The Concept of Crisis in American Culture
American Studies Student Conference
Friday, May 21, 2021
online at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83419677084?pwd=Y2FCUU5yTFNCTy9iMVM4L0grSng3QT09
(Meeting ID: 834 1967 7084, Passcode: 505841)
9:00-9:30 Opening of the Conference (Chair: Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru, Conference Organizer, University of Bucharest)
Octavian Roske (Assoc. Prof., Head of the English Department, University of Bucharest)
Mircea Dumitru (Executive Director, Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission)
William O’Connor (Cultural Affairs Officer, United States Embassy, Bucharest)
9:30-10:15 A Conversation with William O’Connor (Cultural Affairs Officer, United States Embassy, Bucharest) on the Concept of Crisis in American Culture (Chair: Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru, Conference Organizer, University of Bucharest)
10:15-12:15 Panel 1: Crises in the Media, Old and New. Chair: Dana Mihăilescu (University of Bucharest
- Alexandra-Petruta Borjog (American Studies BA student, University of Bucharest), “The Apocalypse and the Indian: Two Video Games”
- Flavia Ciontu (PhD candidate, University of Paris 8), “Identities in Crisis: Coming of Age as an Immigrant in Little Odessa (1994)and An American Rhapsody (2001)”
- Mihaela-Adriana Tone (English BA student, University of Bucharest), “Gilead’s Color Blindness: Contradictory Representations of Diversity in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale”
- Elena-Patricia Cătănoiu (American Studies BA student, University of Bucharest), “Reimagining African American Identity in Afrofuturist Film: Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018)”
- Sânziana-Miruna Popa (American Studies MA student, University of Bucharest), “Portrayals of the African American Community in The Birth of a Nation (2016)”
- Tudor Constantin Truță (English BA student, University of Bucharest), “Beyond the Humanity of Cyberpunk”
12:15-13:00 Lunch break
13:00-14:40 Panel 2: Theorizing on Crises in Society/ Politics/ History. Chair: Maria-Sabina Draga Alexandru (University of Bucharest)
- Anca Georgiana Dugaiasu (American Studies BA, “Ovidius” University of Constanța), “The Crisis of Residential Segregation: Disproportionate Opportunity Gaps in The U.S.”
- Sean Muller (Anthropology MA, The New School for Social Research, New York), “Hyperreality, Identity, and the Crisis of Presence: An Anthropology of Impotent Revolution”
- Remo Verdickt (PhD candidate, University of Leuven), “Frost/Baldwin: Go Tell It in the White House”
- Maria-Alexandra Netbai (American Studies BA, University of Bucharest), “Translating the ‘Forgotten War’: Don Mee Choi’s Poems Rediscovering the Past of Korean-American Relations”
- Ștefan Capmare (Letters BA student, University of Bucharest), “The Simulation Hypothesis and the Crisis of Reality”
14:40-15:00 Coffee break
15:00-17:00 Panel 3: Writing, Identity and the World. Chair: Diana Benea (University of Bucharest)
- Andreea G. Moise (English BA, University of Bucharest), “‘A Soul in Physical Stress’: The Feminised Queer Body in Nightwood”
- Carina Iulia Chereji (Literary Studies MA, University of Bucharest), “‘And so it goes’: A Close Encounter with Crisis in Kurt Vonnegut’s Fiction”
- Teodora Florea (Letters BA, University of Bucharest), “From Signs on the Bathroom Wall to the Storming of the Capitol: American Paranoia as a Crisis of Interpretation”
- Ionelia Sandu (Anglo-American Studies MA student, “Ovidius” University of Constanța), “The Concept of Identity in Sandra Cisneros’sThe House on Mango Street”
- Raluca-Rebeca Rădulescu (British Cultural Studies MA, University of Bucharest), “The Crisis of Hyphenated Identity in America: Tensions between Language, Identity, and Integration in Yiyun Li’s To Speak is to Blunder”
- Garima Singh (English BA, DIT University, Dehradun, India), “The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Revelation of Cultural Crises”
17:00-17:30 Break / Jury Deliberation
17:30-18:00 “Dan Grigorescu” prize award ceremony. Closing remarks.
Jury:
Dana Bădulescu, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași
Ludmila Martanovschi, “Ovidius” University of Constanța
Karina Pătrășcanu, University of Bucharest
Organizers:
The American Studies Program at the University of Bucharest
The Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission
The organizers thank the U.S.
Embassy for their support.
Program Graphics:
Laura Rusu
