Esme Warmuth '25
Summa Cum Laude
BA English Honors, minor in Writing and Rhetoric

On Stony Brook:
My parents both went to Stony Brook, and it’s kind of a ubiquitous cultural landmark on Long Island. I grew up coming to shows at the Staller Center and football games, as well as hearing stories from my parents’ college days.

I was surprised at myself when I realized I wanted to study at Stony Brook, because I had always dreamed of going away to university, and had not really considered going somewhere so close to home. However, my decision to commit to Stony Brook really came down to the diverse and vibrant environment of the campus community and student body -- I didn’t want to go to a school that felt disconnected from the real world. Stony Brook is a place where people come from all over to work hard and dedicate themselves to their studies. I think it’s a place of real maturity, and the large size of the school means that there’s really something here for everyone.

On her major: 
English has always been my favorite subject to study, and the thing I feel like I’m best at. I love reading and writing. I also had some fantastic English teachers in high school who inspired me to follow this path.

Favorite classes: 
My favorite classes would have to be Dr. Pfeiffer’s Shakespeare classes -- I took three of them in a row during my time at Stony Brook, and they were awesome. I love Shakespeare, and I made so many friends in those classes who share this passion. Over the course of those three semesters, we read many different plays, learned context about Shakespeare’s life and the political landscape he existed within, and did in-class readings of the plays. We had days in the library Special Collections where we learned about archiving and saw some amazing books from many centuries ago, and had many productive discussions about Shakespeare’s continued relevance. We also took trips to Manhattan outside of class to see productions of Shakespeare’s plays, and to visit cultural landmarks like The Strand—truly an invaluable experience. Alongside Dr. Pfeiffer, his teaching assistants Felicia Nadel, Nathan Singleton, and Margaret Lehmann all led great class periods, and contributed to the classes. It’s not often that you find a program and community within a department that you can really grow and learn in, but Stony Brook has a very strong group of Shakespeare/Early Modern scholars.

I also have to give a shoutout to Dr. Tondre’s honors research practicum, Dr. Scheckel’s law & literature class, Dr. Westphalen’s many Russian literature classes, and Dr. Karen Lloyd’s women in early modern art class as being some other favorites.

Interests and accomplishments:
In terms of research, I’m primarily interested in the intersection of homoeroticism and misogyny in literature -- these two topics feel very related to me and I think it’s strange that they’re so often studied separately. My honors thesis is titled “Aesthetics, Darkness, & Deviance: Modern Campus Fiction & The Tarttian Sublime” and it examines this intersection, as well as the larger context around, the modern genre known as “Dark Academia” and specifically Donna Tartt’s novel The Secret History. I’m interested in how “Dark Academia” emerged as a subgenre in literature, what its larger implications for society are, and how character structures within this
subgenre function. 

Outside of college, I like to crochet, listen to music (especially on vinyl), play guitar, and spend time with my cat, Mona Lisa.

Advice for future Seawolves: 
Try to find community however possible. Stony Brook can feel like an isolating environment, but I have actually found it to be quite warm and welcoming if you find the right people. There are many different organizations and groups on campus, and finding the one you fit into will help you make friends. Most of the people you meet here will be just as eager to make connections as you are and they’ll be happy to talk to you. There are a lot of opportunities for you if you seek them out—I find new things/places/organizations on this campus all the time that I had no idea existed. Try to make the most of your time and say yes to new opportunities.

Favorite SBU memory: 
I believe I’ll remember the friendships I made at SBU the most out of everything. There are many small moments of connection that come to mind—just studying with people, walking across campus, grabbing food together. I’m lucky to have met a lot of wonderful people here, and it was always a great day on campus when there was a familiar face to meet up and spend time with.

Parting thoughts: 
I’d like to say that I think we’re currently in a period of justifiable pessimism about higher education, especially being in the humanities. It can be very difficult and heartbreaking watching research funding freeze, and feeling like there is no future being employed in the fields we love. But I resent the idea that the English Major is a dying convention, or that young people today have a diminished capacity for reading and analyzing literature. I don’t think it’s fair to treat young academics in humanities fields as if they’re a lost cause, or a rarity, or not doing the same level of work as those who came before them. There’s a lot of passion in our department—I see it among myself and my classmates. We struggle to exist in today’s world sometimes, but we care about what we’re studying, and we believe we have important things to say that have not yet been heard by the larger world. Our research is new and evolving, not simply reiterations of past ideas. Now more than ever, it’s important for these things to be understood, and for up-and-coming academics to be treated with legitimacy. There are new and ever-changing scholarly conversations in countless fields that require new voices to direct them, and this work is being done, even if it is not always respected or publicized.