Please join us for the culmination of the 2024-25 Altman Program, "Humanities Futures.” This two-day symposium will feature keynote lectures by Sonja Drimmer (UMass Amherst) and Armond Towns ( Williams) as well as talks by ten Miami faculty members and eight student fellows.
1:00pm Welcome by Tim Melley
1:10-2:45pm The Engaged Humanities
Moderator: Tim Melley
Sarah Chang, “Critical China Studies and the U.S.-China Divide”
Jeff Kruth, “Urban Humanities for Troubling Times: City Design Across Scales and Discipline”
Laurel Myers, “Mining the Archive: History, Memory, and Silences of the Harlan County Coal War”
Katie Johnson, “Performing Futures”
2:45-3:00 pm Coffee Break
3:00-4:45pm The Future of the Academy
Moderator: Iñaki Pradanos
Andrew Hebard, “Deep Reading in the Age of Attention Fracking”
Gaile Pohlhaus, “Are We Experts? And Why It Matters”
Andrew Casper, “What Is Real? A Response from Art History”
Nathan French, “All University is Religious Study: Locating Lived Humanities Institutionally in Nihilistic Times”
4:45-5:00pm Coffee Break
5:00pm Keynote Lecture
Sonja Drimmer, “Why Can't Machine Vision See the Past? Analog Art History and the Future of the Humanities”
Introduced by Andrew Casper
6:15 pm Reception
9:00-10:20am Student Fellows Undergraduate Panel
Moderator: Carey Hardin
Anastasija Mladenovska, “Navigating Academic Freedom and Political Interference: Comparative Case Studies on the Challenges Facing Universities in Illiberal Regimes and Beyond”
Sumit Tripathi, “Thinking the Universe: How Philosophy Shapes Physics”
Caitlin Spyra, “Reimagining Eve: Women's Roles in Early Christianity and Modern Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements”
Marlow Zuch, “The Emergence of AI in Education: Perspectives from Preservice Teachers”
Millie West, "Peju Alatise’s Art towards a Reimagined Nigeria”
Nya Hodge, ‘If It's Wrong, It's Just Right: A Study in How Totalitarianism Produces "History"’
10:20-10:30am Coffee Break
10:30-12:05pm Collective Futures
Moderator: Andrew Hebard
Iñaki Pradanos, “Postgrowth Humanities: Undisciplined Thinking on a Finite Planet”
Alexander Nebbergall, “Socialist Hope: Against Despair and Pragmatism”
Mark Dahlquist, “The Humanities, Democracy, and Information Creativity”
Rodney Coates, “Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Attacks”
12:05-1:00pm Lunch Break
1:00pm Keynote Lecture (virtual)
Armond Towns, “On Black Media Philosophy”
Introduced by Carey Hardin
2:15-2:30pm Geoffrion Fellows Public Humanities Project
