Orion Liggett never saw herself going to college. In fact, in her words, if someone had told her ten years ago that she would now be pursuing a doctorate degree in English, she would have “laughed out loud.” For nearly a decade, she was living on the road, hitchhiking and train hopping around the United States.

“I was homeless from 2008 to 2016,” she said. “I often tell people: yes, it was very hard at times, but I would never take it back.”

She finally arrived in Quincy, California and was ready to have a permanent place to call home. “I always knew that I would return to school eventually. I was a gifted child who veered off the tracks.”

In looking back on the journey that brought her to the University of Nevada, Reno, Liggett could see that the path she took, windy and challenging as it was, would always bring her here.

“I decided that I wanted to be an English teacher at 16 years old. There were a lot of circumstances in my life that pushed me toward homelessness — instability and unsafe conditions in the family home, undiagnosed neurodivergence, a burgeoning queer identity in a conservative town — but also, I chose the road. I was determined to be the next Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg. In this way, my time on the road was very much rooted in Beat literature.”

Liggett’s love of literature runs deep. Beyond her academic interests, literature has informed her worldview. She referenced Nicole Mirra’s book, “Educating for Empathy”, which speaks to literature’s ability to bring people together. Mirra writes that literature has the power to “not only reflect our own experiences back to us and offer windows into the experiences of others, but also ultimately construct bridges with the power to connect us in public life.” To Liggett, the constructed worlds in literature present opportunities for people to find common ground in the real world.

Her work as a scholar and instructor centers around literature’s function as an access point to experiences, perspectives and identities that might differ from our own. “Literature is amazing because it helps us grow into more insightful, empathetic and civically engaged human beings,” she said. “In my research and teaching, I aim to build as many bridges as possible and to honor all ways of being, knowing and writing.”

At the University, Liggett has continued to carve out her scholarly interests with help from the College of Liberal Arts’ English department faculty. In Assistant Professor Nasia Anam’s World Literature class, Liggett appreciated the course’s interrogation of “what counts as world literature, as well as the multitude of ways our texts revealed the complex, palimpsestic nature of world histories and relationships.” Liggett is interested in a question that literary scholars have long debated: what defines capital ‘L’ literature?

During her master’s program, she read “The Ghosts Who Travel with Me”, which was written by Allison Green, a queer woman who embarks on a road trip following the path of Richard Brautigan. “I started thinking about the gaps in canonical hobo literature; women, queer folks and people of color were not allowed to tell their stories. This group of workers, travelers and activists has been historically silenced. It was dangerous to reveal themselves, as they could be met with discriminatory violence.” She has several different scholarly interests, but all are connected to the “exploration of whose stories matter and whose stories don’t.” Part of that exploration takes the form a creative writing project — a memoir-in-progress, in which Liggett reflects on her time on the road.

When Liggett was applying to Ph.D. programs, she initially thought that she would return to the Midwest, where she is from. She was accepted to six of the eight programs she applied to and was offered an assistantship by another university. However, during her Gradventure visit to the University of Nevada, Reno, she was “completely charmed by the beautiful campus, the slightly creepy Fransden Hall and the very cool Special Collections room.”

When she was offered the University’s Graduate Dean’s Fellowship, it was an easy decision to make. “I was at my third job at the Quincy Public Library when I got the email and I just started weeping. I have worked to overcome so many obstacles on my journey: raising two young special needs children on my own, receiving a Lupus diagnosis and dealing with chronic illness while I got it under control and 80-mile commute through the mountains to the Chico campus, PTSD from my transient days, living below the poverty line,” she said. “In that moment, it felt like everything I had envisioned was coming to fruition and I have truly never felt so proud of myself and excited for the future.”

In addition to the support offered to Liggett as a student, instructor and researcher, she said that one of the most supportive features of attending the College and University has been the feeling of belonging that has come with it.

“My message to the students and to anyone who reads my story, is that every day represents a path towards transformation. Your future is not written yet. With resilience, dedication and passion, anything is possible. And it’s certainly not easy, but it sure is rewarding. And for those in academia who feel like they don’t belong, for those too scared to even try, there is a place for you. Your voice matters.”