Jaxon Parker

 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 hospital in Boulder and was a freelance writer for the Arts & Sciences Magazine.

At Villanova, Jaxon hopes to learn more about modernism, postcolonialism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. In his free time, he enjoys watching movies, listening to music, hiking, and riding his bike.