The Great Literary Roast: Giving Fictional Characters the Critique They Deserve. Presiding Officer & Chair: Oksana Marafioti, University of Nevada - Las Vegas. Location: Grand Ballroom A (3rd floor)Special Event & World Literatures and Comparative Studies.

Urban Spirits and Ancestral Echoes: Rewriting Romani Folklore for the Modern World: This talk explores how Romani folklore adapts within contemporary urban landscapes, transforming ancestral spirits and myths into tools of cultural survival and resistance. By examining storytelling as a living palimpsest, it reveals how inherited narratives evolve to reflect modern anxieties while preserving the deep memory of a historically marginalized people.