The Office of Student Research is proud to feature Coralyn Powell in this week’s “Scholar Story”. 

Coralyn Powell graduated from Longwood University in December 2020 with a major in English. She worked on an independent  research project for two semesters with Dr. Brock-Servais looking at how the term “Gothic” has changed over the last twenty years in literature.  Specifically her conference paper was titled “Strange Toxicity of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and it analyzed how toxic masculinity influenced Dr. Jekyll into becoming the monstrous figure Mr. Hyde.  

Coralyn first became involved in this research “after Dr. Brock-Servais approached me about a Jekyll and Hyde essay I had written for one of her classes and suggested that I could also attend the conference that she attends annually. Doc Brock and I clicked, and she pushed me to accomplishments I never thought were possible during our research.” 

The most important lesson Coralyn learned was “how much of an impact we can make with our writing. I read my conference paper to one of Doc Brock's introduction classes and it was so cool to see her students get excited about what I was doing and wanting to try their hand at it too. I can't even express how much of an impact this made on my life. I realized what I wanted to do with my life after graduation because of our independent study." 

Coralyn was accepted to present her paper at the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts symposium in 2020 and again in 2021. The first year she was accepted, the conference had to be canceled due to Covid-19 and she was excited to present her paper in 2021. 

Coralyn plans to start a master’s program this fall. Congratulations to Coralyn on her successful research!  

If you would like to have your research featured in a “Scholar Story”, or if you would like to learn more about getting involved in research at Longwood University, please visit Longwood’s Office of Student Research website http://www.longwood.edu/office-of-student-research/ 

or contact Amorette Barber, Director of the Office of Student Research (osr@longwood.edu or barberar@longwood.edu).