Henry W
- Research Program Mentor
MA at Oxford University
Expertise
Any projects in the humanities or social sciences! I particularly enjoy literature, language, and culture, but I also enjoy helping students write about fields like politics, IR, and technology.
Bio
Writing has been my main interest for most of my life. I studied English Literature at Berkeley and then Oxford, where I focused on Shakespeare's late plays and built web archives focused on poetry. Drawing on my research experience, I began helping students and academics write and publish their own work in fields ranging from international relations to machine learning. As a professional writer, I also helped a number of startups build software products and explain the value of their technology. Outside of work, my passion is also writing - mostly fiction! I have lived in the US, England, Scotland, Sweden, Turkey, Portugal, Korea, and Japan for extended periods. When traveling, I tend to focus on getting outside of major cities, backpacking, and seeing as much as I can.Project ideas
Investigating the theatrical economy of Early Modern London
Background: Theater blossomed in Early Modern London, leading to many of the plays and production techniques that are most famous today. Networks of actors, writers, producers, patrons, and craftspeople collaborated to build a new industry around an established medium. What made this period and city so unique? How were these economic forces reflected in the plays themselves? Questions like these guide academics, who tend to use literature as a tool to understand broader cultural and historical themes. Process: After solidifying your background knowledge, it will be important to narrow your focus to a particular aspect of this period's drama, whether that is a specific play, a theater, or even a production company. Looking for sources in academic journals, literary texts, and primary sources like historical documents will lead you to unexpected connections and a growing clarity about your specific argument. Finally, understanding the broader critical context of how this period has been discussed will allow you to position your argument to make it more unique and effective. Knowledge and skills: Over the course of this project, you will become familiar with the most common skills for humanities research: finding and synthesizing sources, situating your argument in its critical context, digital archival work, close reading, outlining, and explaining the relevance of your results. Outcomes: Literary analysis tends to fit best in essay form, but there are lots of supplemental ways that you can display your findings. Trendy fields like the Digital Humanities and New Theater Studies have placed a great emphasis on websites and even creative writing as a way to enhance an academic argument. We'll review some examples of what's being done currently and look a tools you can use to share your work online in an interactive form.