The First Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities Conference (IAHC)

April 26-27, 2024

Theme: Connecting Communities

Organized by The David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities

Schedule of Events

Day 1: Friday, April 26

Keynote Session

• 5-7 PM, The Hecht Meeting Room, Neill Public Library
• There will be snacks, non-alcoholic beverages, and tea
• Note of Welcome: Dr. Chris Dickey, Associate Director, David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities
• Panel Chair: Dr. Arvin Sahaym, Associate Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives

Keynote Speakers

• Dr. Alan Malfavon
  Assistant Professor in History, Washington State University
  Title:  Men of the Leeward Port: Veracruz’s Afro-descendants in the Making of Mexico
• Dr. Jacqueline Wilson
  Assistant Professor of Music, Bassoon and Theory, School of Music
  Title: “You look like me!”: The Pursuit of Relationally Engaged Artistry

Panel Discussants

• Dr. Bibhushana Poudyal
  Assistant Professor in English, Washington State University
• Daniel Owens
  Library Director, Neill Public Library
• Alexander Perkins
  PhD Student in Individual Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program

Abstracts & Bios

Keynote Speaker 1: Dr. Alan Malfavon

Bio: https://history.wsu.edu/alan-malfavon/
Title: Men of the Leeward Port: Veracruz’s Afro-descendants in the Making of Mexico
Abstract: Dr. Malfavon’s current book project Men of the Leeward Port: Veracruz’s Afro-descendants in the Making of Mexico, under contract with the University of Alabama Press, focuses on the understudied Afro-Mexican population of Veracruz and its hinterland of Sotavento (Leeward) and uses it to reframe the historical and historiographical transition between the colonial and national period. It argues how Afro-Mexicans facilitated, complicated, and participated in multiple socio-political processes that reshaped Veracruz and its borderland. His research resituates Mexico’s socio-political, cultural, and economic networks with the Atlantic World and the Greater Caribbean, and it dissects and problematizes those networks by centering the Black and Afro-Mexican experience. Dr. Malfavon centers Afro-Mexicans in his research to do more than recover lives and stories to this day excluded from the Mexican national narrative as he seeks to reframe the larger history of liberal politics in nineteenth-century Mexico by inserting Afro-Mexicans.

Keynote Speaker 2: Dr. Jacqueline Wilson

Bio: https://music.wsu.edu/faculty-and-staff/jacqueline-wilson/
Title: “You look like me!”: The Pursuit of Relationally Engaged Artistry
Abstract: Dr. Jacqueline Wilson is a Yakama creator, musician, and advocate whose creative activity centers Indigenous voices with a focus on relationship-building through meaningful, reciprocal artistic collaborations. In this talk, Wilson will discuss how Indigenous concepts of relationality inform and inspire her approach to community engagement, pedagogy, and performance with an overview of her recent musical endeavors.

Day 2: Saturday, April 27

Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall

• 8:15-9:15 AM: Registration and Breakfast
• 9:20-10:50 AM: Welcome Address & Sessions 1 & 2
• 11:00 AM-12:25 PM: Sessions 3 & 4
• 12:25-1:25 PM: Lunch Break
• 1:30-2:55 PM: Sessions 5 & 6

Session 1: Kimbrough 101, Kimbrough Music Building

• Welcome address: Dr. Chris Dickey
• Session Chair: Sara Brock
• Presenter 1: Ashley Wells: “The Black Church: An Examination of Christianity and the Church’s Impact on Mental Health Treatments in the Black Community”
• Presenter 2: Rachael Wolney: “Palouse Reads: Reading Young Adult Literature for Social Action and Community Engagement”
• Presenter 3: Daniel Olortegui: “Primero el hombre: A Deep Dive Into the Path of the Amauta Manuel Z. Camacho”

Panel discussants

• Dr. Francene Watson
  Associate Teaching Professor, Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education
• Bailey Kopp
  MA Student, School of Music

Time Breakdown

• Welcome address: 5 minutes
• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

Session 2: Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall

• Welcome address: Dr. Ashley Boyd
• Session Chair: Sezin Zorlu
• Presenter 1: Anna Somerville: “How to Not Play the Flute: A Beginner’s Guide to Silent Practice”
• Presenter 2: Christian P Maynard: “US Cannabis Legalization 2015–2021: Implications for Cannabis Use and Perceived Risks Among Adolescents”
• Presenter 3: Amanda Hussein: “Monuments and Memory” (Poster Presentation)

Panel discussants

• Colin Mannex
  Executive Director, Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre
• Elizabeth Forsythe
  PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition

Time Breakdown

• Welcome address: 5 minutes
• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)*
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

*Please note that the poster presenter will present their poster in 5 minutes and the audience and the panel discussants will have 10 minutes to explore the poster and talk to the poster presenter.

Session 3: Kimbrough 101, Kimbrough Music Building

• Session Chair: Genoveva Vega
• Presenter 1: Emmiyan Ferro Díaz: “Toxic Masculinity in American Society: The Alpha Male or the Macho Man?”
• Presenter 2: Wyatt Salus (main presenter), Brandt Fisher, Nathaniel Ballard, and Brayden Schultz: “Sweet (Vicious) Little Bear: An Experiment in Jazz-Punk Fusion”
• Presenter 3: Anna Bushy: “Planetary Caring Politics in the Chthulucene”

Panel discussants

• Dr. Chris Dickey
  Associate Director, David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities
• Drew Gamboa
  PhD Student, Department of History, Washington State University

Time Breakdown

• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

Session 4: Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall

• Session Chair: Myra Henderson
• Presenter 1: Abby Jackam: “Plautilla Nelli: One of Renaissance Italy’s Most Significant yet Unknown Female Artists”
• Presenter 2: Daman Khalid: “Connecting Communities: Pakistani Literature and Music Across Local Boundaries”
• Presenter 3: Mark De Gruchy: “A spectacle of strength: The Decentering of Heteronormative masculinity within Pro Wrestling”

Panel discussants

• Dr. Erica England
  First Year Experience Librarian, Washington State University
• Kassandra Castillo
  PhD Student, American and Culture Studies

Time Breakdown

• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

Session 5: Kimbrough 101, Kimbrough Music Building

• Session Chair: Daman Khalid
• Presenter 1: Zoe Yamanda Stave: “Indigenous Agency in pre-Roman and Roman Spain: Cultural Hybridism in Funerary and Burial Practices in Roman Carmona (0-400 CE)”
• Presenter 2: Eleanor Colgan: “”I am a God”: Second Wave Feminism and Horror in ‘Carrie’ and ‘Jennifer’s Body’”
• Presenter 3: Megan Lolley: “Nature’s Trans-Corporeality via Bi-Gendered Identities as a Critique of Anthropocentric Environmental Control in Frankenstein”

Panel discussants

• Dr. Trevor James Bond
  Director, David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities
• Gavin Doyle
  PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Composition

Time Breakdown

• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

Session 6: Bundy Reading Room, Avery Hall

• Session Chair: Rachael Wolney
• Presenter 1: Xan Perkins: “The New Orleans Brass Band Tradition: A Historic Counternarrative”
• Presenter 2: Jessie Padilla: “Redefining First-Year College Composition: Embracing Multimodal Text-Creation as a Human Endeavor”
• Presenter 3: Akira Park: “Elevating Filipino American Narratives in Classroom Curricula through Randy Ribay’s “Patron Saints of Nothing””

Panel discussants

• Kate M. Watts
  Director of Composition, Department of English, Washington State University
• Golrokh Maleki
  PhD Candidate, Language, Literacy, and Technology Education

Time Breakdown

• Introductions (Chair): 5 minutes
• Each Presentation: 15 minutes (45 minutes total)
• Each Panel Discussant Response: 8-10 minutes (20 minutes total)
• Q/A: 15 minutes

Presenters’ Bios and Abstracts (In the order of sessions and presentations)

Abstracts & Bios

Session 1

Ashley Wells (she/her)

Ashley Wells is a Ph.D. Student in American Studies at WSU. Her research revolves around evaluating mental health disparities for Black American women through the intersection of the Black Church. Outside of her research, she spends her time as the Founder & President of WSU’s Graduate Women of Color Alliance.

 “The Black Church: An Examination of Christianity and the Church’s Impact on Mental Health Treatments in the Black Community”

There is an innate connection between Afro-Christianity and the formation of Black life and Black “standards of living”. The intention for this research paper is to investigate the effect of the Black church serving as a sense of community in a white centered world while simultaneously making it challenging for those who are Black in the United States to seek out necessary mental health treatment. Considering research that looks into slavery, segregation, and community building, I examine the relationship between Afro-Christianity, Black identity formation, and the mental health of Black individuals in the United States through the incorporation of historical and theoretical methods. The Church has a very specific role in the lives and the cultural consciousness of Black people in the United States. Focusing primarily on African American Protestant denominations, Christian congregations have had a large impact on how conversations surrounding mental health take place in the Black community. Examining both the positives and negatives of the population’s propensity to depend on the Church for mental health care can allow one to better examine the differences between the Black Church’s relationship with its congregation versus the Black community’s relationship with mental health professionals. Overall, my objective is to link historical data and theory to our present day understanding of Black life and Black community to decipher the plausible changes that healthcare professionals can implement to alleviate the higher rates of mental illness in this demographic.

Rachael Wolney (Wall-nee) (she/her)

Rachael R. Wolney is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English at Washington State University. Her research interests include Disability Studies, Young Adult Literature, and Education. She teaches using disability studies pedagogy in a range of literature and writing courses, but specifically enjoys working with pre-service teachers and practicing teachers in learning about disability.

“Palouse Reads: Reading Young Adult Literature for Social Action and Community Engagement”

In this presentation, doctoral candidate and research Co-PI, Rachael Wolney will share about her involvement in a recent project, Palouse Reads, in which a research team engaged with the local community in reading Young Adult Literature. A range of young adult literature was introduced to participants regarding social topics such as mental health and food insecurity, and representatives from outreach organizations in the community were invited to share their connections to the books’ foci. This presentation will give brief overviews of text selections and will discuss themes that emerged across the dialogues.

Daniel Olortegui (he/him)

Daniel Olortegui is an M.A. student and instructor in the Department of History at the University of Idaho. His research critically examines the historical intersections of identity, language, and race among indigenous communities in Latin America. Daniel specializes in the history of indigenous education in South America and the application of Bilingual Intercultural Education.

“Primero el hombre: A Deep Dive Into the Path of the Amauta Manuel Z. Camacho”

In the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2002-2032), it is crucial to remember and learn the history of Indigenous peoples. Linda T. Smith was right when she said, “History is about power. In fact, history is mostly about power.” (Smith, Decolonizing and Methodologies, 2012, 37). Colonial institutions must recognize that indigenous peoples need to be able to tell and make their stories known. I will discuss the story of the indigenous educator Manuel Zuñiga Camacho, who created the first rural school in Latin America, Utawilaya. From the beginning of the Republican history of Peru (1821), the authorities’ objective was that the indigenous peoples remain ignorant and incapable of reading or writing the Spanish language. Despite all sorts of impediments, indigenous folk from the Altiplano sought access to education. The Peruvian state forbade such a quest. The reason was that the elite (hacendados or landowners, politicians, church, merchants) did not want educated Indians. They feared education would inspire political mobilization (through voting and increased consciousness). Manuel Z. Camacho understood that if indigenous people learned to read and write Spanish, they would revitalize the Aymara and Quechua communities and cultures that had been marginalized since the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century. After traveling in and outside Peru (particularly Chile and the United States), Camacho created the Utawilaya school in 1902 Puno, Peru. The school embraced a revolutionary methodology. It offered courses in Aymara and encouraged an emancipatory worldview among students and teachers, a model later emulated by other educators.

Session 2

Anna Somerville (Anne-uh Sum-er-ville) (she/her)

Anna Somerville is a second-year M.A. in Music: Flute Performance student at WSU. Her research focuses on quiet practice techniques that elementary flutists can use regardless of their home environments. 

“How to Not Play the Flute: A Beginner’s Guide to Silent Practice”

This project will establish a near-silent practice guide for beginner flutists. Whether they are living in an apartment with noise restraints, sharing a room with a sibling, or even if their parents do not tolerate the “noise,” many young music students do not have a practice space. This stunts crucial fundamental musical progress. By providing exercises designed for quiet practice, this guide will bring equity to new music students who may not have access to a quiet space. If brass (trumpet, trombone, tuba,) players want to play quietly, they can purchase a mute that will lower their sound. Mutes do not work with flutes, and there has yet to be an option for quiet practice. Age-appropriate and engaging techniques made using standard materials and method books were synthesized into a practice guide for students from fifth to eighth grade. Although some aspects are specific to the flute, the techniques outlined in the guide will be applicable to a variety of beginner musicians. This will ideally create more equity in music over time.

Christian Maynard (May-Nurd) (he/him)

Christian Maynard, a 4th-year sociology doctoral student, investigates the effects of cannabis legalization on adolescent substance use behaviors, examining consumption techniques like edibles, smoking, and vaping. His research examines variations in perceived risk and availability across legal contexts, contributing to critical literature for emergent drug policy. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University, and his associate’s degree from Danville Area Community College.

“US Cannabis Legalization 2015–2021: Implications for Cannabis Use and Perceived Risks Among Adolescents”

As of late 2023 in the United States, roughly half of the population residing in a state that allowed cannabis consumption. In December 2023, 24 states permitted adult-use, 14 allowed only medical use, and 12 maintained cannabis prohibition. While a growing number of researchers have indicated that, in the United States, legalizing cannabis is associated with a decline in use among adolescents; however, only a few studies have examined whether these trends extend to different techniques, including edibles and vaping. In this paper, I examined the association between variations in cannabis policy across U.S. states and changes among adolescents in using cannabis via different techniques: edibles, vaping. Using 2015-2021 nationally representative data on 12th grade students who were surveyed by Monitoring the Future, I considered factors including legal status (prohibited, medical-only, adult-use or recreational), perceived risk of cannabis use (none, slight, moderate, or great), and demographic controls (race, sex). I found that compared to adolescents in prohibited states, those in a legal context were more likely to report using cannabis through edibles or vaping. Moreover, adolescents in a prohibited state were more polarized in their perception of risk for smoking cannabis (no risk or great risk), while their counterparts in legal contexts reported more moderate perceptions (slight or moderate risk). This research sheds light on the nuanced relationship between cannabis policy and adolescent use, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive understanding of how legalization impacts various consumption methods and risk perceptions.

Amanda Hussein (who-sayn) (she/her/hers)

Amanda is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race in the field of American Studies. She is finalizing her dissertation regarding how gender and race, literature and film, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. are connected via colonized consciousness. Amanda is very happy to be here.

“Monuments and Memory” (Poster Presentation)

Across societies and cultures, memorials and monuments are rich historical and political evidence of how societies favor specific ethnic groups. The purpose of this poster presentation is to analyze two examples of monuments that examine race and gender using the methodological theories of history and memory by Patrick Hutton and Maurice Halbwachs. Patrick Hutton, in his work History as an art of memory, states: “Historical memory… is a function of the power to determine the way in which the past is to be presented” (xxiv). Hutton also states that history is best appreciated as an art of memory (xxiv). He describes how the lines between history and memory become blurred. For this reason, other voices, those not always described in history books, are worthy of memory and must be included in the “official narrative”. Maurice Halbwachs describes the importance and connectivity of collective memory to that of collective frameworks of memory. The importance of collective frameworks demonstrates the power of society in determining which memories become immortalized. The choice of what is remembered, who is remembered, how that person is remembered portrays an image of value within society. This poster presentation is an analysis of two monuments of Black women in the US on historical heroines which provide an important and crucial discussion of the collective US formation of race, gender, and national perspective. This discussion participates in the narratives of inclusion, equity, and diversity.

Session 3

Emmiyan Ferro Díaz (He, him, his)

Emmiyan Ferro is a doctoral candidate for the School of Languages, Cultures, and Race at WSU. His research focuses on Latinx gender performances in distinct spaces like barbershops. Concentrating on the barbershop as a masculine microcosm, Emmiyan focuses on intersections of transnationalism, gender, race, and culture, engaging in critical studies of masculinity in the U.S.

“Toxic Masculinity in American Society: The Alpha Male or the Macho Man?”

In Western cultures, when thinking about macho men or alpha males, the familiar image of a manly, muscular, confident, and masculine character quickly comes to mind. These men symbolize an overly exaggerated sense of masculinity. They are tough, exceedingly independent, and eager to show off their strut, conceivably with elegant necklaces and an opened-dressed shirt. The alpha male and the macho perceive violence as manly, danger as thrilling, toughness as discipline, and excessive virility as natural. However, despite the superficial male “power” these gendered performances sustain in patriarchal societies like the United States, several studies and articles demonstrate that these distinctive manly practices are fundamentally toxic, not just because they are noticeably harmful and excessively risky but also because they bring destructive and devastating consequences for all people involved.

Wyatt Salus (Why-At Say-less) (he/him)

Wyatt Salus is jazz guitarist pursuing an M.A. at WSU, where he also works with the jazz lab band as a TA. His research focuses on developing a compositional approach that incorporates musical elements from punk into a jazz-fusion setting.

“Sweet (Vicious) Little Bear: An Experiment in Jazz-Punk Fusion”

Jazz has always been an evolving art form, taking influence from a wide variety of sources such as Broadway productions, film soundtracks, world music, and even the rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. To continue this tradition of looking toward outside sources to bring new sounds to jazz, I have studied a wide range of punk music to better understand its musical features and authentically apply them in a jazz context. “Sweet (Vicious) Little Bear” is the result of this effort, and incorporates harmonic, melodic, and timbral concepts from punk music into the form and performance style common to jazz. While the instrumentation is more reflective of a jazz combo, consisting of alto saxophone, guitar, bass, and drums, the use of amp distortion and other timbral alterations immediately tells listeners that this is something different. The inclusion of a repeating improvised solo section again shows that this piece is ultimately based in a jazz performance context, but the harmonic and melodic language used to play over this solo section departs from jazz norms and would be more akin to the musical vocabulary that performers may use in jazz-fusion, where pentatonic scales, blues scales, and other important concepts to rock music take greater importance than outlining each chord change, as is more typical of straight-ahead jazz.

Anna Bushy (She/hers)

Anna Bushy will be graduating from Washington State University with a MA in English and a graduate certificate in digital humanities in May 2024. Her research is situated within fields of material feminisms and ecofeminisms, and she has taught WGSS 101 and English 101. She also enjoys spending time with her cat, Morris.

“Planetary Caring Politics in the Chthulucene”

In a context of rapidly increasing connections around the globe, Ursula Heise claims that “what is crucial for ecological awareness and environmental ethics is arguably not so a much a sense of place but a sense of planet,” or “a sense of how political, economic, technological, social, cultural, and ecological networks shape daily routines” (55). In this presentation, which has been adapted from my master’s thesis, I develop the concept of a planetary caring politics, a material-discursive practice that considers how systems and structures such as heteropatriarchy, the nuclear family, racial capitalism, colonialism, and technology intersect and consequently shape the situated knowledges that inform how we conceptualize and practice care, and for whom we conceptualize and practice care. I offer interdisciplinary readings of selected literary texts to analyze their engagement with planetary caring politics, as well as how these texts function on a narratological plane to encourage the reader’s engagement with planetary caring politics in their own life.

Session 4

Abby Jackam (Jack-um) (She/hers)

Abby Jackam is a third year student at WSU Vancouver who is pursuing a Humanities degree with concentrations in English and Art History. In addition to her two minors in Creative Writing and History and her interest in anthropology, her research is focused on the roles of women in history and art.

“Plautilla Nelli: One of Renaissance Italy’s Most Significant yet Unknown Female Artists”

The Renaissance in Italy and Europe is largely known for the prominent white male artists who produced the myriad of paintings, sculptures, and frescos that are best known from this period. Artists such as Michelangelo, Donatello, Raphael, Titian and more come to mind as significant creators from the Renaissance, but rarely are women included on this list. With few exceptions, such as Artemisia Gentileschi, women artists have been largely forgotten when compared to their highly praised male counterparts. Plautilla Nelli was one of the few women to defy the limitations set upon her and succeed as a female artist. As the art world was nearly impossible for women to enter, it is significant when a woman such as Nelli is able to have such a long and successful career. Through her position as a nun in a Dominican convent, Nelli was able to supersede many of the barriers placed upon female artists of this time. The teachings of Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola, which promoted the nuns under his management to take up art as a religious act of devotion helped to hone her skills and helped promote her as an artist. Through the efforts made by Advancing Women Artists to restore her work and shine light on this forgotten artist, Plautilla Nelli has become one of the most renowned female artist of the Renaissance period.

Daman Khalid (Da-mun) (She/her)

Daman Khalid is a first-year M.A. student in the Dept of English at WSU. Her research interests include World Literature, Cultural Studies, and Comparative Literature. She is truly passionate about working at the intersection of culture and literature.

“Connecting Communities: Pakistani Literature and Music Across Local Boundaries”

This paper portrays the theme of connecting connections through Pakistani literature and music because of the influential impact of Pakistani writers and artists all across the globe in recent times. Pakistani authors like Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid, and Ayyad Akhtar are a few of the critically acclaimed and international prize-winning authors. However, the realm of Pakistani literature is not confined to Pakistani anglophone literature only. The PEN/HEIM 2023 Translation Grant Award was won by Noor Habib and her co-translator, Zara Khadeeja Majoka, for their English translation of Urdu “Oblivion and Eternity Within Me” by Miraji. Their achievement does not only signify the prowess of Pakistani literature but also demonstrates its ability to bridge cultural gaps through the art of translation, further amplifying the voice of Pakistani authors on the global platform. Following the same lead, Pakistani music, epitomized by platforms like Coke Studio, has undergone a remarkable cultural shift. Coke Studio has become a global phenomenon by blending traditional Pakistani melodies with modern sounds. Its songs in indigenous languages such as Pasoori in Punjabi and Kana Yaari in Balochi are being featured on New York Times Square. Last year, Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab became the first Pakistani Grammy Award winner. These achievements in the domain of music signify Pakistan’s burgeoning cultural evolution on the global stage. Therefore, Pakistani literature and cultural expressions like music illustrate their significance in reflecting cultural shifts, embracing diversity, and connecting with a global audience while preserving the essence of Pakistani heritage and identity.

Mark de Gruchy (d grew-chee) (he/him)

Mark de Gruchy is a doctoral student in WSU’s American Studies program. Presently TA’ing History 105 and producing graphic design and media marketing materials for T-Mobile, Lowe’s, Hot Topic, and etc. Mark is 6’2, 173lbs and most importantly, is happy to be here today.

“A spectacle of strength: The Decentering of Heteronormative masculinity within Pro Wrestling”

Professional wrestling has been a sport to test toughness and curate a culture around bragging but, at its core, it is a homosocial space. By pulling from the historical development of wrestling, as an athletic competition into one of theatrics, I am to look at Pro Wrestling, specifically within the confines of the United States and its largest promoter, the World Wrestling Entertainment. This study centers around three points of curation; theatrics, focus on drag and gender performance. Through the usage of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s lens of homosocial space, I hope to articulate that gender performance bridges the gap between exclusion to inclusion in where those who are participants are not homosocial by their sex but by their fluidity in gender performance.

Session 5

Zoe Yamada Stave (She/they)

Zoe Stave is a MA student at the University of Idaho studying history. Their research specifically focuses on the role of deathscapes in Roman Spain and markers of cultural hybridity in the burials and commemoration of children. She will start her Ph.D in the fall at the University of Idaho to continue her research.

“Indigenous Agency in pre-Roman and Roman Spain: Cultural Hybridism in Funerary and Burial Practices in Roman Carmona (0-400 CE)”

The peoples of antique Spain were subject to both Carthaginian and Roman imperial occupations throughout its tumultuous history. While forced acculturation has been the typical conclusion and understanding of the shift in occupation, hybridism is a relatively new concept within the study of cultural identity in Spain. Broader discussions of cultural hybridity and negotiation in Roman Spain rarely focus on smaller municipalities that were not founded as Roman settler colonies and rather focus on significantly ‘Roman-esque’ settlements. However, the study of the materiality and manifestation of cultural hybridism in funerary and burial practices in the small Roman colony of Carmona has been limited to the discussion of Roman influences, not hybridism, and needs to be further investigated. Following the methodologies of Denise Demetriou and Alicia Jimenez, this paper will explore the negotiation of cultural identities in Roman Spain in the context of funerary and mortuary practices at Carmona and aims to demonstrate the negotiation of certain practices from Punic, Roman, and Iberian influences as a dislay of cultural identities.

Eleanor Colgan (Ella-nor Cole-gan) (she/her)

Eleanor Colgan is a first-year Philosophy and Art History student in the WSU Honors College. She is a student DJ at KZUU and hopes to pursue a PhD in philosophy with a concentration on feminist philosophy, aesthetics, and philosophy of mind.

“”I am a God”: Second Wave Feminism and Horror in ‘Carrie’ and ‘Jennifer’s Body’”

This paper aims to analyze Jennifer’s Body and Carrie as standalones in the teen slasher and larger horror genre. In the horror canon, these two films reveal greater problematic themes and patterns of misogyny, subverting the slasher formula that exploits sexist stereotypes. Such stereotypes are perpetuated, exploiting the stark contrast between male and female, smart and naive, pretty and ugly, etc. The horror genre specified to the teen slasher emphasizes the characterizations of these stereotypes. In campy teen slashers like Carrie and Jennifer’s Body, the nerdy, religious, cloistered and unpopular gains autonomy by becoming the villain, and the hot cheerleader takes her revenge on both her peers and the audience for victimizing her. Generally, both films defy the slasher formula by casting women as the primary perpetrators of violence, and by refusing to uphold the social norms of gender and sexuality in a predictable way. This paper will analyze both films and their defiance of the genre. By presenting an inverted reality in which the feminine is to be feared with the potential to do harm as opposed to the feminine to dismissed and eliminated, these films explore the various ways in which women have been cast as socially weak, villainous, sexual, and other gendered stereotypes and how the power of these titles can be bestowed upon women with agency and intention.

Megan Lolley (May-gan Law-lee) (she/her)

Megan Lolley is pursuing an M.A. in Literature at the University of Idaho, where she currently works as the Writer-in-Residence for the College of Natural Resources. Her literary research interests include ecofeminism and environmental narrative, gender and mental health studies, narrative communications, and poetic activism.

“Nature’s Trans-Corporeality via Bi-Gendered Identities as a Critique of Anthropocentric Environmental Control in Frankenstein”

Modern scholars, such as Bette London and Marjean D. Purintona, consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for its gendered language and feminist implications. These readings generally parallel gendered language with feminist principles or Shelley’s life experience as a woman, wife, and mother. Gender is often binarized in these interpretations and depicted as a spectacle or performance by the characters. However, when we consider the concepts of gender and environment alongside each other, we can see how nuanced and non-binarized gender must become to support the materialization of nature. If we focus on gender as the end goal and primary significance in the text, we fail to understand gender as a porous representation of the environment and the materialization of these concepts through characters and settings to critique a modern, anthropocentric relationship to nature as harmfully utilitarian. Gender is like the environment in the way it is polarized by dominant society; by deconstructing nature and exploring the notion of the Anthropocene, we can begin to understand situations grounded in gender identity. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein uses trans-corporeality to materialize nurturing and disordered concepts of the environment by constructing bi-gendered identities evident in Victor, which critiques the masculine desire for power over the natural world. This paper seeks to explore ecofeminist principles in Shelley’s classic novel to open a critical discussion about how sustainability is cultivated through identity.

Session 6

Xan Perkins (zan) (he/him/his)

Xan is a second-year Doctoral student in the Individual Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, blending the disciplines from the School of Music, the College of Education, and the Department of History. His research focuses on the New Orleans brass band tradition which offers a pragmatic pedagogy celebrating cultural inclusion, relevancy, and collaboration.

“The New Orleans Brass Band Tradition: A Historic Counternarrative”

The impact of the Eurocentric educational model on music education should be a subject of critical examination, seeking to challenge epistemologies that center on the historic development of music from Europe, and the structures this process created in the U.S. music educational system. This critique foundationally argues that music education in the U.S. fails to adequately address cultural diversity and does not prepare music teachers to think critically about cultural inclusivity. This research aims to illustrate how the Eurocentric musical hegemony influences U.S. national music standards and societal taste, emphasizing the need for a transformative approach. This research will encourage teachers within the U.S. music educational system to reimagine music education in a way that examines traditional genres such as jazz, classical, contemporary, and traditional ensemble structures such as band, orchestra, choir, and jazz band, more critically by implementing more culturally relevant and inclusive pedagogy. The New Orleans Brass Band tradition is shown in this research as an historic counternarrative, resisting Eurocentric musical and cultural norms by celebrating the exploration and collaborative opportunities of music in New Orleans that united oppressed cultures and challenged societal structures. Although the current model of music education teaches the history and importance of Eurocentric musical standards and tastes, I believe the ultimate goal of music education should be to create an inclusive space where individuals, regardless of musical background, can learn to express themselves musically and artistically that also honors their own experiences and viewpoints.

Jessie Padilla (pah-DEE-yah) Fry (she/her)

Jessie Padilla Fry is a PhD candidate in English at Washington State University, specializing in rhetoric and composition. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English in 2017 from Central Washington University, with an emphasis on creative and professional writing. In 2019, she earned her Master’s degree in English from Washington State University, with a focus on rhetoric and composition. Her research interests lie at the intersections of epistemology, political economy, and text-creation, with a specific emphasis on subverting the dominant ideologies of Western hegemony within first-year college composition. Her latest essay, “How We Know,” is slated to be featured in the upcoming edited volume titled Memoria: Essays in Honor of Victor Villanueva, as a contribution to the National Council of Teachers of English “Studies in Writing and Rhetoric” series.

“Redefining First-Year College Composition: Embracing Multimodal Text-Creation as a Human Endeavor”

This pedagogical project advocates for a transformative shift in first-year college composition, challenging Western epistemology and traditional composition pedagogies by embracing multimodal text-creation as a fundamentally human activity. Drawing on insights from scholars who critique the privileging of Western-centric language and rhetoric in first-year composition, including Gloria Anzaldúa, Victor Villanueva, Vershawn Ashanti Young, and Jacqueline Jones Royster, I propose a paradigmatic departure from the dominance of written texts towards a more inclusive—human-centered—understanding of text-creation. Reframing first-year college composition as a holistic endeavor fosters inclusivity and connectivity within diverse discourse communities. Embracing multiple modes of communication, such as visual, aural, linguistic, spatial, gestural, and linguistic, facilitates a more inclusive learning environment that values epistemic and cultural diversity. This approach not only empowers students to express themselves authentically but also cultivates their rhetorical skills to proficiently create and engage with texts, whether written or otherwise. Ultimately, by acknowledging text-creation as a universal human activity, the aim is to instill a fluid conception of text-creation within the first-year composition curriculum.

Akira Park (she/her/siya [sha])

Akira is an undergraduate student in secondary English education at Washington State University and a McNair Scholar. She researches BIPOC representation in young adult literature and education, emphasizing Asian-American narratives. Outside of her research, she is the McNair Scholars Student Club president and reviews books for journals and publishers.

“Elevating Filipino American Narratives in Classroom Curricula through Randy Ribay’s “Patron Saints of Nothing””

This presentation will demonstrate classroom practices incorporating Randy Ribay’s young adult novel “Patron Saints of Nothing.” The presenter will delve into teaching methods that focus on integrating Filipino American narratives in middle school and high school English Language Arts classrooms for social justice curricula within a four-week time frame; this includes how the text contributes to the importance of discussing the current culture and experiences of Southeast Asian students. Proposed learning objectives, exploration of the text’s themes, and ways to align the novel with the Common Core State Standards will be discussed to ensure and foster critical thinking and analysis for students per learning standard alignment. Suggested activities will include discussion questions, exploration of excerpts from the text, and a social action project that can apply to an array of marginalized communities. Additionally, supplementary texts will be provided to integrate multiple perspectives on the text and enrich student interest in learning a genre of literature that is often overlooked. Ultimately, this presentation will highlight culturally sustaining practices and activities (Paris, 2012) as the proposed pedagogical approach to ensure that cultural pluralism is honored in various classroom environments where Asian American texts are underrepresented. Additional resources for educators will be introduced to provide teachers with the appropriate tools before teaching Filipino American and Asian American narratives.