2025 CLIFF Conference: "Science—literature—technology: rupture, relation, constellation"
Comparative Literature Intra-student Faculty Forum (CLIFF) 2025
29th Annual CLIFF Conference
Rackham Assembly Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
March 21-22, 2025
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tung-Hui Hu, Department of English Language & Literature, University of Michigan
CLIFF 2025
science—literature—technology
rupture, relation, constellation
March 21-22, 2025 | Rackham Assembly Hall
Program of Panels
Friday, March 21, 2025
9:00 am - 9:30 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 10:00 am Opening Remarks, Professor Yopie Prins
10:00 am - 11:45 am Panel 1: Optics, Perception, and Memory
Respondent: Mike Brier
Presenters:
Katherine Tapia (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Time Fluttered Round, Whiskered, and Unbinding: Atemporality and Uncertainty of Memory in Pearl
Ben Woodworth (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Messiaen’s Synopticon: visual programming for multimedia performance and analysis
Trey Roark (Georgetown University, Data Sciences), The Lumpen Variable - Reimagining Queerness in Machine Learning
Nathan Bailey (University of Michigan, German), Optical Obsessions: Scopophilia, Scopes, and Schisms in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann
11:45 am - 12:30 pm Lunch
12:30 - 2:15 pm Panel 2: Philosophies, Rhetorics, Uncertainties
Respondent: Ben Woodworth
Presenters:
Anaís Martinez Jiminez (Princeton University, Comparative Literature), Traces of the Unconscious: The Liminal Place of Psychoanalysis in North America
Weilin Kao (University of Washington, Asian Languages and Literatures), The Dialectics of '反' (fan) in the Dao De Jing: Rhetoric, Rupture, and Relational Dynamics Beyond Dualism
Sarah Valdman (University of Michigan, Philosophy), The Impossibility of Common Sense
Jenna Novosel (Indiana University, English), Affliction of the Uninitiated: Mesmeric Entrainment in Teresa Brennan’s Transmission of Affect in Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni (1842)
2:15 pm - 3:30 pm Panel 3: Intersections in 20th and 21st Century Literatures
Respondent: Professor Yopie Prins
Presenters:
Claire Patzner (Indiana University, English), Translating in the Dark: Investigating Tracy K. Smith’s Translations of Yi Lei
Ivan E. Parra Garcia (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Writers, Readers, and Essayists: The Mystery of Menard’s Don Quixote Writing Project
Delsa Lopez (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Japan, Zombies, and Garbage: The Insatiable Waste While Playing Siren 3
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm Coffee Break
3:45 pm - 5:30 pm Panel 4: Humans, Literature, and the Environment
Respondent: Caroline Sullivan
Presenters:
Jessie Croteau (Johns Hopkins University, Political Science), The Potential of Decline: Lucretian Unbecoming and the Toxic Immortality of Plastics
Kirill Veselkin (University of Texas, Comparative Literature), A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Post-Nuclear Poetics in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest
Julianne Angeli (University of Michigan, French), Human-Environment Interaction and Social Incompatibility in Bilge Karasu’s “Incitmebeni” and Boris Vian’s L’écume des Jours
Noah Baum (New York University, English), Making Sense: Nuclear Aesthetics in Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Reception
Saturday, March 22, 2025
9:00 am - 9:30 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 11:00 am Keynote Address and Q&A by Professor Tung-Hui Hu (University of Michigan, English), At the Ends of Exhaustion, A Door
Respondent: Professor Christi Merrill
11:00 am - 11:15 am Coffee Break
11:15 am - 1:00 pm Panel 5: Speculative Histories, Speculative Futures
Respondent: Dr. Ali Bolcakan
Presenters:
Sanjana Ramanathan (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Classics and Controllers: Playing in/with Ancient Pasts
Annie Birkeland (University of Michigan, Linguistic Anthropology), Once Upon an Archipelago… Alternative Origin Stories of Cabo Verde
Linda Huber (University of Michigan, School of Information), “AI” as a Scrying Mirror - for the University We Want, and the University We Have
Sam Patwell (University of Washington, Asian Languages and Literatures), A Foundational Mirage: Exploring the First Science Fiction Magazine Published in Taiwan (1990-1992)
1:00 pm - 1:45 pm Lunch
1:45 pm - 3:00 pm Panel 6: Archival Evidence and Ethnography
Respondent: Dr. Dina Mahmoud
Presenters:
Srimati Ghosal (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), “Science for the Household” and Technology for the Nation: Soviet Science and Technology Textbooks in Cold War India
Sara Ruiz (University of Michigan, Slavic), Forensic Memory: Technologies of Witnessing in Soviet War Crimes Trials
Lai Wo (University of Michigan, Anthropology), Ethical Uncertainties within Intimate Labor Migration between East Java and Hong Kong
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Closing Remarks
Rackham Assembly Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
March 21-22, 2025
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Tung-Hui Hu, Department of English Language & Literature, University of Michigan
CLIFF 2025
science—literature—technology
rupture, relation, constellation
March 21-22, 2025 | Rackham Assembly Hall
Program of Panels
Friday, March 21, 2025
9:00 am - 9:30 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 10:00 am Opening Remarks, Professor Yopie Prins
10:00 am - 11:45 am Panel 1: Optics, Perception, and Memory
Respondent: Mike Brier
Presenters:
Katherine Tapia (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Time Fluttered Round, Whiskered, and Unbinding: Atemporality and Uncertainty of Memory in Pearl
Ben Woodworth (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Messiaen’s Synopticon: visual programming for multimedia performance and analysis
Trey Roark (Georgetown University, Data Sciences), The Lumpen Variable - Reimagining Queerness in Machine Learning
Nathan Bailey (University of Michigan, German), Optical Obsessions: Scopophilia, Scopes, and Schisms in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandmann
11:45 am - 12:30 pm Lunch
12:30 - 2:15 pm Panel 2: Philosophies, Rhetorics, Uncertainties
Respondent: Ben Woodworth
Presenters:
Anaís Martinez Jiminez (Princeton University, Comparative Literature), Traces of the Unconscious: The Liminal Place of Psychoanalysis in North America
Weilin Kao (University of Washington, Asian Languages and Literatures), The Dialectics of '反' (fan) in the Dao De Jing: Rhetoric, Rupture, and Relational Dynamics Beyond Dualism
Sarah Valdman (University of Michigan, Philosophy), The Impossibility of Common Sense
Jenna Novosel (Indiana University, English), Affliction of the Uninitiated: Mesmeric Entrainment in Teresa Brennan’s Transmission of Affect in Bulwer-Lytton’s Zanoni (1842)
2:15 pm - 3:30 pm Panel 3: Intersections in 20th and 21st Century Literatures
Respondent: Professor Yopie Prins
Presenters:
Claire Patzner (Indiana University, English), Translating in the Dark: Investigating Tracy K. Smith’s Translations of Yi Lei
Ivan E. Parra Garcia (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Writers, Readers, and Essayists: The Mystery of Menard’s Don Quixote Writing Project
Delsa Lopez (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Japan, Zombies, and Garbage: The Insatiable Waste While Playing Siren 3
3:30 pm - 3:45 pm Coffee Break
3:45 pm - 5:30 pm Panel 4: Humans, Literature, and the Environment
Respondent: Caroline Sullivan
Presenters:
Jessie Croteau (Johns Hopkins University, Political Science), The Potential of Decline: Lucretian Unbecoming and the Toxic Immortality of Plastics
Kirill Veselkin (University of Texas, Comparative Literature), A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Post-Nuclear Poetics in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest
Julianne Angeli (University of Michigan, French), Human-Environment Interaction and Social Incompatibility in Bilge Karasu’s “Incitmebeni” and Boris Vian’s L’écume des Jours
Noah Baum (New York University, English), Making Sense: Nuclear Aesthetics in Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm Reception
Saturday, March 22, 2025
9:00 am - 9:30 am Breakfast
9:30 am - 11:00 am Keynote Address and Q&A by Professor Tung-Hui Hu (University of Michigan, English), At the Ends of Exhaustion, A Door
Respondent: Professor Christi Merrill
11:00 am - 11:15 am Coffee Break
11:15 am - 1:00 pm Panel 5: Speculative Histories, Speculative Futures
Respondent: Dr. Ali Bolcakan
Presenters:
Sanjana Ramanathan (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), Classics and Controllers: Playing in/with Ancient Pasts
Annie Birkeland (University of Michigan, Linguistic Anthropology), Once Upon an Archipelago… Alternative Origin Stories of Cabo Verde
Linda Huber (University of Michigan, School of Information), “AI” as a Scrying Mirror - for the University We Want, and the University We Have
Sam Patwell (University of Washington, Asian Languages and Literatures), A Foundational Mirage: Exploring the First Science Fiction Magazine Published in Taiwan (1990-1992)
1:00 pm - 1:45 pm Lunch
1:45 pm - 3:00 pm Panel 6: Archival Evidence and Ethnography
Respondent: Dr. Dina Mahmoud
Presenters:
Srimati Ghosal (University of Michigan, Comparative Literature), “Science for the Household” and Technology for the Nation: Soviet Science and Technology Textbooks in Cold War India
Sara Ruiz (University of Michigan, Slavic), Forensic Memory: Technologies of Witnessing in Soviet War Crimes Trials
Lai Wo (University of Michigan, Anthropology), Ethical Uncertainties within Intimate Labor Migration between East Java and Hong Kong
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Closing Remarks
| Building: | Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) |
|---|---|
| Event Type: | Conference / Symposium |
| Tags: | Ann Arbor, Anthropology, comparative literature, Conference, Culture, Department Of American Culture, Digital Culture, Digital Studies Institute, Food, Free, German, Graduate School, Humanities, Information And Technology, Linguistics, Literature, Meal, Panel, Rackham, Scientific Humanities, Student Org, Technical Communications |
| Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Comparative Literature, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Classical Studies, Department of Film, Television, and Media, Romance Languages & Literatures RLL, Department of Philosophy, Department of American Culture, Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of History, Department of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Department of Political Science, Germanic Languages & Literatures, Slavic Languages & Literatures, Digital Studies Institute, Program in Computing for Arts and Science |
| Upcoming Dates: |
Friday, March 21, 2025 8:30 AM-5:30 PM
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