Society for the Humanities Fall Fellows' Conference on Survival

About this event

What might it mean to flourish in a world on the brink of extinction or exhaustion? Join this year's cohort of Fellows at the Society for the Humanities for presentations on work-in-progress on the 2026-27 focal theme of Survival. Current fellows at Cornell’s Society for the Humanities will present their research on survival, examining this theme through historical, literary, political, environmental and cultural perspectives. 10:30am Survival by Design: Desert Architecture at the End of the World Pamela Karimi Associate Professor, Architecture, Cornell University | Faculty Fellow 11:00am Dreaming of a Sentient Land: More-than-Human Kinship in Han Kang's The Vegetarian Ivanna Yi Assistant Professor, Asian Studies, Cornell University | Faculty Fellow Coffee break 11:45am Thomas Hardy’s Palimpsests Jennifer Rabedeau Humanities Scholars Postdoctoral Associate, Cornell University 12:15pm Historicizing Political Geology and Deep Time Amanda Gaggioli Assistant Professor, History, University of Memphis | Visiting Society Fellow 12:45 - 1:45pm Lunch 2:00 pm Carrying Capacity: On (Not) Parenting in the Era of Climate Change Jamie Budnick Assistant Professor, Sociology, Cornell University | Faculty Fellow 2:30pm Vibratory Matter: Ecoacoustic Sympathy & Frances E. W. Harper's Ear for the End of the World Jorden Sanders Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Literatures in English, Cornell University 3:00pm Archaeological contributions to the long-term study of neighborhood life Andrew Dufton Assistant Professor, Archaeology, Dickinson University | Visiting Society Fellow Each presentation will be followed by a Q&A. Open to the public. Lunch & refreshments provided reception to follow final presentation Beans Velocci, assistant professor in History and Sociology of Science and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, will kickstart the conference on Thursday, October 29 at 5pm with their keynote address "Beams Aimed Directly at the Reproductive Organs: Radiation, Gonads, and Trans Mutations in the Cold War." Read more about Dr. Velocci's talk here: https://events.cornell.edu/event/beans-velocci Read more about the conference here: https://societyhumanities.as.cornell.edu/news/society-humanities-fellows-explore-survival-fall-conference