Meet the Executive Board
President: Emily O'Dell
Emily O'Dell holds a BA in French from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2012) and a MA in French Studies from Louisiana State University (2016). O'Dell is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature with a graduate minor in Anthropology. Her dissertation focuses on representations of children and childhood in fiction by authors from the French, Spanish, and English speaking Caribbean islands. She is the current Vice President of the Graduate Student Caucus of the Modern Languages. Her research interests include: Caribbean literature and culture; Louisiana literature and culture; folklore; French and Francophone literatures; Postcolonial studies; Cultural Anthropology.
Vice President: Liz Johnston
Liz Johnston earned a BA in English Writing with a minor Social Media from Loyola University New Orleans in 2017. She is the former Chairperson of the Loyola University Community Action Program (LUCAP), the largest and oldest service and social justice organization at Loyola, a role which won her the "Organization Officer of the Year" Magis Leadership Award in 2017. She is also the former Editor in Chief of the Loyola Branch of the Odyssey Online, was a staff writer for CCPUB.org, and was a Copy Editor for The Maroon. Now a Comparative Literature Ph.D. student at LSU, Liz's academic interests include Creole Cultures/Literary Studies, Poetry and Poetics, and Afro-American Religions and Literature.
Secretary: Jose F. Rojas
José F. Rojas holds a BA in Modern Languages from University of Louisiana at Lafayette (2012) and a MA in Hispanic Studies with a concentration in Linguistics concentration from Louisiana State University (2015). He works in English, Spanish, and Portuguese languages and literatures. Rojas examines different representations of criminal women in the mid 19th century; Mexican, South American and Spanish novels from naturalism to Foucaultian perspectives. His interest is to compare, in a transatlantic context, the focus of these representations and their social function. Nano extends this research into lyric theatre by exploring the representation of criminal women in operas and zarzuelas.
Treasurer: Negar Basiri
Negar Basiri received her BA in English literature from Isfahan University, Iran. She also holds an MA in the same major from Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, Iran. She is a PhD candidate and a graduate teaching assistant in LSU. She works on English, Persian and French languages and literatures. She is interested in theories of ethics and postmodern philosophy particularly the ethical theories of Emmanuel Levinas. Her current research concentrates on issues of aesthetics violence and ethics of representation. She tries to examine the representation and reception of Persian literature to the world.
TBD - Social Ambassador