We’re excited to kick off another year of our “Five Questions” series. This year, we’ll be featuring both first- and second-year students here at UT AMS. We look forward to sharing our amazing graduate students with you. Read on to learn more about Lillian Nagengast!

Q: What is your background, academic or otherwise, and how does it motivate your research?

A: I come from a background in English—I received my MA in English from Georgetown University and my BA in English from Boston College. At Georgetown, I wrote my MA thesis on contemporary representations of gender and rurality in American media and memoir, a topic to which I have a personal connection. I grew up in Bloomfield, Nebraska, a tiny no-stoplight town in the northeast corner of the cornhusker state.

Where I grew up greatly influences my thinking, interests, and general personhood. My current research coalesces around questions such as the following: How does place influence identity? How is place (mis)represented in media and literature? What is the relationship among gender, sexuality, and place?

Q: Why did you decide to come to AMS at UT for your graduate work?

A: I decided to join AMS at UT because of its dynamism, dedication to public-facing work, and sense of comraderie among its graduate students. While I discerned some of this from the department’s website, the more affective part of my decision came after meeting with faculty, participating in graduate seminars, and speaking with current graduate students.

Q: What projects or people have inspired your work?

A: I’m inspired by academic works such as Scott Herring’s Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanisms and Nadine Hubbs’ Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music as well as works of nonfiction like Sarah Smarsh’s Heartland and Tara Westover’s Educated. I also admire the research and pedagogies of my MA thesis advisors, Sherry Lee Linkon and Pamela Fox.

Q: What projects do you see yourself working on at UT?

A: In terms of my own research, I hope to delve deeper into gender and sexuality studies and explore the field of American Indian studies. I also hope to continue developing my own public-facing project, a website dedicated to improving rural student college access.

Q: What are your goals for graduate school? What do you see yourself doing after you graduate?

A: I hope to take advantage of the collaborative and transformative potential of American Studies in general, but especially here at UT. I want to build on the work of scholars I admire while developing my own approach to research and teaching. More personally, I hope to form a supportive and generative community. After graduating, I hope to continue teaching, researching, and writing—in whatever capacity I can!