WESTFIELD – On March 24, Westfield State University held its conference “Literature, Gender, and Culture: A Cross-Cultural Conversation,” a panel of academic papers, readings, and performances in Scanlon Banquet Hall.
The event was part of the university’s annual Month Celebrating Women calendar. For nearly 30 years, Westfield State has held events dedicated towards awareness and celebration of women’s rights and issues involving women globally. What started as a week-long celebration organized around International Women’s Day (March 8) is now a month-long tribute complete with guest speakers, concerts, and art exhibits. The month is organized by faculty, staff, and the department of diversity, inclusion, and student activities and is led by Ron’na Lytle, administrative assistant of the ethnic and gender studies and world language studies departments.
The panel brought together post-colonial scholars for a presentation that demonstrated how multiple fields intersect and contributed to current debates about the lives of formerly colonized and marginalized people, and focused on female experiences.
“Literature, Gender, and Culture” was organized by Carol Bailey, assistant professor of English, to coincide with three classes she is teaching this semester: Contemporary Cultural Literature, Post-Colonial Literature, and Black American Literature.
The featured author was Marie-Elena John, a former development specialist of the African Development Foundation. In 1986, she was the first Black woman valedictorian at New York’s City College. She then earned her master’s in international affairs from Columbia University.
Two of the panelists chosen for the event were Westfield State students Chelsea Orifice ’16 and graduate student Matthew Shand.
“It was hard to choose the students because they are all so wonderful and capable,” said Bailey. “Two key factors were the grasp each has on the material we have been studying and how they are as presenters of that material.”
Other panelists included: Brian Chen, assistant professor of English (Westfield State); Enrique Morales-Diaz, professor of world language studies (Westfield State); Katwiwa Mule, associate professor of comparative literature (Smith College); Asha Nadkarni, assistant professor of English (UMass Amherst); Chelsea Orifice ’16 (Westfield State student); Anna Schur, associate professor of English (Keene State); Lucía M. Suárez, associate professor of Spanish (Amherst College); Matthew Shand ’18 (Westfield State graduate student).
English and secondary education major Chelsea Orifice presented her paper on her own personal experience discovering cross-cultural literature: how she discovered it and how she intends to bring it into her own classroom.
“I chose this topic because I feel very passionately about incorporating cross-cultural texts into the curriculum,” Orifice said. “I believe that if you are only reading American and British texts, or predominately Anglo-Saxon texts, then students are learning that their culture is more important than other peoples’.”
Graduate student Matthew Shand presented his cross-cultural paper around women’s perspectives.
“My paper moved from when I was a child in Florida to my current experience as a graduate student here at Westfield State,” Shand said. “It contained my thoughts on the importance of women’s voices, specifically women of color in changing the white male discourses that surround all of us every day.”
“I was actually both terrified and excited because this was the first time I have ever presented a paper and spoke for a symposium before,” said Shand.
While Orifice was initially intimidated to read her own reflection, she powered through with confidence and grace.
“All I can really say is that presenting is such an amazing opportunity for everyone, I loved hearing about other people’s research and the reception of my own paper was a great affirmation for what I want to do with my life,” said Orifice. “I am lucky to be at such an amazing campus filled with opportunities such as these, because it’s experiences like these I can take into my own classroom.”
