Panel 31: Words Words Words
This summer, our panelists engaged with self managed creative projects about writing, words, and identity. Rather than a traditional internship, we were often left to our own devices and forced to self motivate and independently search for answers. Research was an important part of all of our work, from writing novels and poems, to early modern linguistics, to contemporary queer and political theory.
Moderator: Caitlin Mahaffy, Visiting Assistant Professor in English
On language: Early Modern Archival Research
Maia Lin ’25, English major, Chinese minor
A Contemporary Feminist’s Guide to Twentieth Century Lesbian Theories
Julia Burm ’25, Politics and Russian and Eurasian Studies double major
Echoes of the Cape: Environmental Reflections of Cape Cod
Kate Donovan-Maher ’25, English and Environmental Studies double major
The Mystery of Mysteries: Writing a Novel
Bee Edmonds ’26, English major & Religion
Speaker name: Julia Burm
Title: A Contemporary Feminist’s Guide to 20th Century Lesbian Theories
“What do lesbian genders and sexualities have to offer contemporary queer culture? More than you might think! If ‘queer’ is taken to be anti-normative, exciting, and cutting edge, lesbians of the 20th century are often mistakenly viewed as highly normative, outdated, and boring. The ‘lesbian’ has connotations of being highly exclusionary, a static figure, especially of trans people and people of color. This series of zines suggests that this is not the whole picture. There have been many radical, proto-queer, proto-trans, anti-racist constructions of lesbian identity and lesbian politics. By disrupting heteronormative standards, many lesbians have broken boundaries in their expressions of gender and sexuality. Instead of forgetting lesbians of the past, queer people can learn from them and theorize with them to build a more inclusive queer culture.”
Speaker name: Bee Edmonds
Title: The Mystery of Mysteries: Writing a Novel
This summer, I wrote the first draft of a novel, pushing myself to write long-form content with a stricter plot structure than I am used to. It required a lot of research, editing, hard work, and time management, and while much of my time was spent writing, even more was spent organizing and managing myself. My novel is a slightly genre-bending noir detective story; taking the character archetypes that make the genre what it is and playing with them a little. It follows the parallel stories of the case and of the detective; focusing on the main character’s relationship with his fellow detectives as they try to solve the mystery disappearance of the city’s mayor, forcing them to navigate danger and interpersonal conflict at the same time, blending together. This project forced me to learn a lot about the writing process, and grow a lot as an author.
Speaker name: Kate Madison Donovan-Maher
Title: Echoes of the Cape: Environmental Reflections of Cape Cod
This summer, I lived and worked on the beautiful Cape Cod. Inspired by the nature and natural landscape, I wrote a poetry collection encompassing my summer experience; however, despite the Cape’s beauty, it faces a host of environmental challenges. My poetry collection hopes to shed light on these challenges and hopes to inspire caring within the reader. Hopefully, with enough activism and dedication, we can preserve the Cape for years to come.
Speaker name: Maia Lin
Title: On language: Early Modern Archival research
As the Medieval era waned, the language of English underwent a significant transformation. However, this did not just happen spontaneously. Instead, there was an extended interest and focus in the era on how English should be, and how to mold it into these various ways of being. This summer I did archival work both online and in the British Library of London, examining pamphlets, books, and letters from the era that focused on the intentional creations, debates, and transformations experienced by the language of English in the Early Modern.