The College is featuring a few of the Class of 2022 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows (MMUF) in advance of this year's deadline for applications. Jordan O Beck '22 is a 英文文学 major with minors in French/Francophone Studies and 电影研究.
MMUF is an initiative of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to increase the diversity of faculty within higher education. At 推荐全球十大博彩公司排行榜, the MMUF Program is co-administered by the Pensby Center for Community Development and Inclusion and a member of the faculty. Interested students apply their sophomore year and each year five students are selected to be a part of the program. The deadline for applications for the Class of 2024 cohort is 9 a.m. 2月2日星期一. 14.
In addition to conducting research, Mellon Mays Fellows regularly meet with their cohort to exchange ideas and share research progress. Other activities include professional development workshops, 文化活动, and meetings with other MMUF campuses.
Each fellow pairs with a faculty mentor at the College to conduct research on a topic they are passionate about. Jordan’s research focuses on the themes of queerness, 比赛, 环境问题, 和coloniality as explored and understood in speculative fiction.
Who was your faculty mentor and what was it like working with them?
我的导师是 凯特·托马斯教授 of the Department of 英文文学. I have found working with her to be a rewarding experience because she challenges me to think about where my research fits in with the conversations going on in the field of literary studies. Her research focus is very different from mine, but her varied expertise and our shared interest in queer studies 和coloniality add more depth to my research than I would have if I was working entirely self-directed.
What can you tell me about your research project? How has your process helped decolonize academia?
我的研究项目是, 从最广泛的意义上说, about speculative fiction and issues of queerness, 比赛, 和coloniality. I investigate how the genres of science fiction and fantasy, specifically in contemporary works, can reckon with those themes of coloniality and its effects. My current project is my senior thesis for 英文文学, in which I read Jeff VanderMeer’s 2014 science fiction novel 毁灭 using the lens of toxicity to decentralize the human in the text’s confrontation of environmental crisis.
One way in which we at MMUF decolonize academia is by promoting diversity, both of content and of person. Working on a text that rejects human dominion and features a woman of color as the protagonist expands the archive that we study. 此外, as a woman of color entering academia, my teaching and my service to my future students will be a small push towards diversity in the field.
What opportunities were you able to take advantage of thanks to the fellowship?
The most important thing that my fellowship has given me is the resources and structure to do my research. My stipend has allowed me to update the technology I use for my research and in classes, buy books and other materials, and relieved the burden of needing to prioritize work over study during the summer. 此外, support in applying to graduate programs, like GRE prep and help researching programs, 是非常宝贵的.
另外, at the MMUF regional conference this year, I was able to present my work for the first time, 认识其他人, and participate in the exchange of ideas which had gotten me excited about MMUF in the first place.
How has your Bryn Mawr education been impactful in your research process?
My courses at Bryn Mawr have given me a grounding in writing and research methods which I have found endlessly helpful. On a more specific note, my idea for my research grew out of my work in classes taught by my mentor, 凯特·托马斯教授, and by Professor Matthew Feliz. Professor Feliz’s science fiction cinema course helped me focus my enthusiasm into the specific project that I have now.
What are your plans for the future?
I’m planning on taking a gap year after graduating this May to apply to Ph.D. programs in English departments. I’m currently still deciding whether I’d like to go into a postcolonial literature focus, or a film studies focus. 在此期间, I’ll go back to my hometown in the San Francisco Bay Area and teach theater to kids at my local community theater. I’m also waiting to hear back from English teaching assistantship programs in France for the 2022-2023 academic year.