Comparative Literature Colloquium
“The Phenomenology of Obscenity”
Prof. Erica Weitzman, Department of German, Northwestern
Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 11:00-12:30pm
HMNSS 2212
This paper traces the glancing but decisive use of the words “obscene” or “obscenity” in the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Levinas. Even though in many ways intellectual enemies, both Sartre and Levinas discuss “the obscene” at crucial points in their works in similar terms as a kind of borderline state or no-go zone, thus not only revealing some of the underlying premises of their respective philosophies, but also offering insight into the concept of the obscene itself as a question of perception, representation, and affect.
“Strangers in Europe: Migrants and the Crisis of Unification”
Prof. Aamir Mufti, Department of Comparative Literature, UCLA
Thursday February 2, 3:10-5:00
HMNSS 2212
Aamir R. Mufti is Professor of Comparative Literature at UCLA. He is the author of Forget English! Orientalisms and World Literatures (Harvard UP, 2016) and Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture(Princeton UP, 2007), and has edited “Why I am Not a Postsecularist (boundary 2, 2013) and “Critical Secularism” (boundary 2, 2004), and co-edited Dangerous Liaisons: Gender, Nation, and Postcolonial Perspectives (University of Minnesota Press, 1997).
“Hegel on Culture as ‘Bildung'”
Prof. Andreja Novakovic, Department of Philosophy, UC Riverside
Wednesday, October 26
12pm – 1.30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
In this paper Prof. Novakovic reconstructs Hegel’s conception of cultural participation by looking at his account of “Bildung,” a notoriously untranslatable term, in the Phenomenology of Spirit. “Bildung” for Hegel is a two-fold process: it shapes a shared culture and cultivates the individual at one and the same time. His account of “Bildung,” moreover, shows the ways in which reflection is an integral part of this process, suggesting that cultural participation is never merely a habitual, but always also a reflective activity. [flyer PDF]
The main theme of Winter Colloquium 2013 will be our shared mission of teaching. Most of the sessions will be panel presentations by our own teaching staff, from TAs to full professors, on various aspects of teaching, notably including the initiatives our department has taken to create core courses (CPLT 1, 2, and 193) for our undergraduates.
The colloquium will also feature special lectures by Professor George Slusser, curator emeritus of UCR’s Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Carlos Cortes, professor emeritus of History, and the winner of the 2013 Barricelli Award.
It is an exciting program and we hope everyone will attend. Sessions will begin at 11:10 a.m. and extend until 12:30 p.m., or 1:00 at the latest. People who have classes at 12:00 can of course take their leaves at that time. All sessions will be in the department conference room (HMNSS 2412).
“The Experience and Prospects of Our New Course Comparative Literature 1”
Wednesday January 9
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Sabine Doran, Jeff Sacks, Mimi Long and Stephanie Fousek
“The Experience and Prospects of Our New Course Comparative Literature 193”
Wednesday January 16
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Perry Link, Mimi Long, John Kim, and Kelly Jeong
“The Real Science Fiction: A Short Course in Defining the Genre.”
Wednesday January 23
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
George Slusser, Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature, UCR
“Techniques for Teaching Large Classes”
Wednesday January 30
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Theda Shapiro, Sabine Doran, Heidi Waltz, and April Durham
“The Interconnections between Language Teaching and the Teaching of Literature and Culture”
Wednesday February 6
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Tom Scanlon, Perry Link, Sarah Valentine and Jennifer Ramos
“Rose Hill: One Man’s Adventures in Memoir Writing”
Wednesday February 13
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Carlos Cortes, Emeritus Professor of History, UCR
“Evaluation of Teaching: the Role of Student Evaluations”
Wednesday February 20
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Katherine Kinney, Michelle Bloom, and Lisa Raphals
“Evaluation of Teaching: The Role of Senate Faculty Visits to Non-Senate Faculty Courses”
Wednesday February 27
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Kelle Truby, Wendy Raschke, Young Hong, and Sabine Thuerwaechter
“The Experience and Prospects of Our New Course Comparative Literature 2”
Wednesday March 6
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Panel: Hendrik Maier, Annmaria Shimabuku, Minh Nguyen, and Regina Lee
Barricelli Awardee Lecture
“Sonic Retro-futures: Musical Nostalgia as Revolution in Post-1960s American Literature and Technoculture”
Tuesday March 12
11:10am-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Mark Young, ABD, Department of English, UCR
“Environmental History: Intersections with Comparative Literature?”
Wednesday January 11
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
David Biggs
Department of History, UC Riverside
“Personality Traits and Personal Goals: Who Wants What?”
Wednesday January 18
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Dan Ozer
Department of Psychology, UC Riverside
“The Process of Creativity and Writing”
Wednesday January 25
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Goldberry Long
Department of Creative Writing, UC Riverside
“Biography of a Contraceptive Device: Storytelling in Science and Technology Studies”
Wednesday February 1
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Chikako Takeshita
Department of Women’s Studies, UC Riverside
“The French Colonial Project”
Wednesday February 8
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Patricia Morton
Department of Art History, UC Riverside
“The Object of Whose Hands? Empathy and Movement in the Work of Literary Studies”
Wednesday February 15
12-1:30pm
HMNSS 1500
Stephanie Jed
Department of Literature, UC San Diego
“Database, Anarcheologie, the Commons, Kino-eye and Mash: How Bard, Kauffman, Svilova & Vertov Continue the Revolution”
Wednesday February 22
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Erika Suderburg
Department of Studio Art, UC Riverside
“The Moral Behavior of Ethics Professors”
Wednesday February 29
12-1:30pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Eric Schwitzgebel
Department of Philosophy, UC Riverside
“China’s Cinema, its Film Industry, and its ‘Soft Power'”
Wednesday March 7
2:30-4pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Wendy Su
Department of Media Studies, UC Riverside
Barricelli Awardee
Wednesday March 14
12-1:00pm
Comp Lit Department Conference Room
Giulia Hoffman, “Visions of Travel: Paranormal Arctic Exploration, the Franklin Search Expeditions and The Frozen Deep”
Session One: Literary Studies, Philology, Colonialism
Wednesday, January 12
1:30-3 pm
Panelists: Henk Maier, Theda Shapiro, Yang Ye, Sabine Doran
Reading: Edward Said, “The Return to Philology” in Humanism and Democratic Criticism (New York: Columbia UP, 2004), Chapter 3.
Session Two: Tranlation Theory in an Age of (Waning) Sovereignty
Wednesday, January 26
1:30-3 pm
Panelists: Perry Link, Kelly Jeong, Annmaria Shimabuku
Reading: Naoki Sakai and Jon Solomon, “Introduction: Addressing the Multitude of Foreigners, Echoing Foucault,” in Translation, Biopolitics, Colonial Difference, ed. Naoki Sakai and Jon Solomon (Hong Kong University Press, 2006).
Session Three: The East/West Binary in Comparative Literature
Wednesday, February 9
1:30-3 pm
Panelists: Yenna Wu, Mariam Lam, Jeff Sacks
Reading: Rey Chow, “The Politics and Pedagogy of Asian Literatures in American Universities,” in Writing Diaspora (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1993), Chapter 6.
Session Four: A New Comparative Literature
Wednesday, February 23
1:30-3 pm
Panelists: Michelle Bloom, Mimi Long, Heidi Brevik-Zender
Reading: Gayatri Spivak, “Crossing Borders,” in Death of a Discipline (New York: Columbia UP, 2005), Chapter 1.