MA in Communication, University of Washington, Seattle, WA expected graduation 2022
BA in Writing and Rhetoric, St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas
Minor in Spanish (completed in residency at Universidad Pontifica Comillas, Madrid, Spain)
GPA: 3.90 Summa Cum Laude
Honors Program Graduate
Honors Thesis Title: “What Honour for the Female Sex: Rhetorical Representations of Women’s Power and Influence in the Luttrell Psalter” Dr. Christopher Baswell and Dr. Moriah McCracken
Thesis Abstract: Society has had a hard time coming to grips with a seemingly outrageous idea: women have influence. In the Middle Ages, scriptural accounts of Old Testament biblical characters such Eve, Delilah, and Jezebel led to an obvious conclusion for medieval society: if women have influence, they misuse it. Medieval decorators brought such moralizing stories derived from women’s behavior to life within marginal artwork in decorated manuscripts. In my project, I observe themes of women’s power and influence in the margins of the Luttrell Psalter—a late 14th century, English decorated manuscript of psalms intended for private devotion. The significance behind such analysis lies in the fact that it provides a rhetorical window into societal evolution of ideas surrounding women’s endorsed behaviors. I argue that the ways in which ethos and pathos are negotiated in the contextually illustrative marginal artwork intended for consumption by diverse audiences create certain boundaries parameters for women’s influence. My research builds on Susan Smith’s analysis of the power of women topos in the late Middle Ages, yet adds a new rhetorical perspective that could shed light on modern iterations of women’s representation in visual imagery and society.