About 61 graduate students, 35 of them representing colleges across the nation, and in a few cases around the world, will participate. One student from Serbia may be unable to attend, but has indicted she has access to Skype and could present virtually. All talks and panel sessions are free and open to the public. For a full schedule of events go to http://urigradconference.org/schedule/.
Students from the URI Graduate Program in English are hosting the annual conference. The aim of the conference is to facilitate the innovative scholarship of graduate students across the nation and globe by providing opportunities for them to share academic work, receive scholarly feedback and network professionally. The event also facilitates the integration of faculty, promising scholars and colleagues in an interdepartmental intellectual dialogue.
Each year conference attendees hear from two highly respected and provocative speakers—one a professor from the URI community, the other a renowned visiting scholar.
The 2012 plenary speaker will be URI Associate Professor of English Valerie Karno whose work crosses several fields including critical race theory, feminist legal theory and visual culture. She has published works on female serial killers, Native American treaties, daytime television court dramas, and anti-discrimination laws (to name just a few) and has been the recipient of several publishing and teaching awards.
Colin Milburn, an associate Professor of English at the University of California, Davis and director of the UC Davis Humanities Innovation Lab is the keynote speaker. He is author of Nanovision: Engineering, co-editor of Quantum Engagements: Social Reflections of Nanoscience and Emerging Technologies, and is working on a new book about the convergence of video games and the molecular sciences, entitled Mondo Nano: Fun and Games in the World of Digital Matter. His work explores the cross sections of science, technology, and literature. Milburn will ponder the “innovations” and “anxieties” of video gaming and environmental risk issues in his talk entitled “Pwning the Environmental Crisis: Video Games and Ecological Anxiety.”