The Social Responsibility of Intellectuals Conference

Many academics work on issues of social justice, and in this politically tumultuous moment, we want to ask: What is our social responsibility as academics? What does it mean to assume this responsibility?

In response to the untimely suspension of all Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature programs at Stony Brook University, the final graduate conference (co-sponsored by Minorities and Philosophy, NSSR) will be an interdisciplinary event where we aim to confront the limitations of our position as academics and conceive possibilities for moving beyond those limitations.

Schedule

9:45–10:15     Participant Registration/ Coffee & Bagels

10:15–10:30   Opening Remarks

10:30–12:00   Panel 1: Humanities & Political Insight

10:30–11:00  Amy Cook (Associate Professor of Theatre Arts and English, Stony Brook University): “Disciplinary Futures and the Political Impact of Counter Casting”

11:00–11:30  Jack Wilson (PhD Student History, UCLA): “The View from the Waste Land: Poetry as Anti-Totalitarian Critique in Postwar Japan and Beyond”

11:30–12:00   Sabrina Tremblay-Huet (LLD Student Université de Sherbrooke, Visiting Research Fellow Fordham School of Law): “Human Rights and the Trap of Speaking for Others: Law in Literature as a Better Source of Resistance Discourse?”

12:00–1:30   Lunch Break

1:30–2:30     Panel 2: Institutional Critique

1:30–2:00      Jonathan Rawski (PhD Student Linguistics, Stony Brook University): “Pirates and Emperors: On Publishers, Journalists, and Academic Elites”

2:00–2:30      Forrest Deacon (PhD Student, Politics, The New School for Social Research): “Foucault’s Clinic and the Academy: Systems of Truth, Intelligibility, and Repetition”

2:30–2:45      Coffee Break (light refreshments)

2:45–3:45      Panel 3: The Praxis of Academics

2:45–3:15     Andrew Dobbyn (PhD Student Philosophy, Stony Brook): “Praxis Makes Perfect: Why Politics Isn’t like Riding a Bike”

3:15–3:45    Laura Pérez (Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy, Cornell University Society for the Humanities): “The Objects of Philosophical Inquiry as Public Entities”

3:45–4:00    Coffee Break (light refreshments)

4:00–5:00    Keynote: Professor Patrice Nganang (Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, Stony Brook University, Visiting Professor Princeton University): Title TBA

5:00–5:15    Closing Remarks

5:15–6:30    Reception (wine and refreshments)

Presented by The New School for Social Research.