This weekend the English Department will be hosting the second annual Undergraduate Literature Conference on April 22-23, 2016.
About the Conference
There will be 18 undergraduate presenters speaking on a wide range of literary and cultural texts along with the new American Poetry Specialist, Dr. Erin Kapppeler, who will give a talk, “Playing Games with Poetry,” based on her current research into late nineteenth-century American poetry clubs.
Event Details
Date: Friday, April 22, 2016
Time: 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Location: Kentwood Crystal Room, Kentwood Hall, 700 E. St. Louis Street, Springfield, MO.
Admission: Free and open to the public
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2016
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Location: Meyer Library 101, Duane G. Meyer Library, 850 S John Q Hammons Pkwy, Springfield, MO
Admission: Free and open to the public
Conference Schedule
Friday, April 22, 2016 12:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Kentwood Crystal Room
12:00-1:00 Gender and Sexuality
Paige Whitcomb, “Guerilla Warfare: Combating Sexist Stereotypes through Art”
Sarah Shepard, “Looking Deeper: Underlying Intentions of Mankiewicz’s All About Eve”
Moderators: TBA
1:00-2:00 Popular Culture
Tori York, “Feminism and Firefly: How One Unconventional Western Challenges Traditional Gender Roles”
Abigail Eskew, “Thematic Binaries in Spirited Away: Chihiro’s Choice”
Sun Jones, “One Girl in All the World: Storytelling through Environment and Exploration in Metroid Prime”
Moderators: TBA
2:00-3:00 Personal Identity
Aundrea Davis, “Phantom Pains: Reclamation of Identity, Power, and Anger in the Works of Octavia Butler and Adrienne Rich”
Mary Roccaro, “Hermione Granger as a Complex Female Character in Harry Potter”
Emily Joshu, “Within the Minds of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson”
Moderators: TBA
3:30-4:30 Keynote Address
Erin Kappeler, new Assistant Professor of American Poetry at MSU, “Playing Games with Poetry”
Dr. Kappeler is a new Assistant Professor of English who specializes in American poetry. In her talk, she will use her current research into late nineteenth-century American poetry clubs to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by archival research.
Saturday, April 23, 2016 10:00 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Meyer Library 101
10:00-11:00 Memory, History, Time
Michelle Trantham, “Photography and Postmemory: Imagining the Past in Modiano’s Dora Bruder and Missing Person”
Zachary Rea, “The Brevity of Time: Answers to Carpe Diem in ‘Mutability’”
Shelby Preston, “Competing Temporalities in Romeo and Juliet”
Moderators: TBA
11:00-12:00 National Identity
Jenica Hawkins, “The Borderless American Identity”
Matthew Jones, “New Slaves: A Marxist Critique of Kanye West’s Yeezus”
Genevieve Richards, “A Survey of the Suffering of Women in Modern Europe through Literature and Film”
Moderators: TBA
12:00-1:15 Gender and Race
Emily Gillespie, “Racism and Sexism: Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump Compared to Hollywood’s Forrest Gump”
Anja Schilmoeller, “Do You Permit It? Same-Sex Attraction in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables”
Brenna Lightsey, Rejection of Tradition and Form in James Joyce’s Ulysses
Courtney Price, “An Infinite Variety of Meaning: The Language of Conquering in Antony and Cleopatra”
Moderators: TBA