On Capstones
Spencer Brownstein ’18
If you’ve ever wanted to elicit an exasperated sigh from one of Macalester’s seniors, I’d recommend asking them, “How’s your capstone going?” Bear in mind, this sigh is rarely one of defeat. Sure, the process can feel grueling, an ongoing marathon running toward academic excellence with a hazy finish line. But as those of us who have finished this race know, the capstone experience is a demonstration, celebration, and culmination of our years of work, study, and passion.
Pardon me for getting a little cheesy; as a senior on the cusp of graduation it’s hard not to let myself get swept up in the emotionality of finality. But enough about me! The people who deserve the real attention are the brave souls who undertook their capstone this semester, those who are truly wrapping up their Macalester experience with a bang.
Every semester, the English Department offers two possible capstone courses, one in Literature and one in Creative Writing. This semester’s courses were taught by Professors Daylanne English and Wang Ping, respectively. I was fortunate enough to speak with both professors about their expectations for and experiences during the capstone process.
Professor English told me, “I expected the course to be terrific, based on the particular students who were in in the course and on my long experience with Mac English majors. I also, as usual, expected excellent work from everyone in the class. I expected, too, that we would all be excited by Afrofuturism and that our initial study of the movement would provide a very good ‘jumping off’ point for the individual projects. That definitely proved to be the case.” Professor English further explained, “The projects also reflected each student’s interests and skills, including interdisciplinary approaches and techniques, from the traditional research paper to visual art as methods, and from Black Panther to Southeast Asian science fiction as topics. The capstone therefore was, truly, a capstone, in that these five senior English majors drew on their curricular and extra-curricular experiences, and not only in the English department, from across their four years at Macalester. I was impressed not only with projects that resulted but also with the strong and supportive community that developed in the course.”
Professor Ping similarly had high expectations for this semester’s Creative Writing capstone class; “This seminar is all about the students: their projects, their motivation, their training and knowledge that all come together to produce their own masterpieces. The teacher’s reading list is minimum, and has to adjust according to the students’ needs, once they start their projects.” That said, the role of the teacher in the capstone process is not to be understated: “The teacher moves with them, gives them support, clears their obstacles, and guides them to find the path and run. We’re cheerleaders, guides, ground supporters, and councils.”
One example of a capstone project comes from Morgan Malatesta ’18, of the literature track. Morgan created a project titled “Ecological Burden and Ecohybridity: A Black Feminist Approach to Ecocriticism.” The project is “about incorporating a Black feminist perspective into the study of the relationship between literature and the environment.” Morgan says, “I ultimately argued for a new framework called ecohybridity—a mode for analysis that highlights the hybrid nature of the African American ecological experience and incorporates more into discussions about environmental writing (like gender, race, class, historical background, etc).”
Writing a capstone is hard work. Creating a project meant as a cumulation of four years is hard work. But we keep working, we keep writing, because we are passionate. Morgan put it beautifully when she told me, “Of course, actually writing a long paper is never very fun. But, because the project actually encompasses a lot of things that I have studied while at Macalester, I feel like it’s a cumulative experience, which motivates me to keep writing.”
To all the professors who have given their time and energy into aiding us students with our capstones, thank you. To all the students who have completed their capstones over the last year, congratulations. To all the students who still have their capstones looming on the horizon, I hope this article can inspire you to keep pursuing your passions!