Thursday, April 23, 2026

COLA Conference Schedule at a Glance

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Panel 5-A: Student Center 2W16B ………………………………….….9:00am-10:15am

Contemporary Social Worlds, Meaning, and Engagement Moderator: Brian Hoey

1. Savannah Rice “From Soil to Society: Relationships between Community Gardens and Social Cohesion”
2. Cecelia Burke “Constructing Truth: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Scientific and Christian Fundamentalist Discourse in the Creation-Evolution Debate”
3. Kurt Schade “Lived Rituality in Appalachia: Shared Structures of Practice, Experience, and Perception”
4. Evan Ferguson “How are Students in the Tri-State Region Affected by Substance Use Disorders? Analysis of College Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of the Opioid Epidemic”

Panel 5-B: Drinko 349 ………………………………………………….….9:00am-10:15am

Historical Reflection in Americas Moderator: Natsuki Anderson

1. Nico Pace “The Pueblo Revolt and the Evolution of Spanish and Indigenous Relations”

2. Colin McCuskey “Paramilitary Involvement in the Latin American Drug Trade”
3. Harrison Blatt “The History of the West Virginia Mine Wars, the People Behind It, and Their Personal Experiences”

4. Danielle Price “The effects of Agent Orange on West Virginia Veterans”

Panel 5-C: Drinko 138 ………………………………………………….….9:00am-10:15am

Gender & Feminism Moderator: Sumeeta Patnaik

1. Cierra Haynes “Female Perverts: Fictional Depictions of Women's Desire and Sexuality”
2. Kate Kennedy “Woman is Always a Sorcerer to Woman: Reimagining Childhood Self-Mythology Through Jean-Paul Sartre’s Concept of Magic and Feminist Poststructuralism”
3. Carys Evicks “Blue Time: Nostalgia and Lived Temporality in Contemporary Women's Lyric Essays”
4. Jacob Wood “White Teeth Can Only Get You So Far: Humanity, Political Paranoia, and the Uncanny in No I'm Not a Human”

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Poster Session C: Drinko 4^th floor ………………………………….....10:00am-11:00am

Psychology Projects #2 Moderator: Masa Toyama

Poster C1. Aly Yankey “Exploring College Students’ Biases in Relation to Personality” 

Poster C2. Adam Purdy, Anna Giles, Elizabeth Litton, Jada Samuel “Online Gambling: Incentives to Attract and Retain Customers”

Poster C3. Lynndsae Taylor, Jaden Amos, Jillian Dolin, Abby Prince, Noah Roma “The Effects of Screen Use on Interpersonal Relationships”

Poster C4. Abi Wilson & Anna Lantz “Impacts of Parenting Styles on Social Anxiety in Appalachia”

Poster C5. Olivia Kingrey & Ethan Smith “Love and Trauma: Examining the relationship between ACEs and Relationships”

Poster C6. Bre Malone “Growth Mindsets in the Workplace: A Scoping Review”

Poster Session D: Drinko 4^th floor …………………………………….....1:00pm-2:00pm

Psychology Projects #3 Moderator: Britani Black

Poster D1. Josh Bush “Personality Traits and TV/Movie Genre Preference Prediction”

Poster D2. Makayla Chibuzo “Pilot Study: The impact of SVA on early adolescents' sustained attention”

Poster D3. Ethan Smith & Olivia Kingrey “Looking at Correlations Between Emotional Intelligence, Relationship Quality, and Life Satisfaction among Appalachian College Students”

Poster D4. Brandt Thompson “Growth Mindsets in the Workplace: Review of Current Literature”

Poster D5. Ashley Tiller “Investigating the relationship between barriers to mental health care and a higher prevalence of substance abuse in the rural agricultural population”

Poster D6. Tian Ferguson “Barriers to OCD Diagnosis and Treatment in Rural Communities”

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Panel 6-A: Student Center 2W16B ……………………………….……..2:00pm-3:15pm

Contemporary Japan in Media Moderator: Nicholas Shangler

1. Jared Hunter “Female Leadership Without Institutional Reform: Takaichi Sanae and the Limits of Political Change in Japan “
2. Luke Rezek “Bear Attacks in Japan: Conflict between Humans and Bears”
3. Issei Hidaka “Misconceptions and stereotypes of Japanese culture in the U.S. film The Karate Kid”
4. Ben Gorby “The Influence of Script Choice on Character Development in Japanese Manga: Inoue Takehiko’s Vagabond”

Panel 6-B: Drinko 349 ……………………………………………….……..2:00pm-3:15pm

Ecology, Feminism and Violence Moderator: Michael Shirzadian 

1. Mason Wheeler “Invasion Ecology and Immigration - A Foundation of Rhetorical Violence”

2. Lio Frye “Teiresias Trouble; The Stabilizing Other”
3. Hannah Guthrie “The Wolf’s Tongue: Écriture Feminine and Sapphic Connection in Elodie Harper’s The Wolf Den”
4. Abbey Cardwell "The Dream of Total Control: The Monstrous Feminine and Uncanny Representations of Gender in Jurassic Park”

Panel 6-C: Drinko 138 ……………………………………………….……. 2:00pm-3:15pm

Creative Writing Moderator: Meghan Hancock

1. Jase Fry “Old Ship of Plasma”
2. Raegan Nolan “Where the Birds Fly Home”
3. McKensie Dudley “The Other World”
4. Adison Mitchell “Speaking Properly”

Thursday, April 23, 2026

Panel 7-A: Student Center 2W16B ……………………………….…….. 3:30pm-4:45pm

Myth and Folklore Moderator: Caitlyn Trombley

1. Abigail Beegle “Mothman, The Flatwoods Monster and the Gender Binary”
2. Ethan McNeely “Comparison of Urban Appalachian Running Cultures to Urban Non-Appalachian Running Cultures”
3. E. Provost “Lone(ly) Wolf Terrorism: The Loosely-Networked Phenomenon of Incel Terrorism”

4. Lily Turner “Morals and Power in Rumpelstiltskin”

Panel 7-B: Drinko 349 ……………………………………………….……. 3:30pm-5:00pm

Humans, Memory, Narcissism and Survival Moderator: Paul Robertson

1. Anna Broggi “How to be ‘Human’"
2. Savannah Weibl “Narcissistic Parenting and its Consequences, as Seen in Contemporary Literature”
3. Isabella Lamotta “An Analysis of Human Reflection in the Afterlife”

4. Maria Morgan “Disoriental, Fragmented Memory, and the Politics of Diasporic Narrative”

5. 5. Emily Janutolo “Punk as a Tool for Survival”

Panel 7-C: Drinko 138 ……………………………………………….……. 3:30pm-4:45pm

AI, Video games, Films & Feminism Moderator: Cody Lumpkin

1. Brandi Taylor “In the Eye of AI: Authorial Intent and the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Fiction Revision”
2. Elainna Scarlato “Critical Thinking in The Age of AI: Are Our Students Suffering?
3. Emma Jones “The Death of a Hero Shooter: The Cultural Decline of Overwatch”
4. Jessica Burgess “Being a Bad Feminist: The Politics of Messiness in Fleabag”