March 15, 2014

Success!

We want to thank everyone for supporting the 2014 GEO Conference this past weekend. The great success of the critical presentations Creative/MFA readings on Saturday is the collective result of the work of all our presenters, plenary speakers and faculty, committee members, moderators, volunteers, and other participants. A special thanks to all the panelists who came from outside the UMD community--come back next year! Thank you so much for contributing to the success of the conference. Have a great remainder of the semester.










Program of Activities

Saturday, March 8, 8:00 - 7:30 PM, Tawes Fine Arts Building

8:00-9:00 AM: Registration and Breakfast - 2nd Floor Foyer

9:00-10:15 AM - SESSION 1: Queer Ecologies and Landscapes - Moderator: Rachel Vorona - Room 3132

1. “Reading Objects: Titus Andronicus and the Ethics of Knowledge,” Jeffrey Griswold, UMD
2. “The Water We Breathe” Haylie Swenson, George Washington University
3. “Object as Subject: Decentering the Human in H.D.’s Sea Garden,” Rhiannon Basile, Rutgers University, Newark

10:25-11:40 AM - SESSION 2: Transgressive Subjectivities and Interrogating the Self - Moderator: Tim Bruno - Room 3132

1. “Outplacement, Biographical Learning, and the Rhetorical Work of English Studies: A Personal-Professional Narrative,” Oliver Brearey, UMD
2. “Mirror, Mirror: The Bluest ‘I’ and the Construction of Pecola’s Subjectivity,” Hannah Dow, Loyola Marymount University
3. “Disabilities and Demigods: Failed Transgressions in Hopkinson’s Sister Mine,” Collier Cobb, UMD

11:45 AM-1:00 PM: LUNCH/MFA READINGS - Moderator: Tim DeMay - 2nd Floor Foyer/Room 2115

1. “Coming of Age” and “N’Djamena, Meaning We Will Rest,” Aaron Brown, UMD
2. “Sanction” and “Translucency,” Noa Saunders, UMD
3. “Banksy,” Radford Skudrna, UMD

1:10-2:40 PM - PLENARY PANEL:  Zones of Trespass - Moderator: Dr. Scott Trudell - Art/Sociology Bldg. Room 2203
1. “Selfhood and the Crisis of Property,” Dr. Sharada Balachandran Orihuela, UMD
2. “Trespassing in Middle English Drama: The Slaughter of the Innocents as Test Case,” Dr. Theresa Coletti, UMD
3. “Those Who Trespass Against: Prison (Writing) Networks, Cordon Sanitaire, and the Imbrication of Space and Identity,” Dr. Christopher Hazlett, UMD

2:50-4:05 PM: SESSION 3

A. Queer Representations - Moderator: John Macintosh - Room 3132

1. “Trespassing Heterotopias: the (Visual) Politics of Queer Selfies and Internet Cultures,” Helis Sikk, College of William and Mary
2. "No Longer Trespassing: Welcoming Alison Bechdel and Fun Home into Mainstream Publishing Markets," Ruth Elizabeth Morris, UMD
3. “Native Exile: Queerness, Coming of Age, and ‘Thirdspace’ in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy,” Kelley Grashoff, George Washington University

B. Trespassing in the Political Sphere - Moderator: Jamison Kantor - Room 3136

1. “Revisiting Those ‘Unspeakable Things’: Socio-Political Resistance and Cultural Reformation in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Clotel; or the President’s Daughter,” Christopher Varlack, Morgan State University
2. “Josephine Herbst and the Transgressive Nature of Reproductive Modernism,” Liz DePriest, UMD
3. “The [Girl] Power of Capitalism: Appropriations of a Subversive Feminist Movement,” Cassie Clark, George Washington University

4:15-5:30 PM: Session 4


A. After/Life - Moderator: Molly Marotta - Room 3132
1. “Cultures of the Dead: Anonymity and Structures of Feeling in Gray’s Elegy,” Jonathan C. Williams, UMD
2. “Destruction and Reconstitution: The Body as a Book in John Donne,” Stephen Rojcewicz, UMD
3. “Living Trespass: Metaphysical Exchange on the Border of Life and Death,” Kayla Harr, UMD

B. Violence Without Bounds - Moderator: Emily Perez - Room 3136
1. “Sexual Violence in the Mbembean Postcolony: The Grounded Flight of En-Zombied Resistance in Edwidge Danticat’s Breath, Eyes, Memory,” Sarah Bonnie, UMD
2. “Familiar Monsters: Feuds, Fratricide, and Failure in Beowulf,” Jennifer Ross, UMD
3. “Trespassing on Trauma: What Makes Some Concentration Camp Narratives More Popular Than Others,” Nicole Sybesma, Rutgers University

5:45-7:30 PM: RECEPTION/MFA READINGS - Moderator: Tim DeMay - 2nd Floor Foyer/Room 2115
1. “Manhunt,” Emily Banks, UMD
2. “Transubstantiation,” Ruth Elizabeth Morris, UMD
3. “Fig Leaf” and “Love Song to the Demon-Possessed Pigs of Gadara,” Will Faragason, UMD