An Introduction About me!

Hello everyone, I’m Zahra Mirza, and I’m excited to be in this class RMST 202 with you! I am international student from Mumbai, India and I am pursuing a major in Economics in my third year. I am extremely passionate about financial markets, international economics and trade! Apart from my studies, I find myself immersed in dance, mainly hip-hop, jazz funk and afro styles and I love to perform on stage or just on any song I find catchy enough. I also love to experiment in the kitchen with new baking recipes and trying to cook something new for myself very so often. I enjoy working out and watching sports (mainly cricket). I am usually someone who loves a challenge and loves to explore new ideas and places, especially on new treks and adventures out of the city. Over the past year I have grown a lot, especially my time management skills whic I realised I really needed to work on.

After watching the introductory lecture, what stood out to me most was the idea that Romance Studies is not tied to a single place, nation, or even a stable tradition. The professor explains that there is no such thing as a fixed “Romance World,” and that this absence is actually one of the discipline’s strengths. I found this idea refreshing because it challenges how we usually think about academic fields as being organized around borders, origins, or national identities. Instead, Romance Studies embraces uncertainty and movement, which makes it feel more open and inclusive.

I also liked the way the lecture described Romance languages as “bastard” or mixed languages that emerged through betrayal, and change rather than purity or tradition. This perspective reframes linguistic and cultural history as something dynamic and creative instead of linear or hierarchical. As a student, this makes studying literature feel less intimidating, because it suggests that meaning comes from transformation and reinterpretation, not mastery of an original source.

I appreciated the emphasis on reading texts in translation. The lecture argues that translation itself is a productive form of betrayal that allows texts to travel and become new. I like this idea because it democratizes learning: no one has privileged authority, and everyone engages with the texts from a position of curiosity. Overall, the video made Romance Studies feel experimental, critical, and intellectually freeing, which is why I’m excited to explore the course further.