Student Language and Literature Conference 2021
The Department of English at UNK held its annual Student Language and Literature Conference on Friday, April 16, 2021. Presenters shared original research and creative activity from the past year. English majors and minors presented along with students in the Graduate College, Modern Languages, and from area high schools.
Thank you to the Curriculum and Teacher Education Committee, Drs. Rebecca Umland (Chair), Marguerite Tassi, and Janet Graham, for their work planning and organizing the conference. Thanks as well to Dr. Megan Hartman, Cherie DeFreece, Eric Tenkorang, and Marcia Welch for their help in making the day a success.
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Panel Title: Perspectives in Rhetoric, Composition, and Language Study
1. Anthony Anderson, “The English and Singlish of Singapore”
2. Tessa Adams, “A Creative Exploration of Rhetorical Strategies Through Poetry”
3. McKenna Grove, “Teaching for Transfer in the First-Year Composition Classroom”
Panel Title: Representations of Humanity in Contemporary Political Poetry and Documentary
1. Kenny Mitchell, “Poetry as Activism in ‘The Colonel’ by Carolyn Forché and ‘Refugees’ by Brian Bilston”
2. Haley Burford, “Powerful Effects of Political Poetry: Burleson’s ‘Democracy’ and ‘Waking Again’ and Umuhoza’s ‘The Sparkle of the Sun’”
3. Laura Rozema, “Little, But Fierce”
Panel Title: Haunted Houses, Haunted Bodies: Creative Writing
1. Koree Schueler, “Inspection Checklist” (fiction)
2. Elayna Westman, “In Those Days, We Were Never Safe” (poetry)
3. Katerina Jakub, “Cracks” (fiction)
4. Valerie Owens, "The Bible Tells Me So" (poetry)
Panel Title: The Quest Motif in the American Landscape
1. Tyler Jacobs, “The Ethos of American Idealism and the Quest for the Grail”
2. Kayla Wentz, “‘How Do I Know You’re One of the Good Guys?’: America’s Weakened Sense of Community in White Noise and The Road”
3. Dakota Empfield, “The Quest for Purpose: Language as a Social Tool in The Road and Dandelion Wine”
4. Coleman Riggins, “A Common Convoluted Connection: S. Craig Zahler’s Wraiths of the Broken Land (2013) and Bone Tomahawk (2015)”
Panel Title: Silent Cycles: Creative Writing
1. McKenna Grove, “Marcelle” (fiction)
2. Paul Callahan, “Bench Press Devotional” (poetry)
3. Sandi Gall, “Diamonds, Devils, and Dirt” (fiction)
4. Kortney Sebben, “Workshop” (poems)
Panel Title: Intertextual Connections: Literature and Other Arts
1. Kayla Wentz, “Counselors, Healers, Wanderers: The Hermits of Arthurian Legend”
2. Joshua Wetovick, “Making Music in Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Arthurian Epic, Idylls of the King”
3. Elijah Lynch, “The New Muse: Dante, Werther, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
Panel Title: Ideological Oppositions in the Spanish Language and Literature of the Americas
1. Luis Cordova, “Connections with reality: corruption, power and fabricated justice in Hotel De arraigo”
2. Samary Jarquin Palacios, “El cimarrón desde dos perspectivas: criminal e inocente”
3. Ivan Lopez, “Spanglish: Misconceptions, Reality, and the Need to Promote Language Diversity in the United States”
4. Jake Weston, “Conflictos ideológicos en la Cuba castrista”
Panel Title: The Powers of Poetry
1. Brooke Benck, “The Power of Voice in William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 and Sara Teasdale’s ‘Night Song at Amalfi’”
2. Sylvia Dierking, “Art as an Individual and Group Experience: A Reading of Plath’s ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’ and Teasdale’s ‘Night Song at Amalfi’”
3. Zach Markussen, “How Structure and Theme Work Together: A Reading of W. H. Auden’s ‘Funeral Blues’ and Emily Dickinson’s ‘The Bustle in a House’”
Panel Title: Hide and Seek: Escaping Selves: Creative Writing
1. Rachel Hollenbeck, “As We Hide” (fiction)
2. Tyler Jacobs "Having a Fine Time"(poetry)
3. Darren Heil, “The Art of the Steal” (fiction)
Panel Title: Story, Character, and Artistic Expression
1. Rachel Hollenbeck, “Much Ado About Nothing: The Character and Personality of Hero”
2. Tatiana Moore, “Two-Faced Characters: A Photographic Display of Three of Shakespeare’s Characters”
3. Elijah Lynch, “Sweet Sounds and ‘Silver Water’”
Panel Title: Fashioning Language, Self, and Psyche in Modern and Contemporary British Literature
1. Sandi Gall, "Avenging the Voiceless: Exploring Mental Illness in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway"
2. Kimberlee Haberkorn, "Nonsense and Critique in the Writing of Lewis Carroll and Heather Phillipson"
3. Shannon Kauffman, "The Clothes Make the Man: Fabric's Show of Classism and Sexism in E. M. Forster's Howards End"
Panel Title: Phi Eta Sigma Nebraska Emerging Writer Contest: Nebraska in the Year 2020
1. Poetry First Place: Briannah Stromer, Hastings Public School, “Farmers in a Pandemic”
2. Poetry Second Place: Brooke Slangal, Axtell Community School, “We Will All Get Through This Together”
3. Poetry Second Place: Ashley Nierman, Harvard High School, “Whatever You Make It”
4. Short Story First Place: Cydnee Coutts, Creighton Community High School, “Mother Nature’s Nebraska”
5. Short Story Second Place: Alicia Vodehnal, Clarkson Public Schools, “Troy’s Journey”
6. Essay First Place: Hanna Wood, Elwood High School, “2020 in a Nutshell”