Being a Hedgehog: Isolation, Creativity, and Destruction

Join us this Friday and Saturday for an interdisciplinary graduate student conference. "Being a Hedgehog: Isolation, Creativity, and Destruction" will investigate the complex nature of isolation and its precarious position at the nexus of artistic productivity and political disaster.

Conference Schedule:

Friday, May 11th 2:30pm – 6:30pm

• 3:00 – 3:45pm: Check-in (Communications/CMU 202/204)
• 3:45 – 4:00pm: Opening Remarks
• 4:00 – 5:00 pm: Keynote by Prof. Kata Gellen, Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of German at Duke University
• 5:00 – 6:00pm: Dinner Reception

Saturday, May 12th 8:00am – 7:00pm

• 8:15 – 9:00am: Breakfast (CMU 204)
• 9:00 – 10:15am: Panel 1: Isolating Exile (3 presenters)
• Mod. Aaron Carpenter, University of Washington
• Stephen Parkin, University of Chicago, “The Isolation of Grief and the Self-Consolatory ‘Cure'”
• Vanessa Hester, University of Washington, “The Barriers Between Animal and Human Come Down Easily: the Transformation of the Isolated Female in Haushofer’s The Wall”
• Jeff Jarzomb, University of Washington,
• 10:30 – 11:45am: Panel 2: Self-Destructing Genius (3 presenters)
• Mod. Matthew Childs, University of Washington
• Seth Thomas, University of Colorado, “What is the origin of Genius?”
• Carlos Salazar Zeledon, University of Costa Rica, “Performing Oneself”
• Katherine Hrach, Indiana University, “Jeder Lektüre ist eine kleine wahnsinnige Gesellschaft”
• 11:45 – 1:00pm: Lunch (CMU 204)
• 1:00 – 2:15pm: Panel 3: Creating Autobiography (2 presenters)
• Mod. Jeff Jarzomb, University of Washington
• Sina Meissgeier, University of Arizona, “In search of himself”
• Autumn Vowles, Johns Hopkins University, “Overcoming the Injustice of Isolisme“
• 2:30 – 3:45pm: Panel 4: Being at the Margin (3 presenters)
• Mod. Rogério de Melo Franco, University of Washington
• Michael Watzka, Columbia University’s, “Reporting From a Global “No-Man’s-Bay””
• Moira Barrett, Potsdam University, “Writing the Informal Self”
• Claire Woodward, Indiana University, “Nationalism as a Force of Isolation”
• 4:00 – 5:00pm: Summary Roundtable
• 5:00 – 6:30pm: Dinner Reception and Closing Remarks

Sponsored by The Simpson Center for the Humanities, Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media, Department of French and Italian, Department of Germanics.