Brian is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on modernist literature. His passion for modernism as a literary movement drives both his dissertation research and teaching, where he brings precision and engagement to the study of 20th century texts.
What are your specializations and topics of interest as well as what you’re currently working on?
My specialization is 20th century Anglophone literature. I focus specifically on modernist novels. I’m really interested in geographical space and place, historical memory in that sort of fiction. The novel just happens to be the genre, the mode that I’ve focused on the most. I’m also starting to work more with the bildungsroman and coming of age. I realized that a lot of my dissertation was focusing on texts with younger characters, so that’s helping it come together. What I’m working on right now is a chapter of my dissertation that looks at Elizabeth Bowen, who was a late modernist and a huge short story writer and novelist. I’m looking at one of her texts, The Death of the Heart. My dissertation focuses specifically on how these different modernists represented the city and interrogated it through youth.
What led you to go for doctoral studies? Tell us about your previous academic background.
The desire to go for my doctorate actually came very early in my academic background. I was in high school and planning to be an English major when someone was like, “What are you gonna do? Be a doctor of literature?” And I was like, okay, I think I want to do that. I did undergrad with that in mind, I went through my master’s program, and then in 2013, I started teaching. I taught literature and composition courses in California community colleges until I moved to New York in 2017, and then I started the doctoral program at Stony Brook in 2018. My interests also have not really shifted. A lot of people’s periods that they focus on shift, mine has pretty much stayed the same. It’s been modernism since I was a sophomore in college. But the way that I look at it, my lens has shifted a lot since then, which is good, right?
Were there any mentors, classes, or experiences that shaped your path into this field?
I think everyone has that high school English teacher. I had Mrs. Casper in 12th grade. In college, I had a lot of really great instructors, specifically the instructor who first introduced me to modernism as a literary movement. And then here, I’ve gotten something from every single professor I’ve taken classes from.. I think the courses that I took the most from were the people who are now on my committee. Celia Marshik’s modernism class, Mike Rubinstein’s Irish Modernism class, and E.K. Tan’s class on postcolonial literature. Those were really some of the more specific standouts that, again, helped guide my attention to what I wanted to be working on now and gave me ideas, things I hadn’t thought about in relation to my own work, especially E.K.’s class.
Has teaching influenced how you think about your own research?
Teaching in general requires the need to consider how you’re coming across to other people. How were you thinking about the things you’re interested in to convey them to other people, right? It’s not enough to just be passionate about literature or think that good writing, whatever that looks like, is important. I have to be able to think about what I’m asking students to do and how best to articulate that for them. With modernism specifically, it’s considered fairly inaccessible. It’s this experimental, often avant-garde type of writing that doesn’t always lend itself to being read by first or second year students. That’s when I started reading it, that’s when I fell in love with it. So I absolutely don’t think that’s the case, but I understand that. Thinking about how to articulate my ideas about why something is significant for students has really helped me.
What’s one piece of advice you often share with undergrads who are curious about graduate school?
The same piece of advice that I got from my undergrad faculty who were advising me is to think about the length of time you’re willing to invest, think about how important it is to you, and where you’re living is going to be. Those are all things that don’t seem stable these days in terms of jobs, but are really important to know if you’re going to make this commitment. I think that if you really want to do this, you’re going to do it anyway. That’s what I did. But go into it with your eyes open about the challenges.
The other thing is, have an idea of what you want to do and who you want to work with. Be open to exploring when it comes to classes. That was a piece of advice that my high school English AP teacher gave me just about college in general, to explore as much as you can. Literature, and scholarship is big and vast and varied, and that’s what makes it exciting. Balance between knowing what you want to do or having a sense of what you’re passionate about, but be open to doing new things as far as your potential research interests. That is one of the really fun things about this type of work that we are doing.