Pittsburg State graduate student Marci Heatherly was recently selected to receive the James B.M. Schick Graduate Essay Award for her essay entitled “Beneficial Ridicule: The Felix Culpa of Women in the Satiric Verse of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.” This award is selected by PSU faculty members who also serve on the board of “The Midwest Quarterly.”
Heatherly drew inspiration for this article from a class she took last spring, “The Age of Irony,” which covered British satires from the 17th and 18th centuries.
“Two of my favorite works that we read were Alexander Pope’s ‘Epistle to a Lady,’ and then Jonathan Swift’s ‘The Lady’s Dressing room.’ Both of these satires essentially have been called for centuries misogynistic, like they’re making fun of women,” Heatherly explained.
“But then my counterpoint was, well, maybe it’s a good thing that they’re making fun of women, because they’re also making fun of men a lot in their works. And so that was where my title ‘Beneficial Ridicule’ came from- it’s a good thing they’re actually bringing women into the societal conversation, whereas other writers at the time perhaps were just romanticizing women on this pedestal, like ‘I’m not going to make fun of them. They’re just one-dimensional.’ So that was kind of the idea.”
Heatherly expressed her gratitude for receiving this honor, explaining, “‘The Midwest Quarterly’ is associated with Pitt State, but it of course encompasses a broader range than just our institution, and it’s a really nice literary magazine. She added, “We just had a visiting poet last week, David Lee, and he was shouting out the magazine as well. He’s had his poetry published in there, so just for me to have my name be associated with this esteemed, very nice magazine, I was like, ‘Woo hoo!’ I was very happy, because I put a lot of work into the project as well. And I was quite proud of what I produced.”
The PSU English department has made a strong impact on Heatherly’s passion for writing.
“Throughout my time in the English department, specifically during grad school, I was a graduate teaching assistant, so I taught English 101 or English 299. And during my undergrad, I had clinical experiences in local high schools, so that was good, but getting to teach at the university level, strangely enough, helped me as a writer because I was seeing a bunch of students writing every single week turning in essays.”
Dr. Paul McCallum is a professor who had a particularly strong impact on Heatherly.
“He’s had quite a big impact on me, I would say- My writing and what I’m interested in within literature. I am now pursuing a doctorate, and he kind of helped me throughout that process.”
She also accredits her growth to Professor Lori Martin, adding, “Professor Lori Martin is a creative writing professor in the English department. And even though I’m more literary analysis based, she still is a fantastic writer across all boards. Getting her feedback and getting Dr. McCallum’s feedback on all sorts of writings that I had throughout the past three semesters definitely helped me out.”
After graduating with her master’s, Heatherly plans to attend The University of St. Andrews to pursue her doctorate.
“I want to be a university professor. I want to teach 17th and 18th century Brit Lit. So essentially, what I wrote for this essay is kind of what I want to teach. I don’t really know exactly where, hopefully overseas, but I’ll be in Scotland for three to four years getting that, and then once my dissertation is approved, then hopefully I’ll get a university professor gig.”
Heatherly’s essay will be featured in the October 2026 edition of “The Midwest Quarterly.”