WHY FRANKENSTEIN MATTERS AT 200:
RETHINKING THE HUMAN THROUGH THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME
ROME GLOBAL GATEWAY
3-6 JULY 2018
CO-ORGANIZERS:
Eileen Hunt Botting (Political Theory, University of Notre Dame)
Agustín Fuentes (Anthropology, University of Notre Dame)
Greg Kucich (English, University of Notre Dame)
Tuesday July 3
3-5pm Registration at Global Gateway. Please bring presentations on jump drives to load onto computer terminal for conference sessions.
Wednesday July 4
8-8:30am Coffee and Registration at Global Gateway
8:30am Welcome and Opening Remarks by Co-organizers, Heather Hyde Minor, Professor of Art History, and Faculty Director of Rome Global Gateway, & Giuseppe Albano, Director, Keats-Shelley House, Rome
9-10:30am PANEL
“It was on a dreary night of November”:
AESTHETICS AND IMAGINATIONS
Joyce Carol Oates (Creative Writing, Princeton University)
“Frankenstein and ‘Monstrous Imagination’”
David Archard (Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast)
“The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Evil and Monstrosity”
Steven B. Smith (Political Theory, Yale University)
“Rousseau, Shelley, and Houellebecq on Science and the Post-Human”
Chair: Eileen Hunt Botting (Political Theory, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Three 20-minute papers followed by 30-minute discussion with audience
10:30-11am Coffee Break in Global Gateway
11am-12:30pm PANEL
“The accomplishment of my toils”:
SCIENTISTS AND THE (NON)HUMAN
Anne K. Mellor (English, UCLA)
“Mothering Monsters: Frankenstein and Genetic Engineering”
Peta Katz and Jonathan Marks (Anthropology, University of North Carolina-Charlotte)
“Frankenstein and the moral dimension of life science”
Tracy Betsinger (Anthropology, SUNY-Oneonta)
“Frankenstein’s Creature and Vampires: Embodiments of Fear”
Chair: Greg Kucich (English, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Three 20-minute papers then 30-minute discussion with audience
12:30-2:30pm Lunch Break in Rome
2:30-5pm PANEL AND FILM SCREENING
“I collected the instruments of life around me”:
RACE, GENDER, AND (RE)PRODUCTION
Elizabeth Young (English and Film Studies, Mount Holyoke College)
“Black Frankenstein at 200”
Alan Coffee (Political Theory, King’s College London)
“Slave Narrative and (or in) Frankenstein”
Serena Baiesi (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Bologna)
“Strange, Supernatural, and Necromantic Adventure”: Mary Shelley’s Gothic Stories and the Inheritance of Frankenstein”
Chair: Devi Snively (Independent Filmmaker)
Format: Three 20-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with the audience
4-4:15pm Break
4:15-5pm SCREENING OF “BRIDE OF FRANKIE” (2017),
an independent film directed by Devi Snively and produced by Agustín Fuentes
Format: screening of short film “Bride of Frankie,” followed by 25 minutes of discussion with director, producer, and audience.
5-6:30pm Rooftop Reception in Global Gateway
Thursday July 5
8:30-9am Coffee at Global Gateway
9-10:30am PANEL
“The lifeless thing that lay at my feet”:
THE CORPOREAL IN THE ANTHROPOCENE
Timothy Morton (English, Rice University)
“What Was That Again about Frankenstein and Ecology?”
Lilla Crisafulli (Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Bologna)
“From the Physiognomic Body to the Problematic Self in Frankenstein”
Gudrun Grabher (American Studies and Medical Humanities, University of Innsbruck)
“Levinas and the Ethical Challenges of Frankenstein’s Monster”
Chair: Essaka Joshua (English and Disability Studies, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Three 20-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
10:30-11am Coffee Break in Global Gateway
11-12:30pm PANEL
“The detested shore”:
RACE AND THE IRISH FRANKENSTEIN
~~ Keough Global Seminar Session ~~
James Chandler (English, University of Chicago)
“A race of devils”? What to Make of the Irish Episode
Julie Kipp (Independent Scholar)
“Frankenstein, the Shelley Circle, and Radical Politics in Ireland”
Claire Connolly (Modern English, University College Cork)
“Archipelagic Frankenstein? Sea Crossings, Scale, and National Culture”
Chair: Chris Fox (University of Notre Dame, Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies)
Format: Three 20-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
12:30-2:30pm Lunch Break in Rome
2:30-4pm ROUNDTABLE
“That I might infuse a spark of being”:
ELECTRICITY, LABOUR, MACHINES, AND AI
Charles Gross (Psychology and Neuroscience, Princeton University)
“Electricity and Biology in Frankenstein”
Sylvana Tomaselli (History and Political Thought, University of Cambridge)
“Labour of Love”
Aku Visala (Theology, University of Helsinki)
“Where Does the Buck Stop? On the Responsibility of Artificial Beings and their Creators”
Scott Reents (Data Analytics and E-Discovery, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP)
“Frankenjustice: Artificial Intelligence, Reason-Giving, and the Transparency of Law”
Chair: Agustín Fuentes (Anthropology, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Four 15-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
4-5:30pm STUDENT POSTER SESSION AND RECEPTION
Chair: Eileen Hunt Botting (Political Theory, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Undergraduate and graduate students from Notre Dame will be available to discuss their research posters on Frankenstein and its legacies
Anthony Stoner
Isabel Weber
Alicia Cristoforo
Amber Grimmer
Sidney Simpson
Ryan Klevens
David Phillips
Garrett Fitzgerald
Joel Kempff
Matthew Schoenbauer
Ellen Pil
Friday July 6
8:30-9am Coffee in Global Gateway
9-10:30am ROUNDTABLE
“I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open”:
(RE)ANIMATION, GENETICS, AND EVOLUTION
Eileen Hunt Botting (Political Theory, University of Notre Dame)
“Hearing the Creature: Articulating the Child’s Right to be Genetically Modified.”
Eben Kirksey (Anthropology, University of New South Wales, Australia)
“CRISPR Trans-Migrations: Gene Editing and Consumer Choices”
Blaine Maley (Anthropology and Anatomy, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine)
“The Chimeric Human: Identity, Culture, and Evolution in the Age of Transplantation and Genetic Engineering”
Agustín Fuentes (Anthropology, University of Notre Dame)
“We are all composite creatures: evolution, genetics, ancestry, and false narratives of lineage purity in human becoming ”
Chair: Holly Goodson (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Four 15-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
10:30-11am Coffee Break in Global Gateway
11-12:30pm PANEL
“I am a traveller”:
REFUGEES AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Mary Jacobus (English, University of Cambridge)
“Translating Inhospitality: Migration, Monstrosity, and the Other”
Franca Dellarosa (Letters, Languages, and Arts, University of Bari Aldo Moro)
“Frankenstein and the ‘perplexities of the rights of man’”
Marina Calloni (Social and Political Philosophy, University of Milano-Bicocca)
“Protecting Unaccompanied Minors.”
Chair: Monika Nalepa (Political Science, University of Chicago)
Format: Three 20-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
12:30-2:30pm Lunch Break in Rome
2:30-4pm ROUNDTABLE
“I had no choice but to adapt my nature”:
PRESUMPTION, ADAPTATION, AND NEW PERSPECTIVES
Greg Kucich (English, University of Notre Dame)
“Peake’s Presumption of 1823”
Jeffrey N. Cox (English, University of Colorado-Boulder)
“Melodramatic Frankenstein: Radical Content in a Reactionary Form”
Stuart Curran (English, University of Pennsylvania)
“Frankenstein and the Monstrosity of Literary Criticism”
David Punter (English, University of Bristol)
“Frankenstein in Baghdad”
Anton Juan (Film, Television, and Theatre, University of Notre Dame)
“Staging Presumption: Contemporizing the Creature”
Chair: Yasmin Solomonescu (English, University of Notre Dame)
Format: Five 12-minute papers followed by 30 minutes of discussion with audience
4-5:30pm Closing Reception in Courtyard of Global Gateway