Rutgers Comp Lit graduate students participated in the 2026 Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA) Conference held in Pittsburgh, presenting their research across a range of panels. Representing multiple cohorts, they shared their work on topics spanning literature, film, and critical theory and engaging with questions of translation, readership, diaspora and affective memories, consumerism, and more.
Among all the participants, Roni Lakin (featured in the photo), a member of our first-year cohort, presented “Las sonrisas tienen dientes: Consumo, producción y mujeres caníbales en Fruta podrida” as part of the panel “Awakening Monsters in Latin America: From Eco-horror to Tech Doom.” His presentation explored the use of both literal and metaphorical cannibalism in Lina Meruane’s novel, Fruta Podrida. By highlighting moments of rebellious consumption, this analysis demonstrated how the figure of the cannibal allows Meruane to critique global patterns of consumption under neoliberal capitalism. He was especially excited to attend a special presentation by Meruane herself, who was a featured speaker at the conference.
All the RU Comp Lit participants’ panels and papers are listed as follows:
Roni Lakin,
Panel “Awakening Monsters in Latin America: From Eco-horror to Tech Doom,”
Paper title: “Las sonrisas tienen dientes: Consumo, producción y mujeres caníbales en Fruta Podrida”
Inês Monteiro,
Panel “Generational Divides in French Literary and Cinematic Arts–Women in French,”
Paper Title: “Maternal Absence and the Poetics of Subject Formation in Nathalie Sarraute’s Childhood”
Ziyin Qian,
Panel “The Production of Space in Literature, Cinema, Photography, and the Media (Part 1)”
Paper Title: “The Theatrical Spaces of Collapse in Ethical Paradox”
Chen Xing,
Panel 1 “Migrations of the Self: Women’s Stories of Borders, Boundaries, and Becoming (Part 2)”
Paper Title: “Feeling Exile, Remembering the Nation: Music, Poetry and Gendered Memory in The Great Flowing River”
Panel 2 “(Re)Imagining Home(s) (Part 3)”
Paper Title: “Home as Remedy and Poison: Reimagining Belonging in Durian Durian”
Aditi Saraswat,
Panel “Literary landscapes of crossing (Part 2)”
Paper Title: “Beyond Earthly Relations: The Poetics of Crossing in Amrita Pritam’s ‘Dharti Ka Sambandh’”