2011 URI Conference Program - URI Graduate Student Conference

The University Of Rhode Island
URI2011
Graduate Conference
[Pre]Occupations: Working, Seizing, Dwelling
April 16, 2011

G r a d u a t e C o n f e r e n c e
URI2011
[Pre]Occupations:
W O R K I N G , S E I Z I N G , D W E L L I N G
The 5th Annual Graduate Student Conference
hosted by Graduate Students in the Department of English at the University of Rhode Island
T
he Latin root of “occupation”—occupare—accounts for the word’s aggressive,
militaristic sense: to seize or to capture. While “occupation” still retains this meaning,
it also comes to signify one’s profession, the office that one holds, or the work
that one does within or on a culture, a nation, or a world. But this word also has
a material dimension—an abode, a building, a dwelling—as well as a ruminative
sense—an abiding, a dwelling, a letting be. These dimensions or senses demonstrate
the agility of “occupation,” but to them we also add something else: that
occupations often precede us, sweeping us into a being or becoming preoccupied.
This year we hope that our title [Pre]Occupations captures these competing and
collaborating dimensions, opening a field of exciting and exigent problematics:
What history or histories might one claim? What periods seize one’s interest?
What miracles, joys, sadnesses, or violences [pre]occupy a reader, a worker, or a
citizen? What labors does one undergo in order to live? What perpetual efforts
does one attempt in order to make a present, a home, or a dwelling? What wars
of nations or ideas, what occupations, what trespasses belabor the self and/or the
other? What does it mean to be at work in a world or on a world?
About the Cover
The photography on our cover is the work of Anna Williams. Born in Richmond, VA, she studied
photography at the University of the South where visiting professor Owen Butler told her, "If you
want to shoot, start assisting." She moved to New York, converted a tiny East Village bathroom
into a darkroom, and assisted some of the top studio photographers of the time. A few years
later she was out on her own and was recognized by PDN's 30 under 30 for her outstanding
photography. Since then, Anna has been shooting for clients such as Martha Stewart Living,
Real Simple, O Magazine, Food & Wine, and Williams Sonoma. She lives in Brooklyn with her
husband, daughter, and son. Her work is featured at www.thevoracity.com and
www.annawilliamsphotography.com
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G r a d u a t e C o n f e r e n c e
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Dear Conference Participants:
As Co-Chairs, and on behalf of the 2011 URI Graduate Conference
Committee, we would like to warmly welcome you to the 5th Annual University
of Rhode Island Graduate Student Conference “[Pre]Occupations: Working,
Seizing, Dwelling.” The aim of our graduate student conference is to advance
innovative scholarship, assist intellectual dialogue, promote academic exchange
and network professionally. Our conference panels facilitate the integration of
faculty, promising scholars and colleagues in an interdepartmental intellectual
conversation. In addition to today’s 17 conference panels, we are very excited to
bring you two highly respected speakers.
We are honored that Professor Timothy Brennan will deliver our 2011
keynote address—a most gracious act on his part, particularly since our conference
interrupts his current research in Germany. Professor Brennan’s recent
work, which highlights the political implications of intellectual preoccupations,
speaks directly to our conference topic. Due to his distinguished and disciplineshaping
work, and because we are engaged by his recent reflections on, as well as
concerns for, the interface between theory and politics, we are privileged to have
him join our intellectual exchange.
We are also very pleased that Professor Martha Elena Rojas will open
our conference with the plenary address. Professor Rojas’s recent works have
investigated the occupation of the author/writer during turbulent historical and
political times, analyzing self-fashioning on the part of the individual and on the
part of the nation. Her plenary address features a section from her current book
manuscript.
“[Pre]Occupations: Working, Seizing, Dwelling” is the culmination of a
year of careful and creative planning on the part of the Conference Committee.
As Co-Chairs, we have been both fortunate and delighted to be part of this
process with our dedicated peers. Without the hard work of over 25 individuals
this event would not be impossible. We would like to thank all committee members
for their efforts this year; you inspire us.
We hope that you enjoy our full day of conference events and will
return to the University of Rhode Island again in the not too distant futurewhether
for next year’s conference or to pursue further academic study.
Sincerely,
Kim Evelyn and Michael D. Becker
Co-Chairs
2011 URI Graduate Student Conference Committee
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SPONSORS
We wish to thank our sponsors, whose generous financial and material support
has made this conference possible. The 2011 URI Graduate Student Conference
Committee gratefully acknowledges:
URI African and African American Studies Program
URI Alumni Association
URI Center for the Humanities
URI College of Arts and Sciences’ Richard Beaupre Hope and Heritage Fund
URI Department of Communication Studies
URI Department of English
URI Department of History
URI Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures
URI Department of Writing and Rhetoric
URI Division of Research and Economic Development
Graduate Assistants United
URI Chapter of the American Association of University Professors
URI Graduate School
URI Graduate School of Library and Information Studies
URI Health Services
URI Women’s Studies Program
URI Bookstore
Short-N-Sweet Candy
Arturo Joe’s Italian Grill
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SPECIAL THANKS
Our conference embodies what is possible when deeply committed gradu-
ate students, faculty and staff work together across fields and disciplines to
facilitate scholarly dialogue. As Graduate Students in the Department of English,
we are grateful for the continued support and encouragement of our faculty.
The 2011 URI Graduate Student Conference Committee extends heartfelt
thanks to our Department Chair, Professor Ryan Trimm, and to our Director of
Graduate Studies, Professor Naomi Mandel for her advice, support, and involve-
ment.
Additionally, we thank Michelle Caraccia of the Department of English for
her support, consideration, and patient assistance. We are grateful to Anita
Burke, former Department of English Graduate Secretary, for her assistance.
We gratefully acknowledge Jason Clarke for his generous contribution of
graphic and program design. We are grateful to Anna Williams and Mason Adams
for permission to use Anna’s striking photograph of the clock in the Musée
d’Orsay.
We extend our thanks to former Conference Committee coordinators
Laurie Carlson, Stephen Marchand, Jenn Brandt, and Sara Murphy for their advice
and support. Finally, we wish to thank our graduate colleagues and faculty for
their continued encouragement and support.
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2011 URI GRADUATE STUDENT
CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
Michael D. Becker
Co-Chair
Naomi Fosher
Finance Chair
Matthew Balliro
Web Design
Sarah Maitland
Outreach
Rachel Boccio
Outreach
Elysia Michaels
Hospitality
Donald Rodrigues
Hospitality
Fredrik deBoer
Programming & Logistics
Megan Crowley
Programming & Logistics
Rebekah Greene
Programming & Logistics
Wendy Grosskopf
Programming & Logistics
Jason Peters
Member at Large
Elizabeth Pitts
Member at Large
Laurie Rodrigues
Member at Large
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Kim Evelyn
Co-Chair
Bridget Heaney
Finance
Benjamin D. Hagen
CFP Writer
J.C. Lee
Outreach
Brittany Hirth
Outreach
Erin Vachon
Hospitality
Chisa Oshiro
Hospitality
Gavin Hurley
Programming & Logistics
Beazley Kanost
Programming & Logistics
Sarah Kruse
Programming & Logistics
Gabriel Romaguera
Programming & Logistics
James Gorham
Member at Large
Sarah Kingston
Member at Large
Barnaby McLaughlin
Member at Large

G r a d u a t e C o n f e r e n c e
URI2011
SCHEDULE
8:00 - 8:30 a.m. Registration Opens with Continental Breakfast
Hoffmann Room
8:30 - 9:30 a.m. Plenary Address by Professor Martha Elena Rojas,
University of Rhode Island
Introduction by Sara Murphy, PhD Candidate
Room 305
9:30 - 10:45 a.m. Session I
10:45 - 11:00 a.m. Coffee Break
Hoffmann Room
11:00 - 12:15 p.m. Session II
12:15 - 1:15 p.m. Lunch On Your Own
1:15 - 2:30 p.m. Session III
2:30 - 2:45 p.m. Coffee Break
Hoffmann Room
2:45 - 4:00 p.m. Session IV
4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Closing Reception
University Club
“On Industry: Literary Occupation in the Early Republic”
Dr. Martha Elena Rojas is an Assistant Professor of English at
University of Rhode Island. She teaches Early American,
Antebellum, and maritime U.S. literature and culture, and is
currently at work on a book manuscript entitled Diplomatic
Letters: Becoming a Nation Among Nations.
Keynote Address by Professor Timothy Brennan,
University of Minnesota
Introduction by Benjamin D. Hagen, PhD Candidate
Agnes G. Doody Auditorium
“Homiletic Realism and Imperial Form”
Dr. Timothy Brennan is a Professor of English, Cultural Studies
& Comparative Literature, and American Studies at The
University of Minnesota where he works on the relationship
between comparative literature, world literature, and global
English. His most recent books include Secular Devotion:
Afro-Latin Music and Imperial Jazz (2008), Wars of Position: The
Cultural Politics of Left and Right (2006), and At Home in the
World: Cosmopolitanism Now (1997).
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION 1 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Panel A – The Church, the Wood, the Mirror: Proust’s Spatial Aesthetics
Room 306, Moderator: Professor Stephen Barber
•
•
•
Sarah Kruse, University of Rhode Island
Proust and the Imagined Image in Art
Elysia Michaels, University of Rhode Island
Possession, Obsession, and the Anatomy of Desire in
Proust's Swann's Way
Gavin Hurley, University of Rhode Island
The “Church” of Proust: Religion and Reality within Swann’s Way
Panel B - The Self and the State: Stereotypes, Privacy, Accountability,
and Nationhood
Room 309, Moderator: Mihaela Harper
•
•
•
•
Gregory M. Tomlin, George Washington University
In the Shadow of The Shoah: Holocaust Memory and the Founding of
the State of Israel
Ryan Drugan, University of Rhode Island
Electoral Accountability of House Leaders for Economic Conditions
1994-2008
Kaitlin Affrunti, College of St. Rose
Defamiliarizing Stereotypes in Andew X. Pham’s Catfish and Mandala
Robynn Butler, University of Rhode Island
Occupations: Personal Privacy vs. National Security—To Seize One’s
Mind, One’s Home, One’s Vote
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION 1 9:30 - 10:45 a.m.
Panel C - Machines of Industry: Capitalism, Media Culture,
and Self-Identity in the Postmodern
Room 311, Moderator: Matthew Balliro
•
•
•
Scott Reznick, Trinity College
Shopping at The Gap: The Space Between Subjects of Late Capitalism in
David Foster Wallace’s “Mister Squishy”
Sarah Hurd, State University of New York—New Paltz
Reality and Respresentation: DeLillo, Media Culture and Individual
Identity
Daniel Uebbing, State University of New York—Brockport
Phenomenological Ecology in the Poetry of A.R. Ammons and Jorie
Graham
Panel D - Creative Resistance: Art, Leisure, and Revision
Room 313, Moderator: Bridget Heaney
•
•
•
•
Elizabeth Flyntz, State University of New York—Buffalo
Erotic Economies: A Look at Contemporary Artist-Produced Economies
Jocelyn Bailey, University of Arkansas
Rewriting to Resist: Narrative, Sexual Politics, and Child’s Revision of the
Amelia Norman Trial
Julia Timpe, Brown University
Transforming the Shop Floor into a Space of Leisure: The Nazi Leisure
Organization’s Program for German Workers in the Third Reich
Michelle Charest, Brown University
Kittens Behind the Bar and Ghosts in the Shaft: Coping with Mining Life
in Late 19th Century Nevada
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G r a d u a t e C o n f e r e n c e
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION II 11:00 - 12:15 p.m.
Panel A - In Solidarity: Graduate Students & Collective Bargaining
in Academia
Room 305, Moderator: Shira Hirshberg, Graduate Assistants United Secretary
•
•
•
Courtney Schmidt, GAU Vice-President, University of Rhode Island
Graduate Assistants United: Who We Are & How We Came to Be
Jack Szczepanski, GAU Treasurer, University of Rhode Island
Graduate Student Union Organization: Maintaining an Active and
Informed Membership
Stephen Marchand, GAU President, University of Rhode Island
Graduate Student Unions; Their Function & Role in University Affairs
Panel B - To Elude or Dodge: God, Science, Desire, and Justice
Room 306, Moderator: Sara Murphy
• Jordan Miller, Salve Regina University
C. G. Jung’s God, Différance, and Job: Toward Emmanuel Levinas’ Ethics
•
•
•
Robyn J. Lemanski, Seton Hall University
Desire Unfulfilled: The Lacanian Presence in E.M. Forster’s Howards End
Brittany Hirth, University of Rhode Island
A World Without Justice: Dodging Culpability in Albert Camus’s The Fall
Joseph Meyer, University of Rhode Island
Conceptualizations of Psychological Phenomena: Minds and Statistics at
Work on the World
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION II 11:00 - 12:15 p.m.
Panel C - Emblems of Occupation: The Problems of Space, Work, Tragedy
Room 309, Moderator: Megan Crowley
•
•
•
Emily G. Jones, Boston University
“Beloved / Of all the trades in Rome”: (O)economics, Occupation, and
the Gendered Body in Coriolanus
Julie Bowman, Carnegie Mellon University
Household Invasions: A Preliminary Exploration of Household Space in
Arden of Faversham and The Duchess of Malfi
Fredrik deBoer, University of Rhode Island
Monstrosity and Surplus Value: Caliban and Marx in The Tempest
Panel D - Acts of Subjectivity: Ideology, Identity, and Interpellation
Room 311, Moderator: Beazley Kanost
• Navid Farnia, Columbia University
Post-Racialism and Colorblindness: A Historical Analysis of New
Paradigms of Racism
•
•
John Palella, State University of New York—Albany
Lovers, Lawbreakers, and Letter-Writers: Gay Subjectivity, Interpellation,
and Community Building in 1970’s America
Cynthia Cohen, State University of New York—Binghamton
The Role of Wittgenstein’s Undifferentiated Concept of Rules in Jürgen
Habermas’s The Theory of Communicative Action
Panel E - Postcolonial Consciousness: Hybridity, Desire, Nationalism
Room 313, Moderator: Kim Evelyn
•
•
•
Amanda Marchetti, Millersville University
The Effects of Narrative Structure on Time in Post-Colonial Literature
Emily A. LaPointe, The College of St. Rose
A Crisis of Identity: Hybridity in Nervous Conditions and District 9
Tania L. Balan-Gaubert, Columbia University
Parchment, Inkwell, Blood and Bayonet: Redefining Maroonage and the
Death of the Haitian Maroon
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION III 1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
Panel A - Modernist Moments and Forces: Love, Labor, and Freedom
Room 306, Moderator: Michael D. Becker
•
•
•
•
Deena ElGenaidi, Villanova University
Flying to Freedom: Stephen Dedalus’s Nietzschian Journey
Nan Zhang, Johns Hopkins University
“The tiny interval” Between the Acts
Christian Gerzso, New York University
Useless Drudgery and Idle Thoughts: Intellectual Labor and the Politics
of Leisure in George Orwell’s Early Reportage
Benjamin D. Hagen, University of Rhode Island
A Love That Ends The World: On D.H. Lawrence’s Women In Love
Panel B - Occupations of Mind: Epistemology and Self in the Written Word
Room 309, Moderator: Laurie Carlson
•
•
•
•
Timothy M. Curran, Seton Hall University
Divide and Conquer: Phrenological Discourse in The Ordeal of Richard
Feverel and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Marshall Ennis, State University of New York—Oswego
Neuroimaging and Semantic Theory
Pamela Marean, University of Massachusetts—Dartmouth
Giving Form to an Emerging Multidimensional Subject: Occupation of a
Sustainability Writer
Mary B. Hale, University of Illinois—Chicago
Unreasonably Derived: The Question of Origins in Great Expectations
and The Great Gatsby
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION III 1:15 - 2:30 p.m.
Panel C - Politics, Memory, and Labor: Approaches to 19th Century America
Room 311, Moderator: Sarah Maitland
• Chisa Oshiro, University of Rhode Island
Henry David Thoreau and Chang-rae Lee’s Minimalism in Space and
Anarchism
•
•
•
Trevor C. Meyer, University of Northern Colorado
An Overly Smooth Rough: Whitman and the Problematic of Labor in
Leaves of Grass
Anna Imperial, Columbia University
Segments of a Historically Political Existence: The Cotton Diaries &
Gumby Scrapbooks
Nilofar Syed, University of Rhode Island
God Forbid…A Loss of Faith in Catherine Maria Sedgwick’s
Hope Leslie
Panel D - Foundations of 21st Century Pedagogy: Physical, Professional,
and Personal Development
Room 313 Moderator: Fredrik deBoer
•
•
•
•
Alison Novak, Drexel University
Paid vs. Unpaid Internships: Student Attitudes and Opinions
Joseph P. da Silva, University of Rhode Island
The Physical Evidence of Curriculum on Public Schoolhouse Design in
Rhode Island: A Historical Reference and Architectural Index of Existing
Public K-12 Facilities
Wendy Grosskopf, University of Rhode Island
Writing the 21st Century: Increasing Intellect, Constructing Morals
(With Commitment!) and Teaching in the Cognitivist Tradition
Sara Murphy, University of Rhode Island
Preoccupation “Between the Buckle and the Belt”: Grief Work of Sexual
Loss in the Undergraduate English Classroom
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION IV 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Panel A - Dwelling (In Writing): The Uncontainable, Unstable,
and Inescapable
Room 306, Moderator: Sarah Kruse
•
•
•
Benjamin M.W. Brand, Brown University
(Pre-)Occupied with Writing: Misunderstood Writing and the Misreadings
of Goethe, Kafka and Paul Auster
Erin Guydish, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Postmodern Relationships Between Authors, Readers, and Subjectivity
Libby Goddard, University of Miami
Dwelling in Inexpressibility: Beckett and the Preoccupation of Existence
in Textes pour Rien/Texts for Nothing
Panel B - Contemporary American Fiction: The Mercurial,
the Material, the Profane
Room 309, Moderator: Donald Rodrigues
•
•
•
Matthew Balliro, University of Rhode Island
The Work (And Play) of Profanation: Giorgio Agamben and David
Foster Wallace
Gabriel E. Romaguera, University of Rhode Island
Mercurial Meaning: How Authorial Intention Shifts in Microserialized
Works
J.C. Lee, University of Rhode Island
Materialism and the American Dream: Increased Consumption and the
Appropriation of Consumer Identities and a New Rags to Riches
Mythos
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SCHEDULE OF PRESENTATIONS
SESSION IV 2:45 - 4:00 p.m.
Panel C - Labor and Curiosity: 19th Century British Women Writers
Room 311, Moderator: Brittany Hirth
•
•
•
•
Dana M. Harrison, Temple University
The “Stamp of Pain”: Sacrificing Workers’ Bodies in the Industrial Novels
of Elizabeth Gaskell
Sarah Feldberg, Clark University
“The Most Flourishing Grisette”: Labor, Sexuality and Textiles in Bronte’s
Villette
Colleen Kropp, Temple University
George Eliot and the French Salon
Sarah Maitland, University of Rhode Island
The Motions of Formation in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and
Northanger Abbey
Panel D - 20th Century American Socioeconomic and
Socioecological Selfhood
Room 313, Moderator: Marcy Isabella
•
•
•
•
Donald Vincent, Emerson College
Giving Back: Zora Neale Hurston’s Influence on a
Young Writer/Activist
Heather Gunnoud, University of Rhode Island
Housework and the Meditative Space
Anthony Schiappa, Columbia University
Radical Consumption: Commodity Negation and the “Race Riot”
Timothy Griffiths, City University of New York
Of Hobos, Farmers, and Geologists: Mixed Environments, Dual Alientation,
and the Emblems of Occupation in Breece D’J Pancake’s
“Trilobites”
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Kaitlin Affrunti
Jocelyn Bailey
Tania Balan-Gaubert
Matthew Balliro
Elisa Jane Boyton
Julie Bowman
Benjamin M.W. Brand
Robynn Butler
Michelle Charest
Cynthia Cohen
Timothy Curran
Joseph da Silva
Fredrik deBoer
Ryan Drugan
Deena ElGenaidi
Marshall Ennis
Navid Farnia
Sarah Feldberg
Elizabeth Flyntz
Christian Gerzso
Libby Goddard
Laurie Carlson
Megan Crowley
Matthew Balliro
Professor Stephen Barber
Michael D. Becker
Fredrik deBoer
Kim Evelyn
Michaela Harper
Presenters
Timothy Griffiths
Wendy Grosskopf
Heather Gunnoud
Erin Guydish
Benjamin D. Hagen
Mary B. Hale
Dana Harrison
Brittany Hirth
Sarah Hurd
Gavin Hurley
Anna Imperial
Emily G. Jones
Brian Krautler
Colleen Kropp
Sarah Kruse
Emily LaPointe
J.C. Lee
Robyn Lemanksi
Sarah Maitland
Stephen Marchand
Amanda Marchetti
Moderators
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Bridget Heaney
Shira Hirschberg
Brittany Hirth
Marcy Isabella
Beazley Kanost
Sarah Kruse
Sarah Maitland
Sara Murphy
Donald Rodrigues
Pamela Marean
Joseph Meyer
Trevor C. Meyer
Elysia Michaels
Jordan Miller
Sara Murphy
Alison Novak
Chisa Oshiro
John Palella
Scott Reznick
Gabriel Romaguera
Michael Ruegger
Anthony Schiappa
Courtney Schmidt
Nilofar Syed
Jack Szczepanski
Julia Timpe
Gregory Tomlin
Daniel Uebbing
Donald Vincent
Nan Zhang

URI2011
G r a d u a t e C o n f e r e n c e