Student Bios

Ashley Lee graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 2021 with a Bachelor's degree in English Language and Literature, and a minor in Legal Studies. Ashley’s academic journey, marked by honors and a Dean’s Scholarship, reflects a deep commitment to exploring the nuances of English literature, particularly 18th and 19th-century British works.  Having gained diverse professional experience in finance, real estate, and education, Ashley has honed critical thinking, research, and communication skills, which they now wish to further develop through Villanova University's English Master's program. With a particular interest in Enlightenment and Romanticism, Ashley aims to contribute to scholarly discourse while engaging with Villanova's esteemed faculty and the program's rich academic opportunities. In her free time, Ashley enjoys writing creatively, often exploring different genres and themes, and loves watching classic Korean movies. She also cherishes spending q...

Sophie Hargrove graduated from Kenyon College in 2020 with her BA in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Her thesis was a collection of her own poetry, mostly exploring issues of addiction and family relationships. In college, Sophie’s literary studies focused heavily on modern and postmodern literature, African American literature, and Irish literature. After (virtual) graduation, Sophie spent a year teaching K-8 students at Princeton Montessori school and tutoring students privately in History and Literacy. Subsequently, she worked as an administrative assistant in the Princeton area and in local government in Montgomery Township. In her free time, Sophie enjoys running, writing, collaging, baking, singing, pestering her beloved cat, Juno, and reading overdue library books at her local dive bar. Sophie’s literary interests these days trend heavily toward contemporary autofictive novels and short stories. At Villanova, Sophie hopes to continue exploring instances of non-trad...

Julia graduated from Reed College with a BA in German Literature in 2012. After graduating, she spent a year studying Weimar era political fairy tales in Frankfurt and Berlin, Germany on a Fulbright research grant. She also holds an MA in German from UC Berkeley, where she focused on German Romanticism and realism, and a teaching credential in English from the University of San Francisco. She has spent the last five years working as a high school teacher in San Francisco Public Schools, where she taught everything from YA and graphic novels to Shakespeare and the Odyssey.  Her current research interests include 19th and 20th century novels and the intersections of literature, politics, and class. She also reads widely across contemporary fiction, creative nonfiction, history, and theory, with the occasional German novel thrown in as well. Beyond reading, she likes to spend time going to the movies, going to shows, visiting friends, and hopefully getting back into bike touring.

Maggie Jones graduated from Ball State University in 2024 as a member of the Honors College with a BS in History and a BS in Anthropology, as well as a minor in Ancient Studies. Heavily involved with the student-run organization Museum Club since her freshman year, Maggie served as vice president of the club for two years, as well as president her senior year. Also in her senior year, Maggie supported Dr. Emily Johnson in her oral history project collecting interviews and stories of the local LGBTQ+ community as a transcriber.  Her senior thesis, under the guidance of Dr. Abel Alves, explored the history of emotions in regard to 17th-Century Restoration England. Examining the mysterious “Princes in the Tower” urn within Westminster Abbey, she analyzed possible connections and symbols related to Restoration propaganda intentionally utilized by Charles II, connecting his reign to dynasties past.  Her research has focused primarily on English royal history and queenship displays ...

Katy Kessler graduated summa cum laude from West Virginia University in December of 2023 with a BA in English and a BA in philosophy. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she developed an interest in postmodern fiction. This led her to write her English capstone thesis about Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves , through which she developed a hopeful take on the postmodern life so often viewed as a plague on contemporary times. Her goal in graduate school is to study further the postmodern view on identity formation, combining both English and philosophy while continuing to illuminate the hope that can be found in contemporary literature.  After graduating from WVU, Katy worked as an intern at a public library in New Castle, PA, where she helped with renovations that ultimately made the library a more suitable place for children and people with disabilities. She recently accepted a new remote internship where she will be managing the library’s social media pages. When she isn’t w...

Ryan Miller graduated from the University of Maryland in the winter of 2023 with a BA in English and a minor in history. Throughout his time in undergrad, Ryan frequently helped with events for Maryland’s English honor society, Sigma Tau Delta, and the learning disability honor society, Delta Alpha Pi. Being a student with learning disabilities like dyslexia, an English master's never seemed like the obvious way forward for a future. However, after working on projects like Hemingway’s “One True Word,” a comprehensive essay that focused on the single word “rotten” and tracked it throughout all of Hemingway’s main works, and a 70-page short story, Ryan realized the ability to tell and analyze stories was his focus for the future despite the challenges. At Villanova, Ryan hopes to further foster this passion for writing and stories by focusing on modernist and postmodern novels and expanding his familiarity with different sorts of texts he did not encounter during undergrad. Specifica...

Carolyn graduated Magna Cum Laude from Neumann University in 2018 with her BA in Education. She holds her teaching certification in General Education (PreK-4), Special Education (PreK-8), and English (7-12). After spending a year teaching 5th grade general education, she decided to take a year to travel and focus on receiving her Master's degree. Carolyn received her MA in TESOL from Birkbeck, University of London in 2020, and completed her thesis on the effects of emotions in the English as a Foreign Language classroom. Carolyn focused on her research under the supervision of Jean Marc Dewale, a notable researcher based in London.  In addition to her various studies, Carolyn teaches English Literature at the high school level and is looking forward to furthering her studies in the subject. She currently teaches Modernism, and focuses on the writings of various authors of the time , including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, and Ernest Hemingway. Carolyn's interests include...

Jenna Kosnick graduated summa cum laude from Siena College with a Bachelor's of Arts in 2023.  On campus, she worked at the Siena College Research Institute, primarily conducting political interviews, along with holding a position with Siena's Center for Sustainability promoting environmental interests on campus.  Her research has focused primarily on issues of gender, sexuality, and sexual violence in Victorian and Early Modern texts.  For her thesis, she explored a new method of discussing rape in Tess of the D'Urbervilles based on interactions involving clothing in the text.  Her work has also appeared at the Capital District's Feminist Studies Consortium Conference, tracing the homoeroticism of violence in Beowulf .  At Villanova, she's looking forward to expanding her studies of gender and sexuality, particularly to non-canonical texts.  In her free time, she enjoys baking, horror movies, and bothering her cats.

Alexis Atwood graduated from Rowan University in 2023 with a BA in English and holds a certificate in American Sign Language. As an undergraduate, she was an active member of Avant , Rowan's literary magazine, and supported Doctor Zena Meadowsong as a research assistant in her exploration of the Mahabharata as it related to Dr. Meadowsong's project on the Indian Anglophone novelist Mulk Raj Anand. Alexis' academic interests include human rights, politics and law, critical theory, and poetry.   At Villanova, she plans to explore Central and South American poets & artists, literature, and revolutions through a critical and theoretical lens. As she works towards becoming a writer and independent researcher, she hopes to help influence positive social change through her writing and gain fluency in Spanish to further her studies. Alexis enjoys playing guitar, painting, writing poetry, and working on her blog in her free time.

 Jaxon Parker graduated in 2022 from the University of Colorado Boulder with a BA in English and minor in Philosophy. He wrote his thesis on Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s novels A Grain of Wheat and Petals of Blood , which was awarded summa cum laude . He argued that Ngũgĩ’s novels frame national allegories by remembering the traumatic history of the Mau Mau rebellion against British colonialism. This remembrance contested the nationalist narrative propagated by Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s authoritarian and neocolonial leader, who urged Kenyans to forget the anticolonial movement. At CU, Jaxon worked as a “learner’s assistant” for a Shakespeare for Non-Majors class, where he helped students workshop their essays and facilitated group close readings and discussions. He was also the Humanities Editor for the CU Honors Journal and interned for the Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine . During his gap year between CU and Villanova, Jaxon worked as a laboratory assistant and phlebotomist at a hospi...