Past Colloquiums

Locks and Keys

2023

actice”

Space

2022

(Ongoing) We invite you to explore online art exhibitions from the following participants—to view these submissions, click on the links in blue below:

• Kaleigh Appell, Undergraduate Art Major, “Spaced Out”
  
• Jackson Cieslack, Biology and French Studies Major, “Escape to the Moon”
• Robert Dickes, Art and Design, “Untitled”
• Epiphany Knedler, Art and Design, “Revitalize: Dickinson Avenue"
• Susan Colaricci Sauls, Director of University Art Collections and Cheyenne Miller, Undergraduate Art and French Studies Major/Art Collection Student Assistant, “The Fantastical SPACES Created by Giovanni Battista Piranesi”

Space: The 14th Annual Interdisciplinary Colloquium Program
NB: This event is hybrid—join us in person in Carter Hall or on Zoom at the links below!

# Denotes time slot with concurrent panels

Panel 1: Spaces of Confinement. Chair: David O’Neil. 

• Todd Schroer, Criminal Justice, “Where You Live and Whether You Live: The Residences of Jews and Survival During the Holocaust”
• Laura Soderberg, English, “Confinement at Sea: Moby Dick as a Prison Novel”
• Bartell Berg, World Languages and Cultures, “Political and Athletic Spaces: Radical Gymnasts and Nationalist Movements”

Panel 2: Everyday Space. Chair: Anthony Rintala

• Tamara Hunt, History, “Conquering Space through Newspaper Networks: The New Harmony Gazette 1825-1828”
• Robert Dickes, Art and Design, “World Burning Down”
• “Exhausting Space,” Creative Writing Workshop Hosted by the Students of FREN 490: Quinn Arial, Jackson Cieslack, Grace Friona, Elizabeth Harden, Chey Miller, and Alison Prewitt

Panel 3: Political Space. Chair: Bartell Berg

• Matthew Hanka and Nicholas LaRowe, Political Science, Public Administration, and Philosophy, “The Ideological and Geographical Divide in our American Political System”
• Oana Armeanu, Political Science, Public Administration, and Philosophy, “How COVID-19, Economic Recession, and Populist Leaders Have Limited Political Participation”
• Mary Hallock Morris, Political Science, Public Administration, and Philosophy, “Why Libraries Matter in a Free Society”

Panel 4: Sites of Presence and Absence. Chair. Todd Schroer

• David O’Neil, English, “Filling in the Empty Spaces: A Study of the Medieval English Alliterative Tradition”
• Norma Rosas Mayén and Manuel Apodaca Valdez, “The Judeo-Spanish Cemetery of Tétouan: Inhabited Memory of a Semiotic Space”
• Tom Drury, Music, “The Whole-Tone Scale and Outer Space in Music

Panel 5: Collective and Individual Relationships to Space. Chair: Caroline Jalain

• Monica O’Neil, Director of Service Learning, “Tricky Faces Occupying Tricky Spaces: Tricksters and their Archetypes in Frogs, Miles Gloriosus, and Volpone”
• Alexandra Natoli, World Languages and Cultures, “The Road Away from Auschwitz: “Kitchen Table” Testimony in Holocaust Graphic Narratives”
• Iris Williamson, Gallery Manager of the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, “Building a New Art World: Alternative & Artist-Run Art Spaces”

Panel 6: Utopian Spaces. Chair: Silvia Rode

• Lucia Dahlquist, Undergraduate German and Global Studies Major, “Utopia on the Backs of Slaves”
• Iris Williamson, Gallery Manager of the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, “Visualizing Spaces”
• Andrew Buck, Sociology, “Rural Spaces of Innovation: New Harmony’s Utopian Socialist Experiment”
• Taegan Garner, Undergraduate Sociology and Political Science Major, “Moving West: Transitioning to Rural Spaces.”
• Rob Millard-Mendez, Art and Design, “Compelling Emptiness: The Power of the Void in Visual Art”

Panel 7: Spaces of Imagination. Chair: Michael Strezewski

• Kevin Allton, English, “In the Cage”
• Charis Greiwe, Undergraduate Psychology Major, “The Impact of Text and Background Color on Memory”
• Matthew Hanka, Political Science, Public Administration, and Philosophy, “Placemaking Matters”
• Greg Blair, Art and Design, “Rupture: Spatial Interventions in Artistic Practice”

Filth & Foulness

2021

Our relationship to filth is long, deep, and meandering. Unsanitary environments have contributed to epidemics such as the Bubonic Plague, and have similarly exacerbated misery in the sprawl of urbanization. Filth can function as a metaphorical damnation or critique: as Saint Augustine would suggest, we are baptized in filth from the moment we are born. This sentiment not only taints humans as unclean sinners from infancy, but evokes the long, troubling equation between female sexuality, motherhood, and uncleanliness.

However, our rapport to that which is proclaimed as filthy is not always detrimental to our physical or spiritual wellbeing. Though terms such as "filth" and "foulness" may carry overriding negative connotations, a compelling subset of cases equally suggest that the things which disgust us are not necessarily bad. When one considers the numerous books that have been banned or deemed immoral due to the metaphorical filth they contain, it becomes clear that their dirtiness is frequently symptomatic of innovation and the ability to push boundaries.

Whether symbolic or actualized, filth and foulness evidence complex and often fraught relationships within the world and ourselves. This colloquium aims to examine the myriad positive and negative connotations of filth, and how humanity can both thrive and suffer from these dynamic relationships.

Movement

2019

Movement is an intrinsic part of the world. From the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, to the technology that shapes our lives, to changes in politics and paradigms, movement involves creation, transformation, and vision. The 12th Interdisciplinary Colloquium seeks to address the topic of movement(s) from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Contributors to the Colloquium bring their unique insights to this theme while acknowledging how movement, in its distinct forms and manifestations, is fundamental to our world.

Presentations

Dr. Martinus Koen, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, “Case Study of Implementation of Body-Worn Cameras at a Single Police Agency.”

Dr. Bartell Berg, Assistant Professor of German, “Out of this World! The Semmeringbahn as Exhilarating Motion in Austrian Culture.”

Dr. Grace Howard, Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, “The Pregnancy Exceptionalism Road Trip.”

Dr. Perry Burnett, Associate Professor of Economics, “The Road to Happiness is Paved with Deception.”

Dr. Kimberly Delaney, Assistant Professor of Biology, “Cells On The Move: A look at Movement at the Cellular Level.”

Dr. Steven Williams, Associate Professor of Sociology, “Social Movements and University Students: Can They Still Save the World?”

Dr. Joy Santee, Assistant Professor of English, “Meatbags to Bodyminds: Embodied Rhetorics and the Promotion of Engaged Interdisciplinary Research.”

Dr. Andrew Buck, Associate Professor of Sociology, “How to Stop Social Movements.”

Ms. Al Holen, Associate Professor of Ceramics, “Movement Real and Implied.”

Dr. Denise Lynn, Associate Professor of History, “Yoga Posturing: Indian Nationalism and American Yoga Practices.”

Dr. Erin Reynolds, Assistant Professor of Health Services/Administration. “Understanding Health Literacy in a Population with Chronic Kidney Disease

Mr. Elliot Wasserman, Professor of Theatre and Mr. Eric Altheide, Assistant Professor of Theatre. “Movement as Meaning in Theatre.”

Mr. Thomas Drury, Instructor of Music, “Dance Music of Ireland: Movement in Time and Space.”

Mr. Matthew Graham, Professor of English, “Original Poetry.”

Towers

2017

“I found myself in a tower, whose foundations were sunk so deep into the earth and whose top was so lofty, reaching up like a spire into the sky, that my whole existence already seemed bound to be consumed up and down it.”  (Gérard de Nerval, Aurélia)

The Towers Colloquium featured a performance by the University of Southern Indiana Chamber Choir, under the direction of Mr. Daniel Craig, Associate Professor of Music, and original artwork by Michael Aakhus, Brittney Byrd, Tylar Dean, Joan deJong, Sarah Feagan, Danielle Lents, Gabe Mayer, Rob Millard Mendez, Steven Miller, Levi Schulz, Brian Simpson, Logan Tharp, Glen Tyler, Kathryn Waters, and Katy Whitehouse.

Presentations

Dr. Abigail Alexander, Assistant Professor of French, “Same Towers, Different Gods: Saving Notre-Dame de Paris”

Dr. Srikanth Dandotkar, Assistant Professor of Psychology, “Towers, Signals, and Information Processing: Humans as Informavores (like herbivores and carnivores), and Human Minds as Cellphones”

Mr. John Gibson, Original Poetry

Mr. Matthew Graham, Professor of English, Original Poetry

Dr. Matthew Hanka, Associate Professor of Political Science, “The Towering Ego of the Trump Presidency: Will it Fall?”

Ms. Jennifer Horn, Instructor of English, “Climbing the Fairy-Tale Tower to ‘Happily Ever After’ in Contemporary Times”

Dr. Cacee Hoyer, Assistant Professor of History, “The Unbalanced Minaret: the Juma Masjid Mosque, Durban’s divided Indian Community, and Challenges to Early Anti-apartheid Resistance”

Dr. Sakina Hughes, Associate Professor of History, “Women of Color in the Ivory Tower”

Dr. Jill Oeding, Professor of Business, “Be a Tower of Integrity: Stand Out from Your Peers in a Good Way”

Dr. Norma Rosas-Mayen, Associate Professor of Spanish, performance of music of the Sephardic Jews of North Africa and the Middle East

Dr. Constance Swenty, Associate Professor of Nursing, Assistant Dean of Nursing, “Healthcare Teams Connect Communication Towers”

Dr. Steven Williams, Associate Professor of Sociology, “The Fall of Tower Records and the Death of the Artifact”

Roundtable

“Doors into Disciplines” with Dr. James Beeby, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts (Moderator), Dr. Glenna Bower, Professor of Kinesiology and Sport, Dr. Gabriela Mustata Wilson, Associate Professor of Health Informatics, Dr. Todd Schroer, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, and Dr. Sarah Stevens, Interim Director of University Honors Program

Doors

2016

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."  The inter-referential trajectory of the William Blake quote moves doors freely through historical experience, linking a late 18th-century poetic imitation of the Bible to the modern musings of mid-20th-century psychedelic memoir to the popular realm of rock music.  Doors are emblematic of barriers and opportunities, of social oppression and forward movement, of bright beginnings and obscure conclusions.  Open doors can be promising in offering access to spaces known and unknown, while closed doors may produce feelings of frustration, security, excitement, bitterness, conclusion, and even peace.  Sometimes doors are simply benign.  As the poet Marge Piercy observed, “Maybe there is more of the magical/in the idea of a door than in the door/ itself.”

Dr. Bartell Berg, Assistant Professor of German, “A Community at the Precipice: Thresholds to Forgiveness and Emancipation in Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach’s Das Gemeindekind”

Dr. C. Elizabeth Bonham, Associate Professor of Nursing, “The Clang of the Steel Door”

Dr. Trent Engbers, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, “Opening Doors Through Social Capital”

Dr. Chad Gonnerman, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, “On Not Opening Some Doors in Philosophy”

Dr. Sukanya Gupta, Assistant Professor of English, “Imperial Doors: Crossing the ‘Kalapani’ as a Coolie Woman”

Dr. Mark Krahling, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Associate Dean of the Pott College, “Precisely What Life Needs: A Revolving Door for Packaging Energy”

Dr. Erin Reynolds, Assistant Professor of Health Services/Administration, “Social Networks as Doors to Health Care”

Dr. Daria Sevastianova, Associate Professor of Economics, “The Revolving Door: International Migration and the Rise of Populism”

Dr. Melissa Stacer, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, “New Opportunities or Closing Doors? How Correctional Facility Tours Impact Students’ Thoughts about Careers”

Dr. Steven Williams, Associate Professor of Sociology, “Doors of Perception Opened and Closed: LSD, Marijuana, Magic Mushrooms, and the Era of Psychedelic Music”

Roundtable:  

“Doors into Disciplines” Dr. James Beeby, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of History (Moderator), Dr. Molly Brost (English), Dr. Betty Hart (English), Dr. Mari K. Hopper (Cellular and Integrative Physiology), and Dr. Rick Hudson (Mathematics).

Roads

2013

Roads provide a means of conveyance from one point to another. They have been used to exchange goods and services, ideas and information. Roads facilitate the movement of individuals and groups to and from destinations both nearby and distant. Whether well-trodden pathways or modern superhighways, roads and road networks have provided the thoroughfares that have expedited both war and peace, sparked cultural, political, and religious revolutions, and provided inspiration to artists, musicians, and poets. Moreover, our understanding of the human body and the universe, specifically the conduits permeating both, has been the catalyst for countless scientific revolutions.

This interdisciplinary colloquium examined roads and pathways of all forms, their functions and their impact through interdisciplinary approaches.

The Roads Colloquium featured photographs by Joan deJong, Katie Waters and Kristen Wilkens.

Presentations

Dr. Kevin Allton, English "Dawn of the Sandman"

Dr. Daniel Bauer, Anthropology, "The Road to Representation: Becoming Indigenous in Coastal Ecuador"

Dr. David Black, Radio and Television, Film Screening, In Harmony’s Way: The Battle to Save a Bridge

Dr. Perry Burnett, Economics, "Roads, Reasons and Rumblings"

John Gibson, Latin, Original Poetry

Matthew Graham, English, Original Poetry

Dr. Casey Harison, History, "'Taking the Hard Road': Migrants on the Road to Paris"

Emily Holt, Dental Hygiene/Assisting, "Oral Cancer Prevention Meets the Road to Recovery"

Dr. Alan Kaiser, University of Evansville, "How Roman Roads Changed Roman Lives"

Dr. Oana Popescu-Sandu, English, "When Odysseus Needs No Visa: Space and Culture in the Global World"

Dr. Shannon Pritchard, Art, "Caravaggio’s Madonna di Loreto and the Symbolic Pilgrimage to Loreto"

Dr. Christopher Rivera, International Studies, "InterCultural Crossroads: Narrating the Migratory Experiences of Objects and Subjects in Motion"

Dr. Mayola Rowser, Nursing, "University of Southern Indiana School-Based Community Health Center"

Dr. Kent Scheller, Physics, "One Road, Many Vehicles—Our Path to Scientific Knowledge"

Ellen Claire Topper, International Studies, "The Road to International Human Rights"

Daniela Vidal, Center for Applied Research and Economic Development, "A Road Back Home: How can I-69 stop the Braindrain in Southern Indiana?"

Marcus Wicker, English, Original Poetry

Dr. Steven Williams, Sociology    "The Open Road and Rock n Roll: White, Male, Middle-Class Adventure"

The River

2011

The River Colloquium examined various rivers from diverse perspectives, including the Mississippi River as an icon of African American culture, its role in the work of Melville and Mark Twain, and the delicate relationship between the quest for cheap energy and upstream flood control. The Ganges served as a locus for thinking about Yoga as a journey, and as a search for community at its banks. The Thames was featured as a force in shaping the culture of London. The Ohio was featured in an historian’s discussion of the Flood of 1937, and in original works by poets and fiction writers. A geologist discussed how rivers change, like people, through time and space.  

The Colloquium was part of a regional celebration of the Steamboat Bicentennial and featured a musical presentation on rivers by the Chamber Choir, directed by Dan Craig.

Presentations

Presentations

Patricia Aakhus, International Studies, Original Works

Dr. Niharika Banerjea, Sociology, "Searching for Community at the Banks of the River: Middle-class Women and Same-Sex Desires in Kolkata"

Leisa Belleau, English, Original Works

Dr. Paul Doss, Geology, "Rivers, Dirt, Fish, and Growing Old: a Perspective on Space and Time"

Dr. Brandon Eggleston, Health Professions, "Find the River"

John Gibson, Latin, Original Works

Matthew Graham, English, Original Works

Dr. Mary Hallock Morris, Political Science, "The Mississippi River Watershed: How Upstream Policies and Downstream Disasters Affect Us"

Dr. Betty Hart, English, "Deep River"

Dr. Tamara Hunt, History, "London's River, London's History"

Nicole Reid, English, Original Works

Dr. Robert Reid, History, "The Great Flood of 1937: The Katrina of the Twentieth Century"

Dr. Michael Kearns, English          "Moral Compasses on the Mississippi, as Dramatized by Mark Twain and Herman Melville"