Cosponsored by Penn’s Departments of Anthropology, Classical Studies, English, History, Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Music, Religious Studies, Russian and East European Studies, and South Asia Studies; Program in Comparative Literature & Literary Theory; Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Jewish Studies Program; Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy; Center for Ancient Studies; Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts; Middle East Center; South Asia Center; and Theorizing Colloquium Series.
In-person at the Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion (Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts 6th floor, Van Pelt Library, 3420 Walnut Street). Remote attendance via livestream. Free and open to the public, registration encouraged.
Abstract
In conjunction with the Wolf Humanities Center’s 2024–2025 Forum on Keywords, this interdisciplinary symposium engages mobile concepts and their genealogies, histories, structures of meaning, translations, and adaptations across time and space. In three panels curated around the Raymond Williams keywords of “Aesthetics,” “Imperialism,” and “Humanity,” we focus on themes that drive cultural and social concepts and inspire global interlocution across languages, perspectives, and temporalities.
As we gear up to celebrate the anniversary of Williams’ foundational book “Keywords,” we will reflect on how generative the use of keywords remains while also adding to and challenging the original vocabulary. We hope to make Williams’ process applicable for the twenty-first century and fruitful for the questions scholarship is grappling with today.
Join us as scholars from the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts expand upon—and challenge—some of Williams’ categories.
Symposium Agenda
9:15 am–10:00 am
Breakfast
10:00 am–10:15 am
Welcome Remarks
- Jamal J. Elias, Director, Wolf Humanities Center; Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities; Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- Lisa Mitchell, Topic Director, Forum on Keywords, Wolf Humanities Center; Chair and Professor of anthropology and history, Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania
10:15 am–11:45 am
Imperialism
Moderator: Paniz Musawi Natanzi, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center
- Mariam Durrani, Professorial Lecturer, Peace, Human Rights & Cultural Relations, American University
- Hafsa Kanjwal, Associate Professor, South Asian History, Lafayette College
- Anna Storti, Assistant Professor, Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Duke University
1:00 pm–2:30 pm
Humanity
Moderator: Jacob Myers, Doctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center; Ph.D. Candidate, English, University of Pennsylvania
- Manu Chander, Associate Professor, English, Georgetown University
- Gabrielle Cornish, Assistant Professor, Musicology, Mead Witter School of Music, University of Wisconsin
- Steven Weitzman, Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures, Ella Darivoff Director of the Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
2:45 pm–4:30 pm
Aesthetics
Moderator: Jeremy Steinberg, Doctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center; Ph.D. Candidate, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
- Sa’ed Atshan, Associate Professor, Peace and Conflict Studies and Anthropology, Swarthmore College
- Sonal Khullar, W. Norman Brown Associate Professor of South Asian Studies, History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
- Stephanie Langin-Hooper, Associate Professor, Art History, Karl Kilinksi II Endowed Chair in Hellenic Visual Culture, Southern Methodist University
4:30 pm
Closing Remarks
- Angelina Eimannsberger, Research Associate, Wolf Humanities Center; Ph.D. Candidate, Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, University of Pennsylvania
5:00 pm–6:30 pm
Keynote
Moderated by Maryam Athari, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Wolf Humanities Center
Redefining the Political: Persianate Sociability and its States
- Mana Kia, Associate Professor, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies, Columbia University
6:30 pm–7:30 pm
Reception