Program-60
Legacies: Nostalgia, Adaptation, and Reimaginings
Conference Schedule (UTC-7) PDT
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Session 1, 9:30-10:45 am
Panel 1: Deceit and Plausibility in Strategies of Literary Discourse
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Melanie Swan (University College London): The Future of the Past: Literary Remix as a Legacy of Resistance
Dr. Paul Cahill (Pomona College): (Re)membering the Baroque in Manuel Mantero鈥檚 Poemas exclusivos
Dr. Donna Nicol (MD传媒入口): What We Build from Fragments: Ethics, Imagination, and Historical Responsibility.
Syeda Azhar (Air University, Islamabad; UC Santa Barbara): Reading Lahore as Urban Text: Cognitive Mapping and Social Surveillance in In the Company of Strangers (2019)
Panel 2: Through time and trauma: Moving toward the postcolonial
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Jolee Estrada (MD传媒入口): 鈥淥ur bodies, our territories鈥: Discovering Cuerpo-Territorio in Anna Burns鈥 Milkman
Tsavia Jack (MD传媒入口): Telling Our Own Stories: Natives' Survival Through Literature
Michael Barry (Boston University): 鈥淧rophecy and Pregnancy鈥: Revolutionary Disappointment and Decolonial Futurity in The Colour of Forgetting
Session 2: 11-12:15 pm
Panel 3: Whom Does Legacy Serve?: Reading and Remembering Christa Wolf For Our Sake
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Itzel Benitez (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Robert Blankenship (MD传媒入口): Working Literature: Clemens Meyer, Christa Wolf, and the Legacy of the Bitterfelder Weg
Emery Pham (MD传媒入口) and Lani Chavez (MD传媒入口): The Perversion of War as Glory: Christa Wolf鈥檚 Critique of Masculine Nostalgia
Kevin P. Eubanks (US Naval War College): Being-there: Heidegger, Wolf, and Literature as Care
Panel 4: Disability studies and health humanities: reclaiming one's body and identity
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Crystal Lie (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Jade Saffery (MD传媒入口): 鈥淣ow, have you ever admired your body in a mirror?鈥: Reflecting (on) Monstered and/or Marginalized Bodies in Oreo through its Parallels to the Theseus Myth
Jessica King (CUNY): The Legacy of My Body and its Literature: Transforming a Health Diary into an Autoethnography
Alexandria Morales (MD传媒入口): Civilization and Its Malcontents: Mad Resistance to Doctored Identity in Lidia Yuknavitch鈥檚 Dora: a Headcase
Zack Medway (MD传媒入口): Blood and Bowels: A Comparative Study of Shakespeare鈥檚 Coriolanus and Dante鈥檚 Inferno
Session 3: 12:30-1:45 pm
Panel 5: Rewriting Ableist Legacies: Intersectional Interdisciplinary Student Interventions
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Crystal Lie (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Akira Carey (MD传媒入口): Mapping Illness Beyond the Body: Audre Lorde, GIS, and the Spatial Legacies of Cancer
Kai Dababneh (MD传媒入口): Graphic Reimagining of Transgender Arab Identity
Chloe Fuji (MD传媒入口): The Courage to Look Back: Autoethnography, Adolescence, and the Afterlives of Illness Metaphor
Karen Tran (MD传媒入口): A New Age of Representation: Exploring the Disabled, Asian Experience in Modern Media
Panel 6: Raising the Dead: The Ontology of Resurrection
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Jeffrey High (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Kimberly Wong (MD传媒入口): Fear in a Handful of Dust: Intertextuality in R. F. Kuang鈥檚 Katabasis
Katharine Fullerton (Scripps College): Breeding Lilacs Out of the Dead: Tradition, Time, and Renewal in T.S. Eliot
Fiona Eustace (MD传媒入口): Say, Jesus Christ of Nazareth - Do You Also Doubt Your God? Ontological Rebellion in Emily Dickinson
Session 4: 2-3:15 pm
Keynote 1
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Amy DeSuza (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
David F. Walker (Portland University): On the Offensive: Reimagining Classic Literature Through the Graphic Novel
Session 5: 3:30-4:45 pm
Panel 7: Re-evaluating the legacy of the ancient past
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Amy DeSuza (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Aurora Dorsett (MD传媒入口): Legacies of Oppression and Empowerment: The Duality of Euripides鈥 Medea
Parker Ripley Ryane Ward (MD传媒入口): Even a Goddess: Continued Female Erasure and Subjugation in Adaptations and Teachings of Homeric Hymn 鈥淭o Demeter鈥
Logan Becker (MD传媒入口): The Odyssey through a Modern Lens
Nicholas Perez (MD传媒入口): Inheriting a Prophecy: The Skywalker Legacy
Panel 8: The legacy of colonialism
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Emeer Hassanpour (UCLA): Permanent Fanonism: The Colonized Algeria in the Novel Tomorrow is a New Day
Dr. Amir Sharifi (MD传媒入口) and Dr. Ali Ashouri (SDSU): Nostalgia and Memory
Session 6: 5:30-6:30 pm
Comparative World Literature and Classics Graduation Party
Location: Anatol Center Patio, AS-120
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Session 7, 9:30-10:45 am
Panel 9: Tall Tales, Villains, Heroes and Superheroes
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Jos茅 Rodriguez (MD传媒入口): Legacies of the Unkillable: Ethical Cognizance and the Deadpool Trilogy as Nostalgic Reimagining
Wendy Abrego-Mrianda (Fresno State University): A Contemporary Heroic Failure: Examining Odysseus鈥檚 Modern Heroic Shortcomings in Homer鈥檚 The Odyssey
Inu Uong (MD传媒入口): The deception that underlies Aesop's Fables
Norma Frias (MD传媒入口): Drawing Outside the Lines: Redefining Gender and Femininity Through Visual Narratives in Princess Jellyfish and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow
Panel 10: Genre's Legacy, Present, and Future
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Viola Lasmana (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Roundtable with Alyssa Agudelo, Kaitlyn Langford, Jorge Alas, Aiden Jackson, Emily Trejo, Leslie Villamil, Levon Parseghian
Session 8: 11-12:15 pm
Panel 11: The Contemporary Echo of Transnational Women Writers 1800 to the Present
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Clorinda Donato (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Hilary Stern (MD传媒入口): Genere, Filantropia e Transnazionalismo: Il Caso di Teresa Filangieri Ravaschieri
Michael Fahy (MD传媒入口): The Destiny of a Woman of Genius: Legacies as Inspiration in Madame de Sta毛l鈥檚 Corinne (1807) and George Sand鈥檚 Consuelo (1842)
Lyn Embree (MD传媒入口): Becoming 鈥淥ne of the Greats鈥: Female Genius and the Reimagining of Literary Legacy Across Two Centuries
Alessandra Balzani (MD传媒入口 and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya): Across the Color Line: Colonial Rome and the Postcolonial Present in Igiaba Scego鈥檚 La Linea del Colore
Panel 12: Theorizing Stereotypical Frameworks in Digital Worlds
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
John Ripetoe (MD传媒入口) & David Hiroki Herrero (MD传媒入口): Genuine Character or Caricature? Navigating Racial Representation in Gaming
Nathan Bay (MD传媒入口): Representation of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Video Games through the Character River Wyles from To The Moon
Olly Tetrault (MD传媒入口): The Underworld of Over the Garden Wall and Ultrakill: Dante's Inferno in the Twenty-First Century
Session 9: 12:30-1:45 pm
Panel 13: The Gender of Violence and Legacies of Kinship
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Carlos Diaz (Texas Tech University): The Spectral in Lone Women鈥Grappling with Haunting Legacies and Redemption Through Solidarity
Adriana Lopez (MD传媒入口): Why Women Kill: How Oyinkan Braithwaite鈥檚 My Sister, The Serial Killer Reinvents the Femme Fatale
Kaitlyn Langford (MD传媒入口): Medea Unbound: Victimhood, Villainy, and Female Agency in Euripides鈥 Medea and Geoffrey Chaucer鈥檚 Legend of Good Women
Lesley Gouger (MD传媒入口): The Future of Families: An examination of alternative family units as seen in science-fiction and speculative fiction
Panel 14: Estranged Returns-Histories of the Future
Location: AS-125, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Selena Torres (CSULA): The "Sinking World" of Commodity Fetishism: The Social, Environmental, and "Nonhuman鈥 Destruction in Rina Sawayama鈥檚 鈥淴S鈥 (2020)
Tzarina Sophia Ramos Zapata (MD传媒入口): 鈥淭ell Them This is My Home鈥: Anticipatory Nostalgia in Bad Bunny鈥檚 DeB脥 TiRAR M谩S FOToS
Daniel McKay (New Mexico Military Institute): Crouching Tiger, Hidden Heritage: Reading the Miniature in Ken Liu鈥檚 鈥淭he Paper Menagerie鈥
Olivia Hakey (MD传媒入口): With 鈥淪edulous Pursuit鈥: Exploring Legacies of Gendered Resistance in The Lady鈥檚 Magazine (1770-1832)
Session 10: 2-3:15 pm
Keynote 2
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Karen Tei Yamashita (UCSC): Questions 27 & 28
Session 11: 3:30-4:45 pm
Workshop 15: Through the Eyes of the Other: Embodied Activism via Reimagined Texts
Location: Anatol Center, AS-119, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Raven Pfister (MD传媒入口)
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Raven Pfister, Zakiya Atkinson
Friday, April 24, 2026
Session 12: 9:30-10:45 am
Panel 16: Feminism, Memory, and Transformation
Location: Zoom, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Irina Rabinovich (Holon Institute of Technology, Israel): Between Memory and Madness: The Legacy of Nostalgia in Rose Gollup-Cohen鈥檚 Autobiographical Writing
Thao Vu (Virginia Tech): Death by Water and 艑e Kenzabur艒鈥檚 Unheralded Feminist Rotation
Dr. Maria Chan (Hong Kong Shue Yan University): Re-voicing the Mermaid:鈥疐rom鈥疭ilence鈥痶o鈥疭ong
Mackenzie Patterson (Boston University): Demythologizing Feminist Legacies: Race, Myth, and Speculative Futures
Session 13: 11-12:15 pm
Panel 17: The Legacies of Narratives, the Narrative of Legacy
Location: Zoom, Zoom link
Moderator:
Zoom Captain:
Francesco Rossetti (University of Milan): Nostalgia for Utopia, Reimagined: Armenian Children鈥檚 Songs in Venice
Dr. John Bessai (Independent Scholar): Legacy Systems, Living Texts: Platform Succession and the Afterlives of NFB Interactive Storytelling
Dr. Mihaela Precup (University of Bucharest): Spaces of Nostalgia and Social Critique in My Golden Age I and II by Daniel Horia
Ritika Suryavanshi (Independent Scholar): From Silence to Solidarity: Translating East Asian Women's Voices from the Margins to Global Feminist Discourse
Session 14: 12:30-1:45 pm
Panel 18: Reclamations
Location: Zoom, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Katherine McLoone
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Sarah Zahed (Westfield State University): Column as Counter Archive: Legacy, Liminality, and Erasure in Sayed Kashua鈥檚 Native
Hessam Abedini (University of Oregon): Halitosis and Inheritance: Narrative Technologies of Genealogical Reclamation in Tarsusi鈥檚 Darabnameh
S. Aiswarya (Vellore Institute of Technology, India) & Dr. Saraswathy Selvarajan (Vellore Institute of Technology, India): Tracing settler colonial shadows through Indigenous futurism in Darcie Little Badger鈥檚 novels
Session 15: 2-3:15 pm
Panel 19: The Anthropocene and Beyond
Location: Zoom, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Katherine McLoone
Zoom Captain:
Dr. Inna H盲kkinen (University of Helsinki): Solastalgic Landscape: Botanical Agency in post-Chernobyl Toxic Narrative
Dr. Antonella De Blasio (Universit脿 eCampus, Italy): Inhabiting Legacy: Ecological Imagination
Dr. Mohammed Shafeer (Independent Researcher): From Patriotism to the Legacy of Gandhian Nationalism: Evolution of Hyper Nationalism and Hegemony of the Right Wing in India
Dr. Thakurdas Jana (Indus University, India) & Dr. Ritendra Sharma (Indus University, India): Becoming A Human-Animal: Revisiting the Therianthropes in Indian Mythology
Session 16: 3:30-4:45 pm
Panel 20: Legacies of Violence and Power
Location: Zoom, Zoom link
Moderator: Dr. Katherine McLoone
Zoom Captain:
Jesse S. Cohn (Purdue University Northwest): "Everything was wrong鈥: Postnormal historicity in three science fiction novels of the early postfascist period
Adri谩n Arana-Armesto (University of the Basque Country): Riding the Ruins: Nostalgia, Violence, and the Vanishing Frontier in McCarthy and McMurtry
Zhu Yanchang (Zhejiang Normal University): Recapitulating the Industrial Revolution: Jules Verne鈥檚 The Mysterious Island as a Didactic Epic of Applied Science
Scott Ennis (Independent scholar and poet): From Urizen to the Anunnaki: Romantic Myth and the Reimagining of Ancient Authority
