Micaela Rodgers
An essential part of Micaela’s studies at UCLA included being the Project Lead, concept and implementation, on a Digital Humanities project entitled “The Eighteenth Century Women Writers Network.” The Network traces published references between female writers of the Long Eighteenth Century. This project is currently being transferred to a new platform.
Micaela attended the California Rare Book School (CalRBS) in 2018, and London Rare Book School in 2019. At CalRBS, she participated in Dr. Melissa Conway’s course on Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts. At the London Rare Book School, she participated in “The Woman Reader” course taught by Dr. Katie Halsey of Stirling University, Scotland.
She also served as the Rare Books intern at Natural History Museum, Los Angeles (2018-2019), where she completed over 500 condition reports while carrying out preservation techniques on materials such as manuscripts, print books, periodicals, and more.
Additionally, she earned, in 2017, a Master of Philosophy in Irish Writing from Trinity College Dublin, as part of their English Department’s celebrated Oscar Wilde Center for Irish Writing. Her dissertation (thesis) was titled “Maria Edgeworth and Jane Austen (Re)Write History: The Early Works,” and was completed under the advisement of Dr. Aileen Douglas.
Two of the factors which inspired her current research and aspirations were working at USC’s Hoose Library of Philosophy under Dr. Ross Scimeca and Dr. Melissa Miller, and completing an English Honors Thesis under advisement of Dr. Larry Green and Dr. Tania Modleski, with readers Dr. Tania Modleski and Dr. Ross Scimeca. While at USC, Micaela earned a B.A. with Honors in English, and a B.A. in Philosophy Politics and Law, graduating magna cum laude.
Micaela’s research interests include Irish literature, women writers and readers of the Long Eighteenth Century, print and material culture, and rare books and manuscripts.
Micaela has been invited to lecture at the California Celtic Conference twice (2019, 2020), and was invited to guest lecture for Dr. Joseph Nagy’s course at UCLA titled “Food and Fantasy in Irish Literature.”
In Micaela’s pursuit of lifelong learning, she is inspired by a quote from Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women: “[...] and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable [...]” (Wollstonecraft, Chapter 1). This quote reminds her that by applying oneself, one gains knowledge (of many kinds and definitions). Micaela’s scholarship also often involves unpicking what it was to be virtuous in a particular historical moment-- and for whom, under what conditions. Wollstonecraft wrote in a world in which her gender necessitated certain virtues-- of which reason and the pursuit of knowledge were not among that number. Micaela can never forget the revolution of her words, nor that it is the work of other scholars which supports her own.