Blending Literature and History, UNO Student Combines Passions into One Path

As a child, Izzy Martin was often found with a book in hand. Ever the avid reader, studying English in any capacity felt like a natural next step for the Bellevue native.

After initially starting her academic journey at the University of Nebraska at Omaha as a secondary education major with an English concentration, her path shifted after a conversation with a professor about her future career path.

“I've wanted to get a PhD for what feels like my whole life,” Martin explained.

With a post-graduate PhD pursuit in her field of vision, the professor encouraged Martin to go all-in on an English degree. Martin switched her major — and never looked back.

The encouragement from her professor sparked something within Martin. She went all-in on her classes, diving into new literary genres and exploring the depths of topics that piqued her curiosity. She found herself especially pulled towards British Literature, fascinated by 19th century symbolism and antiquity.

Martin’s intrigue towards the oddities of the past and their implications in literature inspired her to declare an additional major — history.

“English and history, I think, are just perfectly paired disciplines. They really inform one another,” Martin said.

The two majors worked in tandem, inspiring Martin to pursue research that blended the pair together. Her largest research paper, an inquisition on “The Picture of Dorian Grey” and Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood artwork, took Martin across the Midwest as she presented her findings at academic conferences.

Martin also found opportunities to expand her expertise as a peer mentor at the UNO Writing Center and as an intern at the Joslyn Art Museum, where she developed and led tours for museum visitors. These positions, much like her research experience, showed her that her interests could be interfused with one another to create something special.

“I think UNO really demonstrated that I could marry or coalesce a lot of my interests together. I have a lot of varied academic interests, from ancient Greek history to British literature and modern artwork, and I didn't think that I could fit all of those into one degree,” Martin said. “And then through UNO and the amazing faculty here and advisors, and just the flexibility that the university offers, I was able to coalesce all of those into a degree that really feels personal and also feels like it really caters to my long-term professional interests.”

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