The Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative at Indiana University of Pennsylvania will offer a fall lecture series starting September 11.
The programs are free and open to the community and are presented via Zoom from 4:00 to 5:15 p.m., alternating between Wednesdays and Fridays. While the series is free, Zoom registration is required. The series runs through December.
The Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative is a cross-disciplinary resource at IUP dedicated to the study of myth in a myriad of forms—literary, visual, musical, and performative—with the intention of fostering dialogue across languages, cultures, and historical periods, supporting innovative research, teaching, and creative projects.
Fall Lecture Series Topics and Presenters
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Sept. 11 – “The Underworld and Its Representation in Video Games: A Comparison of Senua’s Hellblade & Hades”
Begoña Cadiñanos Martínez, Ruth García Martín, and Pablo Martín Domínguez -
Sept. 23 – “Where the Edge of the Horizon Meets the Sky: The World of Afterlife Goddesses”
Jayme Novara -
Oct. 9 – “Elegy as an Expansion of the Dead in Abraham Sutzkever’s Poetry” and “Living Yiddish and the Language of the Dead: Abraham Sutzkever’s Post-Holocaust Poetry”
Kate Kimbrell and IUP Professor of English Michael Williamson, -
Oct. 21 – “The Generating Spirit of the 19th-Century American House and Home”
Cole Phillips -
Nov. 6 – “Between Fanaa and Baqaa: Mystical Poetry as the Practice of Aliveness” and “Speaking Death: Myth, Language, and Non-Being”
Mahrukh Hamid and Nicolas Michaud -
Nov. 18 – “Exhumed or Erased? Anne Brontë and the Brontë Myth”
Stacey Hoffer -
Dec. 4 – “The Hidden Art of Fore-edge Paintings and Poetry at IUP”
IUP Special Collections Librarian and University Archivist Harrison Wick
Sean McDaniel, IUP professor of Spanish in the Department of Language, Literature, and Writing, is the director of the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative. During his sabbatical, IUP professor of English Michael Williamson, who formerly served as the Myth Collaborative director, is serving as the interim director.
Kristin Mlay-Kuhns, an adjunct professor in IUP’s Department of Language, Literature and Writing and a PhD candidate in the Literature and Criticism doctoral program, is the associate director of the Myth Collaborative. Baylie Jett Mills, a doctoral student in the Literature and Criticism program, is the assistant director.
“The Myth Collaborative exists because of the vision, scholarship, and lifelong dedication of Professor Emerita Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, professor of English and founder of IUP’s interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Myth, Folklore, Legend, and Archetypal Studies,” McDaniels said.
Roffman donated 172 books to establish the Rosaly DeMaios Roffman Collection Center for the Study of Myth and Folklore at IUP. She inspired generations of students and scholars to see myth as a living, evolving field of study, including the late Blane Dessy, who supported the idea of a myth center and donated $100,000 in 2019 to the IUP College of Humanities and Social Sciences Building Enhancement Fund.
Upon his retirement, Dessy, a 1973 English major graduate, helped found the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative, which officially opened in 2021. The Collaborative is physically located in the Department of Language, Literature, and Writing in Jane E. Leonard Hall.
Recently, the Myth Collaborative has been expanding its outreach with the creation of an Instagram page, @mythcollaborative, and a website currently in the works, MythCollaborative.org. The Myth Collaborative also plans to reinvigorate Studies in the Humanities, IUP’s English and literary criticism–focused academic journal, this semester.
The Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative is also conducting a logo design contest; submissions are due by November 25. This contest is open to students and community members, and the creator of the winning submission will receive a prize of $100 and will have the winning artwork featured by the Myth Collaborative.