The Department of English at UNK will hold its annual Student Language and Literature Conference on Friday, April 22, 2022 in Thomas Hall (with a special Thursday evening session online on April 21). Presenters will share original scholarship and creative activity from the past year. English majors and minors will present along with students in the Graduate College and from area high schools.
**************************************** Conference Program ****************************************
Thursday, April 21, 2022 (via Zoom at 7:00 pm)
Session 1: Love and Loss (Fiction and Poetry)
Moderator: Grace Vinton
Faculty Sponsor: Ms. Jessica Hollander
Koree Schueler, “Funhouse”
Elijah Lynch, “Keep the Engine Running”
Darren Heil, “Duplicity Squared,” “The Grisham Call,” and “The Long Teeth of Memory”
Caitlin Armbrust, “Romantic Lie,” “When You Fall in Love with the Villain,” and “A Suicide Lament for Sylvia”
Friday, April 22, 2022 (Thomas Hall — all day)
Welcome: Dr. Megan Hartman 8:00-8:10 am, Thomas Hall Atrium
Session 2: The Real in the Surreal (Fiction) Thomas Hall 119 8:15-9:30 am
Moderators: Elijah Lynch and Kaleb Schuster
Faculty Sponsor: Ms. Jessica Hollander
Coleman Riggins, “Beanstalk”
Grace Vinton, “The Wolf”
Kenny Mitchell, “A Meditation on Mortality and Meaning: Three Miniature Fictions”
Keesha Albrecht, “Somewhere in the Present”
Session 3: Hermeneutics: Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare Thomas Hall 106 8:15-9:30 am
Moderator: Dr. Tassi
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Annarose Steinke and Dr. Marguerite Tassi
Zoe Sanders, “Holding Out for a Hero: Who is the Hero of The Iliad?”
Gracie Luebbe, “Achilles: A Raging Tempest in a World of Men”
Emily Brachle, “Distinct Differences among the Four Senses: Applying Dante Alighieri’s Four Senses of Literary Interpretation to Shakespeare’s Macbeth”
Rece Aldrich, “Justice and Revenge in Hamlet”
Session 4: At the Intersections of Multiculturalism and History Thomas 117 9:45-11:00 am
Moderator and Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Janet Graham
Jadyn Horner, “A Contrast of Guilt”
Abby Parlin, “The Dehumanization of Enslaved People in Toni Morrison’s Beloved”
Gracie Luebbe, “An Analysis of the Traits which Form the Identities of Three Women within There There
Darian Wilson, “Native Beauty from the Oppressor’s Technology: A Reading of Tommy Orange’s There There”
Session 5: The Shaping Force of Language and Social Identity in Shakespeare's Dramas Thomas 106 9:45-11:00 am
Moderator and Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Marguerite Tassi
Elijah Lynch, “When Words Fail: King Lear and Redemption through Action"
Kiley Anderson, "Social Hierarchy Meets Social Metamorphosis: Power and Identity in William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew”
Mara Andersen, "Spatializing Adolescence & Gender in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet"
Session 6: Text and Image Thomas Hall Atrium, 201 9:45-11:00 am
Moderator: Dr. Rebecca Umland
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Amanda Sladek and Dr. Rebecca Umland
Kaiya Diestler, “Rooftop Dreams”
Dakota Empfield, “’Boss, You’ve Done a Beautiful Thing”
Marcela Sousek, “Halloween Night Between John Truett and Esther Smith”
Trinity Angle, “Throne of Blood: One Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that Stands Out”
Session 7: Quest Narratives: The Hero and the Moment Thomas 106 11:15 am-12:30 pm
Moderator and Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Rebecca Umland
Joshua Wetovick, “The Story in the Stone”
Charlotte Okraska, “With or Without God: The Evolution of Religion and Divine Election in Le Morte Darthur, Henry von Ofterdingen, and The Road”
Elijah Lynch, “Through the Ash, Fire: The Elemental Grail of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road”
Session 8: Shaping the Self Thomas 107 11:15 am-12:30 pm
Moderator: Coleman Riggins
Faculty Sponsors: Ms. Jessica Hollander and Dr. Brad Modlin
Madison Koebernick, “My February Journal”
Braska Patterson, “Running Log”
Jaden Dzingle, “Cell Phones”
Ashley Husemoller, “A Mosaic of Men”
Session 9: Love and Sentiment in the Cinema Thomas 212 12:45-2:00 pm
Moderator and Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Rebecca Umland
Mara Andersen on Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937) “Beyond the Horizon”
Shea Fuhrman on Adam Shankman’s A Walk to Remember (2002) “Narrative Film, Classical Literature, and Redemption and Satisfaction: Affectivity in A Walk to Remember”
Erica Wood on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread (2017) “Affectivity in Phantom Thread”
Session 10: Spanning Society (Poetry and Fiction) Thomas 113 12:45-2:00 pm
Moderators: Caitlin Armbrust and Jaden Dzingle
Faculty Sponsor: Ms. Jessica Hollander
Jennifer Spencer, “Mystery of Cyril Manor”
Trinity Angle, “Loose Threads”
Carolyn Bundi, “Sweet, Docile, Meek, Humble, and Kind”
Kaleb Schuster, “Technobabble”
Session 11: Nebraska Emerging Writers Contest 2022 Reading Thomas 113 2:15-3:30 pm
Moderators: Dr. Maria O’Malley, Dr. Annarose Steinke, Cassidy Johnson, Marcela Sousek, and Caroline Stanley
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Maria O’Malley and Dr. Annarose Steinke
This session is sponsored and organized by a joint initiative among the American Democracy Project, Phi Eta Sigma, Sigma Tau Delta, and the Writing Center. The contest called for submissions of essays, poems, and short stories from high school students across the state. The theme of this year’s contest was “Democracy.” The winners were chosen by committees composed of UNK undergraduate students.
1. Poetry First Place: “Division,” Parker Albers, Cedar Catholic High School
2. Poetry Second Place: “A Modern Renaissance of American Democracy,” Megan Lambert, Boys Town High School
3. Poetry Third Place: “Democracy is the Power to the People,” Leo Ha, Grand Island Central Catholic High School
4. Short Story First Place: “The Boy,” Aarya Bhatt, Grand Island Northwest High School
5. Essay First Place: “Democracy through the Eyes of a Fourteen-Year-Old,” Amelia Kafka, Marian High School
Session 12: Other Voices Thomas 214 2:15-3:30 pm
Moderator: Dr. Amanda Sladek
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Amanda Sladek, Dr. Annarose Steinke, and Dr. Denys Van Renen
Kiley Anderson, “Authoring Oneself: An Analysis of Authorial Identity in Academic Writing”
Katerina Jakub, “O’Connor and Bishop: Seeing and Believing”
Alexandria Remm, “Ireland and Schneider’s Dynamic Model”
Yanira Rodriguez, “Childhood Trauma in ‘Recitatif’ and ‘The Thing in the Forest’”
Session 13: Modernism and a World in Crisis Thomas 107 3:45-5:00 pm
Moderator and Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Annarose Steinke
Caitlin Armbrust, “Mrs. Dalloway and the Women Who Enable the Patriarchy”
Sarah Farritor, “Mrs. Dalloway and The Waste Land: What Happiness Concludes from and What Security Lacks In”
Elijah Lynch, “The Song: What Jazz Meant to Langston Hughes and Mina Loy”
Charlotte Okraska, "‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’: Modernism and the Independent Woman”
Session 14: Representations of American Identity Thomas 106 3:45-5:00 pm
Moderator: Dr. Janet Graham
Faculty Sponsors: Dr. Janet Graham and Dr. Annarose Steinke
Andrew Gould, “Alienation and Forgiveness: Reconciliation in Katherine Anne Porter’s ‘Pale Horse, Pale Rider’”
Christy Thompson, “A Cultural Materialist Suitcase Made of Bone”
Josh Peschang, “Trauma, Identity, and Immigrant Culture in Bone and Middlesex”
Amy Woodcock, “Write Who You Know”
Closing Ceremony: Thomas Hall Atrium
Awards Ceremony: 5:00 p.m.
Carillon Release: Immediately Following
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the Conference Organizing Committee: Rebecca Umland, Annarose Steinke, and Janet Graham; Seth Long (t-shirt design); Megan Hartman (Chair of English) and the English Department Faculty; Saralisa Helleberg (Office Associate), and Jessica Hollander and the students of the Creative Writing Professionalism course for organizing and moderating the creative sessions.
A Note on the T-shirt Design: This year’s unique design commemorates the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri’s death (2021) and the centenary publication of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922). The inscription beneath the profiles of Dante and Eliot, il miglior fabbro, translates to “the better craftsman.” Dante first used this phrase as tribute to the 12th century troubadour poet Arnaut Daniel in Canto 26 of the Purgatorio; Eliot later included it in his dedication of The Waste Land to Ezra Pound (who edited the poem). We thought this phrase fitting for a day devoted to celebrating the craftsmanship and collaboration of our department’s talented creative and critical writers.
