Fall 2026

• Himadri Agarwal
• Eric Baker
• Andrew Delfino
• Dalton Greene
• Elizabeth Marshall
• Alan Montroso
• Sydney Sharpstene
• Aubrey Zinn

Dear Reader,

I am thrilled to be introducing the 2025-2026 edition of Interpolations along with managing editor, Scott Eklund, and offering this glimpse into the exceptional work our students complete in Academic Writing. This edition arrives at a turbulent time in the age of A.I., as higher education grapples with the impact of A.I. technologies on critical thinking and literacy. The students’ essays presented in this edition speak to this moment, either by directly interrogating A.I. or by indirectly showcasing the value of the students’ authorial voices and creativity. While we may hear stories about the detrimental costs of A.I. to reading and writing, our Academic Writing students continue to persevere and impress us with their authentic writing skills. Their effective use of the craft is on display on every page of this edition.

In response to this new cultural context, faculty in the Academic Writing Program collaborated on ways to encourage students to recognize the profound importance of reading and writing both in their education and in their lives more generally. This led to the addition of a new assignment to the program’s standard curriculum: the literacy narrative. Faculty piloted this assignment in the Spring 2026 semester, asking students to examine the far-reaching effects of their own literacy histories. The prompt led to numerous insightful and inspiring narratives, and I am excited to highlight four such narratives in this edition of Interpolations. In Jacob Anghel’s “The Sound of Self-Doubt,” he explores the intersection of literacy and disability in a story describing how a community developed around language and speech helped him build his confidence. In Elizabeth Etuaful’s “Speaking in Many Tongues,” she explores how reading multicultural authors led her to tap into her own power of linguistic diversity. Similarly, Sarah Francisco’s “A Childhood Interrupted by English” details how she grew to value her multilingual identity after a negative experience as a young child encouraged her to perceive her native language as a hindrance. Finally, Sydney White discusses how she overcame a reliance on AI and rediscovered her passion for reading and writing in “Finding the Magic.” Notably, while each narrative acknowledges the obstacles students may face in their literacy journeys, they also offer hope and optimism in the continued power and potential of literacy. 

I also want to spotlight several other impressive pieces published here, including Kate William’s “Tapping into the Audience’s Identity: A Rhetorical Analysis of Lex McMenamin’s ‘Chat GPT is Everywhere…’” which closely analyzes how Lex McMenamin effectively convinces the Teen Vogue audience to consider the environmental costs of AI. Edward Cameron’s rhetorical analysis of Harriet Rix’s  “The Genius of Trees” examines how Rix encourages the audience to appreciate the intimate connection between humans and trees. Finally, Aryan Sharma’s insightful position paper, “Systemic Gatekeeping: How In-College Strain Reproduces Labor Market Stratification,” recognizes how the significant and far-reaching barriers faced by low-income college students lead to continued class stratification.

I am incredibly thankful to the wonderful 2025-2026 editorial board members whose dedication to the students’ success is evident in every piece: Himadri Agarwal, Eric Baker, Andrew Delfino, Dalton Greene, Elizabeth Marshall, Alan Montroso, Sydney Sharpstene, and Aubrey Zinn. I also want to express my immense gratitude to the managing editor, Scott Eklund, whose tireless work continues to make Interpolations a truly outstanding journal. 

Finally, I want to thank the students for all the effort they put into crafting and revising these exceptional essays. Their passion for writing is evident throughout this issue of Interpolations, and I hope reading these pieces is both inspiring and heartening!

Susan Pramschufer
Editor-in-Chief