Rachel Carson Conference
Chatham University, Shadyside Campus | October 21, 2023
Facing the Horrors
What can horror teach us about our environment?
How has fear shaped our own narratives in literature?
If we are afraid, what can still be learned?
“No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world… Spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of bird song.”—Silent Spring, 1962
Silence can mean peace, safety, and solitude for some. What about the silence that demands us to listen closer? The silence that illuminates what lies behind shadows, hides in the darkness, and creatures that sneak right under our nose. Rachel Carson showed us the danger in silence, and when to listen in precaution for our environmental demise. There can be a sense of curious safety in diving further into what is unknown and what we are afraid of. Now, as we continue to reference Carson’s work as we navigate a changing environment it reminds us of our own horrors. The exploration of our fears and nightmares can uplift newly fascinating and chilling stories when we string them together with literature.
Alpha Delta Lambda invites submissions for the 8th Rachel Carson Academic and Creative Writing Conference hosted at Chatham University, Pittsburgh, PA, on the 21st of October 2023. 20-minute conference papers, performances and presentations, panels, and multimedia projects that center horror, fear, silence, and the unknown. Academic and genres of creative writing will be considered regardless of institutional affiliation, and we look forward to seeing the interpretations that horror can bring to a conference about the spirit of Rachel Carson. Completed works and abstract submissions are both eligible for consideration. We also encourage anyone with no previous convention experience to submit.
“Then the War: Exploring our Trees of Literature”
Workshop on Sigma Tau Delta’s 2024 Common Reader
Led by Lirit Gilmore ‘24
This creative writing workshop will inspect the Sigma Tau Delta 2024 Common Reader, Carl Phillips’ Then the War. Using the genre of horror, we will make connections to what horrors lie within the text, how this relates to poetic language, as well as themes of queerness, magic and the environment.
Lirit Gilmore is a Creative Writing and Food Studies student focusing on food writing and how it intersects with social location and identity. Her creative and journalistic work is published in Dorothy Parker's Ashes, Pulse @ Chatham U and Pittsburgh Magazine. She is from the DMV and the Midwest, and enjoys baking in her free time. Lirit is the recipient of the competitive and prestigious Sigma Tau Delta Internship Stipend for Fall 2023 that supported her creation and facilitation of this community engagement workshop.
Keynote Speaker: Jihyeon Choi, Ph.D.
Facing the Horrors of Rape Myth to Foster Social Change
Rape myth is the source of stigma attached to sexual assault and violence survivors, and the source of horror for the survivors, keeping them from speaking out about their experience. Societal acceptance of rape myth affects all members of the society on how they perceive, how they treat, and how they react to survivors of rape and sexual violence. Dr. Choi will present her findings on how mass media’s representation of narratives about sexual violence reproduce and ‘teach’ rape myth acceptance to foster social change in how we can more carefully perceive, treat, and react to survivors.
Jihyeon Choi, Ph.D. in Social Work, is Research fellow in Co-Research Coop (South Korea) and Visiting Scholar for the Women’s Institute at Chatham University. She has a Master of Social Welfare (MSW) and worked as a social worker in a community welfare center for years, helping families in a poverty-stricken area in the city of Seoul, South Korea.
She published 20+ academic articles and technical reports on various topics. Her main research areas are interpersonal violence, especially sexual and domestic violence against women, gender inequity in the workplace, and the support system for children and adolescents in low-income families. She is continuing her academic work on sexual violence survivor’s recovery and gender differences in the workplace at Chatham Women’s Institute.
Finalized Conference Schedule
All conference events will take place in MELLON CENTER.
Please access a map of Chatham University’s Shadyside Campus HERE.
Guests are invited to park in the East Parking lots, Library Parking lot, and the Terrace Parking lot.
9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.—Check-in and Breakfast Social
Mellon Board Room
10:15 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. —Introduction and Welcome
Mellon Board Room
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. — Concurrent Sessions
Concurrent Session 1: Facing the Horrors through Creative Writing
Location: Mellon Living Room, Panel chair: Hannah Klepsky
Cat Kuhn (Chatham University), “Wild Oak, Burning Bright”
David Brady (Chatham University), “Green Haven”
Claudia Schirda (Carlow University), “The Birds Call”
Dirk Wynn (Chatham University), “Confronting Modernity: Three Horrors of Trying”
Faith Otey (Carlow University), “I Can’t Remember”
Concurrent Session 2: Facing the Horrors in Reality
Location: Devore Room, Panel chair: Arden Begley
Halsey Hyer (Chatham University), “The Evil Art of Reality TV: 90 Day Fiancé by TLC”
John Woznak (Saint Francis University), “Billy Joel, Fall Out Boy, and Critical Theory:
Facing the Horrors of the Human Heart”
Camryn Shedlock (Chatham University), “A Marketing Nightmare: A Cultural Business Analysis of ‘A Loaf of Bread’”
Lisa Marie Beiswenger (Saint Francis University), “Trash Class: Studying the Waste Cycle of a University Student Union”
Timothy W. Bintrim (Saint Francis University), “Timothy Treadwell Died For Our Sins: Wildness, Enforced Humility, and the Ethics of Filming Grizzlies”
12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. — Catered Lunch
Mellon Board Room
1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m. — Dr. Jihyeon Choi, Keynote Speaker
Mellon Board Room
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. — Concurrent Sessions
Concurrent Session 3: Facing the Horrors of our Imagination
Location: Mellon Living Room, Panel chair: Douglas Bensch
Josie Kochendorfer (IUP), “Comfort in the Darkness: Defining the "dark cozy" in Videogames and Beyond”
Hannah Klepsky (Chatham University), “Making a Monster: A Psychoanalytic Reading of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Steven King's Carrie”
Mady Thetard (Point Park University), “Fear the Other: American Xenophobia and the Modern-Day Zombie”
Teddy Friedline (Chatham University), " ‘Dangers we simply cannot imagine’: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events as Cosmic Horror”
Brennan Thomas (Saint Francis University), “‘Witches in Days Gone By’: Displacing the Safe and Predictable in The Blair Witch Project”
Concurrent Session 4: Deconstructing Institutionalized Horror
Location: Devore Room, Panel chair: Cat Kuhn
Kiera Baker (Chatham University), “The Horrors of Masculinity in War”
Ahlam Abdullah (IUP), “In the Shadow of War's Horror: The Unspoken Silence in Susan Abulhawa's Morning in Jenin”
Savannah Wood (Chatham University), “Schizophrenia, with Love: Applying a Psychological Lens to Bantock’s Griffin & Sabine”
Maya Albanowski (University of Pittsburgh), “Who's Afraid of Women's Medical Autonomy?”
4:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. — Sigma Tau Delta’s 2024 Common Reader Workshop
Mellon Board Room, Led by Lirit Gilmore
5:15 p.m. — Closing Remarks
Mellon Board Room
You’re invited to explore Shadyside or Squirrel Hill for dinner and attend the Drag Queen Bingo event sponsored by the Office of Student Affairs (Mellon Board Room) from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.
Topics Might Include:
What current social, environmental, political, economic issues do you see as horror
Samples of gothic fiction, supernatural, gore, psychological horror, and the paranormal etc.
Pieces exploring the supernatural, and what can be considered supernatural
What is the cultural impact of those who’ve written about fear
Projects involving trailblazers of the horror genre, or text that has led to new discoveries in horror literature
Essays that critique horror, or offer a horror critical reading
Writings about fear and dismantling what we should be afraid of
Investigating race, gender, class, sexual orientation and identities within horror work
Horror readings of Rachel Carson or other femmes in literature who have educated on what we should truly fear
Anything that goes bump in the night
Submission Deadlines & Notifications
Who Can Submit
Sigma Tau Delta student members
Alpha Delta Lambda student members
Alumni Epsilon Chapter members
Community members and students who have an interest in and would be available to present at the Rachel Carson Conference
How to Submit & Submission Deadline
Submission for this conference is closed.
Rachel Carson
Scientist. Author. Environmentalist. Pioneer. Student. Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) graduate Rachel Carson '29 rose to prominence with her book, Silent Spring, as a trailblazing voice questioning the resulting impact of pesticides on people, animals, and the environment. This call to attention was a catalyst for the environmental movement that has helped bring awareness and action to the ecological problems our planet faces. Her inspiration guided Chatham to the creation of Eden Hall Campus, and her work has also served as a catalyst for our and the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment's commitment to advancing sustainability education, implementation, and research. Carson's big thinking and devotion to improve the world are just two of the qualities we work to bring to life through our students.