Graduate student MC Sarafianos will teach a recurring course offered by the department focusing on the portrayal of mental health in literature this upcoming semester. The ‘themes in literature’ course was developed by former English PhD graduate student Hayli Cox last year, but was so popular that the department opted to offer it even after Cox’s recent graduation. 

An excerpt from the course syllabus: 

Over the past decade, diagnoses of mental illness have been on the rise and discussions of mental health have intensified dramatically. But these disorders did not just appear in the last few years — in fact, mental illness has been experienced and written about for millennia. This course will explore this history beginning with Hamlet and ending with The Collected Schizophrenias. As we read, we will examine in each story how these texts reflect and challenge cultural attitudes, medical practices, and societal norms.

• What does it mean to be mentally ill and who decides? 
• How have definitions and classifications of mental disorders evolved over time? 
• What roles have medical professionals, cultural factors, and societal expectations played in shaping these definitions – and what role have writers played in these same definitions? 
• How is the label of mental illness being used by or against the characters in these stories?
• What can the literature we are reading help us understand about the implications of literature on contemporary understandings of mental illness, mental health treatment, and social justice?

Get to know MC Sarafianos 

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to?

A lot of Hallmark holiday movies!  

What can’t you get enough of?

Peanut butter cups and cold brew. 

What are you looking forward to in the new year?

Doing my comps exam!

What is your current/next research focus/teaching focus?

I'm currently researching eugenics and will be using the Schwartz Travel Award to do some of that research in London!

What’s your favorite(s) Columbia, MO spot?

Cooper's Landing. 

When you’re not on campus, what can you be found doing?

Biking the MKT, frolicking in the fall leaves. 

What’s one fun fact about yourself?

I speak three languages and I'm working on a fourth!

Where did you grow up?

New Jersey, born and bred. 

Why English? Why do you want to teach/research in your field?

I've always been happiest tucked in the corner of a library. Soon, hopefully, I'll be back in the library in a bit of a different role, working and helping students understand, traverse, and interrogate archives