Rebecca’s bread and butter is analyzing stories for their themes, worldviews, and cultural significance. She enjoys analyzing movies for what they say about the times and people who both make them and watch them.
She has experience conveying specialized or arcane knowledge to general audiences. Her research on braille combines the history of digital and print technologies with theories about unconventional writing systems. This shows her knack for creating new ideas from an eclectic mix of sources.
She delights in creating succinct, vivid descriptions, yet excels at longer content.
Rebecca Baumgarten loves storytelling and writing about literature, especially mythology, religious fiction, and poetry.
She is also fascinated with language, including linguistic and assistive technologies. While pursuing a graduate certificate in Digital Humanities at Texas A&M, she helped create Reord, an Old English transliteration addon for the NVDA screen reader, which allows low-vision students to study the language of Beowulf.
She enjoys singing, playing the piano, and studying astronomy—all of which she would be happy to write about.
Thesis title: "Endurance and Hope: Christian Heroism in Tolkien's Legendarium"
Rebecca studied the Old English language, creating a transliteration addon for the NVDA screen reader software and translating core texts such as Beowulf and "The Battle of Maldon."
Her chief areas of study included medieval literature, digital humanities, creative writing, and assistive technology.
Major Project: Reord, Old English transliteration addon for the NVDA screen reader software:
Rebecca contributed to the Millican Riot Project. She transcribed historic newspaper articles from an Omeka database, generated citations, and gave recommendations for Web accessibility.
While taking a class on the 15th-century English printer William Caxton, Rebecca researched and wrote a paper on the comparative history of braille. This paper is in the process of publication in a volume on Caxton.
Rebecca worked for 3 semesters as a graduate assistant teacher at Texas A&M. She was an instructor for Technical Business Writing online and graded for 21st-Century Literature and Culture and Literature World War II-Present.
For several years, she worked as a freelance tutor of braille and assistive technology for low-vision students from elementary to college level.
She has evaluated higher-level English courses on Study.com, and on the online learning platform Outschool, she offers courses in language and literature.
While pursuing her MA in English and graduate certificate in Digital Humanities at Texas A&M, Rebecca helped to create Reord, the Old English transliteration addon for the NVDA screen reader software. She and her professor presented the addon to two Medieval Studies groups, giving verbal explanations and practical demonstrations.
For her classes on the online learning platform Outschool, Rebecca creates appealing and engaging PowerPoint presentations on subjects related to language and literature.
As an officer on the Aggie Catholic Apologetics Team at St. Mary's Catholic Center, Rebecca writes and edits handouts on a variety of apologetics topics, including Biblical genres, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Church's relationship with women.
In 2019, Rebecca wrote an article that was published in Explorations, Texas A&M's undergraduate research journal.
She has also ghostwritten articles on tourism and cryptocurrency investment for the general public.
While pursuing her MA in English and graduate certificate in Digital Humanities at Texas A&M, Rebecca wrote a grant request for technical assistance from the TAMU Center for Digital Humanities Research. She received 30 hours of time from a programmer who helped in the development of Reord, an Old English transliteration addon for the NVDA screen reader software.
While working on large Girl Scout service projects, she wrote funding requests to businesses and nonprofit organizations.
While interning at the Texas A&M University Press, Rebecca wrote jacket and catalog copy for several books in the process of academic publishing. The subjects of these books included biography and coastal fishing.
From 2014 to 2016, Rebecca researched, wrote, and self-published a book about visually impaired children. She interviewed 16 successful visually impaired people of a variety of ages and skillsets, writing biographical profiles of each person as a resource for parents and educators.
From 2014 to 2016, for her Girl Scout Gold Project, Rebecca researched, wrote, and self-published a book about visually impaired children. She interviewed 16 successful visually impaired people of a variety of ages and skillsets, writing biographical profiles on each person as a resource for parents and educators.