Hi everyone! My name is Marley Gleason and I am a senior at UT this year. I am spending the fall 2019 semester in Washington, DC while I intern at the Capitol Riverfront BID through The Washington Center. This program connected me with a full-time, semester long internship so that I can gain a new experience and a different perspective in my field. Since being in DC, I’ve learned so much about public relations through the Capitol Riverfront BID. I’ve been lucky enough to work on World Series campaigns, as well as seeing first hand all that goes into developing and marketing upcoming neighborhoods. In my free time, I’ve been spending time touring all of the national museums and monuments. This city is certainly different from anywhere I’ve ever been. I’m very grateful to UT’s Honors Program for giving me this amazing opportunity!
Corinne Fanta – Honors Research
Honors student Corinne Fanta is the co-author of a forthcoming book chapter. Deriving from work she did with Dr. Katherine Cooper and Dr. Brittany Harder, Corinne’s chapter is titled, “Reel Curves in the Revolution: Body Politics, Unruly Bodies, and Comedy as Resistance” and will be part of the edited volume, Persistent Resistance: Essays on Resistance Narratives in Media.
Here’s the abstract of the chapter:
This chapter examines representations of bodies in popular culture and discusses the growing public resistance to dominant discourses on body weight and overweightness. More specifically, we argue that contemporary women’s comedy has become a pertinent and prominent site of social resistance. Media are powerful tools in shaping public consciousness on a variety of issues, and dominant ideologies on bodies and body weight that circulate the mass media tend to assert that 1) fat bodies are unhealthy; 2) fat bodies are unproductive; and 3) fat bodies are unsightly. As we discuss, these dominant ideologies remain prevalent in many spheres of popular culture, such as reality television and competitive weight-loss shows, for instance. However, comedy as a particular genre within popular culture is a unique arena for revealing taken-for-granted norms and exposing the social constructedness of social life. In this chapter we discuss how contemporary “unruly women” such as Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer use both their onscreen comedy as well as their offscreen personas to reveal the social constructedness of body expectations and to resist cultural body shaming practices.
Oxford Semester Abroad – Danielle Gresia
Being at Oxford so far has been nothing short of incredible! Just walking around the town you really get a sense of how much history is here and why Oxford is known around the world. While the architecture amazes me time and time again, it’s really the nature all around that takes my breath away. Having not experienced a true fall season with all the changing of the leaves and the distinct crispness of the air in over 3 years, I had almost forgotten that this is my favorite season. The libraries here are extensive and beautiful, especially the Radcliffe Camera, which is my ultimate study destination (unless it closes, in which case I head over to my college library at Trinity College because it is one of the only libraries that is open 24/7). Despite the colder-than-Tampa temperatures and the lack of palm trees, I really like Oxford and all of the people I’ve met so far. OSAP has a lot of scheduled tours and events, and so far I’ve been to London and Bath with some of my new friends in the program. There is also food from every culture imaginable, including Nando’s, which has become a personal favorite of mine! Oxford really has it all and I’m extremely grateful I have this opportunity to experience it firsthand.