Marisa B Fryer
“Through the MIT literature department and its incredible faculty, I have found a lifelong love of film, literature, and drama. I first stumbled into the literature department through a class on Alfred Hitchcock my freshman IAP. At the time, I simply thought that it would be a fun way to get credit for watching movies; however, I soon found myself falling down my own vertigo-inducing spiral. Once I was exposed to the language of film theory and analysis, I became addicted to film studies beyond a shadow of a doubt. Spellbound by the endless possibilities of style and genre, I was filled with a sudden, frenzied determination to take as many film and literature classes as I could fit into my schedule.
In addition to the enjoyment that I got out of taking literature classes, I hope to apply my film/lit studies to my future endeavors. My primary major was environmental engineering, so I am particularly fascinated by the way artistic forms are integrated with environmental issues. I believe that the best way to encourage people to care about and invest in the environment is to bring the science and relevant issues into mediums that they can enjoy and to which they relate. Within my MIT lit classes, I felt encouraged by my professors to look for ecocritical approaches and environmental symbolism in the texts and films we studied. I hope to someday use my knowledge of narrative and aesthetic in combination with my engineering background in order to make science seem cool to a broader spectrum of society.”
Related
- Literature Major Profile
- 2015 Peter S. Donaldson Prize for Excellence in Literary Studies