Academic Festival 2019

Jane Austen’s nineteenth-century novel Emma (1816) displays the importance of proper etiquette, rank, and reputation at social events. However, the novel's balls, dinners, and outings serve a more important function by revealing that Emma uses events to implement her matchmaking plans. I will discuss how Emma uses these occasions in order to become a successful matchmaker by promoting the upward mobility of orphan Harriet Smith.

If you have 20 minutes to spare today, visit the Daemen's American Association of University Women (AAUW) members at our World Hijab Day Acknowledgement event! The hijab is a type of religious covering worn by many Muslim women across the world. However, covered women -- called hijabis -- face a great deal of social stigma in many countries, especially after the anti-Muslim backlash that followed tragic events of 9/11. World Hijab Day, traditionally on February 1st, is an event meant to promote understanding and acceptance of these covered women. Have you ever wondered why women wear hijab? Or how to put one on? Or what you would look like covered? Pop in to try on a hijab, watch our looping presentation, and have your questions answered! Hijabs are personal property and not for sale but can be signed out to wear around campus for a short period of time if desired. (Please note that this is not an hours-long lecture.)

Hermione Granger is the ultimate reason Harry Potter was able to defeat Lord Voldemort by the end of J.K. Rowling's series. She used her many abilities, like research, magic, and knowledge, to solve each mystery the Trio stumbled into in each novel. Hermione had most, if not all, of the ideas to overcome and solve each problem; without her, Harry and Ron Weasley would have been completely lost and may not have completed the tasks.

My thesis aims to examine how the anime film The End of Evangelion acts as a vehicle for processing collective trauma. It uses Freudian psychoanalysis, postmodern uses of religious imagery, and an apocalypse setting in order to help its audience of otaku (those with an interest in anime, manga, and other such paraphernalia) come to terms with traumas experienced in the decade leading to the film’s release. Protagonist Shinji Ikari acts as an analog for the traumatized otaku and his ultimate choice to reject an escape from his identity represents an attempt to help The End of Evangelion’s audience to work through collective traumas of their own.

Though modern society has connected us to one another like never before, it seems more difficult to speak with and listen to others who share differing opinions and viewpoints. This is a problem for multiple reasons, each of which comes back to a single theme: bias. In the interest of preserving civil conversation, we will explore the roots of these problems in psychology, technology, and culture, and share the means to overcome bias in these areas.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wall-Paper, portrays mental illness in the 19th century. Specifically, Gilman aims to reflect on her own experience with what today we would call Postpartum Depression. Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wall-Paper depicts the journal entries of a young woman who is experiencing mental health disturbances, which were categorized as “temporary nervous depression” or a “slight hysterical tendency” by her physician husband (648). Through ”Jane’s” first-person narrative, the reader begins to note how the severity of her condition increases, until the climactic end where her husband finds her in complete disarray exhibiting behaviors of an alternate personality. Through Gilman’s female protagonist “Jane,” she illustrates the lack of mental health care for women, specifically postpartum depression and dissociative personality disorder, as a source for further patriarchal dominance of her society.

Michael Lehmann's 1988 film, Heathers, and its 2010 musical counterpart explore the pressures of teenage acceptance and how far its characters are willing to go to receive it. In the musical adaptation, the relationship between Veronica Sawyer and Jason Dean is romanticized in order to adhere to the musical genre, changing the reading of their moral values and decisions as a result.

"Na, we straight" was the remark that was heard nation-wide out of the mouth of our then President Barack Obama. Many questions arose as to who Barack truly was, and how unpresidential it was for him to speak in African American Vernacular English. Obama uses 'code switching' - that is, switching between two or more dialects of a language to relate himself to his supporters. For my research topic, I will be focusing on Barack Obama’s use of code-switching as persuasive discourse as well as the influence of hip hop into both of the administrations of Obama.