Language and literature expert headlines research conference

Graduate Student Sarah Emert wrote the prize-winning paper on Nathaniel  Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter."

Keynote Speaker Amanda Godley of the University of Pittsburgh will give the talk,"She's Just a Salesman's Wife."

The Women’s Studies Student Research Conference will take place with dinner and presentations by award-winning student researchers in the Horizon Room of the Williams Center on Wednesday, March 25, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Serving as the dinner’s keynote speaker will be the University of Pittsburgh’s Amanda Godley, whose talk is entitled, “’She’s Just a Salesman’s Wife:’ High School Students Talk about Women’s Labor and Women’s Rights in American Literature.”

An associate professor of English Education, Dr. Godley's research on critical language and grammar instruction has appeared in journals such as Educational Researcher, Reading Research Quarterly and Urban Education, and received funding from several well-known grant and fellowship sources. She teaches courses on classroom discourse, theories of literacy, research interviewing, teaching language and grammar, and action research. Before earning her Ph.D., Godley taught middle- and high-school English in the U.S. and South America. In addition to critical language and grammar instruction, her research interests include classroom discourse, issues of power and equity in secondary English classes, and the practice of gender through literacy.

Selected students to be featured at the conference, which is being coordinated by Kirstin Hanley, assistant professor of English, include:

Graduate Student Winners

• First Prize: Sarah M. Emert (English), “Hawthorne and Hester: Transformations of the Scarlet Signifier.”
• Second Prize: Jennifer Courtney (Curriculum and Instruction): “Using non-biased literature to reduce gender stereotypical play of pre-kindergartners.”

Undergraduate Winners (no ranking)

• Mary Myers (Drawing and Painting major, Art History minor): “Artsy Girls Gone Wild”
• Amanda Ambrose (History major, American Studies minor): “Northern Women Writers During the Civil War.”

Women's History Month

The Women's Studies Student Research Conference takes place annually during Women's History Month each March at SUNY Fredonia.

“Women's Rights as Human Rights” is the 2009 theme of this year’s SUNY Fredonia series, being observed via a slate of activities — all of which are free and open to the public — organized by the Women's Student Union and Women’s Studies Program.

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