May 8, 2012

Marty Knepper	Timothy Herman	Elizabeth Sutherland

Morningside students and faculty member

present papers at national conference

Two Morningside College students and one faculty member presented papers recently at the national meeting of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association held in Boston.

Student Elizabeth Sutherland of Sioux City presented a paper written for a senior seminar in the English department. The paper applied gender theory to an analysis of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel “Middlesex.” Student Timothy Herman presented a paper written for a Shakespeare in Performance class. The paper analyzed the cinematography and film editing of two recent film versions of “The Taming of the Shrew.”

Marty Knepper, professor and chair of English at Morningside College, presented a paper on the suicide of feminist literary critic Carolyn Heilbrun, also known as mystery writer Amanda Cross.

The national meeting of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association promotes serious academic study of both American and international popular culture of the past and present.

“It is unusual to have undergraduate papers accepted for presentation at the conference,” said Knepper, a past president of the national organization. “The experience gives the students a chance to see how interpretations of our culture are developed, shared and debated in the setting of an academic conference.”