Bring a Problem, Present a Text

Members of the group are encouraged to bring a short passage from a primary or secondary text that they are working on in their research to get help and feedback from the group, or a methodological, theoretical or any other kind of problem that they are wrestling with that they'd like to workshop.

Democratic Anarchy and the Ends of Politics

Matthew Scully (UNIL)

I will discuss my forthcoming monograph, Democratic Anarchy: Aesthetics and Political Resistance in U.S. Literature, which draws on a range of American authors from Harriet Jacobs and Nathaniel Hawthorne to Toni Morrison and Ocean Vuong. Following the insights of queer theory, Black Studies, Asian American Studies, political theory, and aesthetic philosophy, the book develops a critique of the many narratives of democracy that in fact possess anti-democratic ends. Literature offers a key resource for such a project because, as I show, both literature and politics depend on acts of representation through which various notions of equality become contested. The talk will conclude with a brief discussion of the process involved in publishing the first book, as well as the questions it opens for future research projects.

Guided Reading: Jonathan Kramnick's Criticism and Truth

Patrick Jones (UNIGE)

Leçons d'Epreuve, MER in Contemporary Literature

Come, listen and give your feedback on the presentations from shortlisted candidates for this post.

PHIL 201

8h30-9h30 Rebecca Duncan, Researcher, Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies/Dept. Of Languages, Linnaeus University
““The Boomerang Effect” in the Anthropocene: Reading the Mine in Post/Colonial South African Literature”

9h45-10h45 James Daniel Elam, Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong
“Anticolonial Thought, literature, and critique across the British Empire”

11h00-12h00 Katherine Hallemeier, Associate Professor, Department of English, Oklahoma State University
“National Feeling in Contemporary Postcolonial Anglophone Fiction”

13h00-14h00 Graham Riach, Lecturer in English Literature and Media, University of Amsterdam
“Black British Laughter: From Sam Selvon to Zadie Smith”

Work in Progress

Elodie Rogliardo (UNIL): "Afropean Identity in the Wake: Alternative Consciousness in Contemporary France"

Nora Zufferey (UNIGE): "‘Infrasonic Tremors and Sonic Booms: Low-Frequential Poetics in Jayne Cortez and Jean Binta Breeze".

17h-19h. Note later time.

Literature and Climate Change

Dr Pippa Marland (University of Bristol): "New Georgics: the Resurgence of Farming in 21st Century British Nature Writing."

Prof Stef Craps (University of Ghent): “Remembering Earth: Countering Planetary Amnesia through the Creative Arts."

 4:15h, Anthropole, UNIL, room 5196. 

Kathleen Jamie: Conversations Towards Nature

17:15, Geopolis Building, room 2227, at the University of Lausanne

Free admission, no registration necessary.

There will be a bookstall and Q&A afterwards.

Kathleen Jamie: Conversations Towards Nature

18:30 Apéro, Reading at 19-20:00, Société de Lecture, Grand Rue 11, 1204, Geneva

Admission to buffet and reading: students, 5 CHF; members, 20 CHF; non-members, 30 CHF. The reading will be followed by a moderated conversation, and Q&A with the poet. No advance registration needed.

Colloque: On Leer

A celebration of Martin Leer as teacher, thinker and colleague, with special guests. 

PHIL 201

10h Introductory remarks
Simon Swift, Director of the Department of English

10.15h "No Man Can Live This Life and Emerge Unchanged: King Leer, Postcolonial Studies, Ecocriticism, Desert Humanities"
Rune Grauland, Associate Professor, Department of Language, Culture, History and Communication, Center for American Studies, University of Copenhagen

11.15h “A Perfect Interchange of Perceptions”
Ariane Mildenberg, Senior Lecturer in Modernism, University of Kent

12.15-14h Lunch
Café du Marché

14h Round Table Discussion (1)
“Mapping Affect: Pedagogy and Accountability in Decolonial Studies”
Dr Elizabeth Kukorelly (UNIGE), Dr Valerie Fehlbaum (UNIGE; Emerita), Prof. Emma Depledge (UNINE), Prof. Margaret Tudeau-Clayton (UNINE, Emerita), Dr Patrick Jones (UNIGE) Prof. Roy Sellars (Université de St Gall), Prof. David Spurr (Prof Honoraire, UNIGE)
Moderator: Prof. Rachel Falconer (UNIL)

16h Round Table Discussion (2)
“Thinking the Post-Colony - Word, Sound and Vision”
Mme Nora Zufferey (UNIGE), Mme Anna Iatsenko (UNIGE, alumna), Dr Camila Querino (Université de Lisbonne), M. Nick Weeks (Assistant, UNIGE), Dr Arnaud Barras (alumnus, UNIGE), Mme Sabrina Martins (UNIGE)
Moderator: Mme Almudena Jimenez (UNIFR)

18h Leçon d’Adieu
“Under Danish Eyes: My Tenure at Boulevard des Philosophes”
Dr Martin Leer, UNIGE

19h Musical Interlude

20h Dinner
Café Gallay