Jesse Bynum (Modern Languages-Spanish major with English minor) and Hannah Cheeks (Psychology and Modern Languages-Spanish major) participated in the Creative Inquiry project offered by Dr. Graciela Tissera: The Hispanic world through film, literature and media. This project analyzes social, philosophical, political, and economic issues in the Hispanic world through videos and pertinent materials from world-renowned authors and film directors. Jesse and Hannah presented their research at the Focus on Creative Inquiry Poster Forum at Clemson (April 3, 2018) and also participated in the session “Individuals versus Systems in Cinema” at the SouthEast Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (April 5-6, 2018) organized by Georgia Southern University.
They explored confrontations between individuals and systems to analyze strategies, values, and ultimate consequences while establishing a theoretical framework to the research. The analyses focused on the complex relationships portrayed inside and outside systems in multicultural environments and relate to a wide diversity of topics: psychoanalysis, metaphysics, ethics, technology, health, business, and gender. Jesse Bynum’s research paper “Systematic Defensive Memory and Psychological Trauma in David Carreras’ Hipnos (2004)” discussed dissociative identity disorders as coping mechanisms and experimental treatments for severely emotionally disturbed patients. Hannah Cheeks’s research paper “Exploring the Treacherous Systems of the Mind: Sergi Vizcaíno’s Paranormal Xperience (2011)” centered on altered perceptions and symbols created by the unconscious mind as representations of systems influencing human behavior. The professional presentations were made possible through the Creative Inquiry Program and the Department of Languages travel grants.