Emma Downey
I am currently a Master’s Candidate in Literary Studies at Bucknell University. 
My Master’s thesis investigates the history and written works of modernist female writers during the interwar period in Europe. In the thesis, I focus on three figures, Katharine Burdekin, Djuna Barnes, and Claude Cahun, to discuss how they used writing as a form of political and/or social resistance to the rise of hyper-masculinity inherent to post-WWI. Further, I explore how their political interventions are connected, if at all, to the lived experience of these authors by analyzing their activism, social politics, and sexual identities.
More broadly, I am interested in notions of ‘resistance’ as a gendered phenomena and how this affects the histories of female/LGBTQ resistance to/participation in a regime; specifically, how ‘non-traditional’ resistors are co-opted or neglected by traditional historical narratives.
My research interests span the disciplines of History, Literature, Film and Media, and Gender and Sexuality. I am particularly interested in critical theory, media theory, the frankfurt school and using history to deconstruct existing power structures.
I believe interdisciplinary approaches to studying and conceptualizing historical narratives, political thought, and ideology are important and necessary not only for making sense of the past but also the present.