BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:14768-f01cb3db5ae0d58eca5b03306746a09e@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260809T005041Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210416T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210416T130000 SUMMARY:American Literary Studies Beyond the Brink DESCRIPTION:\nThe Chronicle Review introduced their recent collection “E ndgame: Can literary studies survive?” with the bold statement\, “The ac ademic study of literature is no longer on the verge of field collapse. It’s in the midst of it.” The sentiments here expressed seem far less bo ld and more obvious in the midst of the unfolding effects COVID-19 is ha ving on employment and funding in academia generally and American litera ry studies in particular. Various interrelated forces could be and have been identified as having contributed to this moment\, such as changes i n university funding sources\, privatization of research\, externalizati on of revenue\, the increasing debt burden for students\, threats to aca demic freedom\, the shifting demands of professionalization\, and the de creasing public valuation of humanistic study. This webinar approaches t he demise of the profession by considering again what it means to contin ue in this work now\, as well as the whys and hows of studying American literature and culture at this moment. What shape might American literar y and cultural studies take in order to contest developments that have l eft the discipline on the brink of collapse?\n\nPanelists include:\n\nPr iscilla Wald\, R. Florence Brinkley Distinguished Professor of English\, Duke University. Focused on the intersections between the law\, literat ure\, science\, and narrative\, Wald’s published works include Contagiou s: Cultures\, Carriers\, and the Outbreak Narrative (Duke UP\, 2008) and she is currently completing a study entitled Human Being After Genocide . Former Director of the Program in Gender\, Sexuality\, and Feminist St udies at Duke\, Wald serves as Co-Editor of the journal American Literat ure and is Co-Director of CALS’ First Book Institute.\nDanica Savonick\, Assistant Professor of English\, SUNY Cortland. Savonick's research foc uses on 20th century and contemporary U.S. literature\, pedagogy\, and s ocial justice. Her first book manuscript is tentatively entitled Insurge nt Knowledge: The Poetics and Pedagogy of Toni Cade Bambara\, June Jorda n\, Audre Lorde\, and Adrienne Rich in the Era of Open Admissions. Her w ork has appeared in American Literature\, Modern Fiction Studies\, and M ELUS\, as well as The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed . Savonick is currently an American Council of Learned Societies fellow. \nJeffrey T. Nealon\, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English and Philoso phy\, Penn State. Nealon has published widely on contemporary American l iterature and culture\, literary theory\, and the state of the professio n. Recent titles include Plant Theory: Biopower and Vegetable Life (Stan ford UP\, 2016)\; I’m Not Like Everybody Else: Biopolitics\, Neoliberali sm\, and American Popular Music (U of Nebraska P\, 2018)\, and Fates of the Performative: From the Linguistic Turn to the New Materialism (U of Minnesota P\, 2021).\n\nModerator:\n\nDillon Rockrohr\, Graduate Student \, Department of English\, Penn State\n\nFor more details: https://event s.la.psu.edu/event/american-literary-studies-beyond-the-brink-2/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

The Chronicle R eview introduced their recent collection “Endgame: Can literary studies survive?” with the bold statement, “The academic study of literature is no longer on the verge of field collapse. It’s in the midst of it.” The sentiments here expressed seem far less bold and more obvious in the mid st of the unfolding effects COVID-19 is having on employment and funding in academia generally and American literary studies in particular. Vari ous interrelated forces could be and have been identified as having cont ributed to this moment, such as changes in university funding sources, p rivatization of research, externalization of revenue, the increasing deb t burden for students, threats to academic freedom, the shifting demands of professionalization, and the decreasing public valuation of humanist ic study. This webinar approaches the demise of the profession by consid ering again what it means to continue in this work now, as well as the w hys and hows of studying American literature and culture at this moment. What shape might American literary and cultural studies take in order t o contest developments that have left the discipline on the brink of col lapse?

Panelists include:

Moderator:

For mo re details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/american-lit erary-studies-beyond-the-brink-2/

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