Students Represent OU at Great Gatsby 100th Celebration

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NORMAN, OKLA. – Undergraduate students from the University of Oklahoma presented original literary research this summer at an international conference in New York City commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The conference, “New York, New Perspectives, and The Great Gatsby,” brought together more than 300 scholars, writers and educators from around the world to examine the impact of Fitzgerald’s 1925 classic. Hosted by the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, this year’s event was the first to offer undergraduate students the opportunity to present their research alongside graduate students and professional scholars.

The students – Joe Carlson, Savannah Flynn and Autumn Furr, alongside former OU student Nixon Gorka – presented on a panel titled “Repeating the Past in the Public Domain: Re/Teaching The Great Gatsby after 2021” guided by Catherine Mintler, Ph.D., a former OU Expository Writing Program faculty member who recently joined the OU Honors College. The panel explored contemporary reinterpretations of The Great Gatsby, with student papers examining topics ranging from fan rewritings and film adaptations to rarely examined racial themes and the portrayal of the femme fatale in Daisy Buchanan.

“Undergraduates don’t often get the chance to present at international literary conferences,” Mintler said. “This was an extraordinary opportunity for them to contribute to the broader cultural and academic conversations surrounding one of America’s most iconic novels – and they were treated as serious scholars.”

Three of the four student presenters – Carlson, Flynn and Furr – are current OU undergraduates. Two are Honors College students, while Carlson, a film major, is being recruited to apply to the program. Gorka, now a student at the University of Texas at Tyler, began her academic career in the Honors College at OU.

It was Gorka’s persistence that helped spark OU’s participation in the conference. In 2022, she and Carlson were enrolled in Mintler’s course “The Great Gatsby: Myth to Meme,” created shortly after the novel entered the public domain in 2021. Gorka’s final paper in that class was so compelling that Mintler encouraged her to consider future scholarly presentations. When the Fitzgerald Society announced the 2025 conference would be in New York, Mintler decided they would attend.

At the time, Mintler was teaching an honors section of expository writing course titled “21st Century Gatsby,” which examined The Great Gatsby alongside contemporary literary retellings such as Beautiful Little Fools, The Chosen and the Beautiful and The Great Gatsby and the Zombies. Two students from that course – Flynn and Furr – ultimately joined the panel.

Each student presented work developed initially in Mintler’s courses, where students produce research alongside multimodal work. Their panel explored how fandoms, rewritings and adaptations help reinterpret and sustain The Great Gatsby for new generations.

“Students bring fresh, original perspectives to the conversation – and they make the text more relatable,” Mintler said. “They are not just studying Gatsby. They are helping shape its cultural future.”

Student research covered topics such as anti-Asian racism in early 20th-century literature (Flynn), Daisy Buchanan as a femme fatale through a film studies lens (Carlson) and Gatsby as a modern war veteran narrative (Gorka).

All four students received $500 travel fellowships from the Fitzgerald Society, which recognizes and supports emerging scholars. OU Honors College students also received additional funding through the college’s student travel program, which provides up to $1,500 for undergraduates who present at academic conferences.

The students were recognized at the Fitzgerald Society’s business meeting with certificates and fellowship awards. The society’s leaders, Jackson Bryer and Kirk Curnutt, congratulated them for their contributions. “This kind of experience shows students what academic life can be like beyond the classroom,” Mintler said. “The students see their work has real value – that it is part of a larger, living conversation.”