About Our Featured Speaker
27 February 2010
Dr. John Bird teaches American
literature, critical theory, critical thinking,
and composition. His main scholarly
interest is Mark Twain, and he is the
author of the book Mark Twain and
Metaphor (University of Missouri Press,
2007).
Fifth Annual Department of English
Undergraduate/Graduate Research Conference
Saturday ~ February 27, 2010
Withers 401
Welcome: Dr. William Naufftus
Session I: 9:00 AM to 10:15 AM
Seeing and Re-Seeing: New Views of Familiar Texts.
Chair: Dr. Amanda Hiner
Alese Linder, “Shakespeare‟s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
Maslow‟s Hierarchy of Needs: Titania‟s Role in Moving
Bottom Closer to Self-Actualization.”
Stephen Crawford, “Existentialism in Heart of Darkness.”
Lunch
Introducing our speaker: Dr. Jack DeRochi
Featured Speaker: Dr. John Bird
“Mark Twain, Plagiarist: A Case of Literary
‘Borrowing’?”
Session III: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Deep-Versed in Books: Shakespeare and Milton Studies.
Chair: Dr. Matthew Fike
Josh Harris, “Prufrock Battles the World.”
Ruchi Dadheech, “My Perfect Soul: Othello‟s Failure at
Individuation.”
Session II: 10:30 AM to 11:45 AM
Look to the Lady: A Spectrum of Feminist Criticism.
Chair: Dr. Kelly Richardson
Karen Cox, “The Tempest and Confusion over New World
Colonization”
Katherine Parrott, “Hamlet’s Ophelia: Changing Perceptions
of Female Suicide, Death, and Madness in the Elizabethan and
Victorian Periods.”
Cayla Eagon, “A Gender War in Virginia Woolf‟s „A Mark on
the Wall‟.”
Laura Merritt, “From Victim to Slayer: The Evolving Roles of
Women and Power in Vampire Fiction from Dracula to Buffy”
Erika Patterson, “Venus Wanders: The Elliptical Movement
and Duality in Milton‟s Poetical Works”
Stephen Barker, “‟For Smiles from Reason Flow‟: The
Decorum of Smiling and Laughter in Milton‟s Poetry”