From a Humanities Alumna

I have always had trouble choosing “just one” of anything, and this is especially true when it comes to courses of study and educational paths to pursue. I love working in multiple literary genres, studying multiple disciplines simultaneously, and resisting simplistic binaries between “creative” and “critical.” The PhD program in Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville embodies, for me, an innovative, “all of the above” approach to learning and teaching. My years in this program opened doors in my life as a scholar, writer, and professor that continue to swing wide, doors I plan to hold open for my own students for the rest of my academic career. I’m so grateful to have been able to mix and merge, fuse and blend my study of contemporary American literature and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies toward the completion of a queer, feminist bildungsroman and a critical afterword exploring the autobiographical impulse across various identities and modes of expression. I was mentored impeccably by my professors at UofL—their compassionate rigor and unflagging guidance. I carry their teachings with me in every aspect of my life.

—Julie Marie Wade, PhD in Comparative Humanities (2012), Professor of English & Creative Writing at Florida International University