Early Cultures Grad Conference: THE CREATURE
Department: The Center for Early Cultures
Date and Time: April 17, 2015 - April 18, 2015 | 9:00 AM-1:00 PMEvent Location: TBA [HG1010]
Event Details
In medieval theology, the creature refers to any being made by God and subject to the conditions and environments of creation, including natality, mortality, exposure to the elements, and the scandals of pro-creation and its alternate enjoyments. The creaturely need for sustenance, shelter and sociability leads to the arts of husbandry, housekeeping and domestic architecture, while the creaturely perspective brings into visibility the technes shared by human creatures with animal, plant, and mineral worlds. Francis Bacon divided natural history into the history of creatures, the history of marvels, and the history of arts, which suggest domains for cross-fertilization in this conference. The figure of the creature invites us to think about the borders and passages between human and non-human life, the systems, networks, and environments in which all forms of life coexist, and the various legal, poetic, religious and philosophical frameworks that human beings have developed to manage these zones and the ethical and existential challenges they pose.
Friday, April 18 * HG1010
9:30:Coffee
10:00: Philosophical and Theological Creatures
Ana Leticia Adami, Chris Koester, Laura Hatch
Moderated by Professor Rebeca Helfer, English
11:30-12:30: Lunch
12:30-2:15: Keynote
“Delicate Creatures” Jennifer Waldron
Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh
2:30-4:00
The Metaphoricity of the Animal/The Animality of Metaphor
Karen Norwood, Darby Vickers
Moderated by Professor Rebecca Davis, English
4:15-5:45
Political Animals
Michael Robinson, Kristen McCants, Danilo Caputo
Moderated by Professor Jane Newman, Comp Lit
7:00
Reception at the home of Julia Lupton and Ken Reinhard , 28 Virgil Court
SATURDAY
9:30-10:00
Welcome and Coffee
10:00-11:30
Epistemologies, Old and New
Manuel del Alto, Kailey Giordano, Lee Olsen
Moderated by Professor Julia R. Lupton, English
11:45-1:15
Closing Roundtable and Lunch with Professor Jennifer Waldron
ORGANIZERS:
James Funk, English
Peter Cibula, English
Michael Berlin, Classics
Sonia Desai, Drama
FACULTY ADVISER:
Julia Lupton