Center for Humanistic Inquiry Symposium 2019 on “Wonder."
The second annual celebration of faculty creativity,
bringing together artists and scholars from Skidmore’s faculty who will share
their latest work. Following on the heels of last year’s successful Symposium on
“Metamorphosis,” this year’s gathering will feature 15 faculty from
across the disciplines who will offer papers and performances on the theme of
“wonder.” Connected to the sensation of awe, to inspiration, and to the
possibility of transformation, wonder is tied to discovery and invention; it
unites the humanities, the sciences, and the arts; and it is tied to curiosity
and, thus, to uncertainty.
One highlight of this year’s Symposium is the keynote
speaker, Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Professor and Chair of Religion, Affiliated
Faculty in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Professor of Science in
Society at Wesleyan University. Prof. Rubenstein’s research interests include
continental philosophy, theology, gender and sexuality studies, science and
religion, pantheism, and the history and philosophy of cosmology. She is the
author of Strange Wonder: The Closure of
Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (2009) and Worlds without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse (2014, both
with Columbia University Press), and co-editor with Catherine Keller of Entangled Worlds: Science, Religion, and New
Materialisms (Fordham, 2017). Her latest book, hot off the press, is entitled
Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters
(Columbia, 2018).
Other highlights of the Symposium are tours of the two
recently opened exhibits in the Tang: “The Second Buddha,” to be led by Prof.
Ben Bogin of the Asian Studies Program; and “Like Sugar,” conducted by Prof.
Sarah Goodwin of the English Department. Attendees of the Symposium will be
offered (in advance) the opportunity to participate in “Off the Shelf,” a
Tang-based performance conceived and directed by Profs. Carolyn Anderson and
Gary Wilson of the Theater Department.
The Center for Humanistic Inquiry Symposium 2019 is free and
open to the public.
To view the complete program click here