AugieCon expands across departments with pop culture focus

For the past four years, Assistant Professor of English Emily Roehl has hosted AugieCon to celebrate all things comics and pop culture, featuring student presentations, dioramas, cosplays and more.

Students presenting in the past have all been enrolled in Roehl’s Literary Experience: Comics and Graphic Narratives. This year, however — in what Roehl is calling the “crossover event of the semester” — AugieCon is expanding to also feature student work from two classes in the religion, philosophy and classics department.

One of these is Scriptures, Sci-Fi and Fantasy, taught by Associate Professor of Religion and Philosophy Julie Loveland Swanstrom; the other, which examines religious nationalisms using Star Wars as a lens, is taught by Assistant Professor of Religion Xenia Chan.

According to Chan, planning the convention was easy because of the synergy between the three professors.

Roehl said the same about making the decision to expand the event, noting how similar the subject matter is in each of the courses. 

“We are all nerds who love pop culture things,” Roehl said. “Also, as teachers, we are really invested in coming up with creative, engaging final assignments for our students.”

The convention will act as the final exam for all three courses, and students will present their projects for a grade. The convention will take place on May 20 in Humanities classrooms 102, 103 and 123.

Students have the creative freedom to choose what type of project they do: Common choices include posters, fanfictions and dioramas. The only stipulation for a project’s subject matter is that it must align with that of the course the student is taking.

First-year government and international studies major Ayden Calvert, who is in Chan’s Star Wars class, decided to incorporate his love of Legos into his project.

“I want to look at groups throughout Star Wars and give almost a beginner’s manual to understanding them,” Calvert said. “I’m doing a Lego diorama where each group has their own scenery, and I show how they were formed.”

Calvert plans to focus on six distinct groups: the Jedi, the Sith, the Clone Troopers, the Empire, the Senate and the Mandalorians. He will discuss the creation of these groups in universe and real-life social equivalents for each of them, like the Mandalorians representing a Creole people.

Junior education and Spanish double major KT Pagone will be doing a reading of a fanfiction she wrote based on Season 1 Episode 14 of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” 

“It will discuss pacifism, Thomas Aquinas’ war theory and how strongly peacefulness is kept,” Pagone said. 

In combining pop culture with academic study, the three professors hope to help their students to learn in an interesting way.

“All semester we’re working with very deep topics and talking about how it connects to our world,” Loveland Swanstrom said. “We’re seeing things like what kind of films had religious elements that you didn’t even think had religious elements.”

Chan said that she also thinks the convention has the potential to give her students a deeper understanding of class material.

“The content is difficult, and so if we can make it more fun and engaging, students have a better time,” Chan said. “And the truth is, when students have a better time, the retention is better.”

The event will also feature a cosplay parade, during which everyone in cosplay will walk around the Fryxell Humanities Center displaying their costumes. Anyone in attendance is invited to dress up. 

Christy Tidwell, an environmental literature and media scholar who studies comics and children’s books, will deliver a keynote address about environmental problems represented in children’s books.

Roehl said that the three professors believe their students will appreciate Tidwell’s perspectives on illustrated books, especially the art and elementary education majors in their classes. 

“Most people, when they think of kid’s books and the environment, think of books like ‘The Lorax,’” Roehl said. “[Tidwell] is going to talk about a number of other books that came out around the same time that deal with similar issues, but especially things like toxins, heavy industry and animal rights.”

Roehl also said that the professors would also be open to further cross-department expansion of the convention. 

“We’re already thinking about future courses and how they might fit into AugieCon,” Roehl said. “I think it’s really important for people to be able to gather around and celebrate work in new ways.”