Professor Brian McCuskey, author of How Sherlock Pulled the Trick: Spiritualism and the Pseudoscientific Method, gave an invited lecture titled “How Sherlock Pulled the Trick” at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, as part of their Sherlock Holmes Exhibition.
Senior Lecturer Shanan Ballam read post-stroke poems, many of which have been published or are forthcoming, at Helicon West on February 23rd. Shanan was joined by her writing group Union of Table Scraps. Shanan also delivered a speech for a women's group called “Circle of Friends” about her stroke recovery journey.
Lecturer Ashley Wells presented on writing animals and gave a reading from her book The Cowgirl and the Racehorse at the Living with Animals Conference, hosted in Richmond, Kentucky.
Creative writing graduate student Jack Bylund presented his short fiction piece, "The Profound Deaths,” on March 30 at the International English Honor Society (Sigma Tau Delta) convention in Denver, Colorado.
Distinguished Professor Joyce Kinkead recently presented at the College English Association conference in San Antonio, Texas. Her presentation was titled “Convergence: Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods in English Studies for Undergraduate English Majors.”
Professor Christine Cooper-Rompato presented at the Medieval Association of the Pacific conference at the University of Oregon on the topic of “Hairshirts and Cilices: Medieval Production Technologies.”
USU Folklore graduate students and faculty recently had a strong presence at the annual Western States Folklore Society meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada:
Graduate student Gillian Coldesina-Schroeder presented “For Whom the Shoe Fits: Narrative Themes of Cinderella.”
Graduate student Megan Eralie presented “How the Past Relationships Inform the Present: What the Nineteenth-Century Landscape Folklore of the Great Salt Lake Reveals About the Twenty-First Century Crisis.”
Graduate student Zackary Gregory spoke on the “Folklore of Dirt: Folk Expression in Mountain Biking.”
Graduate student Drew Holley presented on “Internet Food: Aesthetics and Rhetorical Performance in Food You Can’t Eat.”
Graduate student John Priegnitz spoke about “The Ghost in the Machine: Loab, the Uncanny, and AI Generated Art.”
Graduate student Melissa Petersen presented “Healing Your Sexual Goddess: How Online Anonymity Aids Sexual Rebirth.”
Graduate student Millie Tullis spoke about “Making This Sacred Place: Peepstones in 19th Century Utah.”
Associate Professor Lynne McNeill and Chris Winstead presented “The Small World Collaboration Metric: The Rise of Vernacular Impact Assessment.”
Assistant Professor Afsane Rezaei presented “Taking the Pulse of a Revolution: Folkloric Expressions of the 2022 Iranian Protests.”
The USU English Department was also well represented at this year’s Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCCs):
Associate Professor Avery Edenfield participated in “Embracing the Hope Already Present: Amplifying Open Education Resources as an Ethical Practice.”
Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Calvin Pollak presented on “From Analysis to Action: Rhetorics of Data in Sexual Misconduct Prevention Communication.”
Assistant Professor Chen Chen spoke on “Elevating Graduate Student Voices: Reconsidering Spaces of Professionalization.”
Lecturer Michael DuBon presented on “Cultivating Self-Advocacy in the Frist-Year Classroom and Beyond.”
Assistant Professor Beth Buyserie presented “Writing Queerly: Honoring Fragmented Writing in the Composition Classroom.”
Lecturer Deanna Allred, Principal Lecturer John Engler, Lecturer Jeremy Ricketts, with Assistant Professor Jessica River-Mueller as moderator, presented “Strengthening Writing Partnerships with Concurrent Enrollment Faculty.” Jessica also led a workshop on dual-enrollment composition.
And Distinguished Professor Joyce Kinkead held a pre-conference workshop on inclusive mentoring for undergraduate researchers.