English Conference

Session 3: Keynote Panel

This session included three keynote speakers who are all professors at IUP. Dr. Lynne Alvine asked the question, "How do we tell stories in our lives?" She answered the question by providing the audience with five different quotes on narratives. She said that a narrative is the primary way our mind functions. She also said narratives are a way of thinking and a way of life. If you pay attention to the stories in your mind, they help you form an identity and give you guidelines for living your life.
The second keynote speaker was Gloria Park and she talked about telling stories via research writing. Her focus was on diversity and social issues prevalent in today's society. She encourages her students to come up with research topics that are related to their academic careers. This is the same method that our English professor uses as well. Gloria stated that the student should "own" his/her paper so that is why it is very important to find a topic that is of personal interest. She stated that it's a good idea to find a topic that raises the audience's awareness and can bring about change in the world.
Veronica Watson was the third and final keynote speaker and her focus was on literature. She stated that "Literature irrigates the deserts in our lives." It puts us in someone else's footsteps and tells us to forget ourselves. She mentioned the growing popularity of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and how people are talking to more people, but somehow feel less connected. We are talking to people with similar interests, so in essence we are talking to ourselves. Veronica stated that literature slows down our fast paced world and puts us in times and places that are unfamiliar to us as readers. She encouraged us to communicate with cultures that are differnt from our own so we can see the world in a different way.