February Symposia Explore Abolition, World Literature and Atlantic Studies
Romance Studies is a multilingual, interdisciplinary and global department that explores the culture, thought and practices of communities where romance languages are, or were once, spoken. The department’s breadth of research, scholarship and teaching on the linguistic, social and cultural histories of the Romance world are vast and nuanced.
This February, the Department of Romance Studies, in collaboration with its faculty—Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Saskai Ziolkowski and Sarah Quesada—and partner units, will sponsor three symposia on the topics of the work of abolition, the intersectionality of world literature and the disciplinary barriers in Atlantic studies.
Registration is open, and further details on each symposium can be found below.
On Abolition: A Symposium
Contact: Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Associate Professor of French & Francophone Studies
Thursday, 2/2/23 – Friday, 2/3/23
Online, register here
This symposium assembles a community of interlocuters to think together about what the work of abolition requires and what futures it might bring into being. Taking both a transnational and transhistorical approach, we hope to foster a conversation about the long durée of thought, activism, and organizing against chattel slavery, imperialism, policing and carceral regimes in Africa, the Americas, and Europe. By bringing together scholars and practitioners who come to the work of abolition through various entry points including poetry, spirituality, restorative justice, Black feminism, Queer Studies, and Visual Studies, we hope that this conversation will illuminate productive paths for building more just and equitable worlds.
Thursday, February 2, 11:00am-12:30pm EST
Panel 1: "The Everyday Practice of Abolition"
Sindiswa Busuku (University of Cape Town)
Ashon Crawley (University of Virginia)
Fania Noël (The New School)
Thursday, February 2, 1:30pm-3:00pm EST
Panel 2: "The Durée of Abolitionist Futures"
Kellie Carter Jackson (Wellesley College)
Gregory Pierrot (University of Connecticut)
Vanessa Thompson (Queen's University)
Friday, February 3, 11:00am-12:00pm EST
Roundtable: Fighting, Dreaming, Creating
All panelists
Co-Sponsors: Center for French and Francophone Studies (CFFS); Franklin Humanities Institute (FHI); Duke Office of Global Affairs
Jewish Literature, World Literature
Contact: Saskia Ziolkowski, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Romance Studies
Friday, 2/10/23
Rubenstein Library 249 (Carpenter Room)
Add to calendar here
The Global Jewish Modernism Lab—part of the Humanities Unbounded initiative—housed in Romance Studies and German Studies, explores and expands the role of modern Jewish culture in the humanities today.
“Global Jewish Modernism” focuses on the rich terrains of Jewish literature, film, and art in relation to other humanities disciplines, approaches and theories. Rather than assume that a given work belongs in the category “Jewish” or “modernist,” we investigate these designations as fluid, malleable, aspirational, and ideological.
Jewish Literature, World Literature explores the intersections, tensions, and productive relationships between these two categories, by bringing together a range of scholars. The symposium will include discussions of translation, transnational literature, women’s internationalism, diaspora, questions of the law, Sephardic poetry and modern novels, among other topics.
Friday, February 1010:00-10:30 – Welcome
10:30-12:00 – Panel 1| Moderator: Cate Reilly (Duke); Allison Schachter (Vanderbilt): Women’s Internationalism and Jewish World Literature; Shai Ginsburg (Duke): World Literature, Jewish Literature, and the Question of the Law
12:00-1:00 – Lunch
1:00-2:30 – Panel 2| Moderator: Sarah Pourciau (Duke); Lital Levy (Princeton): World Literature, Translation, and Diaspora: The Global Journey of Aguilar’s The Vale of Cedars;
Adi Nester (UNC Chapel Hill): A Nation from Translation: Rudolf Borchardt Between German, Jewish, and World Literature
2:30-3:00 – Break
3:00-4:30 – Panel 3 | Moderator: Corina Stan (Duke); Monique Balbuena (University of Oregon): Transnational Sephardic Poetry; Saskia Ziolkowski (Duke): Modern Jewish Italian Writing as World Literature
4:30-5:00 – Closing Remarks
Co-Sponsors: Center for Jewish Studies; German Studies; Global Jewish Modernism; Humanities Unbounded
Atlantic Latinidades or Models for Trans-Oceanic Engagement: A Symposium
Contact: Sarah Quesada, Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Studies
Friday, 2/24/23 – Saturday, 2/25/23
Smith Warehouse, Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Bay 4, C105
This symposium is designed to break down disciplinary barriers in Atlantic studies. As a way of addressing disciplinary gaps, "Atlantic Latinidades" brings together scholars in the comparative fields of African, Latin American and Latinx studies that have decentered established frameworks and shifted epistemological centers.
The conference will culminate in a book launch for Quesada's new work: “The African Heritage of Latinx and Caribbean Literature” (Cambridge University Press 2022).
Invited speakers: Tahia Abdel Nasser, Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra, Sophie Esch, Anne Garland Mahler, David Kazanjian, Lanie Millar, Ato Quayson, Richard T. Rodríguez, María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo, Fatoumata Seck, Joseph Slaughter and Ariana Vigil.
Co-sponsors: Duke Romance Studies, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke Africa Initiative, Duke Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Duke Office of Global Affairs, Duke English, NOVEL, UNC Latina/o Studies Program