Since 2015 the MCSU English Students’ Association (ESA) together with the Department of English and American Studies and the Department of Linguistics of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University have been organizing the annual doctoral, graduate and undergraduate students conference STUDENTS’ CORNER: LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS.
9th INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ CORNER 2024:
LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS [online]
The 9th edition of the Students' Corner Conference held online on April 24, 2024, marked a significant milestone in our Association's academic journey, as young scholars from diverse backgrounds and geographical locations came together for a vibrant exchange of ideas and insights.
Participants from across the globe joined us for this enriching academic gathering, representing a diverse range of institutions, cultures, and perspectives. Among the institutions represented were: University of Sheffield, UK, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, USA, National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Beijing Foreign Studies University, The University of Hong Kong, Zhejiang University, Xiangtan University, China, The University of Szeged, Hungary, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, University of Szczecin and the hosts from Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland.
This global representation contributed to the rich tapestry of discussions and fostered cross-cultural dialogue among attendees.
Our conference was honored to host two esteemed keynote speakers, Prof. Philip Habel and Elisa Pesce, whose expertise and insights added depth and resonance to our academic proceedings:
Philip Habel is Professor and Department Chair at the University of South Alabama, and this year during his sabbatical, he is U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar and University Professor in the Department of English and American Studies at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. His research is in political communication and public opinion, with published works covering both the U.S. and Europe. He is currently engaged in projects related to conspiracy beliefs and the media, and also images in digital games.
Title: The Dynamics of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Elisa Pesce is a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Her project assesses the scope and implications of maximalist fiction in the framework of contemporary cultural production in the United States. She is therefore interested in the interrelation between standards of genre formation and literary merit and questions of power. Elisa has presented her research outputs at various international conferences and in international journals such as JAm It! ( Journal of American Studies in Italy), European Journal of American Studies, and REDEN ( Revista Española de Estudios Norteamericanos). She organised and chaired the international panel “Fictional Maximalism and The Americas: New Voices, New Perspectives” for the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies in Glasgow and is co-editor of the special section on print word censorship and U.S. national identity of the forthcoming issue of RSAJournal ( Rivista di Studi Americani, September 2024). Besides her academic research, she works as a translator and EFL teacher.
Title: Maximalism as Counter-Narrative: Challenging Dominant Visions of the U.S. in Post-1990 American Literature
The contributions of our keynote speakers and the active participation of attendees from around the world made the Students' Corner Conference 2024 a truly memorable and impactful event. We look forward to continuing our academic journey together, building on the connections forged and insights gained during this enlightening conference.
The selected papers will be published in the 9th and 10th volume of an open access peer-reviewed journal New Horizons in English Studies (40 points on the Ministerial List).
For further information please check the Conference’s official website https://www.umcs.pl/en/students-corner,21557.htm.
The Students’ Corner Organizing Committee
8th INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ CORNER 2023:
LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS [online]
The 8th edition of the INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ CORNER 2023: LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS was held online on April 26, 2023. The conference saw a diverse range of participants from various parts of the world, including Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, University of Warsaw, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, SWPS University in Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, and the University of Delhi, India.
We were honored to have Dr Carla Rocavert from Université Lumière Lyon 2 as our keynote speaker, who delivered a lecture titled “Reality Television and the change in the Character of Discourse.” Along with the keynote, we were treated to a great selection of presentations covering a wide range of topics in the field of English Studies. It has been an incredible opportunity to hear from talented scholars and students from around the world, and to engage in meaningful discussions about literature, culture&media, linguistics, and didactics.
Carla Rocavert is currently Maître de Langue at Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France. Her research uses phenomenological, hermeneutic, and post-structuralist cultural theory to explore media production and consumption. She is specifically interested in the histories and contemporary practices of Australian and American stage and screen performance, transcultural discourses of intersectionality, ecocriticism, and intermediality. Her work on American reality television, the performing arts, neoliberalism, and creativity has appeared in publications including Critical Quarterly, Critical Stages/Scènes critiques, The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies, and The Creativity Research Journal. She is currently working on articles about the history and hegemony of US television, and transcultural discussions of race and feminism in the work of American playwright Aleshea Harris.
As a follow-up to the conference, the selected papers presented at the conference will be published in the 9th volume of an open access peer-reviewed journal New Horizons in English Studies (40 points on the Ministerial List). The author guidelines are available on our website, and the deadline for submission is September 30, 2023.
We also want to express our pride in being a part of the initiatives for 2023 European Youth Capital, and we hope that this conference has contributed to the broader goal of promoting youth involvement and development in Lublin and beyond
#EuropejskaStolicaMłodzieżyLublin2023 #EuropeanYouthCapital2023
7th INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ CORNER 2022:
LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS [online]
The 7th edition of the doctoral and graduate student conference STUDENTS’ CORNER 2022: LITERATURE – CULTURE & MEDIA –LINGUISTICS – DIDACTICS. was held online on April 26, 2022. The inspiring presentations were delivered by the participants from ELTE in Budapest, the University of Warsaw, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Jan Kochanowski University in Sandomierz, The John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin and UMCS. This year's keynote lectures were delivered by Prof. Robert Westerfelhaus and Michelle Y. Hurtubise.
Robert Westerfelhaus is a Professor at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, where he has been teaching in the Department of Communication since 2002. In 2009-2010, Dr Westerfelhaus was a Fulbright Fellow at UMCS in Lublin, Poland. He is currently back at UMCS as a Fulbright Fellow and the Distinguished Chair of Humanities for the 2021-2022 academic year. Dr Westerfelhaus has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries about American popular culture as viewed through the dual lenses of rhetoric and semiology.
Michelle Y. Hurtubise is a Visual Anthropology Ph.D. candidate at Temple University researching narrative sovereignty, diverse festival networks, and BIPOC artist support systems through the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the development of Kin Theory, a global Indigenous media makers database, and the 4th World Indigenous Media Lab. With an interdisciplinary background in arts and activism, she did human rights and media work in Rio de Janeiro as part of her Master’s thesis at New York University, and she received an MFA from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Michelle has worked with the Center for Artistic Activism, the Center for Media, Culture and History, and currently with the Nia Tero foundation.
Selected papers will be published in the 8th volume of an open access peer-reviewed journal New Horizons in English Studies (40 points on the Ministerial List).
Prof. Robert Westerfelhaus' Keynote Address "The Crisis of American Masculinity"
Michelle Y. Hurtubise's Keynote Address "The Power of Storytelling, Kin Theory and Today's Indigenous Media Makers"
STUDENTS' CORNER 2021
In 2021 the 6th STUDENTS’ CORNER conference was held online on April 26. We welcomed the participants from the University of Warsaw, The Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, The University of Łódź and of course a strong representation of our own Maria Curie-Skłodowska University graduate and doctoral students. This year's inaugural lecture was delivered by Professor Rebecca Feasey, Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Communications at Bath Spa University. She has published a range of work on the representation of gender in popular media culture. She has published in journals such as Feminist Media Studies and the Journal of Gender Studies. She has written book length studies on masculinity and popular television (EUP 2008), motherhood on the small screen (Anthem 2012), maternal audiences (Peter Lang 2016) and infertility and non-traditional family building in the media (Palgrave Macmillan 2019).
If you would like to get some inspiration on how to plan your research journey, we'd like to invite you to watch the Keynote Lecture delivered by Professor Rebecca Feasey. This is a fascinating talk about the importance of studying representations of various social groups because "what matters is who we don't see."
The selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings - the 7th volume of New Horizons in English Studies.
For further information please check the Conference’s official website www.studentscornerumcs.wordpress.com and the Facebook event https://www.facebook.com/events/482232416102130/. Please feel free to contact the Students’ Corner Committee via e-mail: esconference.umcs@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding the Students’ Corner Conference.
