Department of English

Words are power, and learning to deconstruct and analyze the power words hold over us is more important than ever. My time in the program taught me that words can construct our realities, they can hold us under or lift us up, and they ultimately determine our potential in the world. I am more convinced than ever that we will never truly create a loving, uplifting society until we learn how to stop leveraging words as a club with which to beat others and start using them as an opportunity to empathize with those around us. Reading gives us the means by which to walk in others’ shoes. As we live in these dark times, stone-hearted against what others have to say, may we learn to listen twice as much as we speak.