Spring 2021
May 31, 2021: Timothy Gutmann (Lecturer and PhD, Divinity, University of Chicago):“Specters of Liberalism: Prospects for Postcolonialism and the Left.” Respondent: Christopher Taylor (Associate Professor, English, University of Chicago). #marxism #liberalism #postcolonialism #modernity
May 17, 2021: Taylor Lowe (PhD Candidate, Anthropology, University of Chicago): “The Designification of Representation: Drawing Lines between Graft & Craft in the Architecture of Thailand’s Interregna.” Respondent: Rebecca Zorach (Mary Jane Crowe Professor in Art and Art History, Northwestern University). #designpolitics #cosmopolitics #designactivism #thaipolitics #whatshappeninginthailand
May, 2021: Jordan Pruett (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago):“The Mass Market Hardcover: A Quantitative Literary History”Respondent: Hoyt Long (Associate Professor, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago). #bestsellers #data #culturalanalytics #bookhistory
April 19, 2021: Anna Gatdula (PhD Candidate, Music History and Theory, University of Chicago): “Einstein on the Beach and the Nuclear Event.” Respondent: Jessica Hurley (Assistant Professor, English, George Mason University). #opera #nuclearage #EinsteinontheBeach #PhilipGlass #RobertWilson
April 5, 2021: Kenyatta Forbes to discuss Trading Races with Patrick Jagoda (Professor of English, University of Chicago) and Ashlyn Sparrow (Learning Director and Lead Game Designer at the University of Chicago’s Game Changer Chicago Design Lab, Creative Director at Resilient Game Studio).
Winter 2021
March 9, 2021: Jed Esty (Vartan Gregorian Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania): “Against Declinism.” Respondent: Maud Ellmann (Randy L. & Melvin R. Berlin Professor of the Development of the Novel in English, University of Chicago). This event was part of the remote symposium Spectacles of Decline, which may be of interest to our members. For more information, visit www.spectaclesofdecline.com.
February 22: Noah Hansen (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago): “Representing the (Semi-)Proletariat: Eric Walrond and the Problem of Caribbean Class Formation.” Respondent: Kaneesha Parsard (Assistant Professor, English, University of Chicago). #EricWalrond #SemiProletariat #CaribbeanLabor
February 15: Tiana Fischer (Doctoral Researcher, National University of Ireland): “Joyce’s Signs of the Soul: Towards a Theory of Mediation.” Respondent: Rory Hanlon (PhD Candidate, Philosophy, University of Chicago). #Joyce #Aristotle #mediation #esthetics #soul
February 8: Tomal Hossain (PhD Student, Music, University of Chicago): “‘Neither Bengali nor Burmese’: Interrogating Rohingya Identification through Tarana Song.” Respondent: Jim Sykes (Associate Professor, Music, University of Pennsylvania). #rohingyadiaposra #ethnonationalism #circuitlistening
January 25: Shirl Yang (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago): “Artless Art: Postmodern Loneliness and the Aesthetics of Sincerity.” Respondent: Steven Maye (Humanities Teaching Fellow, English, University of Chicago). #newsincerity #DIY #loneliness #commodityaesthetics #limitedcirculation
Autumn 2020
November 30: Robert Suits (PhD Student, History, University of Chicago): “Ecological Apocalypse Looks Like This.” Respondent: Evan Wisdom-Dawson (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago). #disaster, #climatechange, #socialcollapse
November 16: Marissa Fenley (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago): “Colored-In Feeling: the Protest Puppets of the Women’s Pentagon Action.” Respondents: Bill Hutchison (Postdoctoral Lecturer, MAPH, University of Chicago) and Michael Stablein Jr. (PhD Student, English, University of Chicago). #protestart #performancestudies #ecofeminism
November 2: Sophia Azeb (Assistant Professor, English, University of Chicago): “Translational Black Space in Claude McKay’s Marseille, or Noir is the New Black (Man).” Respondent: Noah Hansen (PhD Candidate, English, University of Chicago). #BlackStudies #ClaudeMcKay #AfroArab
October 19: Christopher Gortmaker (PhD Student, University of Chicago): “Mary Ellen Solt: Concretizing 1968.” Respondent: Deborah Nelson (Helen B. and Frank L. Sulzberger Professor of English and the College, University of Chicago). #concretism #protestart #1968
October 5: Harris Feinsod (Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Northwestern University): “The Red International of Seamen and Harborworkers: A Poetics of Strikes from the Kiel Mutiny to the West Coast Waterfront.” Respondent: Chris Taylor (Associate Professor of English, University of Chicago). #Poetry #BlueHumanities #Strikewaves