Honors in Literature
Co-winner – Edwin L. Shuman Award for Best Honors Thesis in Literature
Helen G. Scott Prize for Best Critical Essay
An excerpt from Strangest Things: Nostalgia vs. Representation in “Kids on Bikes” Media
“Within ‘80s nostalgia itself, the yearning to return to the distribution of the 1980s might be smuggled in amongst the wistful longing for summertime bike rides, arcade games, and synth-pop. The creators of Stranger Things and It seem to be cognizant of ‘80s nostalgia’s potential for regressive politics; their moments of dissonance strike me as a genuine, well-meant attempt to progressively redistribute the sensible within texts that could very easily become reactionary. Richie, Robin, and Billy all embody a central tension that I’ve been narrating over the course of this introduction. Nostalgia, the first structure of feeling or set of expectations, is the (perhaps hidden) desire to return to a past distribution of the sensible. Representation, the second structure of feeling or set of expectations, is the desire to move to a new distribution of the sensible that favors previously marginalized groups. A moment of dissonance forms as these two combatants try to settle upon some configuration that allows the ‘80s nostalgia text to remain nostalgic without inadvertently reiterating outmoded social values. Richie, Robin, and Billy each represent a different outcome of this clash.”
An excerpt from
“For a superhero blockbuster, Captain America: The Winter Soldier has a strangely ambivalent, even pessimistic ending. The threat of Project Insight has been neutralized, but at the cost of the destruction of Washington D.C. After having made a monumental personal sacrifice in the name of transparency and justice, Black Widow is still being targeted by the US government for publicly revealing the extent of its descent into corruption. Nick Fury has faked his own death and gone incognito, revealing in the film’s final scene that Hydra is still at large. Anxieties about surveillance, privacy, and the infringement of rights are also still at large—two MCU films later, Tony Stark invents Ultron, an automated global defense program eerily similar to Project Insight, which develops sentience and immediately starts plotting world domination. In an effort to root out the parasitic influence of Hydra and encourage more ethical behavior from the US government, Captain America and his teammates dismantle huge chunks of foundational in-universe institutions like S.H.I.E.L.D. and the World Security Council, but seemingly to no avail. Just as Edward Snowden’s leaks did not actually convince the US government to stop surveilling its own citizens, the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier seem to amount to nothing.”