mmuslea@princeton.edu
I’m a Slavic Languages and Literatures major.
Role(s) held in the Humanistic Studies Program:
Certificate Student, Humanities Mentor
Activities on campus:
Comptroller at The Daily Princetonian, Trips Co-chair of the Forbes College Council, Research Assistant for Economics Professor Neilson, Princeton Cycling Club
Honors:
The Daily Princetonian – Dave Clive Jr. Award
Why I decided to study the humanities:
I want my academic experience to expose me to the greatest minds in a variety of disciplines. And if I am paying for a liberal arts college, then I want to get my money’s worth.
What I have gained from the humanities:
A new perspective of my reality. The humanities ask you to examine the human condition through various lenses, and though I cannot say that I am closer to understanding who I am, I have been exposed to new ways to view myself and my place in society.
Independent work:
My senior thesis was titled, “Artistic Representation of Political Legacy at Novodevichy Cemetery: The Headstones of Khrushchev, Kaganovich, Gromyko and Yeltsin as Marginalized Narratives.”
HUM Sequence fall break trip:
I went on the Greece HUM trip, led by Professor Morison, and it was not only a transformative experience, but one of my favorite Princeton memories to date. While the class teaches students how to approach texts from an interdisciplinary standpoint, the trip imposes those skills onto a physical landscape. Students—most of us for the first time in our academic careers—used the texts as practical tools instead of as literary objects of study. My independent work centered around the Tower of the Winds, located in the Roman agora, and the bias with which the museum decided to present the structure considering its repurposing from the Roman to the Byzantine to the Ottoman empires.
