Alyssa Smith, a consortium fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, is conducting research on Early Modern literature in the 18th-century Black Atlantic World.
Smith, a fifth-year English Ph.D. candidate at the University of Iowa, is working on her dissertation about how early modern writers continued to influence Black writing during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Smith explained how she is pursuing her academic interests at Penn.
Smith decided on her dissertation, titled “America’s Requiem: Remembering the Renaissance Through the 18th-century Black Atlantic,” after she met her advisor, Tara Bynum, during graduate school and subsequently “fell in love” with Bynum’s area of study.
Smith’s academic interests initially centered around “wanting to be an early modernist,” with an exclusive focus on studying Shakespeare.
“As I progressed through my program, I talked more with [Bynum] and other faculty at Iowa in the English department about finding ways to merge my two interests of early modern English and then early America as well,” Smith said. “In the world of 18th-century slave trading, I am finding some really cool evidence of different early modern figures and early modern writing, such as Shakespeare and John Milton.”
Smith applied to the McNeil Center at the encouragement of Bynum, who had previously worked at the center.
“It turns out that I found something that stuck for sure,” Smith added.
“A lot of the historical materials I am interested in are in Philadelphia and in this Mid-Atlantic region,” Smith explained. “I’m actually hoping to spend a little bit of time at the American Philosophical Society to look at the early American newspaper archive for the chapter that I’m getting ready to write.
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After completing her dissertation, Smith is considering pursuing various career paths — either within or outside of academia.
“I’m interested in a more traditional post-grad plan — which is to enter the job market for different professorships,” she explained. “That seems to be what I’m planning for right now, but I am also open to a lot of other non-teaching opportunities as well.”
Smith expressed interest in museum work — particularly museums focused on early American history.
“I have been told that a lot of people think my project would translate really well into a digital humanities project, so that’s something I’m thinking about,” Smith added.
