Collectivity: CNY Humanities and Nineteenth Century Americanist Reading Group Conference

The Collectivity Conference is sponsored by the Central New York Humanities Corridor from an award by the Mellon Foundation and organized by the Nineteenth-Century Americanist Reading Group at Cornell University.

On Friday, 9/29, we invite you to attend Dr. Britt Rusert's keynote address, "Mutual Aid and Community Defense: Blueprints and Lessons from the Long Nineteenth Century."

On Saturday, 9/30, please join us for graduate student panels centered on the theme of collectivity.

REWORKING COLLECTIVITY — 9:30-10:45 AM
Moderated by Derrick R. Spires

Susannah Sharpless, "'Is it your choice?': The Materials of Address in Lydia Huntley Sigourney's 'Rag Poems'"

Jacob Walters, "Covalent Bonds: Science, Energy, and Collectivity in the works of Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, and W.E.B. Du Bois"

Philippa Chun, "Grave Subjects: Identity and Community in Nineteenth-Century Cemeteries"

UNEXPECTED COALITIONS — 11:00-12:15 PM
Moderated by Patricia Roylance

Maria Al-Raes, "Hidden in Plain Sight: Suspense and Closure in The Bondwoman's Narrative"

Charline Jao, "'Pray, why do they call this place the Tombs?': Lydia Maria Child and Charles Dickens's American Notes"

Victoria Corwin, "Travelling Nobodies: Imagined Journeys into the Ancient World"

WORKING LUNCH 12:15-1:30 PM
Lead by Lenora Warren and Anna Shechtman

(IN)VISIBLE LABOR — 1:45-3:00 PM
Moderated by Ezra Tawil

Jenna Marvin, "'The Weary, Blackened Shell': Photography's Struggle to Image Labor and the Coal Mine"

Andrew Scheinman, "Cornell as Construction Site: On Student Labor in the University's Early History"

Jeffrey Adams, "Consider the Basilosaurus: Antebellum Slavery and Paleontology's Formation"

The ARG would like to thank the following for their support in organizing this conference:

Central New York Humanities Corridor

American Studies Program

Cornell Society for the Humanities

Literatures in English Department

Shirley Samuels