The Secret Life of Crowds: Gender, Sexuality, and the Masses
Keynote: Alexander Weheliye, Northwestern University
April 5, 2018—April 7, 2018 ·
Department of Comparative Literature
The fourth annual conference of the Princeton Department of Comparative Literature will explore the ways that crowds and masses invoke, rehearse, and destabilize the terrain of gender and sexuality—and the gendered and erotic dimensions of mass assembly, from the agitated crowd to the nation-state.
What are the gendered imaginaries, social practices, or divisions of labor that undergird instances of political assembly? How are gender and sexuality shaped or affected by the discourses and institutions that form alongside masses and crowds? Finally, how do literature, visual art, film, and other media negotiate these productive entanglements?
The keynote will be delivered by Alexander Weheliye (Northwestern).
The conference will take place over three days with an opening reception featuring a video installation.
April 5: Shultz Dining Room (7PM)
April 6: Betts Auditorium (9AM-3PM) & Lewis Auditorium (3PM-7PM)
April 7: Betts Auditorium (9AM-7PM)
The conference is co-sponsored by the Departments of German; Slavic Languages & Literatures; Art & Archaeology; Religion; Anthropology; English; and Classics; by the Programs in Gender & Sexuality Studies; Judaic Studies; Latin American Studies; European Cultural Studies; and Media + Modernity; by the University Center for Human Values; and by the Humanities Council
