Andrew Buchheim, a political science and English major at Wartburg College, will present his research at the Richard Macksey National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium at Johns Hopkins University this month.

“My research is on Shakespeare’s ‘Othello,’ which is a play I really enjoyed reading and discussing in a Shakespeare course last winter. Because the Shakespeare class has disability studies focus of analysis, I researched the history of disability at the time that Shakespeare was writing to see how concepts of disability are represented in ‘Othello,’” said Buchheim. “I later decided to expand my focus to Othello’s race, and I’ve just completed an analysis of Othello as a disability figure using the historical links between race and disability to show how he is rhetorically disabled by the fact of not being white.”

Buchheim, a junior from Sun Prairie, Wis., is president of the Scholars Program and Wartburg Democrats and president-elect for Kammerstreicher, a string ensemble. He also is a member of the St. George Quartet, an ensemble featuring the college’s top four string players.

The Macksey symposium offers undergraduate students studying humanities the opportunity to share their work in a professional setting. Attendees also participate in professionalization and recruitment events during the three-day symposium, including panels on graduate admissions, careers in publishing and networking.

For his presentation, Buchheim will read his research paper and share a slideshow that visualizes parts of his argument. After the reading there will be a short question and answer session.

“The opportunity to present at a national humanities conference like this will, I hope, put me in connection with peers and mentors across the United States with similar academic interests. The cumulative process of preparing research, writing and revising my paper, and creating a concise, understandable presentation has already helped me grow as a student and an academic,” he said.

In addition to his conference presentation, Buchheim will have the opportunity to work with conference organizers and faculty to edit and improve his paper for publication in the Macksey Journal, the conference’s proprietary undergraduate journal.

“This is perhaps the most valuable part of the experience for me, as I hope to gain an insight into what professional academic research and writing is like; having a publication in an actual journal is something to be genuinely proud of, too,” he said. Rachel Clark, English professor and director of the Scholars Program, called Buchheim one of the top students she has worked with during her career.

“He already writes better than many Ph.D. students. I’m really excited for him to have this recognition at a national conference hosted by such a prestigious university,” she said.