MYA CORCORAN ’25: Taking Her Writing from the Wilkes Classroom to an International Journal

MYA CORCORAN '25: Taking Her Writing from the Wilkes Classroom to an International Journal

Mya Corcoran '25 crafted an impressive list of accomplishments while she was an English major at Wilkes. She was president and captain of the dance team, editor-in-chief of the Inkwell Quarterly, secretary of the Alpha Gamma Alpha Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta honor society, a peer writing consultant, an intern for Marketing Communications, member of the Honors Program and Barre Scholars Program.

After graduating Summa Cum Laude from Wilkes, Corcoran landed a position as a business development specialist for IAB Solutions in Moosic, Pennsylvania, where conducts research, develops marketing materials and helps to land prospective clients. She's also pursuing a master of business administration degree from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Now Corcoran has unlocked a new achievement with a publication credit. Her essay, "Being Natural is Simply a Pose": The Concept of Foucault's Panopticon in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Orlando," completed as an Honors assignment for ENG 397, was published in the Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English.

"I was thrilled when I received the email informing me that my paper was selected to be published in The Oswald Review," says Corcoran. "As an English major, I spent so much time reading other people's work and writing papers that were often only read by my professors, so it is exciting to know that my own ideas are out in the world and will be engaged with by others."

The article was originally Corcoran's final paper for a seminar class taught by Helen Davis, professor of English. When deciding on a topic, Corcoran wanted to create an essay that shared a culmination of ideas discussed by the class. She also wanted to focus on a few of her favorite works from the semester. She kept coming back to The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and one particular quote from the novel: "Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."

The quote made such an impact on Corcoran that she incorporated it into her paper's title. "I thought it was both funny and strikingly true, and it connected directly with one of the central ideas we explored throughout the semester, which is the notion that we are always, even if unintentionally, performing," says Corcoran of the line. She connected the idea with literary critic Michel Foucault's concept of the panopticon, a prison with a circle of cells surrounding a central guard tower. Foucault's notion uses the structure as metaphor, suggesting that people change their behavior whenever they believe others may be watching.

Corcoran applied Focault's framework to explore social norms, conformity and gender roles of the main characters in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Orlando by Virginia Woolf, as well as those experienced by authors themselves in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Turning her gaze on her academic career at Wilkes, Corcoran credits the Honors Program, the English department faculty and Davis for pushing her to complete projects and take advantage of opportunities beyond the typical scope of coursework.

"I am especially grateful for this assignment from Dr. Davis, as it allowed me to engage in a process I had never experienced before and accomplish something I likely would not have pursued on my own," says Corcoran. "It is thanks to the guidance of all the great English professors I had at Wilkes that I developed the high-level critical thinking and writing skills that made it possible to produce a paper worthy of publication in such a prestigious journal."