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We're kicking off a new series spotlighting H&A students who spent eight weeks at Stanford University through the Stanford/CCNY Summer Research Program in the Humanities. The program pairs up to five H&A students with Stanford faculty mentors, includes a weekly seminar on research and graduate applications, and offers space to pursue a focused project.

Meet Kaitlyn Murphy

Our first Q&A features Kaitlyn Murphy, a rising senior majoring in English Literature with a Spanish minor. At Stanford, Kaitlyn examined how bodies, corporeality, and textual form in contemporary Latinx short stories open pathways toward a decolonial future—with close readings of Junot Díaz's "The Sun, The Moon, The Stars" and Lyn Di Iorio's "By the River Cibuco" (Di Iorio is also a CCNY English professor). The project grows from her own hybrid background (Irish-American and Ecuadorian) and from CCNY coursework with Professor H. Aram Veeser and prior ORCA research with Professor Amr Kamal. Mentored by Stanford professor José David Saldívar, Kaitlyn deepened her theoretical toolkit—adding Walter Mignolo and Ricardo Piglia to earlier engagements with Derrida and Foucault—and discovered a favorite workspace in the Cecil H. Green Library stacks. Weekly humanities seminars led by Professor Alexander Nemerov helped crystallize her next step: applying to English PhD programs.

"This program solidified my desire to continue doing research in the humanities…to think of academia as an art—a way of being."

Read on for Kaitlyn's full Q&A—her research journey, what surprised her at Stanford (besides all the biking), and her advice for CCNY students considering the program.

Q: What was your research project about, and how did you choose that topic?

A: I looked at how representations of bodies, corporeality, and textual form in contemporary Latinx short stories provide us with insight into a decolonial future. More concretely, I wanted to look at how current Latinx authors are exorcising the ghosts of colonialism in their work by using both the body as a place for discourse and the short story as a hybrid form for imagining a decolonial future. I studied two short stories specifically: Junot Díaz's "The Sun, The Moon, The Stars", and Lyn Di Iorio's (who is also a CCNY English professor!) "By The River Cibuco."

I grew up in a culturally mixed household, with my father being Irish-American and my mother being a first-generation immigrant from Ecuador, so exploring the ideas of hybridity and colonialism are both near to my heart and critically rich for me; however, the concept of the body acting as a kind of stage for discourse and ideology came to me about a year ago in an ENGL25000 class here at CCNY, taught by Prof. Veeser. We read stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Sandra Cisneros, and I began to notice how each of them constructed the bodies of their characters in a way that was clearly driven by cultural memory and the questioning of prevailing ideologies. I worked on a project last summer through the ORCA summer research program with Prof. Kamal, looking at these two texts specifically with ideas of subversion and ideology in mind. With my project at Stanford, I wanted to develop this idea even further, now looking at more specific factors such as the form of the text (i.e., the short story), the memory of colonialism, and, more importantly, how these historical bodily forms usher us towards a decolonial future.

Q: Did this experience change how you think about your future academic or career goals? If so, how?

A: Absolutely. This program solidified my desire to continue doing research in the humanities and apply to English PhD programs. The most remarkable parts of this program, by far, were the weekly CUNY Humanities seminars taught by Prof. Alexander Nemerov. Prof. Nemerov pushed us to think of academia and research as an art—a way of being that provides an idiosyncratic enrichment that is difficult to find elsewhere. In approaching research this way, it became clear to me that this was the future I wanted for myself. 

Q: What was your favorite part of the Stanford community—academic, social, or even just biking around campus?

A: The Stanford campus as a space was just very interesting. Those first few weeks, I felt totally out of my element because of how strikingly different it is from NYC, let alone CCNY. At first, the campus felt massive– having a bike definitely made it easier to gain a sense of familiarity. 

My favorite thing about being at Stanford, however, was most likely the Cecil H. Green Library. I went there almost daily to work, but I also really fell in love with the stacks there. Often, I found myself going to the stacks to get one specific book, and leaving juggling twelve different books I found along the way. 

I also really love the community that all the CUNY folks were able to build while we were there: after the first three weeks, it really did begin to feel like a home away from home. 

Q: How did this program help you grow as a researcher, a student, and a person?

A: Being at Stanford made me aware of the stakes of research, especially in the humanities. My project advisor, Prof. José David Saldívar pointed me in the right direction when it came to exploring the impact of research concerning decolonialism. I had been reading philosophers such as Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, whose works were incredibly impactful in my thinking, but I had always felt that a Latin American approach to these big questions that Derrida and Foucault were posing was missing. In discussing this with Prof. Saldívar, he introduced me to Latin American literary theorists such as Walter Mignolo and Ricardo Piglia who have fundamentally changed the way I approach literature and theory. During my time at Stanford, I was able to hone my skills as a literary thinker and develop an approach to literary analysis that is wide-ranging in its accounting for the specters of history and textual form. 

As a person, doing this kind of extensive research into decolonialism and literature filled me with a sense of urgency (going back to stakes), as I felt a kind of duty to continue this literary and philosophical discourse regarding a future that can begin to heal the wound of colonialism in Latin American societies and Latinx cultures. 

Q: What would you say to other CCNY students who are thinking of applying?

A: Absolutely go for it! The program is really amazing: you get to meet people doing incredibly impactful work in the humanities and talk about it with them for eight weeks. It's truly a fantastic experience that I think anyone who is academically inclined will absolutely love. 

I would also suggest developing a research topic that you are passionate about and that aligns with your own personal values. Although there were times when I felt tired and almost burnt out, my values guided me towards a place of greater commitment and obligation. I knew I had to continue my work and complete a project that I absolutely loved, as I felt it would contribute to literary discourse in some way. 

Q: What's next for you now that you've completed the program?

A: Now, my plan is to start applying to graduate schools! I have begun the process of applying to various English PhD programs this semester in the hope of continuing to work on projects such as the one I worked on at Stanford and to develop my skills as a literary critic and thinker. 

Learn more about the Stanford/CCNY Summer Research Program in the Humanities