"Inside Theory/Outside Practice"
THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT AT SUNY ALBANY PRESENTS A ONE-DAY GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE
March 24, 2001
Keynote speaker:
Robert Kelly, Asher B. Edelman Professor of Literature at Bard College
The purpose of this conference is to explore the growing complexity and the disputed line between critical theory and poetic practice. As new forms of information exchange and discursive practice challenge traditional notions of critical inquiry, so do poetic work and notions of the function of "writing" (broadly) in both the academy and the public space. Outside academia generally, and Humanities departments particularly, theory has often been reduced to "high theory," which alternately signifies hopelessly esoteric and outside of any "real" world in which practical ideas are put to "real" use. However, the Humanities produces much more than so-called "high theory." Besides concerns specific to departments of English, this conference will also reach out to other areas of study including anthropology, art, sociology, music, theater, dance, technology, and film, which all charge the spaces where language and experience collide with critical inquiry and poetic practice.
Possible Topics
* Creative approaches to theory (teaching/practice, etc.)
* Implementing critical/theoretical concerns in creative practice and vice versa
* The act of theorizing as a public practice: The inside theoretician outside the ivory tower. We are the public, this is our practice!
* Implementing theoretical concepts into the practice and/or teaching of poetics and writing
* Resurgence of Pragmatism in English departments: Is this a call to action or an "against theory" reaction? Is this a "theory" we can actually "practice"?
* Popular notions of the avant-garde in the public sphere in contemporary music, film, etc.
* Schizophrenic academia: Are we activists in the classroom and academics at the rally?
* Sites where critical theory and poetic practice converge (independent film, art installations, etc.)
* Performance theory as a meeting of theory and practice
* Divisions between theoretical and applied sciences
DEADLINE: March 1, 2001
Submissions should be in abstract form (250-500 words). E-mail submissions should be attachments in document type .rtf (rich text format). All submissions requiring return postage must be accompanied by a self-addressed envelope with the correct postage attached. Please include e-mail addresses with all submissions whenever possible.
E-submissions should be posted to:
Graduate_conference@hotmail.com
Printed submissions should be posted to:
Theory/Practice
SUNY Albany English Department
Humanities 334
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12210