Keynote Address

11 A.M.–Noon

James Chandler

James Chandler is the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor in the Departments of Cinema and Media Studies and English Language and Literature; he is also the Director of both the Franke Institute for the Humanities and the Center for Disciplinary Innovation. Chandler has published widely on literature from the eighteenth century onwards on topics in Irish studies, the Romantic Movement, and more recently on cinema.

Doing Criticism / Doing Without Criticism

Rumors of the death of criticism have been greatly exaggerated. It is, after all, one of the oldest of our disciplines, with roots that reach beyond Aristotle. Criticism changes in function over time, as Matthew Arnold suggested, but we cannot do without it. Indeed, it arguably plays a more active role contemporary culture than ever before. But how to do criticism?  How to do it now?  Departing from I.A.