Ecocritical Studies Research Workshop

• Faculty Coordinators: Carine Mardorossian (English) and Randy Schiff (English)

The Ecocritical Studies Research Workshop (ESRW) is an interdisciplinary initiative connecting faculty and graduate scholars who are working on intersections between ecology and various creative arts. Numerous academic fields have been energized by a recent turn towards interdisciplinary materialist analysis that has blurred the boundaries between the humanities and the hard sciences, and encouraged a range of new critical juxtapositions. The ESRW has responded to this scholarly sea change. Featuring a reading group (the Ecocritical Theory Reading Group) that meets bi-monthly to discuss landmark works related to ecocriticism, the ESRW cultivates a vibrant community of researchers focused on exploring a broad range of perspectives concerning ecosystems, nature and narrative, and environmental crisis. By attracting cutting-edge scholars to present original research, and by creating spaces for graduate students to present current work through interdisciplinary colloquia, the ESRW channels both external and internal resources into a sustained engagement with ecological issues. The ESRW has hosted talks by major scholars whose work intersects with ecocriticism (such as Stacy Alaimo, Una Chaudhuri, Timothy Morton, and Ted Steinberg, to name but a few), and will continue to bring vital, transdisciplinary voices into our eco-conversations. The ESRW has also begun to develop a wordpress blog, Ecocritical Mass, in order to expand the reach of our group, and to map out new ways to explore intersections of literature and environment.

 

Events

Spring 2016

March 10, 4pm
306 Clemens Hall
Carolyn Dinshaw, NYU

 

Spring 2015

January 21, 2015, 10-12
Spot Coffee (765 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo)
Reading Group on Ted Steinberg, American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn (Norton, 2007)

February 27, 11-12
Center for the Arts Building (CFA) 235
Graduate Student Works-in-Progress Colloquium: Caitlyn Mcintyre (English) and Tanya Stadelmann (Media Study)

March 25, 2015, 10-11:30
1032 Clemens
Reading Group on Margaret Grebowicz and Helen Mirrick, with epilogue by Donna Haraway, Beyond the Cyborg: Adventures with Donna Haraway (Columbia UP, 2013)

May 6, 2015
1032 Clemens
Reading Group on  Goodbody, Axel, and Kate Rigby, eds. Ecocritical Theory: New European Approaches (U Virginia P, 2011)

July 15, 2015
Spot Coffee (765 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo)
Reading group on Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard UP, 2011)

Fall 2014

Friday, November 14, 12:00pm
306 Clemens
Ted Steinberg (Case Western Reserve U., History and Law)
“Can New York City Survive the Sea?”

Wednesday, September 24, 4:00pm
306 Clemens
Una Chaudhuri (NYU)
“Performing (in) the Anthropocene: Queer and Prismatic Ecologies in Contemporary Theatre,”

July 9, 2014, 10am-12pm
Spot Coffee, 765 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo
Reading Group on John Blair Gamber, Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins: Waste and Contamination in Contemporary Ethnic U. S.    Literatures (U Nebraska P, 2012)

September 9, 2014, 10-12
128A Clemens
Reading Group on Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, ed., Prismatic Ecology: Ecotheory beyond Green (U Minnesota P, 2013)

November 18, 2014, 10-12
128A Clemens
Reading Group on Stephen Rust, Salma Monani, and Sean Cubani, eds. Ecocinema Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2013

Spring 2012

February 27, 2012, 1:30PM

Graduate Works-in-Progress
436 Clemens Hall
Presenters: Sara Gutmann and Robert Earle

April 12, 2012, 4PM
“Positive Pollutions and Cultural Toxins”
306 Clemens Hall
Presenter: John Gamber