Celebrating Dan Schwarz: 50 Years of Transformative Teaching 

The Department of English is honoring Dan Schwarz’s 50th year of teaching at Cornell with a celebratory event scheduled for March 23 and 24, 2018. Over these two days, we'll enjoy panels, lectures, toasts, and other tributes to one of Cornell’s most beloved professors.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

 

The FINAL schedule of events is now available! (Updated March 16, 2018)

A note about location: For those of you who haven't been back to campus in a couple of years, you might be surprised by KLARMAN HALL, where this event is being held. Klarman Hall sits between Goldwin Smith Hall and East Avenue.

 Celebrating Dan Schwarz: 50 Years of Transformative Teaching Conference Schedule* 

Friday, March 23
Rhodes-Rawlings Audiorium, G70 Klarman Hall

2:30-2:45 p.m. 
Welcome & Introductory Remarks from Gretchen Ritter, Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences

2:45-3:45 p.m. Panel I
The Humanities as Gateway: Vocations and Avocations

4:00-5:00 p.m. Keynote I
James Phelan (Ohio State University) on "Dan Schwarz, Humanistic Poetics, and the Ethics of Reading" 
(Suggested: Read "The Third and Final Continent" by Jhumpa Lahiri in preparation for Dr. Phelan's Keynote.)

5:15-6:00 p.m. Honoree Address
Dan Schwarz on "My Life as a Teacher and Scholar"

6:00-8:30 p.m. Dinner
Groos Family Atrium, Klarman Hall

 

Saturday, March 24
Rhodes-Rawlings Audiorium, G70 Klarman Hall

Coffee, tea, & snacks available outside the auditorium

9:30-10:30 a.m. Keynote II
Beth Newman (Southern Methodist University) on "Transforming Humanism: Pluralism in a (Post-)Secular Age" 

10:45-11:45 a.m. Panel II
Five Decades of Transformative Teaching

11:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Lunch Break
On your own; local Ithaca eatery suggestions provided below

1:30-2:30 p.m. Keynote III
Lee Konstantinou (University of Maryland) on "Modernist Funnies, or, Comics in the Age of Mass High Culture"

2:45-3:45 p.m. Keynote IV
Janice Carlisle (Yale University) on "Reconfiguring Word and Image"

4:00-5:30 p.m. Roundtable featuring Dan Schwarz
Transformations in Literary Studies

Notes on Event Contributors

Keynote Speakers:

Janice Carlisle (Ph.D., Cornell) taught at the University of Virginia, Washington University, and Tulane before joining the faculty at Yale in 2004. She has published books and articles on Victorian fiction, autobiography, and visual culture, including, most recently, Picturing Reform in Victorian Britain, an examination of painting, politics, and illustrated journalism from the 1830s to the 1860s. Her current project deals with the central decades of the career of the painter Ford Madox Brown.

Lee Konstantinou is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He wrote the novel Pop Apocalypse (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2009) and the literary history Cool Characters: Irony and American Fiction (Harvard University Press, 2016). He co-edited the essay collection The Legacy of David Foster Wallace (University of Iowa Press, 2012). He is currently working a critical history of comics entitled “The Cartoon Art: Comics in the Age of Mass High Culture.”

Beth Newman, who teaches at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, studied with Dan in the 1980s, focusing on prose fiction. Her book Subjects on Display: Psychoanalysis, Social Expectation, and Victorian Femininity was published by Ohio University Press in 2004. She has produced teaching editions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for Bedford Books and Broadview Press, respectively. Recent and forthcoming publications are on Victorian poets: A. C. Swinburne and Alice Meynell.

James Phelan, Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University, is the editor of Narrative and author of numerous books and essays that develop and deploy a rhetorical theory of narrative, one rooted in the principle that storytelling is an action in which one or more tellers recount events for one or more audiences in order to fulfill some particular purposes. His most recent books are Reading the American Novel, 1920-2010 (2013) (series editor: Daniel R. Schwarz); and Somebody Telling Somebody Else (2017).

The Humanities as Gateway: Avocations and Vocations Panelists:

Úlfar Erlingsson (Google Brain) PhD, Computer Science, ‘04
Ashley Featherstone (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) BA, English, ‘08
Devon Goodrich (New York City Law Department) BA, English, ‘07
Diana Lind (Fels Policy Research Institute, UPenn) BA, English, ‘03
Morgan Sze (Azentus Capital Management) BA, English, Economics, ‘87

Moderated by Barbara A. Baird, Horace White Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Cornell)

Five Decades of Transformative Teaching Panelists:

Zach Zahos BA, English, PMA, College Scholar, ‘15
Josh Gerber BA, English, College Scholar, ‘08
Grace Jean BA, English, ’00
Leslie Storm BA, English, ’83
Beverly Tanenhaus BA, English, ’70

Moderated by Brett de Bary, Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature (Cornell)

Roundtable Guests:

Steven Knapp (George Washington University)
Edward O’Shea (State University of New York, Oswego)
Katharine Eisaman Maus (University of Virginia)
Helen Maxson (Southwestern Oklahoma State University)
Daniel Morris (Purdue University)

Moderated by George Hutchinson, Newton C. Farr Professor of American Culture (Cornell)

Register Now! 

Lodging Information

Rooms may still available at the Statler Hotel (on Cornell's campus) for a special event rate of $212 per night  - we recommend calling directly at 1-800-541-2501.  

Other lodging options abound in Ithaca. Though no special rates have been arranged with these vendors for this event, you might consider the following:

Ithaca Marriott Downtown on the Commons

Hotel Ithaca

Hilton Garden Inn Ithaca

The William Henry Miller Inn

Argos Inn

Holiday Inn Express & Suites

Eating in Ithaca

If you would like to eat on campus during your stay, consider:

Amit Bhatia Libe Café in Olin Library

Café Jennie in the Campus Bookstore

Taverna Banfi in Statler Hall (reserve a table!)

Closely located to campus, these eateries are some of Collegetown's best offerings:

Aladdin's Natural Eatery (on Dryden Road)

Collegetown Bagels (on College Avenue)

Luna Inspired Street Food (on Stewart Avenue)

Mehak Authentic Indian Cuisine (on Eddy Street)

Rulloffs (on College Avenue)

Sangam Indian Restaurant (on Eddy Street)

Souvlaki House (on Eddy Street)

Getting to Campus

As you might recall from your last time in Ithaca and on campus, parking is a limited commodity. To better help you plan how to get to Klarman/Goldwin Smith Hall, you can visit this page:

https://ipp.cornell.edu/content/short-term-parking-options

If you're staying at one of the many area hotels, most will have some sort of shuttling options to campus, so be sure to discuss this with the front desk staff.

Finally, several TCAT buses serve Klarman Hall/Goldwin Smith. An ideal route will drop you off either at a "Goldwin Smith Hall" or "Rockefeller Hall" stop (depending on the direction the bus is going), but "Sage Hall" and "Uris Hall" stops will also be just a short walk away. Find more information about TCAT routes here:

https://www.tcatbus.com/