Students branch out, dig in to research
Summer Scholars, Independent Study programs offer unique opportunities
By Lauren Karch
Summer Scholar earns Fulbright
Senior English Literature and German major Kori Austera has earned a prestigious grant—and a unique adventure.
Austera—who has completed Independent Study and Summer Scholars projects with Professor Kerry Powell—will begin work this fall in the Fulbright program in Germany. The competitive program awards English teaching assistantships, placing recent graduates in secondary classrooms. Although she won’t know her exact placement until June, Austera will serve as an assistant to an English teacher and work with students aged 11 to 18. Coordinating out-of-class activities to improve the students’ English and to learn about Anglophone cultures will also be her responsibility.
Austera says the opportunity will provide a great cultural experience and practice teaching. At Miami she has assisted faculty as Undergraduate Associate in first-year composition classes and most recently in an upper-level Victorian literature course.
“I’m looking forward to getting more classroom experience, since I’m interested in going to grad school for English, and this will be a chance to improve my conversational German,” she said.
After returning to the United States next summer, Austera hopes to continue her education in graduate school. She plans to continue the research on Victorian literature, feminist theory, and performance theory she started as a Summer Scholar and independent study student.
With four disciplines and new courses offered each semester, the Department of English seems to have every topic covered. Even so, students from across the university can go beyond the available classes to pursue their own unique research interests through the Undergraduate Summer Scholars program and Independent Study.
These opportunities allow students to work one-on-one with faculty to expand, enrich, or deepen their understanding of an aspect of their classroom study, or to investigate a subject not covered at all in a regular course.
Take, for example, “The Linguistics of Dystopia,” the topic of junior Gretchen Wesche’s upcoming research. Wesche will work with her faculty mentor professor William Hardesty this summer in the Undergraduate Summer Scholars program. A Summer Scholar can earn 12 credit hours, and receive a $2,600 student fellowship and up to $400 funding for research project expenses.
Wesche learned about Summer Scholars through friends who had participated in it themselves. “I didn’t really think of English as something that you could do traditional research for; I had always thought more about the sciences or psychology,” she said. “But after hearing what they had to say it sounded like a good program to try out.”
Meeting with Hardesty, Wesche developed a proposal for her research project that incorporated both her major in English literature and her linguistics minor. “I really like the prospect of it because it fits several of my academic interests, so it related to both my fields of study and personal interest,” she said.
Another Summer Scholar is Daniel Owenby, a junior creative writing major whose research on the American Spiritualism movement of the 19th century will form the foundations of a novella-length piece of fiction he plans to set in that time period. He says his work, to be done under the mentorship of Professor Margaret Luongo, will afford him more insight into the movement, a topic of both personal and academic passion, than investigation through available courses. Owenby has begun work on his piece, and said that the research he will do will help him make the work more real.
“My writing most always leans towards the horror story or weird tale and, at least in my intention, paws on the door of the literary,” he said. “With the American Spiritualism movement, the use for horror is rather obvious, but, in my mind, the subject matter is just as strong for literary aims. What could be more terribly human than wondering about one’s own mortality or resisting life’s transient nature and longing for contact with loved ones that are no longer with us?”
Most Summer Scholars with English projects are majors, but the department offers all majors across the university the opportunity to propose an Independent Study in creative writing, literary and cultural studies, linguistics, and technical and scientific communication.
Jonathan Jekeli sets an example as a student with a major outside of the department completing an independent study in English. The computer science major is working with Professor Laura Mandell to write code for a first-year course in digital humanities.
Students can earn one to five semester credit hours for Independent Study, which takes place under the supervision of a faculty mentor the student recruits. Dozens of students have created their own areas of study over the past year, some completing major writing projects or a senior thesis.
Combining both individualized programs enabled Kori Austera, a senior double major in English literature and German, to devote time to her special interests during her years at Miami. Austera began her research on early 20th century British literature as a Summer Scholar with professor Kerry Powell. She spent the past semester working with him on an Independent Study to develop “Off the Script: Performing Identities in Victorian Literature,” her senior Honors thesis in Victorian literature and performance. After next year as a Fulbright scholar in Germany, she plans to continue her research in graduate school (see sidebar).
Eight students recently received notice of their Summer Scholar awards for English projects. Among them are Andrew Troller, creative writing major and political science minor, who will work with creative writing professor Jody Bates on Extraordinary Stories: an exploration of creative nonfiction and the audio essay, and Tabetha K. Violet, double major in literature and German, who will work with literature professor Nalin Jayasena on Post-colonial science fiction: exploring progress.