On April 6 2025, Hunter Daum presented a paper at Lycoming College鈥檚 second annual Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference. Hunter鈥檚 paper is titled, 鈥淨ueer, Religious, and Victorian Women Explored through the Works of Christina Rossetti and Zadie Smith鈥檚 The Fraud鈥� and they presented on the 鈥淚ntersecting Femininity鈥� panel. Hunter is a human society major minoring in communications, on track to graduate in 2025.
Students came from all over the region to present papers at this humanities conference. 鈥淎nyone who ever gets an opportunity to present at an undergrad conference should present at an undergrad conference,鈥� said Hunter. 鈥淚t was one of the coolest and most welcoming environments I鈥檝e ever been in. Like, everyone was just so excited to listen to everyone else.鈥�
Hunter鈥檚 paper was originally written for a Victorian literature course, and it explores queer relationships between highly religious women in Victorian times. The main authors they focused on were Christina Rossetti and Michael Field鈥攁 pseudonym for authors Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper. 鈥淧eople were really supportive of everyone because it was an undergrad conference, so they were excited that we wanted to participate,鈥� said Hunter, 鈥淎nd so once I saw other people present I was like 鈥榦h, not that nervous anymore actually, I think I got this, I did a lot of research and I鈥檓 excited to talk about it, and mostly it was a really good experience.鈥�