My Northwestern Direction
In the My Northwestern Direction essay, Northwestern Magazine highlights the diverse paths our alumni, students, faculty and staff have taken and explores the many ways the University intersects with their lives.
Armed with a love for Shakespeare and a degree in languages and literature, I graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2009 amid the Great Recession. I applied to doctoral programs in English, thinking, “I am going to be a professor!” Never mind the warnings that the job market for college educators was collapsing, with more PhD graduates than tenure-track positions.