We hope you will plan to attend the research presentations of two graduating TTL students on Tuesday, May 19 at noon on Webex. You can join the meeting by clicking on THIS LINK. Come celebrate Corinne Newsome and Caleb Schrader's hard work and brilliant research!
Corinne will present from her thesis, "Cycles of Indebtedness: The Chinese Coolie's Perpetual Labor in The Coolie Speaks and Monkey Hunting" [directed by Dr. Sharon Tran] In this project, Corinne reads Lisa Yun's The Coolie Speaks and Cristina Garcia's Monkey Hunting as counter-archives resisting dominant narratives that position 1874 as the end of the Cuban coolie trade's debt-based labor practices. These texts center the perspectives of Chinese contract laborers in Cuban history to present the compounding, renewing forms of debt that maintained their indenture throughout their lifetime and within Cuba's national legacy.
Caleb will present from his thesis "'All That Is Gold Does Not Glitter': Tolkien’s Expressions Of Shifting Masculinity In 20th-Century Wartime England As Seen Through The Characters Of Boromir, Faramir, And Aragorn" [directed by Professor Deborah Rudacille]. His thesis argues that Boromir, Faramir, and Aragorn represent three distinct responses to the pressures of warfare, corruptive influence of power, and paternal expectation -- responses which he labels as collapse, conflict, and thoughtful integration. Ultimately, The Lord of the Rings suggests that the defining test of masculinity is not the ability to wield or reject power, but the ability to demonstrate moderation and restraint through having it and being able to relinquish it.