Student Profiles

Meg Cook

Life beyond Reed

Meg graduated from Florida State University in 2014 with a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Editing, Writing, and Media. Outside of Reed, she works full-time at the Northwest Film Center, a regional media arts nonprofit (and sister organization to the Portland Art Museum). Meg manages the Film Center’s membership program, and helps with development and fundraising efforts including grant writing, managing events, and producing film festivals. She spends her weekends reading in bagel shops.

Academic interests

As a lifelong voracious reader and undergraduate English major, Meg’s academic interests include literary criticism and critical theory. She loves that reading texts through the lens of different theoretical frameworks deepens one’s understanding of the text, as well as informs broader thought processes outside the classroom. Meg is particularly interested in the role of the Author and its function (as well as the Reader), and everyone’s implication in the writing/reading process. Other areas of interest include semiotics, linguistics, rhetoric, film theory, and gender theory. In September 2018, Meg was awarded the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs Confluence Award for Excellence in Interdisciplinary Writing for her essay “America’s Poshlust Vacuum: The Young-Girl, Émigré, and Artist in Nabokov’s Lolita.” Meg graduated in Fall 2019.

Why MALS?

"After graduating from a huge state school in Florida, I didn’t feel that I pushed myself, academically, as much as I’d wanted. I wanted to further my liberal arts education at a school with smaller classes and greater academic rigor that would allow me to think as big as possible (I also wanted to escape the Florida heat). Reed allowed me to hone in on particular areas of interest while expanding upon myriad academic disciplines and modes of thought. I felt supported by the brilliant professors I met, challenged by my peers, and accomplished in the work I’ve done."