Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulty understanding and using spoken language, which negatively impacts their academic outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing. DLD is highly prevalent, affecting approximately two out of every 25 children, but less than 40% of children with DLD are ever identified to receive services. Currently, we rely on parent and teacher referrals to find DLD, which is clearly insufficient. Additionally, 50% of children with DLD will also develop the reading disorder dyslexia, meaning they will struggle with both spoken and written language. Given schools’ limited time and resources, we need an efficient method for (a) identifying DLD and (b) identifying which children with DLD will go on to develop dyslexia. However, there is currently no method of predicting later language/literacy abilities for children with DLD. This study was the first to investigate three metalinguistic skills in children with DLD—phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness—which may longitudinally predict language and literacy abilities. As part of a wider NIH grant, this study followed several cohorts of children in Montana and Massachusetts from kindergarten to second grade. Three subgroups of each cohort—those with DLD only, DLD plus dyslexia, and a control group of typically developing children—completed a battery of assessments in kindergarten and second grade. Multivariate multiple regression will be used to evaluate whether the three metalinguistic skills can (a) concurrently predict kindergarten language and literacy scores (i.e., identify DLD) and (b) longitudinally predict second grade scores (e.g., predict dyslexia). To determine if predictive power varies by subgroup, the regression models will include an interaction term dummy coded for group status. If these three metalinguistic skills predict DLD and/or dyslexia, this study will provide a cost-effective identification method that eliminates the subjectivity of parent/teacher referrals, ultimately helping more children get the services they need.

There is no shortage of thinkpieces—online or in print—responding to Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker. At the time, it was hailed as a singular vindication for an invisible lower class, a searing evisceration of unchecked capitalism’s poisoning of social morality, and a pitiful and self-righteous (dangerous, even) masturbation for straight, white incels. What fascinated me upon first watch, however, was the subterranean tension between the dreams of protagonist Arthur Fleck and the system which would validate those dreams. Joker is the story of a clown trying to entertain in a world of stand-up comedians, and—working from this premise alone—it will always end in tragedy as these two “factions” will never find reconciliation. As an MFA Directing Candidate and Co-Director of the University of Montana’s upcoming production of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, I (and the undergraduate students of the School of Theatre & Dance) have a unique opportunity to explore this tension between different modalities of performance-based comedy as a form of ongoing, embodied research. As of the time of writing this abstract, Earnest is still in rehearsal, but will have concluded its two-week production run by the time of GradCon 2025.

Why Are You Laughing Right Now? is an exploration of three realms of comedic performance: comedic personage (the clown), comedic irony (the stand-up), and comedic satire (the bouffon). These performance terms have substantive differences from their literary analogues, and to fully appreciate the distinctions between literary comedy and theatrical comedy is to better understand theatre as an art form. To aid in the analysis of these distinctions will be the study of Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Nelson, and the University of Montana’s The Importance of Being Earnest, supplemented by my own research adapting a career in physical comedy to an academic theatre department.

Africa is a continent of great tangible and intangible heritage riches in both cultural and natural forms. In the past, its engagement with Europe through Slave Trade and Colonialism resulted in partitioning of its continents and people thus impacting community boundaries, cultural practices and heritage management in general. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO 1972 World Heritage Convention) through its Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List since 1994 has enabled African heritage to be prioritized. Although this convention has all African States as signatories, little is left to show on the World Heritage List exemplifying the true nature of African Heritage Resources and Management Principles. As a mentee of the World Heritage Mentorship Program for Africa, I have participated in a few World Heritage visits to some African countries as a way of examining heritage management in Africa. Our mission to Ghana’s World Heritage Sites reveals how the impact of colonialism continues to eat the fabric in African heritage management from the consequences of disassociating community values and principles of heritage management concepts from African monument management. This presentation is thus a reflection of the realities of many African Heritage Sites linked with Colonialism through the lens Ghana’s iconic World Heritage Sites.