Seminars

China and the World: A Comparative Media Perspective

Organizer: Andrew Emerson

Much of modern Chinese studies revolves around the question of China’s place in the world. The specific terms of the debate vary: Chinese literature “and/as” world literature, global “Asias,” notions... more

Speculating Speculative Fiction

Organizer: John Souza

The term “speculative fiction” was first popularized by Robert Heinlein, who refers to a “speculative science fiction story” as one that uses the tools of science fiction to create “a new framework... more

Untangling the Past: the Figure of the Detective in Postcolonial and Transnational Fiction

Organizer: Priscilla Charrat-Nelson

The genre of detective fiction is "formally diverse, flourishing in multiple cultures, and engaged with the production of knowledge and transformation of consciousness within and across societies" (... more

Body, Language

Organizer: Dominik Zechner

I am terrified your body could fall apart at any second – Car Seat Headrest Spinoza famously lamented that we do not even know what bodies can do. Our seminar rephrases this... more

Children's Periodicals and Their Readers: Methods and Comparative Approaches

Organizer: Titas Bose

This seminar sets out to examine the comparative possibilities of studying the “children’s periodical”. Given its unique ephemeral form and its inherent relationship with time (seriality of... more

Disability, the Environment, and Colonialism

Organizer: Tatiana Konrad

This seminar examines the imbrications of disability and the environment in the formation of colonial ideology and in the process of colonization. It traces the emergence of eco-ableist discourses... more

Writing Gender Violence: Ethics, Challenges, Possibilities

Organizer: Ragini Chakraborty

This panel aims to discuss how literature engages with the topic of gender violence by adopting a transnational, dialogic, and relational approach. We are interested in exploring how literature... more

Southern Literatures across Multiple Southscapes

Organizer: Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi

This seminar examines “southern literature” from a comparative perspective, examining how “the South” may be invoked and imagined at different locales.Taking Thadious M. Davis’s concept of “... more

Bridging Worlds: Literature and the Future of Public Humanities

Organizer: Anchit Sathi

Public humanities represent a branch of the humanities that emphasises public engagement, striving to render specialised knowledge accessible to a broader audience. Recent scholarly interest in this... more

Future Memory: Intersections of Memory, Technology, and Narrative in Literature and Film Across Time

Organizer: Yu Min C Rodan

Title: "Future Memory: Intersections of Memory, Technology, and Narrative in Literature and Film" This seminar explores the concept of "future memory" across literature and film. We will examine... more

Poetics and Politics of Memory/Trauma-Scapes in South Asian Literatures

Organizer: Nida Sajid

This seminar extends an invitation to scholars, translators and creative writers to reflect upon the nascent theoretical, fictional and historical interventions in the 'interstitial' space of Memory... more

Complicit Figures, Complicit Forms

Organizer: Shirl Yang

We invite papers that explore complicity as a critical methodology for literary and cultural studies. In an age of globalization, hyper-commodification, continued expropriation of labor and resources... more

Children As the Future: Rights & Representations

Organizer: Madelaine Hron

Children have long been associated with futurity -- be it as future promise, as caveats from the future or as our responsibility to the future. Illustrative examples of "children as the future" are... more

Global Modernism and the Global Philosophy of Mind

Organizer: Shaj Mathew

This seminar convenes scholars working in philosophy and literature, broadly construed. It harnesses the frisson between global modernist literature and global philosophies of mind. Seemingly remote... more

“The Content of the Form”: Genre and Action in the Rhetoric of Human Rights

Organizer: Timothy Wyman-McCarthy

Genres, John Frow explains, “generate and shape knowledge of the world; and…generically shaped knowledges are bound up with the exercise of power” (2014: 2). Taking its cue from recent work by David... more

Work

Organizer: Alya Ansari

“Work” is a keyword of contemporary fiction and theory alike. Over the past several decades, as the deepening contradictions of neoliberal capitalism have dovetailed with acute financial crises, the... more

Interdisciplinary Study of Homemaking: Mapping the Places, Routines, Memories, and Locales We Call Home

Organizer: Jean Amato

Please send an abstract of up to 300 words and a bio of up to 250 words to jean_amato@fitnyc.edu by October 14, 2024. We welcome papers that reflect on the diverse, layered, and fluid representations... more

Interactive Narratives: Rethinking Interactivity and Digital Archiving

Organizer: Hudson Moura

Interactive storytelling has become a cornerstone of modern narrative forms, reshaping the processes by which stories are crafted and experienced. Drawing upon the discussions and insights from last... more

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