Cynthia Degnan,
Graduate Student Assistant to the Dean and Chancellor 2008–09

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department, currently working on my dissertation, which examines how constructions of childhood relate to narrative structures. I begin with a reading of the Freudian concept of childhood in relation to literature, and go on to look at this conception in relation to the Cold War and War on Terror in order to uncover ways that the child functions in discourses of U.S. nationalism. My project further investigates the ways in which non-normative gender and sexuality, in both children and adults, complicates these discursive and narrative uses of the child.

I am pleased to serve as the Graduate Student Assistant to the Dean and to the Chancellor for 2008-2009. In this position, I work as a liaison between graduate students and the administration. I represent graduate students in various committees; assist graduate students in finding services, staff, and resources appropriate to their concerns; and I help them negotiate problems and grievances with their departments, faculty, or staff. Please contact me at (530) 752-4090 or via e-mail if you have any questions or concerns.