From internship to full scholarship: Meet Brianna Christie '22

Matt Lewellyn (he/him) is a junior double majoring in English and Philosophy, with a concentration in Writing.  He is the co-founder and President of The MCLA Poetry Collective, an intimate band of poets who gather weekly to share their passion for creating! A trained Associate in MCLA's Writing Studio, he also loves helping students with their writing projects and assignments across all disciplines.  Outside of class, Matt is hard at work on a novel entitled North Watcher alongside a menagerie of short stories and poems that he hopes to soon share with the world. One of his poems, "Meditations," was published in the 2024 edition of Spires, the campus literary journal. Matt has participated in MCLA's Undergraduate Research Conference with an interactive, collaborative presentation on the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, as well as with performances of his poetry at the Creative Writing Special Session.

Aja Mercer is a sophomore English major with a concentration in Writing and a minor in Anthropology whose scholarly and creative interests lie withing cultural and language studies.  She has passion for learning about discourse communities and their ties to different backgrounds and experiences. As a freshman, she gave a presentation entitled "A Comparison of Themes between Nella Larsen and Maya Angelou" at MCLA's Undergraduate Research Conference, and at the department's end-of-year ceremony, she was recognized for "Excellence in Literary Criticism" for her work on James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in her "Interpretations and Methods" course. You can often find her working as a Writing Associate in the Writing Studio alongside her peers and Dr. Amber Engelson.

Alex Miller (he/him) is a senior English major with a concentration in Film Studies. His horror and science fiction films explore themes of isolation and colonialization, using found and original filmic resources to create an aestheric that is gothic, surrealist and comic. His short films "Burnt by the Sun" and "Incubate" have played at festivals including The Berkshire Student Film Festival, Horror Unleashed, International Gold Awards, New York Movie Awards, and the Cleveland Arthouse Film Festival. Alex also writes film reviews and criticism, and his film scholarship has included a semester-long independent study on the films of Claire Denis. Alex's favorite moviews include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Blade Runner, both versions of Suspiria, Ms 45, I Can't Sleep and the Shining. He also serves as Treasurer of the MCLA Craft Club.