Wow I could write so much about how studying English has affected my life. So much of my identity was affirmed and informed by my studies at Queens College. I guess I will try to answer these questions in a way I would have found valuable when I was a senior at Queens College.
If you asked me in the period immediately after I graduated how I felt about studying English, you might’ve received a very cynical answer. I was working in a coffee shop, an embarrassing stereotype. Before Queens, I studied architecture at Pratt University for one semester (a loan I am still paying off) and realized early on I was much more interested in the readings and films we were assigned in English class than the different properties of steel. I often wondered, if I had just finished that architecture degree, I could have worked in real estate or something like one of my customers, instead of being on this side of the counter covered in spilled milk and breadcrumbs. When I declared my major to my parents and friends about my choice of studying English, they worried about my future and me.
Today I view my undergraduate studies at Queens College with appreciation and pride. I was a first generation immigrant who worked while attending school and it was comforting to attend a school with such a diverse student body. As a painter, writer, and critic, I found and continue to receive support from professors who encouraged me to speak and write from my point of view and draw from my seemingly disparate skills and interests.
During my junior year, Ryan Black nominated me for a fellowship at SILCS (Summer Institute in Literary and Cultural Studies). I was invited to Wheaton College. I was part of a cohort of students of color who studied English literature, given a stipend, attended an advanced course in literary and cultural theory, and introduced to the graduate school admission process. I am still in touch with the staff and other students there. Although we’ve gone on to pursue all sorts of occupations—some went on to graduate school, one of my friends works in public service, another the army, another is a social studies teacher—we keep in touch and always seem to end up talking about literature and culture.
A funny thing happens with former English majors. They find each other and elevate each other’s lives. At that coffee shop, I befriended a Salt Lake City transplant that was starting a library science degree. After work, we linked our experiences with those of the women in Kate Chopin’s and Marguerite Duras’s books, bemoaning the lack of intellectual stimulation in our temporary occupation. We were the source of our manager’s constant headaches, pointing out every sexist (he insisted all the girls wear lipstick) and racist (“Asians only drink tea and don’t tip”) statement and actions he made. We both eventually quit, but not after starting a few minor arguments and driving him to issue a staff wide apology and institute better procedures. She is now a librarian at a research institution. After that, I worked as a temp at a charter School, while doing other odd jobs and applying to graduate school. There I met a former poetry student at the New School. In between stuffing student papers into folders, we sent e-mails edits and comments on each other’s work, channeling the workshops of our undergraduate institutions. Her work has been published in some journals, she still continues to perform poetry, and she has a permanent position at that school.
I tend to be the friend who has an interesting recommendation for books and films and an annoyingly long-winded criticism of it. This was true before I went to Queens College. I just developed a broader vocabulary and a sense of place among critical conversations. A course in literature from the Americas with Anamaria Flores and a course in Asian American literature with Caroline Hong instilled a subversive attitude about the canons in literature and other dominant culture. A course on critical theory with David Richter gave me a vocabulary and a history of criticism to draw from and, at times, speak against. These professors instilled in me a sensitivity and intolerance towards inequality and injustice. The things I studies have also resurfaced in unexpected ways. At Queens, I took a senior seminar called Dreams with Jason Tougaw, where we read psychoanalytic and cognitive theory and other literature about the mind and applied them to various texts. After graduating, I worked as an assistant to the Director of Photography on a series about the mind. Though I was hired to prepare lights and cameras, I spent most of the time speaking with the director discussing the interviews.
Today, I am working at an art conservation studio. Our official tasks involve examining artwork, manually restoring them, documenting our treatment, and writing reports. The process is not so different from planning and writing research papers and each artwork has a different set of conventions and narratives that must be taken into account. In part because of my studies, my technophobic boss and coworkers often turn to me to proofread their writing, perform background research and assist them in putting together presentations. While working, we often discuss films we have recently seen and books we are reading. We are all reading Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan novels and, at my suggestion as it was once suggested to me, they’ve gotten copies of “The Lover’s Discourse” while one has borrowed my “literary theory comics” (“Structuralism and Poststructuralism for Beginners,” “Derrida for Beginners,” etc.).
While working, I applied for graduate studies. Years after I took their classes, Caroline Hong, Ryan Black, David Richter, and Jason Tougaw responded to my desperate e-mails, took the time to read and edit versions of my curriculum vitae, writing sample, and statement of purpose. They e-mailed me words of support, encouragement, and congratulations. I am now attending the CUNY Graduate Center in the digital humanities track of the MALS program. During my senior year at Queens College, I took an honors seminar on technology and literature. Today, in my work and in my studies, I involve contemporary research, writing, films, software, and hardware having a comprehensive understanding of emerging technologies and industries and their effects on culture and society.
One thing I found really rewarding after graduating doing volunteer work. I did it through NYCares and I helped some disadvantaged people use job searching databases, write resumes, and cover letters. It’s extremely rewarding and, when I felt aimless or my degree was perhaps a mistake, volunteering reminded me of what a privileged position I hold and how important it is to share that.
