The Michigan College English Association

Author: Janet Heller

  • Michigan College English Association 2023 Conference Program

    Themes: Comfort, Healing, and Hope
    Saturday, October 7, 2023
    All Sessions Online via Zoom
    ALL SESSIONS HELD IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME
    Plenary session and all “A” sessions: You must register to receive the Zoom links and passwords.
    Password:
    All “B” sessions:
    Password:


    8:50 a.m.–9:00 a.m. Opening remarks and welcome
    Cheryl Caesar, Michigan College English Association President

    9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m.

    Session 1a: Healing, Hope, and Humor in Literature and Pedagogy
    Moderator: Dawn Burns
    Healing from Haunting through Literature, Honesty, Activism, and Comfort in Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence (9:00-9:15)–Lori Burlingame, Eastern Michigan University
    Our Mythical, Epical, Literary Past: Provider of Hope and Solace to Reconstruct the Present (9:15-9:30)–Uma Ray Srinivasan, Victoria Institution (University of Calcutta)
    Comfort, Healing & Hope in the Classroom During a Mental Health Crisis (9:30-9:45)–Cynthia Pope, University of Minnesota
    Humor and Satire of Higher Education in James Thurber’s “University Days” (9:45-10:00)–Janet Heller, Michigan College English Association

    Session 1b: Literature and Creative Writing
    Moderator: Cheryl Caesar
    Hope for Avoiding Tragedy: Identifying Misguided Perception and Self-Righteous Judgment in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (9:00-9:15)–David Urban, Calvin University
    Light from Shadow: Hope and Healing in Poetry and Prose (9:15-10:00)–Ronan Mansilla, Cari Gamlin, Olivia Vitale, Erin Letourneau, University of Detroit Mercy Students

    10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.

    Session 2a: Memoir, Nonfiction, and Poetry
    Moderator: Lori Burlingame
    “Letter from the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo” (10:30-10:45)–Dawn Burns, Michigan State University
    Hope, Healing, and Horses in Creative Nonfiction (10:45-11:00)–Lisa Whalen, North Hennepin Community College
    Living in the Ulu: Letters from a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malaysia, 1967-68 (11:00-11:15)–Ed Demerly, Henry Ford Community College, retired
    Selected Poems from Fulgurite and Other Works (11:15-11:30)–Catherine Broadwall, DigiPen Institute of Technology

    Session 2b: Video Project on Multilingual Learners
    Moderator: Joyce Meier
    Comfort, Healing, and Hope: A Video Project Centered in and around Multilingual Learners (10:30-11:30 with 15 minutes for questions)
    Joyce Meier and Cheryl Caesar with Students Nadiah Hasnol and Viv Sandoval Martinez, Michigan State University

    12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Plenary Session
    GUEST SPEAKER: Rick Bailey, essayist and memoirist
    Rick Bailey grew up in Freeland, Michigan, on the banks of the Tittabawassee River. He
    taught writing for 38 years at Henry Ford College. Teaching composition online the last
    15 years of his career, he wrote for and with his classes, developing voice and content
    that became the basis for his first collection of essays, American English, Italian
    Chocolate     (2017) and successive collections (2019, 2021), published by University of
    Nebraska Press. A Midwesterner long married to an Italian immigrant, in retirement he
    and his wife divide their time between Michigan and the Republic of San Marino. His
    most recent book is And Now This: A Memoir in Essays.

    1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.

    Session 3a: Teaching and Learning: Hope and Engagement
    Moderator: Ed Demerly
    “If you Teach Them, They Will Come”: Using Popular Culture to Increase Student Engagement and Performance (1:00-1:30)–Rasheeda Brown with Students Abbriel Weathersby, Kameron Mack, Kennedy Jones, and Tytiana Young, Claflin University
    Hidden Hope: Texas Constitution Race Provisions Contextualize P-20 Black Emancipatory Curricula (1:30-1:45)–Zenobia C. Joseph, Independent Scholar
    Lower Your Expectations: A Teacher’s Survival Guide (1:45-2:00)–Aram Kabodian and Robin Boswell, Michigan State University’s Red Cedar Writing Project

    Session 3b: Poetry of Hope and Healing
    Moderator: Lori Burlingame
    A Poetic Dialogue on Grief, Survival, and Hope (1:00-1:30)–Deidre Fagan and Debbie Courtright-Nash, Ferris State University
    Healing through Poetic License: Tell the Truth but Tell it Slant (1:30-1:45)–Susan Serafin Jess, Lansing Community College
    “The Unheard Melodies” and “Muse’s Monologue” (1:45-2:00)–Maryam Qureshi, Independent Scholar

    2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.


    Session 4a: Rhetoric, Research, and Writing
    Moderator: Ilse Schweitzer
    Critical Reading and the Process of Healing: Applying Tagmemic Rhetoric to Understand Divisive Public Controversies (2:30-2:45)–John Dunn Jr, Eastern Michigan University
    Academic Crisis Communication as Transformational (2:45-3:00)–Adrienne Lamberti, University of Northern Iowa
    Embracing Empathy: Concretizing Empathetic Practice as Hope in Writing Students Focus Groups (3:00-3:15)–Colleen Hart, Wayne State University
    Comfort, Healing, and Hope: A Creative Response (3:15-3:30)–Joyce Meier, Michigan State University

    Session 4b: Literary Analysis, Creative Writing, Research Writing, and Memoir
    Moderator: Lori Burlingame
    Subversive Romance and Feminist Freedom in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (2:30-2:45)–Holly Nelson, University of Michigan
    Passing as a Convention in Memoir: Racial and Gender Identity in 21st-Century America (2:45-3:00)–Kaylee Tucker, Concordia University Ann Arbor
    Ten Things I Learned (or Remembered) about Research Writing from Writing a Wikipedia Article (3:00-3:15)–Cheryl Caesar, Michigan State University

  • Program for the Michigan College Association Conference via Zoom on Friday, September 30, 2022

    Theme: Vulnerability

    All Sessions Online via Zoom

    **ALL SESSIONS HELD IN EASTERN STANDARD TIME**

    Opening remarks, plenary sessions, and sessions 1A, 2A, 3A: Hosted by Ilse Schweitzer

    Session 4A:   Hosted by Joyce Meier                        Session 5: Hosted by Joyce Meier

    All “B” sessions: Hosted by Cheryl Caesar

    9:00am—9:15am

    Welcome and Opening Remarks — MCEA Board Members

    9:15am—10:45am

    Session 1A   Climates, Crises, and Colonization in Literature — Literature

                Moderator: Ilse Schweitzer

    Colonization, Vulnerability, and Hope in Tommy Orange’s There There–Lori Burlingame, Eastern Michigan University

    Current Climate Emergency and Shakespeare–Uma Ray Srinivasan, University of Calcutta

    Reading Maud Martha in 2022–Renee Bryzik, St. Clair Community College

    What is Midwestern about the Poetry of Lisel Mueller?–Janet Heller, Michigan College English Association

    Session 1B  Multilingual Learners Panel — Pedagogy/Panel

    Moderator: TBD

    Discussion: Making Vulnerabilities Visible: Challenges Faced by Multilingual Learners, and Some Proposed Solutions–Joyce Meier, Cheryl Caesar, and First-Year Writing Students, Michigan State University

    10:45am—12:15pm

    Session 2A   Rethinking Teaching and Evaluation  —  Pedagogy

    Moderator: Lori Burlingame

    The Survival of Speech and Debate Education–Sean Lee, Independent Scholar

    Hierarchies of Growth vs Hierarchies of Domination–Carlos Toledo, Iowa State University

    Analyzing the Impact on KPIs of Templates and Worksheets Used to Support Student Success in the Online Composition Classroom–Beth L Virtanen, American InterContinental University Online

    Traditional Grading: A Reconsideration–Janelle Wiess, University of Michigan, Flint

    Session 2B  Stories and Lyrics of Identity — Creative Writing and Literature

    Moderator: Cheryl Caesar

    The Role of Storytelling in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys–Selina Hakim, University of Detroit, Mercy

    Choose Your Own Adventure: Assignments Lead to Greater Cultural Awareness–Mackenzie Krzmarzick, University of Wisconsin

    Poetry reading–Rosalie Petrouske, Lansing Community College

    Poetry reading and commentary–Susan Serafin-Jess, Lansing Community College

    LUNCH BREAK–12:15-12:30 p.m.

    12:30pm—1:30pm

    Plenary Session: “Go Outside, But Don’t Just Go Outside”

    Alison Swan, Faculty Specialist, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Western Michigan University, 2008-2022

    1:30pm—3:00pm

    Session 3A Teaching and Learning in Times of Trauma                             Pedagogy

    Moderator:  Lori Burlingame

    Vulnerability as Identity: Using Identity Texts to Support Students in Uncertain and Challenging Times–Mikayla Peters, Independent Scholar

    Theory and Praxis of Trauma-Informed Pedagogy–Lorelei Blackburn, Michigan State University

    Meditation in First-Year Writing–Tracie Swiecki, Parisse Paige, and Claire Reinhardt, Michigan State University

    Session 3B Memoir in Times of Trauma  —  Creative Writing – Memoir

    Moderator: Cheryl Caesar

    Embracing Vulnerability, Embracing Life: Facing Terminal Illness by Calling the Shots–Deidre Fagan, Ferris State University

    A Vulnerable Soul in Mid-Michigan in the Mid-Twentieth Century–Ed Demerly, Henry Ford College

    Fidgeting and Forgetting: Reflections on Neurodivergence and Self-Disclosure–Grace Walter, Wayne State University

    from Teacher–Michael Copperman, Michigan State University

    3:00pm—4:30pm

    Session 4A   Language, Ideology, and Technologies  —  Pedagogy    

    Moderator: Joyce Meier

    Twitter: An Interactive and Engaging Tool for Educational Contexts–Jule Thomas, Wayne State University

    Using General Semantics to Defuse the Classroom–Matt Nikkari, Ferris State University

    White Supremacist Lang Ideologies in FYC–Andrew Moos, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Can Grace and Care be Measured?–Mike Ristich, Kirk Astle, and Dave Medei, Michigan State University

    Session 4B  College Writing in Vulnerable Times: Some Reports from One Campus —  Pedagogy / Panel                                                                                        

    Moderator: Lori Burlingame

    Adventures in Quarantine 2020 – 2022: EMU Freshman Write about the Pandemic and Social Justice–   Cheryl M. Cassidy, Eastern Michigan University

    Professional Writing and UX Design: Shifting Views of Emotion, Vulnerability–Steve Benninghoff, Eastern Michigan University

    Argument in the Face of Vulnerability: Advanced Composition Students Encounter Rogerian Argument and Its Implications–John Dunn, Eastern Michigan University

    4:30pm—6:00pm

    Session 5  Creativity in Times of Vulnerability — Creative Writing – mixed genres                     

    Moderator: Joyce Meier

    From Songs of Cardinal–Maryam Qureshi, Independent Scholar

    From Evangelina Everyday–Dawn Burns, Michigan State University

    From “Remember Arturo?”–Matt Rossi, Michigan State University

    Selected poems–Melissa Lewis, Davenport University

    The MCEA Business Meeting will be on October 7 at 4 p.m.  Please let Janet Heller know if you want to attend on Zoom.  All are welcome to join.

  • Summary of the College English Association’s 51st Annual Conference

    This conference was held in Birmingham, Alabama, from March 31 to April 2, 2022.

    There were 73 breakout sessions on topics including peace studies, Native American literature, composition and rhetoric, American and British literature, LGPTQ studies, film studies, popular culture, war and trauma literature, religion and literature, and creative writing.

    Denise Miller from Western Michigan University and Ed Demerly (retired) from Henry Ford College and the MCEA Board represented Michigan.

    The 52nd annual conference will be held in San Antonio, Texas, from March 30 to April 1, 2023. The theme for that conference is Confluence. For further information, see the CEA website at www.conftool.pro/cea2023 . Submission of paper proposals (one per person) may be made between August 15th and November 1st, 2022. Papers presented at Michigan CEA’s conference will automatically be accepted if the submission makes clear that the paper was previously presented at the Michigan CEA conference.

    Notes from the Affiliates’ meeting at the CEA Conference in 2022

    Members present were Stacy Bailey (Rocky Mountain CEA), Ed Demerly (Michigan CEA), Valerie Kasper (Florida CEA), Gerald Siegal (Pennsylvania CEA)—via ZOOM, and Moumin Quazi (Texas CEA).

    Guests were Scott Borders (CEA Executive Director), Jeraldine Kraver (Editor, CEA Critic), and Emily Pucker (Board Member).

    Jeraldine Kraver introduced us to what the Rocky Mountain CEA has offered now for four years—pop-up conferences with papers limited to 500 words (about five minutes) presented on a Zoom format. This allows presenters to offer the essence of their idea or argument in a simple and streamlined manner and allows for more presenters and more discussion. The pop up format also gives those who have never presented at conferences an opportunity to “get their feet wet” in an unthreatening way. Furthermore, it introduces all participants to new, still undeveloped concepts which might be explored further. This year’s conference theme is focused on “What is Right with English Studies?” A previous conference asked, “What are some Impediments to Student Success?” For further information on the Rocky Mountain CEA’s June 11, 2022 Pop-Up Conference, contact James Meredith at James.Meredith@csuglobal.edu . Jeraldine urged the affiliates to try this format within their own organizations.

    The CEA Critic is published three times a year. The editor welcomes longer submissions from the affiliates describing any news we may have to offer. She also encourages affiliate members to submit papers to The CEA Critic even if they may feel the work is not quite ready for publication. The editorial staff will work with the writer to get the material ready for publication.

    Emily Pucker (University of Alabama) is considering starting a new affiliate for the southeastern United States.

    Moumin Quazi inquired why the South Asian Literary Association had not yet been accepted as an allied organization of CEA. There was no specific response yet.

    The majority of affiliates held Zoom conferences or no conferences in 2020 and 2021, but most are planning in-person with Zoom access conferences for 2022.

    The conference offered a table display of calls for papers and prominent recognition of those affiliates, including Michigan, which sponsored beverage breaks.

    Submitted by Ed Demerly, MCEA’s CEA representative and Board Member

  • First Years–A Farm Boy Faces the Future: A Memoir, a new book by Ed Demerly

    From the son of Michigan farmers
    comes ‘one of the most artistically
    sketched and moving memoirs of our time’
    “Ed Demerly opens a window on the past, showing in vivid detail what life was like in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Viewing his life on a farm, in a small Michigan town, in a family of seven, we see the constant work, the family dynamics, and communitarian practices.” —Rick Bailey, Get Thee to a Bakery, a memoir in essays
    TRAVERSE CITY, MICHIGAN – In his debut release – a reflection upon his life beginning as a boy on a small-town Michigan farm — author Ed Demerly shares a world many have never experienced nor can relate to, but one that offers glimpses for all into a simpler time and place. Perhaps such a story can shine a light on ways to exist within our own unique experiences and offer insight for using these experiences to explore and expand our own world beyond the view of our immediate horizon.

    As for the author, his reason for writing First Years – A Farm Boy Faces the Future: A Memoir, didn’t feel quite so lofty.

    “I was prompted to begin writing pieces of my past for my brothers and sisters; not that they asked me to — more a desire to share with them experiences we had in common from my point of view. I hadn’t intended to write something I would call a memoir.”

    And yet, Demerly recognized the benefit that telling an ages-old story may offer to someone much younger.

    “I hope that my granddaughters’ generation and ones beyond might get a glimpse of what I consider a rather common rural childhood in the post-World War II years, its challenges, its isolation, its joys, its hardships, and perhaps the unusual effort it took to fit into a wider world as an adult.”

    First Years is the memoir of the early years of the second son of Michigan farmers in a family of five siblings. His father had an eighth-grade education; his mother completed high school. He was born three weeks before Pearl Harbor was attacked, and until the 1950s, when post-war America began to prosper, he lived in near poverty in an uninsulated, two-room-plus-attic house that had been a granary. He lived on the farm until he entered the army at age twenty-one.

    When somewhat by coincidental circumstance, he was admitted to Michigan State University, and although he was the class salutatorian, he was very poorly prepared both academically and socially. Within his extended family, he was first to attend college.

    According to Demerly, “taking on the larger world was somewhat accidental, but once I was in it, I was terrified of failure. Perhaps it was my father’s insistence that ‘the job always had to be finished’ that motivated me to keep at it.”

    This memoir — which covers the author’s life through college and two and a half years in the military — is a story of transition and gradual growth. It attempts to emphasize how early life on a farm instilled personality and character that worked in both positive and negative ways as he matured.

    First Years is published by Mission Point Press of Traverse City, Michigan, and is available in stores and online. The paperback’s retail price is $14.95. To arrange for book signings and presentations or for more information, contact the author at edemerly@aol.com .

    Early praise for First Years

    “Ed Demerly opens a window on the past, showing in vivid detail what life was like in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Viewing his life on a farm, in a small Michigan town, in a family of seven, we see the constant work, the family dynamics, and communitarian practices. He writes of the garret bedroom he shared with his brothers: ‘We boys used to practice writing out alphabet letters with our fingernails in the frost on the roof boards.’ Demerly remembers ‘the chickens singing and sunning themselves and cackling their deliveries in the winter coop.’ The values and discipline he learns on the farm support him at each stage of life—at the university, in the military and Army Ranger training, in the Peace Corps, and through his adult and professional life. This compelling American story will be of interest to anyone who contemplates writing their life.” —Rick Bailey, Get Thee to a Bakery, a memoir in essays

    “First Years is one of the most artistically sketched and moving memoirs of our time. All the narrative situations carry reflective weight, description, and passion. His story begins with the true dynamics of his past life as a shy, obedient American farm boy who later joins the Army, Peace Corps, and higher ed where he worked for over forty years. It ends with understanding and acceptance.” —Mary Saad Assel, PhD, Henry Ford College, retired educator and author.

    About the author

    Ed Demerly retired after forty-six years of teaching —everything from fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, middle school, high school, and thirty-six years at Henry Ford College in Dearborn, Michigan, where he co-founded the English Language Institute and received the Faculty Lectureship Award for his 1992 lecture on the parallels between Gangsta Rap and Walt Whitman’s poetry. He taught for a year in Australia and for two years in Malaysia as a Peace Corps volunteer. Ed served in the army as an airborne ranger in the Medical Service Corps and is a past president of the National College English Association and a member of The Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. He and his wife, Martha, live in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where in his retirement he is occupied with volunteer work that includes organizing public forums focused on justice and peace and counting frogs for the Rouge River Conservancy. He’s a gardener of okra, cherries, asparagus, rhubarb, raspberries, peas, apples, flowers, and so much more — still a farm boy.

  • Program for the Michigan College English Association 2020 Conference: Coping with Change

    October 17-18, 2020
    All Sessions Online via Zoom

    Note: You must register and pay for the conference to get the links and passcodes

    Saturday, October 17

    9:00am—10:30am

    Opening Remarks and Poetry Workshop, Part 1                                         

    Laura Apol, Conference Guest Speaker

    10:45am—12:15pm

    Session 1A   Minds and Matters —                         Pedagogy/Practice

    Moderators: Joyce Meier

    We Want You to Stop Diagnosing the Protagonist and Start Expanding and Problematizing the Text: Exploring How Health Sciences Undergraduate Students Use Psychiatric Narratives and Creative Methods to Learn about Emotional Distress–Angie Mejia and Yuko Taniguchi, University of Minnesota-Rochester

    Contagious Memes in an Anxiety-Evoking Era–Nurzahan Rahman, University of Detroit Mercy

    Pandemic Primary Sources: Creating Student Historians in the Composition Classroom–Jacqueline Herbers, Viterbo University

    Transformative Learning and Personal Narrative: Creative Process as a Catalyst for Change–Amber Jensen and Kim Davidson, South Dakota State University

    Session 1B  Literary Pasts and Futures —          Literature     

    Moderators: Lori Burlingame and Ilse Schweitzer

    Smallpox, Systemic Racism, and Hope for the Future in Ella Cara Deloria’s Waterlily and James Welch’s Fools Crow–Lori Burlingame, Eastern Michigan University

    The Weary March from the 20th to the 21st Century–Uma Ray Srinivasan, Victoria Institution, University of Calcutta

    “An alphabet as opposed to a sentence”: Le Guin’s Rhetoric of Space-Time in Robinson’s 2312 and Aurora–Joseph Donaldson, Barton Community College

    LUNCH BREAK

    1:00pm—2:30pm

    Session 2     Pestilence and Parasites–                  Poetry

    Moderators: Curtis VanDonkelaar and Cheryl Caesar

    “The Coronavirus Plague” and Other Poems–Janet Heller, MCEA President

    “The Shore” and Other Poems–Leacadia Herweyer, Oakland University

    “Alienation” and Other Poems–Maryam Qureshi, Independent Scholar

    “The Parasite” and Other Poems–Cheryl Caesar, Michigan State University

    2:45pm—4:15pm

    Session 3     Poetry, Pedagogy, and Perseverance  –Pedagogy

    Moderator: Stephen Souris

    Limericks as a Coping Strategy– Aram Kabodian, Red Cedar Writing Project

    Staying Alive: Challenges of Keeping Lansing Poetry Club Alive in the Time of COVID-19–Rosalie Sanara Petrouske and Mary Fox, Lansing Community College/Lansing Poetry Club

    The Pedagogy of Play– Mikayla Davis, University of Minnesota-Rochester

    “I Just Don’t Do Poetry”: Reaching Poetry-Phobic Undergraduates–            Stephen Souris, Texas Woman’s University

    4:30pm—5:45pm

    Session 4A   Building America —                            Panel Discussion  

    Moderator: Mary Assel

    Building America: Immigrant Stories of Hope and Hardship

    Mary Assel, Committee to Promote Better Understanding of Islam
    Nancy Owen Nelson, Henry Ford College
    Glenn O’Kray, Henry Ford College (ret.)
    Ed Demerly, Past President, College English Association

    Session 4B  Negotiating (out of) the Classroom —   Panel Discussion  

    Moderators: Suzanne Gut and Curtis VanDonkelaar

    Negotiating Negotiations: Did You Really Mean to Give Me THAT Grade?

    Suzanne Gut, Davenport University
    Lynn Russell, Bryan College (TN)
    Betsy Weems, East Tennessee State University

    Sunday, October 18

     

    Session 6B:

    9:00am—10:30am

    Session 5     Collaboration and Creation — Pedagogy

    Moderators: Uma Ray Srinivasan

    Writing as Gardening–Ilse Griffin and Isa Keller, Saint Paul College

    Antiracist Composition Pedagogy and Interdisciplinary Collaboration–Carlos Toledo-Parada, Iowa State University

    Coping with COVID and TESOL Online: Change and Challenges in a Polish Context–Tiffany Stachnik, Northern Michigan University

    Producing a Podcast as a Means for Collaboration and Catharsis–Erin Bell, Baker College, and Judith Lakamper, Independent Scholar

    10:45am—12:15pm

    Session 6A   Writing Center Diversity —     Panel Discussion  

    Moderators: Trixie Smith and Joyce Meier

    Language, Power, and Accessibility: Advocating for Language Diversity in the Writing Center

    Floyd Pouncil, Nick Sanders, Grace Pregent, Stephanie Aguilar-Smith, and Trixie Smith, Michigan State University

    Session 6B  Loss and Learning  —                        Mixed Media

    Moderators: Curtis VanDonkelaar

    Love, Loss, Love: Poetry of Change and Survival–Deirdre Fagan, Ferris State University

    Loneliness, Uncertainty and Learning: Chronic Illness, Coping, and Community Building in Virtual Spaces During the Covid-19 Pandemic–Deanna Laurette, Milwaukee Area Technical College

    Coping as Learning in Uncommon Rites–David Boeving, Eastern Michigan University/University of Michigan

    “So Moved” and Other Flash Fiction–Curtis VanDonkelaar, Michigan State University

    LUNCH BREAK

    1:00pm—2:30pm

    Session 7     Literacies of Teaching and Administering — Pedagogy    

    Moderators: Joyce Meier

    Literacy in the Hybrid Classroom: Advancing Literacy During the COVID Epidemic–Jordana Hall, Waldorf University

    Literature in Science: Non-Fiction Narrative in the Classroom–Mehar Soni, University of Detroit Mercy

    Rhetoric, Communication, and Coronavirus: Investigating How University Leaders Communicate about Emergent Crises–Emily Gresbrink, University of Minnesota

    Teaching and Administering in a Pandemic–Joyce Meier, Michigan State University

    2:45pm—4:15pm

    Session 8     Empathy & Emotion in Pre-modern Worlds  — Literature     

    Moderator: Ilse Schweitzer VanDonkelaar

    Teaching The Tempest and Paradise Lost in the Era of COVID-19: Reflections on Displacement, Isolation, Connection, and Empathy– David Urban, Calvin University

    Expressive Response and Meaning-Making in the Spaces of Fairy Tales– Kristie DeVlieger (Undergraduate), Grand Valley State University

    William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: Toxic Masculinity and Roots in Motherhood–Jenaya Hughes, Wright State University

    Swich a Gracious Lady: Conceptualizing Mercy in the Poetry of Chaucer– Sister Lucia Treanor, Franciscan Life Process Center, Lowell, MI

    4:30pm—5:45pm

    Poetry Celebration & Workshop, Part 2                                             

    Laura Apol, Conference Guest Speaker

    6:00pm

    MCEA Business Meeting                                         

    All are welcome to join.