Students and faculty in NDSU’s English department hosted the 54th meeting of the Languages and Cultures Circle of Manitoba and North Dakota Sept. 23-24. Eleven representatives from NDSU presented papers at the conference, which attracted more than 60 participants from as far away as British Columbia, Arizona, Nova Scotia and Maryland. Kent Sandstrom, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, welcomed the attendees to Fargo.

As the 2011 Languages and Cultures Circle of Manitoba and North Dakota  president and program chair, Bruce Maylath, professor of English, delivered the opening address on the conference’s theme, “Language and Power.” Karen Peirce, graduate writing coordinator for the Graduate School, was one of three presenters featured on the conference plenary panel, “The Language and Power of Government and Media.” Peirce’s paper was titled “Fighting Nature’s Power: Ethos in Press Releases and Media Coverage Surrounding the 2011 Red River Flood in Fargo.”

Dale Sullivan, professor of English, and Alexandra Glynn, doctoral student in English, were part of a panel on “Rhetorical and Metaphorical Power in the Language of Religion.” Sullivan’s paper focused on “St. Paul, Rhetoric, and the Discourse of Power,” while Glynn’s addressed “ ‘Early Christians’ as Text in the 2nd Century of the Roman Empire.”

Carol Pearson, associate professor of Spanish, was featured in a panel on “Language as a Weapon: Marginalization and Resistance in Central America and Mexico.” Her paper detailed “Language as a Weapon: Anacristina Rossi and La Loca de Gandoca.”

Andrew Mara, associate professor of English, and Chris Lindgren, master’s student in English, formed a panel on “Cyborgs and Software: Examining Language’s Intersection with the Power of Technology.” Mara’s paper was titled “Identity as a Chimera Builder,” and Lindgren’s was titled “Applying Rhetorical and Literary Analyses to Software.”

Tatjana Schell, Steven Hammer and Christine Grossman, all doctoral students in English, and Kellam Barta, a senior majoring in English and psychology, comprised a panel on “Language and Power in the Sonic and the Graphic.” Schell and Barta delivered a paper on the results of their research on “Differentiation in Regional Pronunciation in the Word ‘Bison.’ ”

Hammer led the audience in “From Electric Dylan to the iPad DJ: The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Sonic Authenticity.” Grossman addressed “Beyond ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’: The Power(s) of Cartoon Mice as Literary Devices to Confront Xenophobia – Case in Point, Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Anti-Semitism.”

Next year’s conference will be held in Winnipeg and hosted by the University of Manitoba.