Student Bios

Caitlin graduated summa cum laude from Drew University, double majoring in English and Environmental Studies & Sustainability. Her undergraduate work helped fuel her passion for 19th Century literature and themes of nature, the Gothic, and Romanticism. One of her favorite classes was an independent study she crafted to learn more about the Language of Flowers across time and culture. Her environmental capstone included a discussion of agriculture's influence on the honeybee population decline. The English major capstone resulted in her essay of authors' various uses of nature to express societal values and fears of the time. She worked at a number of places in her college town, including the local museum, as a research assistant, and in the municipal building, where she helped write the recycling grant for the town for three years, as well as directed the nearby nature camp. Her favorite activities include photography, baking, hiking, finding even more plants to fit on h...

Tom Higgins received his BA from Temple University in 2017. While at Temple, he studied as a double major in English and Classical Languages, and wrote for Hyphen, the university’s undergraduate literary magazine. Since then, he has worked as a writer and editor on print and marketing industry magazines at a Philadelphia-based media company. In his free time, he plays guitar, travels, and goes to as many concerts as are physically and fiscally possible. He is also a poet, and regularly submits work to print and online publications. Some of his academic interests include poetry, nature writing, travel literature, postcolonial literature, and Caribbean and Latin American literatures. He looks forward to continuing his studies at Villanova.

Sarah Beth Gilbert received her BA in English Literature with a Minor in Spanish from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, GA only a couple of hours away from her hometown of Augusta, GA and her favorite city Atlanta, GA. After graduation she moved to Newark, NJ to spend a year of service (that turned into two) for AmeriCorps working at Great Oaks Legacy Charter High School. At Great Oaks she began as an English tutor and Teaching Assistant and eventually transitioned to Lead ELA Tutorial Curriculum Writer and Coordinator. She hopes to continue to help make reading and writing fun (or at least bearable) by aligning her students’ interests with the nuances of studying Literature. In undergrad Sarah Beth wrote a thesis on Gender and Sexuality in  Doctor Who  which focused on the role of the companion and how it has evolved since the 2005 reboot in both terms of representation and character depth. She also served as  The Peacock’s Feet  Co-Editor i...