An International Conference Hosted by College of Humanities and Social and
Behavioral Sciences
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
October 30-31, 2015
HRLASS:
Human Rights,
Literature, the Arts,
and Social Sciences
Conference convener: Professor Maureen N. Eke, Department of English Language & Literature
HRLASS 2015, Page 1
2015 Human Rights, Literature, the Arts, and Social Sciences
International Conference
An International Conference Hosted by Central Michigan
University
October 30-31, 2015
at
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort and
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
HRLASS 2015, Page 2
HRLASS 2015 October 30-31, 2015
Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Sponsored by: CMU Bookstore
CMU Cultural & Global Studies Program
College of Communication and Fine Arts
College of Education & Human Services
College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral
Sciences (CHSBS)
Department of English Language and Literature
Department of Foreign Languages, Literature
and Cultures
Isabella County Human Rights
Committee
Office for Institutional Diversity
Office of the Provost
Women and Gender Studies Program
Conference Convener: Dr. Maureen N. Eke, Professor, Department of
English Language and Literature
Conference Committee: Jessica Axe, CMU Graduate Student
Elizabeth A. Podufaly Bauer, CMU Alumna
Rae Barrett, Events Coordinator, CHSBS
Jacque Billette, CMU Alumna
Sarah Buckley, Coordinator of Marketing &
Publications, CHSBS
Micki Christiansen, Executive Secretary,
Department of English Language and
Literature
Erika Murdey, CMU Graduate Student
Special Thanks to: Kelly Gere, Administrative Secretary,
Department of English Language and
Literature
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort
Conference Student Volunteer: Makaela Lockwood, CMU Student
Conference Lodging and
Accommodations: Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort
Program designed by Dr. Maureen N. Eke, Elizabeth A.
Podufaly Bauer, and Kelly Gere
HRLASS 2015, Page 3
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Maps
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Property Map
4 – 5
4
Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Meeting Space 5
Schedule of Events 5
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Preamble 6
Detailed Daily Agenda: Friday 7 – 12
Welcome 7
Keynote Speaker, Barbara McQuade 8
Panel A 7
Panel B 7
Panel C 9
Panel D 9
Staged Reading: The Frybread Queen 10-11
Detailed Daily Agenda: Saturday 12
Panel E 12
Closing Forum 12
Storytelling Performance 12
Closing Ceremony 12
Participant Index 13
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HRLASS 2015, Page 5
SOARING EAGLE CASINO & RESORT MEETING SPACE Lobby Level
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Friday, October 30th Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, Saginaw Room
8:00 – 9:00 a.m. Welcome and Opening Ceremony
9:00-10:30 a.m. Session A: Discourse of Human Rights, Identity,
Language, and Politics
10:40-12:10 p.m. Session B: Investigating Human Traficking: Case
Studies, Narratives, and Reports
12:20-1:30 p.m. Luncheon Keynote Address
1:45-3:15 p.m. Women’s Experiences, Women’s Rights
3:30-5:15 p.m. Depicting and Addressing Difference in
Literature, the Arts, and the Media
5:30-6:45 p.m. Dinner and Reception
7:00-9:30 p.m. Staged Reading: The Frybread Queen
Saturday, October 31st Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, Saginaw Room
8:00 – 10:00 a.m. Minority Rights, Indigenous Rights, and the UN
10:10-11:20 a.m. Closing Forum
11:20-11:50 a.m. Storytelling Performance: Gayle Ross
11:50 a.m. Closing ceremony
HRLASS events
will be held in the
Saginaw Room
HRLASS 2015, Page 6
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
Adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948
Preamble
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human
family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the
conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and
belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against
tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human
rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have
determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the
promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full
realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF
HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every
individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and
education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and
international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of
Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
UDHR Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 7
8:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Registration Lobby
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM
Welcome & Opening Ceremony
9:00 AM – 10:30 AM
A. Discourse of Human Rights: Identity, Language, and Politics
Chair: Randall Doyle, Mid Michigan Community College
Joshua Adams (Central Michigan University), “Coming Out for International Students”
Bill Blond (Central Michigan University), “Being a Careful Catalyst: How do we respectfully expose
international students to critically analyze human rights issues in their countries of origin?”
John Gagnon (Michigan State University), “Words Matter: Race, Rhetoric, and How We Talk about
Human Trafficking”
Michelle Kourouma (Central Michigan University), “Specific Learning Differences, the American
University, and the English Language Learner: Finding the Individual within the Ecological Model”
Randall Doyle (Mid Michigan Community College), “Human Rights, the U.S. Department of State, and
International Politics in the 21st Century”
10:40 AM – 12:10 PM
B. Investigating Human Trafficking: Case Studies, Narratives, and Reports
Chair: Tracy Collins (Central Michigan University)
Terry McGlasson, Kara Eastling, Brooke Huber, Kris Spedowski, Ann Webster Marsh (Central
Michigan University) “Healing Hidden Wounds: The Mental Health Needs of Victims of Human
Trafficking”
Melanie Weaver (Arizona State University), “Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: Survivor Perspectives”
Brianna O’Steen (University of South Florida), “Redefining Sex Trafficking of Domestic Female
Minors through the Florida Safe Harbor Act”
Amanda Brake (Mid Michigan Community College), “The Voice of the Working Class Single Mom.
Stereotypes vs. Reality”
Syed S. Uddin-Ahmed (St. John’s University), “Projects Abroad Human Rights: The Case of the
Youngsfield Military Base Refugees in Cape Town, South Africa
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 8
12:20 PM – 1:30 PM
Luncheon Keynote Address: Barbara McQuade
(Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan)
Barbara L. McQuade is the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Michigan. She was appointed by President
Barack Obama in 2009.
The first woman to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern
District of Michigan, Ms. McQuade was an Assistant U.S.
Attorney in Detroit for 12 years. She served as Deputy
Chief of the National Security Unit from 2005 to 2009.
From 2003 to 2009, McQuade served as an adjunct law
professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law,
teaching Criminal Law in the evenings.
Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McQuade
practiced law at the firm of Butzel Long in Detroit, and
served as a law clerk to Hon. Bernard A. Friedman on the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
Born in Detroit, McQuade is a 1987 graduate of the
University of Michigan and a 1991 graduate of the
University of Michigan Law School. She and her husband
have four children.
UDHR Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
UDHR Article 2 Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction
shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country
or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing
or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 9
1:45 PM – 3:15 PM
C. Women’s Experiences, Women’s Rights
Chair: Karen Radell, Mid Michigan Community College
Maria Boikova Struble (Western State Colorado University), “Old and Poor: The Politics of Elderly
Care in America”
Dorine Lumsifu (Women Of Action Against Gender Inequality Cameroon), “Business and Gender
Equality in Cameroon”
Jingwi Faith Kawah (Global Conscience Initiative), “Forced Marriages in Cameroon”
Kristie RobertsLewis (Troy University) and LaKerri R. Mack (Troy University), “Women’s Rights:
Examining the Sexual Trafficking of Women & Girls in the African Diaspora”
Karen Radell (Mid Michigan Community College), “Narratives of Human Trafficking: Where Art &
Power, Culture & State Collide”
3:30-5:15 PM
D. Depicting and Addressing Difference in Literature, the Arts, and the Media
Chair: Leïla Ennaïli, Central Michigan University
Susanne Garbe (Trinity College, Dublin), “Can Magic Realism Speak?”
Kali WrightSmith (Westminster College), “From Words to Justice: Using Discourse to Understand and
Encourage Compliance with the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights
Mark Poindexter (Central Michigan University), “Talk Radio in a Multiethnic Society: Radio FreeDom
in the French Overseas Department of Reunion.”
Liliana Mendoza Ortiz (Program of Development and Peace of Magdalena), “Contributions of Songs at
the Symbolic Reparation in Collective Victims of Conflict in Colombia: Study of the Case ASOCAB
Julia Udofia (University of Uyo), “Human Rights, ChildProstitution: Personal and Societal
Implications: Chris Abani's Becoming Abigail”
Leïla Ennaïli (Central Michigan University), “Human Rights and the Roma Question in France in
Documentary Images”
5:30-6:45 PM
Dinner and Reception
UDHR Article 4 No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade
shall be prohibited in all their forms.
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 10
7:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Staged Reading: The Frybread Queen: a Play by Carolyn Dunn (Dr. Jean Bruce Scott)
The Frybread Queen is a play by Carolyn Dunn that deals with three generations of Native American women
who are engaged in a struggle for their survival and for the future. (Short Q/A Follows)
Aleut actress, director,
choreographer and
playwright Jane Lind
began her professional
career at the Institute of
American Indian Arts in
Santa Fe, New Mexico,
and continued her
training at New York
University and Paris, France.
As a co-founder of the
Native American Theater
Ensemble, she performed
in various productions by
Peter Brooks, Hanay Geiogamah, John
Vacarro, Andrei Serban and Ellen
Stewart. Jane was the female lead and choreographer for
Donovan Marley's production of "Black Elk Speaks" for
which she received the prestigious awards of Best
Choreographer from the Denver Drama Critics Circle and
Best Actress from the First Americans in the Arts.
Jane's film and television credits include Percy Adlon's
"Salmonberries", the mini-series "Return to Lonesome
Dove" and TNT's "Crazy Horse".
Her theater credits include the Cherokee Historical
Society's "Unto These Hills", Juneau, Alaska's
Perseverence Theater's productions of "Raven's Odyssey"
and "The Vagina Monologues", the Theater of Yugen's
"Crazy Horse-Moon of the Scarlet Plums," and most
recently Native Voices at the Autry's "The Frybread
Queen" in Los Angeles.
Shyla Marlin’s (Choctaw) recent highlighted theatre
credits include Native Visions (Will & Co), Off the Rails
(Native Voices), Ungipamsuuka (My Story) & The
Frybread Queen (Native Voices).
Highlighted Film/TV credits include Whatever It Takes
(Sony), The Alibi (Endgame Entertainment), Woo (New
Line), Fashion House (MyTV), Saints and Sinners
(MyTV), and Minding the Store (TBS).
Writing and producing credits include The
Hummingbirds (Native Voices and LATC Playwright
Workshops), Still Standing (Vitality Prod.), and A
Starbuck’s Story (“Best Short,” FAIF Film Festival). A
graduate of the University of Southern California, she
studied Theatre and French.
Shyla Marlin
Jane Lind
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 11
The Frybread Queen, Cast Cont.
Elizabeth
Frances' film/TV
credits include Ghost
Forest, Hunting
(Cannes 2012 short
film corner selection),
and Drunktown's
Finest with Executive
Producer Robert
Redford. Elizabeth
was also featured as
one of twelve actors in
the 2012 Talent
Showcase with ABC.
Ms. Frances has
performed at various theaters
including Center Theater
Group, La Jolla Playhouse,
Los Angeles Theater Center, Shakespeare Santa Cruz,
Native Voices, and The Kirk Douglas Theater. Her
work ranges from the narrative to the experimental
including work with artists Travis Preston, Phil
Soltanoff (Mad Dog Theater), Jim Findlay (Wooster
Group), and Robert Cantarella (Artistic Director of
104 in Paris, France).
She has developed and performed world premiere
presentations with writers Josefina Lopez, Carolyn
Dunn, and Melinda Lopez. Recently, she has co-
written the play "Hummingbirds", which has been
workshopped at the Wells Fargo Theater with Native
Voices at the Autry in combination with UCLA and
LATC. She holds a BFA from Calarts.
http://www.elizabethfrances.com/
Jean Bruce Scott, Founder and Producing
Executive Director of Native Voices at the Autry
has spent over 20 years developing new plays,
including over 200 by Native American
playwrights. She has produced thirty plays
including twenty-six premieres, 21 New Play
Festivals, 12 Playwrights Retreats, over 200 play
readings, and 19 national and international tours.
She is co-creator of the Native Radio Theater
Project, a collaboration between Native Voices
and Native American Public Telecommunications
and developed The Alaska Native Playwrights
Project.
Jean serves on the National Advisory Board for
the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, the
Leadership Board of the Theatrical Producer’s
League of Los
Angeles, Large-Size
Theatres, the Board
of Directors for The
Media Arts Center,
San Diego, and is an
elected member to
the National Theatre
Conference.
Elizabeth Frances
Yoakem
Jean Scott, Dir.
UDHR Article 15 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through
any media and regardless of frontiers.
FRIDAY, October 30th
HRLASS 2015, Page 12
Carolyn Dunn, The Frybread Queen playwright
Carolyn Dunn, PhD., is an American Indian artist of Cherokee, Muskogee Creek,
and Seminole descent on her father's side, and is Cajun, French Creole, and
Tunica-Biloxi on her mother's. Her work has been recognized by the Wordcraft
Circle of Storytellers and Writers as Book of the Year for poetry (Outfoxing
Coyote, 2002) as well as the Year's Best in 1999 for her short story "Salmon
Creek Road Kill," Native American Music Awards (for the Mankillers cd Comin
to Getcha) and the Humboldt Area Foundation. In addition to Outfoxing Coyote,
her books include Through the Eye of the Deer (Aunt Lute Books, 1999), Hozho:
Walking in Beauty (McGraw Hill, 2002), Coyote Speaks (H.N. Abrams,
2008), Echolocation: Poems, Stories and Songs from Indian Country: L.A.
(Fezziweg Press, 2013), and the forthcoming The Stains of Burden and Dumb
Luck (Mongrel Empire Press, 2016).
As an academic, Dr. Dunn's work has primarily focused on landscape in
American Indian women's literature (poetry, prose, and drama), and urban
American Indian identity formation in California. She received her Doctorate in
American Studies (with a focus on American Indian Literature and Theater) from
the University of Southern California, where she was a James Irvine Fellow, and an M.A. in American Indian literature and
folklore from UCLA. Her essays have appeared in The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Belles Lettres, and the
anthologies American Indian Performing Arts: Critical Directions, Reading Native American Women, and Cultural
Representation and Contestation in Native America, among others. She has taught and developed university curriculum in
American Indian literature (poetry and fiction), history, and theatre; she has adapted and directed numerous radio theatre plays
as well as staged productions of traditional stories, poems and songs with the American Indian Theatre Collective, Chapa De
Indian Youth Theatre Company, The Los Angeles Theater Project, and directed a staged reading of Arigon Starr's one woman
play, The Red Road for Native Voices at The Autry at the Autry National Center in Los Angeles in 2005. Her fiction and poetry
appeared in numerous anthologies, including After (Hyperion, 2012), The Coyote Road (Viking, 2007) and Green Man: Tales
from the Mythic Forest (Viking, 2004). Her plays have been produced all over the country; her most recent play, The Frybread
Queen, premiered in Los Angeles in March 2011, after a developmental production at Montana Repertory Theater and at the
La Jolla Playhouse. The play has been called "one of the most talked about new Native theater pieces in the United States."
(Broadway World).
Currently, Dr. Dunn is an Assistant Professor of Literature and Language and Creative Writing and is the Associate Vice
President for Institutional Diversity at Central Michigan University, where she oversees grant programs that support student
academic outreach, support and retention with an annual grant fund budget of over $300,000 dollars, including Upward Bound,
GEAR Up, King Chavez Parks programs, and Michigan Campus Compact.
UDHR Article 5 No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment.
SATURDAY, October 31st
HRLASS 2015, Page 13
8:00 AM – 11:50 AM
Registration Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Lobby
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM
E. Minority Rights, Indigenous Rights, & the U.N. Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, Saginaw Room
Chair: Aliko Songolo (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Maissara Saeed (German Sudanese Association for Development ), “There is a Rat in My Kitchen, What
Am I Going to Do?”
Syed S. UddinAhmed (St. John's University), “Uyghur Muslim Minorities: Discriminatory Policies
from Mao to the Present”
Maureen N. Eke (Central Michigan University), “Negotiating Identity: Exploring Griqua Rights and
First Nation Identities in a (Post)Apartheid State”
Vivek Kumar Dwivedi (Northern Border University), “Human Rights: A Ploy to Recolonize the Third
World”
Aliko Songolo (University of WisconsinMadison), “The DRC Mapping Exercise Report: A Dead
Letter?”
10:10 AM – 11:20 AM
Closing Forum: Indigenous Women, Rights, and Security
Chair: Maureen N. Eke, Central Michigan University
11:20 AM – 11:50 AM
Storytelling Performance: Gayle Ross
11:50 AM
Closing Ceremony
UDHR Article 13 (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and
residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to his country.
UDHR Article 15 (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality
nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Index of HRLASS 2015 Participants and Panels
HRLASS 2015, Page 14
Adams, Joshua………………………………………………………….……..………..A
Blond, Bill………………………………………………………..…………………….A
Brake, Amanda…………………………………………………………………..……..B
Collins, Tracy*………………………………………………………………………….B
Doyle, Randall………………………………………………………...…………...…...A
Dunn, Carolyn…………………………………………………….……Reading, Closing
Dwivedi, Vivek Kumar………………………………………………………..…..........E
Eastling, Kara…………………………………………………………………..…...…..B
Ennaïli, Leïla *………………………………………………………………..…...…...D
Eke, Maureen*……………………………………………………………..….E, Closing
Gagnon, John T……………………………………………………………..…...……...A
Garbe, Susanne………………………………………………………………....………D
Huber, Brooke……………………………………………………………….……….....B
Kawah, Jingwi Faith…………………………………………………….…………...…C
Kourouma, Michelle Sue……………………………………………………….…...….A
Lind, Jane………………………………………………………....……Reading, Closing
Lumisfu, Dorine…………………………………………………………...……….…...D
Mack, Lakerri R……………………………………………………..…………….……C
Marlin, Shayla……………………………………………………….....Reading, Closing
McGlasson, Terry………………………………………………….………..………….B
McQuade, Barbara……………………………………………………..…….….Keynote
Mendoza Ortiz, Liliana……………………………………………………….……...…D
O’Steen, Brianna……………………………………………………………..…..……..B
Poindexter, Mark…………………………………………………………………...…..D
Radell, Karen*………………………………………………………………….…....…C
Randell, Doyle*…………………………………………………………………….…..A
Roberts-Lewis, Kristie…………………………………………………………….…....C
Ross, Gayle……………………………………………………………..……Storytelling
Saeed, Maissara M……………………………………………………………….……..E
Scott, Jean…………………………………………………………..….Reading, Closing
Songolo, Aliko*..…………………………………………………………………….…E
Spedowski, Kris…………………………………………………………………….…..B
Struble, Maria Boikova……………………………………………………...……….…C
Uddin-Ahmed, Syed………………………………………………………………….B,E
Udofia, Julia…………………………………………………………………………….D
Weaver, Melanie………………………………………………………………………..B
Webster Marsh, Ann………….………………………………………………………...B
Wright-Smith, Kali……………...………………………………………………….…..C
Yoakem, Elizabeth……………………………………………………..Reading, Closing * Panel/Event Chair
UDHR Article 25 (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself
and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services,
and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children,
whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.