אורנים דוט קום – מגזין האינטרנט של מכללת אורנים

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The 23^rd annual conference of the English department at Oranim was held this year on Monday 7^th June from 9:30 – 14:00 in the auditorium of building 46. The mini-conference follows a long-standing  tradition of almost a quarter of a century, making it unique in the Oranim landscape, and brings together staff and students in a study day which showcases some of the best work done by students throughout the academic year.

This year's programme presented some exciting research and perspectives in the fields of linguistics, literature and education. Presentations included a study of written Arabic as a second language among Arabic speakers, discourse analyses of  two videos: Susan Boyle's audition and a televised conversation between Bibi Netanyahu and John Kerry,  a panel on the writing of seminar papers, a case study of work done with a child suffering from learning disabilities, three papers on Joan Barfoot's novel Dancing in the Dark, a study of tree imagery in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and two explorations of video representations of Byron's "Darkness." Interspersed among the papers in linguistics, education and literature were several creative writing presentations: a set of haikus about Oranim  and some spoken-word poems, including an electrifying performance by Lily Shehady of her spoken-word poem which drew prolonged applause from the audience. The mini-conference concluded delightfully with a repeat performance of a dialogue from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Ernest, an excerpt from our very successful Reader's Theatre programme.

Lunch was served during a short break in the day's events, and feedback pages were distributed among the audience at the end of the conference in order to evaluate the quality of the mini-conference programme and also to indicate possible changes worth making in the following year's conference.

The department would like to thank all those who contributed to the day's success, both in front of, and behind, the screens.

-          Dr. Lyn Barzilai, conference organizer