Lover of Story

COMM 353 – Messages, Influences, and Culture (Sophomore Year, Fall 2022)
Summary: I fell in love with A Raisin in the Sun a year prior to writing this rhetorical analysis, during my Theater and Culture class. In this essay, I was also combining rhetorical analysis with my love of a great American playwright who brought an untold story to Broadway, as the first African American female author to have a play performed there. She uses theater to tell this story that was not being told, which is something that I am passionate about.
Learning Outcome 4

COMM 454 – Rhetoric of Rap (Sophomore Year, Spring 2023)
Summary: A story is not just found in a play or a show, it can also be a place. Here I document much of the history of hip hop in Philadelphia, with an eye toward the way that the history of African Americans in Philadelphia deeply shaped the individual artists–who use the medium of hip hop to tell both their personal and communal stories, both of which are grounded in a sense of place. In this class we did not talk about Philadelphia as a center of hip hop, so in this essay, I was able to do so–again, foregrounding a story that is not often told or heard.
Learning Outcome 4

COMM 312 – Communication Criticism (Sophomore Year, Spring 2023)
Summary: Here I wanted to examine a show for which I have a lot of love, while bringing it into a critical context and examining it under a critical lens. Specifically, I looked at the role of intergenerational trauma and its impact on one character and how he subsequently parented his own children. I talk about both parental and intimate partner violence, and the way that trauma shapes both past and future relationships.
Learning Outcome 4

ENGL 121 – Japanese Literature & Film (Junior Year, Fall 2023)
Summary: While writing this, I was taking both Dynamic Earth and Environment and Japanese Literature and film. These courses set me up to write this paper. Through the story I examine in this essay, I was able to articulate the biblical mandate to care for creation, and how that mandate applies to Christians today–specifically, creation care and good stewardship should be important to Christians, as they are part of God’s design and charge for humans.
Learning Outcome 5

ENGL 111 – Spiritual Battles (Senior Year, Fall 2024)
Summary: Here I critically engaged with Sir Gawain and The Green Knight while I was participating in a production of the play. I was able to bring the skills that I heard learned in communication classes (of critical analysis) to this poem, while at the same time examining the production of the poem. This created an incredible synergy and I share my interests in this reflection assignment, in terms of reading the book and the way in which the culture’s theological and spiritual beliefs impacted this text.
Learning Outcome 6

ENGL 215 – Classical & Early British Lit. (Senior Year, Fall 2024)
Summary: In this paper I was able to examine what the classics say about revenge and justice (in the Aeneid, Beowulf, and Hamlet)–essentially that retributive justice often has the exact opposite effect of its intent. In other words, “an eye for an eye” does indeed happen, with violence begetting more violence. I contrast this with the Christian perspective, which calls for us to turn the other cheek and thereby prevent or interrupt the otherwise never-ending cycle of violence.
Learning Outcome 6