GENDER-POWER-DESIRE
The School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, hosts a two-day conference, "Gender-Power-Desire," on Friday, April 4, and Saturday, April 5.
All events are open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, they are free and will take place in the Samuel P. "Pat" Black III Conference Center. For a campus map, click here.
FRIDAY, APRIL 4
#1. 8:30 a.m. Introductory Remarks and a Creative Performance
Katie Chriest - “Plateau Songs: A Creative Performance.”
#2. 9:00–10:10 a.m. “Plath, Rukeyser, Baldwin: Revisiting the Canon”
MODERATOR: ARCHIE LOSS
Benjamin Speggen – “Sylvia Plath: Personal Poetry as Feminist Rhetoric”
Matthew Darling –“Antagonists in the Dance: Refusals of Power and Restored Subjectivity in Muriel Rukeyser's Elegies”
Elizabeth Kons – “The Language of Sex in James Baldwin’s Another Country”
#3. 10:15–11:25 a.m. “Disney Then and Now: A Roundtable”
MODERATOR: SARAH WHITNEY
Heather Simendinger – “How Have Disney Heroines Evolved Over Time?”
Kelli Hardy – “What if Cinderella Had Acne?”
Brittany Hennessy – “Disney Princesses, Race, and Beauty Ideals”
Jody Reed – “The Evolution of Disney’s Women”
Rachel Tucholski – “Feminism and Prince Charming: The Persistence of Romantic Myths”
#4. 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. “Reading Gender in Literary Classics”
MODERATOR: MEREDITH KENYON
Kyle Zaffino – “Sexy Ethics”
Kate Kelecseny – “A Tent of One’s Own”
Brie Fleming – “The Western Male in the Fiction of Annie Proulx”
Amy Groszkiewicz – “Re-reading Eve”
#5. 1:00–2:10 p.m. “Gender and Philosophical Rhetoric”
MODERATOR: SHARON GALLAGHER
Melanie Karsak – “Know and Be Silent: The Rhetoric of Wicca”
Joshua Shaw – “What Can Feminist Art Do in a Post-Feminist Age?”
Robert Roecklein – “Plato on the Status of Women in his Republic”
#6. 2:15–3:30 p.m. “Increasing Female Participation in Engineering and Science”
MODERATOR: KATHLEEN MUHONEN
Dawn Blasko. “Why Are There So Few Women in Science?”
Melanie Ford & Kathleen Muhonen. “Mentoring Female Students at the High School Level Increases Enrollment in the Field of Engineering.”
Ralph Ford – “Attracting Females to Engineering: A Matter of National Competitiveness”
#7. 3:40–4:45 p.m. “Reading Gender in 20th Century Literature”
MODERATOR: STEPHEN SWANSON
Kristy McCoy – “Zora Neale Hurston: The Discovery of an Independent Voice”
Megan George –“Mona in the Promised Land and the Realism of Girls’ Experience”
Brian Morris –“Uncomfortable Laughter: When Authors Use Humor in Scenes of Sexual Violence”
David Skarupski – “Virginia Woolf: Linking the Past to Tomorrow"
#8. 5:00–6:15 p.m. “Pleasures and Perils of Adulthood in Contemporary Television and Cinema”
MODERATOR: SHAWN ST JEAN
Shawn St Jean –“Take My Life, Please: Character Assassination in Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
Holly Welker – “Adulthood, Authority and Sex in Buffy The Vampire Slayer”
Sarah Whitney –“All You Can Eat: Post-Feminism, The Gilmore Girls, and the Binge”
SATURDAY, APRIL 5
Concurrent Sessions will be held in 101 REDC
#1. 8:30–9:00 a.m. Introductory Remarks and a Creative Performance
Tiffany Kun – “Broken Glass” (short fiction)
#2. 9:00-10:30 a.m. “Ways To Best Serve Women in Science & Math”
MODERATOR: DANIELLE GOODWIN
Shari Lack – “How Many Female Mathematicians Can You Name?”
Danielle Goodwin – “The Mathematics Classroom: The Most Segregated Place in American Society”
Roundtable Discussion – “How Well Do Science Classes Serve Female Students?”
Roundtable Participants: Danielle Goodwin, Jonathan Hall, Paul Ashcraft, Andy George, Qi Dunsworth, Ruth Pflueger, Heather Wager, Jason Reed
#3. 10:40 a.m.- Noon “Bias and Visibility”
MODERATOR: VICTORIA KAZMERSKI
Victoria Kazmerski – “Are Sex Differences All in the Mind?”
Jennifer Penfield, Ashley Albeck & Chelsea Ehret – “Androcentrism in the Media: The Erie Times-News and Female Representation.”
Tekhara Watson – “Gender and the Market.”
#3 CONCURRENT – “Buffy and the Mean Girls: Popular Feminisms”
MODERATOR: SARAH WHITNEY
Allison Shearer – “Mean Girls: Looking Beneath the Surface”
Nicole Shannon –“Mean Girls - from Page to Screen”
Ashton Haas – “Buffy the Vampire Slayer: When Women are Heroes”
Shalyn Conto – “Premature Womanhood in Buffy the Vampire Slayer”
#4. 12:15-1:30 p.m. “Gender in Popular Media”
MODERATOR: TOM NOYES
Thomas Rawls – “Tootsie: Revealing Gender as a Cultural Construct”
Fred Hofrichter & Cody Murdock – “Gender in Comics”
Anna Grigorian & Erin Maurer – “Women’s Portrayal in Reality Modeling Shows”
Cathryn Buonocore – “Female Characters in Videogames”
#4 CONCURRENT “Double Standards and New Ground”
MODERATOR: JOHN CHAMPAGNE
Devin Wasser –“Women in Sportscasting: New Frontiers”
Angela Golasteneh –“Don’t Be So Judgmental! Young Women and Social Judgment”
Terra Lynn Carrier – “Why Gender is so Stereotyped in Advertising”
Caitlin Hill – “Gender and the Media”
#5. 1:45 p.m.–3:15 p.m. "Your Body Image & Self Esteem: Under Attack & Ways to Fight Back"
Film Screening and Panel Film Screening – Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising’s Image of Women (run time 32 minutes)
Discussion Facilitators: Betty Young, psychologist, Saint Vincent Health Center, and Diana Ziemniak, Penn State Behrend Women’s Studies faculty.
#6. 3:30 p.m –4:45 p.m. “The State Looks at Sexuality”
MODERATOR: DOUGLAS CHARLES
Douglas Charles – “‘The Victim of a Degenerate’: The Origins of the FBI’s Surveillance of Gays”
Craig Warren – “What Earl Warren Knew About Gender”
Sabina Medilovic – “Philip R. Faymonville and the Lend-Lease Mission to the Soviet Union”
Phil Heidenreich – “Leopold & Loeb and their Effect on Homosexual Acceptance in the 1920s-1930s”
#6 CONCURRENT “Women and Trauma”
MODERATOR: EUGENE CROSS
Cassidy Bowers –“The Continuing Prevalence of Girlhood Sexual Abuse”
Sarah Aulenbacher – “Korea’s ‘Comfort Women’ and the Rhetoric of Genocide”
Katy Janotti –“Fear of Failure: Women and the Fear of Personal Rejection”
#7. 5:00 p.m.-6:20 p.m. “Subcultures and Stereotypes”
MODERATOR: JOHN CHAMPAGNE
Kameron Greene – “Being on the Down Low”
Rae Anne Scully – “Enduring Film Stereotypes of African-American Women”
Jessica Durbin – “Religious Girlhoods”
Rebecca Van Niel – “Arranged Marriages: Preconceptions and Realities”
#7 CONCURRENT “Gender Ideals?”
MODERATOR: CRAIG WARREN
Emily Alonge – “The Adolescent Girl Fight: The Tough Girl v. The Emotional Girl”
Kristen Lord –“The Call of Domesticity”
Katie Legler – “Culturally Defined Maternal Practices”
Chelsea Gallagher – “Whatever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl?”
#8. 8:00 p.m. Special Performance: Lysistrata
Talk-back with cast, designers and director
Location – Studio Theatre. Limited number of complimentary tickets available for participants on a first-come, first-serve basis $5 for students and $7 general admission – reservation phone line (814-898-6242)
Gender-Power-Desire Faculty Participants
Paul Ashcraft – Physics, Penn State Behrend
Dawn Blasko – Psychology, Penn State Behrend
John Champagne (Conference Organizer) – English, Penn State Behrend
Douglas Charles – History, Penn State Behrend
Katie Chriest – English, Gannon University
Eugene Cross – Creative Writing, Penn State Behrend
Matthew Darling – English, Gannon University
Qi Dunsworth – Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies, Penn State Behrend
Melanie Ford - Engineering, Penn State Behrend
Ralph Ford – Engineering, Penn State Behrend
Sharon Gallagher – English, Penn State Behrend
Andy George – Mathematics, Penn State Behrend
Danielle Goodwin – Mathematics, Penn State Behrend
Jonathan Hall – Physics, Penn State Behrend
David Jortner – Theatre, Penn State Behrend
Melanie Karsak – English, Mercyhurst College
Victoria Kazmerski – Psychology, Penn State Behrend
Meredith Kenyon – English, Penn State Behrend
Elizabeth Kons – English, Gannon University
Archie Loss – English, Penn State Behrend
Kathleen Muhonen – Engineering, Penn State Behrend
Tom Noyes – Creative Writing, Penn State Behrend
Ruth Pflueger – Learning Resource Center, Penn State Behrend
Robert Roecklein – English, Penn State Behrend
Joshua Shaw – Philosophy, Penn Sate Behrend
Benjamin Speggen – English, Gannon University
Shawn St Jean – English, Penn State Behrend
Stephen Swanson – English, Penn State Behrend
Craig Warren – English, Penn State Behrend
Holly Welker – English, Penn State Behrend
Sarah Whitney (Conference Organizer) – English/Women’s Studies, Penn State Behrend
Betty Young – Psychologist, Saint Vincent Health Center
Diana Ziemniak – Women’s Studies, Penn State Behrend
Gender-Power-Desire Student Participants (Penn State Behrend)
Ashley Albeck
Emily Alonge
Sarah Aulenbacher
Cassidy Bowers
Cathryn Buonocore
Terra Lynn Carrier
Shalyn Conto
Jessica Durbin
Chelsea Ehret
Brie Fleming
Chelsea Gallagher
Megan George
Angela Golasteneh
Kameron Greene
Anna Grigorian
Amy Groszkiewicz
Ashton Haas
Kelli Hardy
Phil Heidenreich
Brittany Hennessy
Caitlin Hill
Fred Hofrichter
Kate Kelecseny
Katy Janotti
Tiffany Kun
Shari Lack
Katie Legler
Kristen Lord
Erin Maurer
Sabina Medilovic
Kristy McCoy
Brian Morris
Cody Murdock
Jennifer Penfield
Thomas Rawls
Jason Reed
Jody Reed
Rae Anne Scully
Nicole Shannon
Allison Shearer
Heather Simendinger
David Skarupski
Rachel Tucholski
Rebecca Van Niel
Heather Wager
Devin Wasser
Tekhara Watson
Kyle Zaffino
Special thanks to:
Richard Aquila
Eugene Cross
Sharon Gallagher
Meredith Kenyon
Bob Light
Greg Morris
National Organization for Women – Erie Chapter
Stephen Swanson
Margo Wolfe