Defending Mary Robinson's Honor (Well, not necessarily...)

I've been writing blog posts for about a year on Mary Robinson. I hope that instead of being simply a name, she has become someone with a little bit of personality. She's a fascinating woman and an outstanding writer writing within a difficult time period for women. I've spent countless hours figuring out who she was and how her sonnet sequence worked.

Part of writing a thesis is defending it. At first, that sounds a little scary, but when you really think about it, a thesis defense allows you, as the writer, to have a conversation with professors about your topic. This conversation is not a usual conversation you might have when you have an appointment with them to talk about a plain-jane paper. This conversation is highly academic because in many ways, you as the writer have become an expert. Therefore, the conversation is academic discourse and your professors become your peers. It's an opportunity you don't get very often as a student. 

A few weeks ago, on April 8th, I successfully defended my thesis on Mary Robinson. My defense committee consisted of four professors I knew quite well: Melissa (my advisor), Patrick (from last semester's English seminar class on Toni Morrison), Amber (my professor from my senior this semester on the marriage plot), and Prof Keenan (the professor who took us to Germany and Poland in May 2013). They had all read my paper and we had an hour long conversation about it. They asked me questions about Robinson herself and how I went about analyzing her sonnets and writing the paper as a whole. Once they felt all their questions had been answered and comments had been made, I left the room so they could deliberate. They called me back in and congratulated me. It was a great moment and I feel so good about the work I've accomplished. 

Of course, I'm not quite done with the paper yet. They had several revisions they would like me to make. Once those are made, I can submit the paper to Coe's library and they will bind it into a hardcover book. I will even make it into the Coe library catalog and my paper on Mary Robinson will receive its own Library of Congress call number. Swanky! 

Needless to say, I'm proud of my accomplishments and the paper that I've created. Robinson will always hold a special place in my heart and it's hard to believe I've spent the past year researching her. It's been a great and challenging experience and I know I'm a better student because of it.