Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ain't No Love...Chatting Up THE WIRE



Heart of the City: Black Urban Life on The Wire

Critically acclaimed and nationally syndicated, HBO’s series The Wire depicts a racialized postindustrial cityscape, marred by the brutal provenance of the drug economy. In its five seasons, the series is as much a dramatic achievement as it is a complex portrait of a black urban experience. Featuring a predominantly black cast, The Wire is an exceptional cultural text from which to examine a wide range of urban issues, to be approached from literary, historical, political, and sociological perspectives.

This symposium proposes a critical consideration of The Wire, which treats the show as both a topic and a model of critique. In this sense, The Wire can serve as a common point of discussion, as a viable vehicle of social engagement in its own right and a text worthy of careful and extended investigation.

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SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Thursday, January 29, 2009
Location: Angell Hall, Auditorium A

435 South State Street, Ann Arbor, MI


Heart of the City: A Conversation about The Wire

Keynote Event
, 5:00 PM
Clark Johnson, Director, Actor ("Gus Haynes")
Sonja Sohn, Actress ("Detective Kima Greggs")


Opening Welcome by Kevin Gaines, Director, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan
Moderated by Robin R. Means Coleman, Associate Professor of Communications Studies and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan


Friday, January 30, 2009

Location: Palmer Commons, University of Michigan
100 Washtenaw Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI

Registration opens at 8:30 AM and runs throughout the day. Note: All lectures and panels are free and open to the public; however a registration fee of $10 will be required for lunch on Friday, and will include a welcome packet, souvenirs, and free admittance to the symposium closing reception.

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Panel 1A, 9:30-11:00 AM
Teaching on The Wire
Moderator: Stephen M. Ward, Assistant Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

The papers presented on this panel either look to the series to present and demonstrate the social problems of teaching in our current epoch or use the series itself within teaching practice to confront those dynamics.

"Jukin' the Stats: Education and Inequality in the Fourth Season of The Wire"

Jonathan Gayles, Assistant Professor of African American Studies, Georgia State University

"Sorting Out the Bad Apples: Public Schools and the Code of the Street in the Fourth Season of The Wire"
Shavon Holcomb, Sociology Undergraduate UM-Dearborn, Paul Draus, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UM Dearborn, and anonymous student at Ryan Correctional Facility

"Lambs to the Slaughter": Pedgagogy at Edward Tillman Middle School"
Dirk C. Wendthorf, Professor of Humanities and German, Florida Community College at Jacksonville

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Panel 1B, 9:30-11:00 AM
Race, Labor, and Affect in the Neoliberal City
Moderator: Angela Dillard, Associate Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

These are all papers which find in 'The Wire' an address to the modes of neoliberal politics/economics and their structural effects on a global community.

"A Precarious Lunch": Bodie, McNulty and the (Im)possibilities of Post-Ford Affinity in The Wire's Fourth Season"
Robert LeVertis Bell, Graduate Student in American Culture, University of Michigan

"'It's Nice here, Huh?': Affective Labor and Dispossession in West Baltimore"
Robert Choflet, Graduate Student in American Studies, University of Maryland

"'Pussy in a Can': Sexual Trafficking, Neoliberal Institutions and the Place of Labor and Race in The Wire"
Kimberly Lamm, Assistant Professor of English and Humanities, Pratt Institute

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Panel 2A, 11:10-12:40 pm
Sex and Sexuality in the City
Moderator: Matthew Blanton, Graduate Student in American Culture, University of Michigan

These are all papers that address black sexuality in The Wire.

"Mainstreaming Omar: The 'Homo-Thug' Representation in The Wire
Robin R. Means Coleman, Associate Professor of Communications Studies and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

"Lesbian Cop Butch Killer: Black Female Masculinities in HBO’s The Wire"
Jennifer DeClue, Graduate Student in Interdisciplinary Studies, California State University, Los Angeles

(Title Forthcoming)
Saida Grundy, Graduate Student in Sociology, University of Michigan

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Panel 2B, 11:10-12:40 pm
Reading The Wire: The Politics of Authenticity in Season Five
Moderator: Paul Farber, Graduate Student in American Culture, University of Michigan

These papers all address the fifth season, its focus on the Baltimore Sun, and the contrasting logics of televisual and journalistic representation.

"A Hidden City on Display: The Language Ideology of H.L. Mencken and the (Un)Making of Authenticity on The Wire"
Joshua B. Friedman, Graduate Student in Anthropology, University of Michigan

"Race, Representation and Serial Form: The Fifth Season of The Wire"
Leigh Claire La Berge, Assistant Professor of Humanities, University of Chicago

"Watching the Fire Burn": Urban Representation and Popular Discourse
Jacob Scobey-Thal, Undergraduate in Urban Studies, University of Pennsylvania

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Lunch, 12:40-2:00 AM
Registration required.
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Panel 3A, 2:15-3:45 PM
Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
Moderator: Sherie Randolph, Assistant Professor of History & Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

These papers all address constructions and performances of femininity and masculinity on The Wire.

"Three Bad Mothers: Black Motherhood and Personal Responsibility in The Wire"
Elizabeth Ault, Graduate Student in American Studies, University of Minnesota

(Title Forthcoming)
Aime Ellis, Associate Professor of English, Michigan State University

"Building Blocks to Blocks With Buildings That Make a Killing: Reassessing Policy, Procedure, & Protocol in Urban Living"
Wilfredo Gomez, Graduate Student in English, Bucknell University

"'Be The Man of the Family": Black Mothers and Sons in The Wire"
Sidra Smith Wahaltere, Graduate Student in English, University of Denver

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Panel 3B, 2:15-3:45 PM
Hermeneutics of Strategy and Surveillance
Moderator: Robert Bell, Graduate Student in American Culture, University of Michigan

"The Game is the Game"
Paul Anderson, Associate Professor of American Culture and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

"Greek Gods in Baltimore: Ancient Tragedy and the Post-industrial American City"
Chris Love, Lecturer, Comparative Literature, University of Michigan

"Parallax Viewing, or Throwing Rocks at the Panoptic Lens"
Robert R. Maclean, Graduate Student in History, University of Michigan

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Closing Roundtable, 4:00 PM
The Wire in an Obama America
Panelists:
Mark Anthony Neal - Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke University

Hua Hsu - Assistant Professor of English, Vassar College

James Peterson - Assistant Professor of English, Bucknell University

Salamishah Tillet -
Assistant Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania

Moderated by:
Jonathan Metzl - Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Women's Studies, University of Michigan

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Reception
7:00 PM-10:00 PM
Reception to follow Closing Roundtable at The Gallery Project (215 South Fourth Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI). Free for symposium attendees; $5 donation at the door without symposium registration.

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