Events Calendar
2007-2008

Center for Humanities, Arts and TechnoScience (CHATS) Calendar of Events

New York State Writers Institute (NYSWI) Calendars

Sept. 4 (Tue.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee job-market season kick-off. General preparation for the job market, with a special focus on initial application materials.

Sept. 10 (Mon.): 11:00 to 12:30 p.m., HU 354: The Department of Sociology, University at Albany cordially invites you to attend a presentation: ABRINGING NEIGHBORS BACK INTO THE STUDY OF RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION," by SAMANTHA FRIEDMAN, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY.

Sept. 18 (Tue.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee workshop for drafts of job application materials.

Sept. 25 (Tue.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee meeting for job candidate on searching the JIL, Chronicle of Higher Ed, and other job listings and tailoring application materials for different kinds of institutions and positions.

Sept. 28 & 29 (Fri. & Sat.): 8:00 p.m., Performing Arts Center, UAlbany [28th]; and 6:30-9:00 p.m., Amrose Sable Gallery, downtown Albany [29th]: A two-day symposium entitled, "Blackness Unbound: Constructions and Deconstructions of Transnational Blackness," is to be held at the University at Albany,(SUNY), on Friday, September 28th and Saturday, September 29th, 2007.Funded by a Ford Foundation grant, and organized under the auspices of Small Axe: A Caribbean Platform for
Criticism, www.smallaxe.net/newsite/home, the two day event will feature eight presentations by leading scholars in Caribbean Studies, Latin American Studies, and Africana Studies.

The keynote address for Friday, September 28th, will be delivered at 8:00pm at the Performing Arts Center, UAlbany, by celebrated Jamaican novelist, essayist and screenwriter, Anthony Winkler, and Saturday's keynote (6:30pm to 9:00pm) will be an exhibition of new Caribbean paintings by British/Caribbean artist Rex Dixon, at the Amrose Sable Gallery, downtown Albany.

Sept. 30 (Sun.): 1:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.: Meader Theater, Russell Sage College, Troy, New York: 2 staged readings of Birth, a play by Karen Brody, will be presented as part of BOLD (Birth on Labor Day), an international campaign to raise awareness about the state of maternity care directed by Alyssa Colton & Sarah Eiley Cowherd. There will be silent auctions and talkback panels after the performances.

BOLD Red Tent 4:00-6:00 pm--Free in the Upton Center on the Sage campus. For more info: www.birthnewyork.org/bold and www.birthonlaborday.com Tickets $10/general, $7 students w/ID--special offer of $5 for anyone with a ticket stub from the Russell Sage play Quilters. Available at: www.brownpapertickets.com or 1-800-838-3006 or at the door.

This is produced by & a benefit for BirthNet, a local nonprofit working to educate the public about the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative and issues in maternity care. www.birthnewyork.org/birthnet.

Oct. 11 (Thu.): 6:00 p.m., HU 354: Along with Women’s Studies, the English department is hosting author and playwright Shay Youngblood. The writer of such notable books as Black Girl in Paris (2000) and Soul Kiss (1997) will give a reading and a talk entitled, "They Tell Me, Now I Know: Rituals and Writing."

Oct. 12 (Fri.): 12:30-1:30 p.m., HU 354: Allen Fisher will present a lecture titled, "Confidence in Lack." Allen Fisher's talk will address and skirt around the problems for poetics (and thus poets) with logical thought and ideas of coherence. The thesis is to celebrate a confidence in lack, a celebration of decoherence and the potentials of neg-entropy. 12:30-1:30 in HU 354.

Oct. 12 (Fri.): 1:30 p.m., HU 354: Members of Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor's Society, will be taking their professors "to tea" in the Humanities Lounge [HU 354]. Please note that this will be immediately following an English Department event; "tea" will begin around 1:30.

Oct. 12 (Fri.): 7:00 p.m., JAWBONE, Upstate Artists Guild gallery [UAG Gallery], 247 Lark Street, downtown Albany NY: Along with the NYS Writer's Institute, the English Dept. at the University at Albany, and Albany Poets the Jawbone Reading Series is sponsoring a visit by poet, painter, and art historian Allen Fisher.
Allen Fisher is a poet, painter, publisher, editor and art historian, lives in Hereford, Crewe and ‘in transit’, works at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Cheshire, where he is Head of Contemporary Arts. He has exhibited in many shows including London 2003, Hereford 1994 and York 1993. Examples are in the Tate, the Living Museum, Iceland and various private collections. His last four books were Place, Entanglement, Gravity and Singularity Stereo. The third and final volume of the poet’s twenty-three year project Gravity as a consequence of shape will be published later this year by Salt Publishing under the title Leans.
We are looking forward to the announcement of new Jawbone events in the near future.

Oct. 12 (Fri.): 2:30-4:00 p.m., HU 290: The English Department hosts Dave Parry's dissertation colloquium, based on his completed project entitled” Reading Without Rest: Negotiating the (Hyper-) Literary." Dave will be visiting from his new tenure-track position at the University of Texas at Dallas to participate; the event will include a 30-minute presentation by him, followed by discussion and questions from the audience. All Albany faculty and students are welcome.

Oct. 15 (Sat.): 12:00-2:00 p.m., HU 354:"Technology for Humanities Types": Dave Parry, an alumnus of the English doctoral program and currently Assistant Professor of Emerging Media at the University of Texas at Dallas, will offer a two-part presentation for both faculty and graduate students interesting in enhancing how they integrate technology into their research and teaching. Part 1, entitled "Technology and the Humanities: Practical Strategies," starts at noon and will emphasize research-based tools. Part 2, entitled "Making Your Course Work Online," begins at 1 p.m. and will focus particularly on pedagogy. The discussion will range from web research methods, citation managers, and feed readers to web tools and course management systems. All Albany faculty and students are welcome.

Oct. 15 (Mon.): 12:00-2:00 p.m., HU 354: A 2-part technology and humanities-related teaching and research workshop directed by Dave Parry. It is useful for both faculty and graduate students in CAS departments, all are invited.

Oct. 16 (Tues.): 5:00 p.m., HU 354: English Department’s Open House. A Pizza Party is planned for the event.

Oct. 17 (Wed.): 12:00-2:00 p.m., Standish Room: Randy Martin Lecture

Oct 17 (Wed.): 4:15-5:15, Standish Room: Elizabeth Wong is doing a presentation with a Q&A discussion.

Oct. 17 & 18 (Wed.): 5:00-6:00 p.m., Campus Center Ballroom, (Thu.): 1:15-2:30 p.m., HU 354: Professor Michael Allen, Distinguished Professor of English, UCLA, and visiting Phi Beta Kappa Scholar, will make two appearances of special interest to English majors, faculty, graduate students, and alumni.

On Wednesday Professor Allen will be presenting: THE FLASH AND OUTBREAK OF A FIERY MIND: PROTAGORAS AND HAMLET. On Thursday he will present a lecture at the English Colloquium/Brown-Bag Lunch entitled: NEOPLATONIC MYTHS OF THE TEXT IN THE RENAISSANCE.

Oct. 19 (Fri.): 3:00 p.m., HU 354: Sigma Tau Delta, English Honor's Society, will be presenting Sherman Raskin who will be speaking on "Careers in Publishing and the Master's in Publishing at Pace University."

Oct. 19-20 (Fri.&Sat.): Oct. 24-26 (Wed.-Fri.): 8:00 p.m., Oct. 21 & 27 (Sun.): 2:00 p.m., PAC Studio Theatre, University at Albany: College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of Theatre present Letters to a Student Revolutionary written and directed by Elizabeth Wong. $12:00; $8:00 students, seniors, staff.
Panel discussion after the show on Oct. 21 (Sun.).

Oct. 23 (Tues.): 7:30-9:30 p.m., HU 354: Sigma Tau Delta will be having a film night in the celebration of Halloween.

Oct. 25 (Thu.): 4:15 p.m., Assembly Hall, Campus Center: Novelist and UAlbany Writer-in-Residence, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya will be presenting a Reading from his new novel, The Desert of Love, set in Marrakesh, Morocco, and from Homeland, a two-thousand page novel-in-progress set in interwar Germany. Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya is the author of the first novel, The Gabriel Club (1999), which received the Grand Jury Prize at the Budapest Book Fair and has been published in 11 languages.
Born and educated in India, the author presently serves as Writer-in-Residence in the UAlbany English Department.

Oct. 25 (Thu.): 5:30-8:30 p.m., HU 290: Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor’s Society, will be having a "Film Night."

Oct. 30 (Tues.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization meeting on the academic job market: what to expect from and how to prepare for academic job interviews.

Oct. 31 (Wed.): 3:00 p.m., D'Ambra Auditorium, Life Sciences Research Building: Afternoon of Celebrating Teaching honoring UAlbany's two most recent appointed Distinguished Teaching Professors: Jeffrey Berman, English and Sue Faerman, Public Administration and Policy.

Oct. 31 (Wed.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354 [please note room/time change]: Initiatives in Teaching: Organized by the Undergraduate Advisory Committee: "What Is a Successful Revision?: On Grading and Evaluating Critical and Creative Rewrites in English Undergraduate Classes" Questions related to not only the problems of grading revision, of creating assignments oriented toward future revision (as in creative writing portfolio classes and in the English core writing courses), and of communicating to students what successful revision constitutes Led by Professor Martha Rozett and graduate instructor TBA.

Nov. 8-9 (Thu. & Fri.): ECOLOGIES OF WAR: LIFE TECHNOLOGIES AND PLANETARY CONFLICT. A special symposium presented by the Department of English, IC3 (Institute on Critical Climate Change, and Chats.) For additional information on the conference go to: http://albany.edu/english/iccc/ecologies_of_war.html KEYNOTERS: JODY BERLAND, DAVID HARVEY and CHRIS HEDGES

Standish Room - Papers and Panels
University Hall - 6:00-7:30 p.m. Buffet Supper
Chris Hedges - Campus Center Ballroom [see time, etc., listed below]

Nov. 8 (Thu.): 8:00 p.m., Campus Center, Ballroom: Chris Hedges Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent and bestselling author, will be a keynote speaker at The Ecologies of War: Life Technologies and Planetary Conflict, a conference that explores 21st century shifts in the political agendas, social orders, and cultural preoccupations of a new horizon of violence and change. Hedges is the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), a national bestseller that explores the seductive powers of wartime mythologies. The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hedges shared the 2002 Pulitzer Prize as part of the New York Times reportorial team on global terrorism. His latest book is American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (2007). Publishers Weekly said, “this urgent book forcefully illuminates what many across the political spectrum will recognize as a serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society.” Other books by Hedges include Losing Moses on the Freeway (2005) and What Every Person Should Know About War (2003). Cosponsored by the Department of English. For additional information on the conference go to: http://albany.edu/english/iccc/ecologies_of_war.html

Nov.15 (Thu.): 3:00-4:00 p.m., HU 290: Initiatives in Teaching: Organized by the Undergraduate Advisory Committee:"Teaching a Diversity Course: How to Respond When a Student Says the Unthinkable. " Questions of addressing issues that arise when students step over appropriate ethical and moral lines in classroom discussion and/or in written assignments Led by Professor Judi Barlow and graduate instructor TBA.

Dec. 3 (Mon.): (time TBA), HU 354, ENG 642 and ENG 310 will be presenting: A Theory Conference entitled: Culture as a Whole Way of Life/ Culture as a Way of Struggle. The conference will offer several multidisciplinary panels on the question of culture and contemporary critical theory presented by graduate and undergraduate students in ENG 642 and ENG 310. Open to all.

Dec. 4 (Tues.): 4:30-7:00 p.m. University Art Museum: Launch Party for Fence Winter 2007-08 issue, featuring works from the current shows up in the University Art Museum. Wine, snacks, etc.

Dec. 7 (Fri.): Last day of classes for Fall 2007 semester.

Jan. 25 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Reading will be presented by Michael Peters and Thom Francis. This semester Jawbone readings will happen at the Upstate Artists Guild (UAG) Gallery in conjunction with the local not-for-profit organization Albany Poets, whose goal is to promote the poets and poetry of Upstate New York.

Feb. 8 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Flim Magazine reading, featuring: Jaye Bartell, Jennifer Karmin, Michael Ives and Deborah Poe.

Feb. 12 (Tues.): 2:30-3:30 p.m., HU 290: Initiatives in Teaching will present: "Finding a Voice: Addressing Problems of Imagination and Writing in the Creative Writing Workshop." Questions of handling issues that affect us all in the creative writing workshop will be led by Professor Lynne Tillman and graduate instructor Charmaine Cadeau.

Feb. 20 (Weds.): 5:00-8:30 p.m., HU 354, Announcing: "Rereading the 17th Century: A Romp Across the Early Modern English Stage." The first of three dramatic readings of Modern English Works to be presented: William Wager's The Longer Thou livest; The More the Fool thou Art. Refreshments will be served with a discussion to follow performances.

Feb. 21 (Thurs.): 4:15 p.m., Campus Center 375: Lecture by Coco Fusco, renowned artist and scholar, on "Disciplinary Theater: Military Interrogation as Intercultural Performance." Open and free to the public.

Feb. 22 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Sunnyoutside Press reading, featuring: Rusty Barnes, Jason Tandon, Rebecca Schumejda, Dan Wilcox and Margot Lynch.

Feb. 26 (Tues.): 3:00-4:00 p.m. HU 354: The English department's Professionalization Committee will be hosting an informal panel discussion on creative and scholarly publication for graduate students on Tuesday, February 26, in HUM 354. In particular, the panel will address strategies for and share experiences of moving from journal publication to eventual book publication. Our panelists will be:
Professor Patricia Chu, author of Race, Nationalism and the State in British and American Modernism (Cambridge UP, 2006) Rebecca Wolff, editor of Fence and Fence Books and author of poetry collections Manderley and Figment Michael Peters, graduate student and author of the recently published Vaast Bin; n Ephemerisi Merle Bachman, U. Albany alumna and current professor at Spalding University whose dissertation, Recovering Yiddishland: Threshold Moments in American Literature, has just been published Syracuse UP. Inquiries can be directed to Lwilder@albany.edu

Mar.12 (Weds.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee Panel Discussion on Seeking Funding for Graduate Student Research: postdocs, fellowships, grants. Panelists: Lisa Thompson, Eric Keenaghan, and Kelly Secovnie.
Inquiries can be directed to Lwilder@albany.edu

Mar. 12 (Weds.): 5:00-8:30 p.m., HU 354: "Rereading the 17th Century: A Romp Across the Early Modern English Stage." The second presentation of the three dramatic readings of Modern English Works: Ben Jonson's The Devil is an Ass. Refreshments will be served with a discussion to follow performances.

March 12 (Weds.): 6:00 p.m., Bookhouse, Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany: The English Faculty Book Launch. English Faculty will be promoting and signing their new books. Here is the list of confirmed participants with book information:
Kevin Bell, Ashes Taken for Fire: Aesthetic Modernism and the Critique of Identity
Bret Benjamin, Invested Interests: Capital, Culture, and the World Bank
Jeffrey Berman and Patricia Hatch Wallace, Cutting and the Pedagogy of Self-Disclosure
Patricia Chu, Race, Nationalism and the State in British and American Modernism
Richard Matturro, Leslie; Richard Matturro, Luna
Michael Peters, Vaast Bin; n Ephemerisi

March 14 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Deborah Poe & Nicole Karas.

Mar. 17 (Mon.): 5:00-8:30 p.m., HU 354: "Rereading the 17th Century: A Romp Across the Early Modern English Stage." The second presentation of the three dramatic readings of Modern English Works: Ben Jonson's The Devil is an Ass.
Refreshments will be served with a discussion to follow performances.

Mar. 18 (Tues.): 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee Panel Discussion on Building Your C.V. By Starting Early: Professionalization concerns for graduate students early in their studies.
Inquiries can be directed to Lwilder@albany.edu

March 19 (Weds.): 2:00-3:00 p.m., HU 354: Initiatives in Teaching will present "Politics in the Classroom: The Difficulties of Teaching Political Issues." Questions of what to do with the introduction of political content, as well as political leanings, into the undergraduate literature and writing classrooms will be led by Professor Paul Stasi and graduate instructor Becky Bale.

March 28 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Jacqueline Jones LaMon & Carol Graser.

April 4-6, (Fri.-Sun.): Life Sciences Complex, University at Albany: The Institute on Critical Climate Change (IC3) will host a major international conference:

"X Factors: Terrestiality, Reinscription, Memory Regimes--A Workshop on ‘Climate Change’ and the Humanities." The conference will pose the question of how critical projects today stand to mutate in the new materialities and catastrophics of 21st century horizons—and specifically, how and whether these exceed current temporal, social, historical, and conceptual models.

Keynotes: Bernard Steigler, Pompdidou Center, Paris; Sam Weber, Avalon Foundation Professor, Northwestern University; Haun Saussy, Yale University; and Clair Colebrook, University at Edinburgh, who will deliver the keynote addresses. They will be joined by scholars from Europe, Asia, and from across the U.S. as well as by colleagues and graduate students from the University at Albany's English Department. Among panelists will be Gil Anidjar, Jennifer Bajorek, Mark Hansen, Laurel Kearns, Kyoo Lee, James Lilley, Randy Martin, He Qinlian,
McKenzie Wark, and Krzysztof Ziarek. They will explore a wide range of topics from a variety of philosophical, mediatric, and ecological perspectives. For further information on schedules, participants, and logistics, please visit the IC3 website at http://www.albany.edu/english/iccc/.

Apr. 8 (Tues.): 4:15-5:15 p.m., HU 354: Ina Bergmann of Wuerzburg University will present "The New Historical Fiction: The 19th Century Revisited." For any other information concerning the event, please contact Martha Rozett.

Apr. 11 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Stephen Cope & Mary Panza.

Apr. 12 & 13 (Sat. & Sun.): Sceince Library: University at Albany Undergraduate Research Conference see http://www.honors@uamail.allbany.edu for more information.

Apr. 16 (Weds.): 1:30-2:30 p.m., HU 384 [Grad Library]: Initiatives in Teaching. The topic will be: "The Problems We Face Teaching Longer Texts." Questions regarding the assignment, division, discussion and reading of longer literary texts in the undergraduate classroom will be led by Professor James Lilley and graduate instructor Iuliu Ratiu.

Apr. 16 (Weds.): 5:00-8:30 p.m., HU 354: "Rereading the 17th Century: A Romp Across the Early Modern English Stage." The last presentation of three dramatic readings of Modern English Works: Aphra Behn's The Rover. Refreshments will be served with a discussion to follow performances.

Apr. 19 (Sat.): 6:00p.m. Standish Room, Science Library: The English Graduate Student Organization presents: "Construction the Body, Construction the text: Literary and Scientific Discourses of the Human Body." The keynote lecture will be presented by Judith Halberstam: “Bees, Bio-Privacy and the Art of Cross Pollenation.”
Please visit : http://www.albany.edu/english/2008.pdf for more information.

Apr. 24 (Thurs.): 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., HU 354: Professionalization Committee Panel Discussion on Preparing to Search for an Academic Position in 2008-2009: A necessary planning meeting for those entering (or thinking about entering) the job market next year. Inquiries can be directed to Lwilder@albany.edu

Apr. 25 (Fri.): 6:30 p.m., JAWBONE, UAG Gallery, 247 Lark Street (b/w Lancaster and Jay): Poetry at the UAG, sponsored by Jawbone Reading Series, Albany Poets, and the Upstate Artists Guild presents: Rebecca Wolff & Sam Truitt.

May 1 (Thurs.): 8:00 p.m., Standish Room, Science Library: The Fence Spring/Summer 2008 Launch Reading will be featuring contributors to the new issue, introduced by editors.

May 17 & 18 (Sat-Sun.): Commencement Weekend: May 17 (Sat.): English Undergraduate Ceremony for English and Jounalism Majors:
Time: 3:30 p.m. (ceremony lasts 60 to 75 minutes)
Location: SEFCU Arena, UAlbany Campus
Attire: Students may opt to wear their cap and gown or business attire.
Seating: Tickets are not needed for the department's Recognition Ceremony. There is ample seating in the SEFCU Arena for friends and family.

May 17 (Sat.): 9:00 a.m., SEFCU Arena: University-wide Graduate Ceremony

May 17 (Sat.): 11:30 a.m.-1:30p.m., HU 354: English Honors Students Presentations

May 18 (Sun.): 10:00 a.m., Science Library lawn: University-wide Undergraduate Ceremony.