ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis would not have reached its fullest form without the help, advice and encouragement of many people. I thank my thesis advisor, Beth Ann Fennelly, for believing in me. I thank her for working with me on these essays—for reading the early word-vomit drafts, rereading numerous rewrites and revisions, calling me when I have last minute questions, and I thank her for being energetic, positive and ambitious through it all.
I thank Vanessa Gregory for reading and working with me on early drafts of “Reckoning Your Barbie Savior” and “The New YouTube: Sleek Suburbia & Sabotage.” Her stylistic feedback was invaluable, and she opened my eyes to many pieces of writing that inspired this collection. I thank Kiese Laymon for reading and working with me on early drafts of “A Record of the World as She Sees It” and “Reckoning Your Barbie Savior.” His feedback made these pieces stronger thematically and his rigor, passion and joy motivated me to write. I thank my second reader, Marcos Mendoza, for offering the anthropological perspective on these essays. I thank Amy McDowell for introducing me to the sociology of sexuality, gender and power dynamics in her honors seminar, which served as inspiration for many of the themes in this collection. I thank Tim Dolan for reading and working with me on an early draft of “Wanted: Someone with Whom to Simply Pass the Days.” I thank Ann Fisher-Wirth for reading and working with me on early drafts of “The Red Swimsuit.” I thank Mark Dolan for his unwavering support since freshman year.
I thank the University of Mississippi Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for providing me with the Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship that funded nine weeks of work on this thesis during June and July of 2019. This fellowship contributed greatly to this thesis because it gave me more time to develop my ideas and make careful revisions, especially with the essay, “Wanted: Someone with Whom to Simply Pass the Days.” And I thank the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College for providing me with the Exploratory Research Funds to return to Ghana in August of 2019. These funds enabled me to write “Reckoning Your Barbie Savior.”
I thank Square Books and Oxford for providing such a rich literary community full of book readings, writing groups and people who care about reading and writing just as much as I do. I thank my roommate Wesley Craft for letting me bounce ideas off him constantly over lunches in our little house. I thank my friend Brendan Ryan for his feedback on “Reckoning Your Barbie Savior” and for copy-editing all of the essays. And I thank my parents, Mike and Judy Knirnschild, and my partner, Drew Ramsey, for being my support network and for always making me laugh.