Researcher Spotlight #6: Jonah Walker-Sherman
Welcome back to another researcher spotlight! Here at the CEMVC we are proud of all of our team members and the work that they do to help make advances in the field of visual culture. This week, we would like to feature another one of our amazing undergraduate researchers, Jonah Walker-Sherman.
Jonah has been a part of the CEMVC team since Fall 2020. His work includes researching and creating metadata tags for illustrations. For example, he has collected numerous illustrations for editions of Cervantes’ Don Quijote.
Working on a B.A. with a double major in Philosophy and Psychology, Jonah is entering his fourth year at Mount Allison with the goal of finishing his degree at the end of this academic year. Some of his research interests include biopsychology, language, logic, and philosophy of science.
On top of his work at the CEMVC (and undergrad work!), Jonah also works with Professor Jane Dryden and Assistant Professor Andrew Inkpen as a research assistant. This project looks to understand the recent explosion of biological research pertaining to the human microbiome. As well, those of you interested in learning more on philosophy, you can find Jonah this coming Fall as a TA on Plato’s Republic. So excited to see where all this work takes you, Jonah!
Want to know more? Here is a quick Q&A to get to know Jonah:
Q: How has working at the CEMVC shaped your undergrad experience?
A: Structure I suppose, it sounds mundane but isolating and tagging illustrations before and between classes is a great focusing point. Finishing a day’s work also provides a daily feeling of success and achievement. Otherwise, I fear I would fiddle around doing very little of anything and then attend class with a muddled head only to end the day feeling somewhat hollow. Moreover, I have been very lucky in that I have been allowed to archive the indomitable work of Cervantes, whose genius I am always delighted to return to.
Q: What is your favourite CEMVC collection or experience to date?
A: I have only ever worked on Miguel de Cervantes’ El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, and I hope to continue to do so for as long as I may. On first reading, I found the story to be a painful tragedy, one that left a bitter taste in my mouth, but over time the adventures of the notable knight-errant and the relevant illustrations transformed into heartfelt comedy. There are certain images, like the portrait of the Squire of the Woods, or the assault on Baritaria that I need only think of to bring a smile to my face. It is a regrettable caveat that the first half of the tale is less palatable than the second, but I find that the illustrations from the Bohn 1842 publication are so numerous and well-drawn that they keep the pacing from becoming unbearable.
Q: After undergrad, what would you like to do next?
A: I have no clue, I would love to move on to a psychology program that specializes in therapy and palliative care, but there are also so many interesting graduate programs in Canada and around the world. Just thinking about it makes me want to travel somewhere new and exciting. It feels like every passing week since the pandemic started, I have found myself repeating the words of Bilbo Baggins: “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains.”
Bonus Q: Who is your favourite Raptor?
A: This is the toughest question of all, for I have no one favorite Raptor. DeMar DeRozan was, and will always be, my favorite player to watch. There was something about the way he played, his inside game, his footwork, his jumper, that was just so aesthetically pleasing. Without hyperbole, I could watch him play for hours on end without a scoreboard or a game clock without getting bored. That said, I completely corrupted my own game by trying to style my own jump shot after DeMar’s, so I would just needlessly fade away and shoot the ball from way behind my head on every shot. Jonas Valanciunas was the first player whose jersey I ever owned and was the perfect blend of lumbering yet somehow also smooth. Finally, I would feel wrong if I did not also include the name’s Kyle Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, and Bruno Caboclo, players who in my eyes can do no wrong.