DLitt scholars reflect on “paying attention” throughout the dissertation process
April 2026 – Drew University’s Caspersen School of Graduate Studies recently held its Spring Virtual Arts & Letters Salon, an annual celebration highlighting Doctor of Letters (DLitt) students who have successfully defended their dissertations during the academic year.
This year’s theme, Paying Attention, featured a panel of distinguished DLitt students and recent alums, Carron Ankiel G’02,’26, Jennifer Grehan G’26, Keturah Haferkamp G’26, Rebecca Mir G’26, Jennifer Toriello G’06,’26. Across projects spanning memoir, music and politics, higher education, learning differences, and literary theory, all completed their dissertations by learning to pay attention throughout the process.
“We have a cross section of a number of different perspectives from a wide range of concentrations,” said Leslie Sprout, director of the Arts & Letters Program.
The Spring Arts & Letters Salon, an annual tradition that began during the pandemic, was moderated by affiliate professors Liana Piehler and Laura Winters.
“We’re student-centered here,” said Winters, who is in her 35th year as a professor at Drew. “This is life’s work. This is an antidote in a world of cruelty and suffering. We help guide you on what to pay attention to. You guide us—we guide each other.”
Toriello presented her hybrid creative dissertation, The Magic Hour, which weaves memoir, poetry, and critical inquiry to explore how emotional and physical weight is carried in the body. “It is a collection of moments in my life that is encased by the physical act of strength training and the process of writing as a method to explain how I’ve carried, endured, and eventually let go of life’s heaviness,” she said.
“I was able to work on a project that I truly loved in this program,” added Toriello. “The interdisciplinary nature of this program allows the great fortune of stepping outside of yourself and your interests to get feedback from people in very different subject areas.”
Mir’s work examined the intersection of music, humor, and politics during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Drawing from a database of thousands of campaign-related songs, her project focused on the surge of political parody and its relationship to populist rhetoric and postmodern satire.
In the field of higher education, Grehan explored the role of adjunct faculty in two-year colleges. “Throughout this program, I was leaving myself breadcrumbs and I didn’t even realize it,” she said, referencing the hundreds of pages of notes she had collected before beginning her dissertation. “This whole program is set up to start paying attention from the very beginning. You never look at anything through one lens—you’re always looking at things from multiple ways.”
Personal experience shaped Ankiel’s dissertation, A Hero’s Journey: A Map for Parents and Educators to Empower Dysgraphic Students with Agency. Drawing on both her professional expertise as an educator and lived experience as a parent, her work offers a guide for supporting students with learning differences.
“The diversity of the program was relevant to everything I taught—it informed my teaching,” she said. “I found my voice and confidence throughout the dissertation process, and I feel my voice does need to be heard.”
Haferkamp shared her concept of resonance in literature in her dissertation, This Perfect Sympathy of Movement. “Drew really helped me find my voice,” she said. “My experience has been such a confidence booster. I am so thankful for the leadership, the grace, and the attentiveness of the program. I really could not promote this program more.”
“You are all seekers,” said Winters. “It’s so gratifying to hear what works in the classroom. There’s a future for every one of these projects.”
“It’s so exciting to hear the new life of these projects,” echoed Piehler.
“Make a plan,” advised Bill Rodgers, affiliate assistant professor, to students preparing their dissertation work. “As you get your momentum going, keep at it.”
The presentations were followed by a Q&A and open discussion, offering students, faculty, alums, and prospective students the opportunity to pay attention to the dissertation process.
Drew’s Arts & Letters is an interdisciplinary graduate liberal studies program offering courses in seven concentrations that build on Drew’s strengths in the humanities, the creative/performing arts, religious studies, and teacher education. Through small seminar-style classes that meet in person, online, and in hybrid formats, the program enables students to customize each course of study to meet their individual goals.
The event was made possible by the generous support of Werner Kofler T’03, G’05. The Werner Kofler Arts & Letters Endowment was endowed in 2011 to provide a Doctor of Letters discussion group for the Arts & Letters program in the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies.
