Graduate students debate international scholars

On February 16-17, an intensive seminar titled "Event in Literature, Arts, and Life" took place within the Graduate School of Culture Studies and the Arts. The main organisers of the seminar were our lecturers Tanel Lepsoo and Raili Marling and prof. Marina Grišakova from the Institute of Cultural Research and Arts.

The seminar was dedicated to the topical issue of events that interrupt the habitual routines, break existing rules and create the possibility for the reorganisation of the symbolic space. Events may evoke trauma, but also have the potential to create change. This intriguing set of issues brought together eminent international scholars and many Estonian graduate students from different fields.

The first day of the seminar featured lectures by a number of eminent international scholars. Prof. Stéphane Lojkine (University of Aix-Marseille) gave a talk on the event in Jacques Derrida’s Donner la mort. Prof. Françoise Lavocat (University of Paris 3) focused on natural catastrophes and epidemics as events. Dr. Karin Kukkonen (University of Oslo) delved into the cognitive aspects of how we, readers, process and experience narrative. Prof. Luc Herman (University of Antwerp) gave a reading of Thomas Pynchon’s novels as responses to one of the most memorable events of recent past, the 9/11 attacks. The lectures were moderated by Prof. Daniele Monticelli from Tallinn University and Prof. Marina Grišakova. 

On the second day of the seminar, students gathered into workshops to discuss the lectures and relevant readings and came up with their responses to the lectures of the day and involved the visiting professors in an active intellectual debate. 

Raili Marling comments on the outcome of the event: “The students remarked that they were energised by this form of work in which their discussions with their peers became an active site of joint knowledge production. The positive student feedback definitely encourages us to plan similar interdisciplinary events in the future as well”. 

Find the programme of the event on the homepage of the graduate school (past events).