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SPRING 2010 ISSUE OF CRITICISM
The Spring 2010 issue of Criticism (vol. 52 no. 2) is titled “Honoring Eve: A Special Issue on the Work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.” The special issue grew out of the event Honoring Eve: A Symposium Celebrating the Work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, which was held on October 31, 2009, at Boston University.
RELATED - EVENTS, PUBLICATIONS
MARCH 2010 PMLA: REMEMBERING EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK
The March 2010 issue of PMLA (Vol. 125, No. 2) includes a section titled “Remembering Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick,” which features essays by Laura Doan, Jonathan Goldberg, Annamarie Jagose, Wayne Koestenbaum, and Andrew Parker.
RELATED - PUBLICATIONS
FEBRUARY 25-26, 2010: SPANKING AND POETRY CONFERENCE, CUNY
From the call for proposals:
“When I was a child the two most rhythmic things that happened to me were spanking and poetry.” (Tendencies 182)
Eve Sedgwick lovingly, if none too gently, slapped open the sphincter-tight boundary rings of critical scholarship on the sexual and affective relations between bodies. This conference invites continued play with the tools she created for examination of “all the different surfaces that make a self for most of us, printed pages, ‘our’ ideas, institutional relations and activism, vibrations of a voice, the gaping abstractions and distractions of creativity, the weird holographic projections of our names and public personae, the visible and impressible extent of the parts of our bodies” (Tendencies 104-05). We welcome paper proposals on any aspect or application of her critical, literary, and artistic work, inviting scholars to broadly consider and reconsider Sedgwick’s intersections with and influences upon their fields. In the spirit of her own perversion of academic style, we particularly encourage proposals that expand the boundaries of the conventional conference paper through experimental or creative critical practices. We also seek papers engaging with Sedgwick’s pedagogical practices and proposals, as expressed in her written work or as performed in her classes at The Graduate Center or other institutions.
The Spanking and Poetry conference was nearly canceled due to an unexpected snowstorm that shut down much of the city—including the CUNY Graduate Center, where the conference was to be held. Many incoming flights were delayed or canceled, and keynote speakers Jonathan Goldberg and Michael Moon were unable to get to the city. Thanks to the efforts of the conference’s organizers, Tracy Riley and Margaret Galvan, CUNY agreed to open its doors for an informal plenary session. Around fifty people made their way through the snowy streets to attend a lively and moving series of panels. Attendee and presenter Mia Chen wrote an in-depth review of the conference here.
RELATED - EVENTS, TALKS
EVE'S BENCH
Some time ago, before Eve was so ill, I asked her if there was some kind of memorial that she might like. She told me that she liked the idea of a bench in a pretty spot, where friends could sit and enjoy the view. Recently I made a donation to Madison Square Park, which is at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street and is the prettiest little park that I know of here in the city. In return, they have now put up a plaque for Eve on a bench that I selected there. Many years ago Eve had told me a quote from Chaucer that she would like to use as an epitaph, and it is on the plaque. — Hal
RELATED - MISCELLANY
ONGOING: TENDENCIES POETRY SERIES
This series of talks by and about contemporary poets, curated by Tim Peterson (Trace) and titled in honor of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, explores the relationship between queer theory, contemporary poetic practice, manifesto, and pedagogy.