This week, we’re highlighting the American Studies Department’s fabulous undergraduates — both those currently enrolled and recently graduated. Our second feature is of Natalie Sather (2021), whose senior honors thesis was entitled Peter Pan and the Predicament of the Child in Early 20th Century Anglo-American Culture.

Q: How did you come to your project, "Peter Pan and the Predicament of the Child in Early 20th Century Anglo-American Culture"? Were there classes, professors, other school projects, or anything else that helped you cultivate an interest in the topic?

A: I knew I wanted to research something about the history of the construction of childhood- I have been a childcare worker for years and I want to be a teacher, and it always bothered me both in my own childhood and in childcare work to see how children are mistreated by adults and seen as “potential” humans. I got interested in the subject academically when I did a project in Dr. Alison Kafer’s class on reproductive futurism, which is the perpetuation of current structures of oppression into the future through the vehicle of the nuclear family and specifically children. (Her book Feminist Queer Crip was a really important source for me.) So studying that got me interested in dynamics of age and how they are informed by white supremacy and ableism. My thesis advisor Dr. Julia Mickenberg is a children’s literature scholar, so I decided to go the literature route, and chose Peter Pan because there is so much to analyze in terms of ideas toward childhood- it’s like the quintessential book about childhood in American/ English culture, so it was a good jumping block to use in order to write about what I wanted to write about.

Q: What was your experience of doing research during a pandemic? Did it create any limitations and/or do you think it opened up new ways of doing research you might not have otherwise considered?

A: I think doing research during the pandemic was really hard for lots of reasons. First I would have much preferred to have been writing in an actual library, which helps me stay more focused than in my room. Also, lots of primary sources that would have been available in the Harry Ransom Center or other UT libraries were lost to me which was disappointing. I think the lack of the social element made it harder as well- it would have been nice to physically meet up with Dr. Gutterman, Ashley, and Libby, but we made it all work the best we could, and I’m so grateful for the experience!

Q: Now that you’ve submitted your senior thesis, what does the future hold for you?

A: Now that I’ve submitted my thesis and graduated, I’m going to be working as a nanny this summer and then starting my Masters of Secondary English at UT this fall with the Urban Teachers graduate program. I’m very relieved to be done with my thesis but so grateful for the chance to have done it, and very excited for my next chapter!