On the beautiful, sunny afternoon of April 23, 2026, students and faculty from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures gathered in Ramseyer Hall 100 for the 2026 DEALL Undergraduate Research Forum, held in conjunction with the William Jefferson Tyler Memorial Prize competition. The event featured presentations by three DEALL undergraduate students: Katie Maier, Ky Verona, and Emma Wheeler.

Katie Maier’s presentation was entitled "The Playscape of Japan: Gamified Cultural Memory in Momotarō Dentetsu.” In this talk, she argued that because games enable medium-specific interactions and navigations of both real and imagined spaces, digital titles like Momotarō Dentetsu allow for a larger, more layered scale than their paper predecessors. This digital evolution facilitates a more complex and repeated navigation of Japan’s cultural topography.

Ky Verona delivered a talk discussing the ambiguity of Japanese American subjectivity in Miyauchi Yūsuke’s Kabūru no Sono.  He explored two opposing interpretations of the novella’s ending. The first, more of an Asian Americanist reading, seeks to repair the antagonist Rei’s self-Orientalism. The second locates the novella’s language and gaze within Japanese racial frameworks, problematizing the work as a critique of Asianness and American multiculturalism.

Emma Wheeler explored the multidimensional aspects of cosplay. She provided a close analysis of existing research, social media engagement, and the specific discourse between cosplayers and their audiences. Through this examination, she concluded that "accuracy" is often neither possible nor necessary for a successful performance. To further illustrate the cosplay phenomenon for the audience, she delivered her entire presentation in full cosplay

Each presentation was followed by a series of insightful questions from the audience and the faculty judge panel. After careful deliberation, the panel awarded the first prize to Emma Wheeler, and the second prize to Ky Verona and Katie Maier.

The DEALL Undergraduate Research Forum is an annual event that offers DEALL majors and minors a platform to showcase research developed through coursework or independent study to their peers and faculty.