Mullarkey Forum Highlights English Faculty Research

 

Following is a snapshot of the 2013 Mullarkey Forum that featured six talks on a wide range of subjects. 

The event began with a generous introduction by the holder of the Thomas F. X. and Theresa Mullarkey Chair in Literature, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, who was applauded for her efforts in organizing this event each year. Wogan-Browne argued eloquently that true innovation takes place in humanities research--not just in science--and the Forum proved her point.  

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

Edward Cahill

The first of the afternoon's two panels was introduced and chaired by Frank Boyle, and began with Edward Cahill's talk "Colonial Rising: Narratives of Upward Mobility in British America." Cahill's exhaustive research on these narratives is showing that much of what we think we understand about upward mobility is historically wrong: for instance, that what we call "the American dream" really originated in Britain. 

Daniel Contreras

Next up was  Daniel Contreras, who spoke about his project “Falling in Love with Love: Latino Literary Studies and the History of Love.” Contreras argued for the cultural specificity of even the most basic forms of emotion, such as love, and drew on Sandra Cisneros's novel Caramelo to illustrate his point.  

Sarah Gamibto

Sarah Gambito's “Second Born:  Writing Race and Belonging" concluded the first panel.  Gambito, poet and Creative Writing Director, linked her poetry with her work on the nonprofit group Kundiman, and shared the video recently created for the organization as well as a video of one of its recent projects. 

The second panel, chaired by Eve Keller, opened with Susan Greenfield speaking about her op-ed writing on the Huffington Post. Her talk was titled “Vlog and Blog: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Public Exposure." Next came two faculty members who are working on the history and theory of Method Acting, and are planning a major conference on the topic for Fall 2014 at Fordham's Lincoln Center campus. First Shonni Enelow gave a talk titled “Identifying the Method,” which touched on several examples of how Method Acting has figured in popular culture, including at the 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner. Then Keri Walsh's talk, “Acting Like a Hustler: The Films of Paul Newman," centered on a reading of a scene from the 1961 film 

The Hustler, featuring Paul Newman and Piper Laurie. 

From left to right, Keri Walsh, Shonni Enelow and Susan Greenfield

Each panel resulted in lively discussion with the audience and everyone enjoyed the festive reception in between. Audience members and participants alike agreed that--as with the previous two Mullarkey events--the forum highlighted the strength, depth, and breadth of faculty research in Fordham University's English Department.