IUP EGO Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana PA 15705

March 5-6th, 2021

Phoenix: Responses to Adversity

Friday, March 5th –
2:00 pm-5:30 pm

Welcome (2-2:15 pm)

Address from EGO Vice President, Brian Sateriale

PANEL 1 – Creating in Times of Crisis (Creative Writing) (2:15-3:45 pm)

Moderator: Dr. Michael Williamson

““What Would You Do” and Others”: Daniel Helman

Dan is currently a third-year doctoral student in literature and criticism focusing on contemporary
fiction. He also has an interest in creative writing and streams video games on Twitch in his free time.

“Dog-eared Memory”: Joseph Canton

Joseph Canton is studying for his PhD in Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of
Pennsylvania. He received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Hollins University. Joseph's research
interests include Appalachian Literature.

“Land Marked: Reflections on the 2015 South Carolina Thousand-year Flood Event” and
“Praise Song for the Waters”: Len Lawson
Len is a Ph.D. candidate in English Literature and Criticism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania,
earning the 2020 IUP Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. His dissertation focus argues dimensions
of place in the reformed poetry aesthetic of African American South Carolina poets. Len is the author
of Chime (Get Fresh Books, 2019) and the chapbook Before the Night Wakes You (Finishing Line
Press, 2017). He is also co-editor of Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race (Muddy Ford Press, 2017)
and The Future of Black: Afrofuturism and Black Comics Poetry (Blair Press, 2021). His poetry has
been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He received the Palm Beach Poetry
Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship and others including from Callaloo, Vermont Studio Center,
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Obsidian Foundation UK. His poetry appears in African
American Review, Callaloo, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Verse Daily, and internationally in the
United Kingdom, Mexico, Colombia, and Belgium.

PANEL 2 – Giving a Voice to Marginalized Voices (4-5:30 pm)

Moderator: Dr. Todd Thompson

“Extinction as Rebirth: The Adversarial Evolution of Charles Ryder in Brideshead

Revisited”: Daniel Helman
Dan is currently a third-year doctoral student in literature and criticism focusing on contemporary
fiction. He also has an interest in creative writing and streams video games on Twitch in his free time.
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“Grief Observed in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “A Temporary Matter”: The Impact of Stillbirth

Death on Parents’ Identities and Relationships in Fiction”: Thomas Hamilton
Thomas D. Hamilton, Jr., is in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s MA English: Composition and
Literature program with an expected graduation of Summer 2021. Thomas, an Indiana, PA resident
for several years, tutors with IUP's Writing Center. Although Thomas’ entire MA experience has been
online, the instructors and fellow students have provided a vibrant learning environment. Following
graduation, Thomas intends to teach at the community college-level, in-person and online. This is
Thomas’ first conference presentation.

“Surrealist Yeshivas/Yiddish-Tabernacles: Places of Imaginative Restoration”:

Joshua Calandrella
Joshua Patrick Calandrella is a second-year student in the MA Literature program at IUP. His
academic interests include translation studies, Latin American novels, representations of religious
mysticism in literature, and modern Yiddish poetry. As polyglot in training, Joshua also studies
Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, and Thai.

“Women's Adversity in Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Sigmund Freud's

Psychoanalytic Theory”: Olivia Faiad
Olivia Faiad is a Senior in the Master of Arts in English Literature program at IUP. Her interests
include anything "taboo," including, but not limited to, ghost stories, legends, myths, alchemy,
nature, sexuality, sorcery, supernatural tales, etc. Olivia will be presenting on women's adversity in
proclaiming their own right to sexuality through an analysis of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet
Letter" and Sigmund Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory. Olivia will be graduating this coming summer
and will continue her academic career at IUP pursuing a PhD in Literature and Criticism.

Saturday, March 6th -

9:00 am-3:30 pm

PANEL 3 – Learning How to Rise from the Ashes (9-10:30 am)

Moderator: Dr. Christopher Orchard

“Phoenix-like Literature Paves Future Roads of Hope”: Jennifer Russell-Long

Jennifer earned her MA in English Composition and Literature from IUP in May 2020 and began
classwork on her PhD in English Literature and Criticism in the July of 2020. Her scholarly interests
include gothic, horror, science fiction, and fantasy literatures and film, philosophy of video game play,
and global fairy tales.

“Online tutoring at the writing center during the pandemic: failures followed by
successes”: Omar Yacoub
Omar Yacoub is a second year PhD candidate in the Composition and Applied Linguistics program at
the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He is interested in writing studies research, specifically
writing transfer and writing development of students in the STEM fields.

“The Phoenix Mindset”: Brian Sateriale

Brian K. Sateriale is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Literature and Criticism Program at Indiana University
of Pennsylvania. He is the Vice President of the English Graduate Organization. He is the winner of
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the 3-Minute Thesis, 2020. Since 2013, Brian has taught for the University of Maryland Global Campus
as an Adjunct Associate Professor.

“Synchronicity and Simulpathity in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Camus’ The
Plague, and the Wicked Problem of the COVID-19 Pandemic”: Afaf Jamil Khogeer
Dr. Afaf Khogeer, an associate Professor of English liter, department of English, Umm Al-Qura
University, Holy Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Author of : Integration of the Self: Women in the Fiction of
Iris Murdoch Nd Margaret Drabble (a book), and many articles on Comparative, cross-cultural
studies, English, American, Saudi Arabian women writers.

PANEL 4 – Using Fantasy to Overcome Adversity (10:45 am-12:15 pm)

Moderator: Dr. Heather Powers

“Teaching through Terror: Finding Light through Darkness in Harry Potter”:

Jeffrey Ambrose
Jeff Ambrose is a second-year Ph.D. candidate in IUP's Literature and Criticism program. His primary
academic interests are the Harry Potter series and anything horror. He received his M.A. in English
Literature from the University of Vermont and his B.A. from Chestnut Hill College.

“The Playable Phoenix in Tabletop Gaming”: Mace Long

Mace is working on his second MA in English Composition and Literature after graduating with an
MA in Applied Archaeology in August of 2020 and with an Honors History BA degree and three
minors in Anthropology, English and Music in May of 2018. His scholarly interests include Atlantis
Myth, Roman and Greek History, Warhammer literature, D.C. Comics, Western, Horror, Science
Fiction, Superhero films and graphic novels.

“Storytelling as a Response to Adversity in Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman

Rushdie”: Sarah Victor
Sarah Victor is a PhD candidate in the Literature and Criticism Program at IUP. She is an
international student and belongs to Pakistan. She has a BA in English Literature from Punjab
University (Pakistan) and a MA in Creative Writing from Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

Closing 12:15-12:30 pm
Address from Dr. Melanie Holm, EGO Advisor
Announcement of Articles optioned for publication

Reception 12:30-3:30 pm
Virtual—12:30-1 pm
Levity Brewing Company—1:30-3:30 pm