Mod/Con
The Mod/Con Working Group is coordinated and funded by the Department of English.
Mod/Con, Penn English's Modernist and Contemporary Literatures Reading Group, is a working group devoted to the discussion of cultural and literary problematics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our critical and historical interests range from the late nineteenth century through to the present day, across early and high moderism, postmodernism, and beyond. Each semester, we work to develop ways of thinking about these period markers—how they differ, what they share—through invited lectures and works-in-progress by graduate students and faculty in and outside of the Penn English community. In tandem with these works-in-progress, Mod/Con frequently hosts reading events of scholarly monographs as well as works of short fiction and poetry. We hope you can join us for an event!
For more information or to be placed on the Mods listserv, please contact Jonathan Dick <jondick@sas.upenn.edu>
Upcoming Events
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Jesse McCarthy (Harvard): "The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War"
February 21, 2025 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Hannah Freed-Thall (NYU): "Modernism at the Beach: Queer Ecologies and the Coastal Commons"
March 21, 2025 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Avni Sejpal (UPenn): Work in Progress
April 11, 2025 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Past Events
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Dr. Lisi Schoenbach (University of Tennessee)
February 13, 2020 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
talk by Emma Heaney on her recent book "The New Woman: Literary Modernism, Queer Theory, and the Trans Feminine Allegory"
February 6, 2020 - 5:30pm to 7:30pm -
Talk by Professor Benjamin Baer (Princeton University)
December 5, 2019 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm -
Talk by Marta Figlerowicz, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Yale)
November 21, 2019 - 4:00pm to 5:30pm -
Christopher Nealon (Johns Hopkins University)
November 7, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
Devorah Fischler, Work in Progress - CANCELED
October 29, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
Discussion of Adrienne Brown's "The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race"
September 19, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
Discussion of Katherine Mansfield's "Bliss" and "Je ne parle pas français"
Please email Devin Daniels (devindan@sas.upenn.edu) or Alex Millen (millen@sas.upenn.edu) for a copy of the readings.April 16, 2019 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm -
Julie Beth Napolin (The New School)
March 28, 2019 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Nasser Mufti, "C.L.R. James in the Nineteenth Century"
February 21, 2019 - 5:00pm to 7:30pm