Senior English and German double major Robin Cummins hopes to one day inspire budding scholars in the same way her excitement for research surrounding the medieval period has been fostered during her undergraduate studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
The Casey native will celebrate the finale of her undergraduate career during the College of Arts and Sciences’ commencement ceremony being held at noon on Saturday, May 11.
“I’ve enjoyed both the English and German programs, as they have great faculty, and conduct important, interesting studies,” Cummins said. “Both programs value interdisciplinary perspectives, community engagement and social justice.”
Cummins fell in love with SIUE’s beautiful campus when searching for her undergraduate institution. She says her receipt of a Meridian Scholarship, entry into the honors program, and information shared on extensive undergraduate research and community involvement solidified her decision to attend.
“I came to SIUE as an English major, because of how much I like literature, but I quickly added German as a second major, because I loved the first class I took,” she recalled. “I got involved right away in SIUE’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) program under the mentorship of Dr. Doug Simms.”
She worked with Simms, professor of German and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, as an URCA assistant, completing projects on Old Norse poetry and scribal practices in the 9th-century poem The Heliand.
She then became an URCA associate, leading her own project with Simms’ advisement. Cummins presented her research project, entitled “Scribal Errors and Peculiarities in the Hildebrandslied” at the Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference held May 3-4 in Iowa City.
“Participating in URCA has helped me engage with the current scholarly questions in my field and, more broadly, taught me how to engage with ideas,” Cummins said. “From Dr. Simms, I’ve learned that one of the key elements of study in philology, or any field, is skepticism. Simply because a scholar says it or simply because it’s how things have always been done doesn’t necessarily make it true. It’s important to examine the sources and information yourself, so you can draw your own conclusions.”
“In addition to her excellence as a student, and her being the recipient of numerous scholarships, Robin has striven in additional dimensions,” Simms said. “She has served as president of the German Cultures Club, worked as an assistant in the Foreign Language Teaching Center, and has helped her fellow students as a tutor for German language.”
“Truly she is a remarkable student,” he added, “whose hard work and talent have brought her from a first-semester introductory German class to her beginnings as a scholar in her own right as she prepares for graduate study.”
This fall, Cummins will attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a doctorate in German, with a focus on the medieval period. She aspires to become a professor of German, so she can continue her research and teach others about the subject in which she’s so passionate.
Photo: SIUE’s Robin Cummins, of Casey, will graduate during the College of Arts and Sciences’ noon commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 11.