students who have experienced any form of racist micro-aggressions, discrimination, harassment, or violence;
• maintaining a safe and anonymous communication channel between BIPOC students and the Department of English;
• being proactive in addressing issues of racism to make the department a safer place for BIPOC English graduate students;
• selecting representatives to attend EGSS meetings and department meetings to voice collective concerns of students in the group (2019–2020 representatives: Amy Tang and Alana Sayers);
• reaching out to other resources on campus to better support BIPOC English graduate students;
• and supporting LGBTQ2+ rights.

If you identify yourself as a BIPOC English graduate student, we warmly invite you to join the group by contacting us at bipoc.eg@gmail.com. An online form (anonymous and strictly for information gathering by the group representatives) is available for you to share your experience, concerns, questions, and feedback to make the group and our department better.

The Mod Squad is an interdisciplinary Modernist reading group organized by two Ph.D. students, Amy Tang and Kevin Tunnicliffe, from the Department of English at UVic. Currently, the group has faculty members and grad students from departments across the Humanities and Fine Arts, and members from UVic libraries. The group’s primary goal is to establish a community of modernist scholars on campus and online. The group meets on the last Thursday of every month.

For more information, please email or tweet/DM @modsquad1922.

Check out the Mod Squad blog. 

Thanks, and long live the modernists!

Amy and Kevin