Deidra Cali

Deidra Cali recently graduated magna cum laude from Misericordia University (Dallas, PA) with a BA in English and a minor in psychology. Her favorite areas of study are 19th and 20th century American literature, which she hopes to continue to focus on while at Villanova. Other primary interests include explorations of gender, feminism, and queerness in literature. Her senior thesis—centered around the newfound genre of dark academia and how gender, feminism, and queerness entwined in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and M.L. Rio’s If We Were Villains—acted as a perfect combination of her many literature loves.
In her time at Misericordia, she was a head tutor at the university’s Writing Center, where she was able to put her love for editing into practice, as she thoroughly enjoyed editing papers from various disciplines. As an avid and amateur poet, she was also involved with Misericordia’s annual journal, Instress, an arts journal that publishes poetry and other art mediums from Misericordia’s student body and faculty. She proudly submitted poetry in 2020 and 2021, the latter of which she won 2nd place for best poem.
Her current summer job has been acting as a brand representative of her local Hollister, and she has recently taken a dip into freelance editing and writing. When she’s not working or in school, she enjoys reading YA literature (especially murder mysteries), rewatching her favorite tv shows (current rewatch is Gossip Girl), and traveling with her friends.