Chelsey

I’ve never particularly known what I want to do, career wise. Or at all, really. Karly is a linguist, but I don’t really have one thing that I’d consider myself an expert of sorts in.

My undergraduate degree was joint honours, so half of my time was spent studying film and TV, and the other half ‘communications and society’. I took the social psychology route, so I studied a lot of non-verbal communication, Freudian theory, and the why behind consumerism, authoritarianism, and various other -isms. 

Before that, I’d taken theatre production at A level. I loved making props and costumes, and I loved the extensive research we were required to do as coursework, but the theatre environment just isn’t for me. It was far too fast paced and stressful – it wasn’t like we were performing surgery or anything, but they definitely berated us as if we were. I also took English (lit and language, which was a bit hellish – I’d always been a lit girl, and taking a language based approach to novels and poetry turned out to not be my cup of tea) and business studies. I briefly thought about studying a business degree, and now I often wonder where I’d be if I had. Regardless, I’m glad I stuck with humanities subjects. I think I suit them more.

I’ve had quite a few hobbies, too. These are the ones that helped me through my studies.

I think I really found my confidence during my Master’s studies. English, mostly literature, at the other uni in my home city. Again, I wonder why I didn’t take English at undergraduate level since it was consistently my favourite subject in school. I really focused hard (not that I didn’t at undergraduate level, but my first year was interrupted by lockdown, and things never went completely back to normal) and I wanted to get as much as I could from the degree. I found myself often writing my essays on women writers and the way they portrayed motherhood in their works.

In my second term, I discovered adaptation studies. For me, it felt like I’d properly found where my skills and my interests came together – when studying film, I found myself drawn to British heritage cinema, which was largely based on adapting English novels – Austen, Shakespeare, and Forster most often. I knew how to discuss films, and I knew how to discuss literature, and the adaptation studies approach allowed me to do both. It was an added bonus that it essentially doubled the source material. I’ve always had trouble meeting high word counts, so having more media to discuss, and the requirement of comparison, meant that I felt more secure in my writing abilities. I don’t necessarily think my academic writing is bad, but I’ve always struggled with impostor syndrome, and I’ve always received feedback that I could have expanded more. 

My education so far culminated in my dissertation, which explored the portrayal of Elizabeth Lavenza in Frankenstein (the novel), and three of its many adaptations. I threw myself into the research, and despite it involving long days of reading and making notes, I had great fun. I even really enjoyed the actual writing process, which has historically not been the most stress free activity.

I’m not sure what classifies someone as an expert on a topic. Perhaps I’d feel like an expert if I had a PhD. But then again, being an expert at one thing feels quite daunting to me, limiting in a way. I’m not particularly a Jack of all trades, but I also don’t consider myself a master of any. I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing – I like having my eggs in different baskets. I really like the freedom I’m afforded by having multiple academic interests; I can mix and match and combine my different subject areas. I’m not sure what the general consensus is, but the university I attended for my Master’s was really into disciplinarity, and when I voiced my concern that I didn’t have the literature background that many of my classmates did, I was assured that my own background would allow me to approach things from a different perspective and that I would find that my film studies background would turn out to be useful. They were right, actually, and I really focused on embracing my different perspective.

So, trust me, I’m not quite an expert.