Megan Lolley to Participate in Funded Undergraduate Research about Fictional Writing

Honors Program student Megan Lolley, majoring in English and Secondary Education, is going to be part of this year’s College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) collaborative Key grant program. Key grants fund collaborative research projects by a faculty member and an undergraduate student in the College that lead to a publication or other academic output.

Megan Lolley has been involved in academic co-curricular activities since she joined the University Honors Program, including being part of the student editorial team of the program’s magazine, The Looking Glass, presenting at the Western Regional Honors Council conference, and many other undertakings. Now Megan has been selected to participate in funded undergraduate research with Honors Program Director, Sandra Reineke, who is a faculty member in the College’s Department of Politics and Philosophy. Their Key grant submission titled, “My Brilliant Friend Simone de Beauvoir: How Elena Ferrante’s Novels Illustrate Beauvoir’s Insights about the Gendered Experience of Becoming a Woman in Italy,” examines how key intellectual concepts by the renowned French philosopher, de Beauvoir, may be woven into the bestselling author’s fiction. The research investigates the possible relevancy of de Beauvoir’s insights today and the ways in which intellectual ideas are reproduced through fictional works. Ultimately, Megan and Sandra hope to present their research findings at an academic conference and submit them for publication. Megan is also currently working on independent research of her own, which will culminate in an Honors thesis by the time she graduates from the University of Idaho and the Honors Program.

Article by Sandra Reineke, University Honors Program Director.