I took this class during my first quarter at UW as part of a Freshman Interest Group (FIG). The theme for this class was area studies, and it was facilitated by Grainger Lannaeu, a doctoral candidate for Chinese linguistics. Over the course of the quarter, we were able to study a cultural region of our choice while developing research and critical thinking skills to carry with us throughout our academic careers. I decided to focus my study on Ireland, and at the end of the quarter I had compiled a portfolio of writing in various genres, from personal essays to academic research and journalistic articles.

This class was a required prerequisite for perspective English majors, and I registered for it in winter after deciding to pursue English as a field of study. It was taught by Professor Henry Staten, and the course texts introduced me to a variety of ongoing critical discourses in the discipline. Our reading offered a broad survey of English literature from the 1600s onward, including literary texts by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Joseph Conrad and Chinua Achebe, as well as literary criticism by T.S. Eliot and Roland Barthes. I was also given many opportunities to practice academic writing, as a short essay was due on the course materials every other week.

In this course (facilitated by Nicole Peters), I was introduced to the subfield of cultural studies through the comparative analysis of contemporary and Victorian vampire fiction and film. We studied everything from Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla to Taika Waititi’s 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows. This course demonstrated to me the full scope of material that literary studies is concerned with, including poetry and prose but also film, television and other forms of mass media. Through our discussions, I developed an interest in monstrous portrayals of female desire, as well as the cultural significance of reframing canonical literature in a way that reflects contemporary concerns.

This course was taught by Richard Block, a professor in the Germanics Department, and the theme was “Sibling Rivalries: from Cain and Able to Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” Our course was structured around tri-weekly discussions and response papers in which we addressed the concerns, blindspots and contemporary relevance of the course texts in relation to the theme of sibling rivalries. In this participation-heavy class, I began to truly feel comfortable contributing in discussion with my peers, and strengthened my ability to collaboratively develop complex arguments about a range of texts from biblical times to Classical Hollywood.