Hi, I’m Claire!
I’m a communications professional working as a Senior Account Manager at Real Chemistry.
I am dedicated to crafting and implementing communication campaigns for industry-leading clients in the healthcare and retail sectors. My responsibilities encompass comprehensive corporate reputation management, which includes crafting brand strategies, creating compelling content, orchestrating impactful events, establishing thought leadership platforms, and more. Internally, I am committed to fostering a culture where employees feel engaged and valued. I’m always seeking out opportunities to connect with passionate individuals looking to transform the way we create, connect, and engage.
Why Language?
There is beauty in the careful arrangement of words, their rhythm and meaning shifting as they are introduced into a sentence. By deciphering how these shifts affect the overall tone and message of a piece, I am constantly learning new ways to project specific messages through prose.
The Close Read
As a communications professional with a background in English and political science, I am interested in the role of discourse in framing arguments around contemporary events. I gravitate towards topics related to identity formation. My process tends to focus on a careful analysis of setting, character, action, style, ideas, and effects to understand the author’s purpose and perspective.
Writing Samples
Natural Imagery
In the end of Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, Antoinette’s final act of agency is setting herself aflame. Rhys’s fictional account of Bertha, the mad wife in Jane Eyre, portrays female insanity as a product of the patriarchy, a system so pervasive that its destruction requires self-sacrifice.
Magical Realism
Judy Budnitz and Carmen Maria Machado produce damning portrayals of the patriarchy by rejecting literary and social conventions. The narrative style used in their respective short stories, “The Husband Stitch” and “Scenes From A Fall Fashion Catalogue,” invites the reader to question their own conceptions of reality.
Language of Abortion Debate
Pro-choice. Pro-life. Does this mean that pro-choicers are anti-life and pro-lifers are anti-choice? If only it was that simple! This hot button topic is as much a linguistic debate as it is a conceptual one. Controlling this debate relies on dominion over everyday abortion discourse.
Creative Writing Prompt
Look around and jot down the first three objects that you see. Think about the power and longevity of guilt. Tie these three objects to this emotion. You have 10 minutes. Go.
Religious Violence
Violence and discrimination are a common thread throughout human history. Religion is often the vehicle used to justify this behavior, but religious doctrines themselves are not responsible for it. If religion did not exist, the desire for power would manifest in other ways. Religion itself absorbs the blame, while it should realistically be redirected and focused at individuals themselves.
Character Study
Masculinity is deconstructed in Home Fire and We The Animals. The absence of a reliable father figure in both texts causes identity struggles for the male protagonists. Their desire for masculine intimacy is exploited, leaving both characters isolated from themselves and their families.
Ideal English Society
Hannah More and Elizabeth Inchbald, English writers during the Georgian Era, had seemingly antithetical agendas. While Inchbald’s play Lovers’ Vows criticizes the aristocracy, More’s Cheap Repository Tracts appears to praise defined social roles. Upon closer inspection, More’s subversion of gender roles might suggest a subtle, more progressive aim.
Patriarchal Critique
Despite their disparate writing styles, Lydia Maria Child, Margaret Fuller, and Fanny Fern all used similar strategies to achieve feminist ends. They adopted the stereotype that women are inherently sentimental, positing it in opposition to reason. Reason, they suggest, has been warped by oppressive institutions that must be reformed through sympathy, a quality inherent to females.
The Man in the Mirror
A daughter learns how to be a woman from her mother. The way she speaks, the way she eats, and the way she sees herself is passed down. In this piece of fiction, the seeds of a young daughter’s identity are planted through a series of intimate flashbacks between a mother and daughter.
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
A brief look into the cultural landscape surrounding Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), the landmark case upholding the Georgia law criminalizing sodomy. Formatted similarly to a literature review, this paper examines the connection between the Court’s framing of the case and the prevalent ideologies of the time.
Maroon News: Election Results
A published article in Colgate’s school newspaper about the 2020-2021 Senate election results. The article addresses the challenges COVID-19 posed for the election commissioners, along with the platforms and outlooks of various newly elected senators.
Maroon News: COVID-19 Update
An article covering the rising COVID-19 infection rate in Hamilton, NY during the holiday season. The article discusses professors’ concerns, new safety protocols in the town and local hospital, and students’ differing reactions to the spike.
What does Close Read mean?
“Close Read: Thoughtful critical analysis of a text that focuses on a deep, precise understanding of the texts form, craft, meanings, ....”
— Beth Burke, “A Close Look at Close Reading”