Franke Future Directions Forum
A showcase for the humanities research done during their fellowship year, the Future Directions Forum is where each Franke Fellow—graduate and undergraduate—presents their project and receives interdisciplinary feedback from the Kaplan Institute community.
2026 FRANKE FUTURE DIRECTIONS FORUM
Friday, May 1, 2026
8:45 am to 4:00 pm
Kaplan Humanities Institute—Kresge Hall #2350
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8:45-9:00am: COFFEE AND LIGHT BREAKFAST
9:00-9:10am: Laura Brueck – Opening Remarks
Session I
9:10am-9:45am: Sofía Sánchez (Department of Spanish and Portuguese)
What Can Community Theater Do for Survivors of Violence in Colombia? Toward Dramaturgies of Repair
First Questioner: Marianne Hopman
9:45am-10:15am: Yong-Yu Huang (Departments of English and Computer Science)
Enigmatic Arrivals: Migration and Negative Feelings in Naipaul and Ondaatje
First Questioner: Maayan Hilel
10:15am-10:50am: Ishan Mehandru (Program in Comparative Literary Studies, Asian Languages and
Cultures)
Dispersed Relations: Caste, Communalism, and Women Writers in South Asia
First Questioner: Miguel Caballero
10:50am-11:05am: COFFEE BREAK
Session II
11:05am-11:40am: Clara Wenrong Lee (Department of Performance Studies; Certificate in Critical
Theory)
Thickening the Plot: Unruly Racial Formations
First Questioner: Alicia Caticha
11:40am-12:10pm: Emma DeRose (Department of History)
Daughter of the Sea, Liberty’s Heir: Mary Antin, The Promised Land (1912), and the Battle for
Unrestricted Immigration into the United States, 1881-1949
First Questioner: Nathalie Bouzaglo
12:10pm-12:40pm: Jacob Currey (School of Professional Studies)
Failing Reentry: Analyzing IDOC’s Noncompliance with Legal Reentry Obligations and Its Impact on
Recidivism
First Questioner: Rajeev Kinra
12:40pm-1:30pm: LUNCH
Session III
1:30pm-2:00pm: Walter Todd (Department of Theatre)
In the Eye of Another: Critiquing Neoliberal Constructs of Identity Through Drama
First Questioner: Shira Schwartz
2:00pm-2:35pm: Michael Slattery (Program in Music Theory and Cognition; Critical Theory Cluster)
The Heavens Are Telling: Cultural Meanings of the Do-Re-Mi
First Questioner: Claire Kirwin
2:35pm-3:05pm: Ella Waffner (Departments of Theatre and English)
Weyward Words: Performing the “Witch” in Renaissance Political Tragedies
First Questioner: Corey Byrnes
3:05pm-4:00pm: FINAL THOUGHTS AND RECEPTION