French Natures

La conférence "French Natures" co-organisée par Frédérique Aït-Touati (CRAL-EHESS/CNRS) et Phillip John Usher (New York University) se déroulera à New York University, les 26 et 27 octobre 2018.Each culture maps its understanding of the physical world (nature, physis) in different ways. This conference-festival  thus asks: what do French and Francophone literature, film, visual art, theater, and philosophy make of our planet? How can they help us understand our world marked by environmental catastrophe?As part of this conference-festival, French Natures is sponsoring the US première of Bruno Latour’s Inside, in New York, October 26, 2018. Details here.***

Vendredi 26 octobre (La Maison Française, Washington Mews)

9.30: Opening WordsFrédérique Aït-Touati (CRAL [EHESS, CNRS]) and Phillip John Usher (NYU)(conference organizers)Sarah Kay (Professor and Chair of French Literature, Thought and Culture, and Director of the NYU Center for French Language and Cultures)Carolyn Dinshaw (Silver Professor; Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and English; NYU Dean for Humanities)10.00-11.15: Our Troubled Planet. Chair: Phillip John Usher (NYU)The World on FirePeggy McCracken (University of Michigan)Dialectics of MeteorsFrédéric Neyrat (University of Wisconsin-Madison)11.15-11.30: Break11.30-1.15: Smokiness and Lightness Chair: TBAVisualizing the Nature of Northern French Smokestacks from Dubigny to PissarroDaniel Finch-Race (Bristol University)The Unbearable Lightness of EcologyPauline Goul (Vassar College)1.15-2.30: Break2.30-4.15: Fields and Beaches. Chair: Peder Anker (Gallatin, NYU)Being on Earth, or The Cosmic AgricultureEmanuele Coccia (EHESS)Queer Ecology and the Modernist BeachHannah Freed-Thall (NYU)4.15-4.30: Break4.30-5.30: Pamela H. Smith, Making and Knowing: Material Imaginaries of the Early Modern (Columbia)7.30: Bruno Latour, US-première of Inside (For more information, click here.) (Tickets required- click here to receive an email as soon as they go on sale.)

Samedi 27 octobre (La Maison Française, Washington Mews)

 9.30-10.00: Reading of Olivier Kemeid’s Aeneid. Directed by Judy Miller (NYU) and Rachel Watson (NYU)10.00-10.15: Break10.15-11.45: Theatrical Natures Roundtable. Chair: Judy Miller (NYU) Featuring: Frédérique Aït-Touati (CRAL [EHESS, CNRS]), Una Chaudhuri (NYU), Sarah Cameron Sunde (director, New York).12.00-1.00: Outing to Earth Room with Robin Joyce. The Earth Room has been open to the public (for free) since 1980 (Details and directions  here).1.45-3.15: Territories (1). Chair: Hannah Freed-Thall (NYU)Paysages de  France et paysage français dans la littérature (française) du XX ème siècleEugène Nicole (NYU)Theological-Political Arborescences: Louis Dorléans’s La plante humaineRose Gardner (Columbia University)3.15-3.30: Break3.30-4.45: Territories (2). Chair: Jeanne Etelain (NYU)Wild Diplomacy. Cohabiting With the Others Among UsBaptiste Morizot (Université Aix-Marseille)On the ExterraneanPhillip John Usher (NYU)4.45-5.00: Break5.00-6.45: Future Perspectives for Cohabitation on the Earth. Chair: Sarah Kay (NYU)French Zoopoetics: Animals at the Intersection of Nature, Language, and EthicsAnne Simon (CRAL [EHESS, CNRS])Ferality in the Arts: Visualizing the Next NatureBénédicte RamadeReading Ecologically with Posthuman CulturesStéphanie Posthumus (McGill University)****Organization : The Center for French Language and Cultures, New York University.Sponsors  : The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, NYU Center for French Language and Cultures, The Florence Gould Foundation, Centre de Recherches sur les Arts et le Langage (EHESS, CNRS), Department of French Literature, Thought and Culture (NYU), The NYU Center for the Humanities, La Maison Française NYU.