Event

Dialogues on Animality, October 2-3, 2009
Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, University of Pennsylvania
Held at Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut St., Philadelphia
Organized by Ruth Erickson and Nathaniel Prottas

Today, rather than being fixed, the terms “animal” and “human” are increasingly understood as in flux, bound together theoretically, historically, and socially to enact a complex reciprocity that both defines and challenges the traditional categories of disciplines. If at the heart of the humanities is the question “what does it mean to be human?” this symposium seeks to explore the role of animals in the history and formation of this question from different disciplinary viewpoints.

The conference will include:
• “On Autobiography and (Animal) Locomotion,” a keynote address by Prof. Akira Lippit of University of Southern California on Friday, October, 2 at NOON
• Panels on literature, art history, Darwinism, and public policy/law
• Paper respondents: Profs. Jean-Michel Rabaté (English, UPenn), Karen Beckman (Art History and Cinema Studies, UPenn), and Sheila Rodriguez (Law, Rutgers)
• Breakfast refreshments provided

For more information and symposium program:
http://www.arthistory.upenn.edu/dialoguesonanimality/
Or contact, dialoguesonanimality@gmail.com

This symposium is generously supported by the University of Pennsylvania’s History of Art Department, Cinema Studies, SASgov, English Department, German Department, Comparative Literature Department, and the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society.