9th Annual International Conference on Humanities & Arts in a Global World 3-6 January 2022, Athens, Greece Program (Athens Local Time) (Note: each presentation includes at least 10 minutes for questions and discussions if available)
10:30-11:00 Amanda Kline, Assistant Professor, Otterbein University, USA. Title: Women of the United States National Park Service: An Oral History Fine Art Film.
Open a Window: Women of the National Park Service is a short film that presents the experiences, memories, and knowledge of women employees of the National Park Service I combine oral histories told by women in recorded video interviews with artfully composed film footage that showcase the unique landscapes and other natural features of national parks. The importance of oral histories, including my film project, are that they can tell the stories that might otherwise be left out of written records. They provide diverse viewpoints and alternatives to generalizations. Oral histories fill in the gaps found in written histories and provide a fuller picture of a time, place, or event. The National Park Service remains a male dominated institution. In going through the National Park Service websites, I found a variety of short written articl es on women ’s involvement . My objective is to add to the existing literature and media about women’s contribution s , but in a way that intentionally includes visual art. Films and stories have the power to create complex, absorbing views of the world we all inhabit The women interviewed in my film tell their own stories in their own words. They go beyond objective lists of dry facts to sharing how they think and feel about their experiences. I champion these subjectivities and use elements and principles o f art to visually support and emphasize them. The project began with Leslie Reynolds, Deputy Superintendent of Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts. For the past 27 years, Leslie Reynolds has had an impressive career working in many parks and posi tions. She told stories of mentorship and the importance of helping others succeed and grow in their careers. Her role in the conservation of natural resources is especially important to her. I then interviewed Moria Painter, a Park Guide at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Moria Painter has a long family history in the park and a long employment record with the United States Department of the Interior. She told stories about her grandparents working at the par k during her youth and visiting the park on school field trips. This will be a long term project that will include interviews with women from parks across the United States in a variety of positions, to acknowledg e the contributions of different job type s. In addition to scientists and park rangers, women in less glamorized positions such as maintenance and housekeeping must have their voices heard. These women are equally responsible for the success of the National Parks Services as a long standing publi c institution .
11.00-11.30 Gennadiy Chernov, Associate Professor, University of Regina, Canada. Title: Populism, Media and the Public Sphere in Italy.
My research revolves around the South European populism, media, and the public sphere. My previous study in these areas established that unlike other European regions where right-wing populism is the main version of this movement, populism in Southern Europe is represented by both, left and right-wing, versions. For example, some point at the left-wing populism movements like SYRIZA in Greece, PODEMOS in Spain, and non-right populism in general such as the 5 Star movement in Italy. All these parties played an important role in the political life of their countries. They were either leading the government, or forming government coalitions with other parties. Electoral success of both branches of populism raises questions about the role of media as well as citizens’ participation in the public sphere. In my research, two existential aspects of human condition related to the topic of electoral behavior will be considered: possibilities to realize communicative processes, and personal experience in dealing with the issues covered by media discourse. The first aspect relates to the role of public sphere which is an area of debate in democratic societies as described by the German philosopher J. Habermas (1989). The idea revolves around social conditions and possibilities ensuring that private people may contribute to critical discussions of public issues. Populist movements seem to be on a collision course with the traditional, mainstream media. Some segments of society feel alienated by the media. The question is why these social groups feel that they do not have access to the public sphere discourse, and fail to make their views reflected. Another aspect of the potential discrepancy between the direction of media coverage and citizens’ response is personal experience with the issues covered by the media. Zucker (1978) noted that people accept media accounts of events less if they have personal experience with them, and if their experience differs from these accounts. This research is at its initial stage. The current study relies on qualitative methods – focus groups, and in-depth interviews. In-depth interviews will be conducted with the researchers who deal with populism as their key research interest. The people I choose for this study are well known for their important insights in and deep knowledge of populism researchers. The focus groups helped reveal attitudes and interpretations of different communities of media audiences, (Lunt & Livingstone, 1996; Stewart & Shamdasani, 2007). In other words, the purpose of the focus groups was to gather people to discuss a specific topic with the participation of a moderator. Audio recordings will be used in the research. The data is preliminary and requires further analysis. However, here are some initial results emerging from the study. The Italian media were split on their attitude toward different branches of populist political parties. Both the MP5 and the right-wing Lega got mostly critical coverage by the established media. After the elections, and especially when the governing coalition of these parties fell apart, MP5 started to get more neutral and even more positive coverage, specifically, from the media leaning to the left of center. The most thought provoking findings came from the focus group discussion. These findings demonstrate that despite the fact that most of the participants did not identify themselves as supporters of populist parties, they said that they find the issues raised by populist movements are important, and may influence their electoral decisions in the future. These insights are preliminary, and based on a limited number of participants. They have to be further explored and tested by the use of other rigorous methods.
11:30-12:00 Khadidiatou Diallo, Associate Professor, University Gaston Berger, Senegal. Title: The Excision of Desire: Female Genital Mutilation in Alice Walker’s Possessing the Secret of Joy.
Possessing the Secret of Joy is the searing story of Tashi, a tribal African American woman, whose life has been totally altered, after she experiences genital mutilation. Through her story and that of her sister who bled to death after unsuccessful cutting, Walker’s narrative unfolds the physical and psychological trauma born from a ritual practice, the goal of which is to reshape the body of the woman, to excise any sexual pleasure and to ensure men the privilege of de-tightening the transfigured female genital organ. This unspeakable experience has brought Walker to weave a polyphonic narrative, with characters disclosing the foundation of excision and the extreme pain felt by the excised. In analyzing the chain of voices in the story and the archetypal symbolism connoting the ordeal of genital cutting, the objective of this article is to explore Walker’s treatment of the cultural and spiritual rationale behind a tradition which takes the female body as locus, and which places men at the heart of sexual pleasure and happiness. It demonstrates that the chorus of voices called on to by the author is an expression of her commitment to scorn the objectification of girls in patriarchal systems, which, by a sly twist, has made of elderly women the perpetrators of life-agony. It finally unveils the author’s optimistic vision, through Tashi’s struggle to (re)possess the secret of joy.
12:00-12:30 Emese Boksay Pap, Lecturer, Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary. Title: Give me a Place to stand on and I Will Move the World-Contribution to the Debate on Adopting ELF Principles in Teaching EFL.
English as a lingua franca (ELF)–“any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice” (Seidlhofer, 2011, p. 7)–is increasingly becoming a well-documented segment of SLA with works laying out its detailed conceptual and theoretical framework and works encouraging English language teachers to adopt the principles of ELF in their teaching. Regarding the latter issue, educational researchers and applied linguists have compared the use of English by learners in and outside the classroom (Ranta, 2010), looked at teachers’ awareness of ELF and their “disposition towards the international use of the English language” (Illés & Csizér, 2015, p. 170). Most importantly, they made the case for “a pedagogical space” (Kohn, 2015, p. 51) dedicated to ELF in the English language classroom, and highlighted the necessity of changing English language teachers’ views, convictions, and beliefs about what and how to teach (Illés, 2016; Sifakis, 2017; Sifakis & Bayyurt, 2016). While all these contributions to the area of ELF broaden our understanding and demonstrate its role in the classroom and the changes it calls for in SL and FL teaching, they do not address the important issue of how the redesign or refashioning of teaching English might proceed by paying attention to teachers–the most important actors in the language teaching enterprise. In this presentation/paper, I seek to address this gap and suggest that Jackson’s (2008, p. 31) model of transformative learning and worldview change could constitute a starting point for both better comprehending how major changes in people’s views take place and for offering teachers a place on which to stand on.
12:30-13:00 Thomas Bisiani, Adjunct Professor, University of Trieste, Italy. Vittoria Umani, PhD Candidate, University of Trieste, Italy. Title: Geography, Infrastructure and Architecture. From the Immaterial Scenes of the Arts to the Physical Space of the American City.
Comparing the American cities to the European experience is always a stimulating argument and is able to produce critical material. The aim of this paper is to propose a design answer to the United States issue of public space through the use of art, using the city of Dallas as an example. This idea of public space and of the void, is an important theme in the world of the arts. The interpretation and restitution of such topic has been realized in various ways by a large number of artists. The idea of space has an abstract connotation and the absence of rules, allows a free interpretation of the issue and, for this reason, does a better job at describing it. At the same time, a more pragmatic way to interpret space is the grid. The first analysis are aimed toward the most ancient system of formulating “urban” conglomerates, the roman grid. The system of Cardi and Decumani was used as a guide in order to define and measure the “empty” space that would have become the city or the military camp. Its role was to function as a rationalization tool for the practicality of life. In the USA, it is the Continental Congress’s Land Ordinance of 1785 to prescribe the usage of the Continental grid. Ideally the two grids have the same role, the significant difference is their scale. The Jeffersonian grid then, seems to take as reference something other than the human measurements. This grid can only be compared to a colossal scale, a sort of disproportion that becomes an urban mutation, able to spark an important change in perspective. Here space is subordinated to time and the city of objects becomes the city of circulation. This mutation is in line with the urban development processes of the city of Dallas. This is why, the University Crossing Trail Public Improvement Distric, along with the SMU University of Dallas, have developed a collaboration to promote and regenerate an old trail of the city into an art corridor. Even if not constructed using the Jeffersonian grid, it still presents itself with a certain regularity of blocks. This apparent orderliness accentuates the complete supremacy of circulation. The shapes and turns of the infrastructure answer not only to a necessity of movement but collaborate to a new idea of beauty within the landscape of the city. The proposed solution is to intervene on certain portions of the infrastructure in order to slow down time. Three different urban art projects have been placed along the main and different types of infrastructures of the city, the Trinity river, the highway, and the pedestrian trails. The intention is to invert the subordination of space that returns protagonist where the urban art projects have been inserted, without ever negating the principal condition of circulation and speed. Because this apparent contradiction requires a specific and cautious sensitivity, it is the responsibility of art and architecture to mediate between audacious locations, functional solutions and the world of communication.
13:00-13:30 Lana Kazkaz, PhD Student, Ramon Llull University, Spain. Miriam Diez Bosch, Professor, Ramon Llull University, Spain. Title: Media Speech on Atheism A Study Case in Arabic Channels’ Talk Shows.
Despite that atheism phenomenon or the denial of the existence of God is not new in Arab Islamic history, many atheist groups and movements were elevated in more than one era in the Islamic times, including a number of leading philosophers such as Abu Bakr Al-Razi, Al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd (Marwa, 2008). However, the question of the spread of atheism in contemporary Arab societies is still complex, uneasy, and not subject to the principle of freedom of belief and conscience. Conservative Arab society does not accept publicly atheist people who acknowledge themselves as atheists, even though it accepts individuals not practicing religious teachings. In some Arab countries, the publicity of atheism is illegal and subject to punishment as an insult to religion. (De Angelo and Balduzzi, 2016). The growth of the Arab world’s atheism phenomenon between 2000 – 2020 has been largely linked to modern media, namely digital media and television channels, which have allowed new atheists and young generations to freely express their views and openly reveal their own atheism, a matter Arab audience is not used to. This study aims at building a vision of atheism in the Arab-Islamic world through a revealing the features of the media speech on atheism and atheists in television talk shows many Arabic-speaking channels, which will provide knowledge about the concept of atheism and the image presented by the mass media on atheism and atheists. The charge of ‘offending religion’, which is cruelly punished in some parts of the world, is often used as a tool of political censorship or to conceal economic, social or political realities. (Diez and Sánchez, 2015).
13:30-14:30 Lunch
14:30-15:00 Radmila Janicic, Professor, University of Belgrade, Serbia. Title: Social Responsibility through Arts.
The paper presents theoretical and practical aspects of social responsibility through arts. The focus of the paper is to point out elements of social responsibility through arts, in the way how arts send messages about social problems and social responsibility, how arts raise awareness about social problems, and in the way how social responsibility is expressed through arts. Goal of the paper is to analyze theoretical and practical aspects of social responsibility through arts and to realize the impact of social responsibility through arts. Social responsibility is based on acting in a good way for society, in acting for solving social problems, in acting to raise health, education processes and other social processes in the world. The special topic of social responsibility is the working process where it is important to take care about work justice. Arts by presenting the working process through history present many social situations and social responsibility statements. The paper will present case studies about arts in raising awareness about social responsibility. The paper will present historical arts paintings and photography, as well as literature through history. Literature has a great impact on raising awareness about social problems and raising awareness about the importance of social responsibility. In the paper there will be present case studies about literature. In the paper will be present in-depth interviews with professors of arts and professors of philosophy. Conclusions of the in-depth interviews will impact on future work on social responsibility through arts. In case studies will present social responsible arts that impact on social movement, raising awareness about social problems and dilemmas, raising awareness about thoughts, ideas, values, that otherwise could be unnoticed. The paper will present books, painting, photography, music, theatre, movies that impact on social movement and solving social problems. Especially important is in-depth interviews by professors and artists. One of the case studies will be the Tate Modern museum that presents social responsibility in action. They ask students to come to the museum and to work their homework, and feel at the museum as at home. Students come to the museum, write homework in the beautiful arts environment that inspires them to write homework, but also to take a walk through the museum and see artistic exhibitions that could inspire them to learn about arts and to make the arts works. Also, the Tate museum asks parents with children to come to the museum and participate in artistic workshops for children, where they paint, make photographs or make sculptures. It is the good way to inspire children to love arts and to think through arts. Also, one case study will be the work of photographers who capture social movements that raise awareness about social dilemmas and social responsibility. Many case studies will be social responsible organizations that work based on arts. Those organizations call people for solving social problems. The key for solving social problems is education and communication with awareness about social responsibility. Education raises awareness about social responsibility and opportunities for solving social problems.
15:00-15:30 Allen Reichert, Librarian, Otterbein University, USA. Title: The Lists of Sei Shōnagon; or, How an Ancient Japanese Court Lady Takes Lists on a Distinctive Turn.
The humble list, or enumeration, is beloved by many. Indeed, this conference takes place in the season of lists, where every other web site announces the best, or worst, or funniest stories of 2021. Lists have been around long before the internet, and lists based on the previous year are probably a more recent invention as well. Many scholars and writers have either used or discussed the list. Perhaps most famously, one of Umberto Eco’s later works, The Infinity of Lists, suggests we like lists because we don’t want to die. Lists, according to Eco, fall in two broad categories: as a pragmatic endeavor or as poetry. As a pragmatic endeavor, we can think about grocery lists or simple inventories. Once we apply the list to literature, these lists are suggestive and might even convey a magnitude that borders on infinity. The poetic list, then, has a role beyond that of the pragmatic. Still, these lists, be it Homer’s ships, or the satirical work of Abū Hayyān al-Tawhīdī, usually are limited in their descriptive elements. Where then, do the long descriptive elements of the lists composed by the Japanese court lady Sei Shōnagon(b.965) fall into this categorization of lists? It is unlikely that her lists are unique, however, they may be representative of a different type of list. Her list items are frequently longer than most lists, conversational, and often pointed or specific to an observed event. These lists are used to highlight what she observes and frequently make commentary on the mores of Heian Japan, expressing her likes and dislikes. This can be everything from a long, multi-paragraph item that critiques the needlework of a nurse, to much more straightforward, single-word entries. Yet even these single word entries don’t suggest any attempt at being exhaustive, but are more reflective of Shōnagon’s perceptions. Further, it could be argued that her lists are frequently embedded in a larger collection of lists. When a Woman Lives Alone, is an extant section, yet followed after by When a Court Lady is on Leave, it has a suggestion of being a continuation of an overall idea or conception. At times, her lists have elements of surprise, reminiscent of a koan or parables. This surprise though has often been categorized as quick wit, rather than having a larger meaning. This discussion seeks to place Shōnagon’s Pillow Book squarely into these discussions about lists. From there, the discussion will turn to see if her lists are a separate category from that conceived by Eco, or if it is rather an interesting subset of the poetry of lists.
15:30-16:00 Amy Johnson, Associate Professor, Otterbein University, USA. Title: From Urban “Pesthole” to Urban Picturesque: White Women and Perceptions of the City at the Turn οf the Twentieth Century.
In the 1890s, art and architecture critic Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer (1851-1934) published several articles in The Century Magazine describing walks through New York City, accompanied by illustrations by noted artists such as Charles Mielatz and Childe Hassam. The same time period also found the photographers Alice Austen (1866-1952) and, a few years later, Jessie Tarbox Beals (1870-1942) creating artistic views of the city and its diverse inhabitants. These photographers and writers rely on their position as white women, using what Laura Wexler has termed the “innocent eye,” to counter perceptions of urban neighborhoods as solely sites for illicit and debauched behavior. My essay further examines how their work contributed to a shift in understanding the city not as dangerous and unhygienic, but as an exciting world for white elites — both male and female — to explore, and further reinforcing white supremacy in defining American cities. While many scholars have claimed that the increased visibility of women at the end of the nineteenth century did not mean women themselves directly contributed to shaping the institutions and physical spaces of the modern city, I argue in this essay that the contributions made by women artists and authors in this period did affect the perceptions of urban streets, neighborhoods and their residents. Beals, for example, produced many images of Greenwich Village which sought to directly construct and reinforce a unique, Bohemian identity through the representation of the many women artists, designers, and entrepreneurs who lived and worked there. This series of photographs visualized white women entrepreneurs’ participation in shaping urban spaces, while simultaneously diminishing the visibility of immigrants and people of color living and working in these same neighborhoods. Van Rensselaer, Austen, and Beals crafted picturesque depictions of the city and its diverse inhabitants from their privileged position as white women. Their status enables them to redefine the urban “pesthole” as an area suitable for their peers to explore by presenting a sanitized view of the growing diversity of American cities.
16:00-16:30 Michael Mazur, Head, North Texas Performing Arts Academy, USA. Title: Why We Tell the Story: The Modern Need for Aristotelian Tragedy to Facilitate Civil Discourse in a Divided Society.
In his seminal work THE POETICS, Aristotle posited that only true tragic stories can provide the basis for facilitating the kind of open honest civil discussions that a society needs to fully function. To that end, Aristotle created a list of the “elements of tragedy” which has guided theatrical artists from the days of the City Dionysia through today. Aristotle even went so far as to say the demise of tragic literature can signal the demise of democratic societies. Traditional tragic stories are those, mostly written for the stage, in which a protagonist of high societal standing (King Oedipus, Price Hamlet, et al) must face a moral crisis while dealing with what has now been termed a “tragic flaw”. Watching these stories unfold gives the audiences the experience of “tragic inevitability” as the characters fall from grace, potentially inviting the audience members to contemplate their own reaction if placed in a similar situation. The dialogue inspired by these fictional tragedies can therefore aid engaged citizens in participating in difficult conversations surrounding complex real-world situations and perhaps lead to better understanding and even compromise. For centuries, scholars have continued this debate, though primarily in relationship to Ancient Greek, Roman and Shakespearean texts. Viewing tragedies through the lens of classic literature, while valid, perpetuates the myth that such discussion is reserved for the academic and has no relevance to the common person today. A true tragic story (that contains all the elements Aristotle listed ages ago) still has the power to reach today’s contemporary and increasingly diverse audiences. Current practitioners of the arts have a responsibility to create new tragic stories to challenge and inspire our global citizens. While much of our contemporary storytelling has allowed spectacle to replace plot and character, examples can still be found today to remind us of the power of tragedy in shaping civil discourse. One such example is the contemporary musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND. This story meets all of Aristotle’s criteria for a true tragedy, but the protagonist is a young Caribbean peasant. The setting and characters are about as far away from Oedipus or Hamlet as one can get, but the tragic inevitability dramatized here is as pointed as it is in Thebes or Denmark. Thus, the power of a truly tragic story to transform a society is once again made apparent, only in this case to an underserved population whose stories have rarely been told in the sphere of “classic literature”. Aristotle contemplated the effect of tragic literature on society centuries ago. While much has changed about the world since his time, the fact that an open society depends on honest civil discourse has not. If we believe that these principals are essential to our global society, we must create new challenging tragedies that reach all people and inspires informed debate
16:30-17:00 Karen Large, Assistant Professor, Florida State University, USA. Stephanie Sickler, Assistant Professor, Florida State University, USA. Title: The Influence of Music on Users’ Perceptions of the Built Environment.
Users see spaces with their eyes, touch objects with their skin, smell scents with their nose, but how do they consume spaces they cannot visualize? What senses does one use to imagine a new space, a different space, an unfamiliar space? This study explores how one’s visual-spatial cognitive capacity might be enhanced if visualizations are augmented with the addition of sound. Music is found in all world cultures throughout history. In ancient Greece, Pythagoras wrote about the Music of the Spheres, positing that celestial bodies, along with all inanimate objects produce harmonious vibrations or music that is inaudible to the human ear. During the Baroque Period, the Doctrine of Affections theorized that certain keys or modes would elicit different affects or emotions for listeners. This influence of music manifests itself today in film scoring, marketing, and advertising. An important part of the human experience, music can elicit conscious and unconscious responses for listeners. When designing the built environment however, music is almost always overlooked as a critical component of the user experience. Designs rely primarily on visual and tactile aesthetics as a catalyst for user consumption and appreciation of designed spaces. In fact, clients often rely completely on designers to paint a picture in their mind of what the built environment will look and feel like when complete. This common practice blatantly overlooks the large population of consumers who are limited in their visual-spatial cognitive capacity as well as the non-sighted community. To address this inequity, this study seeks to understand how the deliberate addition of music can enhance users’ ability to visualize the built environment in their minds. Participants will be asked to match music with both fabrics and images of built spaces. The music, created by the researchers, has been composed by translating the weaving code of the fabric used in the study to music, and has been enhanced in varying ways to elicit different emotions when heard. In this way, the fabric, the music, and the designed spaces are intrinsically linked. Study participants will be given the opportunity to create similar pairings of music, fabric, and space as those the researchers have curated. The expected result of the project is that participants will similarly match music with fabrics and built spaces indicating that there is inherent meaning in and understanding of music, fabric, and the built environment. This project’s researchers posit that by including curated music in visual presentations of designed spaces, consumers will better understand the design intent and improve their visual-spatial perception of a proposed space, thus better connecting them to spaces both real and perceived. Similarly, non-sighted persons could engage more fully with the feeling of a space with the infusion of the textile-generated music. Therefore, in addition to expanding clients’ ability to visualize proposed spaces, integrating a fuller sensory experience reflects a human-centered approach to place-making and ultimately user satisfaction. This presentation will present both the process and results of the study.
17:00-17:30 David Philip Wick, Director, Arts, Humanities and Education Division, ATINER & Retired Professor of History, Gordon College, USA. Title: The Figurines and the Fear of Philip – A Glimpse or Two at the Key Crisis Moments When Greeks Invited Rome into the Aegean, and the Ancient Play between Urban Identity Politics and Pop Culture Art.
This study explores some key moments of crisis (between 205 and 151 of the old era) that punctuated the Greek invitation of Rome into the Aegean – especially the requests and invitations of the Achaean League and of Athens (which I followed in more detail in ‘Leveraging Philip V’). The finishing crisis was Athens-provoked: a sudden expansion in 152-151 of its Attic border to incorporate, ‘protect’ and tax Oropos, on the Euboean straits, with immediate (and predictable) protest by Oropos and its other local urban patrons (the city is a port), which quickly turned into a lawsuit filed to be heard not by a Greek agency (like the Achaean League) but by the courts of the Republic in Rome. The result involved a notorious use of the trial in Rome for advertising the schools and political expertise of Athens, but what has not usually been asked is why Oropos as a finishing gambit by Athens at all? I will suggest it had more to do with the port’s importance as market-outlet for a unique artistic product made by one of Oropos’ most important local mercantile patrons – the figurine industry of Tanagra. An Athenian co-opting of this trade would also fit with the radical internal change Athens was experiencing as it transformed from a political center to the tourist-university-banking-retirement center it would be by the end of the century.
17:30-18:00 Franz Christian Schneider, Associate Professor, Parsons School for Design, USA. Title: From Design Thinking to Designing Inclusive Collaborations.
With the increasing complexity of basically anything that conditions our economies and societies there are no final and complete solutions. Everything we do is a contribution to greater systems. Nothing exists in isolation. The only constant is change. Our designs are successful if they are systemic interventions that recognize and understand the system, they will be part of and contribute to the values, qualities and purposes those systems should satisfy. The keywords are network integration and coalition building as we need several perspectives, disciplines and functions to connect our work. Besides systemic design approaches, we are also starting to understand that we need to design living systems to respond to the complexity of the challenges people, societies and organizations are facing. Design for living systems requires gradual interventions and flexible models. Most structures, organizations and corporations, however, function like machines. They lack the adaptability and the capacity to embrace and respond to complexity and uncertainty. It is a strategic design challenge to understand and visualize decision making processes, place innovation competencies at intersections of the various areas of responsibilities and build communication models to monitor and assess innovation processes. With the ambition to recognize inequalities and to strive for diversity, equity and inclusion, it is time to move from a to-do list, to action. There is an urgent need for the inclusion of underrepresented communities and for a response to racism beyond solidarity – the most precious response is to start collaborating. In an international setting this also means that we open up and allow for different thought patterns instead of resorting to assessing compatibility with our systems. If we recognize and integrate diverse cultural content, values and knowledge, we can better respond and design for social and economic needs and address the burning issues of climate change and immigration. From Ambitions to Action: How to leverage diversity in a bottom-up innovation approach, from concept to execution. Living Systems & Coalition Building: Systemic design interventions as a response to complexity and uncertainty. Leadership & Collaboration: Balancing framework and leeway; an efficient and inclusive approach to teamwork, integration and remote collaboration.
20:30-22:30 Greek Night
Tuesday 4 January 2022
08:00-10:00 Urban Walk
10:00-10:30
Carlo Artemi, Retired Worker, Ministry of Education, Italy. Title: An Idea for Interior of Martian House.
Paper starts with a remark about impressive progress made by SpaceX in building the rockets needed to go to Mars. These achievements will be briefly described Referring to this and also to an idea of the author for an martian human trip paper shows a list of problems related to the peculiarity of a Martian house. problems such as airtightness, protection against radiations, low gravity and so on .. Martian house is peculiar not only respect to houses on Earth but respect to Space station too. A whole series of possible solutions are presented, up to a detailed design of the house itself. These solutions are linked both to use of new materials, as aerogels, and use of techniques already tested in space and on Earth. For example inflatable modules A possible scheme to put materials for house into Starship is showed too. Author has used for finding the solutions to his personal experience of people having to personalize his house
10:30-11:00 Jayoung Che, Visiting Professor, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea. Title: Non-Objective Criterion of ‘Defamation by Publicly Alleging Facts’ in Korea’s Current Criminal Law.
Provisions of non-objective criterion in law to promote corruption While few countries criminally punish defamation, Korean Criminal Code currently punishes defamation by publicly alleging facts, The relevant laws are as follows. In Article 307: “a person who defames a person by publicly alleging facts” is punished. In Article 309(1): the case concerning defamation “for the purpose of abusing people” is punished. In Article 310: Justification for illegality is given, “there shall be no punishment in cases exclusively concerning the public interest as true facts”. In Korea, defamation is involved regardless whether the alleging facts are true or false. In this condition, the clues, “for the purpose of abusing people” and ‘concerning exclusively the public interest’, leave the room for intervention of subjective judgment, which is opposed to the “truth” as an objective fact. In other words, even if the facts are true, punishment could be proposed by the prosecutors, as well as being convicted by the jurisdiction of the courts. It is worth noting that the criteria of non-objective concept could serve as an opportunity to promote rather the unfair subjective and arbitrary judgment of judicial authority, than the fair, objective evaluation of the defamation charged itself. Arbitrary judgment used to be intervened even from the stage judging the criminal component to decide the case whether to be charged or prosecuted. The loopholes in the law allowing arbitrariness, especially when linked with the poor investigation practices of the Korean public prosecution, promote corruption caused by the intervention of money and political power, resulting in the conclusions drawn more favorable to the strong than to the socially weak. Even the clue of the justification for illegality in Article 310 used to be turned into a useless one, cause the proviso of ‘public interest’ allows the room of subjective prejudice or unfair treatment influenced by bribery. Defamation case in civil litigation in U.S. In the United States where defamation is usually conducted as a civil trial, intervention of ‘actual malice’ is an important criterion to be discerned. However, great attention is required to check the intervention of ‘actual malice’, as it belongs to the realm of subjective recognition, and it is intensively discussed throughout the process of civil trial. Here, the public prosecutors do not make a hasty decision on it as a criminal component. Criminal defamation in Germany In Germany defamation is treated as a criminal law. Here, fundamentally objective criterion being applied, and, when alleging fact is a truth, illegality is absolutely justified. Non-objective, intentional purposefulness of an actor does not affect the determination of guilt or innocence. The actual meaning is that the criterion of objective truth has the effect of excluding the intervention of arbitrary judgments of judicial authority on the pretense of ‘intention’ of the actor. 2. Reality of negligent fact-checking of the Prosecution Negligent fact-checking practice of Korean legal authorities In order to determine whether it is an intentional abuse or sound criticism of the alleged defamer, an accurate investigation of facts must be preceded. In Korea’s practice of prosecution, however, ‘excessive intention (purposefulness)’ component of crime precedes the process of checking the truth of facts. This kind of procedurally putting the cart before the horse promotes subjective arbitrariness of prosecutors, and public indictment is, by malicious intention on the side of public authorities in charge, to be raised even without solid factual evidence. Otherwise, the case with the proof clearly evidenced, in a direction that the prosecutor does not want, used to be blocked initially to come out as a social issue by public or legal authorities including prosecution, so that the problem of defamation-related predicament does not occur as a result. Defamation filed regardless whether the fact is true or not There is a defamation case referring to the suspicion on corrupted officials of N District, where the prosecutor did not indict the first whistleblower reporter on the mass media, but the second one transferring the same article to other internet media. It means that the defamation does not concern the authenticity of the report itself, whether the fact is false or not, but it seems, malicious intent, an excessive subjective component. If the authenticity of the information had been at issue, the reporter who wrote the article should have been sued first, or at least together with the secondly transferring actor. Case initially not prosecuted despite clear evidences Practice of negligent investigation is not limited to defamation only, but is widely spread as a conventional practice of the public prosecution. In an allegation of corruption related to W City Hall, although there are more or less evidences somewhat objectively proved even without going through an investigation of the prosecution, the case has been concealed or ignored, as if it were transparently nonexistent, by the relevant public offices as well as the prosecution. Consequently, the ignored case has never been sued even for defamation. Thus, corruption of public agencies and the prosecution’s poor investigation are occasionally intertwined with each other. 3. Prospect for revision Recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue, on Korea According to the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur, Frank La Rue, on Korea [A/HRC/17/27/Add.2 (21 March 2011)], for a statement to be considered defamatory, it must be false, must injure another person’s reputation, and made with malicious intent to cause injury to another individual’s reputation. In defamation actions, however, a range of remedies should be available, including apology and/or correction, and penal sanctions, in particular imprisonment, should never be applied. (para.27) He recommends that “the Korean Government remove defamation as an offence from the Criminal Act”(para.28). In addition, “public figures should refrain from bringing defamation suits, as they are required to tolerate a greater degree of criticism than private citizens; to require truth in the context of publications relating to matters of public interest is excessive”. (para.27) Suggestions for the Amended Bill on Defamation initiated by Rep. Kim Yongmin The partially amended bill concerning defamation, initiated by Rep. Kim Yong-min and others, let the concept, “for the purpose of abusing people” reserved in Article 309 (2), that has been moved from Article 309(1). It cannot work properly under the current criminal procedure, as it still reserves the room for arbitrary and non-objective judgment of the prosecution as well the judiciary. This potentially leads judicial authority to the tyranny of out-of-control. “The purpose of abusing people” could be discerned properly only after intense discussion between opposite litigants in the procedure of civil trial. And Article 310 prescribing “true facts” as the condition of justifying illegality, that has been deleted as a whole in the current Amendment Bill of Rep. KimYongmin, should be restored, eliminating the non-objective concept, “concerning exclusively the public interest”. 4 Further instances of non-objective criteria in law promoting arbitrary prejudice Not only referring to defamation but other issues of crime, criteria of non-objective, ambiguous concept used to allow arbitrary prejudice of legal authorities intervened. 1) Constitution, Article 103: “The judges judge according to the Constitution and the Law, independently based on their conscience”. Here there is an apparent contradiction between “according to the Constitution and the Law” and “independently based on conscience”, as the former, ‘the Constitution and the Law’ is an objective fact, whereas the latter, “conscience” reduces to a subjective reflection. The latter used to promote judge’s arbitrary and biased derailment. In Germany, however, Article 20 (3) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) prescribes that the judges are bound exclusively by the Constitution and the Law. 2) Article 307(1) and Article 309 in the Criminal Procedure Law (1) Article 307 (Principle of Trial by Evidence): ① Recognition of facts must be based on evidence. (2) Article 308 (Principle of Free Evaluation of Evidence): The proof of the strength of evidence is based on the judge’s Free Evaluation of Evidence. Here, ‘evidence’ in Article 307 refers to objective attribution, but ‘judge’s free judgment Evaluation of Evidence’ in Article 308 promotes the judge’s subjective arbitrariness as well as prejudice, as the judge evaluates the evidence by free decision. 3) Articles 208, 224 of the Civil Procedure Law & Small Amount Claims Trial Act, Article 11.2: (3) (1) Civil Procedure Law, Article 208 (Items to be entered in the judgment, etc.): (1) n.4. The reason must be stated in the judgment. (2) Civil Procedure Law, Article 224 (Observance of Judgment Regulations): (1) The reason for the judgment may be omitted. (3) Small Amount Claims Trial Act, Article 11.2: (3) The reasons for the judgment may not be stated. Civil Procedure Law, Article 208 is opposed to Civil Procedure Law, Article 224, and Small Amount Claims Trial Act, Article 11.2: (3). In the former, the reason must be stated in the judgment, but in the latter, it is permitted to omit the reason. 5. Conclusion Coexistence of opposing criteria, objectivity and subjectivity, in the provisions of law has resulted in putting more weight on a subjective conviction than objective evidence. ‘Judgment according to conscience’, and ‘Principle of Free Evaluation of Evidence’ have made a space for subjective prejudice intervened. Moreover, reservation clause to omit the reasons of the judgment that principally should be open to the public, further encourages the unreasonable despotism of the judges. Such loopholes in the law that allow subjective prejudice intervened, combined with the prosecution’s poor investigation practices, have contributed to the chronic corruption of the Korean prosecution and judiciary system. And this surrounding has contributed to lowering Korea’s judicial credibility to the bottom, exactly the last, among OECD countries.
11:00-11:30 Michael Michael, Professor, Yonsei University, South Korea. Title: Interpreting Dragons: A Threefold Perspective.
Dragons and dragon stories occur in numerous cultures throughout the world. It is an astonishing fact that similar motifs arise in Greek, Indian, and Japanese mythology, in Norse myth and Chinese folktales, in Mesoamerican religion and Australian-Aboriginal creation stories. Why should such diverse cultures share common themes? And how did stories of dragons and their associated features first arise? Though numerous theories have been proposed, there is as yet no consensus about the origin of these ideas. In this presentation I offer a threefold perspective on the interpretation of dragons. I argue that dragons and dragon stories are overdetermined, having arisen and been maintained through numerous causes which can be classified into three categories: the cultural, the naturalistic, and the psychological. The cultural facets of dragon myths, such as the Indo-European Chaoskampf motif, are well-known and have been widely discussed; they are an important determinant of the maintenance and evolution of dragon stories. But for deeper explanations and an answer to the question of origins one must look further. Naturalistic and psychological accounts provide this deeper layer of explanation. I argue that the most plausible theory of the origin of dragons is Blust’s rainbow-serpent theory, which I dub a “naturalistic” explanation. This theory accounts for numerous universal or near-universal features of dragons. But alongside this we must also consider psychological determinants, for which the Freudian perspective is particularly enlightening. I provide evidence of Oedipal themes underpinning many common dragon motifs and argue that dragons are both infantile representations of parental figures and, at least in their antagonistic guise, also represent the id, thereby providing a connection with the Chaoskampf interpretation. Overall, I endorse a multiperspectival approach to unravelling the enigma of these legendary creatures.
11:30-12:00 Adrian Estrela Pereira, PhD Student, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. Ekaterina Konopleva, Professor, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Jehan Alghneimin, PhD Student, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. Nicole Kasbary, PhD Student, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. Title: Musical Instruments’ African-Based Studies: The Application of the Afro-Brazilian knowledge to study non-African-based Musical Instruments.
In the last two decades, the Brazilian music scenario has been marked by a myriad of changes due to the expansion of African-based music education. An increasingly academic-oriented interest in studying and applying musical knowledge stemming from African-heritage sources can be noticed in Brazilian universities, congresses, conventions, journals and other formal structures. Beyond of historical and ethnographic investigations linked to African-matrix music and its ascendants from ethnomusicological, philosophical and social viewpoints, it can be observed a growing interest in scrutinizing African-based music and applying the developed knowledge in the study of “non-African-based” musical instruments like piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass and drums. Institutions and researchers from Salvador city, as the world’s biggest Afro-descendent city outside the African continent, hold an important role in the development and dissemination of this type of knowledge. Accordingly, the present article has as its general aim to discuss possible intentions and implications of the examination of African-based music traditions for its application in the study of non-traditional African instruments. It employs critical, sociological and ethnomusicological perspectives to reflect on the possible impacts of this phenomenon in the music education scenario, focusing on the content that was developed in the Salvador city or based on the Salvadoran context. Thereby, this paper has four specific aims to support the general purpose: 1) To present the Salvador city and the main historical and social elements that can affect musical contexts; 2) To present some recent publications with focus on the application of musical knowledge inherited from African-Brazilian traditions in instruments other than the originally used in the traditional contexts; 3) To analyze these materials from a music education perspective; and 4) To integrate the examinations with broader social discussions that may affect and be affected by the music field. Pursuing these aims, the current study applies a qualitative document analysis as its methodological approach to acquire the data, examine the materials and develop the knowledge supported by diverse written, audio and audiovisual sources. In spite of this investigation being focused in a municipal context, it is expected that a better understanding of a regional phenomenon can create effects that reverberate not only in a local music context but also in broader levels and sectors of music education in globalized societies.
12:00-12:30 Peter Baur, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Title: Exploring the Relationship between the Performance of the Global Financial Markets and Art Market Sentiment.
Orientation: The relationship between the financial markets and the market for fine art is often misunderstood. While there is consensus that fine art is traded as an alternative investment within the financial markets, the relationship between financial market performance and investment performance in the art market is considered a grey area by many financial market investors and institutions alike. However, the relationship between the investment in art and the financial markets is significantly more transparent than expected. Research purpose and approach: This article examines art market sentiment – derived from social media – on a range of art market topics, including art price, art investment and art trade. A specialised art market sentiment index is developed in this article and analysed against a selection of international financial market indices. Main findings: A relationship is observed between art market sentiment and financial market performance. This article uses data collected from the Twitter application programming interface (API) and applies Valence Aware Dictionary for sEntiment Reasoning (VADER) to determine the sentiment scores. This process is applicable because of its sensitivity to both the polarity and intensity of emotion. Ultimately, a significant negative relationship was found between art market sentiment and financial market performance. Thus, when financial markets appear to weaken, the art market sentiment shows signs of improvement. Contribution/value added: The data show that increasing levels of digitalisation has resulted in the art market becoming a more popular alternative investment within the financial market to hedge against market risk. This would imply that the art market may be an effective hedging tool for financial investment portfolios. The sentiment analysis proved to be statistically robust and, due to its consistency, provides evidence that the art market sentiment analysis developed in this article is an effective market analytics tool.
12:30-13:00 Andrada Florian, PhD Student, West University of Timisoara, Romania. Title: The Under-evaluation of National Heritage Monuments by National/Local Art Authorities.
During my phd thesis research I did studied and investigated about public forum monuments. Even though my area of research was limited to geographical area and time rage, I did discovered amazing heritage monuments that are not highlighted as they should through national art or heritage institutes. Unfortunately, the national art and culture ministry has no division for this type of monuments only for architectural, public forum or funeral monuments. This type of art works could be well included in the public forum monuments, but they are not. On the list there are only modern sculptures or sculptures of personalities or memorial plaques. Not even the department from local art and culture, have included them into their list. My research involves study of these kind of monuments structure, placement in space, cultural heritage importance and highlights their amazing beauty. The purpose of my research is to gather information, proof and to document it all in a monument archive with all the monuments from Bihor county and to highlight their scope, purpose and beauty so I can make it noticed, in order to protect and to show them at their true value. It is a pity that authorities appreciate only the monuments that have a hidden aim (to satisfy politics, society or ethnic minorities), but not appreciating true values. Is it the fact that these monuments are not evaluated correctly, because they are made from wood?! No, that is not a well justified reason neither in art theory or any other logic and legal point of wiev. The wood is part of a romanian’s soul. The connection between the soul and wood is dating back to ancient times, when the forest was considered a safe place for soldiers, for kings and goods. Every battle that was in Romania’s history that was occurred in the woods came with a victory, due to the fact that the dacic and other type of national warriors had a powerful connection with it. From forest, into home and furniture, but also raw material for amazing heritage monuments.
13:00-13:30 Mario Savini, Adjunct Professor, University of Camerino, Italy. Title: Music from the Rubble. Creativity as a Tool for the Promotion and Enhancement of Earthquake-Hit Areas.
This research work focuses on the role of creativity as a tool for the promotion and enhancement of earthquake-hit areas. An example comes from a multidisciplinary project I presented on 7th September 2021 at “Ascoli Piceno Festival” in Ascoli Piceno (Italy). A work where art, music and science come together into an unprecedented performance: a “path” through music, a sound installation that is activated by the imperceptible movements of protists, unicellular microorganisms that were found in water samples collected from the areas of Central Italy hit by the 2016 earthquake. Thanks to a microscope connected to a webcam, these microorganisms can be seen on a screen and their movements acquired by a script and turned into music in real time. By interacting with a sort of virtual keyboard, the protists’ movements generate random, ever-changing sounds. What can be observed during the performance is not only the “life” of these microorganisms but also how the interface is able to detect any change in the colour of pixels and to emit a trigger signal. The circles created by those signals move from left to right and generate a note as soon as they exceed the central threshold. These melodies blend together with the aleatoric music of a saxophone and give rise to a really unprecedented fusion of ideas and inspirations. The sounds and the colours of the installation intertwine and merge into an exciting and poetic composition. By means of a large screen, the audience can enjoy the “hidden” movements of the protists, unwitting creators of a fantastic landscape. Through this example, the paper aims to answer the following questions: what kind of aesthetic experience can be expected in a place that is commonly linked to the concepts of death and destruction? How can art and creativity improve the competitiveness of an area? Is it possible to think of a new perspective of space and to imagine different forms of relationship resulting from the earthquake experience?
13:30-14:30 Lunch
14:30-15:00 Gazala Gayas Wani, Associate Professor, Cluster University Srinagar, India. Title: Utopians and Revolutionary: A Comparative study of P.B Shelley and Archibald Lampman.
The idea of revolution has a special interest, and a special affinity among all Romantics. They seek to effect in poetry, what revolution aspires to achieve in politics: innovation, transformation, defamiliarisation.The age of Shelly was an age of revolution in the field of poetry as well as of politics. In both these fields the age had started expressing its impatience of set formulas and traditions, the tyranny of rules, and the bondage of convention. From the French Revolution, the age imbibed a spirit of revolt asserting the dignity of the individual spirit and hollowness of the time-honoured conventions which kept it in check. Thus both in the political and the poetic fields the age learnt from the Revolution the necessity of emancipation-in the political field, from tyranny and social oppression; and in the poetic, from the bondage of rules and authority. The French Revolution, in a word, exerted a democratizing influence, both on politics and poetry. Inspired by the French Revolution, poets and politicians alike were poised for an onslaught on old, time-rusted values. It was only here and there that some conservative critics stuck to their guns and eyed all zeal for change and liberation with suspicion and distrust. P. B. Shelly, an English Romantic pet, and Archibald Lampman, a Canadian Romantic poet behave as a rebel for their ideas of revolution and setting of an ideal world. Like Shelly, Lampman also believes, that both nature and the society of men are suffering from diseases like tyranny, oppression and corruption, and these corroding diseases can be cured by a miraculous change. Both, the poets see ideal settings where there are men of a diviner making and gardens wide and fair. Both Shelley and Lampman believe there is a world of beauty and understanding: In its domed and towered centre lies a garden wide and fair, open for the soul to enter. Shelly and Lampman being poets of different ages share certain common traits. Both Shelly and Lampman have revolutionary temperament. Their poetry is so effusive, so stirring, that people automatically begin to think of them as revolutionary poets. Their ideology is Utopian, and thus both dreamt of a world, which is perfect: where men could live together happily, rationally, and peacefully without any institution and class distinction.
15:00-15:30
Mbali Khoza, Lecturer, Rhodes University, South Africa. Title: Multi-Modes of Erasure: An Analysis of the Art History and Visual Culture Curriculum.
It is important to make visible the contemporary Art History and Visual Culture curriculum’s erasure of multi-modal black art histories. By ‘multi-modal’ I mean the many mechanisms that have and can be employed by art educators to delete, omit black visual cultures from contemporary South African art history curriculums. My goal is to show how the inclusion of these multi-modal black art histories can spark new conversations about black art practitioners, their work, the manner in which they choose to express themselves and visualise black life through various visual apparatuses. I believe this can be achieved through curriculum transformation. My interest in curriculum transformation is informed by two important events: my exposure as an undergraduate art history and visual culture student to a curriculum that centred and valorised Western art history and the student led Fallist movements demands that included the decolonisation of the educational system, transformation of universities to address racial and gender inequalities in terms of staff composition” (Langa 2017, 6). Although students’ demands were valid, on-going discourses on curriculum decolonisation have shown that institutional transformation could not simply be accomplished by employing black academics nor should it be the sole responsibility of black academics to do the work of transformation. For example, in her essay Trying to Transform feminist scholar Sara Ahmed argues that for true institutional transformation to take place, institutions must first acknowledge that appointing someone to transform the institution is “not the same thing as an institution being willing to be transformed (by someone who is appointed)” (Ahem 2017). Secondly, that the inclusion of black scholarship in curriculums may be one way to help undo Western scholarships’ authority over disciplines. But it is not enough. If institutions want to effectively respond to students’ demands Ahmed says, then they need to start “thinking differently”. An integral part of this decolonial process requires institutions to acknowledge their complicity: that they are not exterior to the problem but are part of the problem that is “under investigation”(Ahem 2017).
15:30-16:00
Katerina Gotsi, Researcher, Centre for Scientific Dialogue and Research, Cyprus. Margarita Ioannou, Researcher, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Cyprus Title: Nomads, Adventure Seekers and (Non Desperate) Housewives: Female Travel Bloggers in Cyprus.
Due to its geograph y, its landscapes and its ancient history, Cyprus has always been a pole of attraction for travel l ers of various kinds travel accounts on the island dating back to the 15 th century . Follo wing the footsteps of earlier female travel writers, who have been visiting Cyprus since the 19 th century , 21 st century female bloggers and influencers incorporate Cyprus in the long list of destinations they visit and write about. In an era when travelling across the globe and sharing travel experiences has been rendered easier and faster than ever before in world history , this new breed of female writers travel s and communicate s (in the most literal sense of the word) their mundane and /or extraordinary experiences of their journey to Cyprus with their global online audiences. They are not the first to visit the places they write about; yet what they see in each st ep is markedly different from what earlier travellers saw, as the landscape has significantly changed over the years, as much as the beholders’ eyes . This paper , which is par t of the EU funded research project Re inventing age old Travelling Paths of the Levant in the Digital Era: the example of Cyprus ” EXCELLENCE/0918/0190 aims to explore what female travel bloggers (cho o se to) see in 21 st century Cyprus in terms of its landscape, its history and archaeology and its people without ignoring the marketing dimension of the travel blogs I t aims to examine the blog posts as travel texts in their own merit and as indicators of what attracts 2 1 st century travellers (and/ or blog visitors) the most. It also intends to explore in what ways and to what extent the digital mediums have affected the format and the content of travel writing on Cyprus , the intentions of the writers and the audience they target.
16:00-16:30
Marta Miquel-Baldellou, Researcher, University of Lleida, Spain. Title: From Margo Channing to Margaret Elliot: The Aging Actress, Age Performance, and the Dictates of Aging in Joseph Mankiewicz’s All about Eve and Stuart Hesiler’s the Star.
Within the academic field of aging studies, Anne Basting (2001) refers to the transformative quality of the notion of performance. Taking into consideration Judith Butler’s concept of gender performance, which envisions gender as a series of repeated practices revealing performative tendencies that contribute to the subversion of gender, Basting claims that aging also exhibits a performative quality in analogy with that of gender. In this context, cinema critics such as Anne Morey (2011) have drawn attention to the figure of the aging actress in classic films of the 1950s and 1960s, whose histrionic performance both on and off screen reveals the performative features of aging. As Morey further argues, the aging actress’s performance of age is liable to ambiguous interpretations, since, on the one hand, it appears to comply with the conventional notion of female aging as a process of decline, but, on the other hand, the performative skills of the aging actress, who finds herself acting age both on and off screen, give way to the possibility of subverting aging discourses addressed to women, precisely owing to the performative quality that the dictates of aging often expose. The American actress Bette Davis played the role of an aging actress in different films throughout her career. In Joseph Mankiewicz’s All About Eve (1950), Davis plays one of her most highly acclaimed parts as Margo Channing, a mature actress who is ultimately banished from stage by her younger admirer. In Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), in a memorable histrionic performance, Davis’s performance underscores the grotesque qualities of an aging actress who plans her comeback many years after having gained celebrity as a child prodigy. Only two years after the release of All About Eve, in Stuart Heisler’s The Star (1952), Davis once more played the role of an aging actress, Margaret Elliot, in a lesser-known, but equally noteworthy, performance. Heisler’s film reveals significant intertextual links with All About Eve, but it explores the performance of age even further, as it shows the aging actress’s being required to switch age roles, acting younger and older on screen, and eventually coming to terms with the dictates of aging and of her own aging process as a woman. This paper aims to analyze instances of age performance in Stuart Heisler’s The Star which reveal the performative quality of the discourses of aging. Taking into consideration that both All About Eve and The Star address the figure of the aging actress, the intertextuality existing between both films will also be tackled. This comparative analysis will also pave the way to argue whether aging discourses differ in both films and whether they can be termed as more subversive or more reactionary in comparison, taking into consideration the ambivalent interpretations often attached to portrayals of the aging actress. Finally, this paper also aims to incorporate Heisler’s film The Star in the list of classic films which address the figure of the aging actress in both aging and cinema studies.
16:30-17:00 Kelly Kirby, Department Chair and Assistant Professor, Moore College of Art & Design, USA. Title: Fostering Engagement and Collaborative Learning in Class through Practicing Inclusive Pedagogies.
Cultural relativism, analyzing or observing any aspect of other culture(s) through their perspective(s), has long been an established key methodology employed by cultural anthropologists, not only in ethnographic fieldwork, but also in the classroom where they teach about human beliefs and practices that might be unknown or misunderstood by students. The framework of cultural relativism helps students understand cultural differences, yet does not always promote student engagement, especially during class discussions. Students who are members of minoritized communities sometimes hesitate to participate because they are afraid, angry, or frustrated to contribute due to their past experiences of feeling unheard or ostracized for their participation in classroom discussions. This presentation, based on coursework I completed to earn a Diversity and Inclusion certificate from Cornell University, has four aims in the quest of increasing student engagement in class discussions. The first is instituting an inclusive climate in the classroom. An inclusive climate is one where each member of the classroom is valued for their individual life experiences; where members of the classroom community are listening to hear instead of listening to respond. The second aim of the presentation is to discuss how inclusive climates open spaces for reflections on recognizing unconscious biases. This is where collective healing begins in the classroom, leading to what I will discuss in my third aim of the presentation, engagement. Engaging classroom environments rest on established inclusive climates and collective collaboration in understanding how biases are shaped and challenged. The final aim of the presentation is to discuss how, through the processes outlined above, diversity becomes the key pedagogical pillar in the classroom.
17:00-17:30 Omar Roy, Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, USA. Title: Immanent Narrative in Franz Liszt’s Vallée d’Obermann.
Liszt’s piano works are unmistakably evocative and dramatic, and many are explicitly tied to extramusical inspirations. However, his works often express narrative in spite of their relationship to external texts; particularly, those from the Années de Pèlerinage. This collection features works of varying size and scope whose titles all reference extramusical sources ranging from literature to legend. Vallée d’Obermann stands out among its Swiss inspired companion works not only for its considerable length, but also for its embodiment of psychological drama. This work, inspired by French author Senancour’s novel Obermann, mirrors many of the aesthetic qualities of its literary counterpart and includes excerpts from the novel in an epigraph. However, we know that in some cases, extramusical references and “programs” were assigned after a work’s composition. Furthermore, Liszt also includes an excerpt from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by Lord Byron in the epigraph, discrediting his assertion that Vallée d’Obermann’s only inspiration was Senancour’s novel. Given the uncertain nature of to what extent these works influenced Liszt’s composition, we can examine Vallée d’Obermann independent of its purported extramusical sources. Using the analytical model set forth by Byron Almén in A Theory of Musical Narrative (2008), I explore a narrative reading of Vallée d’Obermann that examines semiotic elements and how they interact within a structural paradigm. Ultimately, this analysis assigns one of Northrop Frye’s narrative archetypes to illustrate that narrativity in Liszt’s music operates on an immanent level, even in cases where a composition already has an explicit link to an external reference.
20:00-21:30 Dinner
Wednesday 5 January 2022Educational Islands Cruise
