Dear Colleagues, Students, and Friends,
We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for our first annual symposium.
Both days of events are free and open to all, from aspiring to established humanities scholars.
Because of its cross-disciplinary nature, the symposium will also interest those outside or at the intersection of traditional humanities fields whose work relates to CHR's 2021-22 theme--
This year's symposium theme is Pasts/Presents/Futures:
The experience of the pandemic has brought with it a heightened awareness of the complexity of time. It is at once an experience of what political theorist Elizabeth Povinelli might call the “durative present,” as the past feels irretrievably lost, and a post-pandemic future unimaginable. And yet at the same time, the racial reckoning provoked by the murder of George Floyd underscores the ways in which racialized violence infuses the present, revealing that what we had assumed to be “the past,” in fact lives on in the present. When trapped in a durative present how might we imagine a different future? These contradictory experiences of time remind us that it is neither natural nor fixed. Conceptions of time have, historically, delimited what we are able—and unable—to see, lending certain events, peoples, and subjectivities visibility while pushing others into obscurity.
For this two-day virtual symposium, we will be joined by scholars from Mason and (far!) beyond, representing a range of humanistic disciplines, whose work interrogates the politics and possibilities of temporal encounters.
They keynote address will be given by Professor Kara Keeling (Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago) on the evening of April 7, and a day of panels and other events will follow on April 8.
Please visit the Eventbrite page to register and view details, including a list of panels and speakers. More information is also available via the attached packet. Registration is required to attend. All sessions will be Zoom meetings, NOT webinars.
*Please note the special undergraduate seminar on April 8 requires separate registration (click here for more information).
We hope you will join us for what promises to be a CHR programming highlight of 2022. We encourage you to forward this article and attached symposium packet to students and colleagues (at Mason and elsewhere) who may want to participate.
Enjoy the upcoming break!
Best wishes,
Alison Landsberg (Director)
Catherine Olien (Associate Director)