Sparkling Vampires and the Legacy of White America
Meet English major, film & media studies minor Soraya Mwangi.
Hometown: Nairobi, Kenya
Thesis adviser: Professor Sarah Wagner-McCoy [English and humanities]
Thesis: “Disrupted Heroines: Choice Making in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga”
What it’s about: The legacy of white America within Twilight, and how Twilight reflects a lot of things about American culture—the relationships between Native Americans and white settler colonialists, a lot of regressive gender values, but also the fact that the author was Mormon, and that really influenced the text.
What it’s really about: Sparkling neo-Victorian Mormon vampires.
Outside the classroom: Most of my time on campus has been spent in jobs. I spent a year working with President Audrey Bilger as her literary research assistant. I was reading Frances Burney to help with her research.
Influential professor: Michael Faletra [English], my academic adviser. He’s been one of my most formative professors. When we did our poetry practice in class, I realized very quickly that, because I had never taken any poetry classes at Reed, I’d be severely unprepared for the poetry section. So I asked him if I could practice poetry with him, and we would meet once a week to do poetry practice. He would give me poems, and I would analyze them the best I could.
Cool stuff: I went to Forks, Washington, for my thesis research. The town’s identity is kind of split. It’s a lot of tourist attractions and Twilight-specific stuff. There’s also stuff about the Pacific Northwest, and the town’s history as a logging town.
Financial aid: Financial aid meant I was able to come to school, and there are a litany of privileges associated with a place like this.
How Reed changed me: Reed has made me a more confident, self-actualizing person. I learned to trust myself to not fail myself. I got a lot out of Reed academically, but I also got a lot out of it socially. I feel very prepared.
What’s next: Going to Cambridge to complete a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in English studies. While I’d eventually like to get a PhD, as well as an MFA in creative writing, I’d ideally like to work a year or two before jumping into another program.
Tags: Academics, Students, Thesis, What is a Reedie?