DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE AS

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE

SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

This unedited draft is provided for attendees’

planning purposes. An updated final schedule will

be released about February 1, 2024.

We recognize that typos, missing affiliation

information, and similar errors may exist. Full

editing will be done prior to the final schedule’s

release. We appreciate your understanding.

We will not change your presentation time from

this draft without contacting you.

Direct all questions/concerns to Kathleen Lacey,

[email protected].

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

How to view the schedule in the CMS:

1. The schedule (updated in real time) can be viewed in the Conference Management System (CMS)

at https://register.southwestpca.org/

2. Log in and click on “Registration Options” and then “Conference Schedule.”

3. The schedule interface shows panel/session titles, but if you type a last name (or first name – but

just one) in the search box, the page will filter to panels with a presenter or moderator with that

name.

4. Click on the green plus sign to the left of the session information to expand. The expanded info

will display paper titles and presenter names for the session.

The Conference App:

1. An app will be released before the conference. It is not yet available and will be a few days before

the conference begins. We will send out information at a later time and details will be in the final

version of the program released in early February.

Overview of Schedule:

Time Slot

Sessions

Wed 2/21

Thur 2/22

Fri 2/23

Sat 2/24

8:00-9:30am

Breakfast Events

area chairs only

students only

9:45-11:15am

Concurrent Sessions

11:30am-1:00pm

Concurrent Sessions

1:15-2:45pm

Concurrent Sessions

3:00-4:30pm

Concurrent Sessions

4:45-6:15pm

Concurrent Sessions

6:30-8:00pm

Evening Events

opening reception

student dine out

8:15-10:00pm

Late Night Networking

Key events:

1. Check-in will begin before sessions each day, beginning mid-morning on Wednesday. Signage

with specific times will be posted on site.

2. The Annual Reception, Keynote Address, and Awards Ceremony is Thursday evening, 6:30-

8:00 in the Grand Ballroom. Plan to attend! (NB: travel award winners are expected to attend

and be recognized; grad student paper awards will be announced at the event; applicants must be

present to win).

3. The Exhibitors & Vendors room is open Wednesday afternoon through Saturday morning.

Several presses will be in attendance, as well as local artisans!

4. We have several Professional Development, Networking, and Social activities including:

a. Editor’s Panel, Thursday 2/22, 8:15-10:00pm

b. Publishing with McFarland, Thursday 2/22, 1:15-2:45pm

c. Publishing with Academic Presses, Friday 2/23, 1:15pm-2:45pm

d. Student Breakfast, Friday 2/23, 8:00-9:30am

e. Student Dine Out, Friday 2/23, 6:30-8:00pm

f. 10

Annual Game Night, Thursday 2/22, 8:15-10:00pm

g. Pop Culture Pub Quiz, Friday 2/23, 8:15-10:00pm

h. Post-conference Wrap Up, Saturday 2/24, 4:30-6:15pm

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Adaptation 1: Adaptations for the Stage

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

The Haunting of M. Butterfly: Using Adaptation Theory to Investigate Song's True Gender

Allison Duque, USF

"Be More Chill" and Adapting Queerness in Young Adult Media

Crys Pikarski, Temple University

New Wine in Old Wineskin: Tragedy of Displacement in "Song of the Pharoah" Theatre Production,

Directed by Sarah Dorgbadji

Stephen Oppong, University of British Columbia

Creative Writing 1: Prose I

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: James Buckingham, Independent Scholar

Fairy, Furry, and Furies: Folklore for the 21st Century

Rayshell Clapper, Diablo Valley College

"The Hero's Fool": An Excerpt from Chapter One

Joshua Kampe, Friends University

Game On!

Jane Holwerda, Independent Scholar

"Beowulf: The Song of the North," The Canterbury Codex (Grendel)

James Buckingham, Independent Scholar

Cultural Heritage Institutions 1 : Institutional Architecture and Oral History

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Suzanne Stauffer, Louisiana State University

Rosenwald Rural School Libraries in Louisiana

Suzanne Stauffer, Louisiana State University

Tracing Culture through an Historic Building: Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, Oakland

Selena Chau, University of California Santa Barbara

The Intersection of Oral History and Architectural Restoration: Recognition and Implementation of

Forgotten Techniques

Nasim Shiasi, Sapienza University of Rome

Collaborative Archive Construction in the Classroom: Oral History, Media Research, and Public

Scholarship

Robert Peaslee, Texas Tech University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 1: Roundtable: Witchcraft, Apocalypse,

and Occult Knowledge: Wormwood, Watchers, and Women of Mystery

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Emma Cieslik, Independent Scholar

Gabriela Bezakova, Independent Scholar

Thisroundtableuncovers and explores the occult roots and forbidden fuits of the secret apocalyptic

knowledge about witchcraft and the mysteries of the Watchers, revealed in prophetic visions, cinematic

visions, tele-visions, or the world-wide wyrds shared in the timeless, sleepless sabbatic doom-scroll of the

Web, with its interconnected, interwoven web-links being even more characteristic of witchcraft than no-

longer-clandestine meetings at the X-roads and the virtual covens of WitchTok.

Food and Culture 1: Food and Narrative

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Lexey Bartlett, Fort Hays State University

Allergy Analyzation: An Exploration of Misrepresentations of Food Allergies in Films and Television

Shows

Grace Hepner, Friends University

A Lil’ Taste of the Synesthetic in Morrison and Alternative Epistemologies in "Song of Solomon"

Ahlam Jaber, Saint Louis University

Seeding the Future: Commensality and Collective Values in Butler's "Parable of the Sower"

Lexey Bartlett, Fort Hays State University

From Cather’s "My Ántonia" to Hasek’s "The Good Soldier Svejk": The Acceptance and Celebration of

Bohemian Food Past and Present

Mary-lynn Chambers, Elizabeth City State University

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Ryan Moeller, Utah State University

Loving Lorcana: Investigating the Hype behind Disney’s Trading Card Game

Jessica Jalufka, University of Texas at Dallas

Melodramatic Sound and the Feminization of "The Legend of Zelda"

Mickey Randle, GSU

"The Hole in Your Room Is a Hole in You": The Sentient Haunted House in "Control"

Jessica Armendarez, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Grateful Dead 1: Forging Deadhead Identity: Gender, Journey, and Gen-X

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Chaone Mallory, University of Southern California

The Secular Eschatology, Generation X, the Apocalypse, and the Grateful Dead: This Darkness Got to

Give

Tyson Goldfisch, Independent Scholar

Golden Wisdom from the Grateful Dead

Charles Beard, Independent Scholar

"When It’s Done and Over, a Man Is Just a Man”: Dead Masculinities (and the Possibilities for a New,

Gender-Inclusive Future)

Chaone Mallory, Lewis & Clark School of Law

Literature (General) 1: Dystopias and Trauma

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Samantha Lay, Meridian CC

A Critical Craft Essay: How to Fashion and Form Symbolism in a Gothic Story

Jarrett Kaufman, Oklahoma Panhandle State University

Contours of a Wound a Lacapraean Reading of Chuck Palahniuk's "Lullaby"

Halilcan Sap, National Defence University

"Almost Worthwhile": Vonnegut and Bringing Children into a Broken World

Jonathan Schreiber, Vernon College

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": A Dystopian Underworld

Jazmine Keeton, Texas State University

Music 1: Get Swifty!

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Taos

Moderator: Elissa Stroman, Texas Tech University

"Chasing That Fame": A Feminist Perspective of Taylor Swift’s "Midnights"

Jennalee Carter, Southern Utah University

Taylor Swift: "Mastermind" or "Anti-Hero"?

Megan Stewart, Southern Utah University

Nothing New?: Taylor Swift’s Acceptance and Transcendence of Female Pop Star Traditions

Elissa Stroman, Texas Tech University

Reclaiming the Voice by Securing the Body: Embodied Writing in Taylor Swift’s "Miss Americana"

Juliette Holder, Texas Woman's University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Supernatural (TV Series) 1: Eating, Fighting, Reading, and Surviving in

"Supernatural"

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Jennifer Love, University of Michigan

Shadow-Stalkers and Backroads: "Supernatural" As Extension of "Beowulf" Canon

Abigail Mahoney-cloutier, University of New Mexico

“Demons I Get. People Are Crazy!”: The Dynamics of Aggression in "Supernatural"’s “The Benders”

Lugene Rosen, Fullerton College

From the Health Quake Salad Shake to Pig ‘N A Poke: "Supernatural" Cookbooks and the Intersections

of Fan and Food Cultures

Jennifer Love, University of Michigan

The Angel's Fall: Castiel and the Exploration of Religious Trauma in "Supernatural"

Elizabeth Talbert, Winthrop University

The Last of Us 1: Televisual Immersion: Exploring Play, Creativity, and

Music in HBO's "The Last of Us"

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Adrienne Domasin, Claremont Graduate University

“Alone And Forsaken”: An Eco-critical Analysis of Fear and Hope in the Soundtrack of the HBO TV

Series "The Last of Us"

Kristina Klungnes, University of Oslo, Norway, Department of Musicology

The Importance of Creativity in a Post Apocalyptic World

Fara Bakare, Student

Play across Media in "The Last of Us"

Nathan Altice, UC Santa Cruz

Hope For a Better (Zombie) Future: New Utopian Socialism in HBO's "The Last of Us"

Alexandra Petrus, University of Southern California

Theater and Performance Studies 1: Notions of In/Exclusion

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Kathleen Potts, The City College of New York

"Sweat": The Plight of the American Blue-Collar Worker

Kathleen Potts, The City College of New York

"Empathy in Motion": Little Amal's Global Journey as a Theatrical Beacon for Refugee Awareness

Ginger Franklin, Independent Scholar

Notions of Latinx In/Exclusion in the Pan-Ethnicity of "In the Heights"

Alexander Paredes-ruiz, University of Illinois, Chicago

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Visual Arts 1: Future Tense: Art, Complexity, and Discovery

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Aaron Krone, Friends University

Breathing New Life into Old Media

Dennis Schmickle, Lindenwood University

Life in Motion: The Power of Motion Blurs vs. Stagnant Poses

Aaron Krone, Friends University

Lesser-known Aspects of Islamic Sculpture: Figures Modeled in Stucco at Khirbat al-Mafjar (7th-8th s.)

Siyana Georgieva, Università degli studi UniToscana

War and Culture 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Deborah Deacon, Arizona State University

Selling the War: World War II in Japanese Popular Culture, 1931-1945

Deborah Deacon, Arizona State University

How the Brigadier Saved Napoleonic War: Humor and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Great Comic Soldier

Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 1: History, the Past, and the

Apocalypse

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

The Past, the Present, and the End of the World in Jordan Peele’s "Us" (2019)

Chelsea-mae Yuipco, UC Riverside

An Analysis of Representation in Jason Rothenberg's "The 100": Post-Apocalypses as a Setting for

Colonialism and Oppression

Miranda Williams, Northern Michigan University

Winston, A “Flaw in the Pattern” or a Product “Worth” the Trouble: A Foucauldian Reading and Analysis

of Orwell’s 1984

Jovan Virag, California State University Sacramento

Britain’s Ghastly Past as Contemporary Apocalypse in "Lockwood & Co."

Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Creative Writing 2: Poetry I

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Christine Casson, Emerson College

Jim verses the Machine

James Bell, Northwestern Oklahoma State U

Between the Checkboxes, a Strange Land

Daniel Ooi, Abilene High School

Selections from "Project/Object"

Amanda Scott, Texas State University

Needle's Eye

Christine Casson, Emerson College

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 2: Roundtable: Esoteric Explorations and

Rituals in Sacred Spaces of Horror and the Apocalypse in Dark Occulture

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Danielle Herget, Fisher College

Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

Noah NoahJampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

Bintang Handayani, Independent Scholar

Linyan Zheng, Rice University

Matthew Cangiano, Gnostic Technology

Thisroundtablewill explore the esoteric significance and apocalypticsymbolism of sacred spaces of horror,

ranging from holy places that evokenuminous awe and terror, to sites endowed with sacred dread due to

thehorrors with which they are associated, and finally to sites sacred within thegenre of horror itself.

Film and History 1: Female White Nationalism, Conspiracy Culture, and

Erotic Tropes

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Payton Mccarty-simas, Columbia University

"One Step Short of Crazy": "National Treasure" and the Landscape of American Conspiracy Culture

Payton Mccarty-simas, Columbia University

Talking Heads and Hard Bodies: Romantic and Erotic Tropes in the American War Film

Hervé Picherit, University of Texas at Austin

Female White Nationalism and the Horror of the Long Take in "Soft & Quiet"

Tara Heimberger, Georgia State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Food and Culture 2: Food, Action, and Social Change

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Kelsi Matwick, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Culinary Diplomacy of the Sonoran Hot Dog

Kelsi Matwick, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Literary Gastronomy: An Integrated Approach to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy through Nutrition and

Biblio-therapy

Amanda North, Independent Scholar

A Queer Diet to Save the World

Khori Eubanks, New York University

Candy, Chemistry, and the Home Kitchen

Ami Comeford, Utah Tech University

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 2

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Marc Ouellette, Old Dominion University

TV Shows can be Nationalistic but Games Can’t: The Absence of Nationalistic Chinese Video Games

Yanchen Zhang, University of Arizona

What Kind of Cop Are You?: "Disco Elysium," Agency, and Player Subjectivity

Kevin Cosby, University of California, Berkeley

Haunting, Loss, and Gothic Healing in "Geist: The Sin-Eaters"

Harold Bosstick, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

"We're More Ghosts Than People" : "Red Dead Redemption II," Immersive Politics, and People Stuck in

a White Racial Frame

Kristen Spaeth, University of Texas at Arlington

Grateful Dead 2: Documenting the Dead: History, Legacy, and Imagery

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Jeremy Berg, University of North Texas

Flunking the Acid Test: Misinformation and Confusion Regarding the March 12th(?), 1966 Grateful Dead

Tapes

Jeremy Berg, University of North Texas

Tim Truman and Grateful Dead Comix

Stewart Brower, University of Oklahoma-Tulsa

"Dupree’s Diamond Blues" and the Legacies of the Grateful Dead

Nicholas Meriwether, Center for Counterculture Studies

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Popular Culture 1: Horror,

Monstrosity, and Scorn in Maternal Pop Culture Narratives

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Taos

Moderator: Renae Mitchell, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Daughter Scorned: The Evolution of Mother-Daughter Media Portrayals

Through "Carrie"

Emily Birtwistle, University of Arkansas

Motherhood and Monstrosity in Fantasy Fiction

Nicole Morning, New Mexico Highlands University

Primal Scream: Motherhood in Covid Popular Culture

Agnes Howard, Valparaiso University

Music 2: Music In Its Place

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Colt Chaney, Dallas College

The Children's Music of They Might Be Giants, 2002-2009

Christopher Smith, Trinidad State College

Afrobeats in the Modern-day Nigerian Music Industry: Origin, Evolution, Didactic, and Satirical Impacts

and Global Significance

Omolola Dorcas Ayegboyin, New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico.

The Gulf and Western Sound: Jimmy Buffett to Charley Crockett

Colt Chaney, Dallas College

Northern Attitude: Noah Kahan and the Rise of the New Americana

Alexandra Perlow, University of Vermont

Native American/Indigenous Studies 1: Thrivance, Storytelling, Futurity, and

Academia

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Perry James, Western New Mexico University

“‘You are Our Tomorrow": "Bones of Crows" as Dene Storytelling Autonomy for Restoration and

Thrivance

Renae Watchman, McMaster University

Healing Historical/Collective Trauma through Mythology and Tribal Storytelling in Leslie Marmon

Silko’s "Ceremony"

Xiaoqiu Qiu, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

What is American Indian Studies?

Spintz Harrison, Kansas State University

The Metatextual Survival of Cultural Storytelling: A Look at Leslie Marmon Silko's Creation of Modern

Mythmaking

Damian Yazzie, UCSB

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Religion 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Cori Knight, University of California-Riverside

The Power of the Christian Individual: New Testament Teachings in "Little Dorrit"

Claudia Zaunz, NC State University

"Persecution Tomorrow": "God's Not Dead 2" (2016) in the Historical Context of American

Evangelicalism

Aidan Scully, Harvard College

Light and Dark and Religious Dualism in "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights"

Sally Giesbrecht, West Texas A&M University

The Last of Us 2: Meaningful or Inconsequential?: Exploring the Diversity of

Culture and Gender Identities in "The Last of Us"

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Adrienne Domasin, Claremont Graduate University

Whose Apocalypse Is It Anyways: Examining the Futures Presented in "The Last of Us"

Jay Rutter, New Mexico State University

Bill and Frank’s Excellent Life: Queer Adaptation and Fan Reaction in HBO’s "The Last of Us"

Rhiannon Bury, Athabasca University

Rasquache, Holmes: A Transmedia Rereading of Joel in "The Last of Us"

Carlos Kelly, Rice University

Visual Arts 2: Identity and Visibility in Contemporary Art

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Sara Ishii Bear, Texas Woman's University

Cao Fei and the Emancipation of the Spectator

Aimee Mcbride, Midland College

A Politics of Visibility in Contemporary East Asian American Women’s Art

Sara Ishii Bear, Texas Woman's University

Exploring Identity & Bridging Communities Asian American Self-Representation & the Visual Culture of

the Asian American Movement in New York

Emily Merrill, Bowling Green State University

The (In)Visible Elephant On The Street: Paradoxes in Vietnamese Law through the Case Study of Graffiti

Tien Nguyen, Fulbright University Vietnam

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 2: Roundtable: AI and

Apocalypse

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Jessica JessicaCharles, Independent Scholar

Eric Millikin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Aubrey Dickens, Brigham Young University

Karin Valis, Gnostic Technology

From Westworld’s “hosts” to Terminator’s Skynet to Star Trek’s The Borg to Battlestar Galactica’s

Cylons and beyond, we have been worried about artificial intelligence overthrowing or surpassing

humanity since the beginning of computers. Now with the rise of ChatGPT and other AI, concerns about

its effect on the workforce, academia, and other areas of human life, this roundtable will focus on AI and

the end of the world.

Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Taos

Moderator: Nick Gerlich, West Texas A&M University

A Hopi Inspiration for “Breaking Bad”

Marc Valdez, Independent Scholar

Here Be Monsters: Sympathy for the Devil and Animalistic Others in "Breaking Bad"

Lisa Weckerle, Kutztown University

Transnational Imaginary and the Narcocorrido: Myth-Making, Cultural Essentialism, and Fear of the

Other in "Breaking Bad"

Ramon Guerra, University of Nebraska at Omaha

The Masculine Metamorphosis: Deconstructing the Walter White Paradox in "Breaking Bad"

Deep Acharya, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

Creative Writing 3: Prose II

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Tisha Marie Reichle - Aguilera,

An Excerpt from Novel in Progress, "The Breed"

Philip Baruth, University of Vermont

Feasible

Kathleen Lacey, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"Blood State": Chapter Reading

Raluca Balasa, Independent Scholar

"Breaking Pattern": A YA novel

Tisha Marie Reichle - Aguilera,

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 3: As Wise As Serpents: Shamanism,

Shakti, Sophia

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Alana Eisenbarth, Washington University

"Just Effort, Just Perception, and Maybe Just Magic": Buddhist and Shamanic Practices in N. K. Jemisin's

Broken Earth Trilogy

Christopher Kocela, Georgia State University

Gnosticism and the Fourth Way

Jason Degray, Universal Butterfly Publishing

Christianity, Kundalini, and Shamanism: A Few Notes

Andrew Chen, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Antinomianism, Esotericism, and Possession: The Omitted Tantric Undercurrents of Modern Yoga

Klara Hedling, University of New Mexico

Film Studies 1: International Cinemas and Influences

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Xinkai Sun, boston university

Ontologically Evaluating the Gaze of the Camera in Documentary Production in Kashmir

Mehvish Rather, Queens University

A Very Brief Relation of the Black Legend in US Film

Jeremy Vaughan, Independent Scholar

A Temporal Approach to Chinese Postwar Cinema

Xinkai Sun, boston university

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 3

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Yasheng She, University of California, Santa Cruz

“No. That Can’t Be the Ending”: Beacon Pines as a Weird/Eerie Bildungsroman

Jessica Stanley, Old Dominion University

“Forge Your Punishment and Nail It Deep”: Catholic Playgrounds and the Gate-Keepers of the Magic

Circle in "Blasphemous"

David Prihoda, Old Dominion University

Shocking Team Star: Assimilating Queer Utopias in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet

Michael DeAnda, DePaul University

Analyzing Fallout: A Social Commentary on Post-Apocalyptic Marxism

Kelley Wood,

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Grateful Dead 3: Learning from the Dead: Innovation, Praxis, and Theory in

Grateful Dead Pedagogy

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Timothy Ray, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Pedagogy of the Dead: K-12 Pedagogy inspired by the Grateful Dead

Nataly Goldfisch, SUNY New Paltz

Drums and Space: Resonance and Dissonance, Divergence and Convergence in Pedagogical Approaches

to Teaching (about) the Grateful Dead

Timothy Ray, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Literature (General) 2: Women's Issues: Domesticity and the Fight for Social

Change

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Laurie Lowrance, Cisco College

Womanhood as Wifehood: The Perpetuation and Dissension of Louisa May Alcott

Noelle Rudolf, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Obituaries: Victorian Consumptive Woman Dies Wretchedly All While Saying “Everything’s fine, truly,

I’m alright. Can I get you some tea?” to Avoid Becoming the Monstrous Other in "Dracula" and

Obituaries of Late Nineteenth-Century Massachusetts

M Andrews, Old Dominion University

Uncovering the Domestic in Captivity of the Oatman Girls

Laurie Lowrance, Schreiner University

Music 3: Lyrical Influences and Legacies

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: John Chappell, Webster University

The Beatles Lyrical Poetry

Susan Peterson, none

Neil Young, Jackson Browne and the Decade of the American Singer-Songwriter

Gary Tandy, George Fox University

“I’ll Be Your Mirror”: The Gaze and Self-Constitution Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" and "The Bells"

Joshua Ward, UNC Chapel Hill

I Still Hear the Drummin': The Enduring Influence of CSN&Y's "Ohio"

John Chappell, Webster University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

The American West 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Larry Van Meter, Blinn College

Reinventing the Frontier: Jackrabbit Homesteaders as New Pioneers

Julie Haltom, California State University, Long Beach

Aesthetics of the Forgotten Frontera: Retrieving Lost Adobe

Amy Von Lintel, West Texas A&M University

In the Land of Winnetou: American West and Native Americana in German Identity Since 1945

Andrei Znamenski, University of Memphis

"Killers of the Flower Moon" and the Ambience of Erasure

John Rose, Independent Scholar

Theater and Performance Studies 2: Notions of Wellness

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Kathleen Potts, The City College of New York

Performer Wellness Between Roles

Troy Coleman, University at Buffalo SUNY

“All the Feels…?”: Complexities of Meisner Acting in Post-Pandemic Academe

Carrie Klypchak, Texas A&M University - Commerce

Affective Expressivity and the Assembly of Reality, Trauma, and Identity

Carly Amber Shaw, University of California, Irvine

Visual Arts 3: Us, Them, We: Identity in Contemporary Culture

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Jeremy Schulz, Boston University

Gender Deconstruction in North American Art, from 1960 to 1990

Theo. Triandos, State University of New York: University at Buffalo

Crafting Community: Using the Photo-Voice Method to Illuminate Identities, Practices of Fiber Artists at

Craft Markets in Tucson, Arizona

Gabriella Shriner, School of Information, University of Arizona

The Spiritual Art of Drag

Jeremy Schulz, Boston University

Lived Experience Expressed through Art

Elizabeth Gonzalez, Texas Southmost College/Our Lady of the Lake

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Alfred Hitchcock 1: Hitchcock and Adaptability

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Michael Howarth, Missouri Southern State University

(Re-)interpreting "Psycho": Understanding Hitchcock's Masterpiece through a Postmodern Reading of

Bloch's Novel

Mayank Kejriwal, University of Southern California

Minor(itizing) Hitchcock: Towards a Critical Study of Race in the Hitchcockian Ouevre

Sebastien Quach, USC

Self Promotion and Biographical Legends: The Legacy of Alfred Hitchcock in Shaping the Public Image

of Dario Argento

Marco Chiaretti, Universidad de Murcia (PhD Student)

One Story, Six Men: Where Authorship, Auteur, and Schreiber Theory Converge in Roald Dahl’s

"Poison"

Rosie Gailor, Queen Mary University of London

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 3: Religion and the Apocalypse

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Jordan Grunawalt,

Apocalypse and Post Apocalypse in Saeed Kazmi’s play "The Muslim Vanishes"

Tanisha Shokeen, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

“I Believe In Peace, Bitch": How "Good Omens" (2019) Provides a Framework for an Optimistic

Apocalypse

Jordan Grunawalt, Illinois State University

Death by Thirst, Our Virgin Guadalupe Was Cursed

Kalista Peña, Fort Lewis College

Building a Home: Agency and Religion in Apocalyptic Fiction

Sophia Ellingham, Indiana University

Biography, Autobiography, Memoir, and Personal Narrative 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Melinda McBee, Dallas College

Douglas Stuart and the (Auto)Remixing of Narrative and "Truth"

Jay Griffin, University of Texas at Dallas

My Life as School-Carl Wade Thompson

Wade Thompson, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

Autohistoria-teoría, Conocimiento, and the Coatlicue State: Embodied Narrative and Spirituality as

Therapeutic Method(s)

Christine Gilfrich, Texas Woman's University

Pop Culture References in Memoir: Shifting Narrative Distance

Dustin Hodge, SNHU

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Children’s/Young Adult Culture 1: Roundtable: “Let’s Do Things Differently

This Time”

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Diana Dominguez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

"Let's Do Things Differently This Time": Building Curricular Connections via Adolescent Superhero

Narratives

Henry Cody Miller, SUNY Brockport

Rene ReneRodriguez-astacio, California State University Fresno

Christian Hines, Texas State University

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 4: Roundtable: The Significance of

Esoteric, Occult, and Magical Influence and Reflection in Art

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Emily Leon, Duke University

Candy Minx, The Cormac McCarthy Society

Eric EricMillikin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Deana Craighead, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

Matthew Cangiano, Gnostic Technology

Jonathan Revett, West Texas A&M Univeristy

Thisroundtablewill examine esoteric, occult, and magical influences andexperiences in connection with

the creation of art and the impact of art. Byextension, the association and reciprocal relationship between

art and suchparadigms reaching broader audiences will be explored. Ideas that considerhistorical aspects

in addition to contemporary popular culture factors in the contextof art being involved with or integral to

esotericism, occultism, and magic arewelcomed.

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 4

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Michael DeAnda, DePaul University

Quest for Representation: The Game Industry's High Score Challenges with the Representation of Black

Women

Kiy Benton, NC State University

Microsoft as a Microcosm: Intersections of Controller Design and Gamer Identity

Victoria Braegger, Purdue University

Lara Croft, White Savior, and Settler Colonial theory in "Shadow of the Tomb Raider"

Marco Rodriguez, Old Dominion University

Black Women Are Not Your Props: How "Resident Evil 5" Reinforces BIPOC Bodies as Tools of White

Supremacy

Dayana Calle, University of New Mexico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Grateful Dead 4: Roundtable: Women's Identities and Power in Grateful

Dead Communities

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Elizabeth Carroll, Appalachian State University

Rhoney RhoneyStanley, Independent Scholar

Brendaliz Guerrero-gallagher, Independent Scholar

This roundtable of women will discuss our experiences with power and identity in Grateful Dead

communities. Reflecting on our experiences and observations, we will consider how, where, and why

women have found empowerment and liberation in the frequently-sexist world of the Grateful Dead. As a

diverse group of women, we will consider how our perspectives are informed not only by gender but also

by age, race, class, sexuality, nationality, and religion. Using feminist standpoint and intersectionality

theories as lenses, we explore the dynamic interactions between identity and power that inform

experiences of difference in Grateful Dead communities.

Horror 1: Horror International

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Sean Woodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

"Meander," "Oxygen," and "The Deep House": How Recent French Horror Films Went from Survival to

Revival

Emmanuelle Ben Hadj, Purdue University

The Signification of Murder in Dario Argento’s "Sleepless" (2001)

Sean Woodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

The Monstrous Feminine in the 60s and 70s Japanese Horror Film : A Representation of Japanese

Anxieties About the Feminine Through A Kristevan Analysis

Abdul Rafay, DePaul University

Embodied Precarity in Korean High-School Horror: The Origin

Andrew Lee, University of Pittsburgh

Lawyers and the Legal Profession in Popular Culture 1

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Taos

Moderator: Stacy Fowler, St. Mary's University

Mis(sed) Representation: DEI in Legal Reels and Reality

Stacy Fowler, St. Mary's University

Slippin' Jimmy Lives

Shannon Demuth, Eastern New Mexico University

Judging the Appropriateness of Law & Literature

Stephen Bishop, University of New Mexico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Music 4: Does This Belong Here??

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Brad Klypchak, Texas A&M University-Commerce

"Rockstar": Examining Dolly Parton’s 2023 Release through Rock and Metal Discourse

Brad Klypchak, Texas A&M University-Commerce

K-Pop and Masculinity: The Appeal of Boy Bands

Sophie Lee, Texas Tech University

From "Johnny B. Goode" to "Jonee, you're bad": The Pessimistic Legacy of the Johnny Song

Skyler Jones, University of Arizona

A Historian Looks at the Pythagorean Concepts Found in Cat Stevens’1975 Album "Numbers"

David Leinweber, Oxford College of Emory University

Native American/Indigenous Studies 2: Home and Identity

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Angela Specht, Athabasca University

Maintaining the Circle: Culture in Place of Race Is the Key to Achieving Diversity

Stephen Sachs, Indiana University Purdue University-Indianapolis

Returning to our Original Placed-Based Home and Environment to Learn our Language and Identity

Perry James, Western New Mexico University

Decolonizing the Family: The Masks We Wear for Survival

Paula Neeley, Metropolitan State University

Religion 2

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Cori Knight, University of California-Riverside

Catholicism and the St. Patrick's Battalion in Popular Culture

Brett Hendrickson, Lafayette College

Wandering Mirror: The Case of the "Mirror of Martyrs"

Benjamin Harder, University of California, Riverside

Prophetic Emotions in the Quran

Alaa Aldeen Kayali, Harvard University

How to Manage an American Zion: Understanding the Influence of Latter-Day Saint Culture on Utah

Land Policy

Emily Mclean, Claremont Graduate University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

The Last of Us 3: Beyond the Joystick: Crafting Ethics, Aesthetics, and Genre

Dynamics in "The Last of Us" Gameplay

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Adrienne Domasin, Claremont Graduate University

Butchering and Boosting: Care Ethics and Rejection of Radical Utility in "The Last of Us"

Philip Baillargeon, Stanford University

"The Last of Us": An Embodied Shift of Ethics through Game Design

Ahu Yolac, Assistant Prof. of Game Design at LTU

The Last of Us and the Capitalist Anthropocene: Disintegrations of Humanity in a Neo-Feudal Landscape

Nicholas Andriani, The University of Missouri

"The Last of Us Part II" and the Postapocalyptic Western

Mauricio Ortiz Zaragoza, UNLV

Visual Arts 4: Visualizing Decolonization

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Sandra Williams, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Chip Thomas: Counternarratives to Settler Colonialism and the American Picturesque

Sandra Williams, University of Nebraska Lincoln

Decolonizing the Heteronormative Gaze: Gender in Contemporary Indigenous Photography

Sarah Greenwell Scott, University of Arizona

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 5: Roundtable: Gnosis, Gnosticism, and

Neo-Gnosticism in American Popular Culture: Optimizing the Red Pill for the

Masses

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Candy Minx, The Cormac McCarthy Society

Alana AlanaEisenbarth, Washington University

Jason Degray, Universal Butterfly Publishing

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Michael Barros, Boise Classical Academy

Matthew Cangiano, Gnostic Technology

Thisroundtableseeks to examine the variety of interpretations related to thesignificance of the

mainstreaming of these gnostic attitudes as they presentthemselves in American popular culture. This may

include engagement withparticular historical and/or (counter) cultural influences and movements

inAmerica, ranging from spirituality to entertainment, to specific works of fiction ofthe past and present,

to influential voices and figures. We may also considerGnostic and Neo-Gnostic movements that have

flourished in the Westernhemisphere, including variations of late nineteenth and early twentieth century

Gnostic revivals, lineages, priesthoods, magical orders and so forth, as well asmajor figures such as

Bishop Stephan Hoeller and Samael Aun Weor.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Supernatural (TV Series) 2: Screening: "Supernatural" Meets "Starsky &

Hutch" Screening and Prize Raffle

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Mandy Taylor, California State University, San Bernardino & Susan SusanNylander,

Barstow College

Join us for an evening of buddy show fun and prizes. We will be screening the pilot episodes

ofSupernaturalANDStarsky & Hutch! Attendees are eligible to win prizes before, during, and after

the episode screenings.

Film Noir Night!

Wed, 02/21/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Matthew Kelley, Shelton State Community College

Another SWPACA tradition returns with Noirscreeningnight! This year’s film is 1946'sThe Stranger with

Edward G. Robinson, Orson Welles, and Loretta Young. Featuring an original screenplay by academy

award nominee Victor Trivas and directed by Welles, the film invites<br>audiences to go once more

"down these mean streets". Your host, Dr. Matthew Kelley, will have some introductory remarks, and

there will be a general discussion and fun trivia contest to follow withnoirthemed prizes! Please join us

for what promises to be another interesting<br>evening as we return with the “usual suspects” at

SWPACA 2024 to investigate the place ofNoirin popular culture.

Area Chair Breakfast and Business Meeting

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 8:00 am - 9:30 am, Acoma

Moderator: Executive Team, SWPACA

Business meeting and breakfast for SWPACA Area Chairs, hosted by the Executive Team. All Area

Chairs are encouraged to attend.

Adaptation 2: Adapting Death & the Devil

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

The Political Assassination Film as Genre

Richard Vela, University of North Carolina at Pembroke

I Wanna View Bad Things with You: Adaptation, Rhetorical Refusal, and Gothic-Horror Tropes in "True

Blood"

Rene Hoff, Texas Woman's University

Falling from Grace, Again and Again: Contrasting Satan in Milton’s "Paradise Lost" and Hackford’s "The

Devil’s Advocate"

Sutton Welch, Abilene Christian University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

American Studies and American History 1: The Evolution of Western and

Rural Identities

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon G

Moderator: Deborah Marinski, Ohio University - Southern Campus

A Friendship of Scoundrels: The New Madrid Scheme of George Morgan and Thomas Hutchins, 1788-

1789

Timothy Hemmis, Texas A&M University Central Texas

The Rural Man Paradox

Connor Rakes, East Central University

Mark Twain’s "Roughing It": Encompassing the Disparities of West and East

Sean Williams, University of West Florida

Chican@ Literature, Film, and Culture 1: Film & Media

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon H

Moderator: Veronica Caro, San Francisco State University

A Filmmaker’s Journey: Severo Perez and the Making of a Classic Chicano Film

Steven Davis, Wittliff Collections-Texas State University

“Speaking Non-English”: Language Strategies to Communicate with Hispanic and Latino/a/x Audiences

in the Post-Digital Age

Nancy Garcia, West Texas A&M University

Stomping on Machismo Culture: The Rise and Celebration of Queer Latinx Communities in North

American Media

Veronica Caro, San Francisco State University

Creative Writing 4: Poetry II

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Carlsbad

Moderator: Terri Cummings, Independent Scholar

Drift Migration: A Poetry Reading

Danielle Dubrasky, Southern Utah University

New Poems / Poems About Poets

Joseph Chaney, Indiana University South Bend

Vessel: Poetry of Immersion

Alissa Simon, Harrison Middleton University

Poems for the Growth Mindset

Terri Cummings, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 6: Roundtable: Witchcraft, Sexuality, and

Eroticism in Cultural Representation and Practice

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon A & B

Moderator: Alana Eisenbarth, Washington University

Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

George GeorgeSieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

Emma Cieslik, Independent Scholar

Isak Arnold Niehaus, Brunel University London

Karin Valis, Gnostic Technology

Conceptions and representations of the witch and witchcraft haveintersected with experiences, beliefs,

and projections concerning sexualityand the erotic throughout the development of the witch-figure and its

antecedents. Concurrently in various instances, all of this has influencedand been influenced by the

practice of witchcraft, which encompasses verydiverse traditions and currents that have enormously

varying approaches tosexual and erotic experiences and practices. Thisroundtablewill examineand explore

the subject from a variety of perspectives, identifying commonalities as well as divergences within

popular and historicalrepresentations and within witchcraft paradigms.

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 5

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Santa Fe

Moderator: Chris Hanson, Syracuse University

The Explorable Psyche: Videogame Space as Metaphor for Self

Saramanda Swigart, San Francisco State University

Gaming the Past: Representations of Ancient "Greek" Female Sexuality and Gender in "Assassin’s Creed

Odyssey"

Grace Mitchell, University of British Columbia

Designing The Second Place: Using Dark Game Design to Explore White Collar Labor

Nicholas Coffman-price, Depaul University

Penelope's Web 3.0: Old and New Inequalities in the Fashion of the Future

Michele Varini, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano

Grateful Dead 5: Issues and Themes in Grateful Dead History

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Cimarron

Moderator: Daniel Pinti, Niagara University

Matthew Fox’s Original Blessing: The Creation Theology of Jerry Garcia’s “Outlaw Priest”

Daniel Pinti, Niagara University

He's Not Dead; He's Driving That Train; Head On Collisions between Warren Zevon and Jerry Garcia

Michael Nadler, Albuquerque Academy

Jon McIntire: A Deadicated Grateful Dead Manager

Barry Barnes, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Horror 2: Roundtable: The Year in Horror: 2023

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon E

Moderator: Steffen Hantke, Sogang University

Danielle Herget, Fisher College

Hans HansStaats, Cedars Academy

Andrew Lee, Drew University

This roundtable will give the panelists and the audience an opportunity to reflect back on important

events, figures, and developments in the horror genre across all media, how they affect the current

perception of horror’s trajectory within and across the culture, and presage horror’s development in the

year/s to come. What was popular, and what fell out of favor? Who were the rising stars, what were the

significant industry trends, and where does the genre stand in its ability to articulate current issues, and

keep itself relevant?

Literature (General) 3: Social Change and the Effects of Editing and

Translation

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon I

Moderator: Samantha Lay, Meridian CC

Poetics of Myths of James Fenimore Cooper: Structure, Semantics, and Problems of Translation into

Russian and Kazakh Languages Based on Translations of the "Leatherstocking Tales"

Nurgul Saparkhojayeva, UIUC; Al-Farabi Kazakh National University; Satbayev University

Sketches from Memory: A Sense of Place in the Mexican Stories of Dorothy Tefft

Nathaniel Racine, Texas A&M International University

The Beginning of an End: Exploring the Psychological Fear of Social Change in 18th-Century Spanish

Literature.

Nkosilathi Moyo, Louisiana State University

Music 5: Evolution of the Art and Performance

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Taos

Moderator: Katie Rios, Mercer University

"A Mask Won’t Hide Who You Are Inside": Shadows, Puppets, and Ventriloquy in Kendrick Lamar’s

Big Steppers Tour (2022)

Katie Rios, Mercer University

Before Bootsy: James Brown’s Early Electric Bassists and the Development of Funk

Brian Wright, University of North Texas

"Back on 74": Art of the Music Video

Phoebe Charpentier, University of Arizona

“La La La, I’m Not Listening (but I Really Am ): Exploring the Use of “La La La” in Mainstream Music

to See If It’s More Than Just a Rhythmic Hook

Carl Knauf, University of Alabama

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 1: Roundtable: Creating Media Literacy

Lessons for Current Debates on AI, Coloniality and Muslim Women

Stereotypes, Climate Change, and Data Activism

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon F

Moderator: Ilia Rodriguez Nazario, University of New Mexico

This roundtable centers on the need to develop media literacy lessons on current trends and pressing

issues affecting our global, multicultural society. It places emphasis on media literacy lessons that address

current debates and issues shaping public understanding AI, coloniality and gender stereotypes of Muslim

women, climate change, and data activism. From diverse positionalities, the presenters bring forth

different dimensions of a critical reading of mediated popular culture and illustrate how to enrich media

literacy lessons with experiential knowledge, relevant texts, and culturally grounded understandings.

Psychology and Popular Culture 1: Psychology In and Out of the Classroom

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon J

Moderator: Matthew Kelley, Shelton State Community College

A Chat about Mental Illness in Children’s Television Programming

Sophie Spruce, University of Texas at Arlington

Why So Serious?: Identifying Trauma and Coping Skills in "Steven Universe"

Makenzie Morrison, Abilene Christian University

Applying Carl Rogers's Person-centered Counseling Theory to the University Music Classroom

Christopher Meerdink, West Texas A&M University

Cloyce Kuhnert, WTAMU

Exploring Pareidolia: Finding Faces in Everyday Objects

Heehyun Kim, Chung-Ang University

Supernatural (TV Series) 3: Women in "Supernatural"

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Las Cruces

Moderator: Susan Nylander, Barstow College

Amara: the Patriarchy, Voice, and Subsumption

Susan Nylander, Barstow College

“And You Call Yourselves Nerds?”: Charlie Bradbury and Queer Nerd Identity

Gina Hanson, California State University, San Bernardino

We Need to Talk about Kelly Kline

Mandy Taylor, California State University, San Bernardino

Ruby’s "Supernatural" Snacking: Dualism, Selfhood, and Performative Materiality

Fiona Harris, Bloomfield College

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Creative Writing 5: Prose III

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Anthony Patricia, Concord University

Air Force One

Kathleen Blackburn, University of Chicago

Excerpt from Novel-in-progress "The Emissary"

Danny Peters, Texas State University

Reading from the Literary Thriller "Gigantic"

Candace Nadon, Fort Lewis College

When First We Practice to Deceive

Anthony Patricia, Concord University

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 7: Belief and its Construction: The

Natural, the Supernatural, and the Preternatural

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Avenging Angels, Caped Crusaders, and Mad Monks: A Survey of the Supernatural in "Batman" Comics

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Someone Warned Us Down: A Bilateral Exploration of the Phenomenon and Call for an Engaged

Epistemology

Alana Eisenbarth, Washington University

Beyond Belief: Examining Constructions of Evidence in UFO and Extraterrestrial Encounter Narratives

Carleigh Davis, Missouri University of Science and Technology

The Conception of Witchcraft through Differentiation from Natural Magic in Early Modern Europe and

the American Colonies

William Eamon, New Mexico State University, Emeritus

Film and History 2: Barbenheimer, Los Alamos, and Holocaust Horrors

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Jennifer Jenkins, University of Arizona

Captive Audiences: Moviegoing at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project

Jennifer Jenkins, University of Arizona

Little Shop of Holocaust Horrors

Shannon Townsend, West Texas A&M University

The Impact of the Movie “Oppenheimer," “Barbenheimer,” and the Complexities of Historical Memory:

Transforming Perceptions of the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos

Tomoko Masumoto, Kansai University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 6

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Jason Thompson, University of Wyoming

Games in the Art of Meditation

Andrew Kissel, Old Dominion University

From Escaping Reality to Enacting Brutality: How Youth Describe Their Play

Jessica Campbell, York University

How "Metroid Fusion" and "Us" Portray a Violent Hegelian Dialectic as a Requirement for Becoming a

Better Self

Zachary Roybal, Colorado State University - Pueblo

Artistic Response as Collaborative Design Methodology: Creating Video Game Artifacts from Personal

Stories

Catherine Pearce, Simon Fraser University

Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture 1: Critical Studies on the Big

Two: Emerging Considerations of Marvel and DC Properties

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Ben Quail, University of Glasgow

Spider-Man's Vietnam: Critically Analysing the Wall-Crawler at War

Ben Quail, University of Glasgow

Crisis, Secret Wars, and the Poetics of the Comic Event

Bradley Schauer, University of Arizona

Bound by History: Exploring Bondage Discourse in Feminist Rhetorical Texts and the "Wonder Woman"

Comics

Danielle Brady, Tarleton State University

Segesser, Batman, and Tyranny of Chronology

Kevin Scott, University of West Florida

Grateful Dead 6: Musical Contexts of the Grateful Dead

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Jason Gallagher, University of Missouri-St Louis

The Speed of Space: The Grateful Dead, Grayfolded and Plunderphonics

Jason Gallagher, University of Missouri-St Louis

The Genealogical Shape of Liveness

Noah Franken, West Texas A&M University

Bo Diddley’s Rhythm of Equanimity

Dennis Rothermel, California State University, Chico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Horror 3: Roundtable: Horror and the Apocalypse

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Megan Elizabeth Megan ElizabethBoothby, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Though humanity occasionally does go gently into that good night, fictional depictions of the end of the

world tend to favor by a large margin tropes of horror. From zombies and extradimensional monsters to

pandemics and plagues, the apocalypse has been a staple of the horror genre for a long time. This

roundtable will delve into this convergence, reaching back to early examples and assessing where horror

fits in with the contemporary imagination’s penchant for the end of everything being a horrific event.

Music 6: The Political and Social

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Taos

Moderator: Carl Warmuth, University of New Mexico

Anti-Police Country Music

Carl Warmuth, University of New Mexico

Riot Grrl and the Feminist Evolution of Punk Rock

Pamela Hunt Kirk, University of West Georgia

Perry Kirk, University of West Georgia

The Radical Politics of Post-Eighties Music: A Structural Diagnosis of Synthwave and Vaporwave

Matthew Tuozzo, University of Arizona

Native American/Indigenous Studies 3: Gardens and Parks

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Margaret Vaughan, Metropolitan State University

“That’s the World I Want to Live in”: Gardening, Reciprocity, Responsibility, and Change

Angela Specht, Athabasca University

The Intercollegiate Wild Clay Symposium at Parkin Archeological State Park

Lisa Floryshak, Arkansas State University

Reclaiming the Iknimaya: The Consumption, Appropriation, and Erasure of the ‘Indigenous Alien’ at

Disney’s Pandora – The World of Avatar

Natasha Loving, University of Wyoming

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 2: Film & Television

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Michelle Vannatta, Dominican University

How Real is Reality TV Glassblowing? What Do Beginning Glassblowers Learn (or Not) about

Glassblowing Techniques and Processes in the Netflix series "Blown Away"

Jonathan Lillie, Loyola University Maryland

Michelle MichelleJones-lillie, Jacksonville University

"I Learned from that Show that Vampires Are Real": Teaching College Students about Reality vs.

Fictional Media in the Criminology Classroom

Michelle Vannatta, Dominican University

Translanguaging and Digital Humanities: Stand Alone Units from the Global Martial Arts Cinema

Classroom to Foster an Organic, Collaborative, Multi-lingual, Cross-Cultural, and Pluralistic Discourse

Community

Jean Amato, Fashion Institute of Technology, State University of New York

Universal Design for Learning and Silent Film Pedagogy

Elizabeth Haas, University of Bridgeport

Psychology and Popular Culture 2: Psychology in Technology and the

Workplace

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Matthew Kelley, Shelton State Community College

Manufacturing Belonging: Celebrity Culture, Consumerism & Psychology in the Digital Age

Iris Gildea, University of Toronto

Games and Grieving: How Video Games Can Heal Through Story

Sophia Mccann, Friends University

Introverted, Influential, and Intersectional: Mythbusting Perceptions of Introversion through Black

Female Introverts in Pop Culture

Jacqueline Shaulis, National Center for Intersectional Studies

Adolescent Algorithm Addiction

Canyon Skare, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Supernatural (TV Series) 4: Roundtable: All Roads Lead to "Supernatural":

Navigating the Male Buddy Show Rabbit Hole

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Susan Nylander, Barstow College & Mandy Taylor, California State University, San

Bernardino

Supernatural is a quintessential buddy/brother show. It both borrows from some of the buddy/brother

shows that came before it and serves as a cultural time capsule for its 15-year run. This roundtable

explores a selection of male buddy/brother shows (Alias Smith & Jones, Starsky & Hutch, and

Simon & Simon), their relevance as cultural time capsules, and their echoes, tropes, and parallels

that we can see in Supernatural. Join us to discuss the ways in which what was “old” is made new again.

War and Culture 2: Roundtable: War and/as Adventure

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Steffen Hantke, Sogang University

Deborah Deacon, Arizona State University

Gary GaryHoppenstand, Michigan State University

If media coverage of ongoing conflicts is to be believed, there is nothing remotely enjoyable about war.

And yet, past wars—remembered by survivors and preserved for the public record by historians—often

receive different treatment. Popular culture continues to generate narratives in which war appears as a

form of adventure, framed positively as an escape from tedium, an opportunity for self-realization, or a

righteous crusade. This roundtable will examine representations in popular culture of war as seen through

the lens of adventure, trying to assess where and how cultural production shapes popular perceptions of

war and thus contributes to the political framing of military conflict.

Zombie and Pandemic Culture 1

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Brandon Kempner, New Mexicoo Highlands University

A “Memory of What They Used To Do”: The Black Ghoul as History and Film’s Consumable Product in

Halperin and Romero

Samantha Cinelli, UC Berkeley

Fungal Futures: The Pandemic, "The Last of Us," and Spore Horror

Emma Bacak, University of Arkansas

Zombie Literature, College Students, and Foreign Language and Cultural Knowledge Development

David Shook, Georgia Institute of Technology

The Long Afterlife of "The Walking Dead"

Brandon Kempner, New Mexicoo Highlands University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

American Studies and American History 2: Unveiling Power and Progression

Through Politics, Medicine, and Civil Rights

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Deborah Marinski, Ohio University - Southern Campus

As Best They Could: Civil Medicine and the Advancement of Trauma Associated with War

John Williams, Collin College

Aristocratic Conspiracies: John Taylor of Caroline on the Power Elite

Horace Fairlamb, University of Houston-Victoria

“Free Huey”: The Alliance of White Radicals and the Black Panther Party and its impact on FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover

James Jones, Prairie View A&M University

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 4: Roundtable: Alternative

History in Apocalypse and Dystopia

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Noah NoahJampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Alexandra Nakelski, University of Amsterdam

Chelsea-mae Yuipco, UC Riverside

Thuy Cam Van (Annie) Luong, York University

Scott Ryan Maybell, Independent Scholar

Alternative histories that rewrite our reality are common in dystopian and apocalyptic works. The Man in

the High Castleby Philip K. Dick contemplates a world where the other side won WWII. Dread Nation, an

alternative history of the US that includes zombies. The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a society overrun by a

religious authority that forces women into pre-determined roles, often sexually abusive roles. These are

just a few examples of works that use an alternative history in their apocalyptic or dystopian worlds. This

roundtable would examine how creating an alternative history functions in this genre.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Children’s/Young Adult Culture 2: Thinking Far Outside the Box

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Diana Dominguez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

sMothering-ExtrAUordinary Stories

Nicoletta Lamarca-sacco, SUNY-Binghamton

Bridging Realms: Empowering Marginalized Voices through Magical Realism in Laura Ruby's "Bone

Gap"

Rachel Rosen, Wake Forest University

Reimagining Greek Gods, Mermaids, and Witches: Exploring User-Generated ESL Young Adult Fiction

on Wattpad

Swara Shukla, University of Muenster

Computer Culture 1

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon J

Moderator: W Jude LeBlanc, Georgia Institute of Technology

Hot Girls Have IBS: An Analysis of the Use of Meme Culture to Cope with an Illness Primarily Affecting

Women

Angelica Cabral, San Francisco State University

Trash People Doing Trash Things on the Internet

Delores Phillips, James Madison University

A Wynn is a Win: Contrapoints' Meta Approach to Internet Communication

Marley Williford, Pikes Peak Community College

Evolution of the Digital Architecture of Frank O. Gehry

W Jude LeBlanc, Georgia Institute of Technology

Creative Writing 6: Poetry III

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Stephen Benz, University of New Mexico

Angels & Iterations: Echoes & Emanations

John Michael Yozzo, Independent Scholar

Last Poet in the Woods

Steven Schneider, University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley

Reassembling Dust

Fred Alsberg, Retired

Route 66 Poems

Stephen Benz, University of New Mexico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 8: Fantasmal Femininities: Spiritualists,

Seances, and Sapphism

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

The Haunted Sapphic: Depictions of Doomed Lesbianism in Mike Flanagan's Horror Trilogy "The

Haunting of Hill House," "The Haunting of Bly Manor," and "Midnight Mass"

Karolina Kowalska, University of Warsaw

The Mysticism of True Womanhood

Mary Ann Scott, University of West Florida

Channeling the Past to Connect with the Present: Séances and Mediums in Neo-Victorian Fiction

Leah Larson, Our Lady of the Lake University

Film Studies 2: Film Noir and Friends

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Kelly Stith, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Exploring Voyeurism and Female Vulnerability in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960)

Natalie Gutierrez, Florida International University (FIU)

The Utopian Vision in "V for Vendetta"

Fereshteh Majdi, Kansas State University

Sinners on Their Knees: Redemption and Justice in Neo-Noir Film

Claire Meyer, West Texas A&M University

Trauma and Repression in David Lynch's "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me"

Kelly Stith, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture 2: New Studies on Non-Fiction

Comics

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Loredana Bercuci, West University Timisoara

MulitSociality and Comics: An Exploration of Duncan Tonatiuh and Methods as Social Justice Praxis

Robert Watkins, Idaho State University

Visuality and Trauma in GB Tran’s "Vietnamerica" and "The Best We Could" by Thi Buy

Loredana Bercuci, West University Timisoara

John Lewis: The Chicken Preacher and Life Force of "March"

Cliff Marks, University of Wyoming

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Harry Potter Studies 1: Creating Our Own Hogwarts: How the Magic of

"Harry Potter" Helped Change the Culture of an Entire High School

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Ramona Burns, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB)

Addison AddisonSmith, United Keetoowah band of Cherokee Indians (UKC)

Arik Duncan, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians (UKB)

Ashley Miller, UKB

This presentation will look at how using Harry Potter’s house and points system created community and a

common purpose among a rebellious eleventh grade class. We will explore how the same ideas were put

into place school wide the next year as a way to change the culture of an entire high school. Meet us at

platform 9 ¾. We’ll show you the way!

Horror 4: Abject Horror

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Jacob Brewer, Tarleton State University

In the Hills, Abjection

Jacob Brewer, Tarleton State University

The Horror of Grief

Ramzi Nimr, McGill University

Motherhood and Horror in Contemporary Cinema

Diyasha Chowdhury, Miami University

Hive Mind, Body, and Soul: The Posthuman Fungal Chimera

Jennifer Sams, California State University Northridge

Sarah Gay, California State University Northridge

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Popular Culture 2: Roundtable:

Motherly Witchcraft and Witchy Mothers

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Taos

Moderator: Renae Mitchell, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos

Andrea AndreaDekeseredy, University of Alberta

Payton Mccarty-simas, Columbia University

Motherhood and witchcraft have often been viewed as intertwined in the West—from the “enigma”

surrounding the birthing process and the diabolical midwives who facilitate the process, to the growing

Pagan belief systems that call to mothers today. The increasing acceptance of intersectional forms of

motherhood(s) has led to cries against the descent of conventional parenting and fear of a rise of fluid

pronouns and books that promote the acceptance of a child’s various and varying identities. The fear of

women who carry out motherhood in a manner deemed deviant by those in power in their social context

has historically garnered these women the title of witch — and is reflected in popular culture. Join three

women from distinct academic backgrounds who will discuss recent and historical themes on the

intersection of motherhood and witchcraft through their work and interests.

Professional Development: Publishing with McFarland

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Layla Milholen, McFarland & Company

Join McFarland representative Layla Milholen for a discussion about publishing with McFarland.

The Last of Us 4: Roundtable: From Pixels to Plots: A Roundtable on

Adapting "The Last of Us" to a Television Series

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Adrienne Domasin, Claremont Graduate University

From Pixels to Plots: A Roundtable on Adapting "The Last of Us" to a Television Series

Adrienne Domasin, Claremont Graduate University

In the realm of academic exploration at the intersection of media studies and narrative adaptation, this

roundtable event explores the fascinating adaptation of The Last of Us video game into a television series.

The Last of Us, a critically acclaimed and emotionally immersive video game, has captivated audiences

with its rich storytelling, complex characters, and post-apocalyptic world. This roundtable seeks to dissect

the challenges, creative decisions, and potential impacts on transmedia storytelling when adapting

interactive experiences into linear narratives.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Theater and Performance Studies 3: Notions of Performance

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Kathleen Potts, The City College of New York

Lions, Tigers, and Zebras, Oh My!: Exploring the Performance of Exotic Hunting in Texas

Aj Villarreal, TAMU

An Analysis of Matatu Performance: Linguistic, Behavioural, and Iconographic Subversion in Matatu’s

Archive and Repertoire

John Musyoki, University of Alberta

Writer on the Beach: Performing Research into Slow Disaster

Karen Wall, Athabasca University

Alfred Hitchcock 2: Hitchcock and Sexuality

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Michael Howarth, Missouri Southern State University

Always Rebecca: Queerness in "Rebecca" and its Adaptation

Lucas Kurmis, Northern Michigan University

“With all due respect to Oedipus”: Unpacking Gender and Sexuality in Hitchcock’s "The Birds"

Erin Mahoney, California State University Sacramento

The Real Blonde Bombshell: Alfred Hitchcock’s Treatment of Women’s Mental Health in Film

Rachel Harvey, Friends University

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 5: Narrative, Revision, and the

Apocalypse

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Thuy Cam Van (Annie) Luong, york university

Alone in the Alps: Revising the Post-Apocalyptic Survival Narrative in "Die Wand" (2012)

Steffen Hantke, Sogang University

Industrialism, War, and the Apocalypse: How Tove Jansson and Hayao Miyazaki Teach Children about

the End of the World

Miranda Johnsen, New York University

Remakes and the Multiverse: "The Flash" Mediating the Paradox Between Gen X's Liminal Identity and

Millennial Postmodern Simulation

Alexandra Nakelski, University of Amsterdam

Blood, Fire, Sand, Water, and Eden in "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Thuy Cam Van (Annie) Luong, york university

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Asian Popular Culture/Asian American Experiences 1: Racial Melancholy,

Afro-Anime Initiative, and Hedonism

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Elaine Cho, American University

Scarring, Repetition, and National Melancholia in "Avatar: The Last Airbender"

Jered Mabaquiao, University of Texas, Arlington

Love and Lies: Platforming Affection and Affliction in Neo-Marcosian Disco Inferno

Jose Santos Ardivilla, Texas Tech University School of Art

An Examination of Neo-Marxist Themes in the Film "Crazy Rich Asians"

Christopher Rawlins, Southern Utah University

The Afro-Anime Initiative: Growing Similarities Between East-Asian and Afro-centric Comic Aesthetics

Oluwafunmilayo Akinpelu, Graduate Student, University of Alabama

Buffy and Beyond 1: Money & Misogyny

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Taos

Moderator: Tamy Burnett, Southwest Popular/American Culture Association

#Me Too, Him Too: A Look at Shakespeare’s play and Joss Whedon’s Film Adaptation of "Much Ado

About Nothing"

Doris Barkin, City College of New York

Finding Jim Profit in the Whedonverse

Anastasia Hyden, DePaul University

Reclaiming Cordelia Chase

Kathrina Knepper, Independent Scholar

Children’s/Young Adult Culture 3: Let’s Talk About Gender, Romance, and

Culture in YA Literature

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Ashley Johnson, University of Texas at Arlington

The Riordanverse Community

Ali Cortez, Nicholls State University

Young Adult Contemporary Romances: Is Sarah Dessen the Queen of the Genre?

Rachel Geiger, Marshall University

Manly as a Mouse: Gender Representation in Children's Literature Using "The Tale of Despereaux"

Alyssa Johnson, Friends University

Women, Tea, and Steamy Forbidden Romance: Examining Femininity Through the Eyes of a Tomboy in

Judy I. Lin’s "A Magic Steeped in Poison"

Declan Roberts, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 9: Roundtable: Down the Rabbit-Hole,

Through the Looking Glass, and Over the Hedge: Changeling Tales, Fairy

Stories, and Esoteric Transitions

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Alana AlanaEisenbarth, Washington University

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Jake Fee, Gnostic Technology

Despite the rapid proliferation of occult and magical motifs throughout all media of popular culture, fairy

tales remain the most common form ofesotericwriting that people encounter; they offer opportunities to

explore insensible ways of encountering the world that ring true to our innermost selves.Lewis Carroll

described three states of being in regard to fairy tales: in state A we have know consciousness of fairies,

in state B, we are aware of both the sensible world and the presence of fairies, and in state C, we have left

this world and understand only the fairy world, which Carroll calls the “actual world.” Overtime, we have

come to think of fairy tales as largely moral lessons, but many fairy tales do not offer any reasonable

moral lesson—Carroll’s Alice tales are an example of this—but rather offer a new perception. In what

way do modern day fairy tales—like Apple TV+’s recentThe Changeling—reflect these characteristics?

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 7

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Judd Ruggill, University of Arizona

Colonization Simulations: Exploring Appropriation and Control as Gameplay and Narrative Themes in

Video Games

Claudia Garza, Tecnológical de Monterrey

“Think Backwards:” Romantic Antiquarianism as Ludic and Narrative Praxis in "King’s Quest"

Kevin Moberly, Old Dominion University

Arachnogogy: The Pedagogy of Insomniac's Spider-Man Franchise

Kanak Manav Gupta, CSU Fullerton

Sculpting with Pictures: Landscape and Identity in Viewfinder

Caleb Ward, Georgia State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture 3: What's Old is New Again:

Re-engaging 90s and Early 2000s Comics Culture

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Amaris Ketcham, University of New Mexico

Crafting Connections: The Handmade Comics Revival

Amaris Ketcham, University of New Mexico

Nora NoraHickey, University of New Mexico

Where’s My Jet Pack?: Cyborgs and Dystopian Futures in "Doktor Sleepless"

Tamara Banbury, Carleton University

“Natural Things Would Make More Sense”: "Black Hole" as Antipastoral

David Williams, University of West Florida

Horror 5: Roundtable: Mike Flanagan: The Fall of the Haunting of the

Midnight Club of Horror

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon E

Moderator: David Scott Diffrient, Colorado State University

Megan Elizabeth Boothby, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Alexandra AlexandraFranke, Montclair State University

Cementing his status as a significant figure within horror with the adaptation of The Fall of the House of

Usher in 2023, Mike Flanagan has carved out a niche for himself as creator of horror film and television

that delights both popular audiences and reviewers. This roundtable is devoted to Flanagan’s varied and

extensive work in horror on the large and the small screen.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 3: Culture, Context, and Critical Thinking:

Interdisciplinary Approaches to Using Popular Culture in Small Liberal Arts

College Classrooms

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Mark Boulton, Westminster College

Trying That in a Small Town: Navigating Difficult Local Histories in the Classroom and in Public

History Through the Story of "Celia, A Slave"

Mark Boulton, Westminster College, Fulton Missouri

Nichol NicholAllen, Westminster College

Lyrical Leadership: Engaging Students in Leadership Studies Through the Analysis of Music, Lyrics, and

Social Movements

Ashley Dodson, Westminster College, MO

The Changing Memory of WWII: Exploring WWII Through Film at a SLAC

Heather Mcrae, Westminster College

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Engaging Students in Paleontology through Popular Culture and

Creativity

David Schmidt, Westminster College

Psychology and Popular Culture 3: Psychology in Film and Literature

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Matthew Kelley, Shelton State Community College

“Blood and Revenge are Hammering in My Head”: Memory and Trauma in "Titus Andronicus"

Lindsey Surratt, University of Texas Arlington

“I Would Have Really Liked Just Doing Laundry and Taxes with You”: Harmful Effects of the American

Dream on the Family Structure as seen in Arthur Miller’s "Death of a Salesman" and the Daniels’

"Everything Everywhere All at Once"

Sarah Blankenship, Abilene Christian University

Psychology, Pop Culture, and the Power of Picture Books

Valerie Williams-sanchez, St. John's University

Mysterious Personality Variables: Need for Cognition and Fair Play

Matthew Kelley, Shelton State Community College

Religion 3

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Cori Knight, University of California-Riverside

Q Age: Conspirituality and authority at Disclosurefest and Conscious Life Expo

Indra Chapman, Claremont Graduate University

Your Own, Personal Jesus

Jessica Hughes, George Fox University

RPG-ing the Interreligious Encounter

Greg Jones, Duquesne University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Television 1: Shifting Queer Representations in Genre Television

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Erin Giannini, Independent Scholar

Mesmeric Revelation: The Troubled Representation of Gender and Desire in the "Friday the 13th": The

Series Episode “Mesmer’s Bauble”

Kristopher Woofter, Dawson College

Dare to Defy?: "Legends of Tomorrow" and the CW’s Rewriting of the WB’s Problematic Queer Rep

Erin Giannini, Independent Scholar

You Can Lead a Bisexual to Water But You Can't Make Him Twink: Inconsistencies in Queer

Representation in "Teen Wolf"

Stephanie Graves, Vanderbilt University

Friendship in Fly-Over Country: Prismatic Relationships in "Somebody Somewhere"

Tanya Cochran, Union College (NE)

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1: Woman's Perspective of Otherness

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Serena Richards, Collin College

The Roles of Native Tribal Women and the Importance Those Roles Serve in Tribal Communities

Mindy Morin, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa

Mulan the Hegemonic Hero: A Cultural Feminist Perspective

Madison Stauffer, Southern Utah University

Muslim Women Leaders in the U.S. Stand against Enduring Stereotyping: A Media Literacy Lesson

Saiqa Shahzadi, University of New Mexico

American Studies and American History 3: "Resisting Settler Colonialism

and Maintaining Cultural Identities"

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Deborah Marinski, Ohio University - Southern Campus

Defending Sacred Sites: Arizona Protests

Roger Nichols, University of Arizona Emeritus

Multilingual America: Oral Histories of Students and Faculty at the University of Denver

Kamila Kinyon, University of Denver

Fantastic Transfer: Settler Literature and the Production of an “Exo-Indigenous Self”

Daniel Uncapher, University of Utah

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 6: Dystopias

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Aubrey Dickens, Brigham Young University

“Do Not Go Gentle”: Marxist Apparatuses in "Matched" by Ally Condie

Kelsea Abston, Abilene Christian University

Immigration and Dystopia in "District 9" (2009)

Rhituparna Basu, Arizona State University

Breastmilk, Homelander, and Eugenics: Reproductive Dystopia in Amazon Prime’s "The Boys"

Aubrey Dickens, Brigham Young University

Chican@ Literature, Film, and Culture 2: Narratives of Empowerment

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Christopher Carmona, Our Lady of the Lake University

The Dismemberment of Latinx Bodies Exposed Through Narrative and Environmental Racism

Stephanie Hernandez, University of Texas at Arlington

"The Storm at Valley State" and the "Unrest": Visualizing Counter-Narratives to Empower Chicana/o/xs

in a Public Speaking Classroom

Jose Amaro, California State University, Northridge

Palimpsest of the Borderlands: Telling the Story of the Borderlands through Estéfana Cavazos de Cortina

[La Patrona] and Hermilla Cuellar [Bootlegger]

Christopher Carmona, Our Lady of the Lake University

Children’s/Young Adult Culture 4: Children’s Literature as Catalysts for

Change

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Diana Dominguez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Picture Books as the Catalyst for Social and Emotional Learning

Natalia Umaña, University of Denver

"It's Just a Little Fog": Picturing the Slow Violence of Climate Change in Kyo Maclear and Kenard Pak's

The Fog

Heather Snell, University of Winnipeg

The Rabbit Hole Is Too Tight

Julia Tirro, Binghamton University

Cushman’s Medieval Girls: Transforming Children’s Literature Pedagogy through Stories of Medieval

Adolescence

Ashley Johnson, University of Texas at Arlington

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Crime and Culture 1: Criminals, Cons and Killers in Literature Through the

Ages

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Melissa Tackett-Gibson, University of Colorado, Denver

Societal Trauma and the Serial Killer Genre

Katelyn Tener, University of West Florida

Marriage as Long Con: Louisa May Alcott’s Jean Muir and Amy March

Jill Jones, Rollins College

Hygge and Gore. The Politics of Scandinavian Noir

Ovio Olaru, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 10: Esoteric, Occult and Magical Art:

Liminal Transformation, Spiritual Aesthetics, and Symbolic Symbiosis

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

The Dark Naiveté of Gisella Loeffler

Deana Craighead, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum

Sigils and Self-Writing: Foucault, Anzaldua, and Austin Osman Spare

Michael Cerliano, Texas Woman's University

Speculations on the Expression of Plant-Human Entanglement and Consciousness in the Visual and

Material Culture of Spiritualism

Emily Leon, Duke University

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 8

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Carly Kocurek, Illinois Institute of Technology

Interactive Language Learning Adventure: Bridging the Gap for Gen Z in Italian Education

Francesca Beretta, The University of Kansas

Anna Marie Anna MarieHinton, The University of Kansas

Ad Hoc Arcades for Learning

Rafael Fajardo, University of Denver

What Do We Want This To Look Like? Safety Tools in Tabletop Roleplaying Games for the Classroom

Raegan Harvey, Texas Woman's University

"Buddy Abroad" Postmortem

Jes Klass, DePaul University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Horror 6: Roundtable: The New Media Age of Horror: Reddit Rabbit Holes,

Creepypastas, and Backrooms

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Andrew Lee, Drew University

Danielle Herget, Fisher College

Jennifer JenniferSams, CSUN

Sarah Gay, California State University Northridge

In recent years, the emergence of digital media and user-generated content has generated a multitude of

unique, and immersive, horror experiences. Creepy subreddits—both fiction-based and not—present new

and interactive horror narratives, urban legends redevelop and abound through collaborative storytelling

within Creepypastas, and artists, writers and musicians explore the “Backrooms” of the world—liminal

horrors in a digital frame. Horror, in the new media age, has democratized and become community-

centered and generated. This roundtable will explore these new realms of online horror, and discuss

where they “fit” within the more traditional academic discourse.

Linguistics 1: Narrative Discourses

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Lisa Wagner, University of Louisville

Voices of Love: Accentedness and Intelligibility in the Narratives of Lx Couples

Mahdi Duris, Iowa State University

Linguistic Feminism in Adichie’s "The Thing Around Your Neck"

Omolade Bamigboye, Ekiti State University, Nigeria

Learning English with the Novels of Cormac McCarthy: a Corpus Linguistic Analysis

Katie Weiss, Texas Tech University

Discourses of Healing: The Courtroom Narratives of USA Women Elite Gymnasts in the Trial of Larry

Nassir

Lisa Wagner, University of Louisville

Spy Culture 1: Spies in Fiction

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Taos

Moderator: Darrell Hamlin, Fort Hays State University

Bureaucratic Cool: Len Deighton’s Early Spy Fiction

Jonathan Naito, St. Olaf College

Espionage in Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury": Covert Catalyst for Feminist Empowerment

Michelle Storer, Western Washington Unviersity

Charles McCarry and Spook Theory on the JFK Assassination

Darrell Hamlin, Fort Hays State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Television 2: Real People, Real Audiences

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Melanie Cattrell, Blinn College

Cooking Up Connections with Rachael Ray: How the Talk Show Host Engages Her Audience through

Parasocial Interaction

Darrell Roe, Eastern New Mexico University

Love Island and the Age of Surveillance: Analyzing the Effects of the Filming Process of Romance-

Based Reality Television Shows on Participant Behavior, on Viewers, and as a Tool for Cross-Cultural

Analysis

Merilyn Arikkat, Virginia Commonwealth University

Yes, Bitch: How Netflix's "The History of Swear Words" Can Help Students Better Understand Language

Choices

Meg Mcguire, University of Delaware

Black Beasts, Korean Zombies, and Mexicutioners: The Role of Race and Identity in the Promotion of

Professional Mixed Martial Arts

Robert Perez, University of California, Riverside

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 2: Roundtable: Trends of BIWOC

Entrepreneurs

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Precious Yamaguchi, Southern Oregon University

Jacqueline JacquelineShaulis, National Center for Intersectional Studies

Marta Collier Youngblood, Independent Scholar

In recent years we have seen an increasing trend of BIWOC academics launching into the world of

entrepreneurship to expand earning potential or side step the glass ceilings that prohibit advancement

within higher education hierarchies. But have we counted the cost of the “academic side hustle” or the

“abandon ship” tactics and what they mean for our personal and professional development? This

roundtable will discuss some of the revelations and lessons learned from BIWOC academics who dabble

and deal in the wonderful world of entrepreneurship.

Opening Reception: Peter C. Rollins Book and Student Awards Ceremony

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm, Grand Ballroom

Moderator: Executive Team, SWPACA

Come join our Executive Staff as we celebrate the official opening of the 45th annual meeting of the

Southwest Popular/American Culture Assocation. Hosted by the Executive Team to honor our conference

attendees, light refreshments and beverages will be available. Immediately following the Opening

Reception, the winners of the 2024 Peter C. Rollins Book Award and our 2024 Graduate Student Paper

and Travel Awards will be announced. We welcome all presenters to attend, congratulate these scholars,

and recognize their achievement and scholarly contributions to the study of popular and American

culture.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 11: Roundtable: The Esoteric

Filmography, Occult Cinema, and Magical Grail-Quest of Nicolas Cage

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Kachine KachineMoore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Payton Mccarty-simas, Columbia University

In thisroundtable, speakers will discuss the recurring themes of esotericism, occultism, conspiracy theory,

and the supernatural inCage's filmography, from conspiratorial mysteries likeKnowingandNational

Treasure,occult supernatural horror films likeColor Out of Space, Mandy,andGhost Rider,to overtly

magical adventures likeSeason of the WitchandThe Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Film Studies 3: Roundtable: Ask the Filmmakers!

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Eric Howerton, Oklahoma State University

Jessica JessicaMcgaugh, SDSU

Andrew Bateman, CU Denver

Dezbaa' , Northern New Mexico College

This roundtable discussion features writers and filmmakers with ties to New Mexico, Colorado,

Oklahoma, and California. With an ability to offer guidance and advice on issues of production,

cinematography, editing, directing, script writing, location scouting, casting, and acting, these educators

have experience juggling creative pursuits with real-world limitations. Conference attendees interested in

turning their own artistic visions into films may learn tips for writing screenplays, scheduling shoots, and

even promoting and releasing work.

10th Annual SWPACA Game Night!

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Kurt Depner, New Mexico State University - Dona Ana

For the tenth year in a row, we will get our “geek on” in style for our annual Southwest Popular/American

Culture Association GAME NIGHT! The hosts of this session are expert geeks and will provide some

fun, challenging, but easy-to-learn games that are anything but traditional, including European games of

the year and Mensa award winners. Multiple tables will be available for social, “party” style games and

quieter, more strategic fare, so the more the merrier. Snacks will also be provided. Come out and enjoy an

evening of camaraderie with your fellow conference attendees!

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Professional Development: Editors Panel

Thu, 02/22/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Lynnea Chapman King, SWPACA

Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

Layla Milholen, McFarland & Company

Elise Mchugh, University of New Mexico Press

Join book and journal editors, as well as representatives from presses, as we discuss academic publishing.

There will be a Q&A period after the talk.

Student Breakfast

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 8:00 am - 9:30 am, Acoma

Moderator: Executive Team, SWPACA

Join us for the Annual Student Breakfast, hosted by the SWPACA Executive Team. All graduate and

undergraduate students are welcome to attend; bring a friend, enjoy a light breakfast, and network with

other emerging scholars.

Adaptation 3: Adapting Jane Austen

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

“... Leaving Silence and Shadows Behind”: Adapting 19th Century Death-Bed Scenes in Cinema

Megha Mazumdar, PhD scholar, English at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR, India

Reimagined Race(y) Regency: The Imagined Worlds of "Bridgerton," "Mr. Malcolm’s List," and Austen

Adaptations

Cassandra Yatron, UTA

Failure to Adapt (No Joke): "Wide Sargasso Sea"

Lisa Yarnell, Eastern Florida State College

Chican@ Literature, Film, and Culture 3: Rudolfo Anaya and Chicanx

Literature: The Legacy of a Forefather

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon H

Moderator: Michael Trujillo, University of New Mexico

Atomic Aztlán: Constructing the Antinuclear Terrorist in Rudolfo Anaya’s Detective Series

Myrriah Gomez, University of New Mexico

Censorship and Cultural Resilience: Interrogating the Legacy of "Bless Me, Ultima" in Chicanx Studies

Bilgenur Aydin, University of New Mexico

Rudolfo Anaya, Angelico Chavez, and the Politics of New Mexican Indigeneity

Michael Trujillo, University of New Mexico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Cormac McCarthy 1: Narration, Language, and Structure

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Cimarron

Moderator: Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

The Missing Narrator of Stella Maris

Todd Womble, Abilene Christian University

The Power of the Unwritten Word: The Extended Universe of "The Road"

Aaron Capelouto, Cormac McCarthy Society

Wheels Within Wheels: Adventures in Reading Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" or the Evening

Redness in the West

Kelly James, The Cormac McCarthy Society

“No Prayer for Such a Thing”: Cormac McCarthy at the Limits of Language

Noemi Fernandez Labarga, University of Notre Dame

Creative Writing 7: Prose IV

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Carlsbad

Moderator: Michael Palmer, Western Governors University

How it All Ends

Greg Rohloff, West Texas A&M University

Creating Creative Communities: A Reflection on TheWRITEaddiction and the Impact of Technology

Platforms on Part-Time Writers

Marta Collier Youngblood, Independent Scholar

Ghost-Flashes: 2 Very Short Stories

Amy Gottfried, Hood College

Bad Host

Michael Palmer, Western Governors University

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 1: Manifesting the Environment:

American Environmental Literature

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

The Deep Roots of American Eco-Poetry

Steven Schneider, University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley

Everything You Never Knew About Whaling, and More! Freakonomics Podcast on Whaling and Moby

Dick

Matthew Hawk, Baylor University

Strings of "Shiny Syllables": A.R. Ammons and the Language of Ecopoetry

Christine Casson, Emerson College

Environmental Desolation, Hope, and Despair in Cormac McCarthy’s "The Road"

Diane Thiel, University of New Mexico

Constantine Hadjilambrinos, University of New Mexico

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 12: Roundtable: The Mainstreaming of

Witchcraft: A Magical Transformation

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon A & B

Moderator: Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

Andrew AndrewChen, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Emma Cieslik, Independent Scholar

Gabriela Bezakova, Independent Scholar

While association with diverse new religious movements such as neo-paganism and wicca, as well as

feminist causes, social media (WitchTok),and a spectrum of capabilities spanning the intellectual, moral,

empathic,and physical/carnal realm, is indicative of the witch's enduring power andappeal, the uncanny

rapidity and variety of the witch's metamorphosesinvite further exploration, cunning inquiry, and

investigative craft. Join theconversation with this circulartableof the art: it is not only the time and

theseason, but also the age and the moment of the witch.

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 9

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Santa Fe

Moderator: Jennifer deWinter, Illinois Institute of Technology

Destruction, Rebirth, and Ambivalence: Nuclear Power in Japanese Video Games

Yasheng She, University of California, Santa Cruz

Dinosaurs, Mecha, & Time Travel: Sci-fi Representations of the Atomic Bombings in Japanese Video

Games Before & After Fukushima

Ryan Scheiding, Georgia Institute of Technology

Petrol, Plugs and Pylons: Fossil Fuels and ‘Nuclear’ Energy in "Final Fantasy XV"

Rachael Hutchinson, University of Delaware

Citizen Designers in Japan: Videogame Design, Nuclear Memory, and the Politics of the Everyday

Keita Moore, UCSB

Horror 7: Mike Flanagan

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon E

Moderator: Alexandra Franke, Montclair State University

Everything Old is New Again: Mike Flanagan’s Creative Reimagining of Horror Classics

Antoinette Winstead, Our Lady of the Lake University

"Screaming Meemies": Supernatural Realism and the Female Protagonist in Netflix’s "The Haunting of

Hill House"

Alexandra Franke, Montclair State University

New Fears of Capitalism in Netflix’s "Fall of the House of Usher"

Erika Rodriguez, US Military Academy

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Mothers, Motherhood, and Mothering in Popular Culture 3: Intersectionality,

Feminism, and Maternal Mirth in Popular Culture

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Taos

Moderator: Renae Mitchell, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos

Understanding the "Barbie" Movie: A Matricentric Feminist Critique

Andrea Dekeseredy, University of Alberta

Patricia PatriciaDekeseredy, West Virginia University

Moms for Liberty: The Real Housewives of Christian Nationalism

Melanie Springer Mock, George Fox University

“Sorry Honey I Burned the Casserole… But Why Does Being a Mom Include Cooking for You?”:

Maternal Representation in Housewife Humor

Nicole Keating, Woodbury University

Intersectional Motherhood and the Work of Civil Rights

Renae Mitchell, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 4: Computer Culture

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon F

Moderator: John Wegner, Angelo State Univesity

Best Frenemies: AI & Online Literature Courses

John Wegner, Angelo State Univesity

Asteroids Meets Snake: Facing New Design Challenges When Mashing Up Old Video Games

Jeremy Johnson, St. Edward's University

GIFs in the Margins: Increasing Student Engagement with Perusall Annotation Software

Gretchen Busl, Texas Woman's University

"Beware; for I Am Fearless, and Therefore Powerful": Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom

Alexis Melson, Oklahoma State University

Poetry and Poetics (Critical) 1

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon I

Moderator: Christos Kalli, University of Pennsylvania

Terrance Hayes, the Poem-Portrait, and the Writer as Art

Christos Kalli, University of Pennsylvania

Heroic Observation and Description in the Poetry of Amy Clampitt

Finnur Windle, University of York

Frank O’ Hara Pop Poetics

Brooks Lampe, George Fox University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Shakespeare in Popular Culture 1: Influence and Adaptation

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon J

Moderator: Stephanie Lim, California State University, Northridge

Grandfather or Godfather: Contrasting Crime Families in Taymor’s "Titus" to Coppola’s "The

Godfather"

Abby Marshall, Abilene Christian University

Mamlet: Young Hamlet in the 21st Century

Julia Griffin, Georgia Southern University

Adapting Bodies to Violence: Ravenscroft’s and Taymor’s Take on Shakespeare’s Bloody Revenge Plot

Mary Womack, Abilene Christian University

"Good for Her": Reflections on the Evolution of the Shrew Trope

Kat Abdallah, Oklahoma State University

In 1972 Francis Ford Coppola won the Academy Award for best picture for his filmThe Godfather. A

little over twenty-five years later, Julie Taymor’sTitus,an adaptation of Shakespeare and Peele’sTitus

Andronicus graced movie screens in 1999. The film timelessly and artistically explores the Roman

tragedy with special interest in familial ties and revenge. While these two critically acclaimed films seem

only to have violence and gore in common, I posit that through ideas of puppetry and familial

responsibility, the two films offer commentary on how pride and revenge thwart personal identity.

Stardom and Fandom 1: The Many Faces of Celebrity and Parasocial

Relationships

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon G

Moderator: Julie Willett, Texas Tech Univeristy

Sports Star to Superhero: MS Dhoni, Indian Cricket and the Graphic Novel

Anuranj Ck, Research Scholar, VIT, India

Knock, Knock, Dr. Glaucomflecken: Using Fandom and Humor to Speak Truth to Power in the Name of

Patient Care

Julie Willett, Texas Tech Univeristy

Dylan Mcbee, Baylor College of Medicine

“You Know Who I Am, Don’t You?” Serial Killers, Fandom, and the Question of Celebrity

Melissa Lambert, Texas Tech University

When a Fan Mourns: Exploration into the Display of Grief in "Furious 7," "Black Panther: Wakanda

Forever," and "Top Gun: Maverick"

Marissa Betts, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Cormac McCarthy 2: Intertextual McCarthy

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Richard Russell, Baylor University

Joycean Hospitality and Friendship in McCarthy's "Suttree"

Richard Russell, Baylor University

Bruegel’s Allegories of Madness, Folly, and Death Triumphant and McCarthy’s Aesthetic Design for

"Blood Meridian"

Dianne Luce, Midlands Technical College, Emerita

The Ruined Aviator and Meaning Making across Three McCarthy Works

Bryan Giemza, Texas Tech University

Creative Writing 8: Poetry IV

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Diane Thiel, University of New Mexico

My Mother Makes Potions

Jessica Isaacs, Seminole State College

As If Place Matters

Paul Juhasz, Seminole State College

Moviehouse Poems: Travel in a Dark Room: Part 2

Mark O'Hara, Stephen T. Badin High School; Miami University

Poetry Reading and Presentation from Recent Book, "Questions from Outer Space," and Latest Work

Diane Thiel, University of New Mexico

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 2: Making Peace with the Wild:

Human/Nature Entanglements

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

Making Peace with the Ground: Extraction and Ecofeminsm in the Paintings of Hannah Yata

Kayla Kruse West, Texas Woman's University

Shattering Illusions: An Ecological Reading of Tolkien’s Wetlands

Grace Humphreys, University of Arizona

Re-Wilding Community: Lily Brooks-Dalton’s Cli-Fi Vision

Susan Tyburski, Independent Scholar

The Poor Hero's Rewilding: "Born Free" and Its Politics of Conservation and Colonization

Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 13: Witchcraft and Sexuality: Anxiety,

Accusation, and Affirmation

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

Blood, Ancestors, Witches: Rethinking Lineages in the South African Lowveld

Isak Arnold Niehaus, Brunel University London

Religious Rebellion and Rebirth: Documenting a Folk Catholic Renaissance in the United States

Emma Cieslik, Independent Scholar

Aster’s Complaint or Witchcraft, Sexuality, Jewish Anxiety, and the Works of Ari Aster

Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Wicca and Sexuality

George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Fashion, Style, Appearance, and Identity 1: Fashion and Media

Representations

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Lauren Sperandio Phelps, University of Texas at Arlington

Between Worlds: Latino/a Representation, Identity, and Fashion in the Disneyverse

Amanda Gomez, El Paso Community College

Are We in a Simulation? Postmodern Fashion, NPCs, and the Subversion of Sexual Identity

Melissa Boyce, Midland College

Play, Style, and Liberation: Exploring the Uncharted Realms of Fashion and Identity in Gaming

Alisha Harris, University of Denver, Emergent Digital Practices

Film and History 3: Overlooked Trailblazers, Censorship, and Contact Points

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Brad Duren, Tulsa Community College

“The Real Star of Cinema”: Remembering John Trevelyan in the British Press

Jocelyn Rockhold, University of Vermont

The Short Films of Bryan Foy

David Sedman, Southern Methodist University

Geographical Contact Points between Two Koreas in "Inshallah," "Joint Security Area," and 645

Aryong Choi-hantke, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Folklore Studies 1

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Helen Mccourt, Collin College

Brer Rabbit to Bugs Bunny: Tricksters Lost in Translation

Charla Strosser, Southern Utah University

Curanderismo in the Classroom: How Traditional Practices Can be Transmitted in Untraditional Ways

Patricia Gaitely, Middle Tennessee State University

Diversity of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity? Or Homogenization?

Lee Seung-soo, Chung-Ang University

Bridging the Jinns with the Prets: A Semiotic Structuralist Analysis of the Bengali Folklore Spirits and

Their Cultural Implication.

Fardun Ali Middya, Student

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 10

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Josh Zimmerman, University of Arizona

Looking for Utopia in Utopia

Rebekah Shultz Colby, University of Denver

Unnecessarily Native: A Brief History of Forgotten Games

Wendi Sierra, Texas Christian University

How Do We Preserve Satirical Games?

Richard Colby, University of Denver

Game Movies in the US and China

Douglas Eyman, George Mason University

Horror 8: Roundtable: Queerness and Psychoanalysis in Horror

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Jennifer Paul, University of Chicago

Sean Woodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

Aleksandra AleksandraSocha, University of Warsaw

Abdul Rafay, DePaul University

Alexandra Franke, Montclair State University

This roundtable considers the role of sexuality and gender in horror, with special emphasis placed on

queer theoretical and psychoanalytic frameworks. How does horror unsettle gender expectations? How

are villains and heroes sexed or gendered in horror, and to what end(s)? How does the erotic intertwine

with the horrific? How does horror challenge, play with, or fundamentally alter cisgender and

heterosexual identities and politics? This roundtable may discuss topics including but not limited to queer

affect, phallic and feminine jouissance, gender play and performance, and the relationship between

abjection and eroticism.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 5: Roundtable: Aerosmith to Zombies: Using

Pop Culture to Engage Students in First-Year Writing

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Yasminda Choate, Seminole State College

Paul Juhasz, Independent Scholar

Kelli Mcbride, Seminole State College

Andrew Davis, Seminole State College

Many students arrive to first-year composition courses with low confidence in their writing skills and

lower interest in the subject of writing! This roundtable discussion with four veteran composition

professors will discuss how we engage students in the writing process using a pop culture lens.

Philosophy and Popular Culture 1: Barbenheimer

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Taos

Moderator: Tama Weisman, Dominican University

Barbie's Republic: Woman's Creation of Justice

Hayley Cisney, Gettysburg College

No Room for Thoughtlessness: The Barbie Liberation Organization as a Precautionary Tale

Tama Weisman, Dominican University

Memory and Meaning: Temporality and Identity in the Films of Christopher Nolan

Karen Hoffman, Hood College

Sociology of Popular Culture 1: Mirrors and Echoes: Mimesis and Simulation

in Popular Culture Studies

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Michelle Schmidt, Eastern New Mexico University

Bul’s Eye: Mimesis, Simulation and Indigenous Game Logic.

Erik Stanley, Eastern New Mexico University

William Gibson’s Peripheral Novels and the Metaphysics of Gaming

Ben Fuqua, Eastern New Mexico University

It's All Fair in Love & Musicals: Relationship Mimesis in Musicals

Grace Mesarchik, Eastern New Mexico University

Bobbie Juarez, Eastern New Mexico University

Lift up Thy Cares! History, Performance, and Simulacra in the American Renaissance Festival

David Sweeten, Eastern New Mexico University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Stardom and Fandom 2: Celebrity, Community, and Queer Subculture in

Music Fandom

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Allison Wilson, University of Colorado Boulder

Taylor Swift, “Blank Space” and Public Perception: How We See Women in Comedy

Hazel Walker, Texas Tech University

“I Just Want to Stay in That Lavender Haze”: Queering and Community in the Gaylor Fandom

Allison Wilson, University of Colorado Boulder

"The Story of Us" (Twitter’s Version): Exploring Online Fandom, Community, and Identity in the Era of

Taylor Swift

Elizabeth Thomae, Indiana University

“That’s Me!”: Emo Fandom, Idol Worship, and the Formalization of Queer Desire

Ella Martini, Pacific Northwest College of Art

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 3: Politically Speaking: Women in the

Political Arena

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Jane Caputi, Florida Atlantic University

In Support of "Nasty Women" Politics: How Second Wave Feminism Foreshadowed Alt-Right Women

Politicians

David Corwin, George Mason University

"Serious Balls": Trump as Cult Figure and Phallic Symbol in Pop Paraphernalia

Jane Caputi, Florida Atlantic University

Curating the Fruits Basket (No Homo): How Mainstream Media Reflect Progression and Regression in

Gender Politics

Kisa Schultz, California State University Northridge

Animation Studies 1: Slow In and Slow Out

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Francisco Ortega-Grimaldo, Texas Tech University

The Animated Chimera: Performing Human/Animal Hybridity

Colin Wheeler, Kennesaw State University

Exploration of Automatism in Experimental Digital Animation

Sandee Chamberlain, Kennesaw State University

Singing Our Own Song: Dimensions of History in Animated Form

Charles Dacosta, Queensland University of Technology

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Apocalypse, Dystopia, and Disaster in Culture 7: "The Last of Us" as

Apocalypse

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Brandon Kempner, New Mexicoo Highlands University

Shane Trayers, Middle Georgia State University

George GeorgeSieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Miranda Williams, Northern Michigan University

Jennifer Sams, California State University Northridge

Sarah Gay, California State University Northridge

This roundtable will discuss all aspects of the television show and video game as a post-apocalypse. The

game/show takes a different approach to the zombie genre by using Zombie Ant-fungus or Cordyceps as

inspiration for a different kind of zombie. We can discuss all aspects of this post-apocalyptic world in the

game or the show.

Asian Popular Culture/Asian American Experiences 2: It's More than Just

Food: Cultural Diversity, Power, and Intersectionality

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Elaine Cho, American University

The Intersections of Culture, Health, and Visual Communication Through the Pandemic in Thailand

Precious Yamaguchi, Southern Oregon University

Worapron WorapronWorawongs Chanthapan, Cal State University, Long Beach

Where's the Beef: Food as Agency in the Netflix series "Beef"

Valerie Cato, Augusta University

Burgers Today, Bánh Mì Tomorrow? Vietnamese American Foodways from Việt Nam to Houston

Roy Vu, Dallas College, North Lake Campus

Heterogeneity in the Chinese American Family Life

Xiaotian Liu, Dartmouth College

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Children’s/Young Adult Culture 5: The Mirrors and Windows of

Representation

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Ashley Johnson, University of Texas at Arlington

The Ethics of Visible Race in the Middle Grade Graphic Novel New Kid

Jani Barker, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Thinking Monstrously: Queering Anthologised YA Short Stories as Spaces for Creative Monstrosity

Chloe Bond, University of British Columbia

Imagining Chicana Futurity: How Donna Barba Higuera’s "The Last Cuentista" Centers Petra Peña’s

Storytelling as a Decolonizing Praxis in Chicanafuturist Children’s Literature

Kendell Leigh Centeno-wilkerson, San Diego State University

Studying Asian American Girlhood Abroad

Tracy Fuentes, New York University

Creative Writing 9: Prose V

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Denise Tolan, Northwest Vista College

Of Destination

Dibakar Pal, University of Calcutta

San Marcos Mermaid Story

Clayton Bradshaw, University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash College

Italian Blood

Denise Tolan, Northwest Vista College

(Not) Belonging: Essays and Poems

Nicoletta Lamarca-sacco, SUNY-Binghamton

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 14: Queering Esotericism: Liminal

Boundary and Uncanny Affect in the Formation of Identities

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Emma Cieslik, Independent Scholar

Mystical within the Queer: Félix González-Torres “Untitled: Portrait of Ross in LA”

Sho Mcclarence, University of Denver/ Iliff School of Theology

"Bloodchild" and the Affect of Aliens

Elle Yurkin, Clemson University

Deacon-Sacerdotes and Scarlet Women: Queering Crowley and The OTO

Kahlo Smith, University of Nevada, Reno

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Film Studies 4: U.S. Film and Media in the 21st Century

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Erin Heath, Wayland Baptist University

Write What you Know: Asteroid City as the Disillusion and Deifying of Hollywood

Erin Heath, Wayland Baptist University

Negotiating the East the West: An Individual among the Collective

Andrea Tran, Claremont Graduate University

“All Eyes on Me”: Compulsive Performativity and Fractured Perspectives in "Bo Burnham: Inside"

(2021)

Jeremy Laughery, Texas Tech University

Horror 9: Roundtable: Horror and/versus the Academy

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Steffen Hantke, Sogang University

Danielle Herget, Fisher College

Emmanuelle EmmanuelleBenhadj, University of Pittsburgh

Hans Staats, Cedars Academy

Sean Woodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

Gary Hoppenstand, Michigan State University

Once upon a time, the study of horror would not get you tenure. But times have changed. This roundtable

aims to explore horror’s changing relationship to academic and professional capital, and its gradual

elevation to the status of respectability within academic studies. How do we—as academics—frame and

evaluate horror texts? How does academic discourse separate itself from increasingly sophisticated non-

professional publishing? How does the profession, increasingly limited by social, ideological, and

professional orthodoxies, deal with what is truly offensive, transgressive, and subversive in horror?

Medievalisms 1: Engaging the Medieval on the Screen and Page

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Julie Pace, The Westminster Schools

Escape, Enclosure, and Medieval Asynchrony in Netflix's "The Old Guard"

Kate Koppelman, SEATTLE UNIVERSITY

No Bones About It: Ívarr the Boneless, Embodied Narratives, and Post-Medieval Depictions of Disability

Erin Benton, University of Aberdeen

Depictions of Dragons and Wyrms and the Fault of Feminine Power in C.S. Lewis’ "The Chronicles of

Narnia"

Claire-Elise Baalke, University of New Mexico

Searching for Dante’s Paradiso in Television and Film

Amber Dunai, Texas A&M University - Central Texas

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Mystery/Detective Fiction 1: New Approaches to Classic Texts

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Lexey Bartlett, Fort Hays State University

The Immoral Sherlock Holmes: The Famous Detective and Situational Ethics

Martin Wukasch, Austin Community College

Interrogating Visual Methodologies in Detective Fiction: Dashiell Hammett’s "The Maltese Falcon" and

Ross Macdonald’s "The Chill"

Kory Wein, University of Wisconsin Platteville

Douglas Adams, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Family Secret in the Country: Ladies' Bane and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches"

Chiho Nakagawa, Nara Women's University

Rap and Hop Hop Culture 1: Culture, Fatherhood, and Sexual Expression

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Taos

Moderator: Robert Tinajero, University of North Texas-Dallas

Promoting Pan-Americanism vis-a-vis U.S. Cultural Imperialism: As Exemplified by Rapper Residente’s

2022 Track "This Is Not America"

Armin Langer, University of Florida

French Rap and the Deconstruction of French Universalism

Ali Touilila, Yale University

Rappers Delight in “The Message” about Papa Going Crazy: Fatherhood Narratives in 80s Hip-hop

Jessie Adolph, Georgia State University-Perimeter College

Millennial Black Women’s Sexual Expression and Hip-Hop Music

Shalisa Sproles, Texas A&M University

Television 3: Roundtable: Paranormal Paranoia: Reflections on Paranormal

and Pseudoscience TV

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Erin Giannini, Independent Scholar

Stephanie StephanieGraves, Vanderbilt University

Will Dodson, University of North Carolina Greensboro

Kristopher Woofter, Dawson College

This roundtable focuses on the potentially productive paranoia of paranormal and pseudoscience TV from

the 1950s to the present. Across a wide variety of applications of the “reality TV style,” the presenters

examine the sometimes implicit, sometimes shockingly upfront critical potential of this “low” form.

Series discussed include Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond (1959-1961), Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction

(1997-2002, 2021-present), Ancient Aliens (2009-present), and Hulu's Living for the Dead (2023).

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Professional Development: Publishing with Academic Presses

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Elise Mchugh, University of New Mexico Press

From a revised dissertation to a senior scholar’s latest book, memoirs and novels to guidebooks,

university presses are an important part of the publishing world but can seem difficult to navigate. Elise

McHugh, humanities editor at the University of New Mexico Press, will demystify the process of what

UNM Press and university presses in general are looking for, how to submit your proposal, and what

to<br>expect when working with an academic publisher.

Adaptation 4: Indigenous Adaptations

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

Revisiting the Windigo: Possession and Eco-Horror in "Antlers"

Yingwen Yu, Texas Christian University

Translating Narratives and Navigating Identities: Envisioning a Filmic Adaptation of Louise Erdrich’s

"The Sentence"

Dilan Erteber, The University of Arizona

Shadow Art and Inuit Transformations of Space

Faraz Saberi, University of Arizona

Re-Visioning the Culture-Text of Peter Pan: Cherie Dimaline’s "Tiger Lily and the Secret Treasure of

Neverland"

Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

African American/Black Studies 1

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Melvin Hill, U of Tenn., Martin

Faith. Unites. Communities: Unpacking the Communal and Spiritual Bonds in the Music of Kendrick

Lamar

Iris Lancaster, Texas Southern University

Deprived and Devalued: Black Subjectivity in Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us" Remastered and "The

Last of Us Part II"

Melvin Hill, U of Tenn., Martin

Indigenous Anioma Music and Its Contemporary Relevance to Anioma Youths

Mary Okocha, Wenzhou-Kean University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Animation Studies 2: Secondary Action

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Jorgelina Orfila, Texas Tech University

Identifying the Target Audience for Anime Artistic Style in American Advertising

Teresa Thompson, Southern Utah University

Understanding the Portrayals of Incest in Anime

Enggar Mohammad, BINUS University

Classical Representations in Popular Culture 1: Ancient Books, Modern Lives

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Richard Oehling, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

BT (Before Tartt): Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin

Sophie Mills, University of North Carolina Asheville

Plato's Teaching Philosophy: Dissecting Love and Madness as Pedagogy in the Phaedrus

Steven Pedersen, East Central University

Popular Culture on the Roman and Brazilian Stages: Representation of Otium and Laziness in Plautus’s

and Ariano Suassuna’s Comedies

Vanessa Dias, UNICAMP

A Tale that Transcends Time Itself: A Comparison of Themes of Feminism and Mother-Daughter

Relationships in Ancient and Modern Tales of Persephone

Dani Hoots, Arizona State University

Consumerism and Culture 1: Magic, Martha and the Commodification of the

Everyday

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Taos

Moderator: Melissa Tackett-Gibson, University of Colorado, Denver

The Role of Popular Culture in the Relationship between Japan and the United States: How the Exchange

of Consumer and Cultural Objects Has Shaped the US-Japan Relationship Post World War-II

Abigail Walter, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Rossellin RossellinGaitan, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Qiwen Jiang, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Tomomi Kakegawa, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

David Jones, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

At Home Yet at Large: Martha Stewart and the Aesthetics of Domestic Fantasy

Jillian Viveiros, Texas Woman's University

Magic, Market, and Modernism: Exploring the Role of Advertisement in the Construction of

"Modernism" as a Literary Phenomenon and its Subsequent Effects on the Process of Commodification of

the Arts

Indranuj Ray, Student

Shalai Tue: Sex, Commodity Fetishization, and Sino-African Relations in a Ghanaian TV Ad

David Donkor, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Cormac McCarthy 3: Philosophy and Science in the New Novels

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

Quantum Solution to The Passenger

Rick Wallach, Nova Southeastern University (Retired)

The Deep Foundation of the World: McCarthy's Passengers in Time

Vernon Cisney, Chair, Associate Professor, Gettysburg College

"The Passenger" and "Stella Maris": Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Love

Liana Andreasen, South Texas College

Spectral Entanglement: Eidolons and Revenants in the Work of Cormac McCarthy and Jon Fosse

Robin Andreasen, South Texas College

Disability Studies 1: Representations of Disability in Fantasy and Horror

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Lexey Bartlett, Fort Hays State University

Not so "Crazy" After All: Disability's Role in the Final Girl and Enduring Woman Formula

Kassia Krone, Friends University

Scheming and Subverting Disability Tropes: Analyzing Disability Representation in "Six of Crows"

Kylie Olson, Friends University

Positioning Disability: The Implications of the Disability Representation in NBC’s "Hannibal"

Alec Jordan, Florida State University

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 3: Roundtable: Experiential Learning

and the Natural Environment

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

Bryan Giemza, Texas Tech University

Robert RobertPeaslee, Texas Tech University

Jerod Foster, Texas Tech University

Olivia Raymond,

In this roundtable, we discuss recent experiences traveling, documenting, and engaging with a variety of

natural environments and cultural contexts through Texas Tech University experiential learning programs,

including both domestic and international locations. Presenting the perspectives of student, teacher, and

administrator, the goal of the roundtable is to synthesize these experiences and spur discussion on the

value of storytelling for preserving natural environments, stewarding the land, and improving resiliency

and mental health outcomes for students.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 15: Esoteric Codes: Synchronous,

Symbolic, Sigilic, Subconscious

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Using the Dream as Life Informant

Jules Kennedy, Southern New Hampshire University

“A Life’s Base Lie, Rewritten into Truth”: Synchronicity and Paranoia in Thomas Pynchon’s "The Crying

of Lot 49"

Kyle Hayes, Texas State University

Algorithmic Alechemy: Sigil Magic in the Digital Age

Nicholas Shadle,

“Through Our Desolation,/Thoughts Stir, Inspiration Stalks Us/through Gloom”: H.D.’s Mystic Hope

Sara Sheiner, Independent Scholar

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 11

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Kevin Moberly, Old Dominion University

The Complicated Ecopolitics of "Dave the Diver"

Chris Morrow, Tarleton State University

Halcyon Daze: Documenting and Interpreting the Galactic Starcruiser

Carly Kocurek, Illinois Institute of Technology

The Pike and Prejudice: Gaming Spaces and Urban Transformation in Long Beach, California

Sean Smith, California State University, Long Beach and the CSULB Center for the History of Video

Games, Technology and Critical Play

District 6: Public Views of Safe Game Spaces in Long Beach, CA

Jeffrey Lawler, California State University Long Beach

Horror 10: Literature and Music

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Heather Salus, Chicago Math and Science Academy

"What Strange Claws Are These?”: The Use of Monstrosity in Florence and the Machine’s "Dance Fever"

Heather Salus, Chicago Math and Science Academy

From Gothic Bloodsucker to Gothicized Serial Killer: The Vampire-Priest in the First Romanian Vampire

Novel

Anca Simina Martin, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu

Life Squeezes Us and These are the Noises We Make: Understanding the Horror Domain

Hans Staats, Cedars Academy

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 6: Special Session; Opening Doors to

Communities: Self-Discovery in XR

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Dawn Armfield, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Shadow ShadowArmfield, Northern Arizona University

James Ingram, Northern Arizona University

Andrew Oxley, Northern Arizona University

In this presentation, presenters discuss how storytelling is used to discover agency for young adults with

intellectual disabilities in a transition program. Working with a team of teachers, para-professionals,

practicum students (from a special education program at a nearby university), and the researchers, the

young adults created extended reality (XR) stories that are instruments of self-advocacy, demonstrations

of their experiences, and training tools for future students using public transportation and engaging in job

training. Attendees of this presentation will see how different approaches to constructing agency,

especially for marginalized students, within multimodal environments can be used in the classroom.

Science Fiction and Fantasy (General) 1: Body, Mind, and Trauma

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

The Soldier's Stigmata: Habitus and Messianicity in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Borders of Infinity"

Andrew Hallam, Denver Public Schools/Community College of Denver

Thirdspace Traumas: Reconciling Reality through Spatial Narratives and the Animated Fantasy

Otherworld(s) of RWBY

Nia Ramsey, University of Oklahoma

Something Wicked Plagues Man: H.P. Lovecraft and Madness

Gabby Mcfey, Temple University

Parallel Worlds, Necropolitics, and Disability in Micaiah Johnson’s "The Space Between Worlds"

Sam Weiss, University of Illinois - Chicago

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 4: Roundtable: Feminist Border Arts

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Acoma

Moderator: M. Catherine Jonet, New Mexico State University

L. Anh L. AnhWilliams, New Mexico State University

This presentation explores Feminist Border Arts (FBA), an interdisciplinary humanities collaborative

initiative housed in the academic program for Gender and Sexuality Studies at New Mexico State

University. Introducing FBA's role at the intersection of film & media, academic research, and

creative practice, we highlight a range of projects—from curated film festivals to digital and comics

zines—before screening a 60 minute program of short films drawn from the Feminist Border Arts Film

Festival 2023. Serving as a hub for multidisciplinary collaboration, FBA is committed to fostering social

justice and transformative change, traversing borders that are both literal and conceptual.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Classical Representations in Popular Culture 2: Swords, Sandals, and other

Res Romanae

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Benjamin Howland, Grand Valley State University

A Realistic Simulation? Altered Representations of Society in Ancient Rome Themed City-Building

Games

Egidio Incelli, Independent Scholar

Cicero’s Cato in the Death & Rebirth of Batman

Henry Maravilla, Yale University

Spartacus, “The Gladiator” and Rome as Site of Abolitionist Exemplarily

Benjamin Howland, Grand Valley State University

Surviving Latin: An Analysis of Latin Quotes in Popular Media

Tashi Treadway, Johns Hopkins University

Cormac McCarthy 4: Biblical and Theological Readings

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Olivia Ojeda, The Cormac McCarthy Society

Lester Ballard as (Failed) Redeemer in Cormac McCarthy's "Child of God"

Courtney Tremblay, University of Regina

Biblical Allusions and Imperialism in Cormac McCarthy’s "Cities of the Plain"

Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

“Things Which God Will Not Permit": Concupiscence and Original Sin in Cormac McCarthy's "The

Passenger" and "Stella Maris"

Travis Mcdonald, Front Range Community College - Westminster

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 4: What Is Left, What Remains:

Ecocritical Perspectives in Spanish-Speaking Spaces

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

Post-growth Scenarios in Rural Spain: The Case of "As Bestas"

Alessio Piras, University of New Mexico

Postgrowth Imaginaries and the Empty Spain in "Los Asquerosos" by Santiago Lorenzo

David Martinez, George Fox University

Walking with Sheep, Drinking from Glaciers, A Peru-Borne Defense of the Commons

Charli Beck, Pacific Northwest College of Art

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 16: Roundtable: Limitless Realities and

Infinite Worlds in the Mythic Mirror: Esotericism and Gnosticism in

Speculative Fiction

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Michael Barros, Boise Classical Academy

Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

George GeorgeSieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Jake Fee, Gnostic Technology

Linyan Zheng, Rice University

Scott Ryan Maybell, Independent Scholar

Thisroundtablewill explore various perspectives regarding the influence ofesotericism and gnosticism on

speculative fiction in its sense as a super-genre, aswell as its more restricted senses of alternative

histories, hypothetical futures,counterfactual scenarios, parallel worlds, and secondary worlds. Similarly,

we willdiscuss the representation of esoteric and gnostic worldviews within speculativefiction as well as

speculative fiction's reciprocal influence on contemporaryexpressions of such worldviews.

Film and History 4: Representation, Iteration, and Recrafting Myth

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Thomas Prasch, Washburn University

"A Christmas Carol" on Screen

Dewar Macleod, William Paterson University

“Bring Me His Cojones”: The Mythical West of Fred Schepisi’s "Barbarosa" (1982)

Thomas Prasch, Washburn University

Political Campaigns in 1960s Hollywood Cinema

Jim Burton, Salisbury University

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 12

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Rolf Nohr, Braunschweig University of Art

Game History: The COIN Game "Fire on the Lake" as Counterfactual

Jason Thompson, University of Wyoming

Wii Bowling Alone: Games and the Loneliness Epidemic

Jennifer deWinter, Illinois Institute of Technology

"Oh S***. Here We Go Again": Backstage Play and Metacognition in Pandemic Gaming (with Kids)

Marc Ouellette, Old Dominion University

Reflections on the Past: Revising an Ethnography of the God of War Subreddit

Mario Sanders, Southern Illinois University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Horror 11: Monstrous Femininity

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

“She Tore a Hole in Our Universe”: "Event Horizon" and the Monstrous-Feminine

Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Witch of the Future: Horror, Gender and Technology in eXistenZ

Han Yu, Florida State University

Misogyny, Murder, and Mayhem: An Analysis of “Scream” as an Allegory for Gendered Violence

Elizabeth Cobb, Independent Scholar

Myth and Fairy Tales 1: Reinterpreting Female Characters in Myth and

Fairy Tales

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Sheila Dooley, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

The Subversive Force of Capitalism on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”

Jenna Carey, University of Arkansas

The Devouring of Powerful Women: The Public Surge for Mythical Retellings About Greek and Roman

Women

Lydia Sharpe, University of Arkansas

Tricking Her Way into Power and Fortune: Inanna as the Earliest Female Trickster Model

Diana Dominguez, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Feminism and Contemporary Greek Mythology Retellings

Louise Schulmann, Auburn University

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 7: Roundtable: Between Two Scholastic

Worlds: Teaching, Blogging, & Podcasting

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Daniel Dissinger, University of Southern California

Jen JenSopchockchai Bankard, University of Southern California

P. T. Mcniff, University of Southern California

With the increasing prevalence of podcasts, affiliated and independent scholars alike have the potential to

enrich pop culture discourse. Such participation, however, challenges them to exist between two worlds:

academia and nerdom. Reflecting on that challenge, this roundtable discussion between University of

Southern California Writing Professors Daniel Dissinger (co-host of The Nostalgia Test Podcast; host of

Writing Remix), Jen Sopchockchai Bankard (creator of The Long Take Review Substack; cohost of The

Long Take Review Podcast), and P.T. McNiff (co-host of The Long Take Review Podcast) will discuss

toxic fandom, nostalgia, phenomena like Barbenheimer, deepening pop culture studies, and more.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Politics 1: Identifying Political Expression

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Darrell Hamlin, Fort Hays State University

Uncovering Effective Digital Ad Design Within Political Advertising

Blaine Hawkes, Independent Scholar

Vikings in the Blue and the Gray: An Examination of the Use of Popular Norse Images in the U.S.

Slavery Debate

Kathleen Gurnett, University of California, Riverside

"Divisive Concepts," Right-Wing Authoritarianism, and Hostile Interrogations of Black Identity: The

Case for a Crisis Pedagogy in Post-Secondary Education

David Jones, Professor

Get With the Programmers: A Discursive Study of Andrew Yang’s Failed Presidential Candidacy and its

Implications for Political Communication Strategies About Artificial Intelligence

Maegan Carberry, University of New Mexico

Rhetoric and Technical Communication 1

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Robert Galin, Independent

Tactics, Tales and Entertainment: Exploring Tactical Technical Communication in YouTube Gaming

Guides

Kevin Van Winkle, Colorado State University Pueblo

Strategies for Teaching Web Writing in the Age of Content Management Systems

Nicole St. Germaine, Angelo State University

Epideictic Death Practices of Memorial: Curated Grief as Activism

Robin Murphy, East Central University - Oklahoma

Teaching about Plagiarism and Authorship: A Cross-Educational Approach to Writing with Large

Language Models.

Alice Wilson, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Science Fiction and Fantasy (General) 2: Dystopias and Utopias

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

The Fishbowl And the Terrarium: Ecologies of Survival in Becky Chambers, Casey McQuiston, and

Katherine Howe

Kathleen Therrien, English Dept, Middle Tennessee State University

Feminist Solutions to Dystopian Worlds: Intersubjective Imaginings in the Works of Octavia Butler, J.K.

Jemisin, and Toni Morrison

Cassandra Fetters, University of Cincinnati Clermont

Observer’s Ethics for a Dystopian World: Dissecting Dystopian Imagery in the Strutgatsky Brothers’

"Hard To Be a God"

Nishant Upadhyay, University of Texas at Austin

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 5: Women on Screen

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Lauryn Angel, Collin College

"Don't You Tell Me to Smile": Feminism and The Marvels

Lauryn Angel, Collin College

"Promising Young Woman": The Post-#MeToo Rape-Revenge Film

Lillian Wadding, CU Denver

Genre Anarchy and the Women Who Subvert in "Everything Everywhere All at Once"

Elizabeth LeDoux, Bentley University

Female Empowerment in the "Titus" (1999) and "Barbie" (2023) films

Ryanne Ross, Abilene Christian University

Science, Technology, and Culture 1

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm, Taos

Moderator: Aaron Adair, MIT

AI Alignment and Media Mentalities

Aaron Adair, MIT

Strava: Sport, Social Expression, and Surveillance - How Running and Cycling Became a Social Media

Sensation

Don Colley Iii, Oklahoma State University

The Underwater Cultural Heritage and Blue Economy

Bishnu Pada Bose, Swami Vivekananda University, Kolkata, India, 700121

2nd Annual Student Dine Out!

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm, Foyer

Moderator: David Corwin, George Mason University & Ashley AshleyJohnson, University of Texas at

Arlington

Join us for our second annual Student Dine Out! Hosted by first-year Michael K. Schoeneck Institute

Fellows, you'll get to network and chat with other student presenters at the conference. Undergraduate and

graduate student presenters are welcome to meet in the foyer by the Registration Desk and from there,

folks will split up into groups and walk to local eateries for dinner.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 17: Special 50th Anniversary Panel for 2-

3-74: The Esoteric Gnostic Experiences of Philip K. Dick

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Acoma

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Time is Key: The Temporal Metaphysics of Philip K. Dick

Michael Barros, Boise Classical Academy

After Sophia: Compassion, Madness, and the Esoteric Ethic

Scott Ryan Maybell, Independent Scholar

Philip K. Dick and I-Ching: The Simulation of a Gnostic Experience in "The Man in the High Castle"

Linyan Zheng, Rice University

Horror 12: Roundtable: Social Analysis of Horror: How Horror and

Apocalyptic Studies Can Confront “Real World” Problems

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Sean Woodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

Danielle DanielleHerget, Fisher College

Megan Elizabeth Boothby, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Jennifer Paul, University of Chicago

As previously imagined horrors pervade our daily lives with increased frequency, those of us with

scholarly interests in the horror genre find ourselves confronting these issues within our daily lives, both

within and outside the classroom. This roundtable will examine how we can, and in factdo,use horror as

cultural analysis in the academic setting, confronting latent societal concerns, economic insecurity,

environmental fears, and other more ambiguous threats in order to investigate the symbolic “monsters” of

real life.

MST3K Screening: "The Giant Spider Invasion" (1975)

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Brad Duren, Tulsa Community College

Join your fellow MSTies for our annual gathering as we tackle the film that examines the pressing

question of "what would happen if giant spiders from outer space invaded 1970s Wisconsin?" Area Chair

and diehard MSTie Brad Duren will provide an introduction to the film and other scholarly observations

with audience discussion to wrap up the session. Expert sarcasm and good-natured ribbing are guaranteed.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Pop Culture Pub Quiz!

Fri, 02/23/2024 - 8:15 pm - 10:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Kurt Depner, New Mexico State University - Dona Ana

Think you're a master of all things pop culture? Come to our Pop Culture Pub Quiz to find out! Each team

(up to a maximum of 6) will compete to see who has the most knowledge about popular culture of the last

30 years! Prizes will be awarded for the 1stand 2ndplace teams as well as best wrong answer and best

team name. Join us for some after hours revelry to prove you have what it takes to be a Pop Culture Trivia

Master!

Adaptation 5: Historical & Biographical Adaptations

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

Ontology Adaptation of Myth: Nicomachean Ethics and the Rise of Shahmaran in Kurdish Culture

Emeer Hassanpour, University of Southern California

From Self-Presentation in Graphic Novel Form to Self-Representation in Filmic Medium

Caglar Erteber, The University of Arizona

“You Have Been Found Wanting”: Contentious Scholarship on Anachronism in A Knight’s Tale

Lauren Bridgeman, Abilene Christian University

Real and Eternal: Historiophoty as Adaptation in Pablo Larraín’s "Neruda"

Amreen Moideen, Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Cormac McCarthy 5: Gender and Economics

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Cimarron

Moderator: Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

The Economics Behind Cormac McCarthy’s "No Country for Old Men"

Tessa Townsend, Midland College

The Sound Of A Circle: Turn on Tune in Drop out

Candy Minx, The Cormac McCarthy Society

Silent, Serving, Sexualized, and Scapegoated: The Women of Cormac McCarthy’s "All The Pretty

Horses"

Nicole Hamblin, University of Regina

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Disability Studies 2: Disability in Our Everyday: Across Ages and Places

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon H

Moderator: David Corwin, George Mason University

Post-Secondary Education (PSE) and Academic Libraries: Programming for those with Intellectual

Disability (ID)

Matthew Conner, University of California, Davis

Leah LeahPlocharczyk, Florida Atlantic University

Getting Old Is beautiful, Inside but Not Outside: A Critical Analysis of Media Depiction of Aging

Disabilities and Cultural Misperceptions

Essien Essien, Drexel University

Disability Is Dynamic: The Intersectional Experiences of Disability in India

Arpita Sarker, University of Iowa

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 5: Earth's Atmosphere: Effect, Emotion,

and Materialism

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

The EcoGothic: Haunting Nature in Victorian Literature

Mariam Khan, North Carolina State University

The Figure of the Tourist in Mabel Dodge Luhan’s "Winter in Taos"

Matt Johnson, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology

Glitter Me This: Atmospheres of Affect and Ecodread

Claire Spaulding, Pacific Northwest College of Art

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 18: Monstrous Creations and Occult

Transpositions

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Cinematic Ouroboros: Parallelism through Magic and Film

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Trolling

Elizabeth Sanderson, Trinity Christian College

Devotion and the Devoted: Jack Crawford’s Question

Emma Sanderson, University of New Mexico

Demonology and Deepfakes: AI Approaches to Exploring and Experimenting with the Alien and the

Unknown

Eric Millikin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 13

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Santa Fe

Moderator: Rafael Fajardo, University of Denver

The War for Talent: Computer Game Companies, Content Creators, and Fan Recruitment

Josh Zimmerman, University of Arizona

Saving Progress…: Roberta Williams and the Adventure Game from "Colossal Cave Adventure" to

"Colossal Cave"

Chris Hanson, Syracuse University

Five Pillars of Independent Game Developer Culture

Robin Haislett, Weber State University

Outcomes, Playfulness, and Innovation: The Unintended Consequences of Outcomes-Oriented Structures

within the University

Bill Carroll, Abilene Christian University

Horror 16: Haunted Hills and Houses

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon E

Moderator: Christina Lunsford, Tarleton State University

Bare Life in the Basement: A Political Critique of the Architecture in Pascal Laugier's "Martyrs"

Jennifer Paul, University of Chicago

Clive Barker's Short Fiction and Monster Envy

Christina Lunsford, Tarleton State University

Ruined Landscapes and Eco-Horror in the Early Films of Wes Craven: "Last House on the Left," "The

Hills Have Eyes," "Deadly Blessing," and "Swamp Thing"

Michael Stock, Southern California Institute of Architecture

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 8: Art and Poetry

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon F

Moderator: Christopher Malone, Northeastern State University

The Painted Page: Using Art in the Literature Classroom

Roxie James, Northwestern Oklahoma State University

The Extra-Ordinary: Teaching Poetry through Jim Jarmusch’s "Paterson"

Matthew Lambert, Northwestern Oklahoma State University

Creating a Course on Diverse Futurism and Alternative Worlds that Includes the Art of Diné Painter,

Ryan Singer

Margaret Vaughan, Metropolitan State University

Towards a Beat Pedagogy: Reading Ourselves into “Howl”

Christopher Malone, Northeastern State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Philosophy and Popular Culture 2: Media and Identity

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon J

Moderator: Emily Lyons, University of Arizona

The Real Bruce Wayne is Batman

Alan Baily, Stephen F. Austin State University

Inheritances of Grief

Sophia Pavlos, George Mason University

Surviving an Existential Crisis in the Digital Age: Prescriptions Found in Works by A24

Marian Cuevas, SDSU

MrBeast and the Ethics and Aesthetics of Stunt Philanthropy

Emily Lyons, University of Arizona

Poetry and Poetics (Critical) 2

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon I

Moderator: Zahra Barzegar, York University

"We Parted - Breath - and I": The Scene of Drowning in Whitman and Dickinson

Matthew Mcdonald, Roane State Community College

Following the Nature’s Patterns in Indigenous Poetry

Zahra Barzegar, York University

Wallace Stevens's Solipsism Revisited: Consciousness, Self-Consciousness, and Playfulness

Joon-soo Bong, Seoul National University

Science Fiction and Fantasy (General) 3: Gender, Identity, Sexuality

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Carlsbad

Moderator: Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

"They Are NOT Butterfly People!": Posthumanism and Becoming-Animal in Star Trek: Discovery

Alyson Buckman, California State University, Sacramento

Merfolk Resilience: Visual Rhetoric Phenomena

Holly Shelton, George Fox University

“Science Fiction Lesbians with a Side of Bondage”: Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette Reimagine

Amazon Sexuality in "Wonder Woman: Earth One"

Lewis Call, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

Short for Mistress: Kink Praxis and Performative Feminism in Steven Moffat's "Doctor Who"

Joey Call, CSUN

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Stardom and Fandom 3: Ethics, Identity, Representation, and Queering

Fandom

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Salon G

Moderator: Nicola Govocek, Temple University

“Feral Comradery”: An Analysis of Fan Reactions through Tumblr Posts

Elizabeth Jendrzey, Purdue University

Breaking Containment: Revisiting the Omegaverse Litigation Scandal through the Lens of Cultural

Appropriation and Coleman’s “New Ethics” of Slash Fan Fiction

Nicola Govocek, Temple University

Writing Our Own Endings: The Death of the Author in the Post-Modern Age

Alyssa Grimley, Texas Woman's University

Queering the Wizarding World: Fanfiction as Ethical Inquiry

Shelby Kutev, Texas Woman's University

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 6: Women in Literature: Poetry, Fantasy, and

the Girl Detective

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 9:45 am - 11:15 am, Acoma

Moderator: Anastasia Kulpa, Concordia University of Edmonton, University of Alberta

The Gothic and the Girl Detective: Unpacking the Queer(ed) Signification of Nancy Drew

Dorothy Calabro, Auburn University

Octavia Butler: Busting up the Binary

Tiziana Friedman, University of New Mexico

A Career to Conjure By: Women's Academic Careers in Fantasy Novels

Anastasia Kulpa, Concordia University of Edmonton, University of Alberta

How To Be Haunted: Sympathetic Little Monster and the Work of Encountering Your Ghosts

Kaplan Trudo, Brown University

Adaptation 6: Adaptations in the Digital Age

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

Beyond Words and Screens: Memes as Vehicles of Adaptation

Karan Vora, Presidency University

Conversations with Artificial Intelligence: No Libido, No Memory, No Friends

Jillian Saint Jacques, Oregon State University

My Stars—They're Full of Gods: The Cosmic Gate Textual Network in "2001: A Space Odyssey," "The

Expanse," and "Eclipse Phase"

Washington Pearce, Brigham Young University

Vlogs as True Life Adaptations: Analyzing "The Fifty Project" from Adaptation Studies Perspectives

Monika Raesch, Suffolk University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Cormac McCarthy 6: Influences and Forms

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

"Blood Meridian" as a Work of Magical Realism

Winona Doubrava, Texas Tech University

American Romanticism in Cormac McCarthy's "The Passenger" and "Stella Maris"

Terra Kirkland, Independent Scholar

Screenplay. Novel. Film: The Evolution of Cormac McCarthy’s "No Country for Old Men"

Brett Lewis, Baylor University

Hell, or Something Worse?: An Examination of “Outer Darkness” in Baldwin’s "Go Tell It on the

Mountain" and McCarthy’s "Outer Dark"

Payton Herring, Abilene Christian University (ACU)

Eco-Criticism and the Environment 6: Eco-Viewing: Film and Environmental

Criticism

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Keri Stevenson, University of New Mexico-Gallup

The Politics of Consumption in "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Kendall Mallon, University of Colorado Denver

"I Grew It!": "Silent Running," Anthropocentrism, and the Ecological Auteur

Joshua Imken, Texas Tech University

Reimagining Spaceship Earth through Bong Joon-ho's "Snowpiercer" (2013)

Richard Boyechko, University of Washington—Seattle

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 19: Gnostic Technology

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

A Presentation on the Image-Form Meditation (A Technology to Explore the Pure Immateriality of the

Virtual)

Matthew Cangiano, Gnostic Technology

The Devil in My Language Model

Karin Valis, Gnostic Technology

Games, Play, and the Structure of Magical Realities

Jake Fee, Gnostic Technology

Spirituality, Magic, and Psychosis

Gabriela Bezakova, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Fashion, Style, Appearance, and Identity 2: Fashion, Identities, and Social

Media

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Lauren Sperandio Phelps, University of Texas at Arlington

An Analysis of Millennials Using Secondhand Clothing as a New Fashion Trend

Patricia Sumod, NIFT

You Must Be Beautiful Inside and Out: Constructing the Fashionable Christian Woman

Alexandra Nelson- Tomlinson, University of Texas at Austin

Avoiding Cultural Appropriation in the Fashion Industry: Lessons from Indigenous Jewelry Designers in

the Northwest Coast

Jelisa Marshall, Independent Scholar

Thriftfluencers, Sustainable Fashion, and Dressing for the Digital Age

Emily Thomas, University of Arizona

Folklore Studies 2

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Helen Mccourt, Collin College

The Pandharpur Wari: Caste in the Folk Movement and the Role of the Revolutionary Sant Chokhamela

Mukta Kher, Shiv Nadar University, India

Food from Another World: A Look into Fairy(Faerie) Food

Caitlyn Gorman, Independent Scholar

The History of Sitayanas: A Comparative Study of "Chandrabati Ramayana" and "Sita's Ramayana"

Mohua Dutta, Indian Insitute of Technology Kanpur

"Monstrum" in the Classroom: Using Supernatural Creatures to Teach Students Communication's

Features

Matthew Petrunia, Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY

Nurhayat Bilge, State University of New York-Fashion Institute of Technology

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 14

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Bill Carroll, Abilene Christian University

Gamer Presidents: Deepfake Videos as Political and Gaming Discourse

Mirek Stolee, University of Central Florida

Reflexivity and Involvement in Environmental Serious Games and Interactive Documentaries

Tobias Conradi, Leibniz Institute for Educational Media, Braunschweig // HSLU Lucerne School of

Design, Film and Art

Simulating Documentary? Parallels and Differences of Games and Documentaries

Florian Krautkraemer, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts

Game Aesthetics as a Montage Strategy in Interactive Documentary

Vanessa Zallot, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Horror 14: Affect and Effect

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Han Yu, Florida State University

Betwixt and Between: The Uncanny Prominence of Liminality in Recent Horror Media

Danielle Herget, Fisher College

From the Drone in the Sky to The Hole in the Ground: A24’s Literally Elevated Horror

David Scott Diffrient, Colorado State University

Startling Figures: Horror, Violence, and Revelation

Thomas Jacobs, New York University

Un-thinking Horror: Generic Negations and Reversals of Fear

Allysha Vineberg, York University

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 9: Activism

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Jennifer Judd, Texas Woman's University

Ubuntu Cyphers and Freestylin' Anti-Fascism: Disrupting the Death Knell of Neoliberal Despondency

Anne Grass, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Data Activism: Navigating the Digital Realm with Media Literacy

Amanda Gyesi, Universtiy of New Mexico

Breathing Room: Embodied Writing and Belonging as Resistance in the First-Year Composition

Classroom

Jennifer Judd, Texas Woman's University

Science Fiction and Fantasy (General) 4: Knowledge is Power: Preserving and

Sharing

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

The Librarians of Time and Space: The Librarian-Hero in Contemporary Speculative Fiction

John Doherty, Northern Arizona University

The Worlding of Worms: A Posthuman Reading of Knowledge Production and Empire in "The Blazing

World" of Margaret Cavendish

Sarah Snyder, University of Minnesota

The Force of Gifting: An Analysis of Gift Theory in the Star Wars Universe

Jill Davis, Tarleton State University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Sociology of Popular Culture 2: The Power in Representation

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Bruce Day, Central Connecticut State University

We Create Our Own Demons: Representation as Resistance and the Illusion of Progressivism in the MCU

Alex Yost, The University of Texas at Arlington

“Will You Accept This Apology?” A Content Analysis of Public Apologies Issued by “The Bachelor”

Contestants

Mckenzie Stauffer, Southern Utah University

007 Economics: Economic Trends Inspired by the Character of James Bond

Alissa Simon, Harrison Middleton University

“Hey! What Are Some ‘Must-Sees’ on Route 66?”: Social Media, Crowdsourcing, and Overtourism along

America’s Main Street

John Mitrano, Central Connecticut State University

Bruce Day, Central Connecticut State University

Stardom and Fandom 4: Communities, Identification, and Participation

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Vicki Ronn, Friends University

"Everything Changes, but Nothing is Truly Lost": Generational Evolution in the Sandman fandom

Michele Malach, Fort Lewis College

Showing the Love? BTS Youtube Reactors: Critics, Fans, or Birgers?

Vicki Ronn, Friends University

Higher Education Instructors’ Social Media and Fandom Participation: A Basic Qualitative Study

Rina Dakanay, American College of Education

Identifying as Characters: Fictionkin, Fandom, and the Construction of the Self

Isaac Morano, University of Arizona

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 7: Exploring Gender/ed Roles

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Hayley Mccullough, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Wombs of Discontent: Unveiling Gender Abjection Through Dolls in Lucky McKee's "May”

Amylou Ahava, Texas Tech University

Interrogating Gender in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Hayley Mccullough, New Mexico Tech

Attack on Gender Roles: An Exploration of Gender Roles in "Attack on Titan"

Chrysalis Gilmer, Friends University

"You Wear Fine Things Well": Reading Gender/ed Queerness in "Our Flag Means Death"

Oliver Richards, University of North CCarolina Charlotte

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Adaptation 7: Literary, Musical, and Cultural Adaptations

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Amy Fatzinger, University of Arizona

The Chains Forged in Life: Parsing "A Christmas Carol"’s Anti-Capitalist Messaging in "Iron Man 3" and

"Westworld": The New World’s Artificial Intelligence Societies

Douglas Scully, Louisiana State University

"The Lincoln Highway," "Catcher in the Rye," and the Nature of a Literary Conversation

Dennis Cutchins, Brigham Young University

Remix as Adaptation: The Intermedial Afterlives of the Indian Pop Song

Ronit Ghosh, University of Chicago

Cross-Cultural Film Adaptations: Preserving Narrative Essence across Borders

Maureen Okwulogu, University of Texas at Dallas

Classical Representations in Popular Culture 3: The Silver Screen, the

Modern Stage, and a Little Crooning

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Tashi Treadway, Johns Hopkins University

Lindsey Stirling and Artemis’ Bow Re-imagined

Georgia Irby, William and Mary

Back to the Roman New Comedy? Marty McFly as Servus Callidus and Adulescens in Robert

Zemeckis’s "Back to the Future"

Benjamin Haller, Virginia Wesleyan University

Vengeance and Violence: The Portrayal of the Erinyes in Ancient Greek Thought and the Dances of

Martha Graham

Nina Papathanasopoulou, College Year In Athens / Society for Classical Studies

The Golden Age Myth and Shakespeare's Transhistorical Poetics of Whiteness

Douglas Cavers, USC

Cormac McCarthy 7: Apocalypse and Revelation

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Todd Womble, Abilene Christian University

Hinterland Horror: Geographical Extremity as Revelation in "Blood Meridian" and "At the Mountains of

Madness"

Marcel DeCoste, University of Regina

Becoming Apocalyptic: US Empire’s Evolvement into the End of Days in Cormac McCarthy’s "Blood

Meridian" and "The Road"

Olivia Ojeda, The Cormac McCarthy Society

And The Judge Said, “Let There Be Gunpowder": The Judge as Anti-Christ in Cormac McCarthy’s

"Blood Meridian"

Madelaine Moynes-keshen, University of Regina

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 20: Roundtable: Black Speculative

Thought and Geopolitics: Exploring Futures Beyond Contemporary

Constraints

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

This roundtable delves into the intersection of Black speculative thought and geopolitics, providing a

groundbreaking analysis of their influence on each other and their implications for imagining post-

colonial futures. Black speculative thought, encompassing Afrofuturism, Esotericism, and speculative

fiction, has long provided a medium through which the realities of the Black diaspora, including systemic

oppression and racialized experiences, are re-envisioned and re-negotiated. This analysis underscores the

potential of Black speculative thought as a tool to challenge and redefine existing geopolitical landscapes,

traditionally shaped by colonial and neocolonial narratives.

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 15

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Andrew Kissel, Old Dominion University

Lets Play Business: The Influence of the Economic Tabletop Game on Today's Genre of Eurogames

Laijana Braun, Braunschweig University of Art

Economic Table Top Games from 1955-1975

Rolf Nohr, Braunschweig University of Art

What Do Videogames Want?: Preserving, Playing, and Not Playing Digital Games and Gameplay

James Newman, Bath Spa University (UK)

Horror 15: Roundtable: Watching Horror on Blu-rays and DVDS: Why

Physical Media (and Supplemental Materials) Still Matter

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Kristine Larsen, Central Connecticut State University

David Scott Diffrient, Colorado State University

Sean SeanWoodard, The University of Texas at Arlington

Michael Stock, Southern California Institute of Architecture

Ever since the 2010 publication of Jonathan Gray’s Show Sold Separately: Promos, Spoilers, and Other

Media Paratexts, scholars have taken seriously the role of DVDs, Blu-rays, and other consumer goods in

expanding the interpretative possibilities of cinematic and televisual texts; or, rather, in giving spectators

opportunities to go “beyond the screen” in their pursuit of knowledge, meaning, and (not the least)

pleasure as interpreting/feeling subjects. Heeding Gray’s call for “off-screen studies,” this roundtable

seeks to demonstrate why the many paratextual elements associated with these formats, from the newly

commissioned artwork gracing DVD and Blu-ray covers to the newly recorded supplementary materials

included as bonus features on the discs themselves (for instance, audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes

footage, making-of documentaries, and cast and crew interviews accessible through interactive menus),

“are still of huge significance within the contemporary context,” despite their so-called peripheral status.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Mystery/Detective Fiction 2: Who Detects? New Eyes and Voices in Crime

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Lexey Bartlett, Fort Hays State University

Muslims as Detectives in Contemporary Anglophone Detective Fiction

Zainab Abrar, Jamia Millia Islamia

Investigating the Female Detective: An Analysis of Criminal and Gender Policing in Marie Belloc

Lowndes’ "The Lodger"

Buchanan Watson, Auburn University

The Truth About (Mystery) Stories: The Evolution of Thomas King's Thumps "DreadfulWater" Mystery

Series

Mary Stoecklein, Pima Community College

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 10: Mixed Media

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Amelia Chesley, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott

A New Era for Composition Courses: Teaching the Songs of Taylor Swift

Lindsey Cherry, Northwestern Oklahoma State University

If Oedipus Had a Tinder Profile: Teaching Greek Tragedy Through Hot Takes

Jamie Flathers, English Department, Washington State University

Erin Hvizdak, Washington State University

Resillency in the "Hall of Egress"

Alexis Ellsworth-kopkowski, Institute of American Indian Arts

"The Art and History of Podcasts" as a 100-level General Education Course

Amelia Chesley, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott

Science Fiction and Fantasy (General) 5: The Artifical Other

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Carlsbad

Moderator: Janet Croft, University of Northern Iowa

The Frankenstein Complex: Speculative Fiction and the Evolution of the Myth of the Modern Prometheus

Margo Arruda, University of Illinois Chicago

The Politics of the Borg: From 1989-2023

Jeff Hirschy, University of Southern Mississippi

Emotion and Ethics in "Frankenstein" and "Klara and the Sun"

Jae-uk Choo, Chung-Ang University

Hybridity and Anthropomorphism in Social Thought and Karel Čapek's "R.U.R."

Alexandra Balasa, Independent Scholar

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Television 4: Women in Contemporary Comedy

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Larry Van Meter, Blinn College

Miranda at Midlife: Feminism, Aging, and Bisexuality on HBO’s "And Just Like That"

Katherine Lehman, Albright College

Funny Women and Dark Comedy: Maria Bamford, Hannah Gadsby, and Mental Health

Linda Hess, University of Augsburg

Counting Out a Life in Almonds: Mental Health as Queerness in Showtime’s "Work in Progress"

Donna Knaff, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency

“I Just Thought It Would Make Good Television”: The Role of Women in BBC’s "Staged"

Melanie Cattrell, Blinn College

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 8: Roundtable: Muslim Representation in the

Media

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Ilia Rodriguez Nazario, University of New Mexico

Ilia Rodriguez Nazario, University of New Mexico

Mona MonaOthman, The University of New Mexico

Despite the claims of Western societies that they protect women’s freedom and equality, mediated

messages that undermine feminism are prevalent, especially in visual messages in advertisements, news,

and films. Yet, the criticism of such representations in the U.S. media is often left to media scholars or

media literacy teachers. More often than not, U.S. media messages that criticize gender domination and

oppression of women overtly are directed to the representation of women and critique of gender relations

in non-Western societies. This is most evident and pressing in the case of U.S. media representation of

Arab and Muslim women and the criticism of gender oppression in Middle Eastern countries. Researchers

have noted that the general pattern of representation of Arab and Muslim women reduces and stereotypes

them as weak and silent objects, subjected to the authority of men (Islam, 2019). Moreover, mediated

messages often intersect gender and racial differences to present Muslim women as “others” who do not

rise to the constructed Western standards of beauty, confidence, and competence.This media literacy

lesson aims to expose feminist media illiteracy by presenting a critique of media messages about Muslim

Saudi women in the U.S. from my perspective of an Arab Muslim woman, teacher, and scholar from

Saudi Arabia. This lesson also aims to identify the radical change that media technologies have brought

about in the understanding of feminism in Western and Eastern societies alike.The lesson aims to

illuminate: (1) What are the meanings of feminism and how do these apply to women in different cultural

contexts? (2) What are the main stereotypes of Saudi women? Perpetuated in U.S. media and how do we

decode them? (3) What forms of gender activism and empowerment that are practiced by Muslim women

remain outside the dominant discourses of Western media and governments?Currently, social networking

sites have helped feminism to emerge, participate, and be effective without the need to depend on

traditional media and negative news coverage. Today, we see through social networking sites dialogue

between Arab and Western women, and we witness many examples of the emergence of what I term

“honourable feminism.”

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

African American/Black Studies 2

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon I

Moderator: Travis Boyce, San Jose State University

Uncle Tom’s Nephew: Adaptational Black Martyrdom in David Fincher’s "Alien 3"

Sarah Wagoner, University of Wyoming

Can It Speak For All?: Interrogating Stereotypes in Popular Culture Films Spider-Man Into the Spider-

Verse and Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse

Dashiva Francois, University of Texas at Arlington

The Visual and Discursive Polemics of White Innocence and Sh—hole Countries

Andrea Mays, University of New Mexico

Suppression of African American/Black Works in Library Collection: Towards Discoverability Policy

Uriel Onye, Texas Tech University

Classical Representations in Popular Culture 4: Tragedy

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon G

Moderator: Valentina De Nardis, Villanova University

Christopher Marlowe, the Godfather of the Anti-Hero: Mephistopheles the Prototype for Popular Culture,

Long Love Affair with All Things Evil, Beautiful and Dark

Felicia Dz Stovall, Midland College

Ancient Themes in "Sons of Anarchy": the Tragedy and Comedy of Tig Trager

Valentina De Nardis, Villanova University

Medea is Jinga: The Controversy of Identity in a Brazilian Black Medea

Ana Azevedo Bezerra Felicio, UNICAMP

I've Changed My Mind: Women Plotting Euripides

Richard Oehling, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Cormac McCarthy 8: Roundtable Discussion: Reflections and Wrap-Up

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Cimarron

Moderator: Rachel Griffis, Spring Arbor University

Marcel DeCoste, University of Regina

Rick RickWallach, Nova Southeastern University (Retired)

Terra Kirkland, Independent Scholar

Liana Andreasen, South Texas College

Noemi Fernandez Labarga, University of Notre Dame

In this roundtable discussion, we will reflect on questions we considered during the panels on Cormac

McCarthy and wrap-up our discussions. Time will be given to continue conversations began during the

panels, such as the role of math and science in McCarthy’s work and the impact of the new novels on his

body of work.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 21: Sinister Pilgrimage, Esoteric Futurism,

and Dark Geopolitics

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: Noah Jampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

African Wisdom and Magic: The Mapping of an Esoteric Mission for Black Futures

Christina Hudson, Eastern Washington University Trio McNair Scholar Program

An Autoethnographic Study of Dark Tourism's Elitist Aura

Bintang Handayani, Independent Scholar

The Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin: Metafictional Memetics as Sinister Nexion

George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice 16

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Santa Fe

Moderator: Judd Ruggill, University of Arizona

This is the Game Studies, Culture, Play, and Practice Area business meeting.

Horror 13: On Not Being Well

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Max Jardon, University of Denver Colorado

More Than The Sum of Its Chills and Thrills: Mental Health in Modern Horror Cinema

Aleksandra Socha, University of Warsaw

There’s Something Wrong with Him: Beleaguered Mothers, Monstrous Children, and Horror’s Coding of

Autism

Megan Elizabeth Boothby, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Antisocial Reinscription in AIDS-Era Extreme Horror Literature

Max Jardon, University of Denver Colorado

Twisting the Narrative: How Netflix's "The Midnight Club" and the Conventions of Horror Capture the

Unspoken Side of Cancer

Laney Blevins, Purdue University Fort Wayne

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Medievalisms 2: Revisiting and Revising the Medieval

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon J

Moderator: Amber Dunai, Texas A&M University - Central Texas

Why We Prefer Peasants to Procopius: The Strange Reasons Medieval Tropes Exclude Their Byzantine

Roots

Julie Pace, The Westminster Schools

“Live Among the Birds”: An Ecocritical Reading of Subjectivity in Ottessa Moshfegh’s "Lapvona"

Nicole Waters, Independent Scholar

“And Forth I Lete Hire Saille”: Tracking Custance’s Mediterranean Journey in the "Man of Law’s Tale"

Gideon Vitro, UC Santa Barbara

Meet the Sky-Gods: Týr, Odin, and Thor in Part I of "Beowulf: The Song of the North”

James Buckingham, Independent Scholar

Myth and Fairy Tales 2: Confrontations with Love, Death, Abuse, and

Otherness in the Safe Space of the Fairy Tale

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon H

Moderator: Sheila Dooley, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

The Victorian Cult of Death and Grimms' Fairy Tales

Sarah Bartlett, Yolo County Historical Collection

The Alligator and Psychological Mythology in Homer Hickam’s "Carrying Albert Home"

Joanna Johnson, University of Texas Arlington

Critical Pedagogy as Resistance in Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Jay Cruz, Texas State University

A Court of Violence and Control

Haleigh Kirchenheiter, United States Military Academy

Pedagogy and Popular Culture 11: Self-Expression

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon F

Moderator: Anthony Destefanis, Otterbein University

Balancing Self-Expression and Tradition in the Pedagogy of ASL Literature

Gina Yang, Independent Scholar

Finding Direction and Connection through Narrative

Michele Zugnoni, Northwestern University

More than the Syllabus

Tiffiny Vincent, Collin College

Breaking Down the Silos: Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching Approaches to the U.S. War in Vietnam

Anthony Destefanis, Otterbein University

Shannon Lakanen, Otterbein University

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Television 5: Identity and Storytelling in TV Drama

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Las Cruces

Moderator: Melanie Cattrell, Blinn College

"Justified" and Gendered Violence?

Angela Nichols, Florida Atlantic University

Real Power is Something You Take!: The Masculinity Trap of TV's "Dallas"

Dustin Dunaway, Pueblo Community College

Crossover Characters and Serialized Storytelling

Kevin Morrison, Henan University

War and Culture 3: Roundtable: Nolan's War

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Salon C & D

Moderator: Stacy Fowler, St. Mary's University

Steffen Hantke, Sogang University

Deborah DeborahDeacon, Arizona State University

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, released to great acclaim in 2023, is the director’s second film, after

Dunkirk, in which war is the primary focus. With only two films in that genre so far, Nolan appears

nonetheless poised to join a small group of directors (Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott)

associated with a specific iteration of the war film. Aside from providing the opportunity to assess

Nolan’s Oppenheimer on its own terms, this roundtable will explore what Nolan’s auteurist vision of war

is, how the two war films fit into his overall body of work, and what Nolan’s work—by comparison or

contrast—reveals about the current state of the war film.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality 9: The Body's Representation

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Megan Brand, Fort Lewis College

This Body, This Where: How HBO’s "Somebody Somewhere" Queers Region

Milton Wendland, University of South Florida

All That Glitters Isn’t Gold: Representations of Older Women’s Sexualities on "The Golden Bachelor"

Alex Gallin-Parisi, Trinity University

Here and Queer: Heartstopper's Growing Representation on Eating Disorders in Men

Lilly Busatti, Friends University

The Hierarchy of Marginalization: Comparing Veronica Roth’s Divergent Society to the Experiences of

the LGBTQIA+ Community

Megan Brand, Fort Lewis College

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Esotericism, Occultism, and Magic 22: Roundtable: I Want to Play a Game

that Leaves Nothing to Chance: The Human Mind-Puzzle-Box and Trauma as

the Key to Initiation

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon A & B

Moderator: George Sieg, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute

Andrew Chen, Minnesota State University Moorhead

Noah NoahJampol, Bronx Community College, The City University of New York

Kachine Moore, University of Glasgow

Emma Sanderson, University of New Mexico

Jacob Mcelroy, Independent Scholar

Gabriela Bezakova, Independent Scholar

Thisroundtableexplores a puzzling trope that has for decades continued torepeat in novel but increasingly

specific forms across multiple genres offiction. While its fictional appearances are only occasionally

associateddirectly with the esoteric or the occult, its aesthetics frequently evoke ritualmystery as

expressed through initiatory ordeal. This is the trope ofawakening to, and liberation from, compulsion

through being subjected toinvasive, horrific, and often potentially deadly trauma; within esoteric,occult,

and magical traditions, describing one of many approaches toinitiatory transformation.

Horror 17: Roundtable: Horror Movies as Trauma Narratives

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Salon E

Moderator: Elizabeth Cobb, Independent Scholar

Antoinette Winstead, Our Lady of the Lake University

Aleksandra AleksandraSocha, University of Warsaw

Abdul Rafay, DePaul University

This panel will explore how horror can be used to understand and process trauma. Research indicates that

trauma survivors are disproportionately horror fans, and many horror fans self-report that they find

watching horror movies paradoxically soothing. Horror movies offer the viewer a safe opportunity to

understand and process extreme events. Nearly all horror movies touch on and address trauma in some

form, whether it is the driving force for the villain, motivation for the hero, or if we the viewer are

experiencing trauma along with the protagonist. For example, movies such as Teeth, Scream, or 2020’s

Invisible Man address the trauma of partner abuse and sexual violence. Movies such as Get Out explore

the trauma of racism, and Hereditary explores intergenerational trauma. Franchises such as Halloween

even allow viewers an opportunity to see how trauma affects characters years into the future. This panel

will address how these movies can allow the viewer emotional catharsis and an opportunity to understand

and process the trauma in their own lives in a productive way.

DRAFT PROGRAM/SCHEDULE – SWPACA 2024 CONFERENCE

AS OF 12-18-23

Post Conference Wrap Up

Sat, 02/24/2024 - 4:45 pm - 6:15 pm, Acoma

Moderator: Executive Team, SWPACA

Please join the SWPACA Executive Team for an informal get-together to wrap up the conference. We’ll

cover the highlights of the 44th annual meeting. Come with stories and suggestions and relax for a bit!