Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Touching the Past (Again) @ GWU

by J J Cohen

All ITM readers who live near DC or would an excuse to travel to DC are cordially invited to an event that celebrates the tenth and final year of the GW Medieval and Early Modern Studies Institute by re-running our inaugural symposium. Information is below. You must register to attend: there is no charge, and we provide you with all kinds of delicious food and drink.

Touching the Past (Again)
March 2 & 3
2019 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington DC

Dear friends,

Help us to celebrates TEN years of the flourishing of GW MEMSI by rethinking and revisiting our very first event, the inaugural symposium called Touching the Past. Though in profound ways 2008 seems like a different world at this vantage, the Institute remains steadfast in its foundational belief that possible futures are to be found in encountering the past anew. With an emphasis on advent and touch (widely construed: physical, emotional, cross-species, intertemporal), the symposium hopes to engender lively conversation -- and look forwards and back at once. The event includes some of the original presenters as well as many new voices.

All are welcome, but please register HERE if you intend to come. Registration is essential to having sufficient catering.

The complete program is below. Presentation abstracts may be found here.


Friday March 2
1:30 PM
Feel
Carolyn Dinshaw (New York University): Doing Medieval Sex Work in the 21st Century: John/Eleanor Rykener and the Last of the Cockettes
Julian Yates (University of Delaware): Sting
Erica Fudge (University of Strathclyde): Leaning Up Against the Flank of a Cow
Moderated by Alexa Alice Joubin

3:00 PM
Coffee


3:30 PM
Grasp
Joe Moshenska (University of Cambridge): Touching the Past, Playing the Past
Anthony Bale (Birkbeck, University of London): Being Margery Kempe
Ellen MacKay (University of Chicago): A History of Future Shocks: Jonah, Jamestown, and The Tempest's Preenactments
Moderated by Lowell Duckert

5:00 PM
Cocktail break

6:00 PM
Light dinner and revelry

Saturday March 3
9:30 AM
Breakfast  (included for all registrants)



10:30 AM
Press
Dorothy Kim (Vassar College): The Jew, The Ethiopian, and St. Margaret
Steve Mentz (St John's University and the Bookfish) : How to Act Human in the Anthropocene
Peggy McCracken (University of Michigan): Cold Stone, Warm Flesh: Pygmalion’s Touch
Moderated by Jonathan Hsy

12:00 PM
Lunch (included for all registrants)



1:30 PM
Hold
Stephanie Trigg (University of Melbourne): Sense of Touch: Absolutely Similar
Jesús Rodríguez Velasco (Columbia University): The Soul as a Time Machine
Cord Whitaker (Wellesley College): Touching the Past in the Harlem Middle Ages
Moderated by Holly Dugan

3:00 PM
Coffee


3:30 PM
Let Go
Closing discussion and charting of futures, with all panelists, moderators, organizers ... and you.

4:30 PM
Prosecco, chocolate and strawberries to celebrate ten years of GW MEMSI


Register for the symposium HERE.



Pictures used in this program are borrowed from the Dear Photograph project. Complete information (including photographers and background stories) may be found here.

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