Program for the 56th Annual Comparative Literature Conference
Wednesday, April 13, 2022
Panel 1: Fairy Tales and Sub-Culture
8 – 9:30 am PST (UTC 3-4:30 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Pravina Cooper, CSULB
1. The Big Bad Red: Subversive representations of Little Red Riding Hood in contemporary caricatures and campaigns
Loaay Wattad, Tel Aviv University (Israel)
2. Analyzing the Prankster and Trickster in Unveiled: The Intersectionality of Gender and Privilege in Iliza Shlesinger’s Comedic Critique of the Wedding Industrial Complex
Dejah Rodriguez, CSULB
3. Subculture is the new S-word: Creating a Culture of Hope in communities of color
Desiree Rodrigues, CSULB
Panel 2: Dissidents Speak Up
9:30 – 11 am PST (UTC 4:30-6 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Amy Desuza-Riehm, CSULB
1. Intermediality of Ukrainian Dissident Art: Revealing Inconvenient Truths through Philosophical and Religious Symbols
Dr. Julia Sabadash and Dr. Natalia Marakhovska, Mariupol State University (Ukraine)
2. Holy Hole in Chinese Patriarchal Culture—Going Pop and South
Dr. Sheng-Mei Ma, Michigan State University
3. Linguistic Jamming of Kurdish Teachers in Iran
Dr. Amir Sharifi, CSULB, and Dr. Ali Ashouri, San Diego State University
4. The Meaning of the American Dream in an Imperfect World
Marianna Garcia, CSULB
Panel 3: Protests and Politics I
11 – 12:30 pm PST (UTC 6-7:30 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Kathryn Chew, CSULB
1. Paying the Dues: Early Black Documentary Film and the Quest for Truth
Manar Ellethy, Roosevelt Institute for American Studies & Leiden University (Netherlands)
2. Lasting images from the Levitation at the 1967 March on the Pentagon
Dr. Ann Johnson, CSULB
3. Questioning the Narrative: The Underground Press and Its Role In Subverting Mainstream Media
Armando Hernandez, CSULB
Plenary Talk and Workshop
2 – 4:15 pm PST (UTC 9-11:15 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Elizabeth Dahab, CSULB
Never Lie, Little One: The Use of Humor in Telling the Truth
Jacques Servin, Co-Founder of the Yes Men
Thursday, April 14, 2022
Panel 4: Dystopia
8 – 9:30 am PST (UTC 3-4:30 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Christopher Shaw, CSULB
1. Sleeping and Isolating As Subversive Literary Practices. On Passivity, Culture Jamming and Millennial Resistance in Late Capitalism
Dr. Olga Szmidt, Jagiellonian University (Poland)
2. A Bleak Future: Exploring Reflections of Modern Capitalism within Science Fiction
Marvin Palencia, CSULB
3. The Rise, Success, and Downfall of Young Adult Dystopian Literature
Evelyn Vasquez, CSULB
Panel 5: Protest in Pop Culture
9:30 – 11 am PST (UTC 4:30-6 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Crystal Lie, CSULB
1. The Good Guy as an Ethical Performance of Civil Disobedience in Hitman’s Wife’s Body Guard and Free Guy: An Analysis of Subversive Identity, Intentionality, and Agency in Contemporary Film
Dr. José Rodriguez, CSULB
2. Pop references, inside jokes, and cultural jamming: Márkomeannu posters as an expression of (Márka-)Sámi decolonizing artivism
Dr. Erika De Vivo, University of Turin (Italy)
3. Stolen Identity Schemes in Igbo Trickster Tales and Nigerian Cybercrime Prose Narratives
Dr. Uchechukwu Evelyn Madu, Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike (Nigeria)
Panel 6: Roundtable: From Comics to Cosplay: How Creators and Fans are Reclaiming Identity
11 – 12:30 pm PST (UTC 6-7:30 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Amy Desuza-Riehm
Panelists: John Jennings, UC Riverside
Henry Barajas, author of La Voz De M.A.Y.O.: Tata Rambo
Bernie Bregman, Pop Culture Event Producer
Panel 7: Cultural Products in the Contemporary Marketplace
11 – 12:30 pm PST (UTC 6-8 pm)
Location: English Conference Room (MHB 315). Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Vlatka Velcic, CSULB
1. From Wallet to Closet
Fiona Hang, CSULB
2. “Work” or “Text”?: Debussy’s Claire de Lune
Amelia Lamorin, CSULB
3. The Western Gaze of Asian Women in M. Butterfly
Pearl Pham, CSULB
4. Xxxtentacion’s Music in the Mass Market
Nico Ray, CSULB
Panel 8: Subversion in Subtle Places
12:30 – 2 pm PST (UTC 7:30-9 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Katherine McLoone, CSULB
1. Blockchain Crypto Jamming: Subverting the Instrumental Economy
Dr. Melanie Swan, University College London (England)
2. ‘‘A naked man a bow bare’’: Dress, Signification, and Genre in Late Middle English Popular Texts
Benjamin Hoover, CSULB
3. Toxic Positivity: Addressing The Social Crisis on Mental Health
Maggie Brown, CSULB
4. Dethroning the Masters of Go: Peoples, Nations, and Artificial Intelligences
Victor Tran, CSULB
Panel 9: Culture Jamming and Art
2 – 3:30 pm PST (UTC 9-10:30 pm)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Kelsey Bright, CSULB
1. Space Jamming: Tino Seghal and the De-Banistering of Museum Spaces
Dr. Tom Jacobs, New York University
2. Indecline’s Culture Jamming of Evangelical Propaganda Sites: Billboards and The Great Passion Play 2020/2021
Courtney Thomas, University of Texas at Austin
3. Artists’ Political Responsibility in El Paro Nacional
Alegria Zuluaga, CSULB
Panel 10: Protest and Politics II
3:30 – 5 pm PST (UTC 10:30 pm-12 am)
Location: Anatol Center. Click here to join virtually: Zoom session link
Moderator: Dr. Rajbir Judge, CSULB
1. Play Activism and the Post-Trump Playground
Dr. Jenna Altomonte and Todd Rowan, Mississippi State University
2. Digital Fascism and the Contested Ground of Countercultural Aesthetics
Ryan Prewitt, Saint Louis University
3. Not Left, Not Right, But Backward: A Marxist Comparative Analysis of Sunrise Movement, The Republic of Cuba, and La Via Campesina
Queenie Mendez, CSULB