Megan Farris, Outstanding Graduate

During her two years at WWU, Lead TA Megan Farris not only maintained a full load of classes with straight A’s but also completed research, her thesis, and learned Chinese. Prof. Cerretti describes Megan as “a talented, dedicated, and creative student…[who] has demonstrated enormous potential for future scholarship.”

As a Chinese American who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, Megan has been continuously drawn towards the histories of other Chinese Americans. Her work on an undergraduate Honors Capstone Project exploring Chinese women in San Francisco cemented her idea of pursing history at the graduate level.  

Megan says it was rewarding to enter the MA program with a research idea and utilize the local archives for her thesis on Chinese American women in the Pacific Northwest. “I was able to uncover the experiences of so many Chinese American women whose stories have never been told.” Megan’s graduate committee not only passed her thesis defense with an A, but also “found the work to be exceptional in its use of primary source evidence and highly original in lifting up the stories of women who have fallen through the cracks of previous scholarly discourse.”  

Megan hopes her research can help others understand what it was like to be a Chinese woman in the Pacific Northwest. Prof. Cerretti calls her thesis “a much-needed intervention in a field that has often acted as if these women were totally invisible.” He expects it to “evolve into an even stronger PhD dissertation and maybe even a published monograph.”  

Noting how difficult it can be to find balance in academia, Megan says she feels accomplished having now completed the program. She recommends future students “go slow” and remember that despite the “constant barrage of deadlines,” the research they’re doing is valuable. “History is an amazing field to pursue,” Megan says. “There is a lot of joy and fulfillment to be found, so don’t forget to enjoy the process.”