| 16 | MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY Office of Research and Sponsored Programs
The focus of each is a single animal—hare, alligator, wolf, snake—set against a backdrop of evocative plant imagery and found art. Together, the pieces change the story about what’s possible for women: subjugation, but then awareness, anger, renewal.
FREEDOM THROUGH ART Scott said she understands that cycle because she’s been through it. Although she was always a high-achieving student, she says her self-worth was undermined for years by teachings at an extremely conservative religious school she attended in Knoxville. When she came to MTSU, Scott had every reason to be confident— she had received a Buchanan Fellowship, the
I CHOSE THE SNAKE INSTEAD OF THE BUTTERFLY BECAUSE . . . IT’S STILL THE SAME PERSON AT THE CORE. University’s top academic award for incoming freshmen—but she also was carrying some heavy baggage. “I was taught some really messed-up things about what it meant to be a woman and what my duties were as a woman, and how it was my responsibility to keep men in check, and my freshman year I experienced a series of harmful situations with men that I blamed myself for,” Scott said. Ultimately she recognized that she was both damaging and limiting herself by accepting
