blog post – nerdbove

Hello! To quote Timbaland in Aaliyah’s “Try Again,” it’s been a long time, shouldn’t have left you. It’s been nearly a year since my last post. In that time, I’ve moved states and started a career in higher education. It’s been a wonderful experience so far, and I’m fortunate enough to have a supervisor that encourages continuous growth. I’ve been participating in a Mid-Level Management Cohort Program as part of my professional development, and today I wanted to share my leadership philosophy that I’ve developed over the last six months. It’s an ever-evolving document, but in this moment, this is my approach to leadership:

A photograph of the view from the Birthing Cave in Sedona, Arizona.

A certain level of flexibility and adaptability are necessary when it comes to successful approaches to leadership because we are faced with new and different challenges every day. This was especially evident at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that period, no individual demonstrated the qualities of an exceptional leader better than Dr. Kacee Ferrell Snyder, Director of the Center for Women and Gender Equity and the Center for Violence Prevention and Education at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

I was fortunate enough to work for Kacee as a graduate assistant for two years during my PhD program. Not only did Kacee model good leadership for me and the rest of our team, but she shaped me into the kind of leader, the kind of person, I wanted to be.

Kacee believed in the idea of a flattened hierarchy, where everyone in the office had a voice and an opinion that mattered. Operating from a position of vulnerability and transparency, she created a work environment that encouraged authenticity and nurtured equitable systems. I felt valuable as a team member, and comfortable in my own skin. In my own leadership position, I try to maintain this same value of authenticity through vulnerability. I let my supervisees know through my words and actions that we are on the same team, that I am not acting above them but with them. I encourage understanding through open dialogue. I admit when I’m wrong, when I’ve made a mistake, or when I don’t know something. I take the time to learn. When we host events, I set up with my graduate and office assistants, and I vacuum and take out the garbage, because that is not a GA or OA task, it is an “anyone who is available” task.

Through communication and actions, I also cultivate a sense of compassionate love within any team I am leading. To do the kind of work we do, where we are connecting with students and connecting them with resources and services, providing them with safe spaces and safe people to go to – this kind of work has to come from a place of compassion and empathy. Kacee modeled this for me in our one-on-one meetings, when she would start with a check-in to see how I was doing. If there was a week where I was struggling because of dissertation work or mental health issues, Kacee would be flexible and allow me to work from home, or set aside an hour of the workday for me to focus on my dissertation, or treat me to coffee. Little, thoughtful actions show your teammates that you care not only about their work, but about their well-being.

Kacee bolstered my well-being by nurturing my creative and academic interests, too. Knowing that I was interested in drawing and other modes of artistic expression, Kacee encouraged me to do graphic design work for our social media and marketing, and asked me to create several digital prints for our lounge. Additionally, she gave me the freedom to host regular crafternoons in our space, and to stock the craft cart in our lounge with things the students would enjoy. At our crafternoons and in several other events, we discussed the importance of crafting as self-care as well as a form of resistance. Kacee was a strong supporter of me doing my dissertation in a comic format, and fostered my growth in and through creativity.

As a leader, I ask my supervisees about their interests and their passions, and try to figure out ways those interests and passions can intersect with their professional career. For example, my first graduate assistant loved organizing and advocacy, so I supported her taking the lead on some of the creation and coordination of our programming. She planned several events for our 2SLGBTQIA+ community and received great feedback from attendees. Because of her positive and affirming work experience, she sees this as a potential avenue for her career.

Ultimately, a successful leader is one whose willingness to learn never wanes. There is always room for new knowledge, growth, and innovation. We learn to lead from the people we lead; and (hopefully) in turn, they learn, too.

From Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic Frankenstein to Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House and beyond, gothic horror novels have captivated readers for generations with their use of the mysterious, the supernatural, the psychological, and the grotesque. Mexican Gothic (Del Rey, 2020) by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and What Big Teeth (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021) by Rose Szabo continue the legacy of their literary ancestors while adding their own unique twists and turns on gothic tropes.

Set in Mexico in the 1950s, Mexican Gothic begins with the young socialite Noemí Taboada receiving a curious letter from her cousin Catalina, who is newly married and living in the remote countryside town of El Triunfo. At the behest of her worried father, Noemí reluctantly agrees to visit her cousin in exchange for her father’s permission to enroll in a master’s degree program in anthropology. Upon arrival at High Place, the mansion where Catalina lives with her blond-haired, blue-eyed English husband, Virgil Doyle, and his family, it is easy for Noemí to see why her cousin might be feeling so frantic. The mansion is in a state of disrepair, with mold growing on the walls and rooms vacant under cover of dusty sheets. There is no electricity, only candles and oil lamps, adding to the dreariness of the place. The ouroboros, a symbol depicting a snake eating its own tail, is unnervingly visible everywhere in the home’s décor. Outside, an adjacent cemetery is perpetually thick with fog, and an abandoned silver mine is a physical reminder of the Doyle family’s fading fortune.

With the exception of Virgil’s introspective cousin, Francis, the family is somehow even less welcoming than the house: Francis’s mother Florence is immediately cold to her, policing Noemí’s actions and her time spent with Catalina; Howard, Virgil’s father and the aged and ailing family patriarch, comments on Noemí’s dark skin and is expressly clear in his interest in eugenics; and Virgil oscillates between being congenial and callous. It isn’t long before Noemí is having nightmares and wondering if the things Catalina wrote in her letter were true.

While the prose of What Big Teeth differs because of its target audience—it is a work of young adult fiction—the narrative style shares similarities with Mexican Gothic. After an incident at her boarding school, Eleanor Zarrin returns to her home in a remote town in Maine, with little memory of the family she hasn’t seen or heard from in years. The Zarrin family is an eclectic menagerie of supernatural creatures, to say the least, who are simultaneously welcoming and terrifying to Eleanor. After a tragic event leaves the Zarrins broken, Eleanor finds purpose in putting her family back together and working through their grief. However, things go awry and their situation goes from bad to worse. To say more would be to give away the secrets of the house and the family who inhabit it—and this is not a novel you want spoiled for you.

The influence of works like Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper is evident in both novels, and readers will delight in the slow unraveling of the mysteries at the center of each narrative. While Mexican Gothic is slightly better-paced, the twists in What Big Teeth are less opaque. However, both novels offer satisfying revelations and resolutions, and will stay with you long after you turn the last page.

For more information on Moreno-Garcia and Szabo, and for additional information and examples of gothic horror, visit the links below.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s website

Rose Szabo’s website

At Book Riot: What Is Gothic Horror? 18 Examples of the Genre

At History Answers: Scream Queens: The Women Who Pioneered Gothic Literature