Going Public: Reimagining the PhD

Historians and literary scholars have struggled with the ideas of world history and world literature, but their efforts have largely run parallel with each other. Taking cue from discussions of world history and world literature, how might we conceive of world art and the place of Asian feminist art within it? What new geographies are possible when we consider Asian feminist art on the world scale? Shu-mei Shih explores these questions in her 2012 Katz Distinguished lecture. Her lecture is also the keynote address for New Geographies of Feminist Art: China, Asia, and the World, an international conference that reconsiders the practice, circulation, and cross-cultural significance of feminist art from Asia. Shih is Professor of Comparative Literature, Asian Languages & Cultures, and Asian American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles, where she holds the Irving and Jean Stone Chair in Humanities. She is the author of Against Diaspora: Discourses on Sinophone Studies published in 2017, Keywords of Taiwan Theory 2019, and Visuality and Identity: Sinophone Articulations across the Pacific (2007). She is also the editor of a special issue of PMLA on “Comparative Racialization” (2008). She was awarded a Yu-Shan Scholar Prize from Taiwan’s Ministry of Education for 2022-2025. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

In this special edition of Going Public: Reimagining the PhD, Danny Hoffman (Jackson School of International Studies) interviews Catherine Cole, 2022 Katz Distinguished Lecture. Danny is joined by Nikki Yeboah, playwright and assistant professor in University of Washington’s School of Drama. They discuss the topic of her lecture, which examines how unresolved pasts tend to return. In the aftermath of state-perpetrated injustice, a façade of peace can suddenly give way. In such circumstances, the voices and visions of artists can help us see what otherwise evades perception. Focusing on contemporary performance in post-apartheid South Africa, this lecture will explore how unresolved racialized histories of state-perpetrated violence create conditions of possibility and impossibility for performance artists, choreographers, and theater makers. Cole will be presenting from her recent book, Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice, which brings the most social of art forms—live performance—together with questions about how societies change in the wake of state perpetrated atrocities. Catherine Cole is Professor of Dance and English at the University of Washington where she served as Divisional Dean of the Arts from 2016-2022. She is an internationally renowned scholar of African performance studies. As a scholar, teacher, and artist, she brings together themes of independence and interdependence, performance in Africa and in the diaspora, disability and movement, post-apartheid art, and postcolonial history. She is the author of Performance and the Afterlives of Injustice published in 2020, and choreographer and performer of dance theatre pieces, including Just Duet, Still Point, and Five Foot Feat. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures

In this special edition of Going Public: Reimagining the PhD, Danny Hoffman (Jackson School of International Studies) interviews Ato Quayson, 2022 Katz Distinguished Lecture. They discuss the topic of his lecture, which asks, what is the place of disputatiousness in the history of tragic form and how might it help us to further understand tragedy from the Greeks to African literature? The Greeks give us great examples of disputatiousness: Oedipus vs. Tiresias, Clytemnestra vs. Agamemnon, Medea vs. Jason, Antigone vs. Creon. These disagreements were in response to dramatic historical changes that masked themselves as personal differences. This lecture will offer a theory of African and postcolonial tragedy, drawing on historical disputatiousness and its relationship to fraught individual affective economies. Examples will be drawn from different literary traditions and cultures but will specifically focus on the rural novels of Chinua Achebe (Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God). Ato Quayson is the Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Chair of the Department of English at Stanford. He is the author of Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature published in 2021, and Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism (2014). He is editor of several books, including The Cambridge Companion to the Postcolonial Novel (2015), and he is host of the YouTube series Critic.Reading.Writing. Professor Quayson is an elected member of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, and the British Academy. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

In residence at the Simpson Center as Katz Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities, Romila Thapar conducted a graduate seminar on Early Indian History and contributed to many diverse campus conversations. Professor Emerita of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, Romila Thapar is one of the world’s foremost experts on ancient Indian history, and a clear voice for the necessity of detailed and nuanced historical study as a foundation for understanding the present and shaping the future. She has published over twenty books, among them, Voices of Dissent: An Essay published in 2020, The Past Before Us: Historical Traditions of Early North India (2013), and From Lineage to State: Social Formations of the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganges Valley (1985). Her writing can also be found in the Indian online newspaper The Print and in the New York Times. She is an elected Foreign honorary of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-winner with Peter Brown of the Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity in 2008. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

In his 2006 Katz Distinguished Lecture, Richard Salomon discusses the efforts of scholars and Buddhist practitioners to isolate the original teachings of the Buddha out of the enormous volume of Buddhist scriptures as they have been preserved in many different Asian languages and countries. He also discusses the implications of the recent discoveries of the earliest surviving Buddhist manuscripts -- fragile birch-bark scrolls found in clay pots in ancient Gandhara (now northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) -- which are believed to be the earliest surviving Buddhist texts. Their importance for Buddhist culture is comparable to that of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Judaism and early Christianity, and Salomon discusses the shifts in point of view and the re-framing of the problem that they necessitate. Richard Salomon is William P. and Ruth Gerberding University Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the Department of Asian Languages & Literature at the University of Washington. He is the former president of the International Association of Buddhist Studies and of the American Oriental Society, and since 1996 the director of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project, a joint venture of the British Library and the University of Washington, which is charged with the study and publication of the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts, dating back to the first century BCE. He has published seven books and over 150 articles in these and other fields. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

From his creative beginnings as a political cartoonist and journalist to his success as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, screen- and teleplay writer, and university professor, Charles Johnson’s life is a model of interdisciplinarity. In his 2007 Katz Distinguished Lecture, Johnson addresses his personal journey in finding his passion as an artist, writer, and scholar. Johnson discusses how various interrelated factors such as race, culture, faith, and history converged to shape his work. From his creative beginnings as a political cartoonist and journalist to his acclaim as a novelist, essayist, short story writer, screen- and teleplay writer, and university professor, Charles Johnson’s life is a model of interdisciplinarity. He is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Washington and is the author of Middle Passage published 1990 and winner of the 1990 National Book Award. He is co-author with Patricia Smith of Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery (1998), the companion book for the 1998 PBS series of the same name. Johnson was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1998 and received the Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2002. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

Wendy Brown’s 2008 Katz Distinguished lecture addresses the curious phenomenon that finds nation-states building physical walls at their borders. In an ostensibly connected global world, such walls raise a series of questions. What is the relationship between these walls and the erosion of national sovereignty by transnational forces? Do the walls assert sovereignty or confess its failures? What is the relationship of economy and security at the site of walls? And what transformation in democracy do the new walls herald? Wendy Brown is a distinguished American political theorist and Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her most recent book, Nihilistic Times: Thinking with Max Weber, was published in April 2023. Other prominent books include In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Anti-Democratic Politics in the West published in 2019, Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire (2010), and States of Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (1995). Her work has been translated into more than twenty languages. The 2023-2024 season of Going Public features select Katz Distinguished Lectures from our archive. Learn more about the lecture series and peruse the archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/katz-lectures.

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Stephen Groening (Cinema & Media Studies, University of Washington, Seattle) examines the utility of theoretically grounding publicly-engaged work, the necessary transformation of doctoral training environments, and the importance of informal spaces of exchange both in the cultivation of new publics and the training of publicly engaged scholars. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/ep-11-stephen-groening-now-ive-had-three-sips-beer View Groening's Seminar and Syllabus for "Public Spheres, Public Media": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/public-spheres-public-media

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Sara Goering (Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle) talks about the public nature of philosophical questions, the value of collaboration, and pedagogical approaches to public-facing projects in graduate education. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/ep-10-sara-georing-good-public-philosophy View Goering's Seminar and Syllabus for "Ethics Matters": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/ethics-matters

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Amanda Doxtater (Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle) talks about the rewards of collaborating with museums and other public institutions, the necessity of pedagogical flexibility, and, of course, the question of developing and sustaining relationships of respect between the university and community partners. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive:  https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/sustaining-relationships Amanda Doxtater's Seminar in Public Scholarship, Institutions in Scandinavian Studies: Cinema, Museum, and the Square: https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/institutions-scandinavian-studies-cinema-museum-and-square

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Regina Lee (Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, University of Washington, Seattle) discusses the pedagogical implications of the risks of online content creation, the visualization of public scholarship as labor, and the intersections of antiracist feminist pedagogy and public pedagogy. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/ep-8-regina-lee-body-exists-online View Lee's Seminar and Syllabus for "Feminist New Media Studies": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/ecocriticism-seminar-public-humanities

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Leigh Mercer (Spanish & Portuguese, University of Washington, Seattle) talks about navigating the gap between vision and logistics, partnering with K-12 educators, and, of course, the importance of listening to graduate students. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/ep-7-leigh-mercer-we-need-be-listening-graduate-students View Mercer's Seminar and Syllabus for "Hispanic Film Programming and the Film Festival Phenomenon / Organizing Film Festivals as Public Scholarship": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/hispanic-film-programming-and-film-festival-phenomenon-organizing-film

In this episode of Going Public, Julian Barr (Geography, University of Washington, Seattle) discusses the affordances and limits of various digital platforms, the ways in which the dissertation form might shift to integrate public scholarship, and how a walking tour can powerfully excavate gentrified spaces, subordinated knowledges, and competing memories through his project, “Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle." “Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle” is a public project that transforms a walking tour of the Pioneer Square neighborhood—originally created by The Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project (NWGLHMP)—into a digital project. Episode Transcript, "Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle," and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/politics-memory Julian Barr's project, “Pioneer Square and the Making of Queer Seattle": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-project/pioneer-square-and-making-queer-seattle

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Jesse Oak Taylor (English, University of Washington, Seattle) explores the difference between ecocriticism and environmental humanities, the value of public-facing writing, and the payoff of experimentation in doctoral education. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/dwelling-critically View Taylor's Seminar and Syllabus for "Ecocriticism: A Seminar in the Public Humanities": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/ecocriticism-seminar-public-humanities

In this episode of Going Public, Janice Moskalik considers the challenges and rewards of working in the K-12 context, the importance of adaptability in both philosophy and publicly-engaged work, and the relationship between building trust and taking risks. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/questions-we-keep-coming-back

In this episode of Going Public, Professors Colin Marshall and Ian Schnee (Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle) discuss the work of collaboration, both between students and between faculty, responsiveness to the contemporary moment in the classroom and beyond, and philosophy as a public practice. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/philosophers-are-very-trained-tuning-things-out View Marshall and Schnee's Seminar and Syllabus for "The Psychology of Persuasion and Conspiracy Theories": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/psychology-persuasion-and-conspiracy-theories

In this episode of Going Public, C. R. Grimmer explores how to work collaboratively and reciprocally with students, the intersections of social media and public scholarship, and hope as a call to action through their project, The Poetry Vlog (TPV). The Poetry Vlog (TPV) is a YouTube teaching channel and podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through arts, higher education, and pop culture dialogue. Two primary questions undergird TPV: What do poets teach us about how to engage in Public Scholarship through Digital Humanities network tools? How do we support historically under-represented poets’ increased circulation online while foregrounding concerns about historical erasure and market logics behind representation in pop culture? At its core, TPV is an education project and platform that responds to these questions by centering marginalized voices and making higher education and arts discussions open access and accessible. Episode Transcript, The Poetry Vlog (TPV) Samples, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/not-just-wishful-thinking C. R. Grimmer's project, The Poetry Vlog (TPV): https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-project/thepoetryvlog

In this episode of Going Public, Professor Richard Watts (French & Italian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle) explores the role of failure in publicly engaged scholarship and teaching, the imperatives of departmental transformation, and, of course, translation as a public practice. Episode Transcript, Sample Syllabi, and the Going Public Archive: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/ep-9-richard-watts-activating-risk-failure View Watt's Seminar and Syllabus for "Translation and its Publics": https://simpsoncenter.org/reimagining-phd-seminar/translation-and-its-publics

This bonus episode features a sound art piece by Mary Edwards for the 2023 ASAP/14 conference in Seattle and Bothell, Washington. About the sound piece: The Call in the Limitless Space comprises a collection of short, recorded reflections from people in the Wa Na Wari community who reflect on themes of spatial reclamation, Black Joy and belonging, specifically to their ancestral lineage or connection to Seattle's Historic Central District.  Composer and sound artist Mary Edwards designed a soundscape with the incorporated recordings to be digitally ported into a vintage telephone booth which serves as a permanent, interactive installation for Wa Na Wari. The stand-alone soundscape is contributed for listening components of the ASAP/14: Arts of Fugitivity Conference. As part of her process, Edwards facilitated a Soundwalk in the Historic Central District where participants engaged in what was, at once, an ecological practice, a method of inquiry, a call to action, and a guided meditation on reclaiming natural and architectural spaces through resonant humming and a call-and-response of place-naming as an invocation, helping to give a voice and harmonic convergence to something that is already there, yet calls for “unearthing.” She successively conducted a workshop where participants’ sense of recollection and restoration were synthesized into The Call in the Limitless Space II, a text score drawn from this deep, active listening. About the artist: Mary Edwards is a composer and sound artist whose interdisciplinary practice encompasses installation, cinematic audio and environmental design. She is interested in the invisible architecture and the emotive, historic and spatial properties of sound. In 2021, The Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery produced her first career survey concurring with Something to (Be)Hold, her first large-scale public sound installation. As the 2022 Artist-in-Residence for the ACA Soundscape Field Station, she was living and working in Canaveral National Seashore, audio recording, and researching for her book and interactive project, Conservation/Conversation as part of Atlantic Center for the Arts. Her other residencies include Headlands Center for the Arts, The Beach Institute Savannah, The William T. Davis Nature Conservancy, Wa Na Wari, Epsilon Spires and The Arctic Circle Residency. In 2023, her sound installation Everywhere We Are is the Farthest Place, premiered at The Spitsbergen Artists Center in Svalbard. Her most recent works include Fathom a site-intended sound installation for the Atlantic Center for the Arts, launched during the 2023 World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE) Conference, Listening Pasts/Listening Futures, and Tamalpais Higher, a geophonic reimagining of a seismic event based on a blind thrust fault running through Mount Tamalpais north of the San Francisco Bay.  Her extended discography includes Endeavour: A Space Trilogy for the NASA Expedition of Dr. Mae C. Jemison, and Everyday Until Tomorrow, a conceptual soundtrack for TWA Terminal 5 at JFK airport.  Her writing has been published by Oxford American, Invert/Extant (U.K.), The Mentor that Matters series, The Santa Barbara Literary Journal and the anthology, Joy Has a Sound: Black Sonic Visions.  Episode Transcript and Score: https://simpsoncenter.org/podcasts/bonus-episode-call-limitless-space-ii-mary-edwards-asap14 Mary Edwards’ website http://maryedwardsmusic.com/ Wa Na Wari homepage https://www.wanawari.org/ ASAP14 Conference linktree https://linktr.ee/asap14