David Advent

David Advent is in his senior year at Florida State University, double majoring in English with a concentration in Literature and International Affairs. He is currently working on this honors thesis, “The Dorset Chronotope: An Ecocritical Reading of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure and The Mayor of Casterbridge,” under the direction of English Professor Barry Faulk. As a 2018 IDEA Grant recipient, he traveled to Dorchester, England, over the summer of 2018 to conduct research for his honors thesis. In Dorchester, David visited Hardy’s cottage, the boyhood home of Hardy, and the Dorset Archival Center, where he had the opportunity to interact with primary documents such as an original edition of Hardy’s Wessex Poems. Overall, his experience in England provided him with a richer context for his thesis and a deeper understanding of the forces that inspired Hardy to write. In addition to writing his thesis, David is a second-year UROP Leader, where he co-instructs a humanities research course. He also is the Assistant Director of the Student Council of Undergraduate Research and Creativity (SCURC), which promotes the visibility of undergraduate research at FSU. Upon graduation, David hopes to attend Rice University, pursuing a doctorate in ecocriticism and 18th-century British literature.