Temple symposium: Future of Knowledge in the Humanities

The Center for Humanities at Temple

THE FUTURE OF KNOWLEDGE IN THE HUMANITIES
Wednesday, April 17
Gladfelter Hall, 10th Floor
Temple University
1:00-5:00

The 2013 CHAT conference asks about the future of knowledge in the humanities. In the twentieth-century American university, the collective fields of the humanities produced, transmitted, and challenged certain kinds of knowledge that set them apart from the knowledge produced in the sciences or fine arts. At the start of the twenty-first century, the humanities are under attack. Confronting severe economic pressures, universities must decide whether to renew or revise their commitment to liberal education. Invited speakers will address this core issue—some call it a“crisis.” Our focus is how knowledge has been, is, and might be sponsored, produced, taught, and valued in higher education. Guiding questions include: What has been the relationship between the “humanities” and the kind of knowledge protected and produced in higher education? What is the relationship between our pedagogical and political commitments? How have we in the past connected the public purpose of higher education to the knowledge taught and produced there? And how might we pursue it in the future? Our speakers are encouraged to provide historical and practical perspectives which these and other questions demand.

SCHEDULE:

1:00-1:10 Opening remarks

1:10-2:30: Presentations:

Paul Stoller, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, West Chester University of Pennsylvania:
Timothy J. Burke, Department of History, Swarthmore College
Steve Newman, Department of English, Temple University
Anthony E. Wagner, Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer, Temple University

2:30-3:00 Coffee break

3:00-4:30 Roundtable discussion

4:30-5:00 Reception

End/Future of Cinema Studies One-Day Conference

The First Annual Dick Wolf Penn Cinema Studies Conference:

The End of Cinema and the Future of Cinema Studies

Friday, April 12, 2013 -

9:30am - 5:30pm

Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
Free admission

In a day long conference on the future of cinema studies, Penn Cinema Studies Program will bring together scholars, film critics, and film industry practitioners who have stood at the cutting edge of the critical and scholarly debates about the technological and institutional transformations in film and media. On the one hand, the disappearance of the celluloid, the redefinition of the image by the digital technology, and the transformation of theatrical viewing onto heterogeneous spaces and devices has put at stake the very existence of the field’s object of study, and has resulted in a kind of cultural pessimism and an obsessive discourse on the mortality of cinema. On the other hand, these developments were accompanied by a renewed and unprecedented vitality and vigor in cinema, the cinema’s widening sphere of influence, and the rebirth of cinephilia. The disciplinary shifts brought a new understanding of the nature of the moving image, its relationship with the real, as well as a new understanding of the history of the medium. Through a dialogue between acclaimed film scholars, critics, and practitioners, we want to think about the significance of film and media studies today and address the ways in which the convergence that defines the landscape of film and media also coincides with a convergence that is institutional and disciplinary.

Speakers to include keynote Francesco Casetti, Dudley Andrew, John Belton, Mark Betz, Francesca Coppa, Geoff Gilmore, Barbara Klinger, Lev Manovich, Jonathan Rosenbaum, and Lynn Spigel. The full schedule available at Penn Cinema Studies' website.