For One Student, This Year’s Carson Conference was Life Changing
Participants and attendees gather for breakfast in the Mellon Board Room. (Lyn Bigley)
The Rachel Carson Conference led Dirk Wynn ’24 to a revelation about his future in academia.
“I realized so much about why I loved what I was doing from being on a creative panel and doing a reading and Q&A,” he said. “I thought, ‘Wow, I sure would love to talk about my creative process to a captive audience.’ And then someone asked me about my how I made language choices. It happened.”
The Rachel Carson Conference is Chatham’s annual research symposium spearheaded by Chatham’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the national English honor’s society. This year, the event took place on October 19 in Mellon Board Room at Shadyside Campus.
For the conference, students research topics pertinent to their own interests and careers. The presentations are multimedia. This year, students showed their work through papers, presentations, discussions, and performances. Pieces can be critical or creative, appealing to students across a variety of majors and passions.
The Rachel Carson Conference was started in 2010 by Allie Reznik ’11, Chatham alum and current assistant professor of humanities. Alongside their fellow Sigma Tau Delta members, Reznik created the Rachel Carson Conference. Now, 14 years later, the event still gives space for students to come together and discuss their research with other burgeoning scholars.
The Rachel Carson Conference is largely student run, primarily organized by the officers and members of Sigma Tau Delta: Dirk Wynn ’24, Will Grasso ’24, Arden Begley ’25, Sydnee Ishman ’25, Abby Willot ’25, Rae Kraybill ’25, Charlie Dorlon ’26, and Lyn Bigley ’26.
“We consult with Dr. Reznik, and she helps us every step of the way that we need, but in my two years with Sig Tau, we have become really quite independent in a way that is refreshing to me,” Wynn said. “I reflect and I go, ‘Oh wow. No one stopped us from doing stuff, and no one told us what we had to do, and it was awesome.’”
Each year, a new theme is selected for the Carson Conference by Sigma Tau Delta. This year, it was "Stomping Grounds: Home, Land, Movement, and Identity."
Will Grasso ’24, front, gives their presentation, “Transition Tango: Interplaying Narratives of Transition and Detransition in Media and Literature.” (Lyn Bigley)
“The theme has to in some way speak to the values of Rachel Carson and Chatham,” Wynn said. “It is pretty easy to fit: social engagement, environmentalism, gender and sexuality... pretty fundamental stuff,” Wynn said. “The theme was proposed by Will Grasso and myself, inspired by our enriching experience in Marc Nieson's ‘Exiles’ literature course. The phrase itself is the title of an experimental personal narrative poem that Will presented at the 2024 Sigma Tau Delta Convention.”
The event kicked off with Algerian author and activist Anouar Rahmani, who gave a keynote presentation on their journey and experience as a marginalized author fighting for human rights. After Rahmani’s enlightening talk, attendees listened to students’ presentations.
This year, 21 talented Chatham students presented at the conference. Four Chatham students also had their artwork on display at the conference—Evelyn Fay ’25, Chaunee Irving ’26, Arlo MacFarland ’26, and Ainsley Smith ’26. Ten other presenters came from institutions like Point Park University and Saint Francis University. Presentations covered various topics ranging from Aesop-Elliot Miller’s ’26 discussion on the dangers of formaldehyde to Rachel Coleman’s ’26 ecocritical analysis of Madison Beer’s music.
Douglas Bensch ’25 gives his presentation, “Vocational Perspectives in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘The American Scholar.’” (Lyn Bigley)
The Rachel Carson Conference remains one of Chatham’s star events. It is an amazing opportunity for students to take hold of, especially if looking for research practice, presentation experience, or resume building. Students can feel proud of their work while sharing it with the greater Chatham community. There is no application fee and no prior experience is necessary, so it is low-risk to apply. You send in your abstract, wait for it to be reviewed, then, if selected, present at the conference.
“It sort of changed my life,” Wynn said of the experience.
Lyn Bigley ’26 is currently pursuing her BFA in creative writing alongside a BA in psychology. She currently works as a library aide and a digital content creator for Chatham University. In her downtime, she enjoys looking at pictures of animals, playing video games, impulse buying, and watching reality TV.