This Letter of Recommendation was written by Dr. Kiri Gurd, from Emerson College, for my admission to the University of Leeds
11/27/2019 Recommendation for Ava Burcham
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing this letter in strong support of Ava Burcham’s application to attend the Inequalities and Social Sciences MSc at Leeds. I have only known Ava since September 2019 as a student in my Advanced Seminar class – Forms of Violence – but in that short time she has shown me her deep and genuine investment in her development as a scholar. Ava has shown a unique eagerness to learn and has demonstrated excellent scholarship in out-of-class meetings, in class discussion, and in her intelligent, creative work. She is an exceptionally bright and hard-working student who has a remarkable capacity to learn and succeed. Moreover, Ava is not only an exceptional student but also an exceptional person – she is sensitive, empathetic, patient and nuanced in her approach to others and to difficult topics, characteristics that I presume are necessary and vital for the program she is interested in pursuing.
Currently, Ava has an A my course, which is a rare mark given the course’s level of theoretical difficulty. The “Forms of Violence” course is very difficult for most undergraduates as it is often their first introduction to complex social theory – the material requires arduous commitment to parsing through obtuse language in order to understand the material. Postmodern, postcolonial, and feminist theories on inequality and violence are explored in depth as well as comparative historical and cross-cultural case studies. The course consists of difficult readings, concepts, and assignments and requires students to understand how to apply theory to real world situations and to think critically and analytically, not just regurgitate information. The course content often deeply challenges students’ ‘taken-for-granted’ way of experiencing and seeing their world and disrupts their assumptions and comfort zone. In this sense, the course is not only a scholastic challenge but also a personal challenge. Ava has not only accepted this challenge but clearly embraced it and grown as a result. In both her presentation (20% of her mark) and the draft for her final project (draft 10% of mark and final project 25%), Ava has shown a real engagement with the material and real mastery of the conceptual ideas. Her presentation focused on militarized masculinity and her slides were thoughtful and informative in terms of breaking down the key concepts and ideologies relating to the concept. She posed thought provoking and analytically complex questions to the class which generated a productive class discussion. Her project draft explores the development of a non-fiction book that illuminates the way women are disadvantaged within educational systems and potential ways to transform the system. The project demonstrates not only analytical rigor in terms of deconstructing social institutions and their role in structural inequality but also the ability to work towards social change in concrete ways.
In such a short time, I have seen her develop more complex ideas and internalize these ideas so she expands both as a scholar and as a person. To me, this is the sign of an exceptional academic. Ava’s writing is clear, concise and accessible and Ava has displayed a mastery of the course material and made connections that were particularly analytically thoughtful. Ava has proved she could handle difficult abstract theories, apply them to real-world situations, and also write and communicate them lucidly. In this way, she has made evident to me that she not only had the intellectual capacity to do excellent work but the imagination and motivation to be a truly exceptional thinker and social scientist.
Ava has made a real effort to meet with me outside of class to discuss topics she finds particularly interesting as well as particularly challenging; she has inquired about further reading, investigated concepts at deeper levels than her peers, and produced work that truly reflected this extra effort and commitment to her studies. It is a rarity and a complete delight to come across a student who is a smart and serious scholar as well as a sensitive, kind person. It is for all these reasons that I believe Ava is an excellent candidate for the program and I highly recommend her. While I think Ava still has room to grow more secure in her academic acuity, I have full confidence that she will commit to this work, both outside and inside herself.
Sincerely, Kiri Gurd