English dept. competes in ‘Literary Jeopardy’

The Alpha Nu Gamma chapter of English honor society Sigma Tau Delta at the University of Southern Mississippi hosted their ninth annual “Literary Jeopardy” event Wednesday night in the Liberal Arts Building. Students and professors alike made up an eager audience hoping to exhibit their literary knowledge.

Sigma Tau Delta president Matthew Germenis enjoyed the event and hopes that more students will participate in “Literary Jeopardy” in the future.

“It was an incredible experience just to see everyone come out and show their support,” Germenis said. “I would love to see more members next semester. I hope English majors and minors can see this is the kind of thing we love to do.”

Professor emeritus Stanley Hauer served as host for the event. English major and audience participant Henry Shepard said his favorite part of the evening was seeing Hauer resume his hosting duties.

“Dr. Hauer’s presentation of ‘Literary Jeopardy’ is quite frankly the best thing I have ever seen,” Shepard said. “I’m happy to see he is in good health and seeing him have fun with something he’s done for the past nine years.”

Three teams participated in the event, and each team had one English major paired with one English professor. Team one consisted of English major Mark Hilderbrand and professor Mark Dahlquist. Team two was made up of English licensure major Tessa Willoughby and professor Martina Sciolino. Team three was comprised of English major Justin Noble and professor Andrew Milward.

Audience members were also encouraged to contribute through audience participation rounds for door prizes donated by participating sponsors for each question answered correctly.

Sigma Tau Delta member and “Jeopardy master” Cade Varnado facilitated Hauer during the event by monitoring the question and answer board and writing many of the event’s questions.

“We, as English majors, are all very knowledgeable about literature, and that’s kind of the problem sometimes,” Varnado said. “Sigma Tau Delta has boiled that intellectualism down and made it more fun. It’s always very interesting to see what the professors know, and it’s hilarious to see what they don’t know. You’ve just got to transfer all of that intellectual jargon into a nice, succinct game.”

The final literary round consisted of a William Carlos Williams question that ultimately lead team two to win the competition with more than 10,000 points total.

For more information about the USM chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, visit www.facebook.com/UsmSigmaTauDelta.