2023 Abstracts & Bios

Plenary

Jack

Halberstam

Evening of

Friday, April 28

Refreshments start at 5:30PM

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Co-sponsored by the OSU English Department and the

Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies program

Saturday Panel Location: Auditorium

Abstract:

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s helpful J.A.R.V.I.S to Terminator’s genocidal Skynet, the specter of artificial intelligence is interpreted in fiction as everything from a benign step in human evolution to a precursor to our eventual demise. Now, with recent news including AI creating the winning entry in the Colorado State Fair’s 2022 Fine Arts competition and plans for an AI system to serve as legal counsel, AI’s meteoric rise and potential threatens roles that previously seemed secure from the Industrial Revolution’s exchange of the human for the technological. Beyond the pragmatic, ethical concerns about AI’s impact on the humanities abound (Henning 2022, Deery and Bailey 2022). These questions often center on who curates digital information and how (Selfe & Selfe 1994, Manovich 1995, Bogost 2008, Manovich 2013, Eyman 2015) and the role of the algorithm in systemic oppression (Noble 2018).

Released in November 2022, the beta language processing app ChatGPT now takes center stage in conversations about ethical AI. ChatGPT allows users to enter textual prompts and receive detailed, generally well-written responses. In magazines, newspapers, and online forums, humanities scholars and others question how this tool will impact knowledge and practice, such as whether it will make creative fields obsolete and how to implement it to increase research productivity.

This cross-disciplinary panel will probe the moral panic surrounding ChatGPT, including its potential interactions with academic and artistic integrity, privacy, and marginality. To mitigate shortsighted and reactionary responses, we will strategize about harnessing AI to advance equity in academia and beyond.

Bios:

Dr. Rosemary Avance studies media and identity in marginalized communities, radicalization and misinformation, and media representation using ethnographic methods and a critical-cultural lens. Her current research focuses on the Oklahoma news media ecosystem, ethics and applications of artificial intelligence chatbots in political communication (with a focus on misinformation and propaganda), and the role of the arts in community wellbeing.

Dr. Heather Stewart researches issues in feminist philosophy, applied ethics (especially bioethics and ethics of artificial intelligence), philosophy of medicine, and philosophy of language. Dr. Stewart’s current research explores language's power to shape our social and political worlds, often in subtle and difficult-to-detect ways.

Richard Sylvestre is a third-year PhD student at Oklahoma State University in the Rhetoric and Writing Studies English program. He has been teaching basic writing and First Year Composition for roughly 16 years. His current research interests are structured around feminist theory, queer theory, and rhetorical theory; they include queer rhetorics and discourse around queer action and identity.

Saturday Panel Location: Auditorium

Abstract:

In city design, short-term monetary gain over long-term stability has long prompted a crisis. Cities find themselves insolvent, unable to serve its inhabitants. This panel discusses solutions to prevent community loss and restore prosperity to cities. Drawing on Charles Marohn’s frameworks of subsidiarity, incremental zoning, and people-oriented infrastructure, we prioritize engaging advocacy and inspiring hyperlocality as the level where momentous change occurs. Whereas streets confer wealth to both residents and the greater community, roads are “non-places” enabling high-speed mobility between “places,” desired locations which serve people and social exchanges. Stroads, an intentionally-gross portmanteau of streets and roads, are wide, multi-laned, and designed for speeds between 30 and 45 mph. Squandering local wealth, stroads blur functions of streets and roads, inevitably failing to do both. Beholden to neoliberal capital and big box stores siphoning resources from communities, stroads too become “non-places.” Like stroads, suburbs are malignant “non-places” extracting wealth from “places” all the while subsidized by them. Suburbs alienate residents and achieve zero community due to outdated zoning practices. Instead of repairing cities wholecloth we should invest our efforts into locations that become platforms for local prosperity. Purposeful disrepair can elsewhere inspire purposeful “places.” Our interdisciplinary approaches include Marxist critiques of neoliberalism and ideology; locally-oriented examinations of community and city development; and industry’s role in wealth development as prisms through which Mahron’s Strong Town concepts can actualize immediate change. Through panel engagement, audience members will develop reparative tools toward problem solving in their own local communities.

Bios:

Jackson Seeberg is a third-year Master’s student in the TESOL program. His research interests primarily focus on sport, sociology, and sociolinguistics. He is an outgoing member of the local community, participating in multiple local organizations, including being a Board of Trustees member at the Stillwater History Museum at the Sheerar, and being an outspoken advocate for people-focused city reform.

Kevin Kourakos is a second-year PhD student studying rhetoric and composition with his research interest being Cancel Culture. He was born and raised in New Jersey only 30 minutes from New York City. He completed his undergraduate degree in Finance at Seton Hall University, going on work in Risk Management for several years before pursuing a PhD.

Daniel Andrade Amaral studies and teaches creative writing at Oklahoma State University. His fiction appears in 100 Words of Solitude, an anthology on pandemic isolation. In his last gambit to abolish sadness, a gambit that itself is sad, he studies affect through Spinozism, Marxism, and biopolitics.

Robert Redmon is a postdoc at OSU working with Dr. Stephanie Link to develop ai-driven genre-analysis and -instruction tools. In addition to his interest in computational methodologies for the study of language, Robert, an avid cyclist himself, is deeply interested in both language used by cyclists and language used in popular/news media that involves cyclists.

Saturday Panel Location: Auditorium

Abstract:

From the early sea dogs to the golden age of piracy, this panel studies a series of literary texts to understand how they represent the relationship of pirates with non-Europeans. Some imagined alliances as a key to advancing English goals in the New World; for others, conflicts between pirates and non-Europeans illustrated the self-serving and brutal nature of their plundering voyages. Beginning in the 16th century with texts about Sir Francis Drake, this panel considers how writers often romanticized first accounts of pirates and native groups forming alliances. We next consider how some 17th century buccaneers continued the rhetoric of mutually beneficial relationships, while others rejected the idea of alliance and instead showed plunderers inhumanely seizing Native American resources and exploiting the people themselves. The 18th century furnishes several accounts, such as the General History of the Pyrates (1724), that depict pirate settlements on the island of Madagascar; these pirate utopias often disintegrate into dystopias as relations across ethnic and racial groups collapse. The panel concludes with consideration of John Gay’s Polly (1729) an engaging and satire that concludes that pirate crews were just as prejudiced as the forces of colonization they rebelled against, and sought to exploit non-European populations for private benefit.

Bios:

Richard Frohock: Richard Frohock researches and teaches courses in early American and Caribbean literature for the Honors College. He also directs an honors undergraduate humanities research group that is investigating late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century piracy narratives. In particular, the group researches how pirate narratives engage philosophical questions concerning human nature, the state of nature, and civil government.

Victoria Warren: Tori is a third-year senior as an International Business and Management Honors student. With a rich career as an Undergrad Research Assistant under Dr. Richard Frohock in the English department. Tori has participated in 18 hours of honors courses and credits and is a long time Executive member of the International Business Fraternity of Delta Sigma Pi, the Gamma Epsilon Chapter.

Jodi Tarbet: Jodi is a freshman researcher at Oklahoma State University. She majors in History and Anthropology, and I has a fascination with all things related to humanity and society. She chooses to focus her research on the relationship between indigenous people and buccaneers drawing back to the 15th and 16th centuries.

Katie Ditchkus: Katie is a third-year senior working at the Center for Global Learning using her experience studying abroad at a competitive university to advise her peers. She represents President’s Partners serving President Shrum through the Alumni Association and is a recipient of the Thomas M. Steele Research Scholarship.

Jackson Dillingham: Jackson is a junior at Oklahoma State University in the honors college majoring in Economics with a minor in Finance. He is an active member of the Investment Banking Club as well as the Data Analytics Club.

Katie Leigh: Katie is a sophomore at Oklahoma State University pursuing dual degrees in English and History. She works as a writing consultant for the OSU Writing Center where she also leads a writing club for elementary-aged students in partnership with the Stillwater public library. She has been engaged in research with Dr. Richard Frohock for the last academic year.

Saturday Panel Location: Auditorium

Abstract:

Through purposeful and continual attention to diversity and inclusion, feminist pedagogies require continual ‘’mending.” As feminist instructors, our panelists aim to situate knowledge as a source of liberation with the potential to evoke social change. Feminist authors like Cynthia B. Dillard and Becky Thompson inform our spiritual and embodied pedagogical endeavors. To create transformative learning opportunities, several GWST faculty members have also implemented Open Educational Resources (OER) in recent years. The results of integrating OER with feminist pedagogies have proved to be particularly positive. Our panelists will discuss their experiences employing OER while teaching a variety of GWST courses as well as the politics around OER use at the university-level.

Furthermore, feminist pedagogies invite understanding the important connections between social justice theory and social justice practice to address real-world problems. As Gabor Maté explains, beyond the personal dimension, ”trauma exists in the collective sphere, too, affecting entire nations and peoples at different moments in history” (36). Given the vitriolic political climate and deep racial tensions boiling in contemporary society, as well as the collective pains induced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and cascading world tragedies, this panel will also confer on the “momentum” required to continually employ feminist theories while tackling class subjects as varied as gender ideology, climate science, a mental health epidemic, critical race theory, and the intersectional nuances involved. Our panel aims to underscore the importance of thoughtful feminist pedagogy as a “mending” practice and highlight the support required to maintain the “momentum” necessary to create classrooms that fully teach the mind, body, and spirit.

Bios:

Corinne Schwarz is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at Oklahoma State University. Her research and teaching interests include gender-based violence, frontline work, reproductive justice, and anti-carceral feminisms.

Reanae McNeal is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies at Oklahoma State University. She is a Center for Humanities Fellow in the Medical/Health Humanities for 2022-2023. Her research highlights the (her)stories/activism of Afro Indigenous, African American, and Indigenous women and U.S. Women of Color(s). She is currently completing her book Afro Indigenous Women’s Survivance.

Jessica Turcat is a Teaching Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at Oklahoma State University. She draws inspiration for her creative writing from her studies focused on body politics, feminist mothering, and women and literature.

Kathy Essmiller is an Assistant Professor with University Libraries’ Research and Learning Services. As the Coordinator of OpenOKState, Kathy partners with faculty, administrators and students to support and advocate for open practices in research, teaching and learning. Kathy was a 2019-2020 Open Ed Group Research Fellow, is a member of the GO_GN Global OER Graduate Network, is co-designer of the ACRL Open and Affordability Roadshow, and received the 2023 Oklahoma Online Excellence Award for Open Education Impact. Her research interests include open practices, academic library publishing, instructional design and educational technology, and creativity.

Megan Ruby: My name is Dr. Megan River Ruby and I hold a master’s degree in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership, and a Ph.D. (2022) focused on Education/Curriculum Studies from Oklahoma State University (OSU). I am non-binary and my pronouns are they/them. My research interests include critical whiteness studies, critical race theory, feminist pedagogy, and gender and education. I have presented at numerous national and international conferences, and my work is featured in the co-edited book Making a Spectacle: Examining Curriculum/Pedagogy as Recovery from Political Trauma as an editor and co-author and as an author in the book Encyclopedia of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education. Currently, I am working on revising my critical participatory narrative inquiry dissertation, which explores how the constructs of Niceness impede anti-racist white educators, mainly white women, from engaging in anti-racist pedagogy in the classroom, for peer-reviewed publications.

Saturday Panel Location: Auditorium

Abstract:

When writing about trauma, essayists often seek to mend fractured communities, families, and the self, but making art from real people and places brings up thorny, and often divisive, ethical issues and dilemmas that risk breaking further the relationships and personal lives writers wish to heal. Considering craft and theory texts, published creative nonfiction, and their own past and current creative work, panelists will discuss writing ethically about family (close and estranged, living and dead), former partners, disability and illness, and cultures and places that lay both within and outside the writer’s subject position. The discussion will include the following craft and theory texts, along with others: Thomas G. Couser’s Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing, John McPhee’s Draft No. 4, Paisley Rekdal’s Appropriate: A Provocation, Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, Faith Adiele’s “Writing the Black Family Home,” Melissa Febos’s Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, and William Bradley’s “The Ethical Exhibitionist’s Agenda: Honesty and Fairness in Creative Nonfiction.” Panelists will contemplate the ethical decisions of current CNF writers who deal with trauma, including Carmen Maria Machado, Melissa Febos, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Angela Morales, Jo Ann Beard, and Anne Liu Kellor. They will also interrogate the ethical issues in their own trauma-focused work, delving into topics that include the body, grief, abusive relationships of all kinds, Taylor Swift, boats, and aliens. Finally, they will broaden the conversation, discussing the exigency of considering ethics, and the pitfalls and inevitability of appropriation, regardless of genre.

Bios:

Sarah Beth Childers, a West Virginia native, teaches creative nonfiction at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of two essay collections: Shake Terribly the Earth: Stories from an Appalachian Family and Prodigals: A Sister’s Memoir of Appalachia and Loss, forthcoming in late 2023.

Mark DiFruscio is a PhD candidate in English at Oklahoma State University. His previously published work has appeared in Fiction International, The Laurel Review, and Puerto del Sol. His story "The Alien Dialogues" was selected as one of the winners of the 2020 AWP Intro Journals Project.

Sophie Ezzell is an Urban Appalachian writer who is currently pursuing an MFA in creative nonfiction from Oklahoma State University. Her nonfiction has been nominated for multiple Pushcarts and has appeared most recently in The Sun, River Teeth, and Hippocampus.

Kaila Lancaster is a creative nonfiction writer and PhD student in English at Oklahoma State University. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in Brevity, The Pinch, Third Coast, and Puerto del Sol, among others.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

Despite suggestions being a common speech act used by writing center tutors, very limited research is available on the use of suggestions in online writing center practice. Drawing upon multiple sources of data including the chat transcript, screen recording of the session, and final revised version of the writer’s text, our case study discussed in this presentation explores the types and frequency of the suggestion strategies employed by a tutor and the degree of writer uptake of tutor suggestions in a synchronous online writing center session. The findings indicate that the tutor’s use of suggestions throughout the session only led to a partial revision of the writer’s text. While factors contributing to the partial revision include overuse of indirect suggestion linguistic realization strategies (SLRSs) and addressing multiple errors at the same time, using multiple and more direct SLRSs appeared to contribute to successful uptake. The observations of the study suggest that, in order to increase the degree of uptake, tutors might consider addressing one error at a time, utilizing multiple suggestion strategies per error and focusing on using more direct rather than indirect suggestion strategies in order to provide suggestions more effectively in online synchronous writing center sessions.

Bio:

Olga Muranova is currently a Lecturer and Co-Curricular Research Specialist in the Program in Global Languages and Communication at the University of California, Irvine. She holds a Ph.D. in English (with a specialization in TESOL/Applied Linguistics) from Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include discourse/genre analysis (especially the linguistic and rhetorical features of popular science articles), corpus linguistics, contrastive/intercultural rhetoric, stylistics, intercultural pragmatics, teaching English for Specific/Academic Purposes, and teaching ESL writing.

Svetlana Koltovskaia is an Assistant Professor of English and Director of the ESL Academy at Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Her research centers around L2 writing, computer-assisted language learning, and L2 assessment.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

The evolution of the term “queer” is complex from a pejorative as long ago as the late 19th Century to its associated scholarly intersections (e.g. Queer Studies, Queer Theory, Queer Rhetoric etc.). It has since been claimed as identity, political ideology, antinormative theory, rhetorical agency, and more. What it is to be and do queer continues to gain momentum and complexity. This paper reports initial findings that ultimately engage with the inquiry around how the concept of “queer” has changed over time into what it currently is (and what that looks like) within the professional context of Rhetoric and Composition. This paper uses mixed methodology. This includes bibliometric work with Rhetoric and Composition Journals—analyzing the uses and frequency of the term over time within articles—and semistructured interviews of current Rhetoric and Composition scholars that make use of queer theory in and out of the composition classroom. This paper is timely not only in the current political climate, but also in considering professional responses to queer (and queering) topics in the classrooms. Such inquiry can be used as a way to mend misapplied perceptions of a marginalized community, and/or it can be used to unapologetically respond to current situations with continued antinormative work.

Bio:

Richard Sylvestre is a GTA and PhD student at Oklahoma State university with the Rhetoric and Writing Studies program in the English Department. He has been teaching composition for 16 years. His current research interests include queer theory, queer rhetoric, feminist theory, and embodied rhetoric.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

Most 21st-century critics are aware of the conventions of couples marrying and living happily ever after at the conclusion of a novel or film, despite the hijinx, misadventures, and misunderstandings that occur throughout the plot, including male characters displaying predatory behavior. These conventions date back beyond the early novel, but after Samuel Richardson was challenged for a lack of realism in these sorts of plots, he wrote Clarissa (1747-1748). At the center of this novel, renowned rake Robert Lovelace abducts and imprisons his love interest, Clarissa Harlowe, in a London brothel. The conflict builds until Lovelace has Clarissa drugged so he may rape her. As the novel concludes, Richardson has Clarissa defy convention and refuse to marry her rapist in order to appease her friends and family who see her as a love-lost runaway. In her broken, fragmented state of mind, Clarissa recognizes the limits of repair and the unrealistic standards of saving her reputation through marrying a serial predator.

While Richardson received backlash from readers and critics, suggesting that Clarissa’s fate was too severe, he explained in an afterward that his ending was more realistic than the happily-ever-after plotlines in other eighteenth-century novels. In my presentation, I intend to show that Richardson’s depiction of Clarissa post-assault displays a modern understanding of fragmentation and brokenness after a traumatic experience and that Richardson’s commitment to realism highlights the limits of repair after a severe traumatic experience.

Bio:

Autumn Finley is an Associate Professor of English at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. Finley teaches a wide variety of British literature courses, composition, and structure of the English language. Her research interests include depictions of women in 17th-and 18th- century poetry and the intersection of the early sentimental and gothic novel.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

My paper reads as biopolitics Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society, a monograph symptomizing depression as an excess of late-modern individualism, competition, and achievement-addiction. Treating burnout society as an upshot of control society that manipulates affect and subjectivity under neoliberal market relations, I critique the limits of postcritique, a shift in the humanities that disowns criticism of cultural objects in favor of fond attachment to them. Not least in this shift is what Eve Sedgwick inaugurates as “reparative reading,” a hermeneutic whose apparently nurturing impulse unburdens readers from erstwhile “paranoid” readings of domination. Repair, I argue, falls prey to what Han calls excessive “positivity” subjectivizing one’s self. Drawing on psychoanalytic and radical critiques of reparative reading that locate fulfillment of selfhood at its center, I insist postcritique reflects vectors in control society that recode a teleology of individualized cure into a cruelly optimizing promise always beyond the gap of reach. The biopolitics of postcritique, then, gestures toward the neoliberal innovation of the self against an increasing tide of political complexity. Repair revives ruses like individualism and spins depression around a vicious circle. The mending principle of reparative reading stifles political momentum. A biopolitical technique, postcritique obscures that positive accumulation of selfhood entails the exploitation of others. Spotlighting this negative relation is necessary for a politics of true momentum.

Bio:

Daniel Andrade Amaral studies and teaches creative writing at Oklahoma State University. His fiction appears in 100 Words of Solitude, an anthology on pandemic isolation. In his last gambit to abolish sadness, a gambit that itself is sad, he studies affect through Spinozism, Marxism, and biopolitics.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

The last two decades have observed a rapid growth in the use of technology in second language teaching. Recent technological developments have also made it possible to use different types of automated evaluation tools to assess and provide instant feedback on writing. Besides, teachers can now use different software and online platforms to provide electronic feedback on their students’ writing both synchronously and asynchronously. However, corrective feedback is a highly debated issue in the field of SLA, and there are theoretical arguments both for (e.g., Long, 1981; Schmidt, 1990, 2001; Swain, 1985, 2005, Skehan, 1998) and against (e.g., Krashen, 1982, 1985; Pienemann, 1989) the use of corrective feedback in second language teaching. Moreover, studies on electronic feedback have produced inconclusive results about the efficacy of different types e-feedback in improving L2 learners’ overall writing skills. This paper first evaluates the relevance and usefulness of providing e-feedback for teaching writing skills from both theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. The paper then presents some key findings from the studies that have investigated the effectiveness of different types of e-feedback in improving L2 learners’ overall writing skills. Finally, the paper addresses the gaps in the existing studies on technology-mediated corrective feedback and L2 writing, and provides some useful guidelines for future research in this field.

Bio:

Tara Shankar Sinha is a doctoral student in the TESOL/Applied Linguistics program at Oklahoma State University. His research interests include instructed second language acquisition, form-focused instruction, corrective feedback and the use of technology in language teaching.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

Viewing writing as a social process enhances the collaborative nature between instructors and L2 composition students. Drawing from Lisa Ede’s social process theory in the writing classroom, this paper seeks to build on prior scholarship that encourages a social component in writing centers to strengthen the composition education of non-native English language learners; I will also be drawing from Marilyn Cooper and Erika Lindemann. This paper will outline three strategies to better reflect this approach in university writing centers: instituting social process theory training, including a collaborative peer assessment component so students can build trusting relationships with classmates as they do with instructors, and implementing an E-feedback system that increases mutual accountability. This topic is especially important for colleges with larger numbers of international students who may face language barriers and writing disadvantages in the American university system. Social process theory work has been done in a plethora of disciplines, though it is of the utmost importance composition scholars and writing center directors are aware of how this will benefit their relationships with L2 students as well as make for more inviting ecologies.

Bio:

Tristan Graney is a PhD student at Texas Christian University in the Rhetoric and Composition program. His research interests focus on multimodal and digital composing and rhetorics, and political rhetoric. His current and prospective work exists at the intersection of digital meaning making and nontraditional modes of knowledge and communication.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

Many writers and historians have sought to restore the tarnished or neglected reputations of Henry VIII’s six wives and two daughters. The musical SIX (2017), the STARZ series Becoming Elizabeth (2022), and the docudrama Blood, Sex, and Royalty (2022) are all recent examples of mediums that utilize their various platforms to restore and revisit how these queens are portrayed. In particular, Queen Katherine Parr, the last of Henry’s wives, has recently been subject to revision efforts. Traditionally, she has been viewed as, simply, the “survivor” of Henry VIII reign without any acknowledgment of her personal achievements. In addition her legacy has become complicated as discussions surrounding the conduct of her fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, have also questioned Katherine’s actions and motivations. Generally, while the current revisions tend to highlight her efforts to support education, female authorship, and religious reform, there is still a gap between the reality and imagined aspects of her legacy. This presentation is meant to contribute to the overall goal of continuing the efforts to separate Katherine’s legacy from that of Henry VIII and Thomas Seymour and refocus the view on her authorship. By utilizing feminist literary theory, as well as a historiographical approach, I will seek to continue the movement to reshape her legacy. In addition, through an analysis of her actions and writings, this presentation also will seek to explain how Katherine’s efforts during her time as queen shaped the reign of her stepdaughter, Elizabeth I. I will juxtapose Katherine’s writings with the choices Elizabeth utilized throughout her reign from a historical and literary interpretive lens.

Bio:

My name is Ashlyn Bradford, and I am a Graduate Student at the University of Central Oklahoma. My area of focus is Early Modern literature with an emphasis on queenship, gender roles, and education. One of my main professional goals is to decipher and recover the voices of women from the 16th century.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

While one would typically consider mending to be a regenerative process of building and improving, an analysis of John Dos Passos’s 1925 novel Manhattan Transfer challenges the concept of progress by providing a kaleidoscopic view into the lives of fictional characters living through the construction of skyscrapers in Manhattan. The vertical progress of the city is mirrored by a resounding feeling of displacement and exile amongst the characters. In this presentation, I will propose an examination of Manhattan Transfer through the critical lens supplied by Jane Bennett in her 2010 book Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Using Bennett’s vocabulary, a look into the novel from this point of view reveals a deeper understanding of how people and nonliving things constitute assemblages, leading to the realization that architectural constructs play a crucial role in identity formation. When analyzing the nonhuman actants in the novel, an unwavering anxiety is revealed within the characters. Dos Passos’s characters develop these anxieties associated with the horizontalization of things, causing introspection in the characters that must now grapple with their own value and importance (or lack thereof). These anxieties are addressed through various outlets, including committing acts of violence toward architectural structures, brutal expressions of sexual aggression, and thoughts of suicide in a hopeless attempt to cope with the loss of individual control that washes over those surrounded by construction. Ironically, the construction that stands in as a form of mending is what unravels most of these characters.

Bio:

Haley Reed is currently pursuing her PhD in English through the Literary and Cultural Studies track at The University of Oklahoma. Her interests include Modernisms, 20th Century American Literature, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

Dissemity (DISSEMinating research with clarITY) is a web-based intelligent tutoring platform designed to help emerging or novice researchers develop skills in writing for publication. Dissemity immerses users in a reading-to-write, genre-based learning process using four interactive modules where users can learn about genre conventions, analyze model writing, explore additional writing features, and write with the aid of AI-powered automated feedback on genre conventionality. Automated feedback is powered by a neural network trained to recognize genre features in scientific writing, which is used both to automatically assess student annotation and to the norms of published writing in their fields. This presentation will share our journey from idea conceptualization to commercialization.

Bios:

Steph Link is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics. Her research is on the use and development of second language writing and scientific writing technologies using natural language processing and genre studies.

Robert Redmon is an applied linguist with a keen interest in developing tools to aid researchers in the collection and analysis, both quantitative and qualitative, of digital linguistic data. Currently, Robert is a postdoc at OSU, working with Dr. Stephanie Link to develop Dissemity, an AI-driven genre-analysis and -instruction platform.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

My relationship to language has always abided by this one rule: English at school, Spanish at home. As a first-year composition instructor, however, my pedagogy welcomes the use of home literacies and languages in the classroom. From Black English to Spanglish, I encourage students to use the languages that allow them to bring their whole selves into their writing, but I have not done the same for myself. This presentation explores why I have kept my Spanish speaking abilities away from academia by highlighting moments in my literacy development starting from my childhood to the present day. I utilize autoethnography as methodology to reflect and understand how my identity as a bilingual, Mexican-American in academia has suffered as a result of being conditioned to leave my Spanish at home. Using autoethnography also allows me to explore how the moments highlighted in my literacy narrative have shaped my approaches to teaching languages and literacies in the first-year composition classroom. Ultimately, by reflecting on my literacy development journey I hope to mend academia and my identity as a bilingual, Mexican-American first-year composition instructor so that I can more genuinely express my entire self. Most importantly, however, this will allow me to understand how my multilingual students may feel when I encourage them to use their home literacies and languages in the writing classroom.

Bio:

Nataly Dickson is a third year PhD student in rhetoric and composition at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Her areas of research include composition studies, writing center studies, and writing program administration. Her work also explores identity in writing spaces, administrative roles, and in academia overall.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

Liminal spaces have extraordinary opportunity for an amassing of power within their boundaries. The uncertainty associated with an in-between space allows for more possibilities than a normal setting does. These spaces do not have to be a physical location, but liminal can apply to someone’s state of being. In the Renaissance, the concept of a space in between childhood and adulthood did not exist the way it does in the modern world, where being a teenager is accepted as an in-between age; often called young adults, they have one foot in childhood and one in adulthood. The definition of “girl” and “girlhood” has created layers upon layers of discussion and scholarly work trying to pin down exactly what it means for a character to be a “girl” under Shakespeare’s quill pen. I will argue that there are no hard lines of identity for these girls; even the cleanest distinction scholars have come up with for girlhood, whether or not she is a virgin, is not the case, and that the identity is highly liminal itself. This liminality gives the girls a certain level of power over the men around them. Like the Fates, sisters who are in charge of one’s entire life thread, movement from one sister to the next is not always linear, and they represent a cycle between life and death. Despite a distinct lack of bodily autonomy, these girls are some of the most powerful in the Shakespeare canon.

Bio:

Claire Litchfield is a first year MA student in English Literature at Texas Christian University. She is interested in Early Modern British literature and has worked on a few projects dealing with transatlantic issues. In addition, her studies are often focused on gender and liminality.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

Cosmopolitan ethics fosters dispositions that contribute to social mending by promoting difficult conversations with others. Such mending, however, is under thread by ongoing efforts to limit historical narratives, silence uncomfortable voices, and ban classroom conversations.

Cosmopolitan ethics manifest as a commitment to social justice and human flourishing. It is concerned with the wellbeing of others even as it respects legitimate human differences (Appiah, 2006). As such, cosmopolitanism involves engaging in difficult conversations. It necessarily explores hard histories and takes a “critical stance toward what happens in the world and how collectivities act” (Papastephanou, 2012, p. 205). Such cosmopolitan conversations commit us to a discussion about “the things that matter” (Appiah, cited in Yates, 2009, p. 43) and to confront historical legacies and ongoing practices that continue to diminish human potential and weaken social justice.

Despite the promise of cosmopolitan mending, however, many American states, and perhaps especially southern plains states, are engaged in all-out attacks on such conversations. By silencing historical narratives, suppressing difficult voices, and delegitimizing human differences these attacks promote misunderstanding and the maintenance of injustices.

Cosmopolitan conversations are more than leaning about others; they are learning to live justly among others. Cosmopolitan minded actors must be predisposed to the moral validity of the other and ready to be personally “formed” through difficult conversations (Papastephanou, 2012). Cosmopolitanism “consider(s) the other capable of justice and willing to engage in critical dialogue about ‘bloody truths.’” (Papastephanou, as cited in Peters, 2014). Though our understanding and familiarity of others, and through our difficult conversations, social mending begins.

Bio:

Don C. Murray is an assistant professor of Social Foundations of Education at Oklahoma State University. His work is critically explores the history and ethics of education, especially education as a contested means of institutionalizing social, cultural, and political power.

Morning Break: 10:00AM - 10:25AM

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

With the FX show Reservation Dogs now firmly in the limelight, perhaps a part of that light can now shine on the role of Native humor within Native cultures, specifically how Native humor can be used to heal and to the rhetorical moves that Native humorists make. Natives often deal with stereotypes of being drunken, angry, stoic, and an untold number of other contradictory traits. Our humor can run the gamut of the cheesy to the ironic, and from the light-hearted to the revolutionary. It is a space of resistance. A resistance to the dying of a culture, to the wounds inflicted so long ago and contemporaneously.

In this paper, I explore the ways in which Native humor can work to heal not only wounds on the personal level, but also the effects of intergenerational trauma, assimilation and the loss of identity. I will attempt to do a few things here. One is to highlight Native humor and Native humorists and their rhetorical choices, by using the Fantasy/Allegory method of counterstory to bring these Native humorists, and their humor, to life. I attempt to do so by inserting myself into an imagined conversation with three Native humorists: Charlie Hill, Dallas Goldtooth, and Will Rogers. Typically, I work within the realm of fiction and creative nonfiction writing about heavy subjects such as addiction, loss, broken families, and mental health issues. Through these imagined conversations, they not only help me work Native humor into my writing, but also to see how Native humor brings about hope and healing in Indian Country, the world in general, and in myself, which may be of interest to conference attendees considering the theme of Mending and Momentum.

Bio:

Aaron Whitestar is a second year Masters student and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oklahoma. While his specific focus at the University of Oklahoma is in creative writing, he has academic/research interests in cultural rhetorics, specifically related to Native rhetorics.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

In this presentation, I will explore how digital playlists, often created on streaming platforms such as Spotify or Apple Music, are a form of the African American practice of Signifyin(g) and can be sites of valuable student engagement with cultural and digital rhetorics. To do this, I will rely on Marcus Del Hierro’s concept of “hiphop rhetorics” and Angela Haas’ “digital rhetorical sovereignty” to explore how digital playlists are both a form of Signifyin(g) and an act of rhetorical self-determination. The presentation will report on the findings of an IRB-approved study of writing assignments produced by students during a unit on Signifyin(g), its history, and its role in the American music industry, including modern playlist creation and curation practices. This study was designed to answer calls made by Haas and others for increased scholarly interest in decolonized and multimodal approaches to writing pedagogies. A pedagogy that invites students to explore and engage in Signifyin(g)—which Del Hierro calls a “hiphop pedagogy”—would work against a disciplinary tendency toward focus on White, Western traditions and toward a more inclusive curriculum. Ultimately, I will answer the following questions: (1) Are students’ playlist creation and curtion practices influenced by Signifyin(g)? (2) How do students respond to instruction about the African American rhetorical traditions that have influenced the modern playlist? (3) To what extent could hiphop pedagogies help students to recognize a wider variety of rhetorical techniques/traditions than have historically been taught in rhetoric and writing courses?

Bio:

Clarissa McIntire (she/her) is a first-year doctoral student in Rhetoric and Writing Studies at the University of Oklahoma. A former magazine editor with a master’s in English (RWS), she is originally from central Utah. Her research interests include cultural rhetorics, technical writing, public writing, editing, and pedagogy.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

Although seldom discussed in popular media, the nuclear bombing of the Marshall Islands by the US government has devastated the life of generations of indigenous Marshallese. This deliberate dismissal of the catastrophic series of attacks on the islands as marginal and unimportant to US history is part of what Rebecca Hogue calls “injustices intentionally obscured” from common knowledge (224). The paper at hand examines Marshallese poet Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s collection, Iep Jāltok: Poems from a Marshallese Daughter (2017), which (re)addresses the “injustices” that have been committed against her people. Importantly, Jetn̄il-Kijiner’s poems about her niece, Bianca, are critically examined as prime examples of the longevity of nuclear violence that extends over multiple generations. I argue that Jetn̄il-Kijiner invokes the image of her late niece Bianca, who died at the tender age of ten after battling cancer for most of her life, to redirect the reader’s attention to the physical, tangible illnesses and irreversible damages resulting from nuclear testing, thereby undoing the “nuclear normalizing” (212) propaganda that remains accepted to this day. The paper will first give an overview of the history of the Marshall Islands and US relations and the beginning of nuclear testing. Then, the paper turns to a critical reading of the poems “Fishbone Hair” and “Bursts of Bianca” which deal very closely with the epidemic of cancer and cancer-related illnesses in Marshallese citizens. Significantly, I argue that it is through her frank, sharp presentation of illness that Jetn̄il-Kijiner starts mending the historical violence perpetrated against her people.

Bio:

Farah Taha is a first year PhD student in English (concentration: Literature) at Oklahoma State University. She holds an MA in English Literature and a BA in Psychology from the American University of Beirut. Her research interests include Beckettian studies, war and trauma, and state violence.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

The sanitization and compartmentalization of different ethnicities into authentic subjects fit for consumption in America has been a subject of controversy ever since multiculturalism gained prominence in the 1980s to the 1990s. Even within ethnic groups, internal delimited borders are mutable and presupposed membership must be interrogated, creating complications for those who would try to identify with a specific group. If we are to recognize that a clearly demarcated boundary between “authentic” and “inauthentic” expressions of ethnicity does not exist, then the question arises on how could one could engage with and produce useful ethnic literature.

In order to evaluate the position and usefulness of ethnic literature within this debate, I propose to read Gina Apostol’s Insurrecto as a site of remediation where the questions of identity, power, and authenticity as an ethnic writer are crystalized and, ultimately, addressed. Insurrecto operates as a metafictional commentary on authorship; it engages actively with the production of “authentic” ethnic literature and the impossibilities such an act entails when one’s own identity is in a state of flux. Through the failure of the two writers within the story, Apostol reveals the futility of authenticity and, ironically, the possibility such a failure opens. By illustrating how conceptions of authenticity are neither useful nor effective, Apostol refocuses attention to the power of literature to transcend a simple vicarious reading, to real-world engagement and experiences that create avenues for healing and reconciliation.

Bio:

My name is Steven (Sheyuan) Wang, and I am a 1st year PhD student at Oklahoma State University with a MA from NYU. I am primarily interested in postcolonial studies. Since 2013, I have taught in two different Minzu Universities in China, teaching students from marginalized ethnic minorities topics in literature, composition, journalism, etc.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

There is a tenor of spiritual and mystical revolution present in Harjo and Waititi’s brilliant representation of the modern indigenous experience in the FX original television series Reservation Dogs. This series delves into many things, but one of the most significant areas that is explored in the series is how contemporary populations of Native people approach the divine or the sacred. This is represented in the transmission of oral tradition that is present in the series. As the series itself functions as a kind of modern oral tradition. The series creators, Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi are both Indigenous, but from different traditions. Waititi is of Maori decent and grew up in New Zealand. While Harjo is a member of the Seminole Nation and was born, and lives, in Northeast Oklahoma which is the area the series centers around. This area of Northeast Oklahoma has always been rife with stories of the little people, Deer Lady, and tales of the Tall Man, to name a few. I have heard all of these tales in person many times. I grew up in this same region of Oklahoma and can attest to the mystical vibrance that is very real for many people living in the area, including myself. I will conduct interviews of tribal members from the area to better understand the impact that the show has had on the Native communities living in the region and what they think about how the show handles these topics and how these representations help to break stereotypes about the systems of belief portrayed in the series. It is quite clear why Harjo chose this place as the setting for this series. Harjo’s work here represents the beauty and versatility of an oral tradition that is still breathing and full of life in the hills of Eastern Oklahoma. Reservation Dogs is a brilliant amalgamation of this living spoken tradition that has been circulating and evolving here in Northeast Oklahoma since relocation occurred.

This paper will evaluate this mystical/spiritual paradigm that is being portrayed in the series, while also, drawing connections to prominent Indigenous philosophers, such as Vine Deloria Jr. For Deloria, the sacred, the mystical, and the mythic, according to him, were all very real, but not observed as being real in the modern world. He believed that collectively people have become too secularized to notice or experience these kinds of spiritual or transcendental type experiences. Whereas, during precolonial times up until the late 19th century, people like Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota medicine man, likely experienced this spiritual current of experience on a regular basis. In other words, Deloria believed that this modern world has become devoid of magic and mystery. What this paper suggests is that yes, this is true, the world has lost this dimension of experience to some degree, but it is coming back in new and exciting ways. The series Reservation Dogs displays this truth in a beautifully woven tapestry of the modern Indigenous experience. It is a harkening back, while also being a step into new dimensions of collective awareness. A new paradigm seems to be formulating or has the potential to formulate. This process is evidence of a mending of sacred ties taking place within these communities and elsewhere.

Bio:

Russell Webb is currently a PhD student at Oklahoma State University. His areas of interest include Indigenous Studies, Native American Literature, and Postmodern American Literature. He also has been teaching Composition I and Composition II for four semesters and works in the Writing Center as a tutor.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

Social media is a poor substitute for a commons. Indeed, these platforms are built to sever ties rather than mend them. In the pages of The Persuaders, AOC describes a key piece of her rhetoric, a move that lends some clarity to the project of coalition building in this age of anti-social media. The Golden Gate of Retreat is a theme in her rhetoric, a move that allows her to build coalition while skillfully playing the inside/outside game of politics between activism and establishment. The move allows for facesaving, something that can establish the boundaries of what's expected and accepted by the coalition, while also inviting in those members who are ambivalent about the more radical goals of the movement. It gives, “enough rope so someone can change their mind and still look good." As such, it allows for future situations where a skilled rhetorician can persuade a person to think more carefully about adopting the goals they once thought of as too radical. The Persuaders also follows the work of deep canvassers, people who work to not only register voters, but also persuade them to vote for progressive ballot measures. These deep canvassers don’t always succeed, but they keep in mind an assumption that everyone is basically 60%-40% on most issues. Their deep canvassing work requires them to engage in something similar to Ratcliffe's 1999 concept of rhetorical listening (a code of cross cultural conduct), a kind of deep listening that calls for the listener to uncover the deep logic of a message they may not agree with. These rhetorical lessons lend themselves well to mending social ties and building momentum for social movements (as well as knowing when to burn bridges) in the age of anti-social media.

Bio:

Jonesy is a teacher, scholar, activist, artist, and songwriter from Oklahoma. He studies digital activism and monitors right-wing rhetoric. His hobbies include crawling around the dark corners of the internet and arguing with people.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

I address how my experience with the language used within Pentecostal and Charismatic Christian churches affects those who experience untimely deaths in their immediate family or friend groups. I engage with Sara Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness (2010) to help form my argument: the language used around happiness and the lack thereof within the aforementioned Evangelical churches is used to victim-blame those who experience tragedy. I incorporate affect theory to express how the language used within some Assemblies of God churches is harmful. I ask such questions as: How is happiness defined by the Assemblies of God church? How are happiness and tragedy able to coexist in certain Pentecostal communities? How is this discussion around happiness experienced by those inside and out of the church?

This is timely because discussions surrounding Assemblies of God and Charismatic churches are more relevant than ever before due to the current political climate. This topic will interest conference-goers because, with the conference taking place in Oklahoma, a state known for its large Evangelical population, a discussion around the importance of the appearance of happiness in some Pentecostal and Charismatic churches will be of great interest. Furthermore, mending and repair is the paper’s prevalent theme; I state that it is not realistic for anyone to never experience tragedy, that bad things often happen to innocent people, but that does not mean either the religious or nonreligious deserve to experience tragedy – and they do not need to be repaired by the church to experience happiness.

Bio:

Breanna Beaty is currently an MA student in Literature at Oklahoma State University. She received her Bachelor’s in English from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and her Associate’s from Eastern Oklahoma State College. She works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and plans to continue working in academia in the future.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

In Frederick Douglass’ 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, he writes from the mind of his freed self, calls upon his own memory tainted by the trauma of slavery, and records his journey from bondage to freedom. When examining Douglass’ life, one cannot ignore the liberation that was granted when he gained access to white language and literacy–the language of power–at the hands of the wife of one of his slaveholders. Providing slaves with access to knowledge was considered dangerous, as it would allow the slave to break free from the bondage of oppressive ignorance. Teaching a slave to read and write, one of Douglass' master’s claims, would only make a slave “discontented and unhappy.”

I argue that Douglass’ learning of white language and literacy did not merely make him “discontented and unhappy,” but forced him to experience an ultimate fracturing of the self. However, through the writing of his Narrative, Douglass not only captures this separation alongside his paradoxical emancipation, but altogether mends the disconnect between his slave self and his freed self. He does this through his utilization of double-narration, and manages to maintain the dichotomy between his two selves while simultaneously morphing them into one voice–a voice that embodies healing, wholeness, and overcoming. In this presentation, I offer a close-reading of the moments in Narrative where the voices of Douglass the Narrator and Douglass the Slave converge, while examining the power of language and its ability to both imprison the self and set it free.

Bio:

Marisa Pesina is currently pursuing her MA in English Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she also teaches First Year Composition. Her research interests include Literary and Critical Theory, Women and Gender Studies, and Film as Literature.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

For decades, Native Americans on screen have been subject to caricatures as a result of colonialization, yet recent shows like Reservation Dogs goes against traditions of the past. I reflect on the ways in which Reservation Dogs normalizes tribal identity by examining how the show uses Native traditions like spirits, Deer Lady, owls, music, clothing, and more that informs the everyday lives of the main characters composed of four Indigenous adolescents. I argue how Reservation Dogs both confronts the colonial tropes of the past while portraying tribal traditions as they are meant to be seen that correlate to what tribal scholar, Gerald Vizenor, has termed “survivance” in which tribal communities can survive against trauma, tragedy, and discrimination in the contemporary world as resistance to colonial assimilation. Even though some characters reject or misinterpret the cultural traditions of the past for various reasons, and Reservation Dogs is only one of a growing number of Native-led productions to bring better representation, the show sets itself apart in how co-creator, Sterlin Harjo, invites collaboration with his cast and crew to show what it means to be Indigenous. The series also mends the caricatures of the colonial past by presenting themes of grief and coming of age from a Native lens to eliminate cultural barriers. While non-Native viewers may not be familiar with tribal traditions, Reservation Dogs invites cultural understanding through universal themes to show how Indigenous people seek to enjoy life outside a reservation rather than only be confined to mere survival.

Bio:

I am currently a Doctoral student in the English program of Creative Writing-Fiction program at OSU. I am also a Graduate Teaching Assistant. I am Choctaw Native American, and so I focus on writing fiction about my tribal heritage and my research paper is focused on Indigenous Studies, specifically Indigenous visual sovereignty. I was born in Lawton Oklahoma, and I currently live in Stillwater.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

This paper considers obstacles to moral repair in the face of “microaggressions,” and outlines what is necessary to achieve momentum toward social justice in this domain.

Microaggressions are subtle bits of speech which convey conscious or unconscious hostility toward or bias against members of structurally marginalized groups (Sue 2010). Microaggressions are incredibly common, often occurring despite people’s best intentions and explicitly held desires not to harm others. Because microaggressions are often unintended, efforts to reduce microaggressions require a willingness on the part of bystanders (and often those who have been microaggressed) to bring instances of microaggression – and their serious harms – to the attention of those who have unwittingly committed them. However, doing so runs several risks, including generating defensiveness in the microaggressor, and therefore, a variety of subsequent risks to the person calling attention to the microaggression. This situation, I argue, generates a double bind – a hallmark of social injustice and oppression (Frye 1983). A double bind is a “lose-lose” situation, in which there are risks or tradeoffs to be had, regardless of how one chooses to act. When it comes to responding to microaggressions, marginalized people find themselves in such a double-bind: should they choose not to respond, they miss out on an important opportunity to pursue moral repair. However, in choosing to call out a microaggression, one takes on personal risks, including being seen as someone who is “overly sensitive” or “combative” – perceptions at the heart of gender and racial bias. So, efforts to challenge microaggressions carry the risk of reproducing or reinforcing the biases and stereotypes that underlie microaggression. Paying attention to this double bind can help us clarify moral duties to respond to microaggression, showing that such duties are stronger for those who are less vulnerable to the damaging effects of gender and racial stereotypes and bias. There is a moral duty upon the relatively privileged and those with greater social or institutional power to take up more of the work of responding to microaggressions and fostering greater momentum toward social justice.

Works Cited:

Frye, Marilyn. The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory. The Crossing Press, 1983.

Sue, Derald Wing. Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation. 1st edition, Wiley, 2010.

Bio:

Heather Stewart is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Oklahoma State University. Her primary areas of research are in feminist philosophy, LGBTQ+ philosophy and queer theories, bioethics, philosophy of medicine, and philosophy AI and digital ethics. She is currently completing a book manuscript titled Microaggressions in Medicine.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

Feminist issues of the Dust Bowl era were grown in a unique set of circumstances. The ecological theory of hierarchy turns scholarly attention to the domination of both women and land as the fabric of southwestern rural society began to tear during the storms. Turning to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Whose Names Are Unknown by Sanora Babb, I will discuss the effects of domination on women and the land they inhabit. Women challenged this domination through bridging women’s issues with ecological issues, mending a gap that made each the perceived enemy of the other. As I examine the novels, I will look at how each author’s background made their common argument appear differently while their characters respond to traumatic stimuli. At the conclusion of the stories, ecofeminism is so tightly blended by its individual parts that they cannot be separated. I begin with a look at feminist ecosystems, framing the work done by Steinbeck and Babb, along with their real-life experiences. Feminist theory knits together multiple aspects of literary theory in ecological spaces in order to accomplish the task of highlighting the struggles and solutions to the best of its ability. With these things in mind, I turn to events such as pregnancy, migration, and resistance against forcible circumstances as key parts of ecofeminism. Women and the land carry a lot of similarities in physical and metaphorical ways. Conference attendees interested in early 20th century shifts in human behavior will enjoy this presentation, seeing value in bringing together two entities that were treated as less-than or even subaltern at times.

Bio:

Hanna Perry is an MA student at TCU, specializing in 19th/20th century American literature. She received her BA from East Texas Baptist University and will (hopefully) complete her MA in May 2023. Her research interests include ecocriticism, rural rhetoric, and feminist theory. She is currently writing a thesis on representation of ecology and migrants in Dust Bowl literature.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

“On Staying or Leaving: A Graduate Chorus” is an autoethnography that examines the sometimes painful intricacies of community, place, and work. In this essay, I discuss graduate school, labor expectations, job market prospects, regional community, and political climate. My research narrative asks: What does it mean to stay in a politically conservative climate as a queer person? Where do privilege and sanctuary overlap––who gets to retreat and who is left behind? What does it mean to participate in the community you live in? With no certainty of finding a tenure track position, what does it mean to stay in a PhD program? What room is there for social justice work within academic spaces that are both historically and currently exclusionary? And finally, how are these interrelated questions particularly relevant in a post-Trump United States and ongoing pandemic? My work positions itself in conversation with rhetorical feminist Cheryl Glenn and her work Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope, as well Roxane Gay and other feminists inside and outside academia. I am not trying to find definitive answers to any of these questions; rather I am posing them within the rhetorical context of my own lived experience, my own embodiment, my own interconnectedness (and disconnectedness) with community.

Bio:

Roseanna Recchia is a queer poet and scholar from Upstate New York. She earned her MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University and is currently working toward her Ph.D. in English at Oklahoma State University. She currently lives, writes, and teaches in Stillwater.

Lunch Break: 12:00PM - 1:00PM

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

My research explores the intersection of filmic reception studies and philosophy with the aim of discovering how film can positively affect the quality of life for incarcerated persons. The consequences of cultural isolation are great, and if society wishes to tout jails and prisons as “correctional” or “rehabilitation” facilities, more needs to be done to support incarcerated individuals, which includes increasing exposure to culturally relevant media in various forms of accessibility and consumption. Incarcerated individuals, when granted the opportunity to engage with film, become active viewers and interpreters in a way that allows them to participate in their own edification and rehabilitation.

Much of my research revolves around the experience and engagement of audiences with film, which is why the method of reception studies, particularly Stuart Hall’s study of communication, most effectively addresses this dynamic of the individual experience within an institutional space. This approach also allows for a consideration of various factors of this unique audience’s particular situation, such as the expectations or assumptions they might bring to a film, the physical environment in which they view a film, personal ideology, and any other factors that may affect how a viewer receives, interprets, and decodes a film.

I am currently in the process of expanding this research to consider the broader intersections between film, education, and social action. So, while this paper has been published, I would be interested to present this research alongside the growing consideration of how this research could be conducted as a quantitative study and also how reception theory can be applied to other critical audiences and avenues of social action. The original article was published in The International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (IJHAS Vol.2, No.11 June 2022) and can be found here: https://vingcs.com/journals/hass/paper/vol034.pdf

Bio:

Tara Jo Lenertz is a graduate student in the Screen Studies program at Oklahoma State University. Her love for film and passion for social justice inspire her search for innovative applications and interdisciplinary inquiry. In her spare time, she enjoys screenwriting and hopes to someday see her work come to life.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

Due to the current backlash of anti-Black gendered oppression and the continued severe health inequities, the need to attend to Black women’s health and healing is urgent. In our timely presentation, based on a research paper, we draw attention to the necessity in creating sacred spaces for Black women to engage in embodied communal healing. Our presentation mends together health and healing narratives grounded in the Black womanist/feminist traditions as well as Indigenous African wisdom systems and Black Indigenous wisdom systems from Turtle Island. Thus, we are inspired by Black feminists’ bell hooks’ “Healing is an act of communion” (215) and Audre Lorde’s “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare” (130). Using the concept “Black Girl Magic” as a strategy for Black women to reclaim and make space for their radical healing, we address social injustices, stereotypes, hypervisibility, invisibility, isolation, and (dis)ease impacting the health of Black women. We apply and braid together the fields of Black Psychology, Public Health, Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, and Africana Studies. Building momentum to move Black women’s healing forward while addressing social injustices, we interweave our work with literary activist-healers such as Ntozake Shange, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Our presentation offers the following: (1) ways that radical healing work can be done to repair the impact of social injustices; (2) how to address real-world problems through transdisciplinary research; and (3) ways transformative health and healing narratives assist in growing resiliency in communities.

Bio:

Vanessa Oliphant is a 3rd year PhD student in the clinical psychology program at Oklahoma State University, she is also a Center for Humanities Fellow in the Medical/Health track for 2022-2023. Vanessa received her master’s in community psychology from Florida A&M University and her Bachelors in African American studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

Marqua Harris is a 3rd year PhD student in the Health, Leisure and Human Performance program at Oklahoma State University. She is also a Center for Humanities Fellow in the Medical Health track for 2022-2023. Her research focuses on health equity, trust, stress, racism and health behavior. She has an extensive background in health care management, policy and administration.

Reanae McNeal is an Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies at Oklahoma State University. She is a Center for Humanities Fellow in the Medical/Health Track for 2022-2023. Her research highlights the (her)stories/activism of African American, Afro Indigenous, and Indigenous women and U.S. Women of Color(s). She is currently completing her book Afro Indigenous Women’s Survivance.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

OVERVIEW:

Tornadoes are a major feature of Oklahoman life and culture. They appear in folklore, art, fiction, and film, as well as in meteorological publications and media. Poems featuring tornadoes are astonishingly numerous and varied. Poetry can be an important mechanism for community “mending” and for sustaining the “momentum” essential both to post-disaster recovery and to ongoing resilience in the face of an omnipresent threat. This presentation will explore the tornado motif through a selection of late 20th- and 21st-century poems.

TIMELINESS/IMPORTANCE:

Tornadoes are timeless, but they are of particular interest from a cultural standpoint right now, as modern science affords an unprecedented understanding of their physical attributes and social media provide novel mechanisms for communicating about them. A sequel to the blockbuster Twister (1996)—a tornado-culture touchstone—is forthcoming in 2024, confirming continuing popular interest. Tornado alley is also changing and expanding over time, rendering a consideration of tornadoes’ cultural significance both timely and important.

INTELLECTUAL RATIONALE:

The exploration of tornadoes in poetry and other art forms provides a model for exploring the relationship between text and context at large. How does poetry reflect/refract evolving attitudes toward disaster and/or provide insight into human experiences beyond the meteorological?

INTEREST TO CONFERENCE ATTENDEES:

Representations of tornadoes consistently capture one of their defining features, which is their capacity to inspire simultaneous fascination and fear. There is something sublime about the power of tornadoes and their cyclic aesthetic that renders them conducive to poetic abstraction—and to cultural fixation. As American Studies scholar Rebecca Onion puts it in her cultural history of tornadoes on PBS.org, “Twisters are cool.”

Bio:

Stephanie Miller is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Oklahoma State University Honors College, where she teaches honors seminars, advises honors students, and assists with the honors experiential learning program. Her home department is English.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

I would like to read a piece of fiction called "The Chain," which is part of the short story collection that I'm working on. In this collection, and in this story in particular, I explore the ways in which wildlife mirrors the struggles of Oklahoma inhabitants, who are often outsiders or native Oklahomans afflicted by endless cycles of poverty, substance abuse, and domestic violence. I am trying to investigate the way in which empathy (or lack thereof) towards animals reflects human connections and perceptions of "the other."

Bio:

I am the Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College. I got my PhD from Oklahoma State University in 2022. My work in English has appeared or forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Moon City Review, Monkeybicycle, StorySouth, Another Chicago Magazine, and others. I am also a translator, and my first collection of translations from English to Italian was published in 2022. My first novel in Italian is forthcoming by Edizioni Nottetempo.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

In an effort to mend the dismissed reputation for cinema in the 1980s, I argue the necessity of viewing high-concept blockbusters, specifically McTiernan’s 1988 Die Hard, as an allegorical representation for the shift in conservative leadership in the waning months of the Reagan Administration. In a decade cinematically dominated by enhanced muscles and foreign threats while politically dominated by military expansion and Hollywood charisma, big-budgeted producers, such as Joel Silver, created production companies that adapted to the cultural reshaping of the American hero throughout the decade; Silver’s producing of Commando (1985), Predator (1987), and Lethal Weapon (1987) shifted when Hollywood no longer relied on the active soldier or Vietnam veteran to demonstrate the power and formidability of the United States. All that was needed was a blue-collar, traditional Joe–or in this case, John. Although Die Hard establishes the America built under President Reagan with references to his abolishing of the Fairness Doctrine, clear metaphors in relation to his economic policy and the idealized family unit, elitists’ dependence on the working class, and the nostalgic embrace of cowboy culture, the film also demonstrates a shift to an inevitable life beyond Reagan–specifically looking to a “kinder and gentler” face in a sea of hardened, conservative bodies: George H.W. Bush. Though Bush was by no means blue-collar, his traditionalist–practically plain–persona was necessary for the transitional defusing of the Cold War following the eight years under the “Hard Body” mindset portrayed by his predecessor.

Bio:

From St. Louis, Missouri. I am a first-year MA student in Screen Studies at Oklahoma State University. Before coming to Stillwater, I received a B.S. in English Education and a Minor in Film and Literature from Southeast Missouri State University. My areas of interest include pedagogical practices in secondary and post-secondary Film Studies courses and historical context for films in the 1980s-2000s.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

If selected to present at the conference, I would be sharing a creative research assignment on the health justice and inequities that Black LGBTQ women face in our country. I initially submitted this as a creative research honor’s learning experience for my Gender and Women’s Studies course (GWST2123). As a black woman in America and a future healthcare professional, learning about health inequity is crucial so that I can not only provide fair treatment to all patients, but I can also determine the quality of healthcare I deserve. The format of my project is a newspaper article where I carefully dissect the intersectionality that causes Black LGBTQ Women to experience intensified forms of injustice. This topic is of upmost relevance due to increased medical need following the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Civil Rights movements that gained a lot of traction around the same time. My research has revealed that women in our country are dying due to inadequate care that is driven by race, class, sexuality, and gender. I believe that no matter how the conference attendees identify that the information from my presentation will be enlightening and motivational since it is driven by current statistics and effects anyone who has a woman in their lives. This is a social issue that requires mending but also has limits since not everyone is willing to acknowledge and address this concern. However, I do believe that the state of our country and the minds of its people, post COVID-19, have provided us with the momentum to educate one another and spread awareness towards healthcare. Specifically, how our current systems are not consistently protecting and supporting Black Queer Women as they should be.

Bio:

My name is Imani Mwema, and I am a second year at OSU as a Biochemistry major in the College of Arts and Sciences. Beyond being a student, I am a soldier in the Oklahoma Army National Guard, and I’m an active member in the American Chemical Society as well as the African Student Organization. Recently, I have become very fascinated with educating myself on the disparities and inequities that black communities around the world are experiencing.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

Both Galadriel and Eowyn in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings are iconic female figures, not only in the Middle-earth lore, but also across all of the fantasy genre. While they both are included as two of several examples of strong female characters in Tolkien’s work, few scholars have set out to directly compare them, which is surprising, considering how similar their character arcs are. Among their similarities, both Galadriel and Eowyn experience a shared brokenness they learn to overcome, undergoing a personal mending process. Additionally, both women play significant roles in the healing of Middle-earth at different points of the world’s history. Due to the similarities between Galadriel and Eowyn, I argue that Eowyn is Galadriel’s successor of female leadership in Middle-earth at the end of The Lord of the Rings and capable of bringing about an ideal new age. While both women are exceptional feminist characters, demonstrating power and strength that is equal to if not greater than their male companions, Eowyn innovates and progresses beyond Galadriel’s foundation and serves as the greater feminist figure of Tolkien’s work. This essay evaluates both Galadriel and Eowyn as they appear across Tolkien’s work and addresses Tolkien’s vision of societal progress as reflected in The Lord of the Rings.

Bio:

Madelynn Lee is currently pursuing an M.A. in English Literature at the University of Oklahoma, where she also teaches Freshman Composition. She holds a B.A. in English and an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Baylor University. In addition, Madelynn is a creative writer specializing in fantasy fiction, inspired by her enthusiasm for the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

Parkison will discuss her current project, Lethal Conversations, a collection of nonlinear fictions about violence against women awarded an OSU HAD (Humanities, Arts, and Design) Research Grant and currently under contract with the publisher Unbound Edition. Women’s trauma weaves through difficult but necessary conversations about what remains unspoken after violence. Giving voice to the voiceless, this collection examines what can’t be said, what is dangerous to say, what is necessary to say, while asking why some people remain silent and what silence means in the face of survival. Lethal Conversations is an artistic experiment in writing about violence. Parkison's artistic theory is that avoiding actual representations of violence will make the realities of violence against women more disturbing to the reader by showing the victims’ perspective in the aftermath of attack. Where not telling a story is telling a story, where not saying is saying, Lethal Conversations is about what isn’t said and what people say by not saying. Ultimately, this book of fiction is about how stories can teach us how to survive by decoding silence and breaking through the unspoken by giving voice to the voiceless.

Bio:

Aimee Parkison is a full professor at Oklahoma State University, where she teaches novel writing, contemporary fiction, exploratory narrative techniques, experimental fiction writing, and workshops in the Creative Writing Program's BA, MFA, and PhD course offerings. Parkison has taught creative writing at a number of universities, including Cornell University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Oklahoma State University. Parkison has served as a visiting faculty member at the British Council's International Creative Writing Summer School in Athens, Greece, and as a fiction faculty member at Chautauqua Writers’ Festival. Since the summer of 2019, Aimee Parkison has served on the FC2 Board of Directors.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

In a West African story, akin to the story of the Brer’ Rabbit and theTar Baby, Anansi completes a series of heroic tasks including trapping a fairy in the Tar Baby to win all the stories from the sky-god. We know that the stories we tell matter. The origin of the rabbit trickster in folktales is hotly contested, with scholars arguing for an American origin and others for an African origin. This paper looks at these debates, specifically whether the rabbit trickster figure originated in Cherokee Nation or in Afro-diasporic communities. It ultimately asks, why do stories matter? How do stories help sustain a culture that has been forcibly removed from their homes? The rabbit as a trickster has a deep heritage and impact on the culture of the United States. As a figure that lives in the twilight they hold the ability to straddle both worlds and provide these communities with a voice.

Bio:

Noelle Buffo is a graduate student at the University of Central Oklahoma where she is pursuing her Master’s of History and English Literature with a focus on Afro-diasporic studies. She is a graduate of California State University Fullerton (B.A. History) and a grateful mother of four.

Bio:

Daniel Andrade Amaral studies and teaches creative writing at Oklahoma State University. His fiction appears in 100 Words of Solitude, an anthology on pandemic isolation. In his last gambit to abolish sadness, a gambit that itself is sad, he studies affect through Spinozism, Marxism, and biopolitics.

Afternoon Break: 2:30PM - 2:55PM

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

In an interview, Layli Long Soldier was questioned about how other people had viewed her as a “poet-architect” and her work is “in the arena of witness and longing” (“The Freedom of Real Apologies,” On Being). Long Soldier responded that witness was not something she sat down with in her work, and longing felt like “nostalgia,” which is something she worked actively against in the crafting of Whereas. Long Soldier states, “…when I sat down to work on [Whereas], there were a lot of constraints that I placed on myself…[and] all of them had to be within living memory. I did not want to jump back a hundred years.” In terms of mending and momentum, I am considering Long Soldier’s collection, Whereas, and how her response to the United States’ apology toward Native peoples embodies repair of Native erasure while refusing the desultory governmental attempt of repair. I propose a conference paper to explore Long Soldier’s collection and how she navigates Native repair in the present day to add to the momentous canon of refusing to be repaired on a governmental agenda. I am interested in how this collection holds entities accountable and becomes a present-day docu-poetic addition to literature, to not only draw attention to the injustices currently, but provides documentation for future generations to read. This, in and of itself, lends to the idea of mending and momentum, as the limit of repair for the present day could be further mended by future generations.

Bio:

Allyn Bernkopf is a Ph.D. student in English, Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University, where she was the recipient of the Gladys Burris Creative Writing Fellowship and is an Associate Editor for The Cimarron Review. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Barzakh Magazine, Rock & Sling, Bayou Magazine, Two Thirds North Magazine, The Greensboro Review, and others.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

Discourse analysts have conceptualized image macros, or internet memes, as prototypically structured multimodal constructions (Dancygier & Vandelanotte, 2017; Zenner & Geerarts, 2018). The verbal and visual modes that constitute memes, as well as the context in which the memes are posted and shared, interact in such a way as to create incongruity, absurdity, and other viewpoint phenomena for meme viewers (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007; Shifman, 2011). Meme makers and viewers can use these features, in addition to the meaning of the entire multimodal modal construction, to conduct attitudinal work (Dynel, 2021). Memes can form clusters of shared meaning-form bonds (Vasquez & Aslan, 2021) and while some scholars have looked at multimodality in Arabic-speech communities (Hachimi, 2017; Abdel-Raheem, 2018; Altahmazi, 2020), no studies have focused on such meme families in those communities.

This study looks at Arabic-language memes that share a common visual referent to determine if the proposed image macro frameworks are adequate to describe the development of meaning (including social meaning) in and between them. Over a 14-month period, I collected 100 tokens that contain visual elements depicting the Turkish social media celebrity Köksal Baba from five Egyptian Instagram meme accounts. Findings indicate that the proposed descriptions of top text (TT), bottom text (BT), and image are inadequate to describe the observed data; instead, a division between image caption (and subcomponents), overlaid text, and image (with additional visual elements) more accurately describes the construction of meaning. However, as Yus (2019, 2020) observed in English-language memes, the contributions of the different modes fluctuate. The preponderance of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, the low number of verbal elements in Roman characters, and the types of referents invoked suggest that the Köksal Baba memes index familial and friendly relations within the daily lives of the meme makers and viewers.

Bio:

Tiegan Willoughby is a graduate student pursuing a Master of Arts in English with a specialization in Linguistics at Oklahoma State University. Combining his interest in usage-based construction grammar, cyberpragmatics, and critical discourse analysis with his obsession with memes, he is currently conducting a qualitative analysis of an Egyptian meme family and the community of practices that produces, views, and propagates them.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

In her memoir, The Woman Warrior, a young Maxine Hong Kingston listens to her mother’s cautionary tale of her exiled aunt, the No Name Woman, who was silenced and killed because of an illegitimate pregnancy; Maxine is given this story of womanhood to grow up on. On televisions across what is now the United States, children watch an appropriated and silenced Pocahontas physically and metaphorically fall in love with colonization; these children are given a colonial story to grow up on. These real women were born across the span of hundreds of years, thousands of miles, and different cultures, but they share similar parallels in the silencing and appropriation of their stories. While Indigenous communities continue to fight for the reclamation of Pocahontas and her story, Western culture continues to portray the misappropriated figure — a victim of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic — through iterations of her image. Through Kingston’s memoir, the No Name Woman has been reawakened through reimaginings of her story. In this presentation, I offer a close-reading of The Woman Warrior and the Mattaponi’s published oral history The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History to frame Pocahontas’s story through the reawakening of the No Name Woman’s story to demonstrate how, with ancestral support, silenced realities in Pocahontas’s story hold space for her descendants to connect, reclaim, and reawaken her; she can be reimagined to meet a better conclusion, be spoken from the bonds of colonization, and become story of love once again.

Bio:

Katelen Cowger is currently pursuing her MA in English through the Rhetoric and Writing track at The University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include: Native American and Indigenous rhetorics, memory studies, and decolonial pedagogies.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

The implication of “too soon” in humor discourse is that there is some undefined amount of time that needs to pass before jokes about a tragedy are acceptable. Before enough time elapses to reach the joke-acceptable period, jokes are “too soon”, and thereby, inappropriate. In this presentation, I will discuss too-soon jokes from three standup comedians: Anthony Jeselnik’s Boston Marathon bombing tweet, Ari Shaffir’s jokes on Twitter and Instagram about Kobe Bryant’s death, and Chris Rock’s 9/11 and Boston Marathon bombing jokes in his 2014 Saturday Night Live monologue. All three of these sample texts illustrate the too-soon phenomenon in different ways, with different responses from audiences. Through analysis of these jokes and their backlash, I will explore the relationship between audience types, tragedy, time, and comedy. Analyzing online responses to discussions of too-soon jokes from offended audiences, defensive audiences, and neutral audiences, I hope to identify the properties of too-soon jokes and compare the severity of the backlash with the properties of the joke. The divide between “those who enjoy too-soon jokes” and “those who do not enjoy too-soon jokes” seems to be increasing, and the discourse between these two sides is becoming more vitriolic, especially on social media. In an age of instant news and temporal acceleration (both for comedic and political responses to tragedy), most of the discourse is about the validity of the “too soon” assertion and I want to investigate the trends between these discourses and their associated jokes and tragedies. Utilizing humor studies scholarship from rhetoric and psychology to examine too-soon jokes and their responses will help me to both more holistically explain humor phenomena and broaden the discussion within scholarship on the rhetoric of humor.

Bio:

I am an English graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, with a concentration in Rhetoric and Writing Studies. My academic background primarily includes Literary Studies, Linguistics, and Technical Writing. Currently, my research interests are humor studies, contemporary rhetorics, and technical writing pedagogy.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

The environmental movement in the United States gained a significant amount of momentum during the 1960s and 1970s. With the passage of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the National Environmental Policy, the United States saw an unprecedented era of environmental protection, all in an effort to preserve the natural beauty of the nation; however, simultaneously, over the course of these two decades, U.S. forces poured out unparalleled environmental destruction upon the land and people of Vietnam. With the invasion of Vietnam came one of the most ecologically destructive wars ever witnessed, and from that war, an emergence of literature that encapsulated the conflicting sentiments that allowed for such atrocities. By building upon a theoretical understanding of environmental destruction as a means of colonialist and patriarchal oppression, this paper examines the violent ecocide enacted by the United States Military as it is depicted through the art and literature produced in the wake of the Vietnam War.

Bio:

Claire Tillis-Miller is a recent graduate of Southern Nazarene University, where she studied English Literature and Psychology. Her research interests include first-person narrative, identity performance in online communities, and food studies.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

In this study, we observed the use of two pairs of Russian prepositions - ‘v’/‘na’ (in) and ‘iz’/ ‘s’ (from) with the noun ‘Ukraine’ and related this use to agents’ identity and stance. The use of these prepositions in the adverbials of place with names of a country vs. a geographical area has been a subject of heated debates (Devlin, 2016, Krivoruchka, 2008; Kolomiyets, 2020). Historically, ‘v’ and ‘iz’ have been used as signs of Ukrainian sovereignty and ‘na’ and ‘s’ as their pro-Russian unmarked counterparts, defined by linguistic tradition. We used an innovative Twitter analysis tool ‘Twig’ (Redmon, 2022) to collect and analyze tweets made on February 24, 2022 - the date of the beginning of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Using Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), we coded and categorized tweets with the target n-grams. We found general uniformity in the use of pro-Ukrainian prepositions as the markers of pro-Ukrainian political stance. However, we observed a more complex picture with the use of pro-Russian prepositions where we see these prepositions used in both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian stances. The analysis has shown that the previously identified pro-Russian prepositions are used to mark pro-Ukrainian stances in tweets expressing strong emotions towards events or kinship. Our results show that prepositions serve as markers of identity and at the same time index the political views of the agents. These results provide novel insights into the prepositions’ use in Twitter discourse.

Bio:

Dr. Fran Junnier is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University. Her research agenda adopts discourse analytical approaches across a range of socio-political contexts.

Dr. Galina Shleykina is an Assistant Professor at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include comparative linguistics and discourse analysis.

Closing Ceremony: 4:30PM - 5:30PM

Auditorium

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