Week Two: The Professor, Higher-Ed, and Spanish Churros

This week, everything really kicked off! Monday was my first day in the office and mainly focused on orientation, learning the different projects the Academic Affair office is working on, and getting accounts set up. During lunch, the Academic Affairs office took me out to get tapas at a local spot, where I got to know everyone in my department and had some splendid ice cream and churros. I wrapped up the day sitting in on meetings about upcoming events and publications in service of ACTA’s National Commission on American History and Civics education project.

The Commission’s primary goal is to combat the unraveling of higher-ed requirements and offerings in American history and government. According to ACTA, steep drop-offs in requirements have led to graduating student populations without a basic understanding of their own history and government, leading to increased misinformation, falling voter numbers, and increased historical illiteracy. The Commission aims to curb these effects by promoting legislation and policy changes that reintroduce civics education to both core curricula and specialist programs. On Monday, I attended logistical meetings for planning ahead of the publication of their whitepaper in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary, and throughout the week helped to develop a one-pager and other key writings for the Commission.

On Tuesday and Thursday, my work centered more around aiding ACTA’s efforts to combat the slashing of language programs in Universities across the country. I collected data on programs cut in the wake of Indiana’s REACH Act. Finally, I closed off the week with meetings and planning for articles and blogs I’ll write for ACTA’s website. All ACTA publications focus on defending higher education funding, and in particular, focus on threatened programs such as those in the humanities. My articles, of course, will center around my central, all-consuming passion: literature.

I couldn’t have imagined a better internship — I get to do all my favorite things: research, writing, reading, and talking about literature, all in service of a mission I viscerally support. When not in-office, I had plenty of time to dive into my first novel of study: The Professor. Categorized by some as juvenilia rather than a legitimate part of Charlotte Bronte’s body of work, The Professor is distinctly different from what one might expect from Bronte’s work. It’s her only novel written from a male point-of-view, and features characters, such as Crimsworth, painted in a likable light despite significant cruelties and misogyny. As Bronte’s earliest post-Angria novel, it will serve as the starting point for me in charting the ideological evolution of Bronte’s novels. 

In all, this week was wildly productive, joyous, and somewhat uncharted. I’ve never been in an office setting before, so learning the annoyances and hilarities of workplace politics and logistics was simultaneously educational and entertaining. I’m so excited about the articles I’ll be writing for ACTA and my work on The Professor, which is an absolute goldmine for my project.