Reflecting on Brackenridge 2022

As the summer draws to a close, I have been prompted to consider not only the conclusion of the Brackenridge Fellowship but the approach of my senior year as well. It is almost surreal to reflect on the two years I have spent pursuing this research question and to now be in the writing stage…

Communicating Patient-Centered Research

Over the past two years I have been conducting research in the medical humanities, I have paid stronger attention to the rhetorical aspects of language. My project centers around the use of the war metaphor with regard to breast cancer and particularly in reference to metastatic breast cancer, and the meaning behind this project is…

My Brackenridge Cohort 2022

Coming into my second year participating in the Brackenridge Fellowship, I knew I could expect to learn about all sorts of research projects running in equally diverse fields across the university. The fellowship emphasizes research of an interdisciplinary nature, and this is exemplified not only through individual projects that cross academic boundaries but also through…

Return to Brackenridge

About Me Hi friends! My name is Sarah Hulse, and I’m a rising senior in the University Honors College. I am a Psychology major with a Certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine through the Department of History and Philosophy of Science. This is my second and last year participating in the Brackenridge Fellowship, and as…

Pursuit with Purpose

With application to the Brackenridge Fellowship, students are prompted to submit a proposal of their project. We craft letters detailing the background, methodology, and driving force of our project as succinctly as possible. True to form, we envision the ideal progression of our research where recruitment always goes swiftly and data analysis always ends in…

Talking to Houseplants

As I began developing my project for the Brackenridge Fellowship and my future Bachelor of Philosophy thesis, it was difficult to feel fully satisfied with the language I used to illustrate its purpose. This is the danger of acting as though research is a solitary process; the right words to describe goals, methodologies, and meanings…

Taking an Interdisciplinary Approach

As a student with a background in psychology and philosophy, I believe that a person’s field of interest is often revealed through their approach to problem solving and exploration. We see it in the quantitative approach of a future engineer, the precise writing of an English major, or the global perspective of a public health…

Sarah Hulse: The War Metaphor in Metastatic Breast Cancer

About Me Hi friends! My name is Sarah Hulse, and I’m a rising junior here at the University Honors College. I am a Psychology major with certificates in American Sign Language and the Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. In writing this, I probably spent the most time trying to come up with a fun fact worth…

Commit to Pitt & a Journey of Growth

As a sophomore in college, it sometimes feels odd to give advice to prospective and new students. Truthfully, most days I feel as if I’m still in your shoes: standing at the edge of what most people consider to be a massive choice. That’s not to say that these past two years of college have…

The Journey is the Accomplishment

It’s common for accomplishments in college – academically, professionally, personally, etc. – to feel like a constantly-moving target. Too often we get lost in an idea of what success will look like in the future instead of focusing on how it looks for us in the present moment. There is always more to do, more…