Co-hosted by the Keats-Shelley Association of America and Byron Society of America
Organizers: Elizabeth Effinger, University of New Brunswick, Robin Hammerman, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Kaila Rose, Communications Officer for The International Association of Byron Societies
The 2024 Curran Symposium, “Performing Politics,” will honor the bicentennial of Lord Byron's death by engaging with some of the most pressing public issues in the lives of Byron and his contemporaries that carry through to our own turbulent lives in 2024. We take this moment to examine how such conflicts rage on "dubiously and fiercely,” and to consider how art reacts to and reimagines such acts of theatrics and turmoil (Sardanapalus, Act III.i.198).
This symposium will be a full day of panels and discussions, taking place on October 25th, 2024 at NYU’s Palladium Hall in New York City. The symposium festivities will also include a special production of Byron's Sardanapalus at The Red Bull Theater (NYC) on Thursday, October 24th.
Staging Byron's closet drama enables us to think about the difference between intentions for privacy, audience, and writing narratives of legacy. How might acts or performances (broadly conceived) help us imagine a new time and place? What are our stories of political transformation? And what does the act of going public, of sharing these stories, activate for us as citizens, scholars, and artists, those “unacknowledged legislators of the World” as Shelley famously put it? On the 25th, the symposium will feature invited speakers addressing a diverse range of performances and politics in the work of Byron and his Romantic contemporaries. Before the evening’s drinks and appetizer reception, we will also feature a digital presentation of the artwork from the special creative project we have designed: “Uncloseting Byron”—a public art project that takes a creative, experimental approach to closet drama by using Byron as its starting point. Beginning with a line from one of Byron’s plays, participants create short mixed-media closet dramas and share them via social media. As we not only get off the stage but also off the page for this project, we tarry with how this act of performance might become a space of freedom.
Join us in NYC!
Simply fill out this form so we can have a list of attendees to provide Palladium Hall: https://forms.gle/wdFXJCHToxzSijhu6
SCHEDULE
Thursday 24th 2024
7:30 pm Sardanapalus at The Red Bull Theatre — Sheen Center
Post-show Talk-back to follow
Friday 25th 2024, NYU’s Palladium Hall
8:45am – 9:15am Good Morning Coffee & Tea
9:15 am – 10:00 am
Post-Sardanapalus Production Roundtable
Chair: Omar F. Miranda (University of San Francisco)
Panelists:
James Armstrong (City College)
Michael Gamer (University of Pennsylvania)
10:00am – 10:15am Coffee & Tea Break
10:15 am – 11:30 am
Panel One: Poetics and Biopolitics, War, Incarceration
Chair: Arden Hegele (Columbia University)
Panelists:
John Havard (Binghamton University)
Michael Demson (Sam Houston State University)
Mariam Wassif (Carnegie Mellon University)
11:30am – 11:40am Coffee & Tea Break
11:40 am – 12:30 pm
Discussion: Byron and Gender Revisited
Panelists:
Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud (University of Tennessee, Knoxville)
Kate Singer (Mount Holyoke College)
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Lunch Break
2:00pm – 3:15pm
Panel Two: Politics of Performing the Future
Chair: Matt Sandler (Columbia University)
Panelists:
Emily Rohrbach (Durham University)
David Sigler (University of Calgary)
Marc Gotthardt (University of Cambridge)
3:15 pm – 3:30 pm Break
3:30 pm – 4:45pm
Our Everlasting Flame: Engaging with Romanticism's Enduring Foundations (Roundtable)
Chair: Tom Mole (Durham University, UK)
Participants:
Elizabeth Denlinger (New York Public Library)
Marsha Manns (Byron Society of America)
Alice Levine (Hofstra University)
Andrew Stauffer (University of Virginia)
Jonathan Sachs (Concordia University)
4:45:pm – 5:45 pm
Keynote Address: “Performing Politics on our Tight Little Island”
Chair: Alice Levine (Hofstra University)
Jerome McGann (University of Virginia)
5:45 pm – 6:15pm
Closing Remarks, Kate Singer (President, K-SAA; Mount Holyoke College)
Uncloseting Byron, Byronic Vibes, & Commonplacing
Kaila Rose (Byron Society of America & K-SAA), Dr. Daniel Block (The King School), and Olivia Moy (Lehman College, CUNY)
6:30pm – 8:30pm
Reception at The Penny Farthing,
103 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10003
Celebrate Bacchanalia by joining us for drinks & appetizers!
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES
On Wednesday 23rd October, 4pm EST, the Byron Society of America will be hosting the 14th Leslie A. Marchand Lecture at Drew University, organized by Marsha Manns. Dr. Tom Mole, Principal of Van Mildert College, Durham, will be giving a talk in Drew’s Special Collections Library, where the BSA archives are housed. The lecture will be followed by a reception and tour of the BSA’s Collection.
Drew University, 36 Madison Ave, Madison, NJ 07940
HOTEL SUGGESTIONS
As we do not have an official hotel partner for the event, here are some suggestions of affordable options close to Union Square:
The Chelsea Inn: https://chelseainn.com/
The Heritage Hotel NYC: https://www.heritagehotelnyc.com/
Freehand Hotels: https://freehandhotels.com/
Union Square Apartments NYC: https://unionsquareapartmentsnyc.com/
East Village Hotel NYC: https://www.eastvillagehotelnyc.com/
The Holiday Inn: https://www.ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/new-york/nycvc/hoteldetail?cm_mmc=GoogleMaps-_-HI-_-US-_-NYCVC
Broadway Plaza Hotel: https://www.broadwayplazahotel.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=business-listing