Colva Weissenstein

Status: Student
Thesis: No thesis on file.

What attracted me to CCT was the prospect of finding a program that would allow me to merge a lot of different areas of interest together, such as literature, film and cultural studies without feeling trapped in anything too specific. I was interested in the idea of being able to construct a curriculum which would include a wider variety of elements rather than trying to bend something into what I needed it to be.

I was born and grew up in Southern Africa, specifically Zambia. I moved to the US in 2004 to attend university in Virginia (George Mason), where I majored in English with a concentration in Poetry, and graduated with honors. I also got to write an undergraduate thesis on post-1984 horror films and their social implications - a topic which has heavily influenced my current interests. Prior to leaving for college I had spent my academic life in the American International School of Lusaka and doing International Baccalaureate. A lot of my perspective and interests are influenced by growing up in Africa and as a result being exposed to a very vibrant and ever-changing international community. Also, as a result of being overseas and having travelled extensively as a child and teenager I find myself a very curious and learning-oriented adult, which translates into my academic life.

I am most interested in the interactions between media, such as those between film and literature, literature and internet and the way these media shifts influence the material they are expressing. Also, I am interested in cultural studies, film and literary theory, and their implications on modern communications.

I hope to gain a more expansive perspective on media from being in CCT and thus be able to apply critical and analytical thinking to modern media in new and inventive ways - and ideally one day work in academia. But then, I've barely started, so it's hard to know...