English Research
English Research
May 2024 - May 2025
From City to Cosmos: Tracing Literary Lineage 鈥� Exploring the Influence of Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies on Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World
Rachel Buehler
This study focuses on exploring the evolution of femininity and gender roles in medieval
literature, including the complexities of female friendships. By comparing the works
of two influential female authors鈥擟hristine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies
and Margaret Cavendish's The Blazing World鈥攖his project seeks to uncover the possible
overlaps of influences and inspirations that may have shaped and contributed to Cavendish's
writing. This project will contribute to emphasizing the portrayal of female friendships
presented by De Pizan and Cavendish; examining how these relationships serve as a
source of empowerment and support against misogynistic tendencies and patriarchal
power structures. This comparative study explores how each author encapsulates proto-feminist
and feminist ideals and how these ideals manifest within their writings.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Rebecca Coogan, English
Funded by: 绿帽淫妻 Summer Scholars Program
May 2021 - May 2022
Queer Approaches to #MeToo through Young Adult Literature
Laney Debrabander
Students are exposed at a young age to binary and one-dimensional narratives about sexuality and gender that quickly become normative, including perspectives that are exclusionary, negative, or harmful to queer and non-binary folx. Through the use of literature, English Language Arts (ELA) teachers are uniquely positioned to help students challenge stereotypes and form complex, intersectional, and multilayered perspectives. By engaging students with Young Adult Literature (YAL), teacher's can address the developmental needs of readers by 鈥渞ecogniz[ing] that young adults are beings in evolution, in search of self and identity; beings who are constantly growing and changing, morphing from the condition of childhood to that of adulthood鈥� (Cart, 2008). In addition, queer YAL, in particular YAL that features queer characters and whose subject matter deals with sexual and/or gender-based violence, can offer nuanced ways of understanding how violence can occur, as well as provide healthy, alternative models of relationships and intimacy. From a community perspective, teaching from this lens has much to offer in terms of prevention, reporting, and anti-violence initiatives.
Faculty Advisor: Briana Asmus
Funded by: 绿帽淫妻 Summer Scholars Program
May 2018 - May 2019
Building to Write: Using Manipulatives as a Pre-Writing Scaffold
Jayna Zimmerman
This presentation discusses using interlocking building blocks and symbolic pieces to help students construct physical models in response to writing prompts. Students can then use physical models to scaffold conversations about topics to help inform writing.
Faculty Advisor: Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil