Abstracts 9:30–10:40Am
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Abstracts 9:30–10:40am Humanities States, the most financially successful, and and during specific times of ceremony. The bells arguably influential, black comedian of the announce special events and act as timekeepers, 1960s was Jackie “Moms” Mabley. She appeared but they also shape the campus environment The Way We Were on stage as a bedraggled, grandmother figure through their unique sound. As a student in an (short talks) Pendletont Hall East 239 that boldly asserted her sexual desires while ethnomusicology field methods class, I spent slyly critiquing segregation, the United States fall semester taking an in-depth look at the Harnessing Visibility: Creating government, and incongruous behavior within Guild’s culture and the function the bells fulfill Perspective in Narrative Film majority and minority populations. She used on campus. As a carillonneur myself, I already Lauren E. Chen ’14, English her privileged position to directly contribute had an “in” as a participant, but in taking on the Advisor: Luther Tyler, English to the civil rights movement while assuaging role of observer, I realized the Guild has a more Film is a medium in which realistic representa- the difficult process of achieving consensus integral role in the community and campus tion not only combines but also collides with within activist movements. Through a study environment than I originally understood, with fantasy, where these two contradictory elements of Jackie Mabley and the communities she a long history behind it; in fact, plays a crucial of storytelling both intertwine and coalesce created around her comedy, I found justification role in forming Wellesley’s soundscape. to create new perspectives. Film is a marriage to broaden our definitions for political action of the real and the fake, the building and and activism. (Research supported by a Chez les Vuillard: Paintings of Disease and Infirmity in Fin-de-Siècle Paris breaking down of illusion that helps to create Schiff Fellowship) cinematic perspective. The creation of cinematic Michaela R. Haffner ’14, Art History and perspective is manifested in filmic self-reflexivity, Oral Histories of Wellesley Alumnae of French African Descent from the Pre-Ethos Era which will be discussed through close analyses of Advisor: Margaret Carroll, Art Nora E. Mishanec ’14, Cognitive & Linguistic different films. From Billy Wilder’s noir, “Sunset The late nineteenth-century French Nabi artist, Sciences and Psychology Boulevard,” to Ben Affleck’s drama, “Argo,” the Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940), engages fin- idea of self-reflexivity in film is transcendent of Advisor: Brenna Greer, History de-siècle discourses of disease and degeneration all time periods and genres in Hollywood. In the fall of 1958, eight first-years of African in his series of intimiste domestic paintings descent enrolled at Wellesley as members of from 1891-95. These disquieting interiors not Shaping Femininity: Middle and the Class of 1962. It was a turning point for the only suggest the artist’s personal encounter with Working Class Girls’ Schooling in College, as previous classes had never graduated illness in his shared family home, but also the Victorian England more than three or four students of African general spirit of malaise and obsession with Daisy M. Dowdall ’14, History descent. With funding from the Office of the morbidity that pervaded turn-of-the-century Advisor: Lidwien Kapteijns, History Provost and the Pamela Daniels Fellowship, Paris. His portrayal of the invalid woman Girls’ education experienced major reform in I collected oral histories from alumnae of evokes the then-common practice of deathbed the Victorian period. The emergence of a African descent of the 1950s and early 1960s, photography, and his treatment of interior space national education system opened sustained who attended Wellesley before the founding suggests the dwelling as a polluted and diseased formal schooling to an unprecedented number of Ethos. The project was inspired by an environment. Vuillard subverts the conventional of working-class girls, while the creation of assignment in Professor Brenna Greer’s history bourgeois conception of the home as a haven, public girls’ schools allowed the majority of course titled ‘Modern Black Freedom Struggle.’ and through a “microbial” aesthetic and a middle-class girls to receive rigorous “grammar- This oral history collection--housed in the claustrophobic manipulation of space, imbues school” educations for the first time. But Archives--documents an important chapter in its very walls with the threat of contagion. how transformative were these changes, really? the College’s history, one that requires us to My re-historicization of Vuillard within the Despite the reform, both groups were still reexamine the typical narrative of students Parisian medical milieu offers a new trained to be, above all, good wives and mothers of African descent at Wellesley. (Research understanding of the uncanny reverberations who remained within the domestic sphere. supported by a Daniels Fellowship) in his deceivingly warm and intimate domestic This presentation examines the significance scenes. (Research supported by a Schiff of Victorian educational reform through a Bells, Ballet, Medicine Fellowship) case study of eight memoirs, including those & Museum of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Annie (short talks) Pendleton Hall West 212 Defining the American Vision: The Whitney Museum of American Art’s Besant. In so doing, it also briefly outlines the Role in Changing the Landscape process of locating these obscure and sometimes The Carillon, Ringing in the Community of American Art History unpublished texts, as well as the importance of Tiffany Chen ’15, Spanish Lauren M. Richmond ’14, Economics and the memoir as a historical source. Advisor: Tamar Barzel, Music Art History So You Want to Pursue a History The carillon, an instrument consisting of bells Advisor: Rebecca Bedell, Art Thesis? Real Talk About Studying played through manuals and a pedal-board, is an In the early twentieth-century United States, Comedy and the Modern Black oft-heard but little-known treasure on Wellesley’s Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney became one of the Freedom Struggle campus. Familiar to most as the “bell tower,” most important patrons of American art. Her Frances G. Leeson ’14, History students in the Wellesley Guild of Carillonneurs, a group of musicians with an enthusiasm for efforts to promote American artists, whom she Advisor: Brenna Greer, History bells, ascend the bell tower to play pieces ranging believed did not have enough support in the art Although women are often excluded in from baroque sarabandes all the way to the market, eventually culminated in the founding the popular memory of both the civil rights theme from “Game of Thrones” between classes of the Whitney Museum of American Art in movement and black comics in the United New York. It was one of the first institutions in 18 WELLESLEY COLLEGE RUHLMAN CONFERENCE 2014 9:30–10:40am the country focusing exclusively on American will give a coherent historical view of how the Al-Ghareeb The Stranger art. Through the exhibitions, publications, and Japanese and Japanese Americans were treated (short performance) lectures it offered in its opening years (1931- by the US government during World War II. Ruth Nagel Jones Theatre, Alumnae Hall 1937), the Museum played a significant role in Sahar S. Ibrahim ’16, Undeclared, How to Find the Grownup defining the character, canon, and history of Amelia M. Redmond ’16, Cinema and American art, all while the country was reeling Secrets: A Collection of Poems Media Studies (literary reading) Pendleton Hall West 220 from the stock market crash of 1929. The story Advisor: Nora Hussey, Theatre Studies it was crafting was often at odds with the one Lisa A. Ventura ’14, Computer Science This piece was composed following the events being shaped just blocks away at the Museum Advisor: Frank Bidart, English of Modern Art. commonly referred to as the Arab Spring in This project probes the delicate or brash ways late 2010 to early 2011. It is an ethnodrama The Powerhouses of Parisian Society: a person formulates their own identity. Though comprised of the voices of students attending Effects of Female Patrons on the identity is often incorporated into poetry, this school abroad, away from their countries and Ballets Russes project differs because the focus rests more on their families, as they witness the tragedies and Emily K. Weddle ’14, Music and Art History conscious changes to the elusive self and the transformations of the places they call home. Advisor: Gurminder Bhogal, Music internal complexity of molding oneself. These These voices come from Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, poems explore the way a voice can be mutilated and Egypt, but may very well represent the The Ballet Russes dominated the avant-garde or empowered or silenced by the heightened voices of all those affected by such conflicts world of early twentieth century Paris with consciousness of its identity among other living from all parts of the world through time. ballets that brought together the greatest artistic participants. By investigating the speaker’s and musical minds of the time. Their ascent interactions and observations, we discover Science & Technology into stardom was realized through the hard changes in perspective and self-awareness. work of figures like Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, Pablo Picasso, and their founder Serge Diaghilev. Human Masks Light Matters Alongside these figures,