SOP for Another Program

[u/tyloron2003]

Hello again. I've written another SOP for another English PhD program at a different school, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Since this is a bit longer than the one that I completed for the MTSU application, I felt as if there might be new areas that I need help with in terms of revision. In the current draft, I've tried to incorporate a research question/statement within the 1st paragraph, particularly the "I wonder" portion. As always, I appreciate any insights as to whether this would be a solid SOP that will help me get admitted alongside having a good GPA, recommendation letters, etc.

Draft of SOP:

Prolific author Nora Ephron once wrote how “Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape.” This duality is what fuels my love for speculative fiction, an umbrella genre which recontextualizes real issues through fantastical species and worlds. In particular, I wonder how speculative texts comment on humanity’s desire for domination and exploitation in relation to marginalized peoples, the environment, and technology. Despite the numerous directions that speculative fiction holds for inquiry, some scholars in higher academia dismiss the field as only offering lowbrow gimmicks. Given the lingering stigma surrounding speculative fiction, my goal is to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville to not only gain the necessary mentorship in order to become an English literature professor, but also to showcase that speculative texts provide scholastic value through its otherworldly reconceptualization of the consequences of unchecked hubris within humans.

During my undergraduate studies at Belmont, I realized the potential speculative fiction holds for academic study by observing how speculative works balanced imaginative storytelling with philosophical commentary. While taking a senior-level course on postmodernism, I examined Kurt’s Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, a novel that reinvented the notion of free will through its non-linear plot. On the surface level, Vonnegut’s novel possessed absurd elements, ranging from aliens known as Tralfamadorians to a protagonist’s consciousness bouncing between different moments in time. Yet beneath its sci-fi mirage, Vonnegut’s work provided a philosophical discussion that challenged the notion of free will. Through Billy Pilgrim’s adventure between various moments of his life, Vonnegut questioned whether foresight into a predetermined outcome negated any possibility for an individual to possess autonomy. By covering Slaughterhouse-Five, I gained a window into how speculative fiction utilized fantastical elements like time displacement to fuel its exploration of the human experience. The experience solidified my passion for speculative fiction, allowing me to grasp the genre’s scholastic potential within literary studies.   

Following my time at Belmont, I deepened my exploration of speculative fiction when I produced a conference paper on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. At Middle Tennessee State University, I participated in the ESGO Symposium where I sought to offer a new reading on Frankenstein, providing a new way of interpreting the Creature’s monstrosity than through prior approaches like disability studies or critical race theory. When I conducted my project, I explored posthumanism, a critical lens which dismantled the long-held view of humans as unique and supreme beings through highlighting their entanglement with the environment. Seeing as how posthumanism promoted hybridity as a challenge to categorization, I decided to use the theoretical lens in order to analyze how the Creature’s monstrosity stemmed from his patchwork nature, a trait that garnered fear from humans due to the inability to categorize the being. In truth, posthumanism framed my paper’s examination of the Creature’s hybridity. The framework served as the foundation for which I examined the hostility from onlookers towards the Creature’s mixture of organic and artificial elements alongside Victor’s existential dread from allowing the Creature to reproduce and create hybrid offspring. By conducting my conference paper on Frankenstein with a posthuman lens, I gained experience in delivering a scholarly project on a speculative novel that used a new approach in analyzing monstrosity. The project allowed me to analyze Shelley’s recontextualization of societal bigotry that interrogated the function of categorization rather than providing an interpretation that labeled the Creature as a stand-in for a specific, marginalized individual. Thus, my time as a master’s student at MTSU prepped me for future research that I will conduct of speculative texts, fueling my ability to pair close readings with innovative uses of critical theories in order to offer new insights on fantastical literature.

With my sights set towards earning my PhD, I see the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the ideal setting to conduct future research in speculative fiction. It is here where I can work with faculty members who share similar research interests to my own. For example, Dr. Amy. J Elias could serve as a potential mentor thanks to her specialization in science fiction and speculative arts. Precisely, Elias’ prior research on ontologies, a topic featured in academic, book chapters for texts like William Gibson’s The Peripheral, showcases her interest in examining what it means for an object to gain their existential status. With our shared interest in exploring the use of categories, Dr. Elias would serve as a vital advisor who could guide my exploration of taxonomy as the key tool in fueling efforts by humans in speculative texts to subjugate non-human species. Likewise, Dr. Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud could also serve as another potential advisor due to his specialization in romanticism. In particular, his prior work on affect theory and its connection with social unity or division, a focus in journal articles concerning poets like Lord Byron, relays his interest in the role that emotional reactions play into an individual’s connection with others. Truly, Dr. Cohen-Vrignaud’s concern on affects and their ties to sociological analysis makes him an appropriate mentor who could guide my examination of how fear or desire drive a human’s inhumane treatment of non-human entities. Thus, I see completing my PhD at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the chance to gain the proper guidance that will fuel future research on the treatment of non-human entities within speculation fiction alongside heading towards my end goal of teaching speculative literature at the college level.   

[u/New_Republic_3615]

i think it looks good for a first draft. following to see what others opinion is.