First things first

Greetings, MALS friends, from your shiny new Writing Consultant! My name is Emily Carmichael. A few of you already know me from classes we shared during the past two years; I hope to meet the rest of you face to face sometime soon.

I graduated from MALS in May 2012. My area of study was the relationship between text and culture, with specific emphasis on folklore and fairy tales. Because text and culture are both broad fields, I built my program of study from a relatively wide variety of disciplines, including literature, art, history, and anthropology. For my Capstone, I chose to do a creative project focused on Grimms' fairy tales and the ongoing process of revising and retelling those stories, both visually and verbally, with an emphasis on the mutual interplay between retellings and the cultures in which they are produced. 

Grimms' Girls: part of a larger series
which made up part of my Capstone.
Acrylic and glitter on canvas, 2012.

My undergraduate work is in fine art and literature. I also have a background in librarianship (I have worked in public and school libraries, and earned my Master of Education with a concentration in school library media simultaneously with my MALS degree), which means I'm happy to help with research problems. I will certainly post about research here as well.

I came to MALS, interdisciplinarity, and writing quite naturally; I am addicted to learning, my scholarly background is varied, and I have always had a tendency to think and write interdisciplinarily (although I didn't know there was a name for it). Even so, I found the work I did in the MALS program to be the most challenging of my life, in no small part because MALS students are held to an extremely high standard. As intimidating as that standard is, and as frustrating as I found it at times, it has shaped me into a far better writer than I was prior to entering the program. 

Swan Song. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2012.

Additionally, I struggled with many assignments because I am highly subject to the major pitfalls that trip up many students: procrastination, a short attention span, and a vocal inner critic. While I still don't know how to fully conquer these problems, I have learned to devise personal strategies to circumvent them, a little at a time, in order to get the necessary work done. At a later date I'll talk some about those strategies as well.

On a personal note, I live here in Johnson City, so I am happy to make face-to-face appointments if those suit your working style better than online conversations. At present I live with four cats, but only two are permanent (the other two are foster kittens), so I have not quite reached cat lady status yet. I spend much of my free time reading, cooking, and performing in local theatre productions.

Since it is now my responsibility to craft a blog worth the time it will take for you to read, I will do my best to keep things fun as well as informative. I'll also try to do the same with the MALS Writing Center Facebook page. I look forward to meeting, getting to know, and working with all of you. 

Cheers,

Emily

p.s. Despite my background in literature, I still find theory challenging! If it's easy for you, please let me know, because I want to shake your hand.