Program Description

    The program was split into four Sessions and four Workshops. Outside of the program, the participants were also paired with long-term mentors.

    Sessions took place in the mornings, and described the major fields of interest based on our participants’ plans for applications. Penn State faculty and graduate students offered these informational sessions, and the participants had a chance to ask questions related to these fields.

    Workshops took place in the afternoons. During the workshops, the participants learned how to contact their programs of interest, and how to prepare application materials such as the “Statement of Purpose” and the “Writing Sample”. For these two materials, they received 1-1 mentoring with faculty or graduate students according to their fields of expertise.

    Meet the 2021 Participants

    bertrand

    Bertrand Collins

    Bertrand Collins Ngong, M.A. University of New Mexico, USA I am a T.A. and international student at the University of New Mexico where I study Germanistics after obtaining a Master’s degree in African Literatures and Civilizations at the University of Yaoundé I in Cameroon. In my research career, I would like to build an epistemological bridge between African Studies and German Studies. Specifically, I would like to specialize in Black German studies and questions related to the cultural, historical, and political relationship of the Germanic world with Black Africa. I am interested in questions of memory, colonization, decolonization and, in the cultural production of Black people within the German-speaking cultural area.

    caroline photo

    Caroline Smith – Appalachian State University

    In May of 2021, I graduated with BAs in Spanish and Global Studies with a concentration in Inter-American Relations and Dynamics. Upon finishing my master’s degree in Spanish College Teaching at Appalachian State University in 2022, I plan on matriculating into a Spanish Ph.D. program oriented towards Hispanic literature. My research interests include contemporary Latin American literature, decolonial and postcolonial trauma theory, narratives of migration, and border theory. Ultimately, I desire to become a professor so that I can combine my love for academic research and teaching.

    DeJa photo

    De’ja Alston – Coppin State University

    Currently I live in North Carolina, but I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. I graduated from Coppin State University in 2017, with a Bachelor’s degree in English. I am a licensed special education teacher. I plan on applying for Phd programs this winter. My educational goal is to use an interdisciplinary approach to further research educational policy, human rights and ethics through the lens of African American Literature.

    elicie

    Elicie Edmond – Bryn Mawr College ’21, Major: Literatures in English; Minor: Africana Studies

    I plan to enroll into a PhD program in English, Comparative Literature, and/or African/African American Studies. I hope to continue to explore the foundations of literature rooted in Africana thought, and I hope to continue to conceptualize how literature has become a space of healing and futurity within the complex history of the African Diaspora.

    Gianfranco

    Gianfranco Gastelo – University of California, Berkeley

    My fascination with linguistics and the revelatory messages of literature have inspired me to pursue a PhD in Comparative Literature. As a doctoral student, I would aim to both expand my intermediate linguistic and cultural knowledge of Italian and immerse myself in advanced courses in Latin, French and Filipino. These courses will enrich my global familiarization of colonialism and postcolonialism from the end of the fifteenth century up to the conclusion of the eighteenth century while further developing the subject of my undergraduate honors thesis: The First Spanish Conquest in Peru.

    Giselle

    Giselle Gradilla – Nevada State College

    Giselle is an undergraduate student at Nevada State College who is double majoring in English as well as in Secondary Education (English). She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in comparative literature with an emphasis on research focused on Chicana/x multimodal storytelling and advocacy.

    hz

    Huirui Zhang – McGill University (English: Drama & Theatre and Art History)

    I hope to become a curator who pays particular attention to performance arts and other time-based practices. My current research interest lies in the artistic representation of the Chinese immigration experience in theatrical performances. In addition, given the increasing digitalization in the art industry that the Covid-19 pandemic bought in front in 2020, I hope to investigate how the pandemic shifts how audiences consume performance art/visual representations of non-white experiences

    karlina

    Karlina Gonzalez – CUNY Hunter College

    Karlina is currently finishing their undergraduate degree in English literature and Japanese. In the future, they hope to pursue intensive Japanese language study in Japan before beginning a graduate program in English, Comparative Literature, or East Asian studies. They hope to continue their research on Anglophone and Japanese fan-culture and the role of fan-production in counter-hegemony.

    nicolas photo

    Nicolás Díaz – Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

    Once I finish my Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Linguistics and Literature I plan to enter a graduate program in literature, ideally one that will allow me to teach. I have a special interest in the connections between literature and history, especially in the South American context, so I hope to further delimit what I am interested in pursuing research-wise in the next few years. My dream is to become a professor.

    campus

    Peiyun Jiang – Mount Holyoke College

    Peiyun Jiang is a recent graduate from Mount Holyoke College who double-majored in English and Politics. She is a writer of poetry and hybrid texts and is interested in Asian American and 20th-21st c. Chinese literature.

    peter photo

    Peter Appleby – California Lutheran University, dual majoring in German and Political Science

    In my studies I have not only been able to explore the heritage and meaning within German culture but also to understand the place that the German identity stands in a diverse world. After finishing my undergraduate degree I hope to gain valuable experience working for an NGO and then pursuing a masters graduate program in Comparative Literature, which would primarily include German and literature studies. As a career, I am interested in teaching the German language and culture to others partially because of the impact the subject has had on my education and life, as well as for the value that comes with sharing ideas with others.

    Rani photo

    Rani Srinivasan – Queens College (CUNY)

    Rani double majored in English and Comparative Literature. In her final undergraduate semester, she studied South Asian literature and postcolonial theory at the University of Oxford. When she returned to New York City, she entered the Queens College English Master’s program and began teaching English at Queens College. Her research interests are politics, postcolonialism, decolonialism, and South Asian and Asian American literature. Her master’s thesis used Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things to consider the problematic connection between liminality and structural violence in postcolonial India. After obtaining her Ph.D., she wants to continue teaching and using her work to assist communities marginalized by sociopolitical injustices.

    rocio

    Rocío Isabel Ibáñez García Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

    So far I plan to apply to the pedagogy program at my university after finishing my major in English Literature and Linguistics (Licenciatura en Letras Inglesas), which would take 1 extra year. Then I would like to apply to a postgraduate program abroad, hopefully a M.A. and then a Ph.D. program in the UK (in comparative literature, for instance), so I can teach at the universities or other institutions, on top of continuing with academic research.

    Sarah photo

    Sarah Dewi Ayishah Garrod – Queen Mary, University of London

    This fall I will be attending the University of Kentucky to complete an MA in English, after which I intend to apply for a PhD in either English or Comparative Literature. I hope to eventually contribute to the research and teaching of global literatures, principally African and Southeast Asian literatures. I am particularly drawn to postcolonial studies, Global South studies, Cold War studies, and theories of the novel, however, I am also interested in the environmental humanities, literature and philosophy, and post-postmodern literature.

    sandile photo

    Sandile Masondo Auditor of the 2021 Program.

    My wish is to pursue a PhD in Comparative Literature and African Studies. I also wish to pursue my passion which is Creative Writing. I have two novel manuscripts that are at the publishing stage. I have also written a number of short stories and poems which have not yet been published. I would also love to teach either the English Language or Literature at tertiary level.

    Participants’ Presentations

    Wrap-up session recorded on June 4, 2022