Screenwriter Alumna Returns for Senior Seminar
The English and Linguistics Department will welcome Akela Cooper, Hollywood screenwriter and Truman alumna, as the keynote speaker for its senior seminar April 23-24.
Cooper is an active screenwriter who has scripted episodes for television shows such as "Grimm" and "The 100." She got her start in Hollywood by attending the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, one of the oldest and most reputable film schools, after graduating from Truman in 2004. Visit the Truman Review archives to learn more about Cooper and her Hollywood career.
While at Truman she will give two presentations. The first, titled “When Nobody Knows Your Name: How Grad School Helped Me Start My Screenwriting,” will be at 12 p.m. April 23 in Student Union Building Georgian Room B. Her second, titled “Folklore as Persuasion in Grimm and the 100,” is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. April 24 in the Student Union Building Activities Room.
In addition to Cooper’s talks, there will be 75 capstone presentations with a wide range of topics from masterpieces, such as "The Great Gatsby," to new media, including video games like "Kingdom Hearts," as well as original compositions.
A full schedule of presentations is as follows.
April 23
9-10:20 a.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 2016
Moderator: Rebecca Dierking
Emily Schwent: “Associations, Aspirations, and Outcasts in the 1920s: An Analysis of 'Passing' in Nella Larsen’s Works and Life”
Jessica Chiodini: “Larsen, Toomer, and the Tragic Mulatto”
Ryan Webb: “'The Great Gatsby': Film Adaptation and Hutcheon’s Four Cliches”
Jessica Wilke: “'Mockingjay' and Media Styles: The Relationship between Adaptation and Critical Media”
Elizabeth Wolk: “Asexual Novella Adapation of Disney’s 'Beauty and the Beast'”
Student Union Building 2017
Moderator: Stephen Shapiro
Amy Allemang: “Specific Language Impairment as a Predictor of Early Narrative Skill”
Eric Wickert: “'Kalevala': Thematic Generalizations from Russian Epics”
Amber Wienhaus: “Lost in Translation: The Oneida Creation Myth”
Titus Fansler: “Narrative in Kiowa Storytelling”
Binh Tran: “Conversational Narrative of Vietnamese Speakers”
10:30-11:50 a.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 2016
Moderator: Taylor Latham
Jordan Fort: “From Swords to Six-Shooters: 'Seven Samurai' and 'The Magnificent Seven'”
Cassandra Roeslein: “The Patriarchy in 'The Great Gatsby': Social Class in America”
Alexandra Timmer: “The Profile of Dorian Gray”
Samantha McCain: “African American Women in the 1920s: Nella Larsen’s Protagonist Tragic Mulatta”
Kaitlyn Fowle: “Naomi Wolf & Thomas Pynchon: A Critique of Esther’s Nose Job”
Student Union Building 2017
Moderator: Heather Cianciola
Amy Soto: “Code-switching: An Analysis in Children’s Literature”
Garrett Kelsey: “Choice in Video Game Narrative”
Claire Drone-Silvers: “Passive-Aggressive: An Analyis of Passive Forms in Caesar’s 'De Bello Gallico'”
Michelle Hooper: “Rape and Representation”
Heaven Desmond: “Use of Adjectives in the Horror Genre”
12 p.m.
Student Union Building 2107
Keynote Speaker
Akela Cooper: “When Nobody Knows Your Name: How Grad School Helped Me Start My Screenwriting Career”
1:30-2:50 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 2016
Moderator: Jocelyn Cullity
Neva Sheaffer: “'Nasty Pretty Girls' or the Femme Fatale Role Mode in Film & V”
Blair Hill: “The Princesses of Heart: Feminism in 'Kingdom Hearts'”
Andrew Cogswell: “Pitching Y: 'The Last Man' for Television”
Nick Gibson: “Deceptions of the Self and Others”
Kayla Compton: “Sebastian”
Student Union Building 2017
Moderator: Royce Kallerud
Lauren Baker: “Timing in Comedic Narratives”
Nic Evans: “Pragmatics of Humorous Narratives”
Calley Sivils: “Facebook as a Medium for our Lives”
Jeffrey Leafblad: “Anaphora Resolution in Narratives”
Amy Jones: “Narrative Storytelling & Autism Spectrum Disorders”
3-4:20 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 2016
Moderator: Priscilla Riggle
Henry Janssen: “Assimilation of High- and Low-Culture in Pynchon’s 'Gravity’s Rainbow'”
Zoe Maffitt: “Sic: A Multimedia: Multi-genre Project”
Maria Taboada: “5th Portal: A Fantasy Roadtrip Novel”
Carl Kirk: “A Historical Context and Analysis in 'V'”
Zach Venturella: “Surreal on Screen: How Poetry Can Impact Screenwriting”
3-3:50 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 2017
Moderator: Jamie Miller
Junia Weatherbie & Jordan Davis: “Songs We Tell: Applying Linguistic Theory to
Musical Theater and Ballads”
Rachel Cain: “Computational Narratives”
April 24
9:30-10:20 a.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Rebecca Dierking
Chris Sheffer: “The Greater Gatsby: The Immortal, Incorruptible Ideal of Love and the
American Dream”
Elise Brummett: “The Utopia in Their Eyes: An Analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s and Willa
Cather’s Portrayal of the Middle-Class in 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Professor’s House'”
Olivia Muegge: “Unique Characters in a Family”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Amy Sallwasser
Natalie Williams: “Title Themes in Pynchon’s 'Entropy' and Joyce’s 'The Dead'”
Jake Hurst: “For the Sake of the Song: Songs in the Works of Pynchon ('Crying of
Lot 49' and 'Inherent Vice')”
Allison Tray: “From Underage Side-kick to Best Friend: The Adapted Story of James
‘Bucky’ Barnes”
10:30-11:20 a.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Priscilla Riggle
Lincoln Brown: “Of Coyotes and My Father (Memoir)”
Rachel Davis: “Weaving Fictional Magic: Creating My First Novel”
Dan Owen: “Nihilism in 'Gravity’s Rainbow'”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Hayden Wilsey
Hannah Brockhaus: “Genre Conventions in 'Call the Midwife,' Book and Television Adaptation: A Case Study”
Keri Shine: “In the Height of Consumerism: Fitzgerald and Larsen and the American Dream”
Caroline Maurer: “A Marxist Perspective on the Dissolution of the American Dream in 'Cane' and 'The Great Gatsby'”
11:30 a.m.-12:20 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentation
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Linda Seidel
Michelle Adams: “The Making of the Mulatta: Psychological Realism in Nella Larsen’s 'Passing'”
Amelia Adams: “Liberation, Feminization, and Emasculation: Male Enervation and the Power Struggles that arise in 1920’s Masculine Communities”
Nick Kilgore: “Reprobate”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Adam Davis
Megan Folken: “Comparative Analysis of Magical Realism in Thomas Pynchon’s 'Gravity’s Rainbow' and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s '100 Years of Solitude'”
Doug Taul: “European Paranoia during WWII in Thomas Pynchon’s 'Gravity’s Rainbow'”
Natasha Honigfort: “DEATH NOTE: An Evaluation of Differences between Manga: Anime, and Live Action Movies”
12:30 p.m.
Student Union Building 3200
Keynote Speaker
Akela Cooper: “Folklore as Persuasion in 'Grimm' and 'The 100': A Scriptwriter’s Perspective on SciFi Horror.”
1:30-2:20 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Amy Sallwasser
Seth Emery: “Compulsory Masculinity and War Wounds: Exploring Injury and Manhood 'The Sun Also Rises' and 'Hearts in Atlantis'”
Christian Orlet: “The New Woman: Defying Gender Stereotypes”
Ellen Burken: “Pig Bodine: American Sailors and the Crude Masculine Identity”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Jocelyn Cullity
Devan Codi Caton: “'Eleanor & Park,' An Adaptation for the Screen”
Samantha Nassar: “Memoir Writing and Film Adapting – Through the Lens of 'Eat, Pray, Love'”
Emily Wildhaber: “The Wake: Losing the Parish Rectory”
2:30-3:20 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Betsy Delmonico
Drew Roberson: “The Limits of Interpretation of Pynchon’s Postmodernism”
Justin Duello: “Sherlock Holmes in Modern Days: An Investigation in Adaptation”
Connor Maguire: “Adapting the Brothers Grimm: Anne Sexton’s 'Transformations'”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Hena Ahmad
Kira Gresoski: “If Only Daughter Could Say: Reaching Towards the Unvoiced Feminine in Faulkner’s 'The Sound and the Fury'”
Lydia Whitacre: “A Decade for Beginnings in Shifts of Perspective: Distinct Binary Categories of Gender and Race and 'Passing' in Larsen, Toomer, and Hemingway”
Kelsey Ruoff: “InTents: a Short Story of Short Stories”
3:30-4:20 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3200
Moderator: Kevin Manley
Carly Rae Winchell: “'Crash Course' in Screenwriting”
Kaylee Kohne: “Vs.: A Graphic Novel”
Deanna Susek: “Demeter and the Pastoral”
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Bob Mielke
Hector Funtes: “A Referential Criticism Reading of 'Gravity’s Rainbow': A Meta-Critical Approach”
Bianca Kliethermes: “A Freudian Reading of the Animate/Inanimate Tensions in 'V'”
Sarah Moutray: “Valiant or Venomous: the 1920s “New Woman” as Portrayed by Hemingway’s Lady Brett Ashley”
4:30-5 p.m.
Student Capstone Presentations
Student Union Building 3000
Moderator: Adam Davis
Jamie McBurnett: “Nine Lives”
Katie Lavery: "Love Notes: A Collection of Narrative Poems”
