April 26, 2006 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the world’s worst nuclear accident: the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine. Although two decades have passed, experts continue to assess the precise environmental, political, social, and health consequences of that catastrophe. This 2005-06 A.W. Mellon Foundation workshop will examine the interactions between technology, culture, and the social world, taking as a case study the 1986 Chernobyl accident. Bringing together scholars from fields such as literature, history, psychology, political science, sociology, social work, development studies, history of science, and genetics, “The Case of Chernobyl” will examine the following questions:
The members of the workshop group will meet monthly throughout the academic year in order to share information and expertise in an informal setting. These monthly meetings may take the form of film screenings, discussions of readings, and also planning sessions for a larger capstone event: a conference on March 24-25, 2006 at the Pyle Center in Madison. The conference, whose working title is “Chernobyl Here and Now,” will examine the legacy of Chernobyl today, including the ongoing psychological and social effects of the disaster in the affected areas, how the response of governmental and nongovernmental organizations has changed over time to address the evolving nature of the disaster, and the relationship between energy policy and security. The conference will be free and open to the public and should attract students, professors, representatives of NGOs, community members, and the media.
Coordinator: Jennifer Tishler (CREECA)
This workshop includes UW-Madison faculty members Vinay Dharwadker (Languages and Cultures of Asia) and B. Venkat Mani (German), and graduate students Lucienne Loh (English) and M.A. Mohammad (Languages and Cultures of Asia).
This workshop includes UW-Madison faculty members Harry Brighouse (Philosophy), Anne Lundin (School of Library and Information Studies), Francis Schrag (Educational Policy Studies); Lea Jacobs (Communication Arts) and Caroline Levine (English). Also engaged in the project are graduate students Emily McRae (Philosophy), Paula McAvoy (Educational Policy Studies); Jaime Ahlberg (Philosophy) and Tim Hansel (Philosophy).
The Good Childhood meets in 5145 Helen C. White.
Every culture has its monsters. Most embody dangers, fears and repulsions and provide distorting prisms through which to view the foreign, but they may also call forth wonder, delight, and desire. This workshop approaches the study of the monstrous as an interdisciplinary inquiry that ranges from antiquity to the modern day, from high art and literature to mass culture, and from the inner workings of the psyche to the operations of power on a global scale.
This workshop will be led by Quitman E. "Gene" Phillips (Art History ) and will be comprised of UW-Madison faculty members Ksenjia Bilbija (Spanish and Portuguese), Barbara Buenger (Art History), Thomas Dale (Art History), Charo D'Etcheverry (East Asian Languages and Literature); Christopher Livanos (Comparative Literature), Tomislav Longinovic (Slavic Languages and Literature) and Jonathan Schofer (Hebrew and Semitic Studies). Also engaged in the project are UW-Madison graduate students Linde Brady (Art History); Giannina Reyes Giardiello (Spanish and Portuguese); and Ilya Wick (Comparative Literature). Elvehjem Museum curator Andrew Stevens will also participate.
This workshop proposes to examine the interface between various manifestations of power and the constellation of notions surrounding the machine, broadly understood, both actual and metaphorical. On the power side, the manifestations range from virtù and the vituoso through technological, political, military, colonial, divine power, etc.. The term "machine" includes a range of connotations, from the straightforward meaning of mechanical contrivance to mechanization of various types of production (cloth, paper, books, theatrical display, mining, etc), through the world as machine (the clockwork metaphor), the body as machine, and the mechanical philosophy, engines of war-imaginary as well actual.
The density of references to "machines" as an embodiment of necessity increases ca. 1450-1700, and the appreciation of the machine grows, not only as an engine of power in the literal sense, but also as an analogy, as a powerful metaphor, and as an accoutrement of political power, whether constructed for theatrical or military purposes, whether imagined or real.
The purpose of the workshop is to explore leading ramifications of this growing attention to things mechanical and instrumental and to understand a few of the key inroads of the machine into early modern thought, politics, and society by examining its art, literature, and philosophy.
The workshop will be led by Michael Shank (History of Science, Technology, and Medicine) and comprised of UW-Madison faculty members Henry S. Turner (English), Gail Geiger (Art History), and graduate students Jason Cohen (English) and Jonathan Seitz (History of Science, Technology, and Medicine).
