English and Spanish Students and Faculty Present at the 2025 Rachel Carson Conference
On October 18, 2025, four SFU English faculty members and two students presented scholarly papers at the Rachel Carson Conference hosted by Chatham University. The theme of this year’s conference was “Write to Resist.” Dr. John Woznak and English major Reagan Vought presented on the conference’s first critical panel session, titled “(Un)expected Power in Popular Media.” Dr. Woznak’s essay, “Misanthropy: Moliere Meets Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber, and The Wombats,” highlighted the misanthropic themes of Neoclassical dramatist Jean Baptiste Poquelin’s work that are similarly captured in the music of pop-rock artists such as Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber. Ms. Vought’s PowerPoint presentation, “John Dryden Must Die: Religious Critique in Religio Laici and South Park,” drew parallels between English poet John Dryden’s work and religious commentaries in three of the TV series South Park’s episodes.
Drs. Lisa Beiswenger and Timothy Bintrim presented during the second critical session, “Absence and Censorship.” Dr. Beiswenger’s presentation, “Reading as Resistance: From Banned Book Club to Contemporary Book Bans in the United States,” examined the political and social implications of both previously and recently banned books, while Dr. Bintrim’s paper, “Reintroducing the Puma as a Keystone Species to the Keystone State,” explored the environmental benefits of reintroducing the mountain lion population to the western Pennsylvania region.
Ms. Sydney Beunier-Lucas and Spanish major Jennifer Spacht participated in the third critical panel, “(Un)voiced Truths.” Ms. Beunier-Lucas’s paper, “Gated Ghosts: Environmental and Cultural Trauma, Healing and Fukushima, Japan,” investigated the long-term social, economic, and environmental effects of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear disaster on Fukushima. Ms. Spacht’s PowerPoint presentation, “The Reality of Immigration and Deportation in the United States,” analyzed the moral and ethical implications of current immigration policies. Dr. Brennan Thomas presented during the conference’s final critical panel on “Institutional Power and Resistance.” Her paper, “Resistance to Political Corruption and Abuses of Power,” detailed a nearly century-old criminal case that exposed the rampant corruption of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1928.
The six presenters were accompanied by English majors Madyn Allison and Alexis Stoppe, who, in addition to attending their peers’ sessions, participated in the conference’s creative writing workshop facilitated by acclaimed poet Diana Khoi Ngueyn. All presenters’ sessions were applauded by conference attendees and organizers. The SFU students and faculty wish to thank Dr. Woznak for establishing this wonderful connection between our English and World Languages Department and Chatham University’s Alpha Delta Lambda Chapter. For more information on this conference, please visit the Rachel Carson Conference website at https://rachel-carson-conference.squarespace.com/.