English Students Present at 2020 International Conventions
"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view." — Edward Abbey
Majors in the Department of English have been selected to present work at two prestigious international conferences this spring.
Originally developed as part of the URSCI 2019 Summer Institute, Jodelle Marx (Creative Writing) and Riley Stewart (English Literature) will be presenting their project, Hayma’s Journey: Rohingya Refugee Discourse in the United States Elementary Classroom, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), at Montana State University from March 26 - 28. Born from interviews with Oregon Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma) alongside research in childhood psychology, Marx and Stewart have developed a children’s book designed to sponsors the cultivation of empathy in early readers and in their adult family facilitators. Under consideration with several presses, materials include curriculum for teachers, a discussion guide for parents, and a website for families. They will be presenting their findings from an experiment undertaken in partnership with the Pacific University String Project's Concerts that Teach.
That same weekend in March, three students will be presenting works of literary criticism and creative writing at the Sigma Tau Delta 2020 International Convention under the theme "Transformative Landscapes." The convention site, Las Vegas, NV, sits at the convergence of three transformative geologic landscapes in North America: the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin. Thus the conference invites us to consider the our responsibilities to and conscriptions of wilderness. Presenting work originally developed in English department courses are
- Margaret McFarlane, Over The Rainbow
- Riley Stewart, Who's Afraid of the Dark?
- Phoebe Whittington, Fireweed
Likewise, Pacific students published in the most recent issue of the honor society's national journal will also be on hand to present that work, including
- Kymberlin Bush, Bite Down
- Kyle Riper, Some Kind of Permanent
All these students are members of Pacific's chapter of the international English Honor society, Alpha Chi Omega. Admitting members each spring, the newest cohort of inductees will be announced shortly. Please join us April 2, at 7 p.m. in Marsh 216 for an open mic and induction activities. Many congratulations to all of the presenters!