People denigrate popular culture all the time, but to St. John’s
University student Johanna Roed, popular culture is music to her
ears and money in the bank. Her research paper, “Mainstream
Literature and Minority Politics,” was named the Best Undergraduate
Paper in the Daniel Walden Student Paper Competition awarded by the
Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association Conference in New
Brunswick, NJ. Johanna received a $100 cash prize, and her paper
will be published on the Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Conference’s
web site. There were more than 300 presentations -- 35 from
students -- at the conference (November 3-7), including those by
undergraduates, graduate students and professors from leading
universities.
Enrolled in the five-year
Bachelor of Arts/Master of Arts in English program on the
Staten Island Campus, Johanna says her paper discusses the
formation of ethnic identity through family narrative. “The story
of an ethnic group must be audible for the group to retain its
identity and visibility in America,” she says. “The paper—a mixture
of the anecdotal and theoretical—was actually an interdisciplinary
work. It also reflects my knowledge from my American ethnic
literature class.”
English Professor
Stephen Paul Miller, who was an area and panel conference chair
(but did not judge the papers submitted) encouraged Johanna and two
other students from his Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture
class to participate in the conference. “I was amazed at how good
the students’ papers were,” he says. “They were deep; the students
didn’t accept easy answers, and they came to new and important
conclusions.”
Also presenting papers at the conference as part of the same
panel as Johanna were Jennifer Schonwetter, who spoke about
“Metaphoric Implications of Kerouac as Beat Father,” and Angela
Ponterifico, whose topic was “Poetry as Fiction/Poetry as
Politics.”
“Novelist Jack Kerouac was an absent father, says Jennifer, “but
his absence pushed his daughter forward in her own work as an
author. He’s considered the forefather of the ‘beat’ generation.
Jennifer, who received her Master’s of Arts in English last May, is
now a teacher at New Dorp High School on Staten Island, and will
teach “The 18th Century Novel” at St. John’s Staten Island campus
this spring as an adjunct professor. “I adored the BA/MA Program in
English at St. John’s,” she says. “I really enjoyed being able to
work closely with my professors.”
Angela, also a graduate of the five-year bachelor’s and master’s
degree program in English, presented her paper making the case that
“all poetry is political, and that the most effective way to
communicate a poem’s message is to vocalize it. You can reach more
people by reading a poem out loud,” she says. “That way, the reader
perceives your inflection and body language.”
Another St. John’s student, Josue De La Rosa, a junior from
Orlando, FL, who’s majoring in Administrative Studies on the Queens
campus, presented a paper, “Which Way Do I Go Now: The Dilemma of
African-American Students.” The paper discussed the “dilemma
African-American students are facing about whether to maintain
their identity as a group or conform to prevalent society and be
considered ‘sell-outs’ or ‘traitors’ to their heritage.” He was
encouraged to participate in the conference by his advisor,
Assistant Professor of Social Sciences Randolph D.J. Ortiz.
Professor Thomas Kitts, Chairman of the English and Speech
Department at St. John’s College of Professional Studies, is the
president of the Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association,
and chaired several panels. Adjunct Associate Professor of English
and Speech Michael Lydon, a highly regarded rock journalist of his
generation, was the guest luncheon speaker. He spoke about “Writing
Music Writing.”
Several other St. John’s professors also participated in the
conference: Professor Miller; Professor Ortiz; Assistant Professor
of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Ellen Boegel; Associate
Professor of Social Sciences Joseph Trumino; Assistant Professor of
Communications, Journalism and Media Studies Basilio Monteiro; and
Professor of History Robert R.Tomes.
The Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association is a
multi-disciplinary association interested in new approaches to
“expression, mass media and all other phenomena of everyday life.”
Among the many academic disciplines represented in the popular
culture movement are American Studies, Anthropology,
Communications, Art, English, History, Law, Political Science, and
Sociology. The group is also a regional division of the Popular and
American Culture Association.
View the press
release.