Emplacing the Local

Emplacing the Local

Spring 2013

In an era of globalization, where new media connects us in an instant around the world with communities linked only in cyber-space, it would seem that our lives are lived less and less through emplacing ourselves within the spaces we regularly inhabit, and engaging in place-making; that is, seeing ourselves as engaged in the spaces within which we interact and form communities with those around us. In contrast to such pessimistic predictions, a number of scholars have articulated the ongoing importance of place as part of socially constructed spatialities of postmodernity and neoliberal capitalism at a subjective and community level. Additionally, scholars across the humanities and social sciences have been drawn away from the easy identification of subjects who are embedded in the time-space compression and increasing kinesis of the contemporary world to the importance of the local and of ongoing, situated practices of creating significance and history. Foregrounding the matter of place makes way for critical appraisal of questions of local importance, asking how research can and should be engaged, as praxis, with local politics, histories, environments, and arts.

 All lectures begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted, and are held in Russell House, which is located at the corner of Washington and High streets.

February 4

A new look at an old question: the agreements and  disagreements between the sciences and historical writing

Frank Ankersmit, University of Groningen   GO →

Wednesday, February 13

Martin Buber’s Two Zionisms and the Question of Palestine

Judith Butler, Berkeley   |  MEMORIAL CHAPEL  |  4 p.m.  GO →

February 18

IRL (In Real Life)

Greg Goldberg, Wesleyan   GO →

February 25

Subterranean Gratification: Sites of Reading and Scenes of Mobility after the Picaro

Matthew Garrett, Wesleyan   GO →

March 4

On the Waterfront

Dara Orenstein, Wesleyan   GO →

April 1

That no tax will be paid, by white, black or indian: For Over-Reading the Speculative Atlantic, 1820-1860

David Kazanjian, University of Pennsylvania  GO →

April 8

“I Have Seen the Future” Selling the Interstate Highway System

Dolores Hayden, Yale University  GO →

April 15

Big Talk, Small Places: the Caribbean Epic

Indira Karamcheti, Wesleyan University  GO →

April 22

Secret Marriage, Revenge Murder, and Divas:  Lope, Webster, and the Early Modern Theatrical Revolution in Spain and England

Michael Armstrong Roche, Wesleyan University  GO →

April 29

The Place of Archaeology: Re-membering Local Histories

Sarah Croucher, Wesleyan University  GO →

May 6

Turning Empire Inside Out: Negritude and the Politics of Radical Literalism

Gary Wilder, Graduate Center CUNY  GO →