New Alumni Spotlight! Zaira Girala Munoz ('22) Discusses Graduate School at the Ohio State University

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 18:21:58 -0400

Zaira Girala Munoz ('22) is a former English major who is now a PhD student in English at the Ohio State University.

I’ve always loved writing, but it was at UMBC that I found my passion for rhetoric while majoring in English on the communication and technology track. I transferred to UMBC from Howard Community College, and it immediately solidified my decision to major in English. My time at UMBC was marked by the onset of the COVID pandemic and the 2020 protests. My support networks, including the McNair Scholars Program and professors I had in English, made me feel equipped intellectually to process and adapt to these pivotal moments, a skill that’s invaluable in the current moment. My time in the English Department also helped me find areas of research I am still passionate about today. My current research on disability rhetorics in graduate student narratives began as an essay I wrote in ENGL 671. I was able to take this class and begin a more intensive project as part of the accelerated BA/MA program in English, which also prepared me for the rigor of graduate seminars.

After graduating from UMBC, I started grad school (fully funded) at The Ohio State University. I am currently a third year MA/PhD student in English, in the Writing, Rhetoric and Literacy program. I’m also the president of GAMHAA, a grad student mental health organization on campus and Chief of Staff for The Graduate Student Council. Having earned my MA last spring, I am currently finishing coursework and starting to prep for candidacy exams. I’ve taught first-year composition at OSU for two semesters and I’m currently a graduate writing program assistant. I’ve really enjoyed getting to see the administrative side of running a writing program and supporting instructors who are teaching the class for the first time. My research areas are institutional rhetoric, rhetorics of health and medicine and disability studies. I would not have gotten here if it were not for the support of professors I had in the department at UMBC, and being a McNair scholar. I am especially grateful to Professors Brooks, McCarthy, Holladay, Patton (MCS), Mata-McMahon (Education), and Jones Lewis (Ancient Studies) for encouraging me to grow so much as a writer, researcher and thinker and for being some of the kindest people I’ve worked with.