MA Graduate Participates in Professional Conference...and gets away with it!

Stephanie Tamanaha (LSU MA in English ’07) received rave reviews for her paper on eighteenth century British female poets, “Mary in the Mirror or Mary in the Margins,” at the Mid Western Association of Eighteenth Century Studies conference held in Kansas City, MO, October 11-13, 2007.

When it was all over, the audience and her fellow panelists agreed that no one could tell it was her first professional conference performance. “I was so proud of her,” said Dr. Lora Geriguis, LSU Assistant Professor of English and fellow presenter at MWASECS. “If I hadn’t taken her picture and announced she was my student, none of the participants would have guessed she had only recently graduated with her Master’s degree.” Stephanie presented along side two full time faculty members and a dissertating Ph.D. student.

Stephanie cut her scholastic teeth last spring at a student conference sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta in Pittsburgh, PA where she and a group of other LSU MA students presented, among other things, a panel of Robinson Crusoe papers, which grew out of one of the classes they had taken as a part of their MA program. Overall, Stephanie was enthusiastic about her two conference experiences and is on the search for more opportunities to participate in scholarly activities in the future.

Since graduating with her MA in English in June 2007, Stephanie has begun teaching College English, Pre-foundational English, and English as a Second Language classes on a contract basis at La Sierra University.

Further Conference Opportunities Abound

Current English MA students who are interested in participating in conferences, either as presenters or attendees, should speak to the graduate advisor or other faculty member in the department. Last year nearly all of the MA students participated in one conference or another. Some students traveled to Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Hawaii. Others participated in conferences as close to home as Fullerton, CA.  Upcoming opportunities include a local conference to be held at Biola University in La Mirada, CA, sponsored by the Conference on Christianity and Literature (CCL), May 15-17, 2007. The deadline for submissions to this conference is December 15, 2007. More information on the conference can be found at www.pepperdine.edu/sponsored/ccl/conferencesandannouncements/western.htm.

Stories submitted by Lora Geriguis, Assistant Professor of English, La Sierra University

L.E.Geriguis@lasierra.edu.