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Hi everyone, 

My name is Sarah Murphy (she/her) and I will be a senior this year at Stony Brook University. I’m majoring in English and minoring in Film and Screen Studies. I’m thinking about doing a masters program for English after I graduate, but I also want to take some time off to do some creative writing. My dream would be to one day write a fiction novel, or maybe a screenplay. 

Over the summer I love to spend time with my dog Luna. She loves to go swimming so I will always take her to the beach to cool off on a hot day. My family is really into sailing so I’m out on our boat most days, but my favorite part is just to sit out there and read. My friends and I love to get dinner together and eat in the park in Northport Harbor while watching the sunset on the weekends too. 

Some of my favorite TV shows include Grey’s Anatomy, Peaky Blinders, Gilmore Girls, and The Umbrella Academy. I love Marvel and Harry Potter too! I think one of my all time favorite movies has to be Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting. This past year I’ve really gotten into Broadway shows, and I’m going to try and see Moulin Rouge before the summer ends so crossing my fingers. 

I took EGL 303 (Fanfiction) last summer with Professor Hautsch, so when I saw she was teaching another course I wanted to sign up. In the Fall of 2021 I took an introduction to film class (EGL 220) with Simone Brioni, and I think that helped me grow my interest in film even more. I really want to delve deeper into the different aspects of film and TV, so this class seemed like the perfect fit.

Hello everyone! My name is Theodore Penske (he/him). I am an English major with a Creative Writing minor at Stony Brook University. I will be graduating next spring with a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Creative Writing and Literature. I’m looking to go for my Master’s in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook’s Southampton campus. After that, I’m hoping to pursue a career in both poetry and literary publishing. My dream is to write and publish a poetry collection as well as own and run a publishing house.

Over the spring semester, I took a Sci-Fi class with Professor Simone Brioni where we analyzed the meanings and different symbolisms behind various Sci-Fi films. I wanted to dive deeper into the more technical side of the Science Fiction film genre, and I saw a summer class was being given by Professor Hautsch, who is also a professor I am going to have this fall semester with EGL 301.

Aside from schooling, I am an avid stargazer, collage artist, and photographer (I specifically love astrophotography). In terms of summer plans, I don’t usually have any as I like to spend the break relaxing at local beaches or going on hikes in some of the nature preserves in the area. Although during this first week, I will be going out to Southampton to attend the prestigious 2022 Southampton Writers Conference under the guidance of former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Out there, I will be perfecting my craft as a writer while also learning how to better enhance my voice as a poet.

Good Day everyone! My name is Christina Stiglianese (her/she). I am an SR at Stony Brook University, and I will be graduating this December with my Bachelor’s in English and going on to complete my LSATs and attend Law School. This is my second course with Professor Hautsch, I took Fan Fiction a few semesters ago, and I absolutely loved it! We all are familiar with fiction from our favorite authors and movie writers, but to experience the world of fan fiction the way Professor Hautsch laid it out before the class was an experience all its own. I am very excited to take this course with Professor Hautsch; and I selected this course because she is a fantastic professor, and she made learning during the summer fun and helped me learn more about the world of science fiction. I am eager to see what she teaches this semester! In addition to being a student, I am a wife and a mother to two handsome boys, who graduated this year, my oldest from middle school and my youngest from kindergarten. Because of the health climate these last two years, vacation plans have been more or less null and void; however, this year, my husband and I are taking our two graduates and my niece to Florida for an entire week in July. My family and I haven’t been back to Florida in about five years (we vacation to different places every year), so going back to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios is one of the highlights of this year!

I look forward to getting to know all of you! Have a great semester!

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to EGL 309: CogSci and SciFi on the Screen! Throughout the course of our class, we will be using this blog as space for you to post your weekly reflections and discoveries as you draw connections between our course VoiceThread lectures and the films we are watching. I am really looking forward to reading your work as we dig into research in cognitive science and philosophy and science fiction representations of the mind.

So, a little bit about me.

My name is Jessica Hautsch (she/her). I graduated this May from Stony Brook with a PhD in English. My dissertation, titled Thinking Through Fandom: Mind, Body, and Feeling in the Reception and Creation Practices of Fan Communities, draws on research and theories in the cognitive sciences to understand the complex cognitive work that fans are in and through fanworks. Although we are not researching fandom in this class (shout out to students who took EGL 303: Fanfiction as Literature with me last summer), a lot of the cognitive science research that we will be discussing is featured in my diss. These can be some tricky idea to wrap your mind around, so please let me know if you want to further discuss any of the theories or research that I discuss in my lectures. I love talking about this stuff. Outside of my academic work, I am a long distance runner, a cat mum, and a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast. I will be also be enjoying Emo Girl Summer, as a couple of friends and I are going to Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, My Chemical Romance, and Panic! At the Disco concerts.