NEPCA 2010 SF, Fantasy, and Legend Sessions List

Here is the tentative program for this year's Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area sessions. Biographical details will be added as they become available.

Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association Annual Conference

Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (October 23, 2010)

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Sessions

Session I: 8:30-10:00

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend I: Children’s Culture (Panel 7: Room W305)

Presider: Michael A. Torregrossa (The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages)

1. “War, Veterans, Disabilities, and How to Train Your Dragon”

            Will Eggers (University of Connecticut)

Will Eggers is finishing his Ph.D. in medieval English literature at the University of Connecticut. His dissertation “ ‘Misticall Unions’: Clandestine Communications from Tristan to Twelfth Night, explores the continuing impact that changes in marriage law have had on communications between lovers, up to the romantic comedies of the twentieth century. Medieval lovers such as Tristan and Isolde fashion themselves as a “misticall union”: a conglomerate self that shares one mind and erases all distinctions between sender and receiver as grammatical subject and object. Will currently teaches courses on Chaucer, Medieval Myths and Legends, and linguistics at Wesleyan University. 

2. “The Book’s the Thing: Books as Artifacts of Power in Children’s Fantasy”

            Amie A. Doughty (SUNY Oneonta)

Amie A. Doughty is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY Oneonta where she teaches courses in linguistics, children’s literature, fantasy literature, and composition. Her research interests include children’s literature, folktales, and fantasy. She is the author of the book Folktales Retold: A Critical Overview of Stories Updated for Children (McFarland 2006), as well as articles in Barbarians at the Gate: Studies in Language Attitudes, Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings, and Children’s Literature and Culture. Presently she is completing a book about books, readers, and reading in children’s fantasy for McFarland.

3. “From Muggles to Merlins: The Representation of Mentor Figures in The Secret of NIMH (1982) and Ewoks (1985-86)”

            Michael A. Torregrossa

Michael A. Torregrossa is a graduate of the Medieval Studies program at the University of Connecticut (Storrs). His research interests include adaptation, Arthuriana, comics and comic art, medievalism, and wizards. Michael is currently Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair for the Northeast Popular/American Culture Association. He is also founder of The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain and co-founder, with Carl James Grindley, of The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages. Michael has presented his research at regional, national, and international conferences and has been published in Adapting the Arthurian Legends for Children: Essays on Arthurian Juvenilia, Arthuriana, The Arthuriana / Camelot Project Bibliographies, Cinema Arthuriana: Twenty Essays, Film & History, The 1999 Film & History CD-Rom Annual, The Medieval Hero on Screen: Representations from Beowulf to Buffy, and the three most recent supplements to The Arthurian Encyclopedia. 

Session II: 10:15-11:45

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend II: SF TV (Panel 16: Room W305)

Presider: Wendy Wagner (Johnson & Wales University)

1. “From Dunne to Desmond: Disembodied Time Travel in Tolkien, Stapledon, and Lost”

            Kristine Larsen (Central Connecticut State University)

Kristine Larsen is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Central Connecticut State University, where she regularly inflicts her deep interest in the intersection between science and society on unsuspecting students. Her publications include the books Stephen Hawking: A Biography and Cosmology 101 as well as numerous articles and book chapters on science in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the role of women in the history of science, depictions of science and scientists in science fiction television series and films, and innovations in interdisciplinary science education. She is co-editor of the recently published book The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who.

2. “Watching Death in Torchwood: The Impact on Characters and Fans”

            Marla Harris (Independent Scholar)

Marla Harris has a PhD from Brandeis in literature, and she has published articles on a wide variety of topics, including Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, graphic novels, and Iranian women's memoirs. She grew up in East Tennessee, but became a Doctor Who fan when her family spent a couple of years in England. At present, she is an independent scholar living in the Boston area. 

3. “Battlestar Galactica and the Cults of Seriality”

            Jordan Lavender-Smith (CUNY Graduate Center)

Jordan Lavender-Smith is working towards his Ph.D. in English and Certificate in Film Studies at CUNY Graduate Center. His academic interests include self-reflexivity in literature and film, seriality and addiction, Early- and Post-modern dramaturgy, and, more generally, the cultural causes and consequences of literary forms. He teaches in the English department at CUNY Queens College.

Session III: 1:00-2:30

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend III: Monstrous Medievalisms (Sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages) (Panel 25: Room W305)

Presider: John P. Sexton  (Bridgewater State College)

1. “An Unsung Hero: The Arthurian Legacy in the Gabriel Knight Game Series”

            Angela Tenga (Florida Institute of Technology)

Angela Tenga is an assistant professor at Florida Institute of Technology. She completed her graduate studies in English literature at Purdue University and was a professional writer and teacher in Germany before coming to Florida Tech. Her courses focus on literature, history, popular culture, and monsters in fiction, while her research interests include early English literature, popular depictions of monstrosity, and the virtual self.

2. “Staking them Out: Shakespeare’s Vampires”

            Danielle Rosvally (Rutgers University)

Danielle is a recovering actor and graduate student in English at Rutgers University where she has the occasion to teach acting and theatre production courses.  She received her BA from New York University in Elizabethan Theatre and has also trained at the American Globe Theatre, Shakespeare & Company, the Actor’s Institute, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Royal Shakespeare Company.  Her research interests include performativity and theatricality with an emphasis on non-canonical texts, unconventional Shakespeare studies, and the intersection between practical and theoretical theatre.

3. “The Impaling of Vlad: Dracula, Literary Tourism, and National Identity”

            Tony Giffone (Farmingdale State College/SUNY)

Tony Giffone is a professor in the English and Humanities Department at Farmingdale State College. His research interests include Victorian novels, detective fiction, film, and travel literature, and has published articles on Dickens, detective fiction, and contemporary Chinese film.  He co-edited a special issue of the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association's journal, The Mid-Atlantic Almanak, on the topic of "Aspects of Victorian Culture in Popular Culture."

Session IV: 2:45-4:15

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend IV: Race and Gender (Panel 35: Room W307)

Presider: Macey M. Freudensprung (The University of Texas at San Antonio)

1. “The Lilith Character: Critically Analyzing Women’s Roles within African-American Speculative Fiction According to the Portrayal of Lilith within Jewish, Greek, and Afro-Diasporic Folklore and Mysticism”

            Macey M. Freudensprung

Macey Freudensprung is a Master's student for the Department of English at The University of Texas at San Antonio.  She specializes in Rhetoric and Composition with a focus on Technical and Professional Writing.  Macey's current research interests involve the phenomenon of self-representation and identity performance in social networking sites.    

2. “Vampire as Tragic Mulatto: Angel and Spike in the Whedonverse”
            Wendy Wagner (Johnson & Wales University)

Wendy Wagner is associate professor of English at Johnson & Wales University where she teaches composition and literature courses. Her dissertation focused on motherhood and characters of mixed racial ancestry in African American women's writing. Her research interests include race and gender in popular culture, writing assessment, and the integration of technologies in the classroom. Her article on Jennifer Crusie appeared in the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice.

3. “Nyota Uhura: Feminist Star of Freedom”

            Mayan A. Jarnagin (The University of Texas at San Antonio)

Mayan Jarnagin is currently attending the University of Texas at San Antonio seeking a master’s degree in English and American literature. Mayan is currently an active member of Sigma Tau Delta English honor society. Mayan’s interests include the appropriation and alteration of mythology to further ideology, poetry and poetic prose, the use of music in film and literature, creative writing, satire, and depictions of race, gender, and the military in science fiction, fantasy, horror, and video games.