Sophomore Makenzie Pentz, a Women’s and Gender Studies and Classics double major from Crossville, Tennessee, recently presented her paper “Monica Lewinsky: From Scandal to Social Activism.” Pentz’s paper argues that Lewinsky “has developed a platform of activism against cyberbullying and has since given speeches that deserve examination for their historical significance in women’s rhetoric,” especially within the context of the #MeToo Movement. The panel’s faculty chair, Prof. Melissa Plew of Georgia Southern University, closed the session by saying that Makenzie and her fellow panelists “show us all that the future is bright” for undergraduate scholars in rhetoric. Pentz wrote the paper for Prof. Melody Lehn's RHET 331: Voices of American Women class in Easter 2021. Read more about Makenzie and the other Sewanee student researchers who participated in the Clevenger Conference here.
