The Contemporary: Culture in the 21st Century

We are constantly under pressure to define the “now.” When did it begin? What does it include? When will it end? Recent attempts to capture this moving target have offered an array of starting points--the end of World War II, 1968, the end of the Cold War, the start of the new millennium, 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis. These attempts have also offered an array of periodizing concepts--postmodernism, post-postmodernism, late capitalism, neoliberalism, the anthropocene, the post-civil rights era, the post-human. We propose to respond to and circumvent this pressure in two ways. First, by creating a dialogue between our periodizing concerns and recent literature and art. Second, by contextualizing our concerns against recent developments in politics, science, technology, philosophy, and education. We aim to illuminate what makes the now new—and how and why we should study it.

Panelists: https://contemporary.princeton.edu/

Thursday, March 3, 2016
Keynote Lecture presented by Johanna Drucker, UCLA
"Other Others"
4:30 - 6:00 PM | McCormick 101
(REGISTRATION IS NOT REQUIRED FOR THURSDAY, 3/3)

Friday, March 4, 2016 - Panel Presentations*
8:45 AM - 6:00 PM | Aaron Burr 219
(Venue change, no longer in Wallace 300)

Saturday, March 5, 2016 - Panel Presentations*
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM | Aaron Burr 219
Reception to follow
(Venue change, no longer in Wallace 300)

*For the full schedule, visit: https://contemporary.princeton.edu/