June 22, 2023
Laurel Foote-Hudson came to UNC-Chapel Hill with a deep and abiding passion for the study of languages. She ended up majoring in both Asian Studies and Romance Languages, focusing on Japanese and Spanish, and then was accepted to the Ph.D. program in Comparative Literature here at Carolina.
After years of coursework, her dissertation examined the ways in which early modern Spain and early modern Japan both engaged with the idea of honor and the notion of revenge in domestic theatrical traditions.
Looking in particular at plays such as Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna (1612-1614), Tirso de Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla (1630), Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s The Treasury of Loyal Retainers (1706), and Nanboku Tsuruya IV‘s Yotsuya Ghost Stories (1825), Laurel explored their didactic messages about honor and revenge.
After completing her doctorate, Laurel became interested in putting her language skills, her research and writing talents, and her impressive digital and programming abilities to work in the private sector, and she quickly found work as a Learning Experience Designer at Fidelity Investments in 2019. Congratulations Laurel! You are an inspiration to Asian Studies majors.
