Mishal Imaan Syed

Mishal Imaan Syed is a senior majoring in English and Creative Writing, with a minor in Cognitive Science. Her honors thesis is a creative writing project that combines poetry and prose to explore women’s experiences of migration, displacement, and generational trauma through the lens of folklore and magical realism. She writes about mythologized female figures, merging stories from western and non-western folklore. Building on the poetic lineage of Aria Aber and Ocean Vuong, as well as the fairytale lineage of Angela Carter, she investigates the neuroses generated by diasporic movement, convergent memory, and sustained trauma. Mishal volunteers at an elementary school and is currently working on revisions to her first novel. She would like to thank her advisors for their support.