UROP Project

creative writing, fiction, novel, medieval literature, literature, English, ecocriticism, nature
Biagi-Laura.jpg
Research Mentor: Laura Biagi, she/her/hers
Department, College, Affiliation: English Department, Arts and Sciences
Contact Email: LBiagi@fsu.edu
Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from mentor):
Research Assistant Supervisor Email:
Faculty Collaborators:
Faculty Collaborators Email:
Looking for Research Assistants: No
Number of Research Assistants: 2
Relevant Majors: Creative Writing
Literature Media & Culture
Editing Writing & Media
Literature
English
Humanities
Project Location: On FSU Main Campus
Research Assistant Transportation Required:
Remote or In-person: Partially Remote
Approximate Weekly Hours: 10,
Roundtable Times and Zoom Link: Tuesday, 9/3, from 12:30-1 (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/9377824317)
Thursday, 9/5, from 5:30-6 (https://fsu.zoom.us/j/9377824317)

Project Description

Are you curious how a creative writer/novelist creates and researches their work? In this project, you’ll work closely with me to flesh out the research mind of one of my novel’s main characters, Gwen, and key research information of hers that the novel’s plot hinges upon. Gwen is a medieval literature PhD student interested in notions of love, romance, lust, and sexuality in the medieval era, plus how these may or may not intertwine with nature and ecocriticism. You will be a library database sleuth, identifying potentially intriguing articles that apply to Gwen’s research interests, then summarizing those articles and discussing with me how they might fit into the novel. In addition to getting to see the behind-the-scenes process of how a novel is researched, we’ll talk about the process of novel-creating in general and the publishing process based on my past experience as a literary agent.

Research Tasks: Identifying article candidates
Summarizing articles/creating annotated bibliographies
Writing literature reviews or a running analysis of common themes and ideas
Discussing articles with me

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Ability to summarize articles (required)
Ability to analyze articles and themes (required)
Strong communication (required)
Library database familiarity (recommended)

Mentoring Philosophy

I believe in giving back to my mentees as much as they give to me. I want to know your own aspirational goals for FSU and after and how I can help you achieve those. This will be one of our first topics of discussion, and I’ll tailor how I talk about this project based on helping you build relevant skills. I believe in touching base regularly in weekly meetings (usually in person) to guide you in the project and allow us a chance to discuss your questions and novel-writing in general, while also giving you flexibility with a primarily remote work schedule. It’s important to me to allow you to follow what excites you as you conduct this research, too; we will work together to be collaboratively creative. The project is scaffolded with building blocks that make it easy to begin finding articles then move into summarizing and analyzing them. My goal is to be organized, clear, and communicative so you have no trouble delving into your work and so we build a strong, mutually productive mentor-mentee relationship.

Additional Information

Information about another published work of mine can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Fair-Day-Laura-Biagi/dp/1941617719/

Link to Publications

https://www.triquarterly.org/issue-163/a-train-to-catch
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