Students enrolled in ENGL 487W recently offered senior seminar presentations for faculty and guests in the Mountain View room of Port-Sky Café.
The course was focused on speculative fiction. The class read works spanning from the Middle Ages to 2025, including Margery Kempe's Book, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, and Nick Medina's Sisters of the Lost Nation, among others.
The senior seminar is the capstone course for English majors at Penn State Altoona. The presentations serve as both a final piece of classwork and a celebration of their learning during their time at the college.
Hollie Keller, a double major and minor in English, Multidisciplinary Studies, Sociology, and Entrepreneurship, presents “‘Receive Your Body’: Margery Kempe as a Queer Clairvoyant.”
Hollie Keller, a double major and minor in English, Multidisciplinary Studies, Sociology, and Entrepreneurship presents “‘Receive Your Body’: Margery Kempe as a Queer Clairvoyant.”
The audience watching Hollie Keller’s presentation.
Myra Habbershon, an English major with a minor in Writing and Digital Media, presents “The Cost of Silence: Remembering, Repairing, and Reclaiming Identity in Song of Solomon.”
Myra Habbershon, an English major with a minor in Writing and Digital Media, presents “The Cost of Silence: Remembering, Repairing, and Reclaiming Identity in Song of Solomon.”
Paige McCusker, an English major with a Kinesiology minor, presents “‘I don’t make flowers anymore, and you have pissed your last in this house’: Labor in Song of Solomon and Sisters of the Lost Nation.”
Paige McCusker, an English major with a Kinesiology minor, presents “‘I don’t make flowers anymore, and you have pissed your last in this house’: Labor in Song of Solomon and Sisters of the Lost Nation.”
Abigail Auerbeck, an English major with a minor in Writing and Digital Media, presents, “Homosexual Panic in Frankenstein.”
Abigail Auerbeck, an English major with a minor in Writing and Digital Media, presents, “Homosexual Panic in Frankenstein.”
Aeryal Palazzi, an English major, presents “Anxiety of Procreation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
Aeryal Palazzi, an English major, presents “Anxiety of Procreation in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
Sophia Girol, an English major, presents “The Monster That Is Otherness: Why Frankenstein Is Still Discussed Today.”
Sophia Girol, an English major, presents “The Monster That Is Otherness: Why Frankenstein Is Still Discussed Today.”
The members of the fall 2025 English senior seminar class during Q&A.