An intellectual transformation
CMC Alum Q.E. Drummond Connects Scholarship & Praxis In Canadian Graduate Studies
When Quinn-Evelynn Drummond arrived on campus at Southern Oregon University, she didn’t identify as an academically strong student. But when she connected with students and faculty in SOU’s courses in Communication Studies and Emerging Media & Digital Arts, something clicked.
“My SOU experience has, essentially, transformed me,” said Drummond. “Not only did I become a person interested in understanding the way the world works, so to speak, but I have also become fully invested in understanding, explaining, and mobilizing the systems that structure the world.”
After finishing her degree at SOU, Drummond has carried her new-found intellectual ambitions forward to a fully funded graduate program in Media Studies at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. The program synthesizes scholarship from a range of fields — including the humanities, liberal arts, social sciences, and fine arts — and it was precisely this interdisciplinary approach that drew her there. She is currently working on a two-year masters program, and hopes to move on to a doctoral program after that.
“The quality of writing and the level of thinking that Q.E. accomplished in her Communication courses astonished me,” said CMC Professor Alena Ruggerio. “Working with her felt more like collaborating with a colleague than advising a student. And if she continues on her current path, she will become a true scholarly colleague in just a few years.”
In her research at Concordia, Drummond explores stories and narrative logic, especially the way they shape and constitute both individual and collective meaning.
“In plain language, I argue that people‘s inner stories are a key factor in the way they perceive and make sense of the world,” Drummond said. In her thesis project, she’s currently analyzing films about transgender and gender nonconforming identities, with a specific focus on the role of filmmakers as storytellers.
“SOU helped me find my passion for learning and for academia at large,” said Drummond. “My learning experience not only helped me center and focus on the subjects I was truly invested in, but gave me the community and the tools I needed to do so in a fulfilling and substantive way.”
Story by Kelli Albert, Community Manager for the Communication, Media & Cinema Program at Southern Oregon University.
