The 26th Annual Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference (AGIC) presents the third installment of the Con-tact virtual lecture series: UNSETTLING ENCOUNTERS.
The use of "con-tact" as a mode of exploration arrives at the heels of current (and unevenly felt) social conditions. As possibilities of encounter and movement – both personal and political – have rapidly altered in form, and as questions of touch and proximity have been thrown into sharp, frictive and, often violent, relief, we are urgently called to consider: What does it mean to be in relation to an-other across axes of feeling and being, time and space; in absence of physical contact, or, alternatively, in suffocating and immobilizing excess of it? Traversing and unraveling these boundaries, we hope to facilitate, or, borrowing from Erin Manning, “reach-toward” new modes of ethical inter-action.
UNSETTLING ENCOUNTERS articulates contact as a space of radical potential. The panel examines physical and conceptual borders and structures in both landscape and institutional spaces. The program combines both lecture and performance styles, and will conclude with a public Q&A segment.
Graduate presentations
Megan Seldon (New York University, History of Art)
Transformational Justice and Land Based Activism in Museum Spaces
Zoe Compton (Concordia, Art Education)
Pedagogy of Discomfort: Mapping Family History in Prince Edward Island
Brandon Sward (Chicago, Sociology)
An "operatic" lecture performance: Santa Fe
Keynote address
Alice Ming Wai Jim (Concordia, Art History)
When Care Becomes a Discourse
Accessibility
The event will be conducted in English.
Attendance is free, but requires registration via Zoom.
We will be utilizing Zoom’s webinar feature, meaning that only the camera of panelists and presenters will be on display. Viewers are thus strongly encouraged to join and engage with the program in comfort and relaxation.
The presentations will consist of lecture, PowerPoint and audio-video components. ASL interpretation will be available for all users, and PowerPoint texts will be manually copy-pasted into the chatbox.
We are committed to ensuring that this event is as accessible as possible. If you have any questions, concerns, or requests, please email us at agic.concordia@gmail.com.
Donation drive
As this event is free, we are asking all attendees to consider making a donation to First Peoples Justice Center of Montreal. Learn more about their work.
Sponsors
This event is sponsored by the Department of Religions and Cultures and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Concordia University, and the Concordia Council on Student Life’s Special Projects Fund.