COMPOSING WOMEN: Truman’s 16th Annual Women’s and Gender Studies Conference

Sponsored by the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies and the Department of English and Linguistics

Oct. 28 • Violette Hall 1000

10:30-11:45 a.m.
Mothers, whores, and revolutionaries: Representations by and of Russian women
Sarah Mohler, "'Mother and Music’ . . . and Poetry: the Memoirs and Childhood Verses of Ariadna Efron and Their Relation to Marina Tsvetaeva’s Oeuvre”
Sally West, “The Political Is Not Personal: Russian Revolutionary Women’s Memoirs”
Shannon Jumper, “Anna Akhmatova—The Conscience of Russia”

12-1:15 p.m.
Sexual difference?
Kim Josten, “Establishing the Patriarchy”
Virginia Rice, “Superiority of Women: A Study of the Life of Eliza Farnham”
Theresa Presley, “Female Board Presence and the Likelihood of Financial Restatement”
Tonia Passwater, “Gendered Genres: the Reception of Masculine Works Composed by American Women, 1893-1972”

1:30-2:45 p.m.
Powerful women
Janee Johnson, “Isabella d’Este, Powerful Woman of the Renaissance”
Larry Iles, “Mary Agnes Hamilton: Historian, Politician, Novelist, Broadcaster, Social Critic, and Tourist”
Stephanie Hulsey, “Why Did Kagan’s Personal Life Matter?: The Framing of Women with Power”    

3-4:15 p.m.
Politics of the visual
Desiree Teter, “Virtue and Villainy: Visualizations of Women in 18th- and 19th-Century France”
Aaron Fine, “Why Am I Naked?”
Bob Mielke, “The Golden Easel: Sylvia Plath as Visual Artist”

4:30-5:45 p.m.
International women 1
Morgan Tucker, “Agency and Opportunity: Women’s Reactions to Gender-Based Violence in South Africa, 1948-Present”
Elisa Convers, “Weavers of Resilience”
Meg Burik, “The Jungle of Gender Roles: Gender Division in Brazilian Folktales and Performance of Folk Traditions”
Celia Alpuche May, “Selena, A Reflection of the Mexican-American Woman”

Oct. 29 • Violette Hall 1000   

9:30-10:20 a.m.
Female selves
Lauren Greenspan, “Composing the Feminine Self in Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death”
Zakery Palmer, “A Whore or a Woman?: Composing Identities in the Sex Industry”        
   
10:30-11:20 a.m.
Personal testimony 1
Charlotte La Galle, “Sisters”
Jill Kuanfung, “The Inevitable Autumn”       
Lindsey Booher, “A Slave to Society: Silenced by Sex”

11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Dickinson and others
Heather Cianciola, “Composing the Sacred: Transatlanticism and Devotional Verse by 19th-Century Women Poets”
Monica Morrey, “Dickinson and Loy: The ‘Strange Sisters’”

12:30-1:20 p.m.
Myths and stereotypes
Maurine Pfuhl, “The Castrating Woman: A Look at the Role of Gender Stereotypes in Ancient Rome and the Modern Western World” 
Holly Fling, “Madness in Lady Audley’s Secret”

1:30-2:20 p.m.
International women 2
Alyssa Blackford, “Marilyn Hacker and Sappho: Defying Traditional Norms and Glorifying Women Then and Now”
Betsy Delmonico, “Composing Women: Simin Daneshvar”  

2:30-3:20 p.m.
Ecofeminist readings
Courtney King, “To Blame or to Borrow: Applying Classical Texts to Ecofeminism”
Alan Vaughn, “Spirit of Wolverine: An Ecofeminist Reading of Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms”
Matthew Johns, “The Danger of Reductionist Gender Binaries: An Ecofeminist Reading of Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist”

3:30-4:20 p.m.
Pop music divas
Karianne Jones, “k. d. lang: Master of the Carceral”
Lauren Robertson, “Feministing Jazz: Nellie McKay and the Art of Composing Music as Anachronism”
Chris Boning, “Cyborg Aesthetic: The Recent Ascendance of Identification with Non-Human Others among Female Pop Music Artists”

4:30-5:50 p.m.
Keynote lecture
Introduction by Sally West
Anna Hirsch, “Making Out with Mirrors, Microphones, and Memoir and Other
Lessons in Ethical Sluttery

Oct. 30 • Baldwin Hall 231

10:30-11:20 a.m.
Personal testimony 2
Emily Murdock, “Obedience, Piety, and Sweetness of Temper”
Lisa Miller, “Under the Table”
Rachel Brown, “How Emily Dickinson Changed My Life”

11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
The literary letter
Janet B. Davis, “Genre Serving Relationship: the Letters of Heloise”
Katja Liimatta, “Writing the Self: Edith Bruck’s Letter to My Mother”

12:30-1:20 p.m.
At the movies
Trevor Grizzell, “Deepa Mehta’s Elements Trilogy: Diasporic Visions of India”
Shannon Harbaugh, “My Best Friend’s Wedding, Sex and the City, Twilight, and Love and Other Disasters: Tales of Straight Women Desiring Gay Men”

1:30-2:20 p.m.
Fabricating femininity
Mary Hurley, “Monsters, Maidens, or Matrons: Kay Francis, Betty Boop, and the Production Code Administration”
JJ Pionke, “Drag Makes It Better: Performance of the Feminine in RuPaul’s Drag Race and Drag U”

Oct. 30 • Violette Hall 1000  

3-4:15 p.m.
Women composers and performers
Katie Cox, “Letters, Lieder, and Lies: The Relationship between Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms”
Laura Pita, “'She Is Not Only a Wonderful Child but a Real Genius’: Teresa Carreno and the Making of a Female Piano Virtuoso in Victorian America”
Elissa Stroman, “’Elegant Feminine Charm’: Cecile Chaminade’s Piano Works”

4:30-5:45 p.m.
Politics and composition
F. Grace Burgess, “Bridging the Gap: A Study of the Works of Mrs. E. A. Parkhurst”
Tamara Cashour, “A Feminist Aesthetic Platform for Opera: Deconstructing Poulenc-Cocteau’The Human Voice” 
Theodore Moore, “Sofia Gubaidulina’s Resistance to Socialist Realism”     
                 
Oct. 28 • Ophelia Hall Performance Hall

7:30 p.m.
New Music Festival Concert I

8 p.m.
Music by Women
Elizabeth Shoemaker (bassoonist) and Nancy Pounds (pianist), “Love Songs: A Performance of Contemporary Works by Women Composers”

Oct. 29 • Ophelia Hall Performance Hall

1:30 p.m.
New Music Festival Concert II
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