Annual humanities conference makes first appearance at RU

Presenters in the first annual undergraduate and graduate humanities conference, "Humanities, Power, and the Public," were selected last week by the event's coordinators.

Sandra Frink, assistant professor of history, and Annie Warshaw, graduate assistant, were responsible for organizing the event, which will allow students to present work they have done in the Humanities.

"This is something we've talked about for a year and a half," Frink said. "We've noticed that other universities in the city have something like it, but we wanted to make it something sponsored by Roosevelt and something that reflected Roosevelt and our interest in the humanities."

Students from a wide variety of disciplines such as history, philosophy, literary studies and gender studies were encouraged to submit original research or creative work to present during the conference.

"We had a call for papers, and from there we just recently sent out acceptances," said Warshaw, who is finishing her last semester at Roosevelt. "Now we're working on putting the panels together and figuring out who's going to be the commentator for each panel."

Frink said Roosevelt faculty have been extremely supportive of the event, both in terms of soliciting submissions from students and in wanting to volunteer as commentators.

A total of 23 students were selected to present their work at the April 9 conference. These 23 students are being divided into eight related panels, which will have a faculty member serving as a moderator.

"I think for the first year the turnout was really great," said Warshaw. "It's also something that we think can grow."

Warshaw will present her own work at the conference. A paper titled "Uncovering her Voice: The Diaries of Eighteenth-Century Moravian Women" will serve as the impetus for her presentation.  

Each panel will last roughly an hour and a half with each participant having 15 minutes to present his or her work. This will be followed by questions and comments led by the moderator.

The conference will be broken up into three sessions, and a roundtable luncheon will follow.

The event is being sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of History and Philosophy, the Department of Literature and Languages and the Women's and Gender Studies Program. It is free to all Roosevelt students.