On Wednesday, March 7, in room 209 of the Greenwood Library, six students under Longwood University Assistant Professor Dr. David Magill presented on six female authors of the past and present in front of a collection of faculty and students. The presentation was called "The Time Machine Experiment: Women Writers and the Politics of Gender."
The students were selected from Magill's English 362 Literature of Diversity class, and included Jacob Biggs, Isla Braun, Michelle Goldchain, Ashley Maser, Liz Chassey, Katy Stein and Jess Trafton.
Dr. Magill said that he assigned the presentation "because I wanted to get the students to think about the importance of their work in a public setting, and not to simply write a paper to me, but to think about how to talk about literature in the world. So the goal for that was to think about a different audience and how we connect in the classroom with outside the classroom."
Chassey and Braun also had something to say about the event they took part in. Chassey said, "One of the most prominent issues we thought about as a group was the lumping of these writers under the label 'women writers.' When they are called that, they become a bit marginalized. When someone is called a 'woman writer,' she is expected to write of certain things in a certain way. At the same time, when we lumped them in our panel, we had the opportunity to see how diverse these writers truly are."
When asked about what it felt like to be a student presenting to professionals, Braun said, "It felt really daunting, but also really rewarding. Those who came to listen were very responsive. It was an easy and open audience, it felt to me. Also, it helped to be up front as one among many. We were really able to enjoy each other's ideas and play off of them. It didn't feel like work or a struggle once we got going. We also had a lot of positive feedback afterwards, which helped."
