Aelan Lee and Maya Dancey -- Pop Culture Association Conference Q&A

In April, RWU students attended the Pop Culture Association Conference (PCA) in Atlanta, Georgia. The Voices Team is so excited to share the experiences of Aelan Lee 26’ and Maya Dancey 27’, two students who attended the conference. Please enjoy reading about their experiences below!

Aelan Lee (they/them) is majoring in English Literary Studies and Creative Writing and minoring in Theatre. They will be graduating with the class of 26’ in May!

Q: Why did you attend the conference? 
A: I attended the conference because of an invitation from the department back in the fall
semester to share my writing. It was very exciting to receive, so obviously I said yes.

Q: Did you present any work there? If so, can you tell us about it?
A: I presented a spliced-together version of my English thesis that I finished in the fall
semester. The title is “A Disease of the Mind: The Dark Urge’s Tumor Induced Madness
in Baldur’s Gate 3” It was basically about how ‘madness’ in even a fantastical setting can
be understood as a disabling illness.

Q: How did you prepare for the conference? 
A: I prepared for the conference by practicing my shortened version of my thesis and just
looking and feeling confident. A sort of fake-it-till-you-make-it situation. But it did help!

Q: What was your favorite event or presentation at the conference? 
A: My favorite presentation was probably the Star Wars/Star Trek panel I saw at 8:00AM on Thursday morning. The speakers were very interesting to listen to, and I think I learned a lot about how media from decades ago still affects us today.

Q: How do you think this experience added to your academics? 
A: This experience was definitely helpful for my academic career because I got to talk with
many different people interested in Cultural Studies and network with like-minded
individuals. I also just got to explore what an academic conference is like generally, which
will help prepare me for the future.

Q: If you could give any advice to future students planning on bringing their writing to conferences, what would it be? 
A: For students going on future trips, I would advise them to just practice reading their
writing out loud so that it sounds natural and fluid. It definitely helps to know what
you’re actually saying beforehand! Also, visit the aquarium, it’s delightful.

Maya Dancey (she/her) is a member of the class of 2027 double majoring in Anthropology & Sociology and English Literary Studies, as well as minoring in Mythology & Folklore.

Q: Why did you attend the conference? 
A: I attended the conference to present a paper.

Q: Did you present any work there? If so, can you tell us about it?
A: Yes, I presented my paper “Witch, Mother, Mortal: Claiming Power in Madeline Miller’s Circe.” For the conference, I adapted my final paper from ENG 220. Circe is one of my favorite books, and I had read it for a class in my freshman year. In that class, we talked about how the character Circe is a marginalized figure in Greek mythology and how Miller flips the script by telling the story from her point of view. In 220, we focused on different methods of literary criticism. I thought that Circe would fit very well into the feminist lens. My paper examines Madeline Miller’s Circe as a feminist reimagining of classical mythology, showing how Miller transformed Circe’s story into a narrative of female self-determination.

Q: Who did you attend the conference with?
A: I attended the conference with Maddison Gerrish (26’), Aelan Lee (26’), and Joan McKenchie (26’), and Ryan Robertson (28’).

Q: Was this your first conference? If so, how was the experience? And if not, how was it different from other conferences you’ve been to?
A: This was the first conference I attended with the English Department, but the third conference I have been to overall. The other conferences I attended were both Northeastern Anthropological Association (NEAA) conferences, which were much smaller and more local. PCA was much bigger, and it had more events than just presentations. There were roundtables where we had group discussions, so we didn’t just listen to speakers.

Q: Is there any work you saw at the conference that intrigued you? If so can you elaborate on what you saw? 
A: I was excited about a paper titled “Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Alchemist: Crafting a Medieval Detective,” which was about how the presenter is rewriting Sherlock Holmes set in the year 1194. This seemed to tie really well into what I will be doing for my English thesis. Also, I met the presenter beforehand, and he offered to take a look at my thesis once I had more of it written.

Q: How did the English department help/encourage you to attend PCA? 
A: We had many meetings throughout the semester both to make sure we were all on track and to help us prepare to present, which were really helpful. 

Hope you enjoyed this article, to keep up for more student academic highlights check out the rest of Voices!