Brandi Burns

Why FSU?

I have always loved learning and researching niche topics, but I was drawn to FSU because of the amazing faculty within the English Department! Also, having moved to Tallahassee as a young adult, it was a natural choice to transfer to FSU after receiving my A.A. from Tallahassee State College. As a first-generation college student, I worked a variety of full-time jobs with the State of Florida to support myself throughout my academic career. These experiences have helped me shape a unique skillset and a very strong work ethic!

Importance and/or impact of research and work

My dissertation, “Misbehaving Medical Professionals: Medical Authority and Struggles over Bodily Autonomy in British Nineteenth Century Literature, 1858-1911”, addresses the emergence of the misbehaving doctor within popular nineteenth-century fiction as a response to the professionalization of medical practitioners that granted them increased medical authority. I place ethical texts in conversation with fictional texts that engage with some of the most significant debates of the latter half of the nineteenth century, spanning topics such as vaccinations, animal vivisection, hypnotism, and false imprisonment within asylums. Although many of the texts that I examine are works of fiction, several of the authors went to great lengths to inform their readers that they were drawing on real-life inspiration, whether that was from personal accounts, local newspapers, government reports, or trials, and that their goal was to bring the public’s attention to these very important issues. My dissertation aims to reveal how popular authors used fiction to illustrate abuses of power within the doctor-patient relationship and concerns over bodily autonomy and informed consent, many of which are still ongoing ethical issues today.

Career aspirations

Following graduation, I am focusing on finding my new career. I hope to continue to teach, but I am also open to other experiences. One thing I have learned is that life often presents you with strange and exciting opportunities in ways you may never have imagined!

Advice for anyone considering graduate school

Grad school has been challenging in more ways than I had anticipated, but it has been just as equally rewarding. Make sure that you practice good time management as much as possible which should include time for yourself. I would definitely encourage being part of a writing group, whether it is a faculty/student combination or a fellow graduate student writing group. Having that extra input makes a world of difference and just really helps foster a sense of community.

Accomplishments during graduate career

I have also been fortunate in disseminating early iterations of my scholarly work. I recently presented “‘All Foolish Modesty and Coy Grimaces’: The Contaminating Influence of Mary Wollstonecraft” at the Victorian Recollections, Revolutions, and Realities conference and "Familiarity Breeds Contempt: Mousleyer as a Familiar in William Baldwin’s 'Beware the Cat'" at Romancing the Gothic's conference The Supernatural and Witchcraft in Belief, Practice and Depiction. I also published an early version of one of my dissertation chapters: “’The Only Thing Left to Us is Death’: The Doctor as a Criminal Hypnotist in Nineteenth-Century Women’s Short Stories” in The Postgraduate Journal of Medical Humanities in 2022. I recently won first place in a creative writing competition for my poem, “Down, Down, Down,” which was published in The Windward Review Fall of 2023. Currently, I am working on completing my dissertation and preparing my chapter on false imprisonment within asylums for publication within an edited collection, Resilience and Resistance: Embracing Disability Narratives in Nineteenth Century British Fiction, by Vernon Press.