Luca Pixner ’20, who was born in Imst, Austria, chose RMC at the advice of his high-school advisor. An English major with minors in French and gender, sexuality, and women’s studies, Pixner was looking for a liberal arts college in a small-town setting with opportunities for travel and exploration. “Richmond and D.C. are only a car, bus or train ride away,” he says, “and the ocean and (admittedly small) mountains are close by.”

From Researcher to Conference Presenter
Equally important to Pixner are the opportunities he has had inside—and beyond—the classroom. In 2018 and 2019, he participated in RMC’s Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. SURF students conduct 10 weeks of research under the guidance of a faculty mentor.

Pixner’s 2019 SURF project was titled “Nature’s Natural Queerness: Queer Ecologies in Marianne Moore’s ‘Observations’and H.D.’s ‘Sea Garden.'” He was invited to present his research findings at the April 2020 The Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium at Johns Hopkins University. Due to the pandemic, Pixner and other invitees uploaded recordings of their presentations

“I was incredibly humbled to be invited. To present felt like validation for all the efforts I put into ideas around queer ecology and poetry,” he says. “I was particularly excited for this opportunity because the Macksey audience was a little more familiar with my project’s concepts and language, given that the symposium focused on the humanities.”

A Deep Resonance
Pixner explains his project: “Up until recently, queer theory as an academic practice was concerned predominantly with human sexual and gender identities. But in light of some more recent theoretical work on ‘queer ecology,’ I found there to be a deep resonance of natural elements in Moore and H.D.’s poetry with the major concepts of queerness. The insights gained from this research suggest that queer theory could broaden its overall scope, as it now lends itself to investigating all sorts of things, whether human or not.”

Mentorship
Pixner’s advisor and SURF mentor was English Professor Robert Volpicelli.

“Professor Volpicelli was a phenomenal SURF supervisor,” says Pixner. “It sometimes astounds me how well he ‘gets’ my scattered and seemingly dead-end thinking processes, especially when it comes to conveying them in writing. He always inspires me to do my best work.”

Reflecting on Pixner’s undergraduate career, Volpicelli notes, “Luca took advantage of everything RMC has to offer, and his education represents the kind of individualized student experiences we like to cultivate here. His success speaks to what our English majors—and humanities students more broadly—are capable of achieving.”

Campus Life + Future Plans
Pixner, a Davis United World College scholar and the recipient of the International Student Grant and the Trustee’s Award, is a member of the Diversity Council. He also served as managing editor of the Yellow Jacket student newspaper.

“I loved being part of the paper because I got to stay informed about what goes on in the world, but, just as crucially, we dedicated ourselves to disseminating important information among the RMC student body,” he says.

Pixner’s future plans include graduate school.

“I am intent on pursuing literary studies further, probably with a focus on comparative German and English literature as well as gender studies,” he says. “Ultimately, I wish to teach and give back to the academic community.”