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

The Hotel Lombardy

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.