Senk and Ealy Present at ACLA Conference

Sarah Senk, assistant professor of English, A&S, and Nicholas Ealy, associate professor of modern languages, A&S, presented papers at the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) conference at the University of Toronto (April 5-7, 2013) as part of a three-day seminar co-organized by Senk and titled “Trauma, Time, Difference.”

The seminar brought together 12 scholars from Brown, CUNY, Drexel, Emory, NYU, University of California - Santa Cruz, University of Illinois, University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin - Madison to discuss the place, relevance, and changing nature of trauma studies within the contexts of literary studies, critical theory, philosophy, psychoanalysis, history and visual culture.

Senk’s paper, "Precluded Returns: The Time of Postcolonial Trauma," is part of her ongoing research in the fields of trauma theory and postcolonial studies, and aims to rethink the model of the “repetition compulsion” which has dominated trauma theory of the last 20 years.

Ealy’s paper, "'But Now It’s Time to Forget': Trauma, Narcissism, and Memory in François Ozon’s Under the Sand," forms part of his current research on demonstrating a theoretical link between trauma and narcissism in a discussion of the ways in which this French film treats issues of temporality, memory and melancholy.

The ACLA is the primary American association for scholars of comparative literature, the field in which both Senk and Ealy hold doctorate degrees.