Madison Undergraduate Conference on the Humanities

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The Madison Undergraduate Conference on the Humanities is a gleeful rejection of the idea that humanities scholarship is MUCH ado about nothing.

At the conference, undergraduates will share their work on panels chaired by graduate students. Any work from a humanities class, essay or creative, is likely perfect for MUCH. You don’t have to be a humanities major to present; undergraduate and graduate students from all over UW-Madison are encouraged to submit work!

Submissions are closed.

MUCH will be held on Saturday, March 15th, 2025. Each participant will give a 10-15 minute presentation, which equates to around 1300-2000 words. For shorter creative writing, consider presenting multiple pieces with critical framing and please refer to the “Creative Writing” tab in the “Conferencing Toolkit” below.

Attendance is free and includes catered lunch. All undergraduate presenters will be eligible for cash essay prizes. At the conference, expect to see student panels comprised of undergraduate and graduate students, themed panels comprised of professors from across the humanities, and creative writing showcases.

Please contact Evangeline Thurston Wilder (etwilder@wisc.edu) and Gabriel Fiandeiro (fiandeiro@wisc.edu) with any questions or inquiries!

Schedule

Presenter names and paper titles for concurrent panels are available under session tabs.

8:30–9:00—Welcome and light breakfast

Helen C. White 7191

9:00–10:15—Session 1 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—New Temporalities: History, Methods, Resistance

Helen C. White 4207—Correcting the Narrative

Helen C. White 5181—Spirituality and the Mind

Helen C. White 5193—Pre-Modern Gender Relations

10:30–11:45—Session 2 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—Popular Media and its Audiences

Helen C. White 4207—Markets and Advertising

Helen C. White 5181—Artistic Presences and Absences

Helen C. White 5193—The Subversive Potential of Comedic Forms

11:45–12:45—Lunch

Helen C. White 7191

1:00–2:15—Featured Sessions (2 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191–A Q&A with the Madison Journal of Literary Criticism Team about Undergraduate Publishing

Landis Varughese, Mihika Shivakumar, Will Hicks, and Max Borgerding

Helen C. White 4207–Graduate Research Roundtable: Humanities in Practice

Levi Sherman, Taylor Dickson, Vignesh Ramachandran

2:30–3:45—Session 3 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—Creative Writing Panel

Helen C. White 4207—Gender/Science Intersections

Helen C. White 5181—Positionality on Campus

Helen C. White 5193—Visibility/Invisibility and the 18th Century

4:00-5:15—Closing Plenary

Helen C. White 7191—Professor Roundtable: Humanities Research in the World

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, Michael Bernard-Donals, and Elaine Cannell

5:15-5:30—Awards and closing remarks

Helen C. White 7191

9:00–10:15–Session 1 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—New Temporalities: History, Methods, Resistance

(Graduate Student Moderator- Addison McDaniel)

Interaction and Effective Testimony- Max Welford

Poetic Possibilities of Improvisational Composition- Diya Abbas

La Veneka Femme and the Mythopoesis of Relational Futurities- Valeria Rodrigo Rojas

(All) In (Good) Time: Temporality in The Crying of Lot 49- Wylie Dituri

Helen C. White 4207—Correcting the Narrative

(Graduate Student Moderator- Cecelia Alfonso-Stokes)

Hopi Time and Skepticism of Grammatical Effects on Worldview- Skylar Harvey

The Story of L.C. Anderson High School: How Brown v. Board Made Educational Equality Improbable- Natalie Suri

A Critical Reassessment of “Court Order Can’t Make Races Mix”: The Undermining of Zora Neale Hurston as a Political Thinker- Lilly Innes

Keeping the Faith: The Lynching of Sonya Massey and Memory of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois- Axell Boomer

Helen C. White 5181—Spirituality and the Mind

(Graduate Student Moderator- Theo Campbell)

Haunting the Subconscious: Dorothea Tanning’s Surrealism and the Female Psyche- JK Smith

Color Me Happy: Art as an Enchanted Version of Wellness- Aspen Schrupp

Religiosity, Social Engagement and Their Connection to Well-Being and Satisfaction- Mingo Blackbird

Localizing Non-Violence: Confucianism, Sun Yat-sen, and the Three Principles of the People in Republican China- Xiner Wu

Helen C. White 5193—Pre-Modern Gender Relations

(Graduate Student Moderator- Miranda Alksnis)

Written by Herself: Idealization in Pietist Memoir- Parker Wall

Elusive Peace in the Face of Toxic Masculinity within Beowulf- Jamison Grimm

Subverting Gender Roles in Medieval and Modern Contexts- Sydney Ziemniak

10:30–11:45–Session 2 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—Popular Media and its Audiences

(Graduate Student Moderator- Jay Lowe)

In The Zone of Interest, viewership serves as an accomplice to evil- Sreejita Patra

True Crime & the Pornification of Media- Tara Thomsen

Six Degrees of Separation: The Short Distance Between Man and Monster- Ryane Neal

From Frankie Knuckles to Chappell Roan: An Exploration of Queer Midwest Music- Eliza Tool

Helen C. White 4207—Markets and Advertising

(Graduate Student Moderator- Haley Johnson)

The Bali Time Chamber: Asceticism for the Modern Man- Nora Bergstrom

The Dual Impact of Mid 20th Century Household Innovations on Women- Giorgia Mattana

Do market incentives necessarily render corporate AI pledges futile?- Elizabeth Larson

Constructing Modernity: The Crystal Palace as the Nexus of Art and Industrial Capitalist Ambition in Victorian England- Sarojshree Namasivayam Janaki

Helen C. White 5181—Artistic Presences and Absences

(Graduate Student Moderator- Hyorim Joe)

A Warning from Nature- Frank Wang

The Other Palmer- Elena Nirobo Paul

Stigmatization of the Arts through a Vietnamese American Lens- Jason Nguyen

Helen C. White 5193—The Subversive Potential of Comedic Forms

(Graduate Student Moderator- Alex Paulsen)

A Cabinet of Colonialism- Nirai Sanchez

Comedy: Letters to Juliet and Shakespeare- Maggie Lenar

Not to be: How the lack of continuous personhood emphasizes the absurd in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead- Esme Garrett

Cugoano and Prospero: the Need to Commit to Collective Action- Evan Randle

2:30–3:45–Session 3 (4 concurrent panels)

Helen C. White 7191—Creative Writing Panel

(Graduate Student Moderator- Kanika Ahuja)

The First Part: The Hounds / The Second Part: Shiv / Separate- Lorelei Dittl

“ἄειδε θεὰ (Sing, O Muse):” A Writer’s Exploration of Women in Greek Myth- Claire Orlikowski

There’s life inside these skulls- Isis Plesnikova

Fannie Albert’s Herbarium- Katrina Moberg & Milo Daly

Helen C. White 4207—Gender/Science Intersections

(Graduate Student Moderator- Caroline Hensley)

Balancing Ethical Medical Practice Throughout History- Amelia Wozniak

Beyond the Myths: Challenging Colonial Understandings of Contraceptive Misinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa- Claudia Liverseed

She’s More Than Machine: Female Cyborgs and Intersectional Narratives- Gabby Droessler

Helen C. White 5181—Positionality on Campus

(Graduate Student Moderator- Taylor Dickson)

Pizza and Politics on Campus- Virginia Bolick

Relational Tutoring Methods as Positioning Strategies in Writing Conferences- AJ Dehnke

A Cultural History of the UW Madison Writing Center: Language, Pedagogy and Epistemology- Evie Erickson

Hummingbird Heart- Rissa Nelson & Jonathan Tosturd

Helen C. White 5193—Visibility/Invisibility and the 18th Century

(Graduate Student Moderator- Diego Alegria)

Making the Invisible Visible: The Art of Environmental Denial- Riley Zenkewicz

The Presence Within Absence- Emma Anderson

The Unstable Imagination: An Analysis of Willa Cather’s “Paul’s Case”- Winter Wyman

Between Slavery and Corvée: Forced Labor Systems in Qing-ruled Xinjiang- Houye Lyu

Conferencing Toolkit

Conference presentations can take many different forms. There’s not one “right” way to do it! With that being said, here are some tips to help you prepare for MUCH.

Revising

Even an excellent written paper requires some tweaks to become an excellent oral presentation. Here are some steps to help you revise your written paper into something you’ll be excited to present:

First, read your paper out loud to yourself. Note moments where you get lost, run out of breath mid-sentence, or trip over words. Those are often good places to start revising.
In general, shorter sentences are better in an oral presentation.
- If you tend to write in long, semicolon-rich sentences with embedded clauses (you’re not alone if you do!) like this sentence here, you might want to break most of them up into simpler sentences; it would be hard to follow this sentence if you were hearing it read aloud!
As you revise your paper, keep an eye out for moments where you have an opportunity for humor or levity. Don’t force it, but a good joke goes a long way!
Often, turning a paper into a presentation requires cutting parts of your paper. This is the hardest part of the revision process for lots of people. Here are some tips if you’re struggling to get your paper down to the time limit:
- Focus on one key idea you want your audience to remember from your presentation. A narrow focus is usually better than a wide-ranging argument.
- Make sure you’re not spending too much time summarizing. If you’re talking about a novel or a film, it’s tempting to spend a long time giving a plot summary. It’s frequently not necessary to have much summary at all: your audience will follow along just fine if you share only the most important details for your argument.

Slides

Slides are common but not mandatory for conference presentations. When used effectively, slides can make your presentation more accessible to your audience, keep your audience engaged, and lend a little structure to your ideas.

Use a format that’s easy to share and pull up quickly. The most common ways to do this are a Google Slides presentation (which you can share with your panel chair), a PDF, or a PowerPoint presentation. Your panel chair will let you know if they have a preferred format.
- It’s also a good idea to have backups. Sometimes technology betrays us! Consider having a thumb drive with your slides loaded up with you on the day you present in case something goes wrong.
Keep text to a minimum and use a font that’s easy to read. Two effective ways to use text include:
- 1. Writing your thesis statement or other key points out on a slide
- 2. Sharing key quotes, especially longer ones, so audience members can follow along.
Images and graphics are useful if you’re talking about something visual. They can also be a fun way to keep your audience engaged. Make sure they’re relevant to your presentation and not too distracting.

Presenting

Presentation styles and conventions vary widely according to discipline. At MUCH, you can expect most presenters to read from a paper (or notes) and have accompanying slides. You are not expected to have your presentation memorized. At humanities conferences, usually about half the presenters read directly from a paper and the other half presents from notes. Do what’s most comfortable for you!

Practice, practice, practice!
- Consider practicing in front of a friend. When you’re done, ask them if there were any times they got confused or lost.
Time yourself and stick to the time limit. This is a sign of respect to your co-panelists and makes you look professional and prepared.
Try to look up and make eye contact with your audience frequently. This makes you look confident & prepared, helps your audience connect with you, and can be an effective way to emphasize a key point.
- Consider marking places on your notes/script to remind yourself to look up in key moments.
If you’ve practiced a lot and you’re a confident speaker, consider moments where you might go a little off-script! An off-the-cuff joke, a key idea you know well explained in your own words, or a small connection you can make in the moment are all ways to go above and beyond in your presentation.

Creating an accessible presentation supports audience members in engaging with your ideas! There are some simple tips and resources that can help you ensure accessibility. However, it’s important to know that access needs vary by person due to social and material conditions, disabilities, and personal engagement preferences. We encourage you to do your best to create accessible materials, with the understanding that this is an ongoing and dynamic practice.

Delivering an Accessible Presentation

It can be nerve wracking to deliver a conference presentation, and these considerations can help you feel confident your audience will be able to engage with your talk.

Start your presentation with a brief personal description to introduce yourself. This can help non-sighted, visually impaired, or anyone who would prefer to listen to follow along. Example: “My name is Jordan Royce. I use they/them pronouns and am a white, nonbinary person with short brown hair.”
Include a PowerPoint presentation. All audience members will be aided by a presentation to look at with concise bullet points about your main arguments, typed out quotes (if you are reading any aloud), and useful images. This helps your audience follow along with your argument and any close readings, as well as providing a visual context.
Use brief image descriptions. If your presentation includes any visuals, it can be helpful to describe what is depicted. Here are some examples of what you might describe: text, subject, setting, colors, expression, or other interesting details. You can describe the image from top to bottom, then right to left.
Include an access copy. An access copy is a written script for the presentation you’ll give. You don’t need to provide a copy of your presentation verbatim (although you certainly can!), but it’s helpful to provide a substantial outline with image descriptions and any quotes you are reading aloud. You can include an access copy linked in your presentation as a QR code and/or bring a small number of printed copies.

Designing Accessible Materials

When designing accessible presentation materials, it’s important to consider text size, font, and color. The UW-Madison DesignLab offers digital media design support services, including consultation appointments. Check out some of their resources:

In her TED talk, “Poetry Makes People Nervous”, poet and performer Sarah Kay talks about the need to reshape the frame in which we think about poetry so that it’s less distant and secret and more human. Poetry makes people nervous because one usually thinks poetry can only be written by certain types of people, for certain types of people, about very specific subjects. The first step to starting to think about poetry – to write, to perform, and to talk about it – requires a shift from the notion that we have to “get poetry” for it to be “for us”. The first real step then is to believe poetry belongs to us.

Reading/Talking about Poems

Think of poems as a communal project. Have dramatic responses to the poem as you notice the language, structure, and ideas within a poem. Find someone to share that with.
Think of the comprehension of poetry not as a sort of careful dissection of its individual elements, but interact with the poem in ways that feel more personal, more imaginative, more dialogic.
Ask about the poem, “So what?” What does it do? What does it say? What is its purpose?
“Don’t worry about what a poem means,” says poet Joy Harjo. “Do you ask what a song means before you listen? Just listen.”
Read a poem aloud. Hear the connections between words – both in sound and meaning.
“We live in language differently when speaking it aloud. We can feel the words reverberate in the brain and chest.” Adrian Matejka
Find language that surprises you – think about how it creatively pushes you to make meaning. Talk about that. Let curiosity hold you in the poem.
“Poetry is an experience as much as it is a concrete thing to be discussed and like all experiences, there isn’t always a right or wrong answer to it.” Adrian Matejka
Speak to your experience of the poem – where it found you and how it made you feel. – Focus on small moments in the poem that spark interest. Do not worry about trying to grapple with the poem as a whole.
Read with an eye for patterns and common themes. See how poems may actually be speaking to each other.

On Revision

“Each revision, ideally, gets us closer to the poem we sense is there, waiting.” Maggie Smith
Read the poem out loud, see where the poem sounds out of place. Try different word choices for what feels like it isn’t working.
Notice what is changing in each draft, and what remains the same.
Use this list of things to keep in mind while revising poems.
Try different revision strategies and see what works best!

Other Resources:

What should I wear?

It’s typical to see a wide range of styles at academic conferences. The best choice is always something you feel comfortable and confident in. If you’re stuck, business casual is a safe place to aim for. (Think: fancier than shorts and a t-shirt, not quite as fancy as a full suit.) You could also think about what your professors wear to teach and you’ll be in the right zone! For some fun style inspo, check out https://phdinclothes.com.

What should I bring?

It’s a good idea to have a water bottle, some snacks, a notebook (to take notes during others’ presentations), and your presentation notes or script. If you want to present from a laptop or tablet, that’s fine, but consider bringing a printed backup just in case.

What should I expect my panel to be like?

You will present your work on a panel with 2-3 other undergraduate students. Each panel will have a theme, so there will probably be some crossover between your own presentation and that of your co-panelists. A graduate student will chair your panel, which means they’ll introduce each speaker to the audience, help you keep track of time as you present, and moderate the Q&A.

Each presenter will take turns giving their presentation (roughly 15 minutes each, depending on how big your panel is. See your panel assignment email for details!). After each presenter has spoken individually, all the presenters will come up to the front of the room and take questions from the audience for 15-20 minutes.

What should I do as an audience member?

When you’re not presenting, plan to attend another panel that looks interesting to you! The best audience members are the most engaged listeners. The bare minimum is not talking or being on your phone while someone’s presenting. It’s also a good idea to jot down notes, questions, and ideas while the panelists are presenting. Try to think of an interesting question you can ask one or more of the presenters during the Q&A!

How can I prepare for the Q&A?

The Q&A portion of your panel can seem scary, but it can be a great opportunity to hear how others respond to your work! It’s an honor for someone to listen to your ideas and engage with them by asking questions. As you practice your presentation, consider practicing in front of a friend/partner/roommate and have them ask you questions. Did you have to cut a part of your presentation for time? If you get a question, you might have a chance to share it then!

It’s also fine if you get a question you don’t know how to answer! It is always okay and quite common to say, “Thank you so much for that question, I will have to research/think about that more.”

What should I do after the conference?

It can be tiring to spend all day at a conference. It’s common to need a little rest and down time afterwards. Take care of yourself and celebrate yourself for doing something hard!

In the weeks after MUCH, consider emailing the instructor who taught the class your paper was originally written in. If they helped you prepare for the conference, be sure to thank them. They would probably love to hear how the presentation went! You can also add the conference presentation to your resume or CV.