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The Interview:

Karen: What is your research project about?   

Miranda: My URECA research and senior thesis investigates Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s influential and widely studied short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” I take a new approach that unites gaze theory and visual culture, investigating how the controlling male gaze infiltrated women’s products in the nineteenth century, from wallpaper patterns to soapine products. I examine how Gilman stages and manipulates the controlling male gaze in her tradecard illustrations through her unconventional marketing strategies and color choices, while analyzing “The Yellow Wallpaper.” My research aims to illuminate the mechanisms by which a patriarchal society exerts control over nineteenth century women in the U.S. 

And how did you first get interested in the topic? 

I was in Professor Schekel’s Honors American literature class on nineteenth century American literature, and we were asked to analyze a text alongside a visual culture element. I chose “The Yellow wallpaper” because I was familiar with the story. As I was figuring out what visual culture element went along with the text, I thought: Why not get a look at what the wallpaper looks like that Gilman discusses in the text?

My project grew from there. When I found out that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was an advertisement illustrator, I decided to bring in her commercial artwork in relation to both nineteenth century wallpaper and Gilman’s text as well. 

Then, thanks to the URECA summer research grant, I spent 10 weeks immersed in archival sources, such as the Schlesinger archives, delving into Charlotte Perkins Gilman's writings and artwork. My greatest focus of the summer was on her commercial artwork. I started off wondering what the significance of the colors in her advertisements and Illustrations were in relation to the yellow wallpaper itself. 

Did you find anything surprising from looking at the archives? 

Gilman’s work is very interesting to look at. She does this really unique thing in her illustrations, in that the advertisements she designs hide the product that they're advertising. When you look at the front of the advertisement illustrations, you can't necessarily tell what's being advertised at all. I think that really contrasts with most modern advertisements, which are pretty blatant in their product placement. For Gilman, the front of the trade cards portrayed these flower-esque women, so there was an omission of the advertised product. Potential consumers would have to manually turn over the entire trade card to find out what was being advertised. That was intriguing to me. Also when I began to initially research the wallpaper patterns, I discovered that the nineteenth century wallpaper pattern prints are nearly all the same. … If the wallpaper is a reflection of the nineteenth century woman, what does that suggest? What is the cultural significance of the wallpaper design itself? 

Will you be presenting your thesis/URECA project? 

Yes, I’ll be presenting at both the English honors symposium in April and URECA’s poster symposium. I was also recently invited to present at Stony Brook University's Annual English Graduate Student Conference, and will be presenting at other conferences later on this spring as well. 

How difficult was it to narrow down a topic for your thesis? 

It was quite difficult, and is something that I'm continually figuring out. One thing that I found helpful-- even though it sounds kind of elementary — is to think in terms of subheadings. Instead of trying to tackle one overwhelming thesis, it has really helped me to break it down into chunks and work on sections at a time. For example, I begin my thesis with the controlling male gaze. Building upon this idea, I have a whole section where I discuss Gilman’s commercial artwork. As I write each part, I weave my analysis of Gilman’s story throughout my argument, demonstrating how each prong of my research relates to the thesis as a whole. 

How has your mentor helped guide you in the process? 

Professor Scheckel’s work with me has been so instrumental to my success as an undergraduate student. It all goes back to our earliest meetings, when I was revising my argument on “The Yellow Wallpaper.” I wasn’t entirely proud of my first draft of this project, so Prof. Scheckel and I met many times to discuss my writing. After several meetings and a semester-long revision process, I ended the class with a strong project that I was both proud of and wanted to continue working on, even though I didn't know the exact direction that my work would take me in. Throughout that class, my summer research, and now writing my thesis, Prof. Scheckel has been incredibly supportive, helping me to generate new ideas and refine my research findings. Additionally, she has both supported and guided me as I applied to graduate programs in English. 

Do you enjoy being in the English honors program? 

When I first was nominated to apply for the honors program, I was taking a class that focused on feminist literature. I was compelled by everything that I was shown in terms of literary studies and scholarship…it stirred empathy and the imagination, which are some of the reasons why I got involved in English. Even though I didn’t really think about the thesis at the time, having the opportunity to continue working in this field, and being around other people who care about literature, inspired me to continue my English studies in the honors program. 

One of the biggest benefits of the English Honors program has been being part of a cohort. We run potential research ideas by one another, or have writing workshops where we'll get coffee, and then we sit together for hours. No one talks: we just write, and that's very helpful too. Because of this program, I feel like I have people in my corner who will keep me on track with writing and conducting my research. The class we took together with Professor Tondre on how to conduct research was also very helpful. We read a lot about what a thesis could look like, while gaining a lot of practice in presenting and developing public speaking skills, something which I think goes hand in hand with research. 

What advice would you give to other students about doing a thesis? 

Make sure it's something that you are interested in—because you're going to be doing it for a long time. Also, I remember some valuable advice from Professor Andrew Newman, who said: You can't approach a research project wanting to find the sources to support your pre-existing ideas. Rather, you have to let your research findings guide you. 

I think that is very true – and while that can be frustrating in crafting a thesis, the process of making discoveries that I wasn't expecting to find and having them become a really important aspect of my research has been an interesting part of my thesis writing experience. I think that's what happened when I first looked into Gilman’s advertisement illustrations. I began my project focused on the text itself, and came out of my research experience with a whole visual culture project. 

Did you find it helpful to have a URECA fellowship? 

Incredibly so, yes. Having those 10 weeks to fully delve into the scholarship surrounding Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and those archival sources are so foundational to my honor’s thesis. I would not have had the time to do that during the academic year along with my other classes, and I do think that the thesis that I produce will be greatly informed by all of the research that I did over the past summer. The grant also helped in terms of travel costs. Participating in URECA afforded me many opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I've been promoting URECA to all my friends in English!