TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2016
University of Central Oklahoma
College of Liberal Arts
Department of English
Pegasus Theatre
5:30 – 8:30 P.M.
199 N Baumann Ave, Edmond, OK 73034
The English Graduate Student Forum will be held at the University of Central Oklahoma in
the College of Liberal Arts building
Welcome
English Graduate Student Forum
The English Graduate Student Forum is a unique opportunity for graduate students to present
their scholarly work in a conference setting.
The overarching goal of the English Graduate Student Forum is to support the collaboration and
research of graduate students of the UCO English Department. The English Graduate Student
Forum achieves this by offering the opportunity for English graduate students:
•
To promote their original graduate research in a supportive yet intellectually challenging
atmosphere;
•
To strengthen their professional networking opportunities as they converse and think with
other English graduate students and English Department faculty;
•
To present as a part of a graduate conference panel; and/or
•
To get feedback on their research from select, supportive members of the UCO English
Department faculty.
Table of Contents
Schedule-at-a-Glance ................................................................................ 3
Featured Speaker ....................................................................................... 4
STLR.............................................................................................................. 5
Detailed Schedule ...................................................................................... 6
Presentation Abstracts .............................................................................. 9
Forum Participants ................................................................................. 19
Forum Sponsors ...................................................................................... 20
Forum Supporters ................................................................................... 22
Places to Eat ............................................................................................ 26
Things to Do ............................................................................................. 28
Special Thanks ......................................................................................... 30
Forum Directors ...................................................................................... 31
Schedule-at-a-Glance
Registration & Opening Remarks
5:30 P.M.
Registration
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
5:45 P.M.
Opening Remarks
Pegasus Theatre
Concurrent Sessions
6:00 P.M.
Session 1 A
LAR 133
6:00 P.M.
Session 1 B
LAR 135
Break
7:00 P.M.
Light Refreshments
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
Concurrent Sessions
7:15 P.M.
Session 2 A
LAR 133
7:15 P.M.
Session 2 B
LAR 135
Reception
8:00 P.M.
Beverages and hors d’oeuvres
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
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Featured Speaker
Dr. Matthew Hollrah
Dr. Matt Hollrah is an Associate Professor of English and the Chair of
the English Department at UCO. He is a native of Stillwater, Oklahoma,
where he received his B.A. in English from Oklahoma State
University. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (poetry) from
Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in English from the University
of Kansas.
Dr. Hollrah’s academic work has appeared in the minnesota
review and READER, and he has work forthcoming in an edited
collection on contested authorship. He is also the author of two online
composition textbooks entitled So What? and Now What? His poetry
has most recently been published in Soundings Review, This Land, and
Ain’t Nobody That Can Sing Like Me: New Oklahoma Writing. He also
serves on the creative writing advisory panel for the Oklahoma Arts
Institute.
Dr. Hollrah’s academic interests include rhetoric, composition theory and pedagogy, modernist
poetry and poetics, and the intersection of epistemology and literary interpretation. He lives
with his wife, Julie, and their two children, Sadie and Simon, in Edmond.
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Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR)
College students grow and transform through both academic and non-academic experiences while at the University
of Central Oklahoma (UCO). Students' academic transcripts display their aptitude in their Discipline Knowledge, but
how can they track and display their growth in other important areas?
UCO's Student Transformative Learning Record (STLR) is like a second transcript that records students' growth and
Transformative Learning across the other five of UCO's Central Six Tenets.
They might learn how to work well in teams with people whose opinions differ from their own; develop leadership
skills as president of a student organization; improve their ability to interact positively and appropriately with coworkers, customers, and others from different countries and cultures in their classes; find out how to contribute as
productive citizens to their local communities, the nation, and the world through volunteering; or might practice
solving unscripted problems and devise creative solutions while doing independent research. Students reflect on
their experience then receive feedback from a trained faculty or staff. Students store these experiential artifacts in
different versions of ePortfolios that they can share with potential employers, graduate schools, or others to
highlight their most employable skills.
For more information: http://www.uco.edu/central/tl/stlr/
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Detailed Schedule
Registration & Opening Remarks
5:30 P.M.
5:30 – 5:45 P.M.
Registration
Registered participants may pick up their printed name badges, programs, and welcome bags from the
Forum Registration desk.
Name badges will be created for unregistered guests. Programs will also be provided.
Location:
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
5:45 P.M.
Opening Remarks
Dr. Matthew Hollrah, Chair of the English Department, will deliver the Opening Remarks for the 2016
English Graduate Student Forum.
Location:
Pegasus Theatre
Concurrent Sessions
6:00 – 7:00 P.M.
6:00 P.M.
Session 1 A
Session Chair:
Dr. Laura Bolf-Beliveau
Session Participants:
Rhonda Hartman
Multicultural Young Adult Literature in Secondary Classrooms
Jami Mumford
Contemporary American Indian Themed Young Adult Literature in the Classroom: Authenticity, Appropriation, and
Misrepresentations
Mallory Unsell
Think Like a Girl
Location:
LAR 133
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Concurrent Sessions
6:00 – 7:00 P.M.
6:00 P.M.
Session 1 B
Session Chair:
Dr. John Hitz
Session Participants:
Abby Hull
The Forgotten Son of Yoknapatawpha County: Exploring Sartoris Snopes’ Southern Duality in “Barn Burning”
Brian McKinney
Literature as Community: Contemporary American Indian Poetry and the Problem of Place
Troy Stanberry
Nathaniel Hawthorne Through a New Historicism Lens
Location:
LAR 135
Break
7:00 – 7:15 P.M.
7:00 P.M.
Break
Please join us in the Pegasus Theatre Foyer for light refreshments between sessions.
Location:
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
Concurrent Sessions
7:15 – 8:00 P.M.
7:15 P.M.
Session 2 A
Session Chair:
Mr. James Daro
Session Participants:
Brittney Brown
The Curious Ending of The Lord of the Rings
Rachel Copeland
AKA Girl Power: Jessica Jones and the Feminist Evolution of Female Superheroes
Location:
LAR 133
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Concurrent Sessions
7:15 – 8:00 P.M.
7:15 P.M.
Session 2 B
Session Chair:
Dr. Leslie Similly
Session Participants:
Laura Duarte
The Nervous Condition of Womanness: Exploring the Link Between Gender and Eating Disorders in Tsitsi
Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Ibi Kaslik’s Skinny
Brendon Yuill
Orientalism Behind the Myth of Lawrence of Arabia and Early American Film
Location:
LAR 135
Reception
8:00 – 8:30 P.M.
8:00 P.M.
Reception
All registered guests and faculty members are invited to join us in the Pegasus Theatre Foyer for
beverages and hors d’oeuvres. This is a great opportunity for students and faculty to discuss
presentations as well as personal research interest, academic and career goals, etc.
Location:
Pegasus Theatre Foyer
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Abstracts
Brittney Brown
The Curious Ending of The Lord of the Rings
Fantasy novels have grown in popularity in a society that has increasingly rejected the mystical and
spiritual realms as readers reach for escape in stories. J.R.R. Tolkien, a philologist and lecturer at
Oxford, published the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the 1950s. Many scholars agree that his work is a
modern mythology for England that had lasting influence on Western literature, especially fantasy
literature.
In this paper, I study the fate of Tolkien’s protagonist, Frodo, and argue that what happens to him, as
well as the circumstances in the last two chapters of the series, is the most important part of the entire
story. It reveals Frodo’s true motivation for his quest and directly reflects Tolkien’s own beliefs on the
role of fantasy in life. The novels end with Frodo returning to find a home in ruins and, ultimately,
unhappiness there. Rather than offering his readers simple escapism from the harsh, fact-obsessed
modern world, Tolkien created a mythology full of morality and meaning, and the end is the most
important way he did this. These elements elevated the novels to instant classics, and all fantasy
authors since Tolkien have built on or adapted Middle-Earth in some way. The end provides valuable
insight into the ethos behind the novels and what makes the story so important in light of its lasting
impact on culture and literature as a whole.
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Rachel Copeland
AKA Girl Power: Jessica Jones and the Feminist Evolution of Female Superheroes
Characters in television and film tend to represent aspiration rather than reality; however, female
characters in early cinema seemed to represent the desires of men rather than women. Even in noir
films in which femme fatales were as common as damsels, female characters tended to be defined by
their womanliness, or lack thereof. This phenomenon left many women to cry out for more nuanced
characters representative of real life. Among them was Laura Mulvey, who wrote in her 1975 essay
“Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” about the male gaze, the concept that women in film are
more symbolic of male desire and expectations than reality. Mulvey’s analysis implied a call to arms,
one that challenged filmmakers to think beyond the female body. However, this challenge has not
always engendered a suitable response, as female characters in film, especially those with
superpowers such as Wonder Woman and Silk Spectre II, have continued to disappoint audiences in
their overt appeal to the male gaze. This paper begins by exploring the precedent of female
protagonists in film and television and positioning it in relation to Netflix’s Jessica Jones, one of many
recent comic book adaptations in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Through its female showrunner
and its star, Jessica Jones reveals its eponymous, complicated character as a truly feminist
protagonist.
Since Mulvey’s landmark essay, female protagonists have evolved from marriage-seeking fantasies to
characters in their own right, even joining the male-dominated world of superheroes. Film and
television audiences see more superpowered female protagonists than ever before, from Wonder
Woman and Xena to Buffy and Black Widow. Using Jessica Jones as an example, this paper reveals
the ways in which the female protagonist has evolved with cinema and television’s widening
perspective on feminine agency, desire, and power. As both the result and exemplum of progress in
modern television, Jessica Jones creates a new kind of protagonist, one that embraces her
foremothers while also eschewing the tropes that kept them from realizing their true feminist
potential.
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Laura Duarte
The Nervous Condition of Womanness: Exploring the Link Between Gender and Eating Disorders in
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions and Ibi Kaslik’s Skinny
Since its publication in 1988, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions has been widely accepted as
one of the great African narratives of the twentieth century. As such, this text has been lauded for its
detailed account of post-colonial female realities and the emotional maladies therein contained.
Although all the female characters in this work suffer “nervous conditions” of various natures and
degrees, the most obvious and shocking affliction is the anorexia/bulimia of its secondary character,
Nyasha. In an attempt to dissect and explain Nyasha’s disorder, scholars have often compared
Dangarembga’s themes to those presented in similar notable works, such as Good Morning
Comrades, The Mare, and The Stone Virgins. While these parallels are understandable and
appropriate, they sometimes lack a broader examination of the characters’ psychological hysterics
within an expansive, contemporary framework.
Thus, this paper seeks to use a current novel, Ibi Kaslik’s Skinny, to investigate the symptoms and root
causes of anorexia and bulimia exhibited by the self-destructive characters in these works, and in
doing so, amplify our understanding of these debilitating disorders as they affect the female psyche.
By drawing comparisons between Nyasha and Giselle - characters of different ages, races,
nationalities, and social classes – this paper strives to appreciate how such seemingly diverse
individuals can illustrate the pervasiveness and insidiousness of these diseases. Additionally, by
scrutinizing themes of sexuality, paternity, body image, and gender defiance in both the African,
post-colonial setting and the present-day western world, we can negotiate for ourselves a better
defense against such bodily rebellions.
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Rhonda Hartman
Multicultural Young Adult Literature in Secondary Classrooms
This paper will examine the importance of using multicultural young adult literature in secondary
classrooms. From a historical perspective, many teachers, in accordance with set curriculum, teach
literature from a canonical list which often lacks diversity of both characters and authors. There are a
variety of reasons that a teacher would choose not to upset the status quo and deviate from this list.
However, we are an increasingly diverse society, so it becomes progressively imperative that the
literature taught in schools changes with the classroom demographics. This paper reiterates the
importance of progress in literary education, and it demonstrates the vast importance of educating
students using materials that are relevant to them.
This paper looks at utilizing four contemporary young adult novels: Absolutely True Diary of a Part
Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, Luna by Julie Anne Peters, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X.
Stork, and Illegal by Bettina Restrepo using a subjective reader’s response approach to allow students
to make an interpersonal connection with the literature they are reading. By using a subjective
reader’s response approach to literary analysis it gives students ownership of the literature as they
interpret and determine the meaning of the work themselves through careful analysis, close reading,
and discussion. Each of these texts brings literary value having been written by award winning
authors, dealing with real life situations, reflecting high interest to teens, and connecting to
standards used by teachers.
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Abbey Hull
The Forgotten Son of Yoknapatawpha County: Exploring Sartoris Snopes’ Southern Duality in “Barn
Burning”
William Faulkner (1897—1962) was praised for his avant-garde works such as The Sound and the Fury
(1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). Raised in the South, Faulkner grew up
knowing that, “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.” To aid his
readers in doing so, Faulkner incorporated Southern heritage into his works, both with success and
failure.
Recognizing one of his stronger pieces, Faulkner stripped his novel The Hamlet (1940) of its first chapter
and published it on its own with the title, “Barn Burning.” This story marks the only appearance of
Colonel Sartoris Snopes within Faulkner’s body of works, where he disappears from both stories and
memories of those closest to him. While Sarty shares the name of two of Faulkner’s most notable
families—the Sartorises and the Snopeses—signifying a stronger connection to the community in which
he exists, Sarty remains the forgotten son of Yoknapatawpha County.
Analyzing William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” this paper defends Sarty’s importance within Faulkner’s
works by demonstrating his nominal duality as representative of how the South influences the people
who call it home. Faulkner understood the impact the South can have on a growing boy, and through
Sarty’s decision to run away, he has much more to say about the duality of Old and New which modern
society needs to understand, and that, like Sarty, is worth being remembered.
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Brian McKinney
Literature as Community: Contemporary American Indian Poetry and the Problem of Place
The first wave of what has been called the Native American Renaissance in literature, sparked by N.
Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn in 1968, established literary and critical communities which
sought to illuminate the perspectives of American Indians living in a culturally and geographically
fragmented environment. Through this influence, the second wave of the Renaissance, commonly
marked by the publication of Joy Harjo’s 1975 collection of poems, The Last Song, began discussing
“pan-indian” issues which American Indian writers believed to be vital for all Native individuals in
postmodern society. Central to this conversation, the notion of how a community is formed,
maintained, and preserved became a fundamental issue.
This study will map representations of community in “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo,
“The Housing Poem” by Dian Million, and “It Has Always Been This Way” by Luci Tapahonso. Harjo,
Million, and Tapahonso are Native women who are reinvisioning their communities and writing about
the role of kinship, ritual, and space in shaping these associations. Through their willingness to
transpose the oral tradition into the print medium, the poets create literary communities which bring
together dislocated individuals and offer unity as a lasting resistance to colonial influence.
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Jami Mumford
Contemporary American Indian Themed Young Adult Literature in the Classroom: Authenticity,
Appropriation, and Misrepresentations
Pedagogical conversations concerning whether or not critically reading and studying works of
multicultural literature can positively affect adolescent identity formation have emerged among
progressive educators. Since adolescents are undergoing a stage of rapid development, both
physically and cognitively, educators often see this development as an opportunity to challenge
students’ established misconceptions and prejudices. Karen Coats, one of the contributors to the
Handbook of Research on Young Adult Literature, recognizes the influence of young adult literature
on its adolescent readers’ rapid identity formation. Therefore, Coats argues that these works deserve
the same analytical, studious attention that is given to the classics that flood core curriculum (315).
One category of literature that has this capability and does not receive appropriate acknowledgment
in this ongoing discussion is contemporary American Indian young adult literature. If educators are
going to appropriately teach this literature, however, they will have to spend ample time evaluating
frequently taught works that relate to this category. This selection and evaluation process often
dissuades educators because issues concerning authenticity, appropriation, and misrepresentation
often surface, causing educators to feel insecure in their ability to appropriately select and teach
these works. This presentation evaluates two young adult novels that relate to American Indian
culture that are often taught in secondary classrooms, Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of
a Part-time Indian and Ben Mikaelsen’s Touching Spirit Bear, focusing specifically on the ways in
which Mikaelsen’s misrepresentations of Native culture disqualify his book from selection while
Alexie’s often challenged book is a desirable choice.
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Troy Stanberry
Nathaniel Hawthorne Through a New Historicism Lens
The literary lens of evaluation known as New Historicism offers insight to the autobiographical
purpose of author’s written works. When considering an author’s intentions, searching for the
underlining social commentary is crucial; knowing about sociopolitical factors within the timeframe
of an author’s work enhances the content, and connects readers to the intended purpose. The
literary movement of American Romanticism offered multiple beliefs on individuality, intuition, and
spiritual fulfillment. Canon literature works from authors during 19th Century American literature are
both loathed and lauded for their motivational content, but previous evaluations have overlooked
notable cultural shifts. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne is often categorized into either the “Dark
Romantic” or “Anti-Transcendentalist” subgenre of American Romanticism, even though his primary
focus with his literary works support his documented beliefs as a Unitarian. Historically, the
collective works of Hawthorne have been staples of secondary and post-secondary English Literature
studies, without acknowledging the beliefs Hawthorne discussed in autobiographic works.
The focus of this paper is to reevaluate scholarly research over Hawthorne's relationship with
Unitarian beliefs, and Transcendentalist reform structures to determine symbolic representations of
biblical parables. The New Historicism lens argues that short stories like "The Minister's Black Veil,"
and "Young Goodman Brown," discuss traditional biblical stories to offer moral value through
characters and symbols. Such evaluations are designed to reevaluate Hawthorne’s works, with the
intent of removing the label of Anti-Transcendentalist, and reintroducing Hawthorne’s Unitarian
symbolism. By offering a modern interpretation, it is evident that Nathaniel Hawthorne was opposed
to traditional Puritan beliefs, as well as the whimsical beliefs of the Transcendentalist movement.
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Mallory Unsell
Think Like a Girl
Young Adult Literature (YAL) is a genre that teachers tend to ignore in the classroom because the
literary merit of these novels has not been recognized as significant. Although teachers are not
assigning these books, students are reading YAL. Specifically, the genres of dystopian YAL and
steampunk YAL have grown since around 2008.
These are the types of books that tend to feature female characters who challenge societal
expectations for what it means to be a female. Characters such as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger
Games, Tris Pryor in Divergent, and Sophronia Timminnick in Etiquette and Espionage are not the
passive, dependent women featured in most literature. By challenging the traditional depiction of
females in fiction, these characters offer an alternative to young girls by acting as role models.
This paper examines how dystopian and steampunk YAL encourages girls to have a different view of
femininity. By offering a different kind of female character, young adult literature can help young girls
feel more accepted in a society that is male dominate. These characters may even encourage girls to
enter professions that have been deemed too masculine for women such as careers in STEM. If there
is a correlation between exposure to female protagonists who feature personality traits that are
atypical for a woman and the level of inspiration to enter a career in STEM, then teachers should
teach these books in the classroom, and authors should work to create even stronger female
characters.
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Brendon Yuill
Orientalism Behind the Myth of Lawrence of Arabia and Early American Film
Orientalism is the method and means for identifying, viewing, or controlling the Orient, chiefly by
western nations. Orientalist messages and sentiments are typically drawn from Orientalist tales that
reinforce these views. One of the most prominent examples of a tale reinforcing an Orientalist
viewpoint is the history of the mythical figure Lawrence of Arabia. Towards the end of the First World
War, the United States government enlisted journalist Lowell Thomas to arouse support for the war
effort. Thomas learned of T. E. Lawrence, a British officer who helped train Arab tribes in an uprising
against the Ottoman Empire. Thomas spent many months following the story, but was unable to
finish it before the end of the war. After the war, Thomas used the Lawrence story as the basis for a
series of lectures in the United States, England, and eventually most of the English-speaking world.
These lectures romanticized Lawrence and gave credence to the myth of Lawrence of Arabia, but
were also laden with Orientalist sentiment. In turn, these stories covering Lawrence’s activities
instigated a subgenre of films in the 1920’s, which revolved around a white, easternized protagonist
surrounded by Orientalist tones and stereotypes. These films, depicted in an Arabian landscape,
include The Sheik (1921), The Son of the Sheik (1926), and The Thief of Baghdad (1924). This
presentation will examine the origins of the Lawrence of Arabia myth along with its Orientalist tones
and their collective influence on 1920’s cinema.
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Forum Participants
Brittney Brown is a first-year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). Her
primary research interest is modern fantasy literature.
Rachel Copeland is a first-year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). Her
primary research interest is literature and popular culture.
Laura Duarte is a first-year graduate student (Teaching English as a Second Language). Her primary
research interest is English Language Learner (ELL) pedagogies.
Rhonda Hartman is a first-year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). Her
primary research interests include multicultural literature, young adult literature, and secondary
education.
Abbey Hull is a first-year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). Her primary
research interest is literature of the American South.
Brian McKinney is a first-year graduate student (Teaching English as a Second Language). His
primary research interests focus on cultural diversity and second language acquisition.
Jami Mumford is a first-year graduate student (Composition and Rhetoric). Her primary research
interest is critical pedagogy.
Troy Stanberry is a first year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). His
primary research interests include early American literature and the short story.
Mallory Unsell is a first-year graduate student (Composition and Rhetoric). Her primary research
interest is composition pedagogies.
Brendon Yuill is a first-year graduate student (20th and 21st Century Studies: Literature). His primary
research interest is post-colonial literature.
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Special Thanks
The English Graduate Student Forum Directors would like to thank the following
faculty, staff, and businesses for their support and contributions:
Dr. Timothy Petete
Dr. Matthew Hollrah
Dr. Laura Bolf-Beliveau
Dr. Leslie Similly
Dr. John Hitz
Mr. James Daro
Dr. Allen Rice
Dr. David Macey
Mr. William Andrews
Ms. Michelle Waggoner
Keep It Local
Panera Bread
Southern Okie Gourmet Spreads
The Spring 2016 New Plains Review Staff
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Forum Directors
Shay Rahm, Conference Director
Brendon Yuill, Director of Operations
Forum Executive Editor
Madison Castelli, Conference Coordinator
Presenter Liaison
Joshua Barnett, Director of Creativity
Social Media Content & Marketing
Josh Shepard, Director of Creativity
Events & Promotions
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New Plains Review Thanks You…
Thank you for attending the English Graduate Student Forum at the University of Central
Oklahoma.
The New Plains Review is a student-driven literary journal with its roots at the University of
Central Oklahoma that strives to present the same creative and academic excellence upon which
the university is founded.
We serve as an inclusive collection of creative works in the forms of poetry, fiction, non-fiction,
and artwork, passionately showcasing the character, voice, and spirit of our writers. It is through
this collection that we hope to empower writers and artists from varying cultures and
backgrounds.
Contact Us
New Plains Review
University of Central Oklahoma
100 N University Drive
Box 184
Edmond, OK 73034
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.uco.edu/la/english/newplainsreview/index.asp