Maggie finished coursework and is preparing for her qualifying exams. She attended five conferences this year, for which she received four different travel awards. She also received an award for her Comp Lit master's thesis and will spend the summer working on her Art History master's thesis. For her exam preparation, she plans to spend as much time as possible reading in a hammock by Lake Monroe.
Alan took advantage of the department’s grad student exchange with Nanterre University to teach for a year just outside Paris. What business does a Japanophile working on myth have in France? Well, a quick review of his bibliography revealed a strong connection (Barthes, Brisson, Derrida, Latour, Levi-Strauss). He developed a love for Paris, even through the huge protests, and gained traction on his writing.
Cynthia finished her coursework and passed the first set of qualifying exams in Germanic Studies for her dual degree. Her translation of So-yeon Kim's poetry from Korean to English was published in Asymptote. She organized both Germanic and CMLT graduate student conferences in the spring – both were great success, providing students in and out of the department to share their research and connect! In the summer, she will be continuing her research in German-language films at UMass Amherst by participating in the DEFA Summer Film Institute on Black experiences and Blackness in East Germany. She will also be presenting a paper at WisCon on robots in science fiction read vis-à-vis Sylvia Wynter.
The College of Arts