Conference Presentations

Panels Organized:

Co-Organizer and Presider of special topics panel “Health, Medicine and Literature: Critical Intersections” with Rachel Warner at “Working Conditions,” the Annual Convention of the Modern Language Associate (MLA), San Francisco, CA. Jan. 2023. (Panel originally scheduled as part of “Multilingual US,” the Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA), in Washington, D.C. Jan. 2022. Panel postponed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.)

Co-Organizer and Co-Chair of special topics panel “Scandalous Profession(al)s: Sovereignty, Authority, and Secrecy” with Prof. Desire Ameigh at “Scandal! Literature and Provocation: Breaking Rules, Making Texts,” the 92^nd annual conference of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), in Jacksonville, FL. (Transitioned to a virtual conference due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.) Nov. 2020. Watch the panel here.

Papers Presented:

“‘Countdown to zero’: Systemic Racial Oppression and Black Social Death in Wideman’s ‘Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies.'” Paper presented at “Awakenings and Reckonings: Multiethnic Literature and Effecting Change—Past, Present, and Future,” a panel at the 36^th annual conference of The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), in New Orleans, LA. March 2022. (Paper originally scheduled to present at the 34^th annual MELUS conference in New Orleans, LA in April 2020, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.)

“‘Countdown to zero’: Systemic Racial Oppression and Black Social Death in Wideman’s ‘Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies.'” Paper presented at “Can Scandal Promote Societal Change? Perspectives in Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture,” a special topics panel at “Scandal! Literature and Provocation: Breaking Rules, Making Texts,” the 92^nd annual conference of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), in Jacksonville, FL. (Transitioned to a virtual conference due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.) Nov. 2020. Watch the presentation here.

“Echoes of World War I Trauma in Winner Take Nothing.” Paper presented at the Ernest Hemingway Society Session, “Ambulance Driver: Hemingway and the First World War,” at the 29^th annual conference of the American Literature Association (ALA), in San Francisco, CA. May 2018.

“A Revelation on the River: The Reconciliation of Spirituality and Postmodernism in Hesse’s Siddhartha.” Paper presented at “Utopia, Dystopia, and the Search for Self,” a special topics panel at “Utopia/Dystopia: Whose Paradise Is It?”, the 88^th annual conference of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), in Jacksonville, FL. Nov. 2016.

“‘I’m running this shop’: Reversed Gender Roles and Prostitution in Fitzgerald’s ‘Head and Shoulders.'” Paper presented at “The American Short Story: An Expansion of the Genre,” an American Literature Association (ALA) symposium, sponsored by the Society for the Study of the American Short Story (SSASS), in Savannah, GA. Oct. 2016.

“‘Study it and git your fill’: Gluttonous and Destructive Voyeurism in O’Connor’s ‘The Lame Shall Enter First.'” Paper presented at the Flannery O’Connor Society Session at “In Concert: Literature and the Other Arts,” the 87^th annual conference of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), in Durham, NC. Nov. 2015.

“Feminized Simulations: The Writing Center as Remedial Clinic and Enforcer of the Status Quo.”  Paper presented at “Writing Center Ecologies: Developing and Sustaining our Resources,” the East Central Writing Centers Association (ECWCA) Conference, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. April 2009.

“Feminized Simulations: The Writing Center as Remedial Clinic and Enforcer of the Status Quo.” Paper presented at “Chicagoland Writing Tutors in Collaboration: The Center and Beyond,” the Chicagoland Writing Center Conference, at North Park University, Chicago, IL. Feb. 2009.

“‘The cursed temptation of writing’: Postmodern Aspects of Vargas Llosa’s The Storyteller.” Paper presented at Humanities Presentations, Honors Day, at Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL. May 2008.

“‘But a dining-time ‘twixt us and our confusion’: The Preoccupation with Time in Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.” Paper presented at the 6^th annual British Studies Student Symposium, at Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL. Feb. 2008.

“A Look Behind Bars: A Case-Study of Baldwin State Prison.” Paper presented at “Curiosity: The Spirit of Honors Inquiry,” the 35^th annual conference of the Southern Regional Honors Council, in Charlotte, NC. March 2007.