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 7, 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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Talk by Lisi Schoenbach (University of Tennessee)
February 13, 2019 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm -
Steven Lee, "Modernism, Socialist Realism, and the Manifesto"
Author of The Ethnic Avant-Garde: Minority Cultures and World RevolutionNovember 29, 2018 - 6:00pm to 7:30pm -
Emily Hyde (Rowan University), WIP: "African Art and the Camera Eye: Eliot Elisofon’s Experimental Photography"
October 24, 2018 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm -
Welcome Back Reading: Discussion of Simon During's Exit Capitalism
September 25, 2018 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm -
Environments of Modernity Conference
March 22, 2018 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm, March 23, 2018 - 9:00am to 6:30pm -
Environments of Modernity Conference
March 22, 2018 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm, March 23, 2018 - 9:00am to 6:30pm -
Douglas Mao (Johns Hopkins), "Utopia's Borders"
February 22, 2018 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm -
Sarah Cole
November 6, 2017 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm -
Natalie Amleshi WIP
May 2, 2017 - 5:00pm to 6:30pm -
Laura Frost “A Century of Female Orgasm.”
April 20, 2017 - 5:00pm to 7:00pm