Program Schedule

Welcome to the electronic version of our conference program. Through music, academic presentations, and performances, “Speculations: Steampunk to Afrofuturism” will explore, expand upon, and rethink the implications of speculative humanities. With an emphasis on all humanities disciplines, the conference will feature papers, panel presentations, screenings, and performances. Scroll down to see the complete schedule. Click HERE to read the biographies and abstracts provided by this year's conference participants.

Tuesday, March 10 - Siegler Hall

6:45    Evening Pre-conference Film Screening of Ganja and Hess

           Micheaux/Washington Black Film Series at Essex County College

Wednesday, March 11 - Smith Lecture Hall

9:45    Doors Open

10:00   Welcome and Opening Remarks

Prof. Jennifer Wager (Communications) and Prof. Rebecca Williams (English), Conference Co-chairs 

Dr. Gale E. Gibson, President

Dr. Stephanie A. Steplight Johnson, Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer

Prof. David Berry, Executive Director, Community College Humanities Association

10:15   Session I – Fiction, Science, and Language Moderator: Rebecca Williams

  

“Ferguson is the Future: Putting the Sociological Imagination to Work through the Speculative Arts,” Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University, NJ

“Xenoneobiophobia,” Jeff and Kathy Lee, Essex County College

11:30   Session II – Utopic Dystopias as Social Protest Moderator: Jina Lee

“The Comet” by W.E.B. DuBois: post-apocalypse, speculation and proto-Afrofuturism,” Adriano Elia, University of Rome, “Roma Tre” Italy

“H.G. Wells’s “In the Days of The Comet” (1906): a precursor that helps explain why we love steampunk, why we love comets,” Iain Halliday, Università degli Studi di Catania, Italy

“Locating Flight to Canada in Afrofuturism,” George Mote, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

1:00    Session III – Queering Boundaries in Afrofuturism and Butler Moderator: Jennifer Wager

“Speculative Queer Ecologies in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower,” Gregory Luke Chwala, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA

“Shock To Your System: Queer Logics of Modernity and Mythology in the Black Superheroic,” Christian Keeve, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

 

“Octavia E. Butler Archives,” Natalie Russell, Archivist, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, via SKYPE

2:25    Session IV – Gender, Fairy Tales, and Matriarchal Myths Moderator: Viral Bhatt

“Questioning the Binary: Monique Wittig’s Reimagining of Gendered Categories,” Viral Bhatt, Essex County College, Newark, NJ

“‘The nearest technically impossible thing’: classical receptions in Helen Oyeyemi,” Benjamin Stevens, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA

“Defamiliarizing the Black Matriarch in Octavia Butler’s Lilith’s Brood,” Bethany Jacobs, University of Oregon, Eugene, via SKYPE

3:50    Session V – Signifying Horror and the Fantastic Moderator: Rebecca Williams

“Discovering Reality through Body Disintegration in Recent Spanish Horror Cinema,” Diego Batista, Weber State University, Ogden, UT

“The Invisible Universe and the White Fantastic Imagination,” M. Asli Dukan, Independent Scholar, New York, NY

“Breaking and Entering: Thresholds, Keys, and Doors in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Patrizia Barroero, Essex County College

5:30    Light Reception: Art Gallery, 2nd Floor

               Sponsored by Student Life and Activities Office.

Thursday, March 12 - Smith Lecture Hall

9:45    Doors Open

10:00   Welcome and Opening Remarks

Prof. Jennifer Wager (Communications) and Prof. Rebecca Williams (English), Conference Co-chairs 
 
Dr. Stephanie A. Steplight Johnson, Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer 

Prof. David Berry, Executive Director, Community College Humanities Association

10:15   Session I – The Cultural Work of the Subversive Moderator: Rebecca Williams 

“Subverting Shelley’s Legacy: Octavia Butler and Her Bloodchildren” Liam Drislane, Essex County College

“The Hobbit According to Beowulf” Billy Tooma, Essex County College

11:30   Session II – Intersectionality in Butler Moderator: Eileen De Freece

“Construct Identities: An Examination of Akin and Jodahs and their Inevitable Betrayals in Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis” Erika Murdey, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI

“I Have a Dream: Reading Afrofuturist Utopia in Octavia Butler’s ‘The Book of Martha’” Clayton Colmon, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

“Disability in Octavia Butler’s Kindred,” Sami Schalk, SUNY Albany, NY

“Highlighting the Pattern: Forming the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network @OebLegacy” Moya Bailey, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and NU Lab for Digital Humanities as Northeastern University, via SKYPE

 

1:00    Session III – Creative Roundtable: Imagining Speculative Humanities in Dance, Fiction, and Art Moderator: Sean O’Connell

“Exquisite Corpse” Gallery Project, Anna Muniz, Essex County College

“Hax,” Ciera Adair, Performer, Baltimore, MD

“Harry Potter Could’ve Saved Michael Brown,” Cairo Amani, Speculative Fiction Activist, Brooklyn, NY

“Steampunk Mel and the Desire for a Reimagined History," Rebecca Williams, Essex County College

2: 30   Luncheon Reception - Africana Institute, 2nd Floor

                Sponsored by Community College Humanities Association

BREAK

               

5:30    Hors D’Oeuvres Reception - Art Gallery, 2nd Floor

               Sponsored by Dr. Stephanie A. Steplight Johnson, Acting Vice-President for Academic
               Affairs and Chief Academic Officer

7:00    Closing Performance - Mary B. Burch Theater for the Performing Arts

           “The Silver Thread” by Liberation Theatre Company

Doors Open at 6:30 pm
  

7:00  Welcome and Opening Remarks

          Prof. Jennifer Wager (Communications) and Prof. Rebecca Williams (English), Conference
          Co-chairs

           Dr. Stephanie A. Steplight Johnson, Acting Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Chief
           Academic Officer

           Dean Patricia Slade, Student Life and Activities Office
 

7:15     “The Silver Thread,” performed by Liberation Theatre Company. 

             There will be a 30-minute talk-back with the actors after the performance.

The Silver Thread - Cast Notes

“Liberation Theatre Company would like to thank Open Meadows Foundation for their generous support.” 

Liberation Theater Company (LTC) is a home for creative emerging Black playwrights, providing resources to develop their work, nurturing and inviting them to express themselves in a supportive and focused environment. LTC is founder and a co-producer of Harlem9, producing the yearly event 48 Hours in Harlem. They were recently awarded an “Obie” for excellence in their diverse contribution to the Off-Broadway theater landscape. 

 

Joslyn Housley-McLaughlin (Playwright) began writing after years performing on the stage and screen. Her recent play, The Silver Thread, was developed with Liberation Theatre’s Black Playwright’s Group and won the 2012 Hudson Valley Writer’s Center’s contest: Setting the Stage.  Ms. Housley-McLaughlin was awarded the StageWriteEmerging Playwright Scholarship at the Great Plains Theatre Conference in 2013. She lives in France with her husband and daughter. 

 

Sandra A. Daley-Sharif (Director/Executive Producer) is an Obie Award-winning producer and a recent recipient of the Josephine Abady Award. Both honors were given for her contribution of cultural diversity to the American theatre landscape. She is the Producing Artistic Director of Liberation Theatre Company. She is an award-winning playwright and a professional actress in theatre, film, and TV. 

 

Christopher Bonewitz (Nathan Bozeman) has a wide variety of stage credits, including The Public Theater's Hamlet in Central Park, as well as the Public's staged reading of Akin Salawu's I Stand Corrected, directed by David Esbjornson. Other New York credits: Ivanov and The Misanthrope with Hunger and Thirst Theatre Collective; The Bad Date Project and Fallujah (reading) at Culture Project. Regional: Richard III and A Christmas Carol at Trinity Repertory Company. Film: Other Months (SXSW & BAMcinemaFest 2014).

Lynnette R. Freeman (Betsey) is thrilled to be working with Liberation Theatre Company again on this relevant and incredibly powerful work. Some favorite roles include: Pretty Mbane in The Dangerous House of Pretty Mbane; Ruth in A Raisin in the Sun; African Woman in Waking Up; and Reheema in In a Daughter’s Eyes. She has worked regionally at Trinity Rep, Barrington Stage, Dorset Theatre Co, Arkansas Rep, InterAct Theatre Co, and more. She is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and Ensemble Studio Theatre.

 

Jim Ireland (J. Marion Sims) is proud to help bring Joslyn’s important play to a new audience at Essex County College. Off-Broadway credits include “The Shawl” with Dianne Wiest, directed by Sidney Lumet (Jewish Rep.), and “Motherbird” (Original cast) by Craig Lucas. More recently, Jim played opposite Phylicia Rashad under the direction of Kenny Leon at Arena Stage. Other regional venues include The Walnut Street Theater, The Kennedy Center, McCarter Theatre, Wilma Theatre, Arden Theatre and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. Jim is a member of Circle East Theatre Company for whom he has directed and performed in plays by fellow members Terrance McNally, Craig Lucas, William Hoffman and the late, great Lanford Wilson.  Television appearances include Blue Bloods, Mercy, and Law & Order.

  

Laura E. Johnston (Lucy) has appeared in many New York-based productions, including IYOM; Killa Dilla; Undercover on Another Day of Absence; Macbeth; For Colored Girls. Regional theater includes To Kill a Mockingbird (Arkansas Rep) and From the Mississippi Delta (The Dream Keeper Theater). She has performed in several television and film productions, including Believe, NYC 22, Law & Order, The Sopranos, James White [Spring 2015]; Down, down, baby (NYU); The Quiet; and Mind the Gap.

  

Shereen Macklin (Anarcha) is excited to be back in her hometown of New York City after doing Legally Blonde (Paulette) on Norwegian Cruise Line. Some of her selected credits include: Broken Fences (D-u/s), broken motherhood museum (Kitchen), Ox Road Crossing Gate (Amina). Regional: RipTied (Viola), Hairspray (Dynamite), Intimate Apparel (Mayme), Chicago (June), Big River (Alice). She holds a BS in Chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University (Aggie Pride!) and an MFA in Acting from the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University. 

 

Heather Massie (Mrs. Merrill and Empress) has worked with the Signature Theatre Company, Theatre Row, LaMaMa, Abingdon, WorkShop, NEC, The Lamb’s Theatre, NyLon Fusion, and Metropolitan Playhouse. She received the Jean Dalrymple Best Supporting Actress Award.  Favorite roles:  Mina Loy - Mina, Virginia - The Book of Lambert, Rosalind - As You Like It, Jill - Equus, Sorel Bliss - Hay Fever, Rachel – Shmulnik’s Waltz, Carrie - Carousel, Cinderella - Into the Woods, Eliza - My Fair Lady, and several roles in Martin Before the Dream by Leslie Lee and Charles Strouse.  She recently appeared in the films The Art of Dreaming, Hallows’ Eve, and Black Days. She served as Cultural Envoy to Zimbabwe for the 2008 Intwasa Arts Festival.

  

Doug Rossi (Dr. Henry) has played such classical roles as Tartuffe, Macbeth, Orlando, Friar Lawrence, Caliban, Launce, Orsino, Brutus, Ford and Hamlet. He has appeared in over 80 NYC productions, including FringeNYC, Planet Connections (Winner: Featured Actor 2011), and MITF (Nominated: Supporting Actor 2008). His 50-plus on-camera credits including the title role in the award-winning indie feature Recruiter. 

 

Tim Ewing (Dr. Rush Jones, Mr. Wescott, and Butler) has appeared in numerous television shows and films, including The Good Wife, Elementary, The Unusuals, Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, The Producers, Falling for Grace, Pretty Bird, Sarbane’s Oxley, All My Children, and The Guiding Light. His theater credits include Mamma Mia/Broadway and National Tour, Falsettoland/Playwrights Horizons, and Pacific Overtures/Broadway Revival. He has performed in several regional productions, including Dracula, Falsettos, Sylvia, The Full Monty, and Tomfoolery. 

 

Bernard J. Tarver (Stage Directions/Associate Producer-LTC) is a producer, playwright, and actor with close to 30 years in show business. In 2012, he assistant produced the U.S. Premiere of Katori Hall’s Children of Killers at the Castillo Theatre on West 42nd Street in New York and was a co-producer for Blacken the Bubble (along with Liberation Theatre Company), presented at HSA Theater in Harlem. He has also produced readings of new political plays as part of the Mario Fratti-Fred Newman Play Festival at Castillo. As a playwright, his ten minute play Space Relations was produced in August 2014 for the StageBlack Play Festival performed in both New York City and Dallas, Texas. Bernard made his Off-Broadway debut in 1994 in the Drama Desk Award-winning American Enterprise by Jeffrey Sweet. Regional credits include: To Kill a Mockingbird, Death of a Salesman, Treasure Island, and Big River. He made his network television debut in 1998 on the NBC drama Homicide (100th episode, directed by Kathryn Bigelow). He has also done over 1,000 voiceover projects. He is an Associate Producing Director with the Liberation Theatre Company (LTC) and a member of their Black Playwrights Group.