A Senior Capstone Experience by Sheri Swayne ’26

Submitted to the Department of English

Advised by Dr. Sean Meehan

Contributor Biography: Sheri Swayne is an alum of Washington College and writes creative non-fiction, critical essays, and enthusiastic movie reviews on Letterboxd. She is a 2026 Sophie Kerr finalist and centers topics of race and mixed-race identity in her work. If you ever want to have a productive conversation with her, don’t mention Toni Morrison, Transformers, Kali Uchis, K-Pop, or iced coffee.

Short Description: This essay examines the reality that the narration of Black lives, and the trauma that is sewn within them, are not legitimized under Eurocentric literary theories such as trauma theory. To do so, the black girls of Toni Morrison’s 1970 novel The Bluest Eye are analyzed according to the cultural depth that is specific to black lives.

Read Sheri’s SCE below: