This conference brings together key thinkers working in the long history of literature in English to discuss deep historical patterns, resonances, and critical flash-points that might help us better understand the complex relationship between ecological collapse, migration, and literary production. 

Sponsored by the Mark and Stacey Yusko Endowment for Excellence in English, the Department of English, the Department of History, the Environmental Humanities Initiative, and the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (Henkels Lecture Fund), the Environmental Change Initiative, and the John J. Reilly Center for Science, Technology, and Values, the GLOBES Certificate Program, and the Minor is Sustainability.

This event is for Notre Dame community members and registered participants. Attendees must comply with the University’s COVID-19 guidelines. Learn more and register at english.nd.edu/ice-and-fire.

Schedule

Thursday, March 24, 2022

5pm Keynote Address by Dipesh Chakrabarty, McKenna Auditorium

6:30pm Reception McKenna Gallery

Friday, March 25, 2022

9am–9:30am Breakfast

9:30am–11am First Panel: “Storms of Empire: Early Modern Europe in a Global Climate.” Robert Markley, University of Illinois, and Sam White, Ohio State University. Respondent: Elliott Visconsi. McKenna 205–206-207. 

11am–11:15am Coffee Break 

11:15am–12:45pm Second Panel: “Unnatural Disasters: Literature, Sovereignty, and Science in the 18th and 19th Centuries.” Lucinda Cole, University of Illinois, and Malcom Sen, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Respondent: Joshua Specht. McKenna 205–206-207. 

12:45pm–1:30pm Lunch 

1:30pm–3pm Third Panel: “Strange Weather: Ecological Disaster, Narrative, and Modernity, from 1350 to 2050.” Kellie Robertson, University of Maryland, and Claire Colebook, Pennsylvania State University. Respondent: Amy Mulligan. McKenna 205–206-207. 

3pm–3:15pm Coffee Break

3:15pm–4:45pm Concluding Plenary Discussion with Dipesh Chakrabarty, Roy Scranton, Kate Marshall, and Francisco Robles. McKenna 205–206-207. 

4:45pm–6pm Reception

Learn more and register at english.nd.edu/ice-and-fire