Synthesize skills of conversational scholarship with your own archival research to pursue a sustained writing project on a single cultural figure. The profile asks you to demonstrate skills of research and of narrative writing (detailed and artful descriptions, coherent and cohesive structure, etc.) to narrate the life of a person in a way which engages broader cultural questions. I encourage you to use a wide range of cultural “texts” (photographs, television series and movies, private letters, interviews, etc.) in your research. Please pay particular attention to your bibliography as this document will be an opportunity to highlight the breadth and depth of your work.
I’ve chosen to write about Dorothy Dean and will be attaching some photographs I took from an archive that I want them to be on the essay. Some are letters from her mom and others are emails she sent looking for a job. I will also be attaching a model essay so you can understand how it should be.