Students and professor present research at international conference

by Carol Branson
November 10, 2017
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Students Courtney Watkins and Brandi Rund travel to Belfast, Ireland with Dr. Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, professor of English, to present their research on Sylvia Plath at the Sylvia Plath: Letters, Words and Fragments Conference at Ulster University.  

The group from IUPUC will lead a panel discussion titled, "Teaching and Learning in Sylvia Plath Studies and Women's Studies: Community Engagement, Digital Humanities, and Service Learning." Their presentation brings together different perspectives, expertise, and experiences of teaching and learning in Sylvia Plath studies.

“What is especially significant about the panel as a whole is that the Lilly Library at IU Bloomington holds one of the most important and largest archives of Sylvia Plath materials in the world; IU is an important institution in Plath Studies as a result, and our IUPUC group is excited to represent IUPUC as part of the IU system in the area of teaching and learning in Plath Studies and Women's Studies on the international stage” shared Dr. Goodspeed-Chadwick.

To showcase successful forays in community engagement digital humanities, and service learning, specifically related to pedagogy and the projects that resulted from it, the panel will lead a discussion around five main topic areas.   

  • Overview of the design of the Plath Studies courses and course projects (from faculty and student perspectives) as they relate to community engagement, digital humanities, and service learning
  • Discussion of why Plath and her words matter now; the significance and relevance of Plath Studies in the twenty-first-century classroom and world
  • Exploration of what students learned from studying Plath in a women’s studies seminar and an introductory literature course, with concrete strategies and tips offered to further community engagement, digital humanities, and service learning initiatives in other courses
  • Showcase and discussion of course products and examples of student work (including photographs from an installed exhibition, materials related to an all-community presentation and discussion, and poetry explications)
  • Consideration of future directions for Plath Studies in the classroom (including archival research options, literature and technology partnerships and combinations, and grassroots book groups focused on Plath)

Presenters

Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, Ph.D., Professor of English, Affiliate Faculty in Women’s Studies, Director of the Office of Student Research at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus 

Julie’s research and teaching interests pivot on literature by women and women’s studies concerns, including trauma studies and identity politics, from feminist perspectives. She is the author of a book and more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters about literature and women’s studies. She is the recipient of a New Frontiers Exploratory Travel Fellowship from Indiana University, which funded her 2016 sabbatical at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript and Rare Book Library at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and allowed her to study artifacts related to Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and Assia Wevill. Her current book project focuses on these three figures. She was a featured presenter at the Sylvia Plath Symposium at IU-Bloomington in 2012.

Brandi Rund, Support Services Team Lead, University Information Technological Services, Indiana University and Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus

Brandi works in UITS at IUPUC. She received her AAS from Ivy Tech in Computer Information Systems in May 2016, and faculty selected her as the 2016 Outstanding Graduate for the CIS Program.  Currently, she is a junior at IUPUC, working toward her B.A. in General Studies with a minor in Women’s Studies, and she is the Secretary of Feminism Club.  She appreciates all that she is learning concerning Women’s Studies and recently completed intensive study of the poetics in Sylvia Plath’s poetry. Brandi is interested in the ways in which literature, women’s studies, and technology converge in the digital humanities. She won the 2017 Outstanding Woman Leader Award from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) for her excellent leadership in technology services and feminist service work.

Courtney Watkins, Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC) Undergraduate Student Majoring in Sociology and Minoring in Literature and Women’s Studies 

Courtney is a senior at IUPUC and is the President of Feminism Club at IUPUC. She completed an intensive seminar on Sylvia Plath Studies in 2016, which included archival work at the Lilly Library at Indiana University and archival study of artifacts from the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript and Rare Book Library at Emory University. She produced two community engagement and service learning projects that were a finalist for the Indiana University Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching’s Academy Award in Community Engagement. She also completed a course that provided intensive study of Sylvia Plath’s poetics and poetry in 2017.