NULC 2026 Student Presentation Schedule

Friday, March 27, 2026

Session 1 Breakouts: 8-9 am

(1A) British Literature
Room EH 215
Moderator: Michael Wutz

  • Miriam Ikner, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Unreliability and Self-Forgiveness: The Ineffectiveness of Briony’s Atonement"
  • Ainsley Marshall, Southern Utah University, "And Thus the Antihero was Born: The Connection Between Obsession and Religion in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Emily Bront褢’s Wuthering Heights"
  • Autumn Simundson, Texas A&M University, " The Dark Lord and Her Ladyship: Gendered Evil in Middle-Earth"

(1B) Poetry
Room EH 218
Moderator: Alexa Stultz

  • Ivana Cuculiza, Weber State University, "It’s Not a Style—It’s a State "
  • Nat Mayers, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Migration the Collection
  • Miho Sato, National Taiwan Normal University, "Butterfly Knot"

(1C) American Literature
Room 219
Moderator: Bracken Gossett

  • Grace Brophy, Colorado Mesa University, "Blurring boundaries Between the Human and Non-human in Wicked (1995)"
  • Victoria Morriss, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Tokens, Necklaces, and Trinkets: Jewelry’s influence in Sunrise on the Reaping"
  • Rylee Sturgis, Southern Utah University, "How Systems of Segregation Shape Literature and Society"

(1D) Fiction
Room EH 206
Moderator: Sam Rasley

  • Emma Kirby, Weber State University, "The Labyrinth
  • Cooper Loftus, Southern Utah University, "Foreshadowing AI and social media in Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep"
  • Janae Merrill, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "The Bar Between Life and Death"

(1E) Creative Nonfiction
Room EH 220
Moderator: Shauna Gunnell

  • Ghaya Merghani, Regis University, " Doubt Truth to be a Liar"
  • Jackson Reed, Weber State University, "Running Out of Blood"
  • Jessie White, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Non-Special Snowflake"

Session 2 Breakouts: 9:15-10:15 pm

(2A) Fiction
Room EH 215
Moderator: Ryan Ridge

  • Joshua Colenda, Weber State University, "The King"
  • Jordynn Hunt-Davidson, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "The Contemplations of Azrael"
  • Braden Price, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Stories that inspire the modern Prometheus "
  • Calvin Stevens, College of Southern Idaho, "False Scenes"

(2B) British Literature
Room EH 218
Moderator: Ryan Evans

  • Meera Balan, Reed College, "Who Holds the Voice? Race and Narrative Authority in Othello"
  • Sandra Keehn, Boise State University, " The Influence of Areopagitica: Milton’s Life Retold in 1984 and Fahrenheit 451"
  • Jess Lee, University of British Columbia, "What Poetry Knew Before Medicine: Early Modern Sexual Health"

(2C) World Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Bracken Gossett

  • Ashley Bollinger, Colorado Mesa University, "Atwood Talks Back"
  • Ilse Eskelsen, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "To Become Adults as No One Ever Had Before: Place and the Bildungsroman in E.M. Forster’s A Room with a View and Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults"

(2D) American Literature
Room EH 206
Moderator: Sam Rasley

  • Aidan Leschen, Colorado Mesa University, "What’s the Big Deal About Being Human?: All Systems Red and Human/Nonhuman Boundaries "
  • Brynn Ure, Southern Utah University, "The Round House: Joe's Coming-of-age Story, Questionable Morals, and a Character's Impact"
  • Alexander Jackson, Weber State University, "Who Has No Mouth, and Who Must Scream?"

(2E) Poetry
Room EH 220
Moderator: TBD

Session 3 Breakouts: 1-2 pm

(3A) Panel: History and Literature 
Room EH 215
Moderator: Mali Subbiah and Greg Lewis

  • Kelsie Klein, Weber State University, "Not a Man in The Flesh: The Revolutionary Poetry and Politics of Qiu Jin"
  • Hayden Northrup, Weber State University, "Autumnn Wind, Autumn Rain: Remembering Qiu Jin"
  • Asilynn Smith, Weber State University, "The Evolution of Din Ling in the Chinese Revolution: From Revolution to Persecution and Rehabilitation"
  • Blaine Wagner, Weber State University, "The Chinese Literary Enlightenment: An Examination of the Literary and Historical Influences of the Chinese New Cultural Movement"

(3B) American Literature
Room EH 218
Moderator: Kyra Hudson

  • Kate Barton, Reed College, " Gidibaajimowinminwag: Shapes of Ojibwe Literature"
  • Nhi Bui, San José University, "in the sense that / who cares?: Unsettling Coloniality in Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem"
  • Isaac Wood, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Divine Reflections: Decoding and Demystifying Religion in Indigenous Literature"

(3C) Digital Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Liz Ozmun

  • Madelyn McCracken, Idaho State University, "Star Wars as an Almost Feminist Series of Films"
  • Janae Merrill, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Does Remose Warrant Forgiveness? An Analysis of My Hero Academia"

(3D) Poetry
Room EH 206
Moderator: Sunni Wilkinson

  • Lindsey Booth, Weber State University, "Tethered and Untwined"
  • McKinley Gerber, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Last Will, The Refuge, The Temptation, and Behind the Eye"
  • E.A. Morrigan, Weber State University, "Emerald Formaldehyde Envy"

(3E) Fiction
Room EH 220
Moderator: Tim Costello

  • Syrena Finnell, Weber State University, " Lost and Found: three short stories"
  • Hannah Olaveson, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Shadows in the Wheat"

Session 4 Breakouts: 2:15-3:15 pm

(4A) Creative Nonfiction
Room EH 215
Moderator: Ryan Evans

  • Alejandra Espinoza, Weber State University, "Meet Me Halfway"
  • Aja Gubler, Weber State University, "Poetry Through My Years"
  • Angelina Ross, Kent State University, "Little Pink Worm"

(4B) American Literature
Room EH 218
Moderator: Chelsea Adams

  • Grace Anderson, University of Missouri-Columbia, "Magical Realism and Resistance in The Water Dancer"
  • Taylor Hope, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Eternal Archetypes and the Apostolic Curse in Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away"
  • Spencer Huff, Colorado Mesa University, "In-Between Violence: Hybridity and Identity in Blood Meridian"
  • Anna Mueller, Black Hills State University, "I’m Low Down: Human Nature in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"

(4C) British Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Karen Moloney

  • Stuart Campbell, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Lying Heaped on the Altar of Rebellion"
  • Lindsey Hoover, University of Arizona, "Cavalier Poetics and the Politics of Elegance"

(4D) Fiction
Room EH 206
Moderator: Erin Cebreros Medina

  • Claire Bennion, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Eighteen"
  • Shayla Maloney, San José University, "Tales of the Kan"
  • Jana Moon, Weber State University, "A Curio of Curious Stories "

(4E) Poetry
Room EH 220
Moderator: TBD

  • Phoenix Li, College if Southern Idaho, "Mary Alice Park"
  • Reilly Prescott, Colorado Mesa University, "Between The Brambles And The Blackberries"
  • Angelina Stone, Regis University, " Between Then and Now"

Saturday, March 28, 2026

Session 5 Breakouts: 8-9 am

(5A) Fiction
Room EH 215
Moderator: Clint Johnson

  • Evalynn Berg, Concordia University, "The Wallflower"
  • Joshua Colenda, Weber State University, "Gedem Frankenstein M.D."
  • Jessie White, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Jeroughty Woods"

(5B) World Literature
Room EH 218
Moderator: Ethan Harris

  • Bee Bielak, Central Michigan University, "Rilke’s Poetry of Phenomenology: Letters to a Young Poet as Philosophical Framework"
  • Anna Seipert, Southern Utah University, "I Am Cringe But I Am Free: Queer Monsters and Gothic Taboos"

(5C) American Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Michael Handy

  • Stuart Campbell, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Hard Times: Losing Humanity for the Sake of the Few"
  • Anna Mueller, Black Hills State University, "I Think, Therefore: Battle of the Epistemologies in Oryx and Crake"
  • Sophie West, Brigham Young University, " A book about making: The Creative Power of Agency in John Steinbeck's East of Eden"

(5D) Poetry
Room EH 206
Moderator: Aurora Wall

  • Marissa Archibald, Weber State University, "Poetry Sampling"
  • Claire Bennion, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "Tiny Paragons"
  • Shaneice Collins, Brigham Young University-Idaho, "The Metamorphosis of Young Adulthood"
  • Phoenix Li, College of Southern Idaho, "Where Has the Spirit Gone?"

Session 6 Breakouts: 9:15-10:15 am

(6A) Fiction
Room EH 215
Moderator: Clint Johnson

  • Lindsey Booth, Weber State University, " Echoes In the Quiet"
  • Ross Linn, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " Edgar's Last Drink"
  • Arthur Pence-Smith, Weber State University, " Go Go Power [Fantasy]! Analyzing the Portrayal of Rape Culture in Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother"

(6B) British Literature
Room EH 218
Moderator: Amanda Walters

  • Trevor McEuen, Weber State University, " Henry V and the Corporeality of Political Power"
  • DeAnn Smith, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " Floriography and the Femininity in Rebecca"

(6C) American Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Mia Brabaeck

  • Syrena Finnell, Weber State University, " Intertwining narratives in There There and Indigo League"
  • Hope Henning, Gonzaga University, " The Prosthetic Villain: Cripistemology and Reading Bodies of Dis/Ability in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter"

(6D) Creative Nonfiction
Room EH 206
Moderator: Elke Sprague

  • Anja Cajigas, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " Necrosis"
  • Alexis Knight, Weber State University, "Fire Drooler"
  • Samantha Manlapig, Regis University, " Centrifugal Force"

(6E) World Literature
Room EH 220
Moderator: Kirsten Parkinson

  • Ellen Petty, Central Michigan, "Examining Murakami and the Subconscious Through a Lacanian Framework"
  • Sean Rubin, Hiram College, "The Power of Desire: The Symbolism of the Perforated Sheet in Midnight's Children"

Session 7 Breakouts: 10:30-11:30 pm

(7A) Digital Literature
Room EH 215
Moderator: Elke Sprague

  • Colson Stock, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " Building Agency: Memes in Rhetorical Contexts"
  • Molly Gilles, Hiram College, " The Rise of Sexuality in Romantic Comedies: Comparing Bringing Up Baby and 10 Things I Hate About You"

(7B) Poetry
Room EH 218
Moderator: Jan Hamer

  • Evalynn Berg, Concordia University, " The Tortured Recluse, Narrated in Nocturnes"
  • Aja Gubler, Weber State University, " Spiraling"
  • Devin Planas, College of Southern Idaho, " The Doomed Phoenix Collection"
  • Braden Price, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " The fires that build and burn"

(7C) American Literature
Room EH 219
Moderator: Susan McKay

  • Jordynn Hunt-Davidson, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " The Interlacing of Patriarchal Ideals Within Anti-Corset Narratives"
  • Braeden Jolstead, Brigham Young University-Idaho, " Man’s Divinity in The Road"

(7D) World Literature
Room EH 206
Moderator: TBD