When local producer and podcast artist Julie Censullo was asked to give the keynote speech for the University of St. Thomas’ English and Communication Studies conference, “The Art of Storytelling,” she said it was no coincidence that she fell back on what she does best: telling stories.
“Part of it was a little bit as a cheat code, like, if I build this speech out of stories, I know I can talk for an hour, right?” Censullo said. “But I did want to give advice through stories because I think it is the way we understand the world.”
Alexis Easley, the department chair of both English and Communication Studies, said she had a similar thought when choosing a theme for the conference — the first collaborative event of its kind between the two departments. The idea pervaded discussions at 11 different panels in the Anderson Student Center on Friday.
“It has a kind of celebratory feel,” Easley said. “At the end of the semester, let’s get together and just celebrate what makes our students great.”
That celebration extended invites to students from nearby colleges; from as near as Macalester College and as far as the University of Nebraska, visiting students joined St. Thomas graduate and undergraduate students in presenting on topics such as editing, creative writing, sports communication and cinema storytelling.
Marquette University senior Alice Spong’s trip was made easier by the fact that she could stay at home a few blocks from campus with her mom, whom she brought along to hear her speak about narrative medicine and hip-hop’s use in public health initiatives.
“It’s interesting to just gain new perspectives from other people and just learn stuff,” Spong said. “I am not an English major; I’m not a communications major, so this is a really good reason to branch out that knowledge.”
Augsburg University senior Karelly Reyes Alvarado said she was also excited to make connections at the conference. She said she further sought to educate others about how media can impact their perception of immigrant communities, especially in light of the Trump administration’s recent string of deportations.
“We live in Minnesota, where it’s very immigrant-filled, … and when that community is being attacked or not being given a good rep, it’s affecting me, and it’s affecting my family and my community,” Alvarado said. “I want to give people a new perspective of what it means to be involved with the community, where immigrants are such a huge part of that.”
Easley said she hoped the “wide variety” of panels would fill attendees with inspiration for the power and history of storytelling — just as she and other department heads filled the hole left by the cancellation of past conferences.
For English students, this was the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities’ annual English Majors Conference, which fell into cancellation due to the pandemic and declining interest from host schools. Meanwhile, Easley said, the Communication Studies department’s annual undergraduate research conference went on hiatus last year due to staffing issues.
With students in both departments deprived of opportunities to share and collaborate, Easley said she and other department members took the opportunity to pick up the pen and co-author a new conference.
“This year we said, ‘Why don’t we do a combination?’” Easley said.
Easley said she thought the conference would return next year and hoped that students would form lasting relationships and connections outside their typical networks, which Censullo said is a natural part of storytelling itself.
“I wanted people to be thinking about storytelling both as an art and as a relationship-building tool,” Censullo said. “A lot of my encouragement to listen is an encouragement to build relationships because I think that’s how you can live through the world as an artist and as a storyteller and as a writer: you need relationships.”
Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.
