Undergraduates, scholars and writers convene at the second annual Undergraduate Conference on Multiethnic Literatures of the Americas from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 18, at California State University, Fresno.

The conference, at the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center of the Peters Business Building, features a keynote talk, panels discussions and a question-and-answer session.

Cherríe Moraga, artist in residence at the Stanford University Drama Department, delivers the keynote address at 6:30 p.m. at the Satellite Student Union. All events are free and open to the community.

Undergraduate conferences are a rarity on most college campuses, said Samina Najmi, an assistant professor of English at Fresno State. She said the conference was organized by graduate students and faculty of the Department of English to help students learn conferencing skills and to develop an understanding of multiethnic literatures.

Featured discussion panels are:

  • 8:45-9:45 a.m. – “Julia Alvarez’s ‘Garcia Girls:’ Latina Identity and the Palmolive Woman.”
  • 10-11 a.m. – “Gender and Genre in Palestinian-American Women’s Literature.”
  • 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. – “Urban Scrawl: Reading Spiegelman, Espada and Graffiti.”
  • 1:30-2:30 p.m. – “Violence, Self-Loathing and the Artist.”

After the panel presentations, Moraga will host a question and answer session at 3 o’clock at the Peters Auditorium.

For the past three decades, Moraga has contributed to Chicana, feminist and gay and lesbian studies. She is a writer best known for coediting (with Gloria Anzaladua) “This Bridge Called My Back,” and for the play “Heroes and Saints,” which is about  pesticide poisoning in the San Joaquin Valley town of McFarland.

Parking is relaxed in the University Business Center lot east of the Peters Building (access from Barstow Avenue via Woodrow Avenue) during the day, and in all lots in the evening.

For more information, contact Najmi at 559.278.2660 or snajmi@csufresno.edu.

(Copy by University Communications news intern Nicole Maul)

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