Syracuse Symposium Reading List

As an annual initiative of the Syracuse University Humanities Center, SYRACUSE SYMPOSIUM engages wider publics with innovative, interdisciplinary work in the humanities by renowned scholar, artists, authors, and performers, tied to a particular theme.

This year's programming for 2023-2024 engages the meaning and impact of "LANDSCAPES from diverse perspectives and genres, locally and globally, and all are welcome! Contact humancenter@syr.edu with questions about events.

Have suggestions for related readings or learning guides to add to our reading list? Contact the Libraries colls@syr.edu with your link and brief description.

Continuity, Innovation, and Resistance: The Art of Peter B. Jones

AMH –In an HOA 200 Native Arts of North America course lecture made open to all, Peter Jones talks about Haudenosaunee art, with interdisciplinary entry points across art history, fine art, museum studies, anthropology, history, and more. This exhibition reception / artist talk will be offered for a limited number of in-person guests and live-streamed.

Reference works

21^st Annual Syracuse University Human Rights Film Festival

SUHRFF celebrates more than two decades of showcasing documentaries about social justice issues around the world.

The Border is a Weapon

Point of Contact – This multi-media art exhibit at Point of Contact Gallery features work by a collective of South Texas artists representing the different realities of a region united by culture, history, its people -- divided by the Río Grande. The show is a reflection on the vitality of life at the border, curated by Gil Rocha of the Laredo Center for the Arts. Opening reception includes a talk between Rocha and Associate Professor Juan Juarez (SU, Studio Arts), also accessible online via Zoom.

(TBD)
Resounding Earth

Society for New Music / VPA – guest composter August Readd Thomas (U of Chicago) leads a participatory sonic landscape in a natural setting (e.g. Thornden Park) performing his work, “Resounding Earth” for percussion quartet (500 bells or sculpted metals from around the world) with ambient sounds celebrating community across cultures. To make this distinctive to CNY and the Park, four regional composers will create mini-soundscapes and may include some GPS-interactivity for physical movement between sonic movements.

(TBD)
How the Constitution Shapes Our Landscape

Syracuse Stage – As a complement to the production of What the Constitution Means to Me, a panel discussion before a Sunday matinee performance will occur in the Archbold Theatre at Syracuse Stage. Moderated by Suzette Meléndez, the panel will feature the play’s director in conversation with esteemed experts around constitutional law concentrating on the current landscape of the US Constitution and its evolution.

Seeding/Ceding the Space: Minoritized Youth as Creators & Makers
SOE - Proposed activities: 1. Short lecture by Edna Tan focusing on her work with minoritized youth and STEM-rich makerspaces; 2. Short lecture/video presentation by David Knapp focusing on the SENSES project and Audio lab at Mercyworks, which are digital studio labs for computer-mediated creative expression and composition; 3. Dialogue about the value of STEAM for minoritized youth, moderated by James Rolling; 4. Pre/post-reception with light refreshments and technology demonstrations, where students will share music/podcasts produced at the SENSES Audio Lab… SOE faculty member, Xiaoxia (Silvie) Huang, will demonstrate her VR project exploring the Lost River Cave in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Participants will be able to visit the park virtually and move through the landscape using VR headsets.

Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

Book by Thomas Allen Harris- Through a Lens Darkly : Tracing Redemption in Film

Family Pictures - Syracuse

ENG – Following a series of independently arranged community meetings and film screenings (as primer and inspiration) the Symposium will focus on a culminating Sunday afternoon event to showcase the results of those prior sessions, where community members have scanned family photos toward building a collective public memory / archive / preservation of diverse, generational history.

Strange Terrain: The Institute of Queer Ecology in Conversation with Jack Halberstam

Biography of Jack Halberstam

An Interview with Jack Halberstam

UVP / Light Work – Artist Jack Halberstam and members of the Institute of Queer Ecology discuss concepts of “unworlding” and “bewilderment” as a way to reimagine inhabiting the landscape beyond colonial and extractive practices. This event will take place at the Everson Museum in conjunction with the debut of works created on location in and around Syracuse.

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden – and – Writing about the Earth

Biography of Camille Dungy

YMCA Downtown Writers Center – a night of readings and a workshop with Camille Dungy -- one of our nation's most acclaimed Black environment-focused poets and writers.  Dungy's forthcoming essay collection, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023), functions at the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage you to recognize the relationship between the peoples of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath their feet is home.