AUIS Capstone Panel: An Evening of Major Exchange
On the evening of May 15 2025, undergraduate students from the International Studies and English departments at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) presented their work-in-progress at a Capstone Mini-conference held on the university’s campus. The conference consisted of two panels: an International Studies panel along with an English Literature panel, both of which were followed by Q&A sessions.Students that presented during the second panel of the conference- the English Literature panel- and student attendees expressed that they had learned a lot as a result of participating and attending the conference respectively. The two departments which normally hold separate conferences for their graduating students decided to join the two this year because they would have otherwise been too short on their own to be called conferences, confirmed Dr. Isaac Cowell, supervisor of the three English Literature papers presented on the day.
As Dr. Ali Chetwynd- chair of the English Department- explained via email sent a day prior to the event, the aim of the conference is to foster mutual benefit, hence why he urged students to attend stating “Please come along, both for the sake of your own interest (in the topics, and in what graduating-stage work in our departments looks like), and also to give these students the benefit of your feedback on their work-in-progress.”
Zhyako Baqi, a fifth semester student minoring in English Literature, revealed that one of the papers presented during the panel had resonated with him a lot, proposing yet another benefit of attending the conference “I think [the conference] exposes you to ideas, ones you might never in your life be exposed to, and really, really challenges the way you think so if you want to stay the same in your life don’t come to these conferences.”
Other attending students like Hussain Ali, a student majoring in English Literature, benefited by witnessing students in a position he would soon find himself in.
He found the presentations to be “illuminating” adding “I deal with it as a Literature student, as some sort of path or trajectory of topics, or like some sort of a level that we are supposed to keep and elevate with.”
Likewise the presenters of the second panel found the feedback that they had received from the audience to be beneficial and expressed their confidence towards refining and finishing their papers in the coming weeks.
Zainab Alaa, who presented a paper titled “Book-to-Film Adaptations, Medium-Specificity, and Why We Need the ‘Binding Thread’”, stated “I think the questions that the people asked were very helpful in making me evaluate some parts of my argument and also think about where to go next.”
She also recalled her experience attending the capstone conference her fellow peers presented at back in 2023 and how it helped her during her own presentation “I got to see the environment and what it would be like, so like every time I felt nervous about doing something when I was doing my presentation, I would just think Zinah and Juman just sat and presented theirs and I was like ok so it’s a chill environment.”
Bana Fadhil who presented a paper on the concept of Reparative Reading titled “Rewriting Myths, Recasting Objects: Reparative Reading in Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit”, said that they had confirmed a gap she had pondered earlier in the day. She especially loved how Dr. Chetwynd “connected all of our projects together at the end.”
Dr. Chetwynd’s observations did not end there, during an interview after the conference he pointed out how the presenters and attendees both played a role in the event’s success at meeting its aims.
“I think the Q&As were good in both cases, they sort of showed how well somebody actually can keep the conversation about their work going and I think that was well done for all five presenters.”
Recalling the Research-in-progress in the English Fields Forum held just a few weeks earlier at the university, he reflected on the quality of AUIS students’ engagement during events such as these “That is one of the signs [student audience members asking critical questions] that we have trained people well I suppose. But you can also see the difference at the Forum, the kind of questions that our students ask, they are actually noticeably different from the questions that other people from outside ask, and they are generally constructive, they are generally the kind of thing that actually help presenters think their thoughts through.”
Despite the capstones being far from complete, all three students expressed confidence in getting their work done in the upcoming final weeks of the semester.
Zainab said that she did not feel too pressured but “I do feel pressure in terms of will I have enough ideas or will my arguments be sound but I do think that he [Dr. Isaac] is going to help me figure it all out.”
- Daleen Farhad