2024 Abstracts & Bios

Abstract:

The conference theme of “sense and sensation” implies a capacity for self-observation and self-expression. To what extent might these capacities be promoted or hindered by the most significant recent development in student writing – the introduction of language-generating Artificial Intelligence? AI presents a peculiar set of opportunities and challenges for writing instruction. Large Language Models are designed to facilitate composition tasks, and we want our students to develop the skill to use them well, while employers already look favorably on proficiency in AI tools. At the same time, inappropriate reliance on LLMs can result in problems with academic integrity or student agency. This panel brings together the experience of three participants who direct branches of the Composition Program at Oklahoma State University. In our combined experience, we have developed AI policies and guidelines for our programs, worked with GTAs and students on the use of AI in the composition classroom, and developed lessons designed to help students understand appropriate uses and limitations of AI. We have also conducted research with Chat GPT and Dall-E, dealt with cases of alleged plagiarism, and conducted extensive discussions with composition instructors on their strategies and concerns. For this panel, we plan to share some of this experience and reflect on how we see the explosion of AI technology affecting the learning and agency of student writers.

Bios:

Richard Sears, Teaching Assistant Professor, specialization in Early Modern Literature and Culture

Eric D. Howerton, Teaching Associate Professor, specializations in Creative Writing -- Fiction, and Literature

Frances H. Junnier, Teaching Assistant Professor, specialization in Applied Linguistics

Abstract:

When we speak, we, consciously or unconsciously, make a number of choices that can have different senses, or can index different groups, ideas, or traits. In Oklahoma, which is at the intersection of the Midland dialect and the Southern dialect and has features from Appalachian English, speakers have a multitude of different senses they can index. In this panel of three undergraduate research projects, we explore senses of speaking in Oklahoma.

We discuss how Oklahomans use double modals, such as, I might could go to the store. While Texas and Appalachia dialects have both influenced Oklahoma English in general, students found that double modal use in Oklahoma is more similar to Appalachian English than Texas English, although it also has some features that make it unique from both varieties.

Then we turn to how Oklahomans use relative pronoun which. Some scholars have noted that British (Loock 2007, Collins and Radford 2018), Australian (Burke 2017), and northeastern Americans (Loss 2022) can produce which clauses that lack a canonical gap. Here, Oklahomans are like other speakers of English, as the types and rates of novel which forms are similar to a podcast corpus of northeastern English speakers.

Finally, we explore how Oklahoma men and women think they talk similarly or differently. Some people think women sound more professional while men here tend to sound more like “hicks,” maybe even on purpose, as one older woman said. This may echo back to associations, senses, of the midland and southern dialects.

Bios:

Dr. Sara Loss is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Linguistics and TESOL program in the Department of English at OSU. She is also the director of the Language Studies Lab. She researches variation in dialects of English, and she supervises a number of undergraduate projects (Honors students, AURCA students, and a Wentz scholar) in this and adjacent areas.

Kori Travis is an Advancing Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities researcher in the Research on Dialects of Oklahoma English project in the Language Studies Lab.

The other undergraduates are all students in ENGL 4080: Syntax here at OSU.

Abstract:

Creative writing is an art form that surpasses the physical boundaries of ink on paper. Poetry and prose have the power to possess our senses, allowing for experiences that are felt as deeply as they are imagined. This power starts from the smallest syllable and grows into rhythm. Rhythm blooms into syntax, syntax into structure, pace, and eventually, narrative. These basic elements, like an alchemic recipe, combine to create infinite iterations of sensory experiences which seed into our brains as if they are our own. This panel will explore poetry and prose which embodies, grapples, and investigates the themes of sense and sensation with readings from Oklahoma State University’s premier undergraduate literary magazine, Frontier Mosaic.

Bios:

Frontier Mosaic is Oklahoma State University’s premier student-run literary magazine. We are a patchwork of the best undergraduate fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Frontier Mosaic released its inaugural issue in the spring of 2015 and is now published through Oklahoma State University's OER library.

Abstract:

This panel aims to unpack the portrayal of political discontent, hopelessness, and masculine anxieties in contemporary Hindi cinema. The panel is composed of three presentations of fifteen minutes each which will explore how films like Photograph (2019), Pokhar ke Dunu Paar (2022), and Animal (2023) utilize mood, atmosphere, and visual violence to express societal concerns and individual entrapment. The presentations will analyze the significance of deteriorated urban landscapes, graphic violence, and rural nostalgia, all of which symbolize the entrapment felt by individuals facing the complexities of the modern world. By examining the mis-en-scene in these films, the panel will provide a critical lens on the narratives of political disillusionment and the evolving expressions of masculinity, reflecting the broader cinematic response to the challenges of modernity in India. Komal Nazir’s presentation will explore Batra’s Photograph by focusing on its treatment of urban space constraints and nostalgia for rural life within Mumbai’s landscape and how they articulate a critique of modernity and a desire to return to a utopian past. Salman Rafique will present on Saurabh’s Pokhar ke Dunu Paar in which he will analyze the allegorical depiction of political, environmental, and personal exhaustion set against the backdrop of pandemic-era Darbhanga. Lastly, Sara Ali will touch upon the representation of hypermasculinity and the portrayal of male angst in Vanga’s Animal. She will analyze the societal undercurrents that contribute to the film's popularity and its reflection of contemporary masculine insecurities. This panel will be chaired and moderated by Dr. Amit Rahul Baishya (Associate Professor of English, University of Oklahoma).

Bios:

Amit R. Baishya is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Oklahoma University. His first monograph Contemporary Literature from Northeast India: Deathworlds, Terror and Survival was published by Routledge in 2018. He is also the co-editor of three collections: Northeast India: A Place of Relations, Postcolonial Animalities, and a special issue of the journal Postcolonial Studies titled "Planetary Solidarities: Postcolonial Theory, the Anthropocene and the Nonhuman"

Komal Nazir is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Oklahoma State University. She is currently working on her doctoral dissertation which deals with an intersection of postcolonial studies, ecocriticism and the study of the Anthropocene particularly in the context of South Asian Literature. Her broader research interests include global anglophone literature, study of multispecies entanglements, posthumanism, and science fiction.

Salman Rafique is a doctoral candidate in Screen Studies at Oklahoma State University. His research interests include the study of exhaustion and fatigue, global art cinema, anxio-capitalism, and critical theory. He is currently working on his dissertation that investigates the representations of exhausted subject in contemporary global art cinema.

Sara Ali completed her PhD in English Literature from The University of Waikato, New Zealand in 2022. She currently resides in Pakistan where she holds a tenure track position at the Quaid-e-Azam University’s English Department and teaches courses on Women’s Writings, Film Studies, and Global Poetry.

Abstract:

This panel considers how emotions and embodied experiences have been central to the functioning of authoritarian regimes globally. We focus on ‘sense and sensation’ on two planes: first, the circulation of affect in cultural politics (Sara Ahmed, 2004); second, the (pre)subjective experience of a body encountering social affects (John Protevi, 2009 and 2016). While the two planes are immanent and contribute to the sustenance of each other in a feedback loop, the difference lies in their modalities. Through its focus on the sociality of affect, the panel aims to explore how authoritarianism not only functions through coercive methods but also becomes the object of desire for the people. We ask the political question fundamental to Deleuze: Why do people ‘fight for our servitude as stubbornly as though it were our salvation’? (Brian Massumi, Politics of Affect). Taylor Gregory performs a Sartrean reading of The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera, 1984) to explore bad faith, the weight of freedom, and the culpability of the individual in authoritarian microcosms. Kyu Jeoung Lee explores reverse colonization narratives through the anachronistic voice of a Governor-General of the Japanese Empire airing a phantom radio broadcast in postcolonial Korea in Empire Radio, Live Transmission (Choi In-Hun, 1967-1976). Salman Rafique argues that Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation, 2018) deploys somnolence and passivity as strategies of radical opposition to life under anxio-capitalism. Siddharth Arora considers the (im)possibility of nationalism beyond Hindutva through materialist readings of affect in A Burning (Megha Majumdar, 2019).

Bios:

Taylor Gregory is an MA student at Oklahoma State University. Taylor studies Modernism, contemporary poetry, and critical theory. Her current research concerns religious transformation in Modernist poetry, specifically the works of T.S. Eliot.

Kyu Jeoung Lee is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Oklahoma State University. Her current dissertation project is centered around the theme of artificial mirrors and transpacific science fiction narratives. Her presentation is a work in progress from a chapter from her dissertation, which concerns alternate histories and contradictory voices that interrogate imperialism.

Salman Rafique is a 5th year PhD student in Screen Studies. His doctoral dissertation investigates contemporary art cinema's engagement with the weary and exhausted subject in late capitalism. His broader research interests span culture industries of the digital era, subjectivity under anxio-capitalism, performance studies, and medicalization of social life.

Siddharth Arora is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at Oklahoma State University. He is interested in the intersection of affect and postcolonial studies to critique the rise of Hindu nationalism.

Abstract:

This roundtable aims at infusing a renewed urgency into the historical accounts of trauma and resilience in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s low ranking on key indicators of human development and wellbeing leaves its most vulnerable minority communities in a cycle of generational trauma and poverty. The state has often found itself at the bottom in key areas like healthcare and school education at national level. In a recent interaction with the members of this panel, Blaine Bowers, the president of Resilient Payne County (RPC), claimed that Oklahoma is a “trauma state” and its human development indicators are reflective of the generational trauma that has not been addressed adequately. Moreover, the release and success of Martin Scorsese’s film Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) and the television show Reservation Dogs (2021-23) has granted greater visibility and recognition to Oklahoma’s legacy of pain and trauma. This is in addition to the media attention that came with the hundredth anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre in 2021. In the past, RPC has collaborated with OSU to launch research initiatives to assess the extent of adverse childhood experiences resulting in toxic stress among children under the age of 5 years living in Payne County. We, the medical humanities fellows working in the Center for the Humanities, OSU, are currently collaborating with RPC and other community partners to plan and deliver a series of instructional initiatives to foster a culture of caregiving and healing. In proposing this roundtable, we endeavor to highlight areas in which OSU faculty and students can enter into productive and robust community engagement programs with state and county level partners. Moreover, as a group with diverse cultural and educational backgrounds, we would like to gesture toward potential avenues of productive engagement between academic disciplines as diverse as humanities and medical sciences.

Bios:

Dr. Jessica Turcat is a teaching Assistant Professor in the department 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.

Joanna George is a second-year medical student in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Joanna brings trauma-informed perspective and narrative lens toward wellness while discussing caregiving for older adults.

Salman Rafique is a doctoral candidate in Screen Studies at Oklahoma State University. He is currently working on his dissertation which investigates global art cinema’s engagement with issues of exhaustion and fatigue in late capitalism.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

If autobigoraphy is viewed as a "discourse of identity," as John Paul Eakin declared in "Breaking Rules: The Consequences of Self-Narration," then why do readers of autobiography criticize author identity? "The Kiss: Author and Audience Relationship in Memoir," examines the role of writers and readers of memoir as well as the environmental elements that influence the social acceptance or rejection of memoir through exploration of supporters and critics of Kathryn Harrison's telling of her adult incestuous affair with her father in her memoir, The Kiss, published in 1997. The presentation will explore such questions as: Can authors be expected to fully understand the entirety of their own motivations to write and publish their life stories? Should readers and critics be considered more qualified than the authors in their attempts to explain the motivations behind memoir writing and publishing? What amount of caution and restraint should be taken when critiquing the experiences of writers of autobiography when one has not had a similar experience?

Bio:

Kimberly Shaw is a second year MFA candidate at Oklahama State University on the Creative Nonfiction track. She is a mother, a teacher, an occupational therapy assistant, and a lover of words, thoughts, questions, and ideas.

Session 1 - Presentation

Cancelled

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

This paper begins by looking at Merleau-Ponty’s concept of ‘gesture’, tracing how it is at the core of his semiotics and concepts of ‘speech’ and ‘language’. Not only is human communication dependent upon non-verbal gestures, but these gestures have moral designs and consequences, too. Looking more closely at gestures and body language is essential for more effective communication, as well as a necessary part of gaining greater insight into another’s intentions. In turn, this sets up a particular challenge for ethicists, namely, to look for ways in which we can better understand the non-verbal but meaningful expressions of certain gestures and body language so that we can learn how to physical comport ourselves in morally better ways.

Bio:

Dr. Chris Drohan is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Oklahoma State University, where he also serves as Undergraduate Liaison for Philosophy, Advisor to the OSU Philosophy Club, and a 2004 Humanities Environmental Research Fellow. Dr. Drohan is author of the book "Deleuze & the Sign" (Atropos Press, 2007), and has had book chapters published in numerous volumes including: "Deleuze & Education" , "Demystifying Deleuze: An Introductory Assemblage of Crucial Concepts", "Beckett’s Proust / Deleuze’s Proust", "The Watchmen & Philosophy", and "Batman & Philosophy".

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

In 1869, Toru Dutt, a British Empire colonial subject from Kolkata, India, accompanied her family to France before going to England one year later. During her three years in England, Dutt received educational opportunities, including attending Cambridge lectures and engaging with Englishness's ideals. Upon Dutt's return to Kolkata in 1873, she continued writing, publishing her first poetry collection, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, that same year.

One aspect of British life that undoubtedly saw during her time was the popularity of gardening. More than visually appealing, flower gardens were important as locations outside the home that allowed women to enter discourses reserved for men. Dutt explores this concept in her sonnet, "The Lotus," published in her posthumous 1882 collection Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. In the poem, Love enters Psyche's bower to ask Flora to create a flower combining the beauty of the rose and the lily; Flora offers the lotus as "the queenliest flower that blows." I argue that Flora's ability to create the lotus from nothing parallels the poet's creative power to speak sensations into being and allows the sonnet to claim masculine realms of agency, creation, and imagination for women. This paper suggests Flora's role in "The Lotus" mirrors female gardening practitioners in nineteenth-century Britain who functioned as producers inside typically masculine-dominated spaces. Within a feminist critical framework, this essay also considers Flora as a creator goddess alongside contributions that female gardeners in the nineteenth century made to the empire by keeping home gardens.

Bio:

JT Rucker is from Knoxville, Tennessee. A Ph.D. student in the English department at Oklahoma State University, JT holds a BA in English from East Tennessee State University and an MA in Humanities from Milligan University. His research focuses on Victorian literature.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 8:30AM - 8:55AM

Abstract:

Historically, 'which' is a relative pronoun; it not only connects two clauses, but also creates a gap that refers back to something in the main clause. However, speakers of British, Australian, and northeastern American English can use 'which' forms that are only connective– they have no gap (Loock 2007, Burke 2015, Loss & Wicklund 2022, Loss 2023) . For example, in the sentence from Loock’s (2007: 75) work, “And she decided to move out which I think she’s crazy,” 'which' has neither an antecedent nor a gap. Broader claims about the use of 'which' in American English require data from other dialect regions. Oklahoma is a perfect candidate because it contains both Midland and Southern dialects. My research explores the use of 'which' in Oklahoma English and compares it to Loss’s work on northeastern American English. To capture conversational Oklahoma English, I created an automated transcription of “The Oklahoma Today Podcast,” and categorized each use of 'which' as a relative pronoun or connective 'which'. The corpus contains 56,498 words, and 110 instances of 'which'. Of these, 12 (11%) are connective. This is comparable to Loss’s corpus in which 54 (15%) which are connective X2 (2, N = 257) = 1.0467, p = 0.3. The subdivision of the types of connective 'which' in each corpus are also strikingly comparable, X2 (2, N = 88) = 0.1048, p = 0.95. This study suggests that 'which' use may be fairly uniform across dialects of American English, although other dialect areas should also be studied.

Bio:

Chandler Dean is a Wentz Scholar and Senior at Oklahoma State University. She is currently working with Dr. Loss in the Language Studies Lab on her Honors Thesis which focuses on the changing use of the relative pronoun 'which' in American English. She plans to attend Wheaton College in the fall to earn her Masters of Arts in Biblical Exegesis.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

In Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon, Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin argue that sport may function as a “protest against…the postmodern erasure of the self.” Instead, sport “may be one of the last contexts left in which one can…experience oneself as a ‘true self’” (90). Because of the nature of sport, however, this “true self” can’t go on forever. What happens to an athlete’s sense of self when it’s time to leave their sport behind? Do they lose their “true self?” Or do they reclaim themselves? And how might the writing of memoir function in the athlete’s quest to make sense of themselves? In my proposed presentation, I will analyze texts such as the celebrity athlete memoir My Dream Time by former tennis player Ash Barty and the graphic memoir The Keeper by former soccer player Kelcey Ervick in order to explore how athletes might construct and reconcile their post-sport selves in their memoirs—from the visual designs of the books themselves to the craft choices athletes make on the page. Additionally, my exploration might veer toward the limits of an athlete’s post-sport self-making and self-representation, such as the mark of ghostwriters in celebrity athlete autobiographies and the theoretical impossibility of a“true self.”

Bio:

Kaila Lancaster is a writer and PhD candidate at Oklahoma State University. Her creative work has been published in Brevity, The Pinch, Third Coast, and Puerto del Sol, among others. A former collegiate volleyball player, she is currently writing a memoir in essays in which she hopes to make sense of her own post-sport self.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

Throughout her extensive notebooks, French philosopher Simone Weil often revisits her idiosyncratic conception of the word lecture, reading. Beyond the isolated, cerebral consumption of words on a page, reading for Weil emerges as a relational experience that is involuntarily sensed or embodied. We cannot help but feel, prior to rational reflection, instinctive reactions to the world. For Weil, this visceral sensation of reading is itself ethically neutral, but because we inhabit complex social contexts, how we negotiate diverse readings becomes susceptible to manipulation, thus intensely morally charged: “We read, but also we are read by, others. Interferences in these readings. Forcing someone to read himself as we read him (slavery). Forcing others to read us as we read ourselves (conquest)” (Notebooks 43). For Weil, avoiding catastrophe requires ethical reading, an attempt to finetune our gut reactions, to hone a sense of attentive openness that listens closely to otherness.

For scholars and teachers in the humanities, knowing what it means to read well is more urgent than ever, but many narratives of critical reading tend to overlook the ethical challenge Weil illuminates, how reading is complicated with involuntary responses to the world first felt in the body. By bringing Weil’s “Essay on the Concept of Reading” into dialogue with her notebooks, I show how Weil’s insights expand narratives of critical reading with an attentiveness to its affective dimensions and offer a potential way forward to navigate today’s political landscape increasingly charged with competing readings of identity and human rights.

Bio:

Sari Carter is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Oklahoma State University Department of English. She received her PhD in nineteenth-century British literature from Vanderbilt University (2019). Her research interests include intersections between ethics, aesthetics, and philosophical questions of subjectivity. Her current research project is tentatively titled Ethical Subjectivity as Excess in Victorian Literature and Philosophy.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

Touching Rejection: A Sensory Approach to Humanizing Job Rejection Emails Through Rhetorical Genre Analysis

This study explores the psychological and emotional terrain of job rejection, through a genre analysis of 21 job rejection emails, placing it within the ESP framework and the context of Sense and Sensation; it suggests that the main ways we engage with the outside world are through our senses, and that these ways greatly influence how we perceive, interpret and process rejection. The physical experience of opening (seeing and touching) a rejection email becomes a metaphorical touchpoint for more general musings on human experience in the area of job hunting, a process rife and embedded in rejection, insecurity, self-doubt, and sadness.

Using a coding technique that pontificates the rhetorical moves in this genre, the study analyzes common genre moves and obligatory moves in these rejection emails to show how certain wording can make candidates feel more devalued. On the other hand, it reveals that acts of kindness and empathetic approach can considerably lessen these unfavorable feelings, by pointing the way toward more polite and compassionate communication during the employment/hiring process

This research carefully makes the case for a redesigned method of communicating employment rejections to job applicants, and this is connected to the idea that touch connects us to larger existential configurations, and social realities. It promotes emails that serve a purpose with kindness and recognize that all people are in the same boat. In doing so, it advocates for a change in perspective that would make the job-search cycle more humane, compassionate, and more than just bearable. This study essentially aims to remind us of the incredible power of our senses—not only to perceive the world but also to change our interactions within it. It also calls for a reevaluation of how we convey bad news in a way that touches people with compassion and respect, both literally and figuratively.

Bio:

Olufemi E. Akojede is a strategic Human Resource Professional with expertise in sourcing and recruiting top-tier talent. Certified by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management and undertaking his Master’s in English Language from Oklahoma State University, he excels in technical and corporate recruiting. Emmanuel has a strong record of fostering candidate relationships and delivering impactful recruitment strategies at Moniepoint, Patricia, and Tromville Investment Ltd.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:00AM - 9:25AM

Abstract:

When honors instructor Stephanie Miller decided to teach an undergraduate honors seminar class on tornadoes in American culture, she knew from the get-go she wanted to involve the library. Specifically, she wanted to use library resources to help her students connect to Oklahoma tornado history. Since the overarching goal of the course was to explore tornado narratives as mechanisms for producing regional identity, local first-hand accounts of tornado experiences struck her as prime fodder for scholarly analysis. But to what extent are tornadoes represented in the OSU oral history collection–and how?

Enter oral history archivist Patrick Daglaris. Miller enlisted Daglaris to provide her students with a library class on tornado references in the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program’s 2,300+ interview collection, which turned out to be astonishingly prevalent and rich. After identifying over 200 tornado narratives in the collection, Daglaris began inventorying these narratives to both increase reference support and create a dataset for further analysis. The library class session provided Daglaris an opportunity to share examples from the collection and introduce oral history as both a research methodology and primary source.

This presentation will share the intellectual rationale for the tornado-culture course, how the oral-history unit fits in, the function of tornado stories in oral history narratives, and the unique opportunity they provide students to evaluate oral history and historical sources at large. In addition, it will provide insight into students’ experiences of oral history research in the context of the course.

Bio:

Patrick Daglaris is the archivist for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at the Oklahoma State University Library, where he oversees the collection management and digital preservation of their 2,300+ interview holdings. He supervises the production of the Amplified Oklahoma podcast in which student interns highlight stories and narrators from the OOHRP collections for broader public consumption.

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 1 - Presentations

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

Thi Bui’s debut graphic novel "The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir" (2017) narrates the author’s upbringing in Vietnam, her journey to the United States in escape of the American-Vietnamese war, and her struggles with assimilating into American culture while staying connected to her family values and honoring their expectations. Throughout the autobiography, Bui emphasizes in equal parts the sociopolitical factors of the American-Vietnamese war that led to her family’s displacement and eventual exile, and the individual and collective histories of her family members that, at times, create in them feelings of resentment, solitude, and guilt. In rewriting the past and building a cohesive narrative out of shards of memory, Bui attempts to alleviate those heavy feelings and make sense of her current role as a first-time mother, a role that pushes her into rethinking her past in conjunction with her baby’s future. The memoir is written as a graphic novel, which facilitates to some degree the depiction of the author’s struggles to a western audience and adds a layer of creativity and allure to her work. The proposed paper looks at the relationship between the author’s familial life and the greater sociopolitical events in Vietnam, discussing the ways in which this relationship affects identity formation and the reconstruction of memory. I argue that the act of retelling, facilitated especially by the use of the graphic novel genre, is necessary for the healing of both the author as well as Vietnamese communities of the diaspora.

Bios:

Farah Taha is a second year PhD student in English 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 autobiographical studies, war and trauma, state violence, and diaspora studies.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

My paper considers the violence of bodies and touch in Alice Notley’s 1992 book-length poem, The Descent of Alette. A feminist epic broken into four sections, Notley’s poem follows the titular character as she embarks on a Dantean descent into a hellish underworld of subway cars and caves, all the while tasked with killing a character known only as the “tyrant,” an elusive man who controls the underworld. While it’s easy to read the tyrant as emblematic of patriarchal capitalism, I seek to move beyond this discursive reading by highlighting the biopolitical nuances that Notley addresses. Putting Notley in conversation with contemporary theorist Erin Manning’s 2006 book Politics of Touch: Sense, Movement, and Sovereignty, I consider the role of the senses—particularly touch—in relation to the body-politic at play in Notley’s poem. I read the tyrant as an all-consuming body, thus indicting the entire underworld as existing within his form. If the entire underworld is part of the tyrant, then Alette is always reaching towards a biopolitical violence by simply existing in this space. In reading the text this way, I recognize how Notley evokes her own politics of touch through Alette’s journey to destroy the tyrant, a touch that alters the body-politic within the epic poem. Reading Notley’s epic beyond its feminist label and considering its biopolitical implications, we recognize the poem as one steeped in a multifaceted conversation about form, flesh, and tyranny, a conversation that moves beyond a purely discursive reading of the tyrant as patriarchy.

Bio:

Katie McMorris is a PhD student in English at Oklahoma State University, where she writes about religion, dance, and the body.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

Cinematically, Star Wars entered the lives of many upon the release of (what is now) A New Hope in 1977. With such success, the franchise continued releasing new content into its expansive universe. Apart from the ground-breaking visuals and sound FX in these works, the star-studded casting, and notable directors, what keeps this franchise going is its fans – Star Wars resonates with many, touching on fans’ senses of belonging to something, be it the fandom, the universe, or an emotional desire for the continuation of seeing stories take place in a “galaxy far, far away.” The Star Wars fandom is not without faults, but within recent productions in the universe, a new, unique sense of connection between the fans and cast has been established.

My aim for this presentation focuses on Star Wars fans and the connection between nostalgia and the (mostly) positive reaction to the recent role reprisal of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. Despite numerous negative reviews of Christensen’s acting in the films, his recent reprisal to the Star Wars screen has been met with positivity from fans excited to see a side of him from the animated version of Anakin in The Clone Wars. I am interested in pursuing nostalgia as it relates to fan studies, focusing not on what has been lost, but instead on the lingering emotions still connected to that “sense” of the past.

Bio:

Taylor Adams is a Ph.D. student at Oklahoma State University studying English and Screen Studies. Her writing deals with issues in feminist film studies/theories and fan studies/theories in films of pop culture, especially within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars. She enjoys exploring viewer responses to films, noting common criticisms or praises and how that information works within (or against) established film theories.

Session 1 - Presentation

Time: 9:30AM - 9:55AM

Abstract:

What biases exist in the evaluation of L2 English writing across disciplines? Do graders focus on content or grammar? How does this impact L2 English writers throughout their college careers? These are the questions I aim to answer with my current project. Initiated as a sociolinguistics class project, this research aims to uncover the opinions and practices that are inherent in L2 English writing across disciplines. I used a survey methodology to contact 300 graders from disciplines across the university. Twenty participants agreed to participate, and each participant evaluated an authentic L2 English student essay, presented in either its original form or with grammatical edits. Participants then scored the essay and provided insights into their perceptions of grammar. Findings showed the original unedited essay as scoring lower than the edited essay. Open-ended questions in the survey demonstrated the importance graders put on grammar within student writing. The findings of this study serve as a foundational exploration into the viewpoints, sense-making mechanisms, and underlying attitudes prevalent among those responsible for grading L2 English writing across the university.

Bio:

Ali Castillo is an MA student in the English TESL Program at OSU. She has worked as a bilingual K-12 educator for four years teaching immersion Spanish elementary and high school ESL. Her research interests include L2 English writing and second language acquisition. She has taught English in the English Language and Intercultural Center and is currently working with the International Composition Program at OSU.

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

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

A connection between William James and David Foster Wallace has been established, scholars Robert Bulger and Rob Short show how Wallace’s inclusion of AA in Infinite Jest invokes James while David Evans proposes James to be a crucial figure for Wallace. In my presentation, I hope to further connect James and Wallace by exploring aspects of Infinite Jest through James’s definition of religion: “experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they consider the divine.” Throughout Infinite Jest, characters attempt a satisfying life through various methods trying to escape anhedonia or depression. While some methods, AA and personal religion, succeed, others, addiction and entertainment, cure the characters from anhedonia initially, yet eventually thrust them further into depression. Despite their successfulness, all methods begin as Jamesian religions. Each has an individual interacting with some chosen divine figurehead searching for satisfaction. Yet through failing at the goal of Jamesian religion, “a more satisfying life,” methods such as addiction and entertainment ultimately harm. Likewise, those methods, like AA or personal religion, which succeed as Jamesian religions are helpful. Using their successfulness as Jamesian religions to label these methods as harmful or helpful, I will identify a pattern. In the harmful methods of addiction and entertainment, the practitioners choose something material as their divine like drugs or movies, while in the helpful methods, AA and personal religion, the practitioners choose immaterial things such as the nothing for Don Gately or Satan for another AA goer.

Bio:

Sam Reimer is a graduate of Rhodes College where he completed a major in English Creative Writing and a minor in Religious Studies. He is currently working for an elementary school fundraising company which specializes in fun runs, but he hopes to return to school within the next few years. He is most interested in finding the connections between literature and religion.

Session 2 - Presentation

Cancelled

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

It is hard to imagine seeing yourself or experiencing the world more clearly or vividly than when faced with the exhilarating challenges of an unsupported “adventure” run. The colors and textures of the world becomes more vibrant, the air becomes more pungent, your relationships with your inner demons and motivations become more tangible, and your interactions with the world become more transparent when you run an ultra-marathon. Let me take you on a five-day sensory adventure as I ran from a ferry loading ramp in Missouri, across the back country roads of western and middle Tennessee, to a breathtaking climatic conclusion at a high cliff’s edge in Georgia.

With only with the clothes on my back, a small vest of water and snacks, a map and a phone to call in checkpoints, the miles traveled paled in comparison to the distance covered in my inward journey. The taste of a peach has never been so sweet, water never so refreshing, the soft ground of a wayward ditch never so soft, the encouragement of a total stranger more uplifting than when faced with a voluntary ultimate challenge.

Life boils down to the simplest form during an ultra-marathon: move, eat, drink, rest…repeat until the journey is done. I would love to share that experience with others, and have them relive the highs and the lows of the adventure, finding a deeper appreciation for the simplest joys.

Bio:

My name is jbob jones. I am a person who tries to find the joy in every challenge. I am a father, husband, friend, coach, runner, and disabled veteran. I have a BS-Psychology from West Point, a Masters in Strategic-Operational Planning from the Marine Corps University, and a “PhD” in grit from oodles of ultra-marathons of 100 miles or more.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

While our relationship to things in the world relies on all five senses, our relationship to things in the novel requires a much different approach. Since we cannot rely on the visual aspect, the author’s arrangement of things affects our perception. This arrangement is present through the collections of objects in Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton. The objects are clearly represented in the title, and these “spoils'' continue to carry their importance as they passively drive the plot. By using this form, James challenges our senses, encouraging us to picture things while simultaneously refusing to provide the description necessary for creating a full image. James implies the material objects in his novel with the Maltese cross becoming synecdochical for Mrs. Gereth’s collection while other objects are left hidden and unnamed. This strange arrangement of things displays the shift into modernist abstraction that challenges the readers’ perception of things.

Bio:

Haley Reed (she/her/hers) is a PhD student in Literary and Cultural Studies in the English department at the University of Oklahoma. Her research interests include modernisms, 20th century American literature, materiality, and thing theory.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 10:30AM - 10:55AM

Abstract:

The Cherokee worldview is a beautifully woven tapestry of the natural world and our place within it. For the Cherokee, our lived experience as human beings is only a small part of the greater drama that is unfolding in the universe. As noted in Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee in most cases, plants and animals play a bigger role in the unfolding parade of existence on this planet as compared to their human counterparts. This is where the concept of balance comes into play in the Cherokee belief system. For many Cherokee thinkers and spiritual leaders, such as Crosslin Smith, Abraham Bearpaw, and others, we are out of balance with the natural rhythm of the cosmos. This is evident in the current condition of our world socially and ecologically. The Cherokee worldview has always centered on the concept of balance, but now this is more important than ever. In addition to balance, the Cherokee believe in the concept of collective unity, which is made clear in the construction of the sacred fire in which each of the four logs in the fire represents each race of humans. The fire then represents the unity of all the people of the world existing in balance. These concepts of balance and collective unity are made clear in the writings of Crosslin Smith a medicine man and the grandson of Red Bird Smith who is valued as being one of the primary reasons why the traditional lifeways and beliefs of the Cherokee were maintained after removal. This paper will explore the Cherokee concept of balance as it is presented in the oral tradition and ceremonial complex of the Cherokee. In addition, this paper will explain how the traditional and contemporary belief system of the Cherokee is a form of universalism that can also be viewed as a true perennial philosophy. All of these concepts more broadly relate to how we make sense of the world and how we relate with the other beings that exist on this planet.

Bio:

Russell Webb is a PhD student in Literature at the University of Arkansas. Russell's areas of interest include Native American Literature, Indigenous Studies, Cherokee Language and Myth.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

In my presentation, I will mark Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace as a decidedly post-postmodern work using Søren Kierkegaard’s framework of the ethical vs the esthetic life. The distinction between the two lies on the basis of choice. Life requires choices—beginning with becoming a “self”—that the aesthete ignores through an endless consideration of possible lives and a concealment of the self due to ego. The ethical person embraces choice and openness. In Either/Or’s introduction, Kierkegaard responds to esthetic concealment by embracing hearing as a “cherished sense” which allows one to receive the voice, also sacred, of others as a “disclosure of inwardness incommensurable with the exterior”. The aesthete’s adoption of irony as an “attitude towards existence”, as expressed by Allard Den Dulk, destroys the truth of the senses and leaves the aesthete unable to value reality over their imagination. Hal Incandenza’s anhedonia makes him an aesthete, unable to remain in the world of his senses without being distracted by abstractions. Don Gately, a recovering Demerol addict, has received the abstract and cliché dogma of AA and must substantiate it through action and physical presence. Wallace’s hyperreal descriptions of minutiae beg for the attention of the senses and reflect the fracturing of our attention under new media. Gately’s reaction to this hyperreality demonstrates the path out of ironic abstraction, experienced by Hal and marked by Wallace as a cultural rot occasioned by postmodernism. Hal is trapped in his mind, unable to substantively respond to the messages of his senses, while Gately works to become reactive and present in the world.

Bio:

Ethan Morris graduated with a B.A. in English from Rhodes College, and now teaches high school English in Memphis, Tennessee. At Rhodes, he took a number of classes on post-World War II and 21st century fiction. Much of his writing focuses on either Marxist analyses or the New Sincerity movement and its responses to postmodern irony. He plans to pursue a PhD specializing in Postmodern Literature.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

The American West is an iconic idea. A broad sketch of the West along aesthetic lines must move beyond narrow regionalisms and archaic cultural codes to embrace the global imaginaries that are giving new meanings to Western senses of place. My presentation will focus upon place as an unfolding storied event, a “constellation of processes rather than a thing,” following the work of British cultural geographer Doreen Massey. By considering a few recent films and novels of the American West, I will explore how any “sense of place” is not reflective of some unified, singular, core essence of a specific locale. Rather, the aesthetic constructions and imaginings of "sensible," emplaced individuals and groups give rise to the acknowledged senses of place associated with a given site, territory, landscape, or region. Films by international directors, such as The Rider (2017) by Chloé Zhao and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) by Andrew Dominik, and the novel In the Distance (2017) by Argentinian-American writer Hernan Diaz, function as stellar examples of place-making processes. As such, they significantly shape our senses of the unique sites and locales we experience in their cinematic and literary creations. Place is undoubtedly integral to the possibility and structure of human experience. Locality is a phenomenological necessity. My presentation will foreground sensing bodies, along with the unfolding stories that help give meaning to our experiences of place, while celebrating the sensual processes of place-making in the arts.

Bio:

Scott Hendry is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. His research is focused upon literature and film of the American West and the Great Plains, and rhetorics of place and space. Scott earned a BA in philosophy and religion; also, an MA in literature and cultural studies from the University of Oklahoma.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

The ownership and management of cultural objects creates a multitude of difficult ethical and legal questions that impact a broad array of organizations. Current legal cases illustrate that public collections can house objects with problematic provenance. This paper will discus how these objects are managed and how cultural property law is applied in these situations. Although multiple policies and standards have been developed around the management of cultural materials, collections at university museums often come with a unique set of circumstances. By looking further into the case against Harvard University and reviewing the international and United States polices regarding repatriation and cultural property law, recommendations can be made on how scholars, researchers, and administrators can approach similar situations.

Bio:

Christina Elliott received her MA in Contemporary Art History, Theory, and Criticism from the San Francisco Art Institute (2013). Elliott was Museum Educator at the Plattsburgh State Art Museum and an Adjunct Lecturer at SUNY Plattsburgh and Clinton Community College before becoming the Curator of Education for Academic Initiatives at OSUMA. After three years at the OSUMA, Elliott recently moved to the OSU Theatre Department as a faculty member teaching arts administration programs.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:00AM - 11:25AM

Abstract:

The Mesoamerican chacmool figure is no stranger to expansion through adaptation, as it was rearticulated over many years and throughout various civilizations all before Hernán Cortés’ army set foot in the Americas. Some thousand years after its creation, the British artist Henry Moore encounters the Maya chacmool figure through a plaster mold housed at the Trocadéro museum in Paris. By examining Henry Moore’s reclining figures as adaptations of the chacmool figure from the decontextualized senseless into a Eurocentric sensible, I hope to highlight the expansive reach of coloniality within modern art—demonstrating how Moore engages with a hierarchy that was built through ethnographic museums and the use of “primitive” and primitivist labels, ultimately stepping into the colonizer’s role to take figurative ownership over the chacmool figure by adapting it to fit within Eurocentric sensibilities. I will do this by first discussing the phases of colonization and the concept of coloniality as they apply to Henry Moore and the chacmool figure. I will then consider the role of ethnographic museums in creating hierarchy and a sense of otherness in art. Turning to adaptation theory, I will examine the relationship between the chacmool figure and Henry Moore’s reclining figures and how ownership, coloniality, and power imbalance play into the process of adaptation. Focusing on this power imbalance may be one way to better understand the modern artist’s role as an active participant in upholding and expanding the effects of colonialism.

Bio:

Jessie Brown is a graduate student in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Arkansas. She has a BA in interdisciplinary humanities with an emphasis on foreign literature and an M.Ed. focused on urban education. Her current research focuses on art and literature of the Americas, particularly how Mesoamerican imagery is rearticulated in modern and contemporary art and literature.

Session 2 - Presentation

Cancelled

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

When short-term American Christian missionaries travel to non-English speaking countries, they arrive with the intention to share one of the most important things in their lives: their faith. However, the reality of most short-term trips is the impracticality to properly pursue a full-immersion language learning strategy (Kirby 1995). Without fully acquiring the language, we lose the ability to convey abstract ideas, which are key to sharing the gospel. After meeting many different individuals who have pursued short-term missions in a variety of different forms, I came to realize just how difficult it can be to find the perfect balance of practical and ideal language and cultural training. To my knowledge, there is no research on these trainings, and most discussion is aspirational (Sawin 2019). Many mission organizations are doing what they believe is best to prepare their workers in an appropriate amount of time compared to the length of the trip. This study will combine the self-reported experiences of short-term missionaries to analyze the training received and the perceived effectiveness of the training experience both on and off the field.

Currently, the study is waiting for exempt-status approval from the IRB. A list of potential interviewees has been compiled so data collection can take place upon approval. Interview transcripts will be analyzed by using NVivo to identify common themes among the subjects in how they perceive their language training to be, as well as how that training was formatted, so that both missionaries and sending agencies are better supported.

Bio:

Marleigh Smith is currently completing her senior year at Oklahoma State University while pursuing degrees in speech pathology and psychology. During her college career, she began interested in how linguistics can be connected to her faith which sparked the interest in language training for missionaries. She hopes to use the knowledge gained from this research project to make an impact in missions.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

In an editorial dated May 9, 1889, Angelo C. Scott, a key figure in the founding of Oklahoma City, shared his reflection on the town’s first day. Scott's account revealed the chaotic energy and contested land claims that characterized the scene, heightened by the absence of visible governmental authority to regulate the settlers effectively. Around seven o'clock, as

suppertime commenced; hunger momentarily imposed a truce in the ongoing rivalry for land. Scott vividly recalled the evening sky illuminated by fires from makeshift campsites, with the pervasive aroma of bacon and brewing coffee hanging in the air, creating a sensory backdrop as the exhausted multitude settled in for sleep, preparing for the next challenge of community-building.

The opening of Oklahoma Territory is a defining moment in the state's history. Unfortunately, many historical discussions have focused on the visual aspect of the event or engaged with the memory of the opening of the unassigned lands by encouraging elementary school children to physically reenact it each April. These scholarly discussions and public engagements with the past have resulted in a restricted lens through which we perceive the lived experiences of homesteaders during the spring of 1889. This presentation aims to expand the historical understanding of the settlers by discussing Scott's recollection and the memoirs of his contemporaries. This approach promotes a more comprehensive discussion of embodied experiences that extends beyond the visual context and incorporates additional sensory inputs. By doing so, the presentation will provide a more nuanced perspective of the opening of the territory.

Bio:

Dr. Edith Ritt-Coulter is a lecturer of History at the University of Central Oklahoma. She received her doctorate in History from the University of North Texas. Her research focuses on the interdisciplinary study of Body, Place, and Identity with a focus on African American experience during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Session 2 - Presentation

Cancelled

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

Tactile modes of composition are arguably the most overlooked modes of composition. Yet, for students at all levels with visual impairments, tactile modes of composition are often the readiest-to-hand modes of composition. Furthermore, tactile composition is ready-to-hand not only for those with visual impairments but is partaken by individuals of all bodyminds. However, tactile modes of composition are regularly ignored as possible modes of composition in compositional studies. Compositional studies tend to focus on written composition as detached from the keyboard or pen which are the ready-to-hand tactile tools used for written composition. Composition in the written form cannot be detached from the tactile, even when writers are using speech-to-text services. In addition to this, some modes of written composition require the tactile, braille is an apparent example of this.

My presentation will both point to the lack of tactile awareness in composition studies courses and express a need to include tactile modes of composition in compositional course curriculum. Students of all bodyminds can gain valuable insights from even a brief examination of tactile modes of composition. This presentation will also give some suggestions on how compositional instructors can incorporate tactile modes of composition in both their lessons and assignments.

This presentation will draw from two scholars Jacques Derrida and George H Williams. Notions such as touch and ready-to-hand will be framed through the Derridean lens. Meanwhile, the scholarship of Williams will be brought in to assist in demonstrating how tactile modes of composition can be incorporated into composition classes.

Bio:

Anthony Vernon is an MFA student in Creative Writing who earned his MA in philosophy at the University of New Mexico. He has had a range of work published in both creative and academic realms. Anthony is interested in the crossroads between the humanities and dis/ability studies. He enjoys the great outdoors and the fake outdoors in Animal Crossing.

Session 2 - Presentation

Time: 11:30AM - 11:55AM

Abstract:

In the late 1960s Louis Allen found his community in Australia. Like many others around him, who had served and lived through World War II he lived with a sense of precarity. He and the Allies had just saved civilization from evil and he now turned his prodigious energy towards the mythology and art of First Australians at the precise moment that they were fighting for a return of their rights and their home, the Arnhem Land. Meanwhile scholars lamented and feared the loss of this culture in the face of modernity. This work analyzes archival materials including Allen’s personal ephemera, interviews, the archive at the Western Australia Museum in Perth and his published work, Time Before Morning. These will be examined through a multi-faceted postcolonial lens that encompasses the influence of Allen’s art collecting, US-ian sensibilities and constructions of race and his global lens from his military service.

The preservation of First Australian culture was his mission, it called deeply to him. The introduction to his book offers insights to the various ways that Allen saw his “service” to the First Australian culture This presentation will share initial findings of this research and ultimately seeks to offer some guidance to other scholars, professional or amateur, when working with found communities that call to them as well.

Bio:

Noelle Buffo is a second year graduate student at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is pursuing dual Master’s degrees: English Literature and History, focusing on the Atlantic World as well as an Instructor of Record for Freshman Composition. Noelle is grateful for her four children and supportive husband.

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

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

Visual perception plays a pivotal role in controlling various aspects of human experience, ranging from familial bonds, identity crises, education, societal standards, peer pressures, and the insidious spread of colorism. The core of this argument aims to illuminate the multifaceted ways the power of sight governs the human mind, shapes perceptions, and molds behavioral responses. Sight, as a sensory function, goes beyond mere visual input; it is a crucial aspect of understanding the world and plays a significant role in social and familial interactions. In Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, judgments made from sight alone influence the life of its protagonist, Pecola Breedlove, in increasingly stifling and traumatic ways as she navigates a society in which sight and the inherent racism and colorism that accompany it influence her thoughts and actions. By the novel's end, Pecola's delusion of having "the bluest eyes" becomes a reality to her, superseding her actual sense of sight.

In identity crises, sight is a guiding force in shaping self-perception and societal validation. Michel Foucault's theories on identity formation underscore the visual aspects of self-perception and how individuals navigate their identities through the lens of societal expectations and visual feedback from their peers. The quest for self-identity becomes intricately linked to conforming to visual norms set by society, thereby establishing a complex interplay between the self and the external gaze. Visual conformity becomes a means of social acceptance, while deviation is met with scrutiny and ostracization. This phenomenon is aptly captured by Foucault's discourse on the Panopticon, where the gaze becomes a tool of power and control for society's acceptance or rejection. Drawing on Goffman's theory of Dramaturgy, the argument explores how individuals perform based on societal expectations, with visual markers becoming integral to the construction of social identity. In addition, Charles Horton Cooley's concept of the "looking glass self" elucidates how individuals develop their self-concept based on the imagined perceptions of others, reinforcing the idea that sight plays a central role in the social construction of identity often perpetuated through the visual judgments of peers. Likewise, the perpetuation of colorism is seen as a consequence of racist societal beauty standards influenced by visual preferences.

This paper will incorporate the theories of Locke, Foucault, Cooley, and others to illuminate the overriding influence of sight in shaping human reactions as Pecola Breedlove grapples with the impact and interconnectedness of sight within family, identity formation, education, and societal dynamics. Moreover, Morrison's narrative is a poignant example of how the power of sight can influence human cognition and emotional responses in shaping individual experiences and social issues. By examining the characters' reactions and self-perceptions, one can see that they are shaped by their visual judgments, which provoke diverse responses. By shedding light on the profound impact of sight, this paper contributes to ongoing conversations about the intricate relationship between visual stimuli and human reactions in shaping individual experiences and societal issues.

Bio:

Lucy Emerho is an international student from Africa and a second year Masters student in Literature at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests are African American Literature, Black Diasporic Literature and African Literature.

Mackenzie Tomlinson is a first-year PhD in Literature student at Oklahoma State University. Her main focus is Shakespeare and making his plays accessible and relavent for the 21st century. However, she also enjoys studying African American Literature and making connections between the centuries.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

In a “post-pandemic” world, academia is striving to return to a sense of normalcy that privileges the extroverted, pre-2020 ways of interacting. During the pandemic, we saw the success and equity that virtual meetings offered, giving a wider range of folks the ability to participate in these different spaces. However, now that “Covid is over,” academia privileges coming back together in person as something that will build “stronger community” and offer “better opportunities” for their scholars. Meanwhile, the communities that had this greater access during the pandemic have now gone back to being neglected. It begs the questions: being back in person is more successful for whom? More beneficial for whom? More accessible for whom? In this presentation, we will explore the ways that community is framed, and who gets included or excluded within that definition. By exploring disability scholarship as well as research related to introversion, we will be offering alternate perspectives on how different groups can successfully interact within academic spaces and conversations. We will be particularly focused on the physical sense and sensations of these groups when forced into in-person encounters that might create physical or mental barriers. We will look at the different layers of social interaction that people need to navigate (both materially and psychologically) that might otherwise go unacknowledged. As two introverted scholars in a field where that is not uncommon, we want to bring light to this experience that is likely shared across many members of our department.

Bio:

Oklahoma native Jessie Roark is in her second year of master's training as a graduate student of English Literature. Her first master’s degree is from Northern Illinois University in Theater Performance, with a focus on Victorianism. Her focuses at OSU include Victorian and Romantic literature. She is also strongly interested and invested in mental health advocacy and awareness.

Originally from upstate New York, Roseanna Alice Recchia haunts the Oklahoma prairies with her husband and their cats, Bean, Blossom, and Blueberry. She is the author of Hiding in a Thimble (Haverthorn Press, 2021) and Imitating Light (Iron Horse Literary Review, 2021). Roseanna is currently working toward her PhD in English - Creative Writing.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

Zitkala-Ša, an early twentieth-century Sioux woman, was an activist, musician, public intellectual, and advocate for the sovereignty of Native Americans. In the midst of the United State’s attempt to destroy Indian existence through national policies of assimilation and land theft, Zitkala-Ša wrote towards social change through every possible means. From 1895 until her death in 1938, she leveraged an extraordinary array of generic forms as a writer to bring about sociopolitical change. Across her work, Zitkala-Ša evokes sacred presence through sense-based experience. Her writing is full of descriptions of the natural world—its smells, sounds, shapes, and colors—that reassure her of the Creator’s care. This sense of divine presence is for her a means of cultural and political resistance, and of personal survival.

This presentation considers the ways that attending to the beauty of creation may be evoked as a vital practice of resistance and survival. Indigenous scholar Malea Powell theorizes Native efforts of resistance and survival as “survivance.” As a language practice, it is a mode through which Indians claim subject-status within a colonial discourse. In Zitkala-Ša’s writing, sensing and articulating sacred presence is vital to survivance and cultural continuity. Her perception of the Earth’s beauty and her ability to evoke that beauty through language renews her spiritual strength, supports collective identity-formation, and fortifies political persistence. We will encounter the beauty of her language and the sacred beauty of the natural world through her eyes—through her stories, essays, public address, and prayer. Drawing on Zitkala-Ša’s reverence for the natural world, this presentation will also consider ways that sensing beauty might support current sociopolitical and cultural movements for justice today.

Bio:

Shelley Aschliman is currently a masters student in English at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She earned her B.A. at McGill University and an M.A. at Stanford University. Her research interests include gender and intimacy, language and other ways of knowing, religious narratives, rhetorics and radical pedagogies. She teaches high school in northwest Arkansas where she lives with her three children.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:00PM - 1:25PM

Abstract:

Understanding consciousness is not only philosophically intriguing but ethically critical to ensure that other conscious beings are not mistreated. In the development of artificial intelligence, there are significant ethical stakes. While it is not widely held that systems currently in use are conscious, the possibility of consciousness is a burgeoning consideration. Knowing what constitutes and creates conscious experience is incredibly important.

The philosophical field of embodied cognition can elucidate many aspects of phenomenal conscious experience. The embodied framework of consciousness sparks an entirely new understanding of the phenomena by refuting traditional ideas that understand conscious thought as something that does not necessarily require a body. The Cartesian framework for consciousness must be relinquished, without it, we come closer to capturing why we have such a rich phenomenal experience and why there is a “what it’s like” to be me and you. Looking to the interaction of consciousness with the body it inhabits can explain its biological function, behavioral indicators, and just what it would take to make a being conscious.

Built from an analysis of the philosophical literature on embodied cognition, consciousness, artificial intelligence, and robotics, the embodied consciousness framework finds that; having a body may be critical to motivating thought, that sensation-seeking behaviors could be used to identify consciousness in other creatures, and most importantly that systems without bodies could not form the building blocks of conscious thought. These qualities of consciousness are understood due to consideration of the important dimension of its embodiment, which has long been ignored.

Bio:

Charley Johnson, a student studying Philosophy and Computer Science at Oklahoma State University proposes a framework for understanding consciousness. Her interest in the question of what generates rich phenomenal experience led her to explore philosophies of embodied cognition, AI, and consciousness. In her research, the aim is to maximally capture indicators of consciousness while avoiding a human-centric viewpoint.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father of Ghana, played a pivotal role in achieving independence from British colonial rule in 1957, marking a significant moment in Sub-Saharan Africa. A staunch advocate of Pan-Africanism, Nkrumah asserted that Ghana's independence would only hold meaning if it were linked to the liberation of the entire African continent. Central to his ideology was the need for higher education institutions to realign and reorient African thought in response to local conditions and aspirations.

Nkrumah critiqued colonial higher education, arguing that it was designed to serve the economic interests of colonialists, resulting in social injustice, cultural irrelevance, and developmental inadequacy. He emphasized the imperative for African colleges to align with national ambitions and foster African cultural consciousness for redemption.

This presentation explores the critical examination and reconceptualization of Kwame Nkrumah's philosophical ideals within the contemporary context of Common-Sense Neoliberalism in African higher education. The study delves into Nkrumah's visionary thoughts, aiming to unveil the relevance and potential adaptation of his philosophy in addressing challenges posed by prevalent neoliberal ideologies shaping educational landscapes in Africa. By navigating the intersection of Nkrumah's ideals and the neoliberal ethos, the research seeks to provide insights into potential philosophical frameworks aligning with the present-day complexities of higher education in Africa.

To achieve this, the exploration employs an interdisciplinary approach, integrating historical perspectives, philosophical analysis, and an understanding of the evolving dynamics in Africa’s higher education. The presentation aspires to contribute to the ongoing discourse on reshaping educational philosophies to meet the demands of a changing world while preserving the foundational principles of African intellectual heritage.

Bio:

Emmanuel collaborates and work across diverse geographic contexts at the crossroads of the humanities and social sciences, addressing a broad spectrum of educational issues. His research interests encompass the critical sociology of higher education, gender and women's studies in higher education, curriculum decolonization, higher education policy, critical pedagogy, and post-colonialism. Currently, Emmanuel is a doctoral student in higher education and policy studies at the College of Education, Oklahoma State University.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) have become a crucial part of the education system in the United States (US). They usually perform duties that include leading small group discussions, grading, teaching undergraduate courses, and leading laboratory sessions. These ITAs, however, have been perceived to have non-native accents, which could result in breakdowns in their communication with their students, and the rising need to re-train the ITAs (Appiah, 2016; Edalatishams, 2022; Lippi-Green, 1994). While there is a need to train undergraduate students to comprehend and communicate across linguistic differences (Subtirelu, 2017), the present study examined the prosodic features in ITA speech to uncover sources of intelligibility and comprehensibility issues. A corpus approach was adopted in the study and analysis of the prosodic features of the ITA speech. The corpus data included the video recordings of presentations delivered by five ITAs, each lasting between five and eight minutes, selected using the Convenience Sampling Method. This was visualized on PRAAT and afterward annotated for frequency of stress and intonation issues. This research contributes to limited research on precise intelligibility analysis, which will be used to compile an ITA corpus with searchable intelligibility features and the body of existing literature in enhancing ITA speech intelligibility which will in return make content accessible to students hence, promoting fairness and effective learning. The findings of this study showed that ITAs tend to give an equal pitch to each syllable in each word regardless of whether these words are content or function words; with some of the ITAs recording a total of 22 lexical stress issues and 7 sentence stress. In addition, ITAs used the wrong tones at the end of tone units with a total of 31 intonation issues. This could wrongly signal to the students that more sentences or explanations that are part of this sentence should be expected. Keywords: stress, intonation, L2 speech, intelligibility; comprehensibility, suprasegmental.

Bio:

MenyeneAbasi Obong is a PhD student in Applied Linguistics, at the Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. Her research interests include Corpus Phonology, Phonetics and Phonology, Automated Feedback, and Second Language Acquisition. Her research explores the intersection of linguistic analysis and innovative technology to enhance language learning. Through her research, she aims to contribute to the field of second-language pedagogy in multilingual contexts.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

As a Palestinian-American, I have been following the situation in Gaza closely. I am heartbroken by the lack of empathy from the west, and I have been dedicating my writing to my family history and doing what Hala Alyan calls "bearing witness" to my family's story and the stories I see on the news. I have been struck by the articles that use sensory imagery and that immerse readers in the physical turmoil of Palestinians.

The use of sensory imagery by outlets like the IMEU, Al Jazeera, NPR, and the Washington Post inspired my poem, forthcoming in the Rising Phoenix Review, titled "You saw," a poem of sensory imagery and speculative nonfiction from the perspective of my grandmother fleeing Gaza in 1967. I tried to immerse myself in what she would've physically experienced to create a poem of tangibility. The stanzas are divided by the five senses, and written from a second-person point of view.

This presentation will be an analysis on the craft of sensory imagery as a form of protest and trauma mapping. War often feels so far away to those in the privilege of the global west, and this presentation would offer insight into how to take readers into the physical world of war. The presentation will take into account my use of sensory imagery as craft as an anchor to the presentation, and will also consult the poems and prose of writers like Noor Hindi, George Abraham, Hala Alyan, Fargo Tbakhi, and Naomi Shihab Nye.

Bio:

Kat Abdallah is a Palestinian-American writer, teacher, and advocate for refugees. Her writing has appeared in Rising Phoenix Review, the Los Angeles Review, Adi Magazine, and The Welter. She is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing from Oklahoma State University. Outside of writing, Kat is a storyteller onstage as an actor in community theatre and as a competitive cosplayer.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 1:30PM - 1:55PM

Abstract:

As members of academic discourse communities, graduate students across various disciplines must develop writing skills to effectively communicate their research practices. Numerous studies in recent decades have underscored the prominence of genre-based pedagogy for graduate-level research writing. Advances in technology have enabled us to incorporate genre-based pedagogy into new tools that can help develop learners’ genre knowledge for writing purposes. This study is an attempt to investigate graduate learners’ experiences with such technological tools. Data was collected from a four-week graduate course that utilized Dissemity, an AI-powered learning platform. The course took users through five modules, each presenting different tasks, ranging from discovering genre features of sample articles within their fields of study to applying acquired genre knowledge in writing different sections of a research article. Students wrote two drafts of the introduction: one at the beginning of the course and one as part of the final module. Along with the completion of tasks within each module, the students shared weekly posts on an interactive discussion board. The students were also involved in peer-review activities. Initial analysis of data revealed that participants were found to vary in their level of engagement. Higher levels of engagement seemed to contribute to genre awareness and enhanced production. The findings also highlight the importance of collaborative learning activities and the use of digital tools for learning genres.

Bio:

Lily Harrel is an NSF-funded (National Science Foundation) undergraduate researcher, working with the Dissemity research team at Oklahoma State University. Her major is Professional Writing with a minor in Linguistics.

Yaser Shamsi is a PhD student in TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Oklahoma State University. Currently, serving as a graduate research associate, he is involved in developing Dissemity, an online writing tool designed to provide feedback using AI-driven technology. His research interests involve second language acquisition, automated writing evaluation, and genre analysis.

Robert Redmon is a postdoctoral researcher at Oklahoma State University, working on the development of Dissemity, a genre-based writing instruction platform with AI-driven automated writing evaluation features. His research interests are in corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and natural language processing. He served as entrepreneurial lead in a recent grant through the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps National Program to bring Dissemity into the commercial market.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

Our presentation analyzes William Snelgrave’s A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea and the Slave-Trade (1734), particularly his use of the first-person anecdote in his attempt to justify the slave trade to his readers. Rhetorically, Snelgrave relies on building pathos through his depictions of Africa and the slave trade to play on readers’ emotions and sensibility. Ironically, he depicts the slave-trader as a hero who loves freedom and fights human rights abuses, as he tries to make readers see the sensibleness of the transatlantic slave trade. Each of the three books of the Account contributes to this theme from a different perspective. The first provides a history of Africa that emphasizes the barbarity of the African nations he encounters and trades with. In several anecdotes, he describes himself as rescuing Africans from violent deaths by purchasing them and selling them into slavery. Book II gives an inside perspective on the logistics of the slave trade and includes Snelgrave’s most direct arguments in support of the slave trade, recounting the many mutinies and rebellions he experiences as examples of a need for amelioration rather than abolition. Book three shifts directions significantly, offering an account of Snelgrave’s experiences when his ship is taken over by pirates. Although implicit, Snelgrave’s condemnation of lawless pirates provides readers with another way to be persuaded of the good character of the slave trader. Our analysis of this eighteenth-century text is timely, as current politicians have sought to limit and/or remove African American history from the curriculum and to depict slavery as in some ways beneficial to the enslaved. This slave-trader’s account contains uncomfortable resonances with today’s ideological attacks on public education.

Bio:

Katie Leigh (she/her) is a Junior at Oklahoma State University. She is pursuing dual degrees in English and History, meaning she spends much of her free time writing essays. In the future, she hopes to attend graduate school, write even more essays, and continue pursuing her goal of publishing original poetry. Additionally, she works for the OSU Writing Center as a tutor.

Jodi Tarbet is a Sophomore at Oklahoma State University studying History and Sociology with a concentration in Anthropology. She has worked closely with the History Department and Honors College in both group research and campus extracurriculars, as well as her solo research projects.

Jackson Dillingham is a senior honors student majoring in Economics with a minor in Finance and a minor in History. He is very involved in the Spears School of Business and serves as the Investments officer for the OSU Financial Management Association. Additionally, he is an active member of the Investment Banking Club.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

Shared spaces at universities designed only to serve students, such as university writing centers, should be among the first places to embrace an inclusive environment for all students. Whether students have a formalized disability or not, these spaces should be accessible for all bodies and minds.

However, there is no space that can be accessible for every person. Different students may have competing access needs, or be best served by opposing accommodations. Students can also be hesitant to speak up for the accommodations they need, especially those who lack a formal diagnosis. Remaining flexible in the way students are accommodated is paramount.

A way to make accessibility at writing centers more visible, equitable, and engaging is to develop a choose-your-own-adventure game that students would play on the university’s website prior to their first visit. The game would explore physical, mental, social, and emotional needs, presented in a low-stakes and fun way. The game would have accessibility features like a read-aloud function, and be color-blind and sensory friendly. The branching paths would lead a student to a suggested accessibility package suited to their individual needs. After a chance to tweak their preferences, the result would be sent to the writing center and be attached to their profile.

By focusing the game around a student’s individual preferences and choices, and decoupling it from language associated with disability, the game would be a non-threatening way to make sure students of ALL kinds and abilities will have their needs met in a space meant to serve them.

Bio:

Luka Brave is a Master’s student in Oklahoma State’s rhetoric and writing studies program, focusing on game studies and therapeutic applications for games. Drawing from a background in disability advocacy and social work, his study goals are to find new and better ways to integrate gaming with disability, mental health care, and therapy.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

Mahmoud Darwish was born in Birweh, Palestine in 1942, which the Israelis demolished 6 years later. He becomes a displaced exile who lives in Arab capitals such as Tunis and Cairo before residing in Paris. By 1977, Darwish’s poetic books sell over a million copies and he has not only a large Arab audience but also international listeners. His poetry focuses on various Palestinian exoduses and how to survive the aftermath of displacement, which is a major issue facing his people. Like William Butler Yeats’ mindfulness of Ireland, Darwish highlights the distinguishable national consciousness of his nation of Palestine. I will propose that the poet utilizes distinctive repertories including mystical, personal, and mythological themes not to create an abstract or ideal world, but to produce anew Palestine, which is being placed under cultural, social, political, and even geographical erasure by oppressive Zionist and imperialist occupiers. Darwish takes on multiple roles as an artist, politician, and poet by utilizing invigorating language to emphasize the Palestinian soul and spirit regarding the concept of cultural and national liberation. I will explore his use of emotional connection to his native land by utilizing space, geography, and the departure of his people which gives his readers a sense and sensation of a homeland lost. Darwish demonstrates poignantly his struggles with being a wandering exile and how a poet can embody a Palestinian nation, a borderless country, that is ideally never out of vision and reach for Palestinians.

Bio:

Nabeal Twereet is a PhD candidate in the poetry track at Oklahoma State University. He graduated from UCLA and earned his MFA from San Diego State University. Prior to earning his advanced degrees, he was a sports writer for SportsLAHub.com, where he worked with ESPN's Brian Kamenskey. Nabeal was also a legal journalist for LawCrossing.

Session 3 - Presentation

Time: 2:00PM - 2:25PM

Abstract:

While Spanish for specific purposes researchers have investigated language use in a number of domains, less is known about the Spanish of specific construction trades. This is surprising considering the high percentage of Spanish speakers in the U.S. within certain trades (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022). To fill this gap, this study developed a corpus of spoken Spanish representing the wood floor industry and compared it to a reference corpus to determine specialized vocabulary in the flooring domain. Using keyness and a semantic rating scale (Chung & Nation, 2004), a technical vocabulary list was created containing 132 words. The majority of the words on the list were common words used at much higher frequencies than expected in everyday speech. This suggests that learners do not need highly technical language to be communicative in these contexts. The remaining words were common words that had a different connotation in the domain, which suggests that learners need to understand the semantic difference between the word’s use in everyday contexts versus the target domain. Technical words were then used as search terms to determine frequently occurring multiword units (MWUs) and their variable slots (Wood & Appel, 2014), resulting in a list of 68 MWU root structures with 46 variable slots to the right of root structures and 29 variable slots to the left. It is suggested that learners be given opportunities to use these frequently occurring MWUs to notice how they commonly pattern with certain variables. Finally, it is argued that linguistic research into construction trades is important to develop curriculum for learners entering fields in the U.S. with large percentages of Spanish speakers.

Bio:

Ryan Nicklas is a PhD students in Applied Linguistics at Oklahoma State University. He is currently an English instructor at the English Language and Intercultural Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. His research interests include Spanish sociolinguistics, Spanish for specific purposes, and language teacher education.

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

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

I am sitting at my desk in the English graduate instructor office when a university-wide email appears in my inbox: “Sad news.” The Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs begins her email with “Dear TCU Students, and Members of the Faculty and Staff.” I read the first few lines and my heart begins to beat rapidly. A student died. How will I respond this time? I am reminded of the feelings of frustration and guilt I felt a year ago when I did not know to respond to student deaths in my writing classroom. This time, however, I am not in the classroom. Instead, I am the assistant director of composition (ADC), and I decide to use this to my advantage. So, motivated by anger, I draft an email to send to all the writing instructors suggesting ways they can acknowledge the student’s death in their writing classrooms because I refuse to let another student death go unacknowledged in our writing program. This presentation will tell the story of how I responded to student deaths as the ADC for the 2023-2024 academic year. I will focus on the emotional labor I experienced before, during, and after the email I sent to all writing instructors. Ultimately, this presentation recognizes the emotional labor of instructors who have been directly impacted by student deaths at their universities or were moved by student deaths and may have experienced similar emotions like I did when I did not respond in my own writing classrooms.

Bio:

Nataly Dickson is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition at Texas Christian University. Her areas of interest include composition studies, writing center studies, and writing program administration. She has recently been published in the journal Peitho, and has a podcast called The PhD-to-Be Podcast where she and her cohost offer advice and insight into all things graduate school.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

Using multimodal tools in the classroom can allow for a productive and enriching learning experience, specifically through the use of graphic literacies. Although comic books and graphic novels are typically associated with youth culture, they are valid pieces of literature that are suitable for all ages, giving readers a unique and enhanced reading experience. Specifically, graphic novels/literacies are considered multimodal texts – fusing art/images and text – which can be used in many situations and can be helpful for young people as they grow up in a world where they are surrounded by visual media, texts and images all around them. The visual nature of graphic novels not only appeals to students’ visual senses, but also encourages active participation in class by prompting them to interpret and analyze images in conjunction with the written text. Furthermore, the use of graphic novels cultivates critical thinking and analysis skills, encouraging students to make connections, infer meanings, and develop a deeper understanding of complex concepts. There are many possibilities and benefits that can come from teaching with multimodal tools in the classroom, and a good place to start is with a graphic novel.

Bio:

Alexandra Sweis is a master’s student at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) studying Composition and Rhetoric and is a Teaching Assistant –teaching two sections of English Composition and Research. Alexandra graduated in May 2023 from UCO with a Bachelors in English Education and is planning to apply to doctoral programs in the fall, hoping to continue her research in multimodal rhetorics.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World explores a dystopic future where the senses are addled, modified, and controlled. In this presentation, I will explore the way the senses are contorted through the use of drugs, propaganda, and hypnopedia. Additionally, I will examine early reviews of the novel to show how some early readings of the book saw the book as being senseless. This presentation will examine how the senses within the novel function as rhetorical critiques of control. Huxley, in his later work, “Brave New World Revisited,” argues, “We see, then, that modern technology has led to . . . the development of a society controlled . . . by Big Business and Big Government” (252-53). While early critics may not have fully recognized the dystopic vision of Huxley’s anti-utopia, it is clear that Huxley understood how the senses functioned when it came to controlling the population. By leaning on Hermann Rauschning, Huxley says, “Marching kills thought” (275). And it is through the senseless actions of the novel that the marching kills thought. It is the senselessness of drugs and constant technological input that kills the senses of the population and makes them easy to control. It is these senseless actions that many early critics view as simply senseless and not a warning of how vital the senses are to being human and in control.

Bio:

Jason A. Smith is a Ph.D. Student at Texas Christian University. His research interests include multi-ethnic literature, class literature, and speculative fiction.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:00PM - 3:25PM

Abstract:

This presentation examines sense through the lens of identity and stigma. Chronic health conditions and disability may seem like two sides of the same page, but people with chronic illness-related disabilities do not always identify with the term disability, nor with the disability justice movement, despite years of work by disability justice advocates and academics to make disability positive, coalitional movement (Siebers, 2008; Kafer, 2013). To investigate this issue, 10 young women with chronic health conditions were interviewed and asked the question, “Do you consider your health condition a disability?” Interview data was transcribed and analyzed using a Crip Linguistic (Henner & Robinson, 2023) Conversation Analytic (CA) approach to examine how young women with chronic illnesses and chronic pain do or do not identify with disability, and the various conversational resources they use to accept or reject disability terminology. In addition to implications for understanding the role that stigma plays in identifying with disability, this research also complicates the CA notion of “preference,” finding conflicting preference resources in participant responses. Along with implications for future CA research, this research also has implications for educational access disparities, as many people with chronic illnesses do not identify with disability, or even know that they have a disability, and because of this do not receive the work or school accommodations they need to succeed.

Bio:

Hann Bingham Brunner, MA (they/them) is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics and Rhetoric at Oklahoma State University with a focus in disability studies. They are Associate Director of the International Composition program, and Assistant Director for First-Year Writing. Their work focuses on disability and identity, and the ways that these intersect with chronic illness, neurodivergence, and chronic pain.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly represents the transformative power of sonic rhetoric through his broad exploration of police brutality, economic oppression, and social justice. While drawing from Jonathan Stone’s Listening to the Lomax Archive, I contend Lamar offers an afrofuturist vision for imagining Black liveable futures through a lyrical examination of the aforementioned themes, while positioning himself as a sensible witness to a racialized system that has trapped him regardless of his socio-economic ascension. The album is Lamar’s articulation of the duality of social issues; he is a beneficiary of the notoriety and economic mobility that accompanies fame but is navigating the world as a Black man whose racial identity is not malleable like his socio-economic status. In dissecting Lamar’s work, I focus my analysis on the songs “Wesley’s Theory” and “Institutionalized” to contextualize economic oppression and “Alright” as a lens for police brutality. This scholarship is an essential contribution to ongoing research at the intersection of hip-hop studies and rhetoric because Lamar’s album is a necessary vantage point for the multiplicities of the Black experience, regardless of wealth and success. Lamar crosses over from poverty to the limelight, from economic oppression to police brutality, all while still offering a positive affirmation of the generationally timeless resilience of Black Americans: We gon’ be alright.

Bio:

I am a PhD candidate studying rhetoric and composition, specifically cultural rhetorics. Prior to attending TCU, I completed my Bachelor of Arts at Baylor University and a Master of Arts at Northern Arizona University. I have written and presented on music rhetoric and the cultural intersections between artists and the sociocultural moments they inhabit. I am interested in understanding how music broadens itself beyond a singular listening experience—whether that produces a shared universal language, an efficient text for understanding histories, or a storytelling genre that can have far-reaching interdisciplinary possibilities. When I’m not writing about or listening to music, I enjoy watching the Lakers, playing guitar, and fishing the Trinity River.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 film, Spirited Away, explores the sense and sensation of the human experience in an ever-changing world - a world that is shifting culturally, environmentally, and economically. The film itself represents the era between the Meiji period and modern-day Japan, just as Western influence and capitalism started to change the country’s views on traditional beliefs. I question the meaning of three of the film’s most important scenes: What is the historical relevance of the Stink Spirit scene? What is the environmental purpose of the Kohaku River scene? Why is there a lingering silence in the famous train scene? Each of these scenes present the audience with a sensational experience, and the presentation delves into each of them, whether the sensation is physical, such as when the main character drags pollution out of a mountain of sludge, or emotional, such as when two characters sit in silence without moving the film’s plot forward. I argue that Miyazaki uses the film to idolize the Japanese way of life in a pre-war world, where both nature and simplicity were revered - a world that no longer exists. The presentation further explores the film’s criticism of Japan’s post-nuclear world, as well as the Meiji-era Japanese who Miyazaki believes did not treasure the earth enough. The film, although over two decades old, is more timely than ever, with climate change and wars impacting the senses of everyone on the planet, and the resulting presentation acknowledges how the film’s lessons are continually relevant.

Bio:

Breanna Beaty is a third-year Master’s student in Literature at Oklahoma State University. Her primary areas of interest are in atheism, the Elizabethan era, and feminism. While teaching at OSU as a Graduate Teaching Assistant, she also teaches at Northern Oklahoma College as an adjunct instructor. After graduating, she plans to begin working toward her Ph.D.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

X, formerly known as Twitter, has become a platform for the creation and projection of information and misinformation on important geo-political events. It is also a site in which actors interpret and contest such (mis)information. In this presentation, we discuss how Russian Twitter users interpreted and contested the Russian military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. We use the Zuczkowski et al. (2017) model of Knowing, Unknowing, and Believing (KUB) to analyze evidential (source of information) and epistemic (commitment to the truth of information) markers in over 400 tweets containing the target phrases “what’s happening" + "in Ukraine”. We found that tweets mostly adopted a “Knowing” position and used evidential markers of sight (i.e. see, watch, eyewitness) to indicate the source of information. However, we found interesting differences in “Knowing” and “Unknowing” epistemic stances when we thematically categorized tweets. Tweets expressing anti-war sentiment, solidarity with Ukraine, or emotional involvement with the events were more likely to adopt an “Unknowing” or “Believing” position. Our study explores the complex and fascinating relationship between perception, cognition, and linguistic communication in social media discourse and has implications for the analysis of conflict discourse and information dissemination in times of conflict.

Bio:

Fran Junnier is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the TESL/Applied Linguistics program at Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include English for Academic Purposes (EAP), language policy, and language aggression and conflict.

Galina Shleykina is an Associate Professor of English at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, USA. Her research interests include pragmatics, Critical Discourse Analysis, and academic writing.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 3:30PM - 3:55PM

Abstract:

Luca Guadagnino’s 2018 remake of Dario Argento’s horror film Suspiria (1977) approaches the subject of violence against women with a contemporary lens, often focusing on highly stylized cinematography to emphasize psychological abuse. This approach differs from Argento’s arthouse-slasher style of accentuating women in the throes of physically violent situations. While comparing the films and adaptive choices is intriguing, the primary focus of this paper is to analyze the ways in which different directorial approaches depict violence, particularly against women.

In addition to bodily violence, it is crucial to address both films’ treatment of sound and auditory sensation as oppressive elements. In Argento’s version, the score and soundtrack become perpetrators of violence as hostile, swelling beats spur discomfort and waning commotion welcomes false security. Goblin composed the score and later gained a cult following for their anxiety-inducing track titled “Witch.” In Guadagnino’s remake, the score maintains its significance but shifts its approach to be less abrasive and more likely to induce a hypnotic state, affecting the psyche rather than the physical body. This shift aligns intriguingly with the film’s portrayal of violence, which also veers more towards the psychological than the physical.

Through exploring visual and audio elements, this paper explores the development of cinematic violence against women over the past forty years, with a particular focus on changes observed in the film's contemporary iteration. By delving into the historical contexts of each film, this analysis aims to understand the evolution of onscreen portrayals of violence against women across senses.

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 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

Race has been the bedrock of American demography, and arguably “the most significant sociodemographic distinction in the United States” (Smiley & Fakunle, 2016, p. 351). Institutionally, systemic inequality toward black people is prevalent in American history and has resulted in numerous social movements, including Black Lives Matter. Moreso, the US news media have been reported to overrepresent black Americans and black men as perpetrators of crime (Sun, 2023). While extant studies have examined the representation of black people in the media, the methodological designs of these studies are often limited in terms of objectivity, and lack of systemic, evidence-based approach to understanding media discourse. Therefore, this study employed a corpus-based critical discourse analysis approach to examine the representation of identities in Black Lives Matter reportage, with a specific focus given to three ideologically categorized (left, central, right) news corpora.

The corpus for this study was scrapped from Allsides, a media rating website that provides balanced news coverage on pressing topics by rating online content from over 1400 media outlets on perceived political bias. A total of 482 articles mentioning “black lives matter” were retrieved and subjected to methods of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis. The result showed that there is a political/ideological disparity in the representation of identities in the reportage of Black Lives Matter, as various ideological spectrums maintained different perspectives and biases. This underscores the interplay between political leanings and media bias in the representation of identities.

Bio:

Victor Adedayo is a PhD student in the Applied Linguistics program at Oklahoma State University. His research takes a transformative approach to examining issues of race and identity, using corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and technology.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

The Christian church has an ideal of worship, an organized community-based practice, that exists in a physical space. This is built on ideal of oneness of the body. However, recently, virtual spaces have begun to be considered physical, even in settings like churches/worship services. The physicality of the church body has been altered, creating concepts like “joining us online” and “watching from home.” Most recently, these shifts from tradition have appeared on the app TikTok. In 2023, at Asbury University, the Asbury Outpouring Revival lasted for 16 days. During this time, the campus held ongoing physical “as the spirit leads” worship and prayer. Due to social media livestreaming and TikTok influencers covering this event, this revival went viral, sparking masses to join on their screens across the globe and even start physical revivals where they were. The consideration of how technology, specifically TikTok, has altered the traditional communal spaces opens a conversation about the cultural logics of worship and community. In this presentation, the concept of rhetorical space theorized by Mountford is applied to the “TikTok revival” (the Asbury Outpouring). An analysis of the traditional church space and how it shapes the current cultural logic around what the church as a body is implemented. Much of the focus is on determining how the terms worship and community can be redefined within the rhetorical space of TikTok. Posts on TikTok creating their own space for the revival to happen exemplify how users adopted the platform as a place of worship.

Bio:

Linnea Vogel is a first-year graduate student at the University of Oklahoma earning her Master of Arts in English Rhetoric and Writing Studies. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Education with endorsements in English Language Arts and English as a Second Language from Wayne State College and taught 9-12 ELA in Nebraska for two years. Her current areas of research interest are in religious and educational rhetorics.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

Does common sense establish harmony or spiral into a vile consensus?

My presentation seeks to answer this question through a case study of Elon Musk’s toxic-fandom and it’s influence on a social media platform that was once, although far from perfect, instrumental in fostering progressive movements like #BLM, #MeToo, and #TimesUp – an influence that reworks networks that Manuel Castells may have referred to as networks of hope to networks of pure, I would add commodified, outrage. I will establish a genetic link between Musk’s favored BlueCheck creators and the harassment campaign known as GamerGate, then apply moral licensing theory to display GamerGate’s influence on Musk’s rhetoric via a close reading of his recent interview at NYT’s DealBook summit. This case study will make it clear how much Twitter has been remade in the image of GamerGate, with Musk elevating the worst elements of social media while granting himself moral license to contradict his pledge for “free speech absolutism.” Since he took over Twitter, Musk has declared “cis” a slur and banned journalists who print facts he doesn’t want exposed -- acts that point to an obvious hypocrisy but goes unchecked by the audience he has curated on the platform. In short, Muskian social media has changed what it means to speak in public -- following GamerGate, Muskian journalism conforms to Walter Benjamin’s notions of the aestheticization of politics under fascism. X transforms politics into a monetized, aesthetic act of pleasure at the expense of one’s enemies.

Bio:

jonesy is an artist, activist, song writer, and scholar who studies digital rhetoric. He is currently working on a book about the intersection between toxic-fandoms and neo-fascist, hate groups. You can find his reviews of punk rock on PunkNews.org.

Session 4 - Presentation

Time: 4:00PM - 4:25PM

Abstract:

For this year’s conference, I would like to read from my book “No Big Deal,” coming out for Nottetempo, in Italy, on April 12th. I will read my own translation of a few pages. The novel explores the long-term effects of physical, emotional, and verbal abuse, and how pain, isolation, and grief can prevent us from being the best version of ourselves. The protagonists of the novel, Lena and Dixon, come from very different backgrounds; Lena was born in an emotionally distant middle-class family in Italy, while Dixon has a violent, alcoholic father who works a blue collar job in London. When they bump into each other, they’re both looking for a home where they can finally feel loved, desired, and accepted. But finding a loving home is difficult when love has been so intermittent for both characters; it’s hard to recognize love when the people who were supposed to provide it in the first place wound both Dixon and Lena with visible or invisible scars. In my presentation, I will read some of the sections where violence, whether physical or emotional, blurs the characters’ perception of what love should feel like.

Bio:

Rachele Salvini is the Emerging Writer Lecturer at Gettysburg College. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from OSU, and her work in English and Italian has been published on a few magazines. "No Big Deal" is her first book, and she started writing it during her first workshop at OSU, under Aimee Parkison's guidance.

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

Auditorium

Fae Rawdon Norris Foundation

for the Humanities