Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities

Letters

Spring 2011, Vol. 19, No. 2 (requires Adobe Acrobat)

The Object of Study: Theory, Interdisciplinarity, and the State of the Humanities

The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities is hosting a conference on “The Object of Study: Theory, Interdisciplinarity, and the State of the Humanities” on March 18 and 19, 2011. The conference sessions will feature speakers from different disciplines addressing their views of the current state of theory within their disciplines and in general. Each session will also include Vanderbilt faculty members as moderators and as respondents. Visiting speakers for the conference are David Gies (University of Virginia), David Theo Goldberg (University of California, Irvine), and Valerie Traub (University of Michigan).

The conference sessions will take place in the auditorium of the Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center. The conference schedule follows.

Friday, March 18

1:30 OPENING

Welcome:
Carolyn M. Dever, Dean, College of Arts and Science and Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies

Introduction:
Edward H. Friedman, Chancellor’s Professor of Spanish, Professor of Comparative Literature, and Director, Warren Center

2:00 SESSION ONE

Introduction:
Mark Schoenfield, Professor and Chair of English

Visiting Speaker:
Valerie Traub, Professor of English and Women’s Studies, University of Michigan
The New Unhistoricism (and Early Modern Futures)

Respondent:
Ellen Armour, E. Rhodes and Leona B.
Carpenter Chair in Feminist Theology and Director, Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality; Interim Chair, Department of Religious Studies

3:15–3:30 Break

3:30 SESSION TWO

Introduction:
John Sloop, Senior Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Communication Studies

Visiting Speaker:
David Gies, Commonwealth Professor of Spanish, University of Virginia
The State of the Arte: Hispanism and Literary Theory

Respondent:
William Luis, Chancellor’s Professor of Spanish

A reception will follow the sessions.

Saturday, March 19

10:30 SESSION THREE

Introduction:
Barbara Hahn, Distinguished Professor of German

Visiting Speaker:
David Theo Goldberg, Director, University of California Humanities Research Institute; Professor of Comparative Literature and Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine
Living in a Critical Condition: Poor Theory and the Post-humanities

Respondent:
Dana Nelson, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of English

11:45–12:00 Break

12:00–12:30
Speakers’ Roundtable:
Closing Comments and Questions

Letters Archive Index

For more information, contact the Center's executive director, Mona C. Frederick.

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