WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 21, 2017 — West Liberty University’s College of Liberal Arts and the Department of Humanities welcomes the West Virginia Undergraduate English Symposium to campus on Saturday, March 25.
“We thrilled to host the annual symposium and offer our students this chance to receive a valuable experience in English scholarship and professional presentation,” said Associate Professor of English Dr. Angela Rehbein, who coordinates the symposium along with Dr. Steve Criniti. Four WLU students will join 14 students from other West Virginia schools in taking part in the English symposium.
Keynote speaker Megan Fahey will delight guests at lunchtime with a presentation appropriately entitled, “Beware the Tuna Sandwich, and Other Lessons I Learned in College.” She is currently a graduate student at West Virginia University.
A native of Wheeling, Fahey graduated from WLU in 2012 with bachelor degrees in English and English Education. After graduation, she moved to South Carolina and spent two years earning her master’s in writing at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach. She is now finishing her MFA in creative writing at WVU.
Last year, Fahey was the recipient of WVU’s Zierold Creative Writing Award and the Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant award for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.
Her fiction and poetry have appeared in the Southern Humanities Review, Stoneboat and Blinders Journal, and she has presented research at a number of regional and national conferences, including the South Carolina Council for Teachers of English Conference in Kiawah Island, the 21st Century Englishes Conference at Bowling Green State University, and the Pop Culture Association’s National Conference in Chicago.
The WLU students presenting their research at the symposium are: Paige Creamer of Steubenville, Ohio; Hannah Hlad of Wheeling; Natasha Muhametzyanova of Turkmenistan and Abigail Reeves of Wheeling. They join 14 students from other West Virginia schools also selected to present their papers on topics that concern literature, language, popular culture and other related themes.
“I am very thankful for this opportunity. It’s my first presentation at a professional conference and it’s very important to me to listen to comments from both the audience and the professors that will be there. I look forward to the feedback and a chance to learn and improve,” said Muhametzyanova, who is presenting on the issues of identity in the novel, Erasure.
Hlad described her research as, “exploring the religious inspiration behind the poetic works of Emily Dickinson. I wanted to question her intent for writing about the afterlife.”
“The symposium is a good opportunity for students to gain professional experience as they stand in front of an audience in an academic environment,” said Rehbein, adding that it’s a day to celebrate literary scholarship with the students’ families and mentors as they are brought together with other students from the state.
The symposium begins at 9 a.m. with a welcome from Dr. Jeremy Larance, chairman of the Department of Humanities. Following that there will be two morning sessions and one afternoon session of formal presentations.
Each student will have 15 minutes to present, followed by a question and answer period. The award ceremony will take place at the conclusion of the symposium at 2:45 p.m. in Campbell Hall’s first floor foyer.
Monetary prizes will be awarded for the top two outstanding student essays and the top two outstanding student presentations.
Other West Virginia colleges and universities participating inlude: Concord University, Davis & Elkins College, Marshall University, Shepherd University, West Liberty University and West Virginia University.
WLU’s College of Liberal Arts includes both the Department of Humanities and the Department of Social and Behavior Sciences. Majors include English Education, Graphic Narrative, Literature, Writing and Rhetoric, Criminal Justice, Geography and Planning, History, Interdisciplinary Pre-Law, International Studies, Psychology, Social Studies Education and Social Work.
For more information on WLU, please call 1.866.WESTLIB or visit westliberty.edu.