GEOSOCIAL ENCOUNTERS CONFERENCE

ECOLOGIES OF DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH AND PRACTICE

What can video art, experimental documentary, and sensory ethnography teach us about the practice of critical urban, spatial, and environmental research? Conversely, how are scholar-filmmakers utilizing audiovisual tools and contributing to these genres of film and video art? Geosocial Encounters connects documentary artists with researchers and scholar-filmmakers in the environmental humanities. 
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The symposium is co-organized by Dr. Rahul Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Television and New Media Studies, and Dr. Ben Mendelsohn, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities. The event will begin with a film screening at Slought the evening of Thursday, September 19 and continue with a series of panels throughout the day on Friday, September 20.

Geosocial Encounters a project of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities It is supported by the School of Arts and Sciences and University Research Fund, the Department of English, the Cinema and Media Studies Program(link is external), the Wolf Humanities Center, the Center for Experimental Ethnography, the Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication, and the Center for Media at Risk.
View details here.

Dr. Rahul Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of Television and New Media Studies

Dr. Ben Mendelsohn, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Thursday sep. 19

An afternoon and evening of screenings, including films by Shambhavi Kaul, Cymene Howe, and Dominic Boyer, Adam Diller, and Peter Bo Rappmund. 

4:00 PM - 4:15 PM | Opening Remarks | Coffee
4:15 PM - 5:30 PM | Screening Program One (42 minutes)
*Free and open to the public. Filmmaker discussion to follow*

• Scene 32 | Shambhavi Kaul | 2009 | 4’
• Vulgar Fractions  | Peter Bo Rappmund | 2012 | 28’
• 28 Outfalls  | Adam Diller | 2014 | 10’ 

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Break
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM | Screening Program Two (73 min)
*Free and open to the public. Filmmaker discussion to follow*

• Hijacked | Shambhavi Kaul | 2015 | 15 min
• Not Ok | Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer | 2018 | 37’
• Night Noon  | Shambhavi Kaul | 2014 | 12’
• 21 Chitrakoot | Shambhavi Kaul | 2012 | 9’

8:00 PM | Welcome Reception

fri sep. 20

A day of presentations and discussion among scholars and filmmakers

9:00 AM - 9:30 AM | Breakfast & Opening Remarks

• Guiding Questions & Concerns | Ben Mendelsohn
• Climate Strike Briefing | Bethany Wiggin

9:30 AM - 10:45 AM | Panel 1: Land, Memory, and Indigenous Histories 

• The making of Lordville (2015) | artist talk by Rea Tajiri (Temple)
• The Radical Unreal: Displacing History, Unsettling Place | Toby Lee (NYU)
• Moderator: Sabiha Khan (University of Texas El Paso)

11:00 AM - 12:15 PM | Panel 2: Gesturing Surfaces: Video Art & Spatial Praxis   

• Video works by Nadia Hironaka & Matthew Suib in dialogue with Rizvana Bradley (Yale)

12:15 PM - 2:15 PM | Lunch and Climate Strike Outing

• Those who are interested may join PPEH staff and affiliates on a trip to Philadelphia City Hall to participate in the Global Climate Strike.
• Boxed lunches provided

2:15 PM - 3:00 PM | Interlude: The Map is the Script

• Peter Bo Rappmund in dialogue with Leo Goldsmith

3:15 PM - 4:30 PM | Panel 3: Sonic Ecologies

• Sonic Ethnography and the Ecotones of Dread | Selmin Kara (OCAD)
• Listening to Violence Along the Mid-Columbia River | Adam Diller (Temple)
• Moderator: Ernst Karel (Harvard/Penn)

4:45 PM - 5:30 PM | Interlude: Ineffable Landscapes

• Artist talk by Shambhavi Kaul (Duke) 
• Moderator: Nancy Lee Roane (Penn)

5:30 PM - 6:00 PM | Closing Roundtable: Geosocial Knowledge Practices  

• Deb Thomas (Penn)
• Cymene Howe (Rice)
• Moderator: Bethany Wiggin (Penn)

6:30 PM | Dinner and Drinks (for conference participants)