Program 2026

9:00                 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKS

                        Dr. Yin Liu, Head, Department of English

9:05-10:00      PANEL 1.   FORMAL EXPLORATIONS: ARCHETYPE, METAPHOR, FOUND-FOOTAGE

Chair: Dr. Jessica McDonald, Lecturer, Department of English

The Permanence of Impermanence: Archetype in In The Skin of a Lion and the Epic of Gilgamesh

  • Isabel Atherton-Reimer

In both the ancient Mesopotamian text The Epic of Gilgamesh and Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion (1987), physical markers such as injury and illness serve as reminders of fragility and mortality. In turn, these markers speak to the archetypal function of the works, a striving towards this universal truth of human existence: impermanence.

“Can One Plus One Equal One?”: Mathematics and Truth in Wajdi Mouawad’s Scorched 

  • Nina Pham

In his play Scorched (2003), Mouawad examines the process of confronting difficult truths through the journeys of twins Janine and Simon, each tasked with unraveling their deceased mother’s past. The play frames their discoveries through its central metaphor, the Collatz conjecture, a famously unsolved mathematical puzzle that reflects the unsettling logic of what they eventually uncover.  

The Visual and Visceral Impact of the Hand-held Camera in Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick’s The Blair Witch Project

  • Gillian Skjei

Found-footage horror films are often alleged to rely on cinematographic gimmicks, sacrificing narrative substance for superficial spectacle. I argue that Sánchez and Myrick’s The Blair Witch Project (1999) challenges this oversimplification by creatively engaging with the materiality of hand-held cinematography to stimulate viewer discomfort and collapse the cognitive boundaries between the audience and the on-screen action.

10:00-10:20    REFRESHMENT BREAK (RIVER ROOM)

10:25-11:20     PANEL 2. POWER / STRUCTURES: BODIES, MINDS, SPACES

Chair: Dr. Jay Rajiva, Assistant Professor, Department of English

Books and Bodies: An Aging Perspective in Wordsworth’s “Old Man Travelling”

  • Dani McLaughlin

William Wordsworth’s “Old Man Travelling: Animal Tranquility and Decay, a Sketch” (1798) is a poem that inverts expectations of aging and death. This paper analyses the representation of aged bodies in Wordsworth’s poem through a disability lens to destabilize pre-conceived notions of the human life cycle.

Icy Implications: Metaphor in Tayeb Salih’s Season of Migration to the North

  • Kamryn Heavin

In Season of Migration to the North (1966), Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih illustrates the destructive impact of Western knowledge being favored over all others. Following a relatively simple metaphor, Salih leads readers to discover the complex reverberations that result when such prejudice is internalized by those whom it cuts down.

Preservative and Subversive Spaces in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things: Reimagining Spatial Reading in Postcolonial Contexts

  • Conall Wagner

Examining the depiction of imperial infrastructures and their preservation of colonial violence in The God of Small Things (1997), I argue that, in postcolonial contexts, it is necessary to reframe spatial theory to consider postcolonial subjectivities. Such reframing ultimately forwards more productive, decolonial spatial reading practices.

11:25-12:20     PANEL 3:  GENDERED MEDIATIONS: WOMEN IN MALE STORYWORLDS

Chair: Jenna Miller, PhD Student, Department of ENglish

“Dr. Kik, When Am I Real?”: Looking Like a Doctor in Anatole Litvak’s The Snake Pit

  • Emily Zbaraschuk

Litvak’s 1948 film The Snake Pit explores Virginia Cunningham’s experience in an asylum as her psychiatrist, Dr. Kik, uses psychoanalysis to cure her distress about her husband. Although Dr. Kik teaches Virginia to accept domestic life, she complicates the boundary between “rational” male doctor and “irrational” female patient by taking a critical, diagnostic look at the surrounding hospital.

Hinder and Help: Women in Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and Translations by Brian Friel

  • Arden Poppel

Female characters have long been used as instruments of character development for male protagonists. I compare two works that complicate the idea of change, and women’s role in it. In Lucky Jim (1952), Margaret is the barrier to the liberating change that Jim seeks. In Translations (1980), Maire pushes Manus to accept changes imposed by English colonial forces, even as he resists them.

“A Rebellion Against Rebellion”: Examining (and Resisting) Patriarchal Limitations on Female Characters in Lucky Jim and The Buddha of Suburbia

  • Calla Potter

Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1952) and Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) both trace the growth of a male protagonist; however, attending to “minor” female characters in these narratives reveals an undercurrent of patriarchal oppression. By examining each woman’s experience in the context of gendered, racial, and class structures, I establish a nuanced analysis that moves towards an intersectional model of feminism.  

12:20-12:30    CLOSING REMARKS

Dr. Darrin Oehlerking, Associate Dean, Student Affairs, College of Arts & Science

Panelists

 

Isabel Atherton-Reimer

Isabel Atherton-Reimer is in her third academic year of an English Honours Degree. While her taste in fiction tends to lean towards fantasy, for both reading and writing, she enjoys a wide array of genres. A wanderer at heart, she is at her happiest when she is travelling, exploring the incredible people, places, and food this vast world has to offer.

Kamryn Heavin

Kamryn Heavin is a graduating English honors student with a psychology minor and creative writing certificate. She hopes to continue her creative writing career through the MFA in Writing program next year.

Dani McLaughlin

Dani McLaughlin (she/her) is in her final year of a Double Honours, majoring in Psychology & English, and she hopes to continue her education in graduate school. She has taken an interest in postmodern literature, with a special focus on feminist and disability theory.

Nina Pham

Nina Pham is a graduating English Honours student with a special interest in science and technology studies and speculative fiction. She currently serves as the co-president of the English Undergraduate Society and enjoys playing board games in her spare time.

Arden Poppel

Arden Poppel is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in English with a minor in History. Their main interests in English are feminist and queer literary criticism.

Calla Potter

Calla Potter is a settler on Treaty 6 territory and is currently in her fourth year of an English Honours degree. Her interests lie in the intersections between critical theory, feminism, and postcolonial literatures. She is also the Vice President of Communications for the English Undergraduate Society.

Gillian Skjei

Gillian Skjei (she/her) is in her final year of her Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in English with plans to graduate in the Fall of 2026. Her areas of interest include Gothic literature, film studies, and digital humanities.

Conall Wagner

Conall Wagner (he/him) is a graduating English honours student. His literary interests broadly include postcolonial studies, modernism, and spatial theory. He is also the co-president of the English Undergraduate Society. 

Emily Zbaraschuk

Emily Zbaraschuk (she/her) is a double major in English and Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. When she is not falling into obscure research rabbit holes, she can be found baking, crocheting, and trying to keep up with her sweet but devilish cat, Orla.