Series comprises two symposia rather than one this year
The Ray Smith Symposium is providing double the food for thought this year, coordinating two series rather than one. “Moving Borders: The Culture and Politics of Displacement in and from Latin America and the Caribbean” is organized and presented by faculty members of the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean (PLACA) in the Moynihan Institute for Global Affairs in the Maxwell School. Concurrently, “Positions of Dissent” is organized and presented by the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at SU Library, as well as an interdisciplinary group of faculty from across campus.
The symposia are enabled by a major bequest from the estate of Ray W. Smith ’21, administered by The College of Arts and Sciences. All events are free and open to the public.
“The College is proud to sponsor two Ray Smith symposia this year, affirming our commitment to sustained scholarly discussion about important issues,” says Gerald R. Greenberg, senior associate dean for academic affairs and the humanities; associate dean of curriculum, instruction and programming; and associate professor of languages, literatures and linguistics. “‘Moving Borders’ will look at the impact of cultural, political and economic displacement. ‘Positions of Dissent’ will reflect on the theme of dissent and its relevance to the humanities, while drawing on the rich primary source collections of the Special Collections Research Center. Both symposia have considerable crossover appeal.”
The symposia will come together for a special kick-off event titled “Feeling on the Outside” on Friday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. Free and open to the public, the event will feature a community panel discussion with Sean Quimby, librarian and senior director of the SCRC; Luis Castañeda, associate professor of art and music histories in The College of Arts and Sciences; Juan Cruz, artist-in-residence in the Near West Side of Syracuse; and others. The discussion is followed by a musical performance by Trio Los Claveles and then by a mini-exhibition and reception.
For more information about “Feeling on the Outside,” call Elane Granger Carrasco, associate director of the Slutzker Center for International Services and co-organizer of “Moving Borders,” at 315-443- 2457.
MOVING BORDERS
“Moving Borders” is divided into four thematic clusters: “Borders,” “Homeland,” “Citizenship” and “Movement.” Each cluster spans several days, and features two keynote lectures, a mini-seminar, and other events and activities. Everything is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required for the mini-seminars.
Sydney Hutchinson, assistant professor of art and music histories, is co-organizing the symposium with Granger and a team of nine other faculty members. “Changes in global conditions, brought on by political, military, cultural and economic crises, have caused mass movements of people,” says Hutchinson. “These movements, in turn, have sparked intense debates over identity, politics, economic policy and immigration. ‘Moving Borders’ will examine issues of borders and displacement through various disciplinary perspectives and forms of representation, including film, music, dance and literature.”
Adds Granger, “We seek to understand how cultural, political and economic displacement affects individuals and nations, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. With displacement comes emerging notions of borders, homeland, citizenship and movement that need to be explored, questioned and redefined.”
The “Moving Borders” schedule is as follows:
Borders
Screening: “Sin Nombre” (2009)
Thursday, Sept. 20, 6 p.m.
141 Newhouse 3
Keynote Lecture I: “Political Equators: Migrant Urbanizations of Retrofit”
Teddy Cruz, professor of visual arts at the University of California, San Diego
Keynote Lecture II: “Border Re-Creations: Art, Culture and Identity at the U.S./Mexican Border”
José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, professor of cultural studies at the College of the Northern Border (Mexico)
Thursday, Sept. 27, 6 p.m.
Maxwell Auditorium
Concert: “The Bolero Across Borders,” featuring Trio Los Claveles
Thursday, Sept. 27, 8:30 p.m.
La Casita Cultural Center (109 Otisco St., Syracuse)
RSVP at elcarras@syr.edu
Mini-Seminar: Teddy Cruz and José Manuel Valenzuela Arce
Friday, Sept. 28, 10 a.m.
308 Bowne Hall
RSVP at elcarras@syr.edu
Screening: “Postcards from Leningrad” (2007)
Thursday, Oct. 11, 6 p.m.
220 Eggers Hall
Homeland
Screening: “Diario de uma busca” (2010)
Thursday, Oct. 25, 6 p.m.
141 Newhouse 3
Keynote Lecture I: “Culture Works: On the Trials of Building a National Latino/a Museum”
Arlene Dávila, professor of anthropology and of social and cultural analysis at New York University
Thursday, Nov. 8, 6 p.m.
Maxwell Auditorium
Keynote Lecture II: “Exiles within Exiles: Herbert Daniel, Gay Brazilian Revolutionary”
James Green, professor of history and Brazilian Studies at Brown University
Friday, Nov. 9, 10 a.m.
220 Eggers Hall
Mini-Seminar: Arlene Dávila and James Green
Friday, Nov. 9, 2:30 p.m.
204 Maxwell Hall
RSVP at mygarcia@syr.edu
Exhibition Opening and Reception: “Angels on the Border”
Friday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m.
La Casita Cultural Center
Citizenship
Keynote Lecture I: “Can Immigrants and Native People Be Citizens? Critical Race Theory, the Law and the State”
Gerald Torres, the Bryant Smith Chair of Law at the University of Texas at Austin
Keynote Lecture II: “Moveable Citizenship? Latino/a Dialects of ‘Citizenship’ and ‘Belonging’”
Suzanne Oboler, professor of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York
Thursday, Jan. 31, 6 p.m.
Maxwell Auditorium
Mini-Seminar: Suzanne Oboler and Gerald Torres
Friday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m.
204 Maxwell Hall
RSVP at safetta@syr.edu
Performance: “Border Beasts”
Carmelita Tropicana, Cuban-American performance artist
Friday, Feb. 1, 7:30 p.m.
La Casita Cultural Center
Screening: “City of Men” (2007)
Tuesday, Feb. 28, 6 p.m.
220 Eggers Hall
Screening: “Los Rubios” (2003)
Thursday, March 21, 6 p.m.
220 Eggers Hall
Movement
Keynote Lecture I: “Afro-Atlantic Aesthetics, Migrations and Musical World-Visions”
Ángel Quintero Rivera, professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Puerto Rico
Keynote Lecture II: “Indicios, or, the Politics of Place”
Milagros de la Torre, conceptual photographer
Thursday, April 4, 6 p.m.
Maxwell Auditorium
Mini-Seminar: Ángel Quintero Rivera and Milagros de la Torre
Friday, April 5, 10 a.m.
SU Humanities Center, 304 Tolley Building
RSVP at aorr@syr.edu
Brazilian Dance Workshop: The Dance Migration (Toronto)
Friday, April 5, 2:30 p.m.
Venue TBA
Brazilian Dance Performance: The Dance Migration with Samba Laranja (the SU Brazilian Ensemble)
Friday, April 5, 7:30 p.m.
Venue TBA
Screening: “Mirror Dance” (2005)
Thursday, March 28, 6 p.m.
220 Eggers Hall
Additional support for “Moving Borders” comes from the Office of the Chancellor; the Department of Art and Music Histories, the Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, the Latino/Latin American Studies Program and the SU Humanities Center, all in The College of Arts and Sciences; the departments of history, sociology and geography in the Maxwell School; PLACA; the Centro de Estudios Hispánicos and the Lino Novas Calvo Fund; Arts Engage, the Office of SU’s Performing Arts Presenter; the Slutzker Center for International Services; La Casita Cultural Center; the Fulbright Association, CNY Chapter; and the Phi Beta Delta International Honor Society.
For more information, visit raysmithsymposium.syr.edu.
POSITIONS OF DISSENT
“Positions of Dissent” is grounded in the unique holdings of the SCRC. The premise of the symposium, explains Quimby, is to reflect on the polysemy of dissent and how it has manifested itself throughout American history.
“It is our contention that the idea of dissent must be understood within specific historical contexts,” he says. “By recognizing the manifold meanings of dissent throughout American history, we can incite a cross-disciplinary dialogue that is urgently needed in this moment of worldwide political and economic turmoil.”
“Positions of Dissent” includes a yearlong series of public lectures and mini-seminars with visiting scholars, as well as “Strange Victories: Grove Press, 1951–1985,” the first major exhibition devoted to avant-garde American publisher Grove Press, notorious for bringing Henry Miller, William Burroughs, Franz Fanon and other authors to American readers. Programming includes a panel discussion with former Grove Press employees at the SCRC, a screening of films from the Grove Press Film Division and a reading from Grove Press publications.
“We believe that linking current scholarship in the humanities to tangible archival sources is of vital importance for understanding fluid and contested concepts like dissent,” continues Quimby. “It’s important to make these resources and knowledge accessible to our students, our local community of scholars and our regional institutional partners.”
The “Positions of Dissent” schedule is as follows:
Visiting Scholar Lecture Series and Programming
Keynote Lecture: “The Battle Over Sexual Knowledge in 19th-Century America”
Helen Horowitz, the Sydenham Clark Parsons Professor of History Emerita at Smith College
Thursday, Sept. 20, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, Bird Library (first floor)
Mini-Seminar: Helen Horowitz
Friday, Sept. 21, 10 a.m.
Lemke Seminar Room, SCRC, Bird Library (sixth floor)
RSVP with Barbara Brooker at bbbrooke@syr.edu or 315-443-9763
Keynote Lecture: “Voluntary Primitivism”
Felicity Scott, associate professor of architecture and director of the Program in Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices at Columbia University
Thursday, Oct. 11, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Mini-Seminar: Felicity Scott
Friday, Oct. 12, 10 a.m.
Lemke Seminar Room
RSVP at bbbrooke@syr.edu or 315-443-9763
Public Forum I: “Documenting Dissent”
Students in Associate Professor Joan Bryant’s fall seminar will present research projects that pertain to issues of dissent and draw upon SCRC resources.
Wednesday, Nov. 14, 3:45 p.m.
Spector Room, Bird Library (sixth floor)
Keynote Lecture: “Olson’s Archives: From Cosmology to Discourse in New American Poetry” (in conjunction with the 2012 Syracuse Symposium)
Lytle Shaw, associate professor of English at New York University
Thursday, Nov. 15, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Mini-Seminar: Lytle Shaw
Friday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.
Lemke Seminar Room
RSVP at bbbrooke@syr.edu or 315-443-9763
Public Forum II: “Documenting Dissent”
Students in Bryant’s fall seminar will present research projects that pertain to issues of dissent and draw upon SCRC resources.
Wednesday, Nov. 28, 3:45 p.m.
Spector Room
Keynote Lecture: “Counter-Culture Colophon: Grove Press, the ‘Evergreen Review’ and the Incorporation of the Avant-Garde”
Loren Glass, associate professor of English at the University of Iowa
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Keynote Lecture: “Hammer and Sickle, Stars and Stripes: The Odyssey of Earl Browder”
Laura Browder, the Tyler and Alice Haynes Professor of American Studies at the University of Richmond
Thursday, March 7, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Mini-Seminar: Laura Browder
Friday, March 8, 10 a.m.
Lemke Seminar Room
RSVP at bbbrooke@syr.edu or 315-443-9763
Keynote Lecture: “The Public Life of Color, ca. 1971”
Darby English, associate professor of art history at the University of Chicago
Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Mini-Seminar: Darby English
Friday, April 12, 10 a.m.
Lemke Seminar Room
RSVP at bbbrooke@syr.edu or 443-9763
“Strange Victories: Grove Press, 1951-1985” Exhibition and Programming
Panel Discussion with former Grove Press employees, moderated by Glass
Thursday, Jan. 17, at 5 p.m.
Peter Graham Scholarly Commons
Exhibition Opening and Reception
Thursday, Jan. 17, at 6 p.m.
SCRC
Screening: “Dissent on Film,” featuring selections from the Grove Press Film Division
Thursday, Feb. 21, 7 p.m.
Palace Theater (2384 James St., Syracuse)
Reading: “Reading Grove”
Students, faculty and community members read from books published by Grove Press
Thursday, April 18, 6 p.m.
XL Projects (307-313 S. Clinton St., Syracuse)
“Grove Press forever altered the American literary landscape and its relationship to social mores, equality and freedom of expression,” concludes Quimby, citing Grove’s involvement with such controversial titles as “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and “Tropic of Cancer.” “Until now, the Grove Press archive has remained largely hidden from scholarly view. This exhibition reveals the tremendous wealth of this newly available collection.”
For more information about “Positions of Dissent,” contact Lucy Mulroney, curator of the SCRC at 443-8538, or visit dissent.syr.edu.
“Positions of Dissent” is co-sponsored by the SU Humanities Center, the School of Architecture, and departments of history and English.
The Ray Smith Symposium is named for the Auburn, N.Y. native who, after graduating from SU in 1921, was a highly respected teacher and administrator.
