Memorable experiences in English: I came into the English department as a first-year student intimidated by basically anything pre-20th century and hoping to save my medieval and early-modern requirements for the very last moment possible. As I graduate, it turns out those same courses were the ones I ended up enjoying the most as an English major —thanks to professors like David Aers and Sarah Beckwith, whose courses on Milton and Shakespeare were among my favorite as a senior and gave me a new appreciation for these classic texts. I’d also especially like to thank my advisor in the major, Taylor Black, for his consistent mentorship in my own academic and career plans and for helping create such a memorable experience as the faculty advisor for the Duke in New York program in summer 2018.
Awards or honors you’ve won during your time at Duke: Graduating with Highest Distinction for honors thesis in the Program in Literature; nominee for the 2020 Bascom Headen Palmer Literary Prize
Faculty Remarks:
I am currently working with Will in a Milton class this semester which demands reading of both political prose and a complex, demanding range of poetry. In this class, Will has been outstanding in his contributions both around the table and online when we were dispersed. He has an extremely unusual eye for details which are both intellectual and rhetorical. And he has an unusually searching, questioning mind which is disciplined by the texts he is addressing. He would be an ideal graduate student! It has been a privilege to work with him. – David Aers
Will, you were quiet in my relatively large Shakespeare on Love class. So when I read your essay on artifice and reality in Hamlet, I was blown away. And so were my two teaching assistants, Patrick Timmis and Chandler Fry. It was a really thoughtful and sophisticated piece of work showing how much you had personally engaged with and thought through the material. I loved it. And for allthat time I did not know that you were also doing a lot of work on the Duke Chronicle, sharing pieces on music, literature and life on campus. Truly you have honed the arts of writing during your time at Duke, learning a flexible, resilient, lively and curious voice, attentive and inquiring about your relation to the arts. I commend you for your amazing career at Duke, and for the wise use of your skills and time. I know that you will go in your work and life with great integrity and intelligence. I wish you well and hope you will continue to live with and through the works you encountered here. You have an enormous amount to offer the world. – Sarah Beckwith
Will was one of the few undergraduates who signed up for my graduate course on Wittgenstein in spring 2020. He was such a bright presence in class, and so thoughtful. Even after we shifted to Zoom teaching I enjoyed seeing his face on the screen. And I admire his writing: both in our class blog and in the final essay. The clarity, force, and originality of his insights never ceased to impress me. I was particularly struck by his capacity to use Wittgenstein’s philosophy to think through questions of radical politics. I will miss having Will in class. But I am sure that he will go out in the world and help change it for the better. – Toril Moi
