New Ways of Thinking
Slow Humanities: Literary and Cultural Studies and Sustainable Speed
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Andrea Stone
For many, the current pace of the academy and the cultures of expectation and increasing demands at liberal arts colleges and universities can be overwhelming and seem unsustainable to the work and well-being of faculty and students. This paper begins with an overview of reasons for this phenomenon, tracks and compares the history of scholarly production, teaching and service requirements in U.S. colleges and universities, and argues that literary and cultural studies can help shape a more equitable, sustainable, and enriching model. Methods and theories of reading and research and technological developments, when rushed or embraced without sufficient critical inquiry can lead to scholarly and teaching and learning modes wherein the ends dictate the cultures and trends of the work. Using examples of literary scholarship, teaching and learning, and the potential influence of literary and cultural studies on college and university service work, this paper offers a pilot example of and argument for the role of slowing down. "Slow Humanities" argues for a consideration of how some scholars, faculty and students are susceptible to forms of inequity, exhaustion, and violence attendant with an increasing culture of fast. Literary and cultural studies' attention to these forms can demonstrate ways and stakes of rethinking academic pace.
Not in Plain Sight: Using Technology to Stalk and Harm Without Accountability by the Courts View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Evon Spangler, Perry De Stefano
Accountability for perpetrators of harassment or domestic violence, including stalking requires courts to be well-informed on the different types of technology and how technology is utilized to stalk and harm victims. Courts generally are not on the forefront of technology and do not understand technology. Without a solid understanding of technology and how it is perpetrated to stalk and harm others, perpetrators will not be held accountable by the courts. Since stalking through the use of technology is often not done in plain sight, courts are less willing to hold perpetrators accountable because they misunderstand how technology is used to harm others and the impact of that harm. In the ever-revolving evolution of technology exacerbated by the pandemic where courts are forcing victims to utilize remote technology in their court cases, perpetrators are also using technology to stalk and harm under the auspices of the judiciary. Domestic violence is nuanced. It is often carefully orchestrated and manipulated by an abuser who has honed her/his talent of blaming the victim, and providing believable explanations, to the technology novice. This paper explores, through hypothetical case studies, the lack of accountability by the courts of perpetrators who use technology to stalk and harm their victim. In addition, it explores safe guards for the courts to put in place to minimize the harm to victims in the court’s decisions that involve harassment or domestic violence, including stalking.
Featured Sound, Motion, and the Brain: Movement Improvisation and Brain Activity Forming an Experimental Performance
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ioannis Sidiropoulos
This paper presents the interdisciplinary practice-as-research project and its methodology, which examines the effects of auditory perception on movement improvisation, and how this informs the creative process of an experimental performance outcome. It hypothesises that there can be a measurable data-based relationship between heard sound(s), brain activity, and movement response(s). The central questions are how sound affects the brain during the creation of improvised movements and how these sounds influence the performers' movement choices (actors and dancers). This research combines contemporary dance and physical theatre improvisation with cognitive neuroscience, exploring how responding to sound stimuli is expressed through embodiment and brain activity. Data is gathered through individual movement improvisation from 10 performers based on recorded music and individual fMRI scanning while listening, imagining, and watching movement improvisation in specific tasks. The gathered data is compared and correlated, forming data sets to develop an experimental performance.
