NDMU Students Present Research at National Research Symposium

By: Erik Pedersen, Content Strategy Director

BALTIMORE – Five Notre Dame of Maryland University Morrissy Honors Program students traveled down Charles Street to present original research on a variety of topics at the 2024 Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium, which was hosted by Johns Hopkins University from March 21-23.

Jensen Armstrong ’24, Hayley Conn ’26, Kritika KC ’25, Nicole Self ’25, and Nwanneka Udolisa ’25 were all accepted to share research at the symposium, which brings together students across all fields of the humanities to present their work to a national audience.

Conn, KC, Self, and Udolisa all presented research related to their Women and/as Monsters in Literature and Culture English Department class taught by Dr. Jeana DelRosso, while Armstrong presented on a panel focusing on the theme of Art as Resistance. NDMU students competed with applicants from across the country for acceptance to present their research at this year's conference.

“It's so gratifying to see NDMU students presenting their original research and writing alongside students from some of the top universities in the country,” said Dr. DelRosso. “The Macksey Symposium affirms that the liberal arts are alive and well across the nation, and our students demonstrated the strength and depth of their humanities education at Notre Dame.”

Presentations were made across seven sessions which were held on Friday and Saturday. Students were divided into panels of four, with each panel grouped by a specific theme. A full list of presentation topics and panel themes for the NDMU students in attendance is available below:


Jensen Armstrong: "I Don't Understand Abstract Art: Norman Lewis's Democratization of Abstract Expressionism" (Panel Theme: Art as Resistance)

Haylee Conn: "The Monstrous Maternal: Unveiling Lolita's Dark Threads." (Panel Theme: Marriage, Motherhood, and the Women’s Mind in Literature)

Kritika KC: "Through the Eyes of the Creature: A Reflection of the Nineteenth-Century Women Writer in the Creature from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein." (Panel Theme: Literary Examinations of Womanhood)

Nicole Self: "Power and the Patriarchy in Madeline Miller’s Circe." (Panel Theme: Engaging Antiquity)

Nwanneka Udolisa: "Survival, Resistance, and Mistreatment: The Evolution of Monstrosity in N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season." (Panel Theme: Speculative Fiction)

Established in 1895, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) is a private, Catholic institution in Baltimore, Maryland, with the mission to educate leaders to transform the world. Notre Dame has been named one of the best "Regional Universities North" by U.S. News & World Report.