Student Spotlight: Meara Waxman

Junior English major Meara Waxman has done some interesting undergraduate research this summer. As a part of her Lumen project, Meara spent the summer studying popular feminist figures from the 19th century. While this isn’t her main field of study, she has conducted this interdisciplinary work to supplement her research of Bronte novels in a feminist context.

Meara was inspired to conduct research in this field by her mentor, Janet Myers. The two bonded over their shared love of linguistics, and from that point, the Bronte sisters were their focus. The goal of Meara’s research is to analyze Bronte novels at a sentence level to determine if the content either supports or refutes feminist ideals in the 19th century. Further, she compares these analyses to the theories of prominent feminists of the time to see if there are any patterns between the two.

     Meara is also a Lumen Scholar, a title which she says is amazing and very rewarding. With the funds from the scholarship, she is traveling to Bath, England in the spring to conduct more research. Meara encourages everyone to do research, and especially to apply for the Lumen prize to be a part of a “wonderful community of scholars”. In addition, Meara advises everyone doing research to be open to the research process because “the more open you are, the more excited about your project you will be”.

Join the department in wishing Meara the best of luck in her research, and following along as her scholarly work develops!

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