Vision And “Sur-Vision”: Intermediality And Alterity In The Frames Of Abbas Kiarostami, Marjan Mohammadi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema, often compared to Italian neorealism, oscillates between documentation and fiction. Kiarostami’s worlds, replete with a complex network of incomplete and self-reflexive frames, create a new site for perception, reflection, and intervention. This paper studies the intermedial aspect of Kiarostami’s cinema in “The Koker Trilogy” (1987; 1992; 1994), Close-Up (1990), and “Taste of Cherry” (1997). It explores how these moving images are shaped by the specific context of Iranian cinema and how they turn to reshape it. First, it examines Kiarostami’s framing techniques, which expand Iranian cinema and its engagement with Western visual conventions. …

Memory And Identity: A Comparative Analysis Of “Iranian Cultural Identity” In Asghar Farhadi’S Adaptation Of Arthur Miller’S Death Of A Salesman, Raed Faridzadeh

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Recent cultural studies examine the intersection of cultural identity and memory, often viewing culture as a symbolic sign system or "culture as text." Jan Assmann defines "cultural memory" as essential to shaping societal identity. Literature and film contribute to this process by transmitting and evolving cultural meanings, not only reflecting but also constructing knowledge and reality. Iranian cinema has become a powerful medium of cultural expression, particularly post-revolution. Filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, Sohrab Shahid Sales, Dariush Mehrjui, and Asghar Farhadi explore the dynamic relationship between literature and film in shaping cultural memory. This article analyzes Asghar Farhadi’s adaptation of Death …

Willy Loman’S Desperate Affair Challenges The Iranian Censorship: Asghar Farhadi’S The Salesman, Adineh Khojastehpour

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This study examines resistance in cross-cultural adaptations, focusing on Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman (2016), an adaptation of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949). This research investigates how Farhadi's rewriting of Miller's play within post-revolutionary Iran engages in a dialogue with the Islamic Republic and its dominant discourses. It explores how this adaptation addresses Iran's social, cultural, and ideological complexities by reframing Miller's narrative of 1950s societal change and the failure of the American Dream within the context of post-revolutionary Iran. This analysis uses Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope to reveal how The Salesman uses Miller's unique concept of a …

Cineture: The Trans(Inter)Mediality And Socio-Cultural Mobility Between Iran And The Us, Naghmeh Esmaeilpour

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Literature and film have proven to be influential socio-cultural mediums, facilitating interactions and counteractions between nations where politics often fail to do so. Introducing cineture as a transmedial genre, this article is situated at the intersections of glocalized culture, and Iranian-American studies by considering literature and film as the contact zone between Iranians and Americans. Cineture, the combination of cinema and literature, refers to the circulation of cultures through its specification of film-text transmediation. The application of cineture demonstrates the combination and blending of literary and cinematic works leading to cross the “center and periphery dichotomy.” To study cineture …

Cineture: Shared Narratives And Cultural Exchanges Between Iran And The Us (Introduction), Naghmeh Esmaeilpour

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Using Action Research To Inform Graduate Research Theories, Methods, And Praxis Among Master’S And Phd Multilingual And International Students, Thomas Maldonado

Frontera Retórica Symposium

In an attempt to provide multilingual and international graduate students food for thought, this work-in-progress presentation examines a day in the life of a multilingual PhD student’s use of action research during the teaching of RWS 1301 in both Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 to better inform his data collection via student questionnaires.   Action research, “generally involves inquiring into one’s own practice through a process of self-monitoring that […] includes entering a cycle of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting on an issue or problem in order to improve practice” (Farrell, 2007, p.94).   My research question answers how using action research …

Silent Persuasion In The Classroom: Rethinking Student Silence As Rhetorical Agency, Deepa Silwal

Frontera Retórica Symposium

In most educational settings, rhetorical participation refers to the recognized ways people communicate and persuade. It is measured almost exclusively through verbal contribution, a norm that frames silence as disengagement or deficit. This assumption overlooks the communicative work performed through the body itself, particularly among students navigating linguistic, cultural, or institutional constraints. I ask: how might embodied silence be theorized as a form of rhetorical agency among students positioned at the margins of institutional power? I propose the concept of silent persuasion, which refers to rhetoric enacted not through speech but through the body's presence, posture, stillness, and restraint. Drawing …

From Dilemma To Decision: Rhetorical Positionality As A Framework For Designing A Doctoral Dissertation Topic, Purna Bhusal

Frontera Retórica Symposium

Finding a dissertation topic for doctoral students in liberal arts education is one of the most difficult and defining moments of their academic journey. In my experience and observation, most graduate students struggle to identify a research topic that is both intellectually meaningful and aligns with their personal and scholarly commitments. To address this challenge, in this presentation, I propose rhetorical positionality as a framework for designing and formulating a doctoral research topic. To develop this framework, I draw on theoretical and methodological insights of the rhetorical situation as discussed by Scott Consigny, Richard Vaz, and Lloyd Bitzer, as well …

Cultivating Home: Nepali Migrants And Gardening As Everyday Rhetoric, Menuka Gurung Lama

Frontera Retórica Symposium

Rhetorical knowledge is often discussed through formal institutions and textual traditions, leaving everyday community practices underexamined. This paper engages the theme “Rhetoric from the Margins” by examining how Nepali migrants’ gardening practices in Hooksett, New Hampshire produce knowledge outside dominant academic and institutional frameworks. I ask: How do Nepali migrants use gardening as a way of making meaning, sustaining memory, and cultivating belonging in unfamiliar environments? In what ways does gardening function as a rhetorical and epistemic practice through which migrants carry and transform land-based knowledge across borders? Rather than treating gardening simply as leisure or subsistence activity, I examine …

Euripides, Rhetoric, And The Sophists: Euripides’ Exhortation For Rhetoric And To Hear Each Other, Phillip Bonnes

Honors Theses

From the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., professional teachers travelled throughout Greece, teaching a wide variety of subjects from music to grammar. One subject that these sophists taught earned massive notoriety for them and, consequently, their trade: rhetoric. Within Athenian democracy, this craft of speaking well to persuade others became both valuable for those who are politically active and dangerous for demagogues. Coinciding with this emerging art of rhetoric was the emergence of Athenian tragedy. These tragedies served to speak about and encourage reflection upon their own contemporary politics and culture. This paper explores how Euripides examines and encourages wariness …

Peeling Back, Katelynn M. Humbles

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

KUCC

Kutztown University Composition Conference

Kutztown University Composition Conference (KUCC)

Theme: “Writing Your Way Home”

Monday, April 14, 2025

Call For Presentations

For many, the most significant place in life is their home. It is where we withdraw and rest. It is where we feel safe and loved. But home is more than just a physical space—it's an idea, a feeling, a crucial part of one’s identity. Writers have spent their careers envisioning different ideas of home, just as we do. We also have the power to shape the kind of home we create for ourselves and others.

This year, …

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire: Female Directors Subverting The Male Gaze, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

The Combahee River Collective’S Influence On Modern Feminism, Josephine Ebersole

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

2026 Kutztown University Composition Conference Program, Engtlish Department,Kutztown University Of Pennsylvania

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

The annual KU Composition Conference is sponsored by the Department of English, and includes student presentations from across campus.

Yellowjackets And White Hoods?!: The Mistreatment Of Bipoc Characters, Suki Shepherd

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

In 2021, a psychological horror television series inspired by Lord of the Flies, reimagined as a high school girls' soccer team, was released. The highly skilled team from Wiskayok High School is on the way to the national championship game when their plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness. With both a teenage timeline and an adult timeline, the show switches between the girls' desperate survival and descent to madness in the woods and modern times, where the truth of how they made it out starts to be revealed.

Patriotism, Philia, And Stereotyping During World War Ii: Correspondence Between Black Composers, Selise Phillips, Joi Carr

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The 20th century was a monumental time for Black composers, especially for those in the UK. Rudolph Dunbar was the first black musician to perform at Royal Albert Hall in London, England. During this time, correspondence between him and William Grant Still, a famous black composer based in America, exists. Still’s rhetorical choices in these letters demonstrate the attitudes of these composers, specifically Still, and how these choices reflect the success of Dunbar’s career. Still, whose compositions started gaining traction in the 1930s, often praised Dunbar for his achievements. These letters all take place during World War II and during …

Learning To Be Heard, Hannah Stroh

Research Days

I am one of 8957 people globally born in 2006 with the condition Microtia Atresia which is a deformity of the ear. My research inspiration stems from reading the different stories of other microtians on social media who have very different experiences than me. I dug deep into how the self-esteem and social experiences of individuals with my condition are affected. I related to a lot of my findings, making connections to my own life. I will discuss how social media and parental influence have impacted my life; and the challenges I've faced with my balance and hearing in dance …

Alleviating Multilingual Learners’ Writing Anxiety Through The Creative Nonfiction Literacy Narrative And Ai Use, Thomas Maldonado

Rhetoric and Composition PhD papers

It is typical for First Year Composition (FYC) instructors to begin their courses with a literacy narrative assignment. There are a number of reasons for this. First, a literacy narrative allows students to write about themselves without worrying about diving into deep research to defend a position or to elaborate on an argument. Another reason, literacy narratives offer students the opportunity to reflect on their personal learning journey and write intimately about how they have developed as writers. In most cases, it is fairly easy for some native English speakers to accomplish this assignment. However, multilingual learners find the literacy …

Bridging Libraries And Classrooms: Co-Teaching For Student Success, Joy Urbina, Isabel Baca

Librarian Conference Presentations

An instructional librarian and writing professor describe their collaborative approach to co-teaching. Learn how integrating information literacy with writing instruction strengthens students' critical thinking and research skills and discover practical strategies from this successful cross-disciplinary partnership.

The Sensationalizing Of Presidential Assassinations In Mass Media Throughout American History, Lindsay E. Smith

Undergraduate Theses

This project explores how mass media has shaped the public response to presidential assassinations across American history. By examining the deaths of Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963), we can trace how evolving media technologies – such as newspapers, yellow journalism, radio broadcasts, and live television coverage – have sensationalized violence, politicized tragedy, and transformed periods of national mourning into mass spectacles. The thesis analyzes reporting methods, narrative framing, and the news industry to show how each has influenced emotional response, political landscapes, and eventual presidential legacy. Ultimately, we find that …