Favorite quote: “Come out of your head / And into my world now” – Arcade Fire
Memorable experiences in English: I loved being a part of the intimate communities that develop in English seminars. I remember when Professor Pfau effectively formed a tangential book club for our seminar, cross-pollinating Goethe’s botanical writings with David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth. In that class I learned how to become a more attentive reader of the natural world. In my senior year, Professor Aers and Professor Beckwith guided me on a tour through works of Shakespeare and Milton (I’ll never forget when someone accidentally addressed David Aers as “Professor Milton”). Professor Vadde introduced me to some of my favorite authors and books. Reading Tom McCarthy’s Remainder in her “Contemporary Novel” course my sophomore year sparked a set of ideas that she helped me develop in my senior thesis.
Farewell wishes for your classmates: I am sad that we did not share the last part of the semester together. I hope we keep in touch and reconnect sooner rather than later!
Awards or honors you’ve won during your time at Duke: Highest Distinction in the English Dept. for Critical Honors Thesis (2020) and Thompson Writing Program Rigel Scholar (2017)
Plans/hopes for the future (what’s next for you after Duke?):
I have an upcoming role as a software engineer at Amazon Web Services. In a couple of years, I might consider higher education for English or computer science!
Faculty Remarks:
Joel Mire
Dear Joel,
I’ve known you since you were a first year, and it has been a true privilege to see your thoughts and writing develop through coursework and an absolutely stunning thesis. I so enjoyed our meetings this year and learned a great deal about the programming side of computation from our work together. I will never look at cellular automatons in the same way again! Needless to say, I understand Tom McCarthy both better and differently because of our collaboration.
Warmest wishes as you start your new job, and I hope you’ll report back from the trenches! – Aarthi (Prof. Vadde)
