I came to UW in 2014 after finishing my Master’s program at the University of Kentucky, where I taught undergraduate German for two years. I was the recipient of a Max Kade Fellowship during my first year at the University of Washington, as well as a Go-Map Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year, affording me the opportunity to focus more intensely on completing my dissertation project. My dissertation, "Subverting the Gazhe Gaze: Reclaiming Roma Identity in the European World and Beyond", explores the creation and ascription of tropic markers used to identify Roma figures in the European literary canon as a means of silencing and speaking for the marginalized, the societal underpinnings of this aggressive Othering, and the strategies--both direct and subversive--by which Roma have employed and subverted these ascriptions as a means of navigating a social sphere designed to keep them from agency and self-identification. This examination of power, identity, and minority voices speaks to my broader fields of interest, which include Minority Literature, Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, Identity Formation and Representation, and Postcolonial Studies. Moving forward, I hope to find a position that will allow me to continue nurturing my passion for diversity and inclusivity in the humanities.