This week, we interviewed Anneliese Mair '20 (she/her/hers) for the Independent Concentration Student Spotlight! Anneliese is from Connecticut. She is a senior concentrating in Healing Narratives. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Why did you want to pursue an independent concentration?
This was a challenge, especially in the beginning when I didn’t have the theoretical language to describe the connections that existed. I was looking into English and Literary Arts because they’re so language-based, but those concentrations didn’t provide flexibility for engaging with psychology or American studies or philosophy, that dealt with language in really critical ways. I think those concentrations had to focus on their own theories and histories and being focused on time periods in their trajectories as disciplines but didn’t allow for an interdisciplinary lens into language which I found deeply disappointing.
When I went to CLPS and tried to figure out how I could maybe concentrate there, there was no flexibility for exploring only language and the literary world and how deeply psychological that is. I looked into Contemplative Studies but that concentration looks more at cultural, historical, existing perspectives and practices of understanding and connecting with self in the world. Again, every concentration felt contained in its own specific box. I’m not suggesting those boxes don’t have merit or a specific application, but none seemed to validate the fact that my education thus far was really building momentum in this interdisciplinary direction.
Building a concentration was a matter of sitting down and doing the research, engaging in a theoretical basis and asking what is this building on, what connections are being made, and why does it matter?
Advice for someone who wants to pursue an IC?
A few people have asked me about it. I think ICs have a reputation for being very challenging. That’s certainly true that it’s a challenging process, but it’s one that really demands commitment in order for you to establish something meaningful.
It took a lot of persistence and reflection and deep self-evaluation to truly understand that the feedback and criticism on my existing idea was not someone saying, this is false or this doesn’t exist, but rather this is how we can ground it and this is how we can make it something real. It was so much time and so much soul but I think that has been the most worthwhile academic experience I’ve had at Brown because it’s inherently so independent. It’s interesting because it’s looking at the collaboration of different fields but you are still a single mind trying to put it together.
You come up against a lot of dead ends in trying to formulate connections and translate those connections into language. I think the act of translation is the most challenging part but sit with it and process in the way you do. I drew a ton of mind maps. I went to outside resources. I practiced articulating it again and again and again until I started getting warmer. There has been nothing more satisfying than getting to a place where my own language was justifying how healing and how significant narratives can be.