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