Paije Wee Participates in Buena Vista University's Twelfth Annual Scholars Day

2016 May 6

Buena Vista University's (BVU) twelfth annual Scholars Day was held Friday, April 22. The event provided students from all disciplines an opportunity to present their best presentations, original research, academic posters, artistic creations and performances to their peers, professors and the public.

This year's Scholars Day event featured 38 presentations from 66 students, exploring topics from literature and business to science and history.

Paije Wee , a senior English major from Spirit Lake , was one of the students who participated. Wee 's presentation was titled The One Will Kill the Other: The Deconstruction of Oppositional Binaries in Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, and the project's abstract is as follows:

Victor Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris, better known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame by English-speaking audiences, is considered by many to be one of Hugo's great masterpieces. Published in 1831, the story has not only survived, but has flourished for just shy of two centuries. Although many are in agreement regarding the author's intent of saving the Notre Dame cathedral in writing the text, several critics have noticeable difficulty in connecting this intent with the plot, resulting in several critics choosing to only address one or the other (the intent or the story). This neglect fails to dispel the ambiguity surrounding Hugo's authorial discretion and additionally marginalizes the stylistic complexity of the novel. Therefore, rather than analyzing the plot (relating to the characters) and the intention as two separate entities, as has been frequently done in the past, I analyze them as interrelated components connected through Hugo's stylistic usage and deconstruction of oppositional binaries. It is through this structuralist deconstruction of binaries that Hugo's intentions are communicated, including the widely known intent of preserving Notre Dame and an additional, underlying intention, being the unification of the past with the present.

The keynote speaker for the event was Grant Gerlock, BVU Class of 2004, who is a Harvest Public Media reporter at NET News. Gerlock is recognized as a great storyteller and has visited coal plants, dairy farms, horse tracks and hospitals to cover a variety of stories.

"The students put so much into their research-time, effort, resources-that it becomes a part of them," said Dr. Steven Mills, assistant professor of Spanish and chair of the events committee who organized the event. "As they give their presentations and share their knowledge with the audience, their countenance brightens, their confidence rises and their eyes light up. What has become a part of their identity flows out with energy and enthusiasm; they feel like they have truly succeeded, and this success can be valuable to others, as well. I have seen every student walk away with a firmer step and a deeper desire to turn his or her academic work into something more."

A photo gallery from the Scholars Day event is available at www.bvu.edu/scholarsday.