My project is on queer subtext and characters found within different Vampiric Gothic media which will be research based on analyzing different works throughout different time periods that have affected our way of thinking about queerness specifically through the gothic genre. I want my research to answer why queerness is so engraved in the gothic genre and how that has changed overtime through various different works. Some works I will be exploring would be Bram Stoker's “Dracula,” Sheridan Le Fanu “Carmilla,” and Anne Rice's “Interview with the Vampire.” As well as a couple more contemporary Gothic works, to showcase the development of narrative between both new and old vampiric gothic works through the passage of time. I will be using the conceptual framework of temporality, a framework that has a focus on analyzing a text through specific structures of time. More specifically how time and narrative in the gothic genre are tools used to reflect our changing views of queer identities. My next steps with my research thesis would be to spend more time dissecting and analyzing the primary works I will be looking at, as well as secondary academic sources that would aid me in answering my research question. Overall, the significance of conducting my research of looking at Vampiric Gothic works through a queer and temporal lens would be to determine how our views on these identities have either progressed or regressed based on the temporality of the Gothic media I will explore.

Since her infamous death in 1963, the collective perception and understanding of poet and writer Sylvia Plath has been distorted by ill-conceived and diminutive verdicts of her life, ones which continue to perpetrate society–whether that be in contemporary culture, academia, the literary canon, or even daily discourse. The thwarting of Plath and her legacy manifests itself in many ways, but the ignorant perception it fosters yields the same result: a diminishing of the importance and profundity of Plath’s life and work, which is further propagated by the thick veil of her suicide. I argue that this reductionist attitude eliminates the possibility of truly seeing Sylvia Plath’s foundational and incredible influence, exemplified as much in her creative works as in the literal events of her short yet blazing life. My research advocates for a reconsideration of Sylvia Plath and her legacy through an expansive and empathetic lens. By comparing Plath’s ‘public’ and ‘private' voice via in-depth analyses of her work, my goal is to refute these preconceived notions. I simultaneously challenge the issues aforesaid prejudices present, such as gender bias in mental health, creative oeuvre, and literary significance. By investigating (and conversing with) Plath through her works, as well as scholarly discussion around her life and literary output, I hope to promote a more well-rounded and empowering awareness around female artists altogether.

Migration has evolved from a time when the world seemed open and without borders to one where borders represent far more than city walls – they are markers of power, identity, and exclusion. Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron captures the fluid and volatile mercantile Mediterranean of the 15th century, where shifting political allegiances and religious tensions make the sea a space of both opportunity and uncertainty. Even amid this instability, migration remains a constant, evident in the movement of people as much as goods. Although The Decameron is dedicated to women confined to domestic life, its stories depict them in constant motion, traversing sprawling cities, coastal towns, and foreign lands. These women inhabit spaces as dangerous and unpredictable as the sea, and their journeys highlight the deeply gendered nature of the medieval world. Movement becomes a reflection of both vulnerability and resilience, as women, regardless of class, must navigate limited opportunities and social constraints. Characters like Pampinea, Zinevra, Bartolomea, Beritola, Jancofiore, and Gostanza reveal how migration, far from diminishing one’s value, can instead become a means of asserting agency. Thus, The Decameron illustrates a world where migration does not make someone any less of a citizen.

In contemporary American Jewish life, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) is remembered to have played a key role in the unprecedented movement toward Jewish and Christian mutual understanding in the post-Holocaust era. Ample research has been carried out on Heschel’s interfaith dialogue; however, the literature has overlooked the method of his confrontation in favor of its context and results. For example, biographers of Heschel focus on his Polish Hasidic spiritual background, remarkable resilience in the face of the destruction of European Jewry, and watershed position in the religious landscape of the United States: that is, a Holocaust survivor leading the charge toward interfaith dialogue. This hagiographical lens has obscured the intellectual backdrop of Heschel’s approach to Christianity, namely, his higher education in Germany. As a student at the University of Berlin and the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, Heschel sought out the historical-critical method of assessing Biblical texts. He then applied those same critical tools to Christian scripture. In an advisory, albeit confrontational, role at the Second Vatican Council, Heschel identified the ahistorical separation that had arisen between Catholic perceptions of Jesus and Christ. He then drew upon scriptural-critical analysis to reconnect the Gospels’ confessional portrayal of Christ with Jesus’ Jewish birth and practice. In this way, Heschel's work may be viewed a creative and productive continuation of Jewish historicism in Weimar Germany.

My project explores how Christian apologetics evolved to address the despair and disillusionment posed by the Great War (WWI). Before the war, apologetics often reflected an optimistic, personal, and confident theological framework; Blaise Pascal, Justin Martyr, and Søren Kierkegaard, for example, rooted their approach in ideals of progress, rationality, and the individual’s intimate, or community’s localized, relationship with G-d. Post-war apologetics ultimately rejected liberal optimism and emphasized divine grace, the pervasiveness of sin, and the centrality of salvation in response to questions of theodicy. The field became oriented toward rigid frameworks that situated Christianity as inherently rational and teleological, as opposed to earlier conceptions rooted in wonder and personal devotion. Post-war apologists such as Reinhold Niebuhr, C.S. Lewis, and G.K. Chesterton presented morality and deeds as immediately knowable, grounding religious conviction in confessional devotion and action rather than abstract theological speculation. However, they presented an “out there” conception of G-d. Instead of pleading epistemic humility, the direct salvation offered by Jesus, as embodied by Karl Barth, became privileged as the hermeneutic for religious experience. This rejection of liberalism and privileging of Christianity, combined with the rise of modern technologies such as radio, laid the groundwork for the spread of Fundamentalism.