RECORDING: 2026 Undergraduate Distinction Day
On April 17, 2026, the Duke English Department celebrated its annual Undergraduate Distinction Day, where twelve graduating English majors proudly unveiled their senior thesis projects before an audience of over 50 attendees. Following their presentations, each student participated in a lively panel, delving deeper into their work and engaging with thoughtful questions from the audience.
Below you can find the recording of the 2026 Duke English Undergraduate Distinction Day in its entirety.
Presenters:
Aria Nanda, "Construction The Self: Betrayal and Identity in the Works of Jhumpa Lahiri" (1:48 Mins)
Taylor Delgado, "The (Artificial) Lover: Kazuo Ishiguro & Ian McEwan's Pursuit of Resonance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" (14:09 Mins)
Sancia Milton, "All the Strangers in the Desert" (29:29 Mins)
Sophia Berg, "The Fall of the West: A Númenórean Anatomy of Neofascist Power" (42:55 Mins)
PANEL Q&A (57:25 Mins)
Lily Egol, "Learning Life from Novel Reading: Quixotism and Education in Eighteenth-Century Women's Writing" (1:14 Hr/Mins)
Leah Perlman, "Shakespeare's Tragic Woman Reframed: The Limits of Feminine Becoming in Shakespearean Tragedy" (1:31 Hr/Mins)
Anna Sorensen, Moral Crimes, Intimate Cruelties: Judging Sexuality in Postwar American Literature (1:48 Hr/Mins)
William Herff, "The Brain in My Head" (2:03 Hrs/Mins)
PANEL Q&A (2:20 Hrs/Mins)
Sophie Levenson, "Examining a Complicit Community in Life and Fiction: Bill Cosby and Toni Morrison's Love" (2:34 Hrs/Mins)
Trisha Santanam, "American Folk" (2:52 Hrs/Mins)
Rebecca Arian, "Cycles of Renewal: Beauty and Truth in Dialogue Across Wilde, Eliot, and Winterson" (3:08 Hrs/Mins)
Erin Lee, "Losers, Lovers, and Loners: Internet Identities and Parasocial Relationships in Esther Yi's Y/N and Tony Tulathimutte's Rejection (3:21 Hrs/Mins)
PANEL Q&A (3:33 Hrs/Mins)
